[PF] Draconic entitlement – 16 Apr. 2019 – Heret
Apr 18, 2019 22:33:22 GMT
Dorian, Varis/G'Lorth/Sundilar, and 2 more like this
Post by Heret Velnnarul on Apr 18, 2019 22:33:22 GMT
15 Tarsakh, 1396 AR
at the Gilded Mirror, Daring Heights
A DAY WASTED. Unbounded foolishness.
Reached Kundar in morning. Even hotter & more uncomfortable than previous visit. Arriving at 8 General Fangshorn Bend, found 3 others just ahead of me: Pieni & Ginead had returned to PF from Zeyshel after me but travelled to DH and thence by teleportation; in PF they had picked up a companion, young half-orc named Baine.
Sqeeb Neepads discovered to be merely the retainer of one Turglin Sharmac, a Kundarian nobleman. More civilized than kobolds of Faerûn, verily, but no less contemptible. This Sharmac, long in favour with an eminent patron (a dragon, as we later learned, named something like Onyxshard), now found a rival family courting that favour with a valuable gift. Rather than outspend his rival like a reputable man, he wished to hire us to steal the gift and keep it from his patron! The gift, he said, was a sculpture of black marble commissioned from a sculptor in a town named Kurzig Vondar a few days E of Kundar and would be somewhere on the road from there as we spoke. He offered 100 gp each to steal it and another 50 gp each to escort him to give it to the dragon himself, passing it off as his own gift (base creature!). We settled on 150 gp each for the theft and a fine magical potion each, at least 1,200 gp in value, for the escort.
Leaving the kobold’s house, startled to discover P, G, & B simply intending to do as the creature asked. I had little interesting in helping S and sought to discuss other possibilities, in particular a visit to the fellow’s rivals, the Nyxclaw family (Dara & Porthen the heads of the house, Vixia the daughter who had commissioned the statue). They might have proven more worthy of business. Others, however, totally uninterested – even G, who had at first balked at theft but had by now fooled himself that the Ns were ‘evil’ and so stealing from them must be ‘good’. None of them could even be persuaded to stop a while in a tavern and learn more about these Sharmacs and Nyxclaws.
At this, beginning to despair of gaining anything worthwhile from the business, but hoped at least to take peaceful delivery of this statue and then consider what might be done with it. P had a plan to summon a handful of apes to obstruct the wagon; G proposed that he and B stage a duel on the road to block the way. Both plans seemed to me bound to lead to bloodshed. I ventured to try a peaceable deception: with P disguised as a kobold to provide some air of veracity, I met the couriers on the road and sought to personate an agent of Vixia sent to take early delivery. Alas, deceit is not my strength, and the leader of the band saw through the ruse. He tried to trick me in return, to no avail, but still he had 6 dragonborn guards and I had but one false kobold companion, so had to abandon the attempt, leaving P behind to try to enter the wagon in the form of a mouse.
Rode then in a wide arc to return unseen to the road close to where I had left B & G. Approaching, saw dust rising and the wagon halted but could not at first discern what was happening. Then sounds of battle reached my ear. Coinmaiden bear witness, for a moment I was sorely tempted to ride away and leave the fools to their fate! But in truth I had been almost as much a fool as they to come this far, so rode to their aid.
As I drew closer, a roar sounded from inside the wagon and the canvas cover was flung off by a bear! P, I guessed. Then two great eagles, which P had summoned earlier to act as scouts, flew down, seized the marble statue, and made off with it. All the while, G and B were laying about them with their swords, and the guards fighting back. Barely had a chance to join the fight before the eagles had vanished away with the sculpture, at which its escorts gave up the struggle and fled.
S paid us each his unworthy 150 gp but declined to engage us for the second part of the task. At this, and at my own failures of the day, and at the whole misbegotten business heretofore, was so disgusted that I urged my fellows simply to leave with the sculpture – which we did, though not before P had exchanged his payment for the identity of S’s.
From this, I see little to be gained from business in Kundar. Most in Amn would scorn to do business with kobolds, and rightly so. This Kurzid Vondar may be worth investigation, however. The sculpture was very fine work!
Own conduct:
TASK: visit Kurzig Vondar.
