Into the Gray

Session Summary

Star learns about different ruins from the dead man's journal. The man is from an organization that Wash knows about. After carrying owlbear meat back to town, we cook and make merry with food and drink. Elzara works on Star's glove, Elzira writes to his friend, and Elzira begins his middle of the night bathtime rituals. In the morning, we help train the miners for self defense. That next morning, we head out to find the rest of the goblins.

Log

Based on the secret gifted map I have, I have reason to believe that the special quarterstaff I am looking for is near Valdethirsk. Upon return, I will campaign to the team to track where the goblins came from and see whether they have it or know more about it. 

Star begins reading from his book. It’s a journal from the dead man. There was a lot of valuable information in various ruins. He was alone. He got out of somewhere. The last thing he got was a kind of key. It’s a lot of dangerous stuff. Having a lock like this has a lot of valuable uses.  #clues

 “What do you think of that?” Star asks Wash. 

“Seems like these orbs were what we thought they were.” The dead man is part of a known group Wash is aware of. #clues

Wash suggests we harvest some meat from the owlbears to take into town.

Arachne, Wash, and Star successfully clean and get great meat. Elzara, Twinkletoes, and I fuck it up and get less great meat. 

I carry 25lbs of meat back to Valdethirsk. It takes about an hour and a half to get to the town. It’s evening now, around 4pm. The old doors have been removed and they’ve started putting up replacement slats.

The miners are happy to see us. 

As we enter, there’s a guy going through some of the barrels. They don’t really notice us. We interrupt them to give them our owlbear meat. The seemingly lead-chef steps up. 

He offers to make sweet pastries as a celebration. I am extremely excited.

Elzara asks if they can make apple pie. They can’t promise anything but they offer to try.

“I need to go like, pray or whatever,” Arachne storms off.

I offer to stay and help so I can learn how to cook owlbear. #cooking

Star asks Elzara if she’d be able to help make his arcane focus fit better. She asks what it’s made out of. It's a standard glove made out of leather. She says she can help fit it to his size. He offers to find apple pie ingredients so she has time to work on this already.

Star goes to ask Tubam if she can direct him to where apples might be. “Do you have any secret apple orchards?” 

She said, “Are you joking? If we had any they’d be in the supply crate.” 

He goes back to search with Elzara and they find five apples, enough for one pie. Elzara is ecstatic. 

The other chefs are teaching me how to clean off the lesser meat. They’re telling me how it’s a weird meat but they’re doing the best they can.

About an hour later, dinner is ready. I am over the moon for food and pastries. Once the food is ready, the chef calls everyone in.

Miners start streaming in from outside. They’re using carts to transport in their labors from the day.

I suggest that we break out a round in celebration as the food comes out. They bring out the cheap booze. #party

They bring out the unholy amount of owlbear meat, the tables are piled up. It is served as a free-for-all. Utility knives are available as utensils. 

I am LIVING for this dinner. I play my pan flute and attempt to get people dancing. It doesn’t go well but no one cares much for it. Star defends my performance, and rouses up to get everyone on board. 

The feast goes on for several hours, drawing into the evening. It’s beginning to be dark. 

“I drank a lot…” Twinkletoes stumbles out of the room.

I start talking about loving the part and how excited I am to look for the item I’m searching for. I go outside to have a look at the goblin tracks, it seems that they came from the North. The weather seems pretty good, there’s a 1 in 4 chance things could get messed up overnight.

Everyone starts heading to bed. Elzara continues working on the glove. She tries to add some nice frills and touches but it doesn’t turn out so amazing. It looks pretty hideous. Star is super kind about it and appreciates it. “I’ll treasure this,” he says.

Elzira left dinner early to write a letter in his room because he’s tired of dealing with drunk people. He sends it with his pal. #letters

Star and I each do our trances and wake up early to practice magics. I explain that I’m working on Blur. He says he’s recently been bestowed with magics by an archfey. He’s struggling with the crystal arcane focus. 

We chat more about our motivations and what we’re working and what we’re looking for.

Elzira is attempting to bathe himself at 3am. He finds the river, casting mage armor on himself for extra protection. He successfully makes it back. Star and I help him leave and return due to the makeshift door. #bathtime

Once the chef is awake, I go to help make breakfast. I can see they have eggs and ham. #cooking

A few of the locals start to approach members of the party. They’re asking for training on how to defend themselves.

I start explaining quarterstaffs and what kind of materials they need if they want to get themselves some they can learn on when I return from my mission. 

Star teaches them some basic security measures, like using a lookout and alarm system. He shows them out to make an alarm trap.

Several people have advocated that if we find the goblins, we should wipe them out. Considering the previous celebration and feast, I am down to do this. Star seems hesitant because he doesn’t assume they’re all bad.

By the time we’re leaving, they have begun setting up a crude watchtower. Five members of the miners stay behind training self-defense.

At 8am, we prepare to go looking for the goblins. When we’ve gone out, we can see that the tracks are almost completely undisturbed as far as we can tell. 

Meta Notes: If possible, we could get through the interaction without killing everyone.