Session 25 Pregame- Letters in Jail Over the next 4 days going up to the trial, the players receive several letters. Feel free to read your own or all of them. Whatever. TO RURRICK From Feng to Rurrick Crudely wrapped and not sealed. Dirty dwarf- Plot’s fine, so are the slaves you helped free. She likes the dwarves, especially the stinky ones. They found a hut a bit away from the castle where they are living. They are manning your still, and at least managing to live off the profits from it. The kid has started collecting snakes for you when you get back. You attract weird friends. Best of luck. Feng Oron to Rurrick Has a magic seal. When opened, a message pops into Rurrick’s brain. There is no writing on the scroll. Hey there Mr. Charmer. I’ve been learning more about you. In additional to learning about your adopted family, I’ve also been told you are a dwarf of your word. I appreciate that. You and your friends get back, come talk to me. If you have a chance to visit that adventurer’s guild and start it up, that’d be great too. Whatever. Hey. Did you happen to find a sending stone in my dad’s belongings? I know he had one, but can’t seem to find it. I’d give an eye to find out who that thing was linked to. Plot to Rurrick Rolled up paper, written in mixed elvish and dwarvish. DC Int check to decipher. Stinky. Have more snakes for you. Dwarves teaching me how to make brew. Thanks for mask. Better here than Corrive. Don’t die. Like you. Ma Thornberry to Rurrick Woe to the person who tries to open this other than Rurrick. Hey Stud-muffin- I miss those stinky drawers of yours. Do they have conjugal visits up there in Guilds Town? I might have to make the trip. Tell your Aarakocra friend his adopted son is a natural at magic. He’s cleaned so many things. His recantations of arcane syllables are completely flawless, he’s a gifted one. With any luck, he’ll be an archmage before his new dad dies. I haven’t been here long but the elves talk long about you. Apparently you are somewhat of a shut in weirdo. Works for me. If you need me to blast you outta that prison just let me know. I’ve been rusty for the past few decades, but just a week or two of casting again is starting to get me back into my old shape. I’ll be slinging some serious magic in a couple months. It feels good to get back in the rhythm. XOXOXO, Miss Maewyse Thornberry TO AILEKK From Anna to Ailekk (Written in Primordial). It is sealed by thorned vines, that seem somewhat sentient, if anyone other than Ailekk touches the vines they lash out at the person. Ailekk, I talked to your brother. He has mixed feelings about meeting you but has agreed to do so. He’s not a good person Ailekk. Prepare yourself for that. He has some goodness in him, like with the orphans (yours is fine by the way, he’s studying with Ma Thornberry). I’ve gotten word of a creature off to the west called the King of Gargoyles. He lives beyond the frontier of Dravens, in the old ruins of northeast Vinarr. Something malicious is afoot. Do not try to confront him alone. From what I’ve heard, it would be the death of you. Aside from that, I’m in hell right now. My parents are forcing me to spend lots of time with the archduke. I should be out there helping the people, I do most nights. The nobles of Dravens seemed barely phased by the undead attack. I get the impression something weird is going on here, like they knew about or were prepared for the attack. The archduke keeps making passes at me, my father wants me to marry him. Apparently I am quite popular now, people have discovered that Lady Cywanna Cotte and Anna are the same person. He says with my reputation amongst the peasants and our families intelligence network, a union between our two families would have as much strength as that of Oron and Breschka. I don’t trust my own father, or the archduke. I need more sleep. Between all of this, I feel weary. I don’t know what you are doing, I heard you were arrested. I know it was for good reasons. I’m sorry about our last conversation, I shouldn’t have unloaded on you. I know you are a good person Ailekk. I hope you live up to that good. Do well by yourself, not your desires, and someday you will understand how to do good to others. Since you were a barely older than a chick, you’ve had fire in you. The same as me. Do good with your fire Ailekk. By the way, the vine that surrounds this scroll is enchanted. You can write a note back to me and encase it in the vine, it will protect your message from anyone but me. Good luck, Ailekk. -Anna- Newt to Ailekk On paper, with a makeshift seal of a smiley face. daD- Ma SaYS YOU’Re my DaDd Now. She also said it would be funny if I wrote weird like a child. But that seems booring. Even tho I jus lernt to write a week agoo, ma says I’m doon grate. I like it here with Ma. She’s nise but only if its jus us. In front of the other students she’s all meen. I’ve clean a lot. She lets me stay in yerr lab at night. Some guys came and tried to moove stuff around. I had nocked over one of your tinctures and it lit them on fire. They ran. Breshka came to see me hersef and scoded those guys. I like her. Her brother is weird. He weirder then yu. I still love yu. I’ve learned to maek some stuff this week. Littl things. But they sell reel good. I give the money I make to my friends for food. Ma is teaching me a spell that lets me turn moldy food into good food. She says it might take me a couple yeers to learn. I’m gonna wurk hard and learn it faster. By dad! See yu soon. Kaaska to Ailekk Secretly delivered in his food by the other Aarakocra. Written in primordial. Ailekk. What do you want? Anna told me about the gargoyles. I’ll