Funny Business in New Hillborrow (09/05)
May 20, 2019 13:09:01 GMT
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Malri 'Taffeta' Thistletop, Paw, and 3 more like this
Post by Markas Virnala on May 20, 2019 13:09:01 GMT
5th Entry from the journal of Markas Virnala
It'd been a slow week in Port Ffirst. New faces were still cropping up but we hadn't really had anything work since we got back from Za'Suul and my turn in the fighting pit….. Hoop liked the Winged Armour I got back there so that’s now in their room with the rest of the oddities I've collected for them so far. I'm still trying to find someone who can make a set of robes like that for me. I think the fact it had been slow was why we agreed on this particular job, even with the next to no information we were given for it.
Three Halflings came into Port Ffirst in a bit of a state, wanting some help to deal with something in their village, on the way to Daring Heights…. Wouldn’t actually tell us what though. Just said it was very embarrassing. So we set off: Bain, Bogg, Doddil, Nikja (Now sporting a starry looking blue tunic - No sign of Kaliel around though), Rooster and Horus.
Rooster is… well…. I'm not sure what he is. He is a half-elf like me, but is at the same time, is nothing like me. He Has leather armour covered in feathers, a black mohawk and a rapier I'm sure I heard him call a 'Pig-Stick'… not sure what that’s meant to mean…. He is an interesting character. I don’t think he is intrinsically a bad person but he definitely isn't on the right side of the guards in town. That being said, I quite liked him. He called me out once or twice on a few…. Stretched truths I told trying to get some more info from the Halflings but he did hold up his end of the bet we made. Seemed quite happy to claim he was the shovel shifter as well? It's like he is looking to be part of Crime somehow, yet also managed to do the good thing in the end?
And Horus, Horus is a Blue Dragonborn! I've seen pictures of them before but never met one! I've heard they can be quite stern but he seemed ok to me, just a little quiet. He had a similar style of fighting as Bain, but used a huge hammer instead of a Greatsword. I had heard Dragonborn are sometimes born with abilities that match their dragon counterparts but I was still surprised when I saw him breath Lightning! Maybe I will get to see a real Dragon one day and can compare them?
Once we were on our way, we finally managed to get a little more info out of the Halflings about what the issue was. Inbert seemed to be their spokesman. An older Halfling with a large straw hat, a felt Green suit and denim trousers that came up over his chest with suspenders. He had dark skin and was missing a tooth but to be honest, the most notable thing about him was that fact he had REALLY long sideburns… Made my face itch looking at him a little…
With him was Greta, a female Halfling with red hair and a freckly face wearing a puffy white shirt, and Bruno, a younger Halfling than the others. He wore a big hat as well and a similar suit to Inbert but had pale skin and brown hair
The three had been away from home for around a month but when they had got back, everyone was different. Not different people just like they had forgotten who they were but they still KNEWwho they were…. It was as confusing as it sounds. Until we got there anyway and actually got more into what was wrong. It sounds like they were a very modest and hardworking community, very traditional. Now however, they seemed to all be party animals, promiscuous and flirtatious, nothing like they had been a month ago. This led to the Inbert and the others looking for help thinking something was amiss. The only Crime this place had experienced (Rooster actually asked…) was a shovel went missing a few months ago…. Luckily the Nikja and Co. detective agency were on the case! (Bogg is still really angry about this!)
New Hillborrow is a small village in between Port Ffirst and Daring Heights, a mix of Gnome and Halflings. We were told that there were Druids in the area too that had recently started to adopt their religion and protected the birds as well. Going off the description, Rooster told us they must be Kenku and gave us an insight into them. They are another bird race, but these are unable to fly or speak. Instead they actually mimic the sounds and voices they hear to communicate with people. Roost was dubious of them to begin with and started questioning two of them as soon as we came into the town but they seemed to be on the level. It was quite strange hearing them talk back to him in his own voice. It was a very picturesque place…. But most of the houses were too small for the majority of us. Roost immediately distrusted the Kenku and made a bet with me that they were the cause of all this.
