Quests
The party decides they want to return to the Orrin estate and perhaps investigate further, so the merfolk lead them back through the canals to the Pearl District. Around them, the Red Night festival is in full swing.
Revelers are releasing floating lanterns into the sky as a memorial to the dead. Before the merfolk leave to return to the bay, Asana promises they will not forget our assistance, and hopes to see us all again.
Brin cleans up our dirty party clothes, and we make our way back towards the estate. Keerk is very stressed, and in a great deal of pain due to his injured wing. Nearer the estate, there are a number of police wagons and gawkers standing around. We watch as Isaac and Sable Orrin and Mayor Wulfra speak tensely and gesture to the crowd.
Brin approaches Lucious Stevenson again, and finds out that the people blame the Orrins for what happened. They are seen as “trashy” for dealing in the “unspeakable” trade of sentient creatures, for not understanding the people of Prytania, and for making them all unsafe. The Orrins are, in return, blaming the Mayor Wulfra. The Orrins are eventually guided into one of the police wagons (though apparently not arrested) and leave.
Dango spots the serving girl she noticed before at the edge of the crowd, also watching events unfold. Another servant approaches the girl, and they seem to have a serious discussion before going back inside the estate.
The party takes a SHORT REST outside to regroup. Nim and Toulouse volunteer to wait outside with the injured Keerk while the rest of the party pokes around. Kor does some quick reconnaissance.
Eventually, the party circles to the back of the estate, and jumps the fence. From the back yard, we can see a door leading to the ballroom we were in before. There is also a servant’s entrance, as well as a door to what is presumably cellar. Above, there are two balconies overlooking the yard, one of which is standing ajar. Kor, Grig, Brin, and Dango enter the house via the servant’s entrance, and Ikki flies up to the open room.
Ikki discovers the master bedroom. It is stuffy and unused; the musty clothes in the closet appear to belong to a man. She emerges from the bedroom onto the upstairs gallery, and goes snooping through some other rooms. The next room is also a bedroom, this one far more lived-in. There are full bookshelves and a desk, and an unmade bed. There are books on the bedside table about politics and history, letters to friends, etc. This is the bedroom of Isaac Orrin, the youngest sibling.
The rest of the group enters a sort of mudroom downstairs, which is empty. They decide to take advantage of their outfits as disguise; Brin plays an outraged party guest who insists on seeing the Orrins, and Dango is her bodyguard. Kor and Grig swipe some livery from the mudroom and pretend to be Orrin servants attempting to appease the wealthy jerk. They enter the next room, which is the servants sleeping quarters, where they encounter some bewildered servants. The Orrins are clearly gone, and Kor manages to find out that the prince also left safely. He says he’s taking the indignant Brin to the kitchen for tea, and the other servants gladly let them go.
Once in the kitchen, they see a door to the ballroom, as well as a staircase leading to the second floor. Brin and Dango head upstairs, while Kor and Grig enter the ballroom. The ballroom is empty apart from a couple servants cleaning up; the magical teleportation door is gone, but there is a clear demarcation on the floor where it was. One of the servants reveals to Kor that there was a fight between the Orrins and the mayor, which culminated in Holmes punching Wulfra in the face.
Upstairs, Brin locates the library and begins examining books; they cover history, politics, economics, even some fiction, but nothing incriminating or interesting. Kor and Grig join them upstairs, and they meet up with Ikki. Kor breaks into the locked, trapped office, and after a perfectly adequate (terrible) search , no one finds anything of interest, apart from a book on debt collection.
The group discovers two additional bedrooms, presumably Holmes’ and Sable’s. In Sable’s room, Kor finds some jewelry and a small locked box. Inside the box, Brin finds a book containing codes, dates and locations, and the name DEACON, as well as mentions of the Corsica docks; we put a note reading “FUCK YOU!” and the dirty illustrations Dango found previously inside the box and put it back.