go check them out for a fee. I’ll meet you, if you want. But let’s just be upfront on this, fuck our people, and fuck you. I’m not your friend. I don’t like you. I’ve heard you’ve joined the guild. I could be persuaded to come sponsor you and collect on the gold for Ruara’s Shield and Ruara’s Flame. There will be no talking. We will have no heart to heart. Anna’s told me enough about you. She said you “like things”. She didn’t tell me about the orphan boy you adopted, but I found out about it. Good for you. I hope you two do well together. Signed- K TO CASSIUS Kaleem to Cassius On paper, with a seal. Hello Cassius- I know you don’t like me. I could sense that. I’ve also heard you’ve run afoul of my people up there. I’m terribly sorry about that. If it makes you feel any better I hope you kill all of them. It’s their fault I’m in this mess. Hugs and Kisses- Kaleem Carric to Cassius On a slip of tattered… skin? Cassius- I will come help kill them all. -Carric Moonwhisper Brescka to Cassius Written with the royal seal of Dravens. “Sir” Cassius, The troops are asking about you. We have most of the docks and city cleaned up. You’ll be proud of them. Among the troops there has been talk of you. My brother and I wanted to talk to you about being the first knight of the new Dravens. They are all quite fond of you. As far as your ordeal, we will send some people out. We have powerful allies in Guilds Town. The dwarf refugees of Kiernard are our allies, and they will assist you in every way possible. I would like to send more help, but I fear the people of this realm need our help more than you. Unfortunately, the undead attack brought assistance from every far corner of the land. It seems like a plus, but it isn’t. This means that villages and town across our province have now been deprived of their most experienced protectors. Our province is more vulnerable now than it has ever been. I’m not sure if the Dree are behind this or not. But regardless, the people of our realm need good people. We need soldiers. We need you. I assure you, if your funds are not adequate to deal with the legal costs the province of Dravens can provide the best we can. Live well and die free. Breschka Karami-Raffolk, Princess of Dravens TO URD Beyhla to Urd Has a magical seal. Anyone who tries to open it other than Urd gets a big surprise. Written in orcish. Has a hidden thieve’s cant message. [Not really thieves cant, more like a cypher, and poorly written one. Urd knows to begin paying attention to the first letter after the question mark.] Urd- When you get done being arrested let me know. Lots of things are going on down here. This is an empire in the making, and we’re in on the ground floor. Oron and Breschka have their shit together, for a couple of upstarts they know what they are doing. We have the docks back, and most of the city. Some of the sewers still have undead at night. People walk around guarded at night, but overall things are safe. Some of the gangs too extra ground in wake of the attack, government infrastructure is having to be rebuilt from the ground up. Also, I heard of some strange happenings back in Bonehammer. The goblins are getting restless. But they are goblins, what the fuck can they do? N ever in my life have I seen a so messed up people. A gain, it’s like they are retard. T ired. E ver going at each other. I can’t for the of me understand why the gods made them. S omething like that. T hat’s all I have to say about goblins. H owever. E ven more pressing is that you come home. R ight now is an opportune time to get to work. E xactly the time. [N-A-T-E-I-S-T-H-E-R-E] -Behyla- Nate to Urd Personal appearance After he reads the letter Urd hears an “URD?” and Nate appears. He has a really tiny pie with a lockpick sticking out of the middle of it. It looks like a flag sticking out a pie the size of a quarter. “How’s it going buddy?” He tells Urd that the letter is great but he came to give the real deal. Breschka and Oron are doing okay. He’s worried the siblings want to go to war with Dree. He doesn’t think that is a good idea. He thinks Corrive is a bigger concern. He’s concerned that they even helped orchestrate this whole even. [Urd can ask a few questions.] “Anyways, I gotta run big guy.” and he disappears. Arieth to Urd Sealed and written in common. Urd- I gain more colleagues every day. They are all louses. If you all aren’t back soon, I’ll try to make my way up there. Elbricht and Tolande have been asking about you as well. Lillineena was on a killing rampage, killing attempted slavers, pimps, and thugs. That quieted things about somewhat. She’s still around somewhere. See ya soon. -Arieth Oron to the Group Personal appearance A guardsman comes into the jail cell, he says “I have limited time. We have issues rising from serious to extreme. The good news is Dravens Port is more or less secured. We are re-acquiring the navy. The docks are secured. The bad news is that the rest of Dravens, and possible Shrave is not. Dree is a menace. We know that some of those in Bonehammer are allied with Dree. We have other allies against Dree we cannot name. You will be exonerated soon. We know of the Yuan-Ti. But until we can decide if they can be allies against Corrive we will not overtly expel them. Yet. Kaleem objected but was overruled. My sister would have you run around and seek out the betrayers in our midst. I would have you act. I want you to take war to the Dree or Corrive. Your choice. Either way is fine with me. If you say, this cannot be done, know well we are not stupid. While this undead attack was unexpected, we have allies well posed to strike. All we need is your help.”
