Session 37: Nolosky, Nights, and Niklik - That Is Not My Name!
Session starts outside of Besh's villa. 5:30 pm, two days before the full moon.The party takes Besh's horses to ride straight to Astrafel's office, cutting the travel time from an hour down to 30 minutes. (The Sprite joined Ser Dori on his riding dog.)
The party arrives exactly at 6 on the dot, right as Astrafel is leaving.
"You're gonna want to sit down for this one."
Astrafel twists the key that was still in the lock and opens the door with perhaps the saddest creak you ever did hear.
We have good news!
Good news, are you sure?
Well busy news but it'll be good for New Stetven in the long run!
Alright, hit me, I can take it.
The party hands him the most incriminating bits of paperwork to ease him in slowly.
The first bit he chooses is an income report to do with all the businesses in the city.
Sartorii pushes one of the reports to deal with the cult forward next. Three minutes pass in silence as his face grows increasingly pale.
"You guys wanted to be lords really bad, didn't you?"
"Nah more that we just really hated Besh."
"To be fair he kidnapped and tortured one of our friends."
Initiate Ser Dori jumpscare and introduction.
"By the way he also has a war machine in his basement."
"He has WHAT."
"So let me see if I've got this straight, just for the report. In the process of completing this task for our great king, you took it upon yourself after clearing the sewers of nightmarish cultists to break into the home of one Besh and search his premises on the suspicion that he was harboring cultists. This proved to be true, and you also found that he was taking advantage of our fair citizens, dealing in illicit substances, ingratiating himself with nobility, and he has a war machine in his basement. Is there anything else?"
The Sprite explains the encounter with Kelso, and how he let Kelso go. But! He they have a way to track him! Behold, a hairbrush!
"Age must have made him sloppy. I've never seen him leave a trail before. Regardless of any old grudges..."
Astrafel takes a second to compose himself. "You've done the city a great service. You've all but run the cult out of town. You killed a traitor to the crown and silenced the cult's one contact to get into the city."
Astrafel will send guards out to the villa to clean things up.
Next step, seeing the king tomorrow, and then grilled cheese date with Astrafel, Zerex, and Arabella that evening.
Astrafel crits a perception check to notice the Sprite looking like a kicked dog. He stops the Sprite on the way out.
"I've waited years. I can wait a month more."
The next day dawns a balmy 21F with strong winds.
At 9 in the morning, there's a knock at the door. A herald with a horn tucked under his elbow—unblown due to the early hour—stands at the doorstep. Clarence opens the door.
"Greetings Clarence of the Front Yard! You and your coterie of heroes are cordially invited to break fast with the king of Brevoy today! We have a carriage waiting."
"Okay. Let me go get the coterie."
The party gets on their fancy clothes and hops in.
The carriage is insulated and the ride is easy once they hit the stone paths. They are instantly let through the gates with no delay, and paraded through the entire town for all to see.
There are a bunch of people at the Church of Abbadar cheering and applauding, many of whom were from the jar and the sewer prison.
Further up the road, Glory and Gold Apparel is extremely busy. They've been doing great with the party's advertising. Gilder's healing up nicely!
Past the first gate, Aerel's Fiendlings and Familiars is cordoned off, one of the windows broken.
The carriage is immediately granted entrance through the gate to the castle proper where all the nobility live, and into the Ruby Fortress. The party is let out of the carriage and escorted into the castle, then led down a side corridor to a dining room with a long long dining table. There is a great big roaring fire at the king's back. His chair has a dragonscale pattern in the wood, while the rest of the chairs are solid mahogany with cotton-stuffed cushions. Cozy!
Firm, crusty pancakes, potato cakes, syrups, cheese sauce, a large smoked pork belly, sausages and hot, hearty, fancy foods galore weigh the table down. Light morning wine, sweet mead, and mulled cider also graces the table.
Not only is the king himself here, but fancy nameplates now grace the screen when NPCs are introduced!
Now that the notekeeper remembers how to spell his name, King Noleski sits at the head of the dining table. His bodyguard Izith, Gurev Medvyed (our pal!), Lebeda (the hot one with the pathfinder's society), and Orlovsky (one who made a weird permissions error appear for three of four of the players) are also present.
The party is guided to their seats. Servants pour their drinks and cut their food.
After some time eating and engaging idle conversation, the king asks about Greenwall, the sewers, the dragon they slayed under the city.