We had a few avenues to look into already. The Kenku, even I will admit seemed suspicious but maybe that was just unfamiliarity? We could of course try talking to the residents of the village about what happened over the last month, specifically one called Markus (Even I was confused it was me for a little while!), who had been seen….. Doing stuff with Bruno's wife, Pervinka, who runs the Inn: The Hearth & Road
Naturally we went in for a few drinks…
Thinking back on everything I have seen since I left home, nothing prepared me for Bain, the walking wall of brute force and charm that he is, being completely decked out in flowers amidst a party for Halflings and Gnomes.... Braided into his hair, knotted into his armour…. Or seeing him descend into that Rage Phil puts him into and cleave a tiny creature in two, still decked out in those flowers (that came later). Saying that, I was EQUALLY as surprised to find Bain asking me to join him and an offensively old, lecherous Gnome in what I hope was only supposed to be dancing…. We managed to palm him off onto Nikja who was happy to dance. Until she tripped again and launched him across the room that is. He was ok in the end...
After some drinking, partying and flirting (so much flirting….), we got another lead. Callen who owned the flower farm nearby was supposedly very old and grumpy, never wanted to 'party' with the others but provided the flowers for them? If he wasn’t all Giddy and happy like the others, maybe whatever was affecting them wasn’t affecting him? We headed over to the flower farm (I mean literally, a small farm house with an immense flower field behind it) to see what he could tell us.
He turned out to be a bit kooky in his own way too. Originally hid from us and tried to run away but Roost cast some sort of spell that got him on our side at least for a while, which was interesting in itself. I'm only guessing he did this as he called out to Callen as he ran but, as he did, these tattoos appeared over his skin, then as quickly as they came, they vanished…. I did see him do it again later but still couldn’t make out what they were. Anyway, we got him back inside for a talk. Bain asked if he could make a cape of flowers for Bogg (Bogg didn’t look too on board with the plan at first) and Nikja bought some flowers from him but otherwise the only thing he mentioned was that until about a month ago, everyone in town was Grumpy and boring…. Then it seemed like Roost's spell wore off as he suddenly got very angry and kicked us out.
We headed for our last lead, Markus who was found 'with' Pervinca. When we got there we found him 'with' someone else! Looking back, Its kind of weird that we all just strolled in and interupted them…. No weirder than them asking us to join them though I guess…. Or Rooster just opening the door and crawling in shouting "IT'S THE SEX COPS" (whatever cops are supposed to be?)…..This place is crazy. The house was too small for the taller folk so we stayed outside but Rhoda (the woman with Markus) opened a window so we could hear too. Around a month ago, they were having a feast to celebrate their deity and have been kinda happy since. The only really difference was the bread at the festival was REALLy good this time and has been since. So we headed off to the bakery, but not before Rooster starts questioning Markus about the flowers again (After the Kenku seemed to be a dead-end, he was sure the flowers where the reason everyone was being weird). That didn’t really go anywhere but he did share some of Markus' tobacco and then seemed to go all giddy and calm…..
The bakery was where things started to get interesting. We headed over and split up, to cover both entrances. Me, Bain and Horus took the sound entrance. I peeked in the door as we heard some noise only to see Bogg and Roost with Brunhilda in the back of the bakery…. And then I spotted a small flying creature circling the room, as it flew straight for me then…. Did something to me. I was stuck in the doorway unable to move as everyone started to fight it. It went down pretty quick but I was not happy about being caught off guard like that. Or about Doddil shooting fire at it and BARELY missing me… I need to find something to protect myself from that happening again. I can fight pretty well but if I'm stuck in one place like that again I cant really defend myself…. Nikjya called for everyone not to hurt the thing, just as Bain managed to cut it in two…. So much for sparing it.
Brunhilda seemed to come out of a daze and seemed upset, until she suddenly started to be all smiley and offer us baked goods again. She is clearly not in control of herself either…. But we did get another clue! The water has apparently been very nice lately…. Given that they use the water in the baked goods, we thought that might be what was causing the odd behaviour. After some questioning (and more flirting with Roost), she told us the water came from a nearby lake, by a Dam.
We split up the group again, the sneakier of us taking one side of the lake approach, the other louder folk in armour taking the road. Surely enough, as we get there we spot a few creatures in a shallow part of the water. I did a couple of sketches afterwards and asked around in Port Ffirst if anyone knew what they were: A few Quicklings (small humanoid looking flying creatures wearing small clothes and have what look like Gems for eyes) and something called a Korred (Honestly, I thought it was a small hairy dwarf at first…) that was holding what looked like a rope? I've never seen either before but they were clearly behind this. We saw the Korred putting glowing stones into the water supply for the town.
We managed to get the jump on them. Roost and me headed out into the shallow waters and fired a few arrows into the group, dropping one of the Quicklings, while Bogg and Doddil threw fire and Ice at the Korred. By now, they had spotted the group on the road and a few of the Quickling headed off to them while another appeared in front of Roost. They moved unbelievably fast!
