Loose threads: Gildenwind has fallen, Olog doesn't seem to like Uzuto, there are still more veiled orcs to do more bad stuff, the Olog's Pact, a.k.a. The Horde has the cooperation of a dragon known as the Great Wyrm, who invited the party to the feast?
Participants: Sukemoru Uzuto The Ashen Hawk Bethany Claie Jirel Flyr Damin Saltric
Locations: Thunderveil
Short summary:
Noticing that his headband was a bit damaged, Uzuto decided to go with a few people to get it readjusted. Upon arrival at the city, it was revealed that the party had been invited to a feast. Confused, but with some members (Uzuto) excited, the group entered the city proper and were contacted by Tanni Galespeaker, who informed them of his suspicious and about the state of Harko, who had become ostracized as a result of an earlier debacle that Uzuto was involved. Searching around the city for Harko and for any signs of mischief, the group eventually came across Harko, who revealed he had infiltrated a conspiracy to poison someone at the feast. At the feast proper, the group was able to put a stop to the poisoning, which targeted Warlord Zo, and the likely suspects of the whole affair challenged them to a fight to the death. After winning the fight handly without needing to kill their opponents, Uzuto got into an argument with Olog about finishing them off. The argument was moot however, as Zo discovered that the people were responsible for an attempt and killed them all. Olog then revealed that the city of Gildenwind had been taken and that they had convinced a creature known as the Great Wyrm to join them.
Full Report
[A retelling of the main events that happened on the quest. You can write this in-character or out-of-character. You can choose to omit information. Try to @mention the names of party members, important NPCs, or locations. Type "@" and the name of entity and select it from the pop-up menu, like this: Jirel Flyr, Greyspine Mountains, Father Lightning. This helps connecting wiki pages. You can also note monsters and hazards you encounter, so other characters know what to expect if they pass by the same locations.]
Uzuto here! I am writing my report of how I got my headband. First, I recruited The Ashen Hawk, Jirel, Damin, and Beth to join me on my trip to Thunderveil. We stopped by Roanokae Camp, where I got to play a game where you kick a ball into a net. It was quite fun, and Rip showed a remarkable level of strategy by deceiving me into thinking he was hurt while the other children kicked the ball in and out of the goal! Meanwhile, the Ashen Hawk spoke with Oukra and Damin spoke with the locals about how the war is going. Eventually however, we had other things to do, so we left Roanoke and made the journey to Thunderveil. The two trolls that typically look over the bridge did not appear, but they seemed to be alright in their hut. When we arrived at the city, Tanni Galespeaker showed up and spoke to us as a bird, telling us to meet him at a bathhouse called The Warden's Rest before flying away.
Finding this strange, we were quickly approached by a group of riders on horseback, the leader of whom informed us that Olog had accepted our petition to enter the city and attend Thunderveil's Memorial Rites, as well as give us an invitation to the Heroes' Feast. I was very excited to hear this, especially since I had not even bothered to ask for an invitation. I thought that someone might have wanted to meet us, but we put it aside as we went to the sauna and met with Tanni. When in the sauna, we discovered that he was not the one who invited us and learned that it was likely part of a ploy by another clan to gain power. We also learned that Harko, who had done many good things for me the last time I was in Thunderveil, had become ostracized as a result of my actions. I resolved to help him out of this situation, and then ran out of the sauna (after getting bathed), to explore the city.
I found out that there was a repository called the Reliquary full of books and technology deemed profane or dangerous after the fall of Thunderveil, as well as a building called The Church of the Unspoken, a place of worship and the tallest building in the city after the Spires. I learned all of this from a nice woman who seemed to be going through some troubles! As thanks, I gave her a few things. Because the Reliquary sounded too important for me to get access to, I decided to see The Church of the Unspoken, where there was a parade of orcs doing some sort of ritual with bearers carrying a sizable wooden platform. On it was the depiction of an orc face, split in half with the left side completely featureless. At that point it was late, so I left to find an inn that was run by a nice old man and very cozy!
In the morning, after waking up and getting something to eat from the trees they keep in the gardens (it is very nice of them to offer free food!), I met with the rest of the group and we went to Vera's to get Beth a tattoo, where we fought blobs of ink inside of it. It was quite fun, though when I questioned her about the curses that were ongoing during my last visit, her responses made me think that she was a NEET. Either that or a vampire. With that business done, we split up once again, with Damin and I going to the Stones to try and find Harko's whereabouts, while The Ashen Hawk, Jirel, and Beth went to Abandoned Temple to see what was in it. At the Stones, we were not allowed in due to the guards saying so, but they said they would bring the stablemaster to us so that we could speak to them about Harko. With nothing left to do in that area, I instead went to find information about the ostracized population of Thunderveil, while Damin went to the tailor. Meanwhile, the rest of the group found someone who was likely involved in the conspiracy and retrieved a cipher from them, but that person got away.