"The service that you've done for this city and this country can't be overstated. I would like, if you are amenable, to name you nobility and knight you."
"It would be an honor."
"As a noble family of Brevoy you would have certain holdings. You will come into possession of land and title. I will not... Hm." He smiles. "I will not have you under my direct command as I do so many of my knights. You will work in your own interests in ways you know will best serve Brevoy. I know there is no scheme you will hatch that will hurt this place. You have shown to be a friend to Brevoy's people; not just its nobility, but its commoners, its farmers and civil servants."
Sartorii grew up here. She was a commoner, if not lower. Orlovsky eyes her, but Noleski waves him down. Medyev is the one to answer, between bites of porkbelly.
"The way that I've learned to see things is, that criminals, at least non-violent criminals, are an important part of a successful ecosystem. I don't think that anyone should be stolen from, but also I think that it's naive to assume that there are people who can eat without stealing. Besides, if no one stole, we would have no guards. If we had no guards, the next time something outlandish happened, we would have no protectors!"
Yes, well, Sartorii only stole from people who deserved it! Lebeda laughs at that, but doesn't say anything.
The king says he's had people draw up a mock heraldry for them, and some stamps made with it. Do not lose them!!! He had them made after the awards ceremony. He was fairly convinced the party was the right choice. He is not yet so old that he is immune to the whimsy of heroism.
A few servants bring a large standard in displaying the party's heraldry; a shield in quarters, alternating silver and green. Silver for heroism, purity, loyalty, and the emerald green for the forest that Woodwatch sits beside. A fox, a symbol of Bast, a fairy, and an owl sit in each of the corners. The motto "From anywhere" is written in bold letters.
Surtova snaps his fingers and a servant brings a box. Within are very important documents that will stay within the castle. The first paper is the full and complete deed to Woodwatch Keep. The party is no longer stewards; it is theirs. They have also been granted stewardship of Cartwright Farm, and the deed to Besh's manor. Essentially, the party owns the land southeast of New Stetven, and also Besh's manor.
Sartorii immediately plans to turn Besh's manor into a homeless shelter.
The king laughs. He can't even be surprised by that level of generosity anymore. Sartorii explains her reasoning, and how it will help the city as a whole, and the Sims ++ friendship symbol appears over the heads of everyone at the table.
So. What is important now is that you will be in charge of paying the taxes for Cartwright Farm. If they have a lean year, you make up the difference. If they have a good year, you reap the benefits.
The king will also have the tower repaired a bit.
The name for the house! The king suggests ruling it on committee, as no one here is related, but they will have to name a lord or lady. There is nothing wrong with running it like an oligarchy.
The Sprite suggest House Sylva.
The official knighting ceremony will be later.
Breakfast wraps up and they party takes the carriage out of the castle gate. They stop at Aerel's to inspect the damage.
On the curb is an elven woman who looks to be in her early 20s, late teens, sitting on the sidewalk and rubbing her temples.
The Sprite walks up to her, asks if she worked there.
No, her dad owned the place.
The Sprite gives condolences, asks if she's okay.
She smirks wryly. As okay as she can be. She wants to find out what happened, but they won't let her in, she would contaminate the crime scene. It's been five days. The investigation's ongoing. They still haven't found any sign of what could have happened, haven't found the kobold who worked for him.
The guards do, however, recognize the party and let them in immediately.
The building is just as deep as the party remembers. The animals are all still here, but people have been let in to feed them at least. There is very clearly an area where the death happened. There's a collapsible desk set up atop a tarp with a few items on it; a notebook, a wand, a gem, and a few brushes and dust kits.
Party performs a general check.
Sartorii sees quite a few bloodstains around the outline of the body, blood up to 20 feet away. There is a podium with a three-pronged stand. The stand is empty, and there's a shattered glass ball on the ground.
Clarence finds a set of bloody servant's clothes in the back. They are small and have the name Ikrit on them. The kobold servant was named Niklik.
Rutana and the Sprite both happen upon a gem similar to the one next to the wand on the desk. The gem is inset into a small part of the wall. The socket has a trail of runes leading up to the corner. The Sprite uses Read Aura and notices an Arcane Eye at the end of the trail of runes. These gems are a fairly recent inventions, only for use by magisters. You can take a recording of a section of time. If you cast Minor Illusion through one of these crystals, it will show you what it saw. They are used for security for higher-level magic people, and for crime scene investigators. One is Aerel's, one is the crime scene photos.
