Session 21: Super Serious Shopping
Session begins by playing with new toys in Foundry, everyone gets 3d dice that make sounds! Very important that the party customized the dice to preferred colors and textures.
Also there's a clock. Holiday in six days, full moon eight days after that.
Outside the front door are a number of parcels and sealed envelopes.
One contains the crest of Surtova, the current ruler of Brevoy.
Greetings, unnamed mercenary company.
In order to show our appreciation for services above the call of duty by citizens, the city of New Stetsven as well as Brevoy as a whole would like to celebrate your achievements. In six days' time the Merry Mead celebration will come to New Stetsven. We would like you to arrive at the town center for an honorable ceremony in which you will be rewarded for your efforts.
Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much.
His Honor,
King Regent Noleski Surtova
(Merry Mead is a celebration of the god Cayden Cailean. Cold season is leaving, party to ring in the new year properly. Loads of drinks. Drink, the holiday.)
Another fancy envelope with white wax and a crown stamp.
Written on pressed vellum with embossing on the sides, hand-written and calligraphy.
Dearest adventurers,
I heard you take jobs of odd or dangerous quality.
I would like to enlist your services to assist me in a matter most delicate.
Enclosed is five platinum to buy just your time. When you are able, please come see me at my keep.
(Detailed directions to the south of New Stetsven.)
Sincerely,
The King in White
Rutana and Sartorii recognize the title as a reference to the book, The King in Yellow. The book is a collection of short stories about a fucked up play. Rutana thinks the play is a little bit real. It's about someone getting to Carcosa, a city of dreams, and seeing that god is dead. Everyone who is there is wandering completely separate from one another because there is no afterlife anymore.
A package that is pretty thick, but soft, wrapped in twine and kinda meh paper.
A collection of summer clothes made by folks in Greenwall, made to fit each member of the party.
Comes with a letter thanking the party for everything they've done, how well the rebuilding is going. They have some of the most fertile land around now!
There is also a sapling with a little bow around it, with a card hanging from the tree. The note says, "Thanks from the Apothecary's Guild for the restoration of the medicinal gardens. May this willow grow tall and strong. Disclaimer, do not plant it too close to your home, the roots are expansive and will get into your home's foundation." It will grow up pretty quick, and the bark is an anti-inflammatory.
Also a small, sealed, folded paper box; assortment of baked goods from Cartwright farm, as thanks!
Plus bills for the tower, forest, taxes, etc. Cost of living stuff.
130g total for the month.
Downtime for four days before the party.
The Sprite sends an hour learning his Air Bubble scroll!
How to learn Celestial: every time you beat a DC 10 Int check, you add a Trained level to a custom Celestial knowledge skill. When you succeed at Legendary, add Celestial to your languages list.
One pass per month.
Clarence and the Sprite get Trained.
The party goes to the Church of Abador to see if Rutana and the Sprite can get un-cursed.
While there the Sprite asks the high judge to say hi to their acolyte friends and also to god.
The party goes clothes shopping to find Fine clothing for the upcoming party! They stop by Glory and Gold Apparel, owned by a pair of elven siblings, Gloriana and Gilder. Gloriana is elder, Gilder is bigger. Gilder is quiet, but very good with needle and thread, enjoys the artistry of it. Gloriana is pragmatic and runs the business. Blonde, green eyes, high elves, mage hand stuff around as a matter of course.
They run the gamut of fancy clothes to wizard's robes.
Gloriana greets the party with a high-pitched Hiiii, how can we help you today?
Clarence standing behind Rutana, wide-eyed and unsure how to order clothes.
Rutana states they need to attend a fancy ceremony at Merry Mead—
As soon as they say that, Gilder gets a smirk on his face and starts flitting around the party to measure every little thing (including the circumference of Clarence's tail). Rutana switches forms to make sure she's properly measured. Gilder's expression doesn't change but he bounces on the balls of his feet.
Gloriana rubs her face and adds some fees. 8g.
Gilder basically has to mummify the Sprite with the measuring tape.
The door's bell jingles and a sizeable orc enters, one the party has seen before. The gnafia's orc. He walks two monitor lizards on a leash. He and the party ignore each other.
"Evenin, Gloria," he says. Gloriana greets him with a strained, practiced smile. "Bit behind on your payments, wouldn't you say?"
