Progress: I figured out how to smelt that alloy — bronze and electrum. Got a larger chunk of caster’s quartz, cast the parts, and spent days engraving them all. The little prototype is... functional!
Yet to be done: A larger version, a more autonomus spell.
The prototype — I’ve named Curiosity, Currie for short — is about the size of a child. I can tell it to do a task (like “clean this table” in the mannor) and it does so without explicit instructions (eg, dust the top, cobweb the interior, wipe down, etc etc). It’s not especially strong, but it’s definitely sturdier than a normal Unseen Servant. (The runework for that spell... it’s a good thing I’m surrounded by mages.)
The mechanics work. I know how I’m building this; making that alloy was a big step (I don’t remember what the Lantan word is, but I’ve been calling it kuanoform). Now I need to work on making this thing more resillient. That will partially come with scaling it up, but there’s more smelting in my future, I can feel it. I also need to work more on the actual magic component. I’ve got that Balthazar Stonespeaker book and it’s pretty detailed, just need to figure out how to apply it.
...I might want to find a better way than just engraving things onto metal. Or just find some way to better preserve them? We’ll see how complex this gets. Going to work more on the minis; I can scrap most of them, reforge and enchant.
Search for Flune part 2. Time to hunt down some Xans.
We interrogated one of the captured kenku but got stuck when they wouldn’t tell us where the base was. I called Mino (and inadvertently taught the kenku the whistle) and got some pointers, but mostly we just had to wade through the sewers. Really made me wish I had David’s waterproofed gardener stuff. Thank you Luna for the bathroom area.
The marks are all yellow chalk on the walls — if it weren’t for Sig, we wouldn’tve seen them. Came across some gazers. Fuck those bastards. They took out Smooch, which was horribly sad, but I think I heard Luna almost call out for... Rocco. Rocco was long gone before Luna arrived. After this is all over, I’ll have to take her aside and talk about that.
Found the base and were making our way in when the guy we freed yesterday, Renaer, came up. Pretty good with a rapier. We were clearing the goblin guards at the time, which just felt bad. Very glad we had another hand to fight whatever crawled up out of that toilet — also had some fun telling Luna how little we know about that latrine shaft in the front.
The showdown in the big base was... terrifying. I didn’t even know half-orcs could cast magic, but that mage nearly killed us all. The weird purple thing... it was just... so... disturbing, in a way I can’t really place. Luna tells me it was an Illithid. The little brain it had sitting next to it, though, that’s what still makes me afraid. Apparently they eat brains and take control of the body. Not the best thing to learn once I woke up.
Simon was looking pretty unhinged, but at least he got some bloody vengence. Luna gets spooky when she’s mad. Hiss was a little disconcerting just in how little he reacted. Sig and the lads were easier to heal, at least. I gave out the rest of my potions and just took a rest for a while.
We exited through some halfling’s basement. Poor folks, didn’t even know. The guard are going to go fix things up, hopefully. We stopped by the Library (and got some healing from Anthony and a friendly patron) before going to find Volo — in the goddamned Yawning Portal.
The reunion was very sweet and Volo promised us all a copy of his next books. Signed, but there’s only so much I was going to press the man on. He also gave us a mannor in the North Ward, and by us I mean that I signed for it. I’ve got a mannor in the North Ward. Calling it a fixer-upper is generous, but still. I have a mannor in the North Ward. Apparently it’s not far from Luna’s house, too. Almost makes me want to track down my brother.
It is... haunted. There is a spectral bartender. We’re thinking about opening the first floor as a bar. David asked Song of the Sealark, his sweetheart the eladrin who came with him, to make a teleportation circle. She’s a damn good spellcaster. It’s not that far of a walk, but it’s about the secrecy.
Maybe sometime later we’ll get a chance to take a peek into what’s going on, all this talk about some large treasure and a magic stone. Right now I think I’m going to keep working.
Got a... weird letter, from the Zhents no less, saying to check for pests? We haven’t had any issues since the rustbugs all the way back in 1491, way before any of us, and I also got the feeling that wasn’t what they were talking about. Osha said that there had been a new hole in the cavein on the first floor, and it turns out that some Xanathar goblins had managed to break in.
Four goblins, two trolls. There’s a whole cave system less than 200ft from where we sleep. Apparently the caves go all the way to Skullport. Luna set an alarm at the mouth of the river and then Arcane Locked a door at the enterance to the Murmur. One of the goblins was wearing a library shirt — who even knows who long they were walking around in here.
Then Luna got a message from the current Blackstaff who told us to meet her at our nearest convenience. We took a break first (Simon had already begun resummoning Comet, and truly, I can’t blame him) and told Tamworth (and Anthony) about what had happened.
Walking through the Castle Ward was strange. It felt like I was seeing double, and once I nearly turned onto the Street of the Sword. It makes sense that Simon would nearly lead us to his own home like that, but I’ve rarely been here. My group never really fought in the Fields of Triumph. Going into the Blackstaff Tower was even stranger. The people there looked at us like they knew who we were — I imagine they’d heard of Luna, and of course they’d heard of Simon, but it’s still hard for me to remember that I hold a respected and relatively public position. I was asked to name the season, for Maker’s sake.
We met the Blackstaff. Personally. To make this day even stranger, she then introduced us to Volothamp Geddarm. He spoke to us about a missing friend of his, described as “very beautiful” and a strawberry blonde. Had been missing for two days now, last seen in — of all places — The Skewered Dragon. I haven’t thought about that place in ages.
It was exactly the same as when I’d last been: dingy and full of bad ale. Luna and I talked to the barkeep, got some info. Simon had stayed out (he sticks out like a sore thumb, little rich boy from the Castle Ward) but eventually wandered in with a big stab wound in his side, like that made him hot shit. He ordered some wine, because of course. Then some drunk spoke up, asked for ‘more drunk’ in exchange for information. I ordered him some of the strong cheap stuff, Hiss ended up decking the guy instead. The barkeep agreed that the guy was too sloshed and Luna levitated him out. (I chugged the entire “pint” — honestly, not that bad)
We took him home, then found the building where the Zhents were holed up, but it looks like the Xanathar people found them first. (Turns out the two had been feuding again, so I suppose that’s why we got the tip off letter from the Zhents about Xanathar goblins in the Library.) We ended up fighting them. Didn’t find Volo’s friend, but we did find the younger Neverember, the guy who tried to walk him home. They apparently look very similar. Neverember insisted in helping us find Volo’s friend, but it was late. We tossed the Xanathar kenku that we’d captured into the cells and told Renaer to swing by the Library tomorrow.