The Sprite wants to go to the Arcanum to see about learning Minor Illusion, and maybe Prestidigitation.
The party takes both gems with them.
Cedric, the book bird, is working at the Arcanum.
"Ahh, the Heroes of Greenwall, newly minted nobles! I'll get you anything you ask! Let's see here... You could rent a wand of Minor Illusion, or a scroll or three. The wand, so long as you bring it back, the cost would be... 4 gold to rent, and 8 gold per scroll."
The Sprite forks over the gold. The wand must be returned by the 16th.
Cedric squawks at Fendril to get back to work.
Cedric also allows the party to rent a training room, 1 silver for an hour.
The party struts into the training room and closes the door. Once secure, they Sprite uses the wand on the crystal from the wall first.
There are several transactions. Each transaction, Aerel shouts at Niklik to fetch things, and shouts at her when something is even mildly wrong.
The kobold in the recording is clearly female, but the name Niklik is a male kobold name.
Throughout the day, she grows more and more haggard.
At the end of the day she is sweeping and she looks like she's wavering on her feet. She falls asleep against her broom. It tips and knocks over the crystal ball. When it cracks there's a bright flash, and smoke everywhere.
Aerel can be heard coming out. "Niklik what have you done now, you complete fuckup—"
"That is not. My. Name."
The recording cuts out, and there is no further action until the police come in.
The crystal from the investigator's desk is just a clear picture of Aerel's corpse. His ribcage has been torn open and his innards have become outards, spread around in every direction.
The investigator's voice plays over the recording.
"Preliminary investigations reveal a great amount of trauma in a short amount of time, immediately ending this man's life. The kobold's assistant, named Niklik by other assistants but Ikrik by her employment records, is nowhere to be found. She is of mild interest due to her interesting living situation. Followup investigation will occur." He lists an address, presumably Ikrik's home. The address is outside the city wall, between Cartwright Farm and the Flophouse.
The next two trips are to the Church of Abadar and the Pathfinder Lodge to inform Arabella and Zexar of the grill cheese dinner.
While at the church, the party checks in on the prince. He's healing up nicely and his translator is working much more smoothly now. He's happy with his place are, he's happy they killed the demon lady. He'll tell anyone who listens how cool the heroes of this era are.
Sartorii offers him a job at the homeless manor. He'll check the books stolen by the evil jar worm to see if there's any recipes for old booze.
While at the Pathfinder's Lodge, the party glances at the job board.
The Lost Legend. Requires being teleported somewhere!
One requires going down to the church of the startstone.
Few hunts here and there.
The party has made this place pretty safe, including some things that were originally jobs on this board.
Zerex is still asleep, even though it's 1pm.
Meera's Flophouse! There's a big fuckin sheet of plywood on the wall. Otherwise, pretty normal.
The owner is currently wiping down her counter.
"Ohhhh no, last time you lot were here, busted out my whooooole wall arresting Dunlan. Turns out he was innocent, came walking straight back in!"
The Sprite orders whatever the cheapest drink is. Pays for it with the 2 gold it would take to cover fixing the wall.
Dunlan's room is still back in the corner. The door's all normal, everything's as fixed as it can be.
Sartorii knocks. Dunlan has a black eye and he's holding a bag of ice to his forehead.
"Oh... Welcome. Come in, come in."
What got you??
Other prisoners.
Party regales Dunlan with the tale of what they found in Besh's basement. It slowly dawns on him just how shitty that whole thing was.
"And he's dead?"
Very, very dead.
Dunlan stands, then gets on his knees and presses his forehead to the floor. "My false debt to Besh is lifted. My life, my freedom, is yours."
The party doesn't want to hold him to a life debt. Sartorii suggests he live his life to the fullest, see if his family is okay, or bring them here if his safer.
His people would prefer to stay on their ancestral lands, but the party would be welcomed there as visiting kings, as family.
Sartorii starts taking the necklace off to return it, but Dunlan stops her. He, Victor, and Vera understand each other. The necklace is convenient, but only a convenience. Wear it when walking into his village, and they will recognize the party as Dunlan's friends. He then gives Sartorii the biggest, most spine-cracking bear hug she ever got in her life, then does the same with the entire party.