Roost swung for the one in front of him but missed. I managed to catch it with an arrow but it still kept up. I glanced around to see most of the other surrounding the Korred, Bain had dropped into that Rage again but was tied up by the Korred, meanwhile Horus was attacking it and breathing Lighting everywhere in bright flashes (SO COOL!) Another arrow comes out from the bushes I can only assume was Bogg, finishing off the last Quickling in front of Roost.
Then Nikja ran in shouting at the Korred… I mean SHOUTING. It was almost deafening…. The Korred seemed spooked by it and stopped fighting and started to talk with her, something about it's master will kill him? Before we could get any further, it suddenly vanished and we were left in the water, alone…
Bogg and Roost started to scuffle about picking out the eyes of the quicklings while the rest of us started looking at the shining rocks. I pocketed one while Bain was messing around trying to break them but when he did nothing seemed to happen. From what we could gather, they seem to be infused with some kind of charm magic. The Korred must have been tainting the water with them affecting the town…. But with them gone, we hoped the effects should start to lift. We started heading back and saw a flash in Callen's house. Nikja said some sort of spell had just fired off but Callen himself was gone…. Nikja said the Korred was working for someone or something called Acturus but we couldn’t find anything on it in the house. We did find some gold and an odd book though.
We woke up the 3x halflings who hired us and spent another day in town. Everyone seemed to be coming to their senses a bit again and were happy we helped and chipped in for a reward to give us. Roost held up his side of our bet and paid up the 5gold since the Kenku where clearly innocent of anything. Then as we left, Pervinca named us all friends of New Hillborrow. To be honest, now the spell had started to ease a little, I found everyone much less….. Intimidating? They seemed nice but I guess I'm just not used to people being so 'free'. But then I guess this is why I left home in the first place.
Aside from the partying in the Inn and Bain in his flower outfit, I kept Hoop tucked away most of this trip. Most of the time we were just investigating and sneaking around so wasn’t anything too exciting for Hoop to see, but I knew Hoop would love the party and how often will we see Bain decked out in flowers!? They seemed happy with the Shiny stone I got from the Lake once I explained what it was as well. Hoop's always happy with oddities like that…. Now that I think of it, I don't think Hoop actually got to see Horus? He kept himself quiet in the inn… I'll have to ask Hoop if they've seen a Dragonborn before and go find him if not.
It'd been a slow week in Port Ffirst. New faces were still cropping up but we hadn't really had anything work since we got back from Za'Suul and my turn in the fighting pit….. Hoop liked the Winged Armour I got back there so that’s now in their room with the rest of the oddities I've collected for them so far. I'm still trying to find someone who can make a set of robes like that for me. I think the fact it had been slow was why we agreed on this particular job, even with the next to no information we were given for it.
Three Halflings came into Port Ffirst in a bit of a state, wanting some help to deal with something in their village, on the way to Daring Heights…. Wouldn’t actually tell us what though. Just said it was very embarrassing. So we set off: Bain, Bogg, Doddil, Nikja (Now sporting a starry looking blue tunic - No sign of Kaliel around though), Rooster and Horus.
Rooster is… well…. I'm not sure what he is. He is a half-elf like me, but is at the same time, is nothing like me. He Has leather armour covered in feathers, a black mohawk and a rapier I'm sure I heard him call a 'Pig-Stick'… not sure what that’s meant to mean…. He is an interesting character. I don’t think he is intrinsically a bad person but he definitely isn't on the right side of the guards in town. That being said, I quite liked him. He called me out once or twice on a few…. Stretched truths I told trying to get some more info from the Halflings but he did hold up his end of the bet we made. Seemed quite happy to claim he was the shovel shifter as well? It's like he is looking to be part of Crime somehow, yet also managed to do the good thing in the end?
And Horus, Horus is a Blue Dragonborn! I've seen pictures of them before but never met one! I've heard they can be quite stern but he seemed ok to me, just a little quiet. He had a similar style of fighting as Bain, but used a huge hammer instead of a Greatsword. I had heard Dragonborn are sometimes born with abilities that match their dragon counterparts but I was still surprised when I saw him breath Lightning! Maybe I will get to see a real Dragon one day and can compare them?
