Into the Gray

Session Summary

We set up Valdethirsk to negotiate with the goblins, Tubam leading the way with a few of the miners to meet them at their nearby camp. Meanwhile, we leave with the next caravan from Gendry, where government types work primairly with a smithy called Kokorun. On the third day of travel, not far out from Gendry, we find a tree that looks as if someone attacked it with a sword. If these trees were destroyed, it would make travel much more dangerous because wild creatures could roam freely along the pathway.

Log

Scene: 2pm on a Saturday. We’re all planning on leaving with the caravan that’s coming tomorrow. It brings supplies and then heads back to Gendry.

Twinkletoes is killing it on her instrument during the downtime. A crowd of workers has gathered to listen. She puts her hat on the ground, suggestively. ;) Some folks toss coins into the hat.

Elzira goes into the room to ignore everyone because everyone is stoopid. He studies.

We chill out before and after dinner. 6-7pm rolls around. People talk to us, asking about how things went with the Goblins. Star answers by explaining, “I think they’re a misunderstood group of creatures.” 

Elzira says, “Uh huh,” sarcastically says under his breath. Except it's louder than expected.

The miners look really incredulous at Star’s comment. They clearly don’t believe this.

The individual next to Elzira, hearing his scoff, turns to him and asks “What do you think about it, then?”

“I mean, it seems pretty pointless to try and reason with goblins, but I guess they’re technically not the ones who attacked us today. I don’t know why we were doing their dirty work.”

The miners seem upset we did the goblin’s dirty work.

Elzira concedes that we did fight monsters that could have also attacked the town.

Star points out that the goblins were the only creatures who got killed until we spoke to them. We took care of what seemed to be the nest of owlbears. 

Arachne giggles. 

A murmur in the crowd. “There shouldn’t have been any owlbears near here!” They explain they had scouted the area before making this town to make sure it was safe.

Elzira laughs and shouts, “Well let me tell you what, there’s a lot of owlbears around here!”

More murmurs. 

“Just because there are owlbears doesn’t mean they will be attacking us.” They’re speaking amongst themselves.

Back to us: “To be clear, the goblins think that we caused the owlbears to be here?”

“100% dude.” Elzira says totally in academic character.

Star points out that we fought owlbears before we even started dealing with goblins.

“I’m supposed to believe, you’re telling me, that you think, that the goblins are not an issue to us.” Says the miners.

“I know so because I communicated with them,” said Star.

Star asks Elzara what she thinks.

“Um, you know, I’m always a fan of sparing life when we can. We can’t take out everyone and the owlbears were definitely a much higher threat than the goblins.” Elzara chimes in. 

“Okay sure, the owlbears needed to go.” the miners say. “It’d really be great if you finish taking out the goblins…” There are a group of 5-10 people getting excited about eradicating the goblins.

The others don’t seem invested but also don’t stop what’s happening.

“Even as enemies, which I don’t think they are, the owlbears are a bigger threat and an entire village of goblins are nothing.”

Star asks me what’s up. 

I explain that the goblins weren’t really much to worry about in terms of fighting, if anything, the goblins are pretty clever and would be useful to work together with for making tools, possibly trading with. Definitely to team up with against the owlbears.

Tubam walks in.

The miners are beginning to agree that maybe, begrudgingly, will maybe work with the goblins instead of wiping them out. 

Tubam chimes in to say that she trusts our judgement and that this is the plan she was hoping for. She eventually suggests that they take down the goblin heads.

There is more murmuring and grumbling amongst the miners.

Tubam snaps at them, saying that “What I say goes, got it?”

It seems that even if they don’t agree, they’ll do what Tubam tells them.

People start asking questions about what it was like to interact with the goblins. 

I say that they were pretty easy to deal with and Star says they were shy.

Arachne laughs out loud. “Nothing like a dose of fearing for your life to make you accommodating.” 

Conversation slowly turns to regular life. They begin talking about how the caravan is coming tomorrow. Mined materials will be picked up, food and other resources will get dropped off, and everyone gets a paycheck.

The caravan will arrive at 8am, it takes a few hours to unload and load again. It’ll leave just after lunch, around noon.

I will be trancing, then preparing rations, and training. 

Star will also be sleeping training.

Arachne is communing.

Elzira will be meditating, bathing, or studying.

I run around asking who needs rations. Star points out I should pack apple pie for Elzara. I want to prepare one day of rations per person. Tubam gives me permission for this. Excited to put cooking into practice, I manage to have held onto the cooking basics. I am pretty sure I’ve made rations that taste a little better than usual. 

Meta: When you eat my rations, you get something special. Let Andrew know when you’ve eaten them. #cooking #tempboons

We all go to bed. At 3am, Elzira wakes up to go take a bath. He does not wake anyone up, or run into any enemies. He takes a bath without issue. #bathtime

Star and I are training outside, I’m getting used to working with my new quarterstaff. Elzara walks by naked with clothes in his arms, saying “You’re so childish.” 