The party storms out of the mansion using the cover of Brin as an angry partygoer, collect Nim, Toulouse, Keerk, and return to their rooms at the Midwater Tavern. Before they fall asleep, a note slides through the open window from Prince Caliban with a key, and instructing them to meet him at the Purple Orca the following day.
The party takes a LONG REST. After breakfast the next morning, they take Keerk to a cleric to aid in the healing of his wing, for which Kor pays 200gp. Grig, however, works his magic, and talks the cleric down to only 150gp. When faced with Kor’s (apparent) trust, Grig returns the extra gold to him.
Eventually, the appointed time comes, and the party makes it way to the Purple Orca. Using the key they received, they let themselves in via a private entrance. They walk down a fancy hallway where they meet Reiko, who guides them into the prince’s room. When Caliban joins them, they party recounts the events of the previous night, and shows him the book they found in Sable’s room. Caliban angrily reveals that he believes the Orrin’s arranged his kidnapping solely to secure the Queen as a guest at their party, and that they wanted to frame Mayor Wulfra for it.
The prince is preparing leave Prytania soon, but he needs the party’s help. He was supposedly in town to scout for his honeymoon, but the truth is that he’s on a quest to find the so-called “SHARDS OF MIMNAR”. According to legend, MIMNAR, the creator of the island of Tempris, used his greatsword to split the land into two; in so doing, he shattered his sword, and the pieces were scattered across the world. The individual Shards are said to be profoundly magical, and those people who have collected one have had their lives changed forever. Due to their power, the legend says only a descendent of Mimnar can forge all the Shards together again.
Prince Caliban believes his royal blood makes him a descendent of Mimnar, and he also believes that the Shards are the only thing that can prevent a great darkness from spreading into this world. Since he was a child, he’s had strange visions, and lately they’ve grown much worse; he’s seen the violent destruction of both Valon and Forlon, and the spread of an unknown evil, and he’s desperate to stop it.
Others are seeking the Shards as well. Specifically, the prince has learned of an illustrator/inventor called GUILLHART VONDONNA, who has been researching an instrument that could be used to find the Shards. Apparently, the magic of the Shards is intense, but nearly undetectable by typical means while “dormant”. The prince exchanged only one letter with Guillhart, but they had a friendly rapport. Reiko was sent to to meet him in Prytania on the same night the prince was kidnapped, but Guillhart never showed up to their meeting.
The prince must leave Prytania and return home to his royal duties, but he tells the party he would consider it a personal favor if we could quietly continue this search for him. He offers 1000gp, and asks us to find the Shards before his coronation in less than a year.He also warns the party that he believes there is someone working against him, a rival of sorts, who has already stolen some of his research.
There are apparently at least seven Shards on the continent of Tempris. To get us started, the prince provides Guillhart’s last known address in a part of town called THE CRAGG. Prince Caliban gives us a paper with address. Brin wants to leave and begin the search immediately; Ikki agrees to help the prince as repayment for his help in saving her brother; Kor believes we would be going into this blind to all the players, and suspects the Orrins were helping this mysterious rival.
The prince produces a PROMISE BOX made of iridescent stone, the ceremonial Forlon’dai contract method. The party vows to work to complete the quest, without disclosing the prince’s involvement, before the coronation, for the gold we were given. This oath is magically sealed in the box, and it means that if we should break the terms in any way, the prince will be alerted no matter where he is. Reiko also gives Ikki a sapphire cube that can be used once per day to communicate with her. Once we have completed the quest, the party should make its way to Brasswick and use the name “Allen of Corsica” at the gate to get passed the palace guards.
Finally, Prince Caliban offers Keerk an escort to wherever he’d like to go, and Ikki this he should return to Brasswick with the royal entourage. As the party is leaving, Reiko makes it clear that while the prince may be understanding if we should fail, she will not. She admits to being very worried about the prince.
~ end of session ~
random notes
- The party never investigated the Orrin’s cellar, which clearly means that’s where all the Shards are located. Just putting that out there now. CELLAR FULL OF SECRETS. ?