Once we were on our way, we finally managed to get a little more info out of the Halflings about what the issue was. Inbert seemed to be their spokesman. An older Halfling with a large straw hat, a felt Green suit and denim trousers that came up over his chest with suspenders. He had dark skin and was missing a tooth but to be honest, the most notable thing about him was that fact he had REALLY long sideburns… Made my face itch looking at him a little…
With him was Greta, a female Halfling with red hair and a freckly face wearing a puffy white shirt, and Bruno, a younger Halfling than the others. He wore a big hat as well and a similar suit to Inbert but had pale skin and brown hair
The three had been away from home for around a month but when they had got back, everyone was different. Not different people just like they had forgotten who they were but they still KNEWwho they were…. It was as confusing as it sounds. Until we got there anyway and actually got more into what was wrong. It sounds like they were a very modest and hardworking community, very traditional. Now however, they seemed to all be party animals, promiscuous and flirtatious, nothing like they had been a month ago. This led to the Inbert and the others looking for help thinking something was amiss. The only Crime this place had experienced (Rooster actually asked…) was a shovel went missing a few months ago…. Luckily the Nikja and Co. detective agency were on the case! (Bogg is still really angry about this!)
New Hillborrow is a small village in between Port Ffirst and Daring Heights, a mix of Gnome and Halflings. We were told that there were Druids in the area too that had recently started to adopt their religion and protected the birds as well. Going off the description, Rooster told us they must be Kenku and gave us an insight into them. They are another bird race, but these are unable to fly or speak. Instead they actually mimic the sounds and voices they hear to communicate with people. Roost was dubious of them to begin with and started questioning two of them as soon as we came into the town but they seemed to be on the level. It was quite strange hearing them talk back to him in his own voice. It was a very picturesque place…. But most of the houses were too small for the majority of us. Roost immediately distrusted the Kenku and made a bet with me that they were the cause of all this.
We had a few avenues to look into already. The Kenku, even I will admit seemed suspicious but maybe that was just unfamiliarity? We could of course try talking to the residents of the village about what happened over the last month, specifically one called Markus (Even I was confused it was me for a little while!), who had been seen….. Doing stuff with Bruno's wife, Pervinka, who runs the Inn: The Hearth & Road
Naturally we went in for a few drinks…
Thinking back on everything I have seen since I left home, nothing prepared me for Bain, the walking wall of brute force and charm that he is, being completely decked out in flowers amidst a party for Halflings and Gnomes.... Braided into his hair, knotted into his armour…. Or seeing him descend into that Rage Phil puts him into and cleave a tiny creature in two, still decked out in those flowers (that came later). Saying that, I was EQUALLY as surprised to find Bain asking me to join him and an offensively old, lecherous Gnome in what I hope was only supposed to be dancing…. We managed to palm him off onto Nikja who was happy to dance. Until she tripped again and launched him across the room that is. He was ok in the end...
After some drinking, partying and flirting (so much flirting….), we got another lead. Callen who owned the flower farm nearby was supposedly very old and grumpy, never wanted to 'party' with the others but provided the flowers for them? If he wasn’t all Giddy and happy like the others, maybe whatever was affecting them wasn’t affecting him? We headed over to the flower farm (I mean literally, a small farm house with an immense flower field behind it) to see what he could tell us.
He turned out to be a bit kooky in his own way too. Originally hid from us and tried to run away but Roost cast some sort of spell that got him on our side at least for a while, which was interesting in itself. I'm only guessing he did this as he called out to Callen as he ran but, as he did, these tattoos appeared over his skin, then as quickly as they came, they vanished…. I did see him do it again later but still couldn’t make out what they were. Anyway, we got him back inside for a talk. Bain asked if he could make a cape of flowers for Bogg (Bogg didn’t look too on board with the plan at first) and Nikja bought some flowers from him but otherwise the only thing he mentioned was that until about a month ago, everyone in town was Grumpy and boring…. Then it seemed like Roost's spell wore off as he suddenly got very angry and kicked us out.
We headed for our last lead, Markus who was found 'with' Pervinca. When we got there we found him 'with' someone else! Looking back, Its kind of weird that we all just strolled in and interupted them…. No weirder than them asking us to join them though I guess…. Or Rooster just opening the door and crawling in shouting "IT'S THE SEX COPS" (whatever cops are supposed to be?)…..This place is crazy. The house was too small for the taller folk so we stayed outside but Rhoda (the woman with Markus) opened a window so we could hear too. Around a month ago, they were having a feast to celebrate their deity and have been kinda happy since. The only really difference was the bread at the festival was REALLy good this time and has been since. So we headed off to the bakery, but not before Rooster starts questioning Markus about the flowers again (After the Kenku seemed to be a dead-end, he was sure the flowers where the reason everyone was being weird). That didn’t really go anywhere but he did share some of Markus' tobacco and then seemed to go all giddy and calm…..