"Your boss will have his money when I have it, Dunlan."
"Well I'm just delivering the message. Really all the same to me. You don't pay, my lizards get fed." He jerks on the leashes and one of the lizards hisses. (It takes all of Clarence's willpower not to hiss back.)
Gilder kneels down and measures Dunlan's knees.
"What're you doing?"
"Oh, I thought you would want some knee pads, for when you're sucking gnome cock."
The party laughs.
Dunlan reaches for Gilder's face, but stops and looks at the party. He instead pats the elf on the head. "That's a good joke, boy. See if you're clever enough to come up with your payments." He turns and walks out.
Sartorii high-fives Gilder.
"Don't encourage him!!!"
They were about 50g short the last month. There are really no customers during the winter months. This is the first good-paying customers they've had in a while.
Rutana mentions how the ceremony is gonna be fancy, and the party can share where they got the clothes from.
"People like Besh think they're untouchable."
"People like that often find out they're not."
The Sprite asks Gilder if he can make a little wizardy robe like an autumn leaf.
He reaches behind the counter and pulls out a bunch of fabrics in fall colors, burnt sienna to creamy yellow.
Has slits for the wings. Robe is light so he can fly, strands of yarn that end in little tassels to train like tufted hummingbird tails.
Sartorii asks for a quilt to go under Sweet's saddle. They'll make a scrap-fabric quilt from leftovers and make it look all cool!
Sartorii's outfit, to go with her iridescent feathers, is not as sparkly as the others. Slightly muted blues and violets, a fancy dress.
Rutana's shape-shifting outfit will be held under tension in the weave, to expand and contract when shapeshifting. The seams would pull apart to let fur peek through and add to the color of the outfit, and add some ventilation. Also a fancy dress! Turquoise. Gilder advises turquoise accessories, too.
Gilder asks what Clarence does for a living while measuring him. Clarence stats that he champions Bast (Bast? Bastet? Discussion of which Pathfinder uses).
Clarence's outfit turns out a green and gold doublet, gold embroidered prayer to Bast repeating on the hems and trims. Little feline patterns in gold thread, too. It has some seams that allow for his fur to peek out and breathe.
This is the second time the party has seen Clarence super happy. This is his new favorite outfit! (Are you purring? What, no!)
The party adds a tip, too. Gloriana has to fan herself, wants to thank them but can't articulate it. Gilder explains as such.
"You're our friends now, stuck with us I'm sorry."
"Who even are you? Who, what. Wait. Waaaait." Gloriana looks at the table, where the newspaper about the party is. "Oh that's so cool."
Sartorii asks if they know Naialah, if they should work together. They're main competitors, unfortunately.
Finery will be delivered day before the festival.
This all took place on day 3.
Next up, a cobbler.
Halfling named Simon. Simon's Shoes.
Aged, looks like a human in his 60s, grown-out mutton chops, wears spectacles.
Only comes up to the party's thighs.
The store smells like really good leather, with a hint of metal shavings.
Simon is behind a counter, polishing a pair of boots that appear massive in his hands.
He does not realize the party is there.
Rutana clears her throat politely so as not to startle the man.
He does not hear her.
"Excuse me, helloo! We need to purchase some shoes!" Rutana tries again.
"Eh? Ohhhh, I didn't hear you!" He hops down and walks around the counter. "So what are you in the market for, don't think I've seen you around before!"
Rutana says fancy shoes for an awards ceremony. Simon stares at her mouth to try and see what she's saying, so she angles down and enunciates more clearly.
He gets a good gauge for her size just by looking, then toddles off into the back and returns with three pairs each of flats and heels. They look durable and are shined to a mirror reflection. Silver buckles, laces with shiny thread. Good quality and eye catching.
Rutana is looking for color matching to her dress, low-wedge heel or no heel.
Simon returns with a milk-chocolate brown, and a white pair. The white pair would look nice with the dress and compliment the white of her fur, almost sylvan.
Rutana selects the white. 2g per pair.
Simon suggests green shoes at Clarence.
Clarence is fine barefoot. Furry.
Sartorii asks if there are any that fit bird feet.
"Actually actually actually, I have some stuff leftover from working for one of the guard lieutenants!"