I was able to learn quite a bit about how ostracization works in Thunderveil, including:
- Being ostracized is a usual punishment in this society. Although not desirable, it's considered more useful than physical punishment or jail.
- Most offenses are mild enough that some voluntary work for the community earns the offender some sort of pardon.
- Others, however, unable to reconcile with their former companions, decide to leave the city and return to the northern plains, in order to start anew. Some remain though, slowly paying their social debt or living on their own. And finally, a handful decide to band together and take care of each other, forming small groups of "undesirables".
- Numbers are very hard to estimate, as they are not easily identifiable. And not every individual is shunned to the same degree.
This took quite a bit of time, since many people do not wish to speak of the ostracized, and the time for me to meet with Damin and the stablemaster, where she remarked that Harko had asked her about a tailor and alchemist, which made the guard and Damin suspicious for some reason. Then he ran after her when the guard was not looking, but it seems that they did not talk for long. We soon received a bird message from Jirel about wanting to meet, where we learned about the conspirator. It was during this time that Damin deceived me into thinking that two people who were grateful to me were instead deathly afraid of me due to his inability to read social cues. Coming to the conclusion that we might be able to find more if we cast a spell on the note, I watched as The Ashen Hawk performed the spell which I later learned was Object Reading, where he saw a scene of a deal taking place in a tavern, where one person gave another a poison to use. With the help of Beth's magical guitar, The Ashen Hawk was able to share his memories of both that scene and another that he witnessed earlier, and I identified one of the voices in the latter as belonging to Harko, while The Ashen Hawk was able to identify the earlier conspirator as being one of the ones in the second vision. With nothing else to discuss, we went to sleep while Damin deciphered the cipher.
The note apparently said 'Salty Cauldron... After evening bells... Usual drop off...'. During breakfast two guards tracked us down with a message that the date of the feast had been moved, so we decided to find the alchemist responsible for making the poison. After asking around the area, we were able to find the Salty Cauldron, which was an alchemist shop near the northernmost dock. While The Ashen Hawk, Jirel, and I went inside, Damin and Beth inspected the outside of the shop. Upon entering, we all noticed that the shop was a huge mess, likely the signs of a struggle. Upon noticing that there were stains climbing up the stairs, I followed them to the second floor, where I found the corpse of an orc, presumably Skiv. Jirel followed me, while The Ashen Hawk went outside to help Damin and Beth open a lock.
Jirel and I discovered books written in Goblin, one titled 'Distilling Dreams and Nightmares: A Handy Guide to Produce Your Own Hallucinogens', while the other read '20 Easy Steps For Successful Entrepreneurship'. Before I could study them in detail however, Jirel heard a sound in the closet, where Harko made himself known. He informed us that he had infiltrated the conspiracy to stop it, or at the very least get info to someone else. I must admit, at this point I had doubts that Harko was innocent in all of this, so it was good to find that he was the same as he was! He asked us to help him stop the plot, and I gave him his favorite meal that I got for him earlier before we all left to the feast, which was going to begin shortly. While this was happening, Beth, Damin, and The Ashen Hawk discovered a ledger that indicated that demons might be involved. They also found a young Unknown by the name Leave-Me-Alone, who claimed to be Skiv's son. I believe the Ashen Hawk adopted him afterwards.
When we arrived at the feast, we were escorted by guards who did not know what was being served or who would be sitting with us, but we found out quickly enough when Olog appeared with his retinue. Damin seemed concerned with the amount of red-skinned horned people, but we never got the chance to confirm if they were people undergoing demonic transformation or just tieflings. The feast began shortly after, and I became distracted while Jirel looked for anyone suspicious and the Ashen Hawk snuck off somewhere else. I also took the time to go around and introduce myself to other people, eventually coming to Warlord Zo's table. For some reason, he seemed to think that we had joined the Pact, so I made sure to tell him that I had no intentions of doing so due to my status, after he ended up ruining his food by splitting the table in half with an axe. It was still quite delicious though! At first, I thought they might not have cooked everything, but perhaps it was a new sort of delicacy. A nearby clan of veiled orcs seemed to take offense to me not wanting to become Olog's subordinate and kept causing trouble even after I gave them all several chances to stop. This led to a fight where Damin could not participate due to being held down by several people and the Ashen Hawk was distracted several times by a red-headed woman who appeared out of nowhere. We defeated them all fairly easily and I was ready to make them make up for what they did, but then Zo and Olog started to demand I kill them, despite me being the victor. I tried to argue that it was my choice to make while Jirel and the Ashen Hawk wanted to capitulate, but then Zo snuck up and killed them all while I was doing so. Olog then announced that Gildenwind has fallen and that a Great Wyrm has joined them to battle. He also said that fresh troops would be joining the front.
I am not certain if the 'Great Wyrm' is truly a Great Wyrm, or just a very powerful and old dragon, but whoever they are, they will likely be a problem in the future. Perhaps Ari can make friends with them? We will see. With not much else to do there, we left, while Harko was likely rewarded for his help in stopping the plot.