The bakery was where things started to get interesting. We headed over and split up, to cover both entrances. Me, Bain and Horus took the sound entrance. I peeked in the door as we heard some noise only to see Bogg and Roost with Brunhilda in the back of the bakery…. And then I spotted a small flying creature circling the room, as it flew straight for me then…. Did something to me. I was stuck in the doorway unable to move as everyone started to fight it. It went down pretty quick but I was not happy about being caught off guard like that. Or about Doddil shooting fire at it and BARELY missing me… I need to find something to protect myself from that happening again. I can fight pretty well but if I'm stuck in one place like that again I cant really defend myself…. Nikjya called for everyone not to hurt the thing, just as Bain managed to cut it in two…. So much for sparing it.
Brunhilda seemed to come out of a daze and seemed upset, until she suddenly started to be all smiley and offer us baked goods again. She is clearly not in control of herself either…. But we did get another clue! The water has apparently been very nice lately…. Given that they use the water in the baked goods, we thought that might be what was causing the odd behaviour. After some questioning (and more flirting with Roost), she told us the water came from a nearby lake, by a Dam.
We split up the group again, the sneakier of us taking one side of the lake approach, the other louder folk in armour taking the road. Surely enough, as we get there we spot a few creatures in a shallow part of the water. I did a couple of sketches afterwards and asked around in Port Ffirst if anyone knew what they were: A few Quicklings (small humanoid looking flying creatures wearing small clothes and have what look like Gems for eyes) and something called a Korred (Honestly, I thought it was a small hairy dwarf at first…) that was holding what looked like a rope? I've never seen either before but they were clearly behind this. We saw the Korred putting glowing stones into the water supply for the town.
We managed to get the jump on them. Roost and me headed out into the shallow waters and fired a few arrows into the group, dropping one of the Quicklings, while Bogg and Doddil threw fire and Ice at the Korred. By now, they had spotted the group on the road and a few of the Quickling headed off to them while another appeared in front of Roost. They moved unbelievably fast!
Roost swung for the one in front of him but missed. I managed to catch it with an arrow but it still kept up. I glanced around to see most of the other surrounding the Korred, Bain had dropped into that Rage again but was tied up by the Korred, meanwhile Horus was attacking it and breathing Lighting everywhere in bright flashes (SO COOL!) Another arrow comes out from the bushes I can only assume was Bogg, finishing off the last Quickling in front of Roost.
Then Nikja ran in shouting at the Korred… I mean SHOUTING. It was almost deafening…. The Korred seemed spooked by it and stopped fighting and started to talk with her, something about it's master will kill him? Before we could get any further, it suddenly vanished and we were left in the water, alone…
Bogg and Roost started to scuffle about picking out the eyes of the quicklings while the rest of us started looking at the shining rocks. I pocketed one while Bain was messing around trying to break them but when he did nothing seemed to happen. From what we could gather, they seem to be infused with some kind of charm magic. The Korred must have been tainting the water with them affecting the town…. But with them gone, we hoped the effects should start to lift. We started heading back and saw a flash in Callen's house. Nikja said some sort of spell had just fired off but Callen himself was gone…. Nikja said the Korred was working for someone or something called Acturus but we couldn’t find anything on it in the house. We did find some gold and an odd book though.
We woke up the 3x halflings who hired us and spent another day in town. Everyone seemed to be coming to their senses a bit again and were happy we helped and chipped in for a reward to give us. Roost held up his side of our bet and paid up the 5gold since the Kenku where clearly innocent of anything. Then as we left, Pervinca named us all friends of New Hillborrow. To be honest, now the spell had started to ease a little, I found everyone much less….. Intimidating? They seemed nice but I guess I'm just not used to people being so 'free'. But then I guess this is why I left home in the first place.
Aside from the partying in the Inn and Bain in his flower outfit, I kept Hoop tucked away most of this trip. Most of the time we were just investigating and sneaking around so wasn’t anything too exciting for Hoop to see, but I knew Hoop would love the party and how often will we see Bain decked out in flowers!? They seemed happy with the Shiny stone I got from the Lake once I explained what it was as well. Hoop's always happy with oddities like that…. Now that I think of it, I don't think Hoop actually got to see Horus? He kept himself quiet in the inn… I'll have to ask Hoop if they've seen a Dragonborn before and go find him if not.