I get back into the kitchen to help the boys make breakfast. “We usually prep some extra stuff for the caravan today, we’ll have a second round in about another hour for the caravan so they can eat too.” 

7am, the miner breakfasts are all ready. Everyone comes to eat. They’re all excited about the new shipment.

I ask Elzira about his 3am baths. He insists this is very normal. 

Tubam is appalled we’re all awake so early.

Star and I talk about why my skin changes color. We talked about my cooking. I explain that last time I tried teaching a town to throw a festival, I wasn’t able to do very good at the cooking part (they wanted me to leave after the ill effects) and so now I’m motivated to learn how to cook better. 

I return to help cooking in the kitchen again. #cooking

Elzara implements the things she learned in her Rune book.

Eventually, we hear the sounds of a wagon.

We can see the workers moving empty crates from the storage area back and forth between the wagon. The miners are exchanging conversation with the people on the caravan. Talking about recent events with great excitement. 

The moving process takes a few hours.

Star and Elzara help them move packages.

I excitedly go to cook one last time to make lunch before we leave. We eat lunch, more thorough conversation happens about recent events. The caravan is very interested in learning all about it. This is clearly how the news gets shared between camps. #cooking #encounters/caravans

P.S. Before the caravan arrived, the goblin heads were removed. It seems that Tubam is about to head out with a few other people to talk to the goblins. She seems fairly optimistic. 

We wrap up lunch, the people thank us for our help and wish us well. 

I thank the chefs for letting me hang in the kitchen with them to learn.

The journey is intended to be about 3 days long. Since we’re tagging along, we’ll have to walk alongside the caravan and can’t ride inside.

There are about 15 people in the caravan, about 10 look ready to fight. The other 5 are normal workers responsible for the travel and caravan work. The man in the lead is holding a device with which we’re not fully familiar, but it seems like it’s meant to let them know if something dangerous is nearby. 

In the universe we are aware that these are extremely rare and expensive devices, which is partially why travel alone is not seen often. 

I’m walking along and juggling fire. But I start playing my pan flute once Twinkletoes starts playing the lute. Unfortunately we’re not doing very well. The people are visibly a bit annoyed by our music, but it’s not so bad they’re actually asking us to stop.

Arachne is lingering as far back as possible. She is holding her holy symbol on her necklace and talking to herself.

Star goes back to ask if she’s okay.

Arachne scowls at Star, “Yeah, why”

“What is that thing around your neck?”

“My holy symbol.” #characterlore

“Does it help you communicate with your goddess?” he wonders.

“You could say that.” 

They chat about their respective power sources. Star says his goddess mostly tells him what to do, where Arachne is more in a mutual commune. 

The first day of travel goes without incident. 

I ask around to figure out what’s in Gendry in regards to magic and weapons. The people with weapons seem a bit more knowledgeable. Less know about magic. They tell me the people in charge of government work with a particular smithy, “Kokorun.”

Arachne starts talking to the different merchants to see if they have seen any similar items to the one she took for herself back in the cave.

Both of the front merchants have a look and say they heard rumors that somebody had seen something like that near New Flavem, south of Gendry. Arachne thanks them for their assistance. 

Night 1: 

Elzira is very put out that he can’t take a bath. He hates every second of this. #bathtime

Day 2:

Nice and peaceful day of traveling about like nerds. 

I make some casual conversation about upcoming festivals, events, anything food and drink related in Gendry.

The merchants think about this. The first person I ask doesn’t know, doesn’t like to go do things. I move on to another. Eventually I am told, “At the beginning of summer we do a festival with all the crops, but nothing is coming up super soon. If something comes up we’ll let you know. There’s not much to celebrate these days.” #encounters/caravans

“But, celebration is worth celebrating!” I am shocked in reply.  

Star asks about better armor. 

Night 2: 

Uneventful.

Day 3:

Last leg of our journey!

First thing in the morning, on Tuesday, after traveling for 2 hours, we notice on the North (right) side, there is a tree with a bunch of gashes in it. It looks as if somebody was wildly attacking the tree with a sword, almost crazily going at it. #clues

It almost looks like someone was trying to remove the trees. This would be very detrimental to their ability to travel. The merchants are concerned about this and attempting to figure out what happened. ^99e801

Arachne looks around for something interesting, but announces that she hasn’t seen much besides the obvious wild damage.

Star investigates the tree. It looks like somebody was using a sword. Almost like an axe to desperately cut the tree down. Only one tree was attacked.

I ask why this tree matters. The merchants explain that if someone was trying to intentionally take down this tree, it means that it would not be safe for us to travel. These trees keep the roads safe. Basically, the trees in question, druids grow these trees and it helps keep monsters out. “I suppose I hadn’t thought about it closely, but I do suppose that the trees are enchanted to deter monsters from wanting to come.” 

There doesn’t seem to be anything different about this tree except that it was hacked with a sword.

After about 30 minutes we decide to carry on, somewhat unsettled and on guard.

We continue on.

Meta: Encounter coming up! :D