TASK: tomorrow meet L to inspect the completed trading post.
at the Gilded Mirror, Daring Heights
A DAY WASTED. Unbounded foolishness.
Reached Kundar in morning. Even hotter & more uncomfortable than previous visit. Arriving at 8 General Fangshorn Bend, found 3 others just ahead of me: Pieni & Ginead had returned to PF from Zeyshel after me but travelled to DH and thence by teleportation; in PF they had picked up a companion, young half-orc named Baine.
Sqeeb Neepads discovered to be merely the retainer of one Turglin Sharmac, a Kundarian nobleman. More civilized than kobolds of Faerûn, verily, but no less contemptible. This Sharmac, long in favour with an eminent patron (a dragon, as we later learned, named something like Onyxshard), now found a rival family courting that favour with a valuable gift. Rather than outspend his rival like a reputable man, he wished to hire us to steal the gift and keep it from his patron! The gift, he said, was a sculpture of black marble commissioned from a sculptor in a town named Kurzig Vondar a few days E of Kundar and would be somewhere on the road from there as we spoke. He offered 100 gp each to steal it and another 50 gp each to escort him to give it to the dragon himself, passing it off as his own gift (base creature!). We settled on 150 gp each for the theft and a fine magical potion each, at least 1,200 gp in value, for the escort.
Leaving the kobold’s house, startled to discover P, G, & B simply intending to do as the creature asked. I had little interesting in helping S and sought to discuss other possibilities, in particular a visit to the fellow’s rivals, the Nyxclaw family (Dara & Porthen the heads of the house, Vixia the daughter who had commissioned the statue). They might have proven more worthy of business. Others, however, totally uninterested – even G, who had at first balked at theft but had by now fooled himself that the Ns were ‘evil’ and so stealing from them must be ‘good’. None of them could even be persuaded to stop a while in a tavern and learn more about these Sharmacs and Nyxclaws.
At this, beginning to despair of gaining anything worthwhile from the business, but hoped at least to take peaceful delivery of this statue and then consider what might be done with it. P had a plan to summon a handful of apes to obstruct the wagon; G proposed that he and B stage a duel on the road to block the way. Both plans seemed to me bound to lead to bloodshed. I ventured to try a peaceable deception: with P disguised as a kobold to provide some air of veracity, I met the couriers on the road and sought to personate an agent of Vixia sent to take early delivery. Alas, deceit is not my strength, and the leader of the band saw through the ruse. He tried to trick me in return, to no avail, but still he had 6 dragonborn guards and I had but one false kobold companion, so had to abandon the attempt, leaving P behind to try to enter the wagon in the form of a mouse.
Rode then in a wide arc to return unseen to the road close to where I had left B & G. Approaching, saw dust rising and the wagon halted but could not at first discern what was happening. Then sounds of battle reached my ear. Coinmaiden bear witness, for a moment I was sorely tempted to ride away and leave the fools to their fate! But in truth I had been almost as much a fool as they to come this far, so rode to their aid.
As I drew closer, a roar sounded from inside the wagon and the canvas cover was flung off by a bear! P, I guessed. Then two great eagles, which P had summoned earlier to act as scouts, flew down, seized the marble statue, and made off with it. All the while, G and B were laying about them with their swords, and the guards fighting back. Barely had a chance to join the fight before the eagles had vanished away with the sculpture, at which its escorts gave up the struggle and fled.
S paid us each his unworthy 150 gp but declined to engage us for the second part of the task. At this, and at my own failures of the day, and at the whole misbegotten business heretofore, was so disgusted that I urged my fellows simply to leave with the sculpture – which we did, though not before P had exchanged his payment for the identity of S’s.
From this, I see little to be gained from business in Kundar. Most in Amn would scorn to do business with kobolds, and rightly so. This Kurzid Vondar may be worth investigation, however. The sculpture was very fine work!
Own conduct:
- Became v. out of breath during the ride away from the wagon and back to the road. QUESTION: can anything in this continent ease my old wound?
- Failed to convince either the courier or my own companions when needed. TASK: more focus on rhetorical studies.
TASK: visit Kurzig Vondar.
TASK: tomorrow meet L to inspect the completed trading post.