He pulls out some digitigrade shoes.
Sartorii excited!
"Let's see let's see let's see, what color is your outfit?"
Purples.
He suggests black, with bronze buckles treated to be like an oil slick.
He looks at the Sprite.
"It's not often I have to make shoes smaller than mine! I can use thumb tacks for the sole nails!"
Suggests a deep brown, mahogany leather.
For jewelry, they are recommended Skidyll's Gnomish Jewelry. The party has met her before! It's right next to Skidyll's Odds and Ends. The sign for the jeweler is very big, professionally made. The Odds and Ends sign is smaller, slapdash, pointing around to the other side of the building.
The party minus Clarence heads in. It's wall-to-wall with bits and bobs made by the owner over the course of owning the store.
You can't really tell her age by looking at her because gnomes are like that, but she has a few wrinkles and immaculate pink hair.
"Welcomes, greetings, I'm Fiz Bijit, how may I help you!"
Rutana: "I'm looking for accessories to accentuate a dress for the festival."
"Rings, bangles, necklaces, earrings?" she pulls out some needles and clacks them together.
Gold for and ametrine for Sartorii, citrine with silver clasps for Rutana. The Sprite pulls the citrine (golden yellow gemstone) that they got out of a jar in the butterfly room from the bag of holding to be used for this.
Both get earrings and a necklace.
Fiz Bijit: "Oh, where did you find this!"
Sprite: "Jar in a butterfly room. They tried to eat us."
Fiz Bijit: "I miss adventuring sometimes."
She goes to get to work, to have it ready by the festival. She's a big fan of the gem.
Clarence goes back to the tower, finds another letter taped to the door.
Bears a stamp on the back, courtesy of the White Horse Courier. Signed by Naialah! (Oh god, she already knows we bought clothes from someone else!)
Hey, remember that map you gave me? I have a pretty good idea of the cipher. I need your help to finish it. Come by when you can.
With love,
Naialah.
Little eight-legged smiley face in the corner.
Clarence puts it in the Important Document corner for the rest of the party to read later.
The rest of the party heads back home afterward.
Clarence had spent his time doing house chores and making dinner.
The Sprite spends three hours affixing the frozen lightning glass to his makeshift staff.
The party rests up and eats, then goes to meet Naialah. She's busy sweeping up when they arrive.
"I hear you've added another notch to your belt! So, I assume you're here about the map?"
She walks them into the back room. They see a conspiracy board of linguistics and ciphers.
"Okay okay okay, I know you probably just want to know what it says, but I'm going to brag a bit, and you're going to listen to me. So. This cipher sucks, it's bad, I hate it, and by that I mean it's amazing!"
There follows an impassioned rant about the incredibly complex cipher. Written in celestial, phonetic like bird language, primordial loaner words.
She pulls out some papers covered in nonsense to show off the process.
"I undercharged! But that's fine, that's on me."
Inhale, exhale.
"I want you to tell me what you find. Because if this ancient cipher leads you to something, it's gotta be amazing."
Sartorii: "If you're able to, you could come with us. I know you have your shop, but the option is there."
"We'll see what happens. maybe."
What it says is... Clans amongst the fallen stars, sunken tomb of old, the false god's staff, take to the mountain of silver.
Clans amongst fallen stars, Numeria.
Sunken tomb of old, Naialah will have to read up on.
False god's staff, she'll go on a limb and pray it's not Razmiran. (Rutana recognizes this as a nearby country, on the coast of Lake Incarthan. The furhtest southwest country of the Broken Lands. Would have to travel the entire of the river kingdoms to get to it. Razmir, their god, is a living person. He is a masked man with an extreme amount of power. It's a theocratic dictatorship, all his. Controlled by a masked priesthood. Razmiran priests beat up nonbelievers with flairs, in their own kingdom.) He's the most prominent modern false god, but this map is incredibly ancient. It would be very wild for it to be him.
Mountain of silver, the center of Numeria is called Silver Mount.
The door to the barber shop busts open and in comes Gloriana. On her shoulder is Gilder, bleeding quite a lot. Swollen face, bite marks on arms and legs.
Naialah points to the chair.
He falls unconscious when he hits the chair.
Naialah stabilizes him quite easily.
To be continued.