Campaign Journal #6- Men About Town

For the first time since the initial adventure in the campaign the party is back in town, having arrived at Bowerstone early in the morning after traveling through the night. Because of real world obligations Al’londia, Mgabwe, and Henri would not be with us, leaving the party of Glee, Romulus, and Lela alone to get into all sorts of trouble. The entire adventure was spent in the town; making contacts, setting up future work engagements, buying and selling, and nearly blinding half of the town’s residents.

Lela had her scheduled debut performance at the Bandit Mask the evening that they arrived. After getting some rest she headed over to the place and found that she was the opening act for someone named Vinegar Bend, a lute player who seemed to have a following in the region. Prior to the performance Lela had purchased a new pearl buttoned fancy outfit from the Silver Needle, a high end clothing shop in town. Originally hesitant to spend the money (450gp), she returned and bought the outfit after attempted bullying of the shopkeeper on the part of Romulus. It did nothing to lower the price. Back at the tavern the crowd seemed lively and Lela launched into her distinctive brand of storytelling whistling, recounting the recent saga of the medusas without words.
An excellent roll on her Perform (a 33) got the crowd on her side, though their favorable feelings were somewhat short lived. Prior to the performance Lela had mentioned that she wanted to have a fire source on stage with her, I suggested a small bronze brazier. (Normally I would at least make her pay for the item, but I saw where this was going and wanted it to happen.) At the conclusion of her set she swirled around her cape and cast Pyrotechnics for a memorable finale, choosing the fireworks option. Lela has only cast the spell once before and is not all that familiar with it’s effects, so she was somewhat unaware of just what would happen. She cast the spell and the fire sprang to life, launching blinding rockets all over the smallish tavern. With the majority of the crowd blinded (including young Fiona who was hiding inside the cloak of Romulus) they seemed like a vulnerable bunch, so Romulus took advantage and picked some pockets. Stunned, the crowd slowly came too and gave Lela a nice ovation. Clearly, the hardy folk of Bowerstone appreciate a good show. They stuck around for the performance of the cantankerous Vinegar Bend (who does, in fact, smell of vinegar) who is certainly a crowd favorite. Lela was paid (not much, 15gp) for her work and offered another night at the place.

After leaving the tavern Lela was approached by a woman named Mrs. Goldborn, a member of the prestigious noble family in town. She said that she was walking by and heard Lela’s whistling and was very impressed with it. As it turns out her husband is quite a whistling aficionado and Lela was offered a job to perform the following week at his 50th birthday celebration in Bowerstone. Lela asked for 150 gp to which the rich noblewoman quickly agreed to. Lela is quite the working bard.

Al’londia is currently a statue after her last run in with the medusa, so not much use to the party. Hoping to reverse the condition they visited the church of Boccob in the center of town. The church is as much a library and center for learning as a holy institution, however the uppity attitude of the place rubbed them the wrong way. Especially Romulus who seemed on the verge of stabbing one of the church elders. They were given the option of paying a one time fee to break the enchantment on Al’londia, or they could pay a 1000gp and become members of the place and get a reduced price on all magical services as well as access to the church’s many tomes and esoteric knowledge. After weighing both options they chose neither, opting to keep their money and their stoned friend.

Returning to Lord Monty for payment they presented him with the head of the prisoner from The Cage, he inspected it and gave them 1200 gp as promised. The party seems to have taken to Lord Monty, seeing something in the shady nobleman that appeals to their collective sense of wrong doing and opportunity. Naturally curious, Lord Monty asked about the child that they were carrying around. They certainly were not gone long enough for Lela to have given birth, he noted, so where did they find this child? Surprisingly they were straight forward with him, telling the story of how young Fiona was found inside the prison. Intrigued he offered them 500 gp for the child, they declined. He upped it to 750 gp and they seriously considered the offer, saying that they would pay him a visit soon. Monty also offered them a place to stay, he has a nice cottage in town available for 100gp a week. They need to not stay in such a place of ill repute as the Bandit Mask. They accepted and the party set up shop in the home; resulting in a bizarre domestic situation of Mgabwe and Henri taking care of the child while the statue of Al’londia looks on. Weird. Before leaving they also told Lord Monty to keep them in mind for any sort of work, should he hear of anything that suits their style.

Throughout the adventure Glee was haunted by the sounds of the local do-wop group, the very popular Dockside Boys. Fronted by the dreamy Swooner, Simon Schooner the Dockside Boys are a four piece outfit known throughout the town. For some reason Glee bears an intense hatred of them. Repeatedly Glee would make Listen checks, frequently resulting in her hearing the bass voices of the group carrying through the night air. Not wanting to attack them, the impish gnome would don her creepiest gear and get right in their faces, hoping to at least unnerve them into failure. No such luck. At one point she was supported by Lela (who sort of challenged them to a musical battle) and Romulus (who tumbled around them as a distraction, to no avail).

Next on the agenda was selling off some excess gear and perhaps some purchases. They went to the most well known weapon shop in town, Up In Arms. Owned by a survivalist nut orc named Percy, the shop is accessible by a rope ladder and is lifted off the ground by a set of wooden stilts. The stilts are protection for the high water that Percy is certain that is going to come one day and sweep away all of town, except for his shop. Percy has a wide selection of arms and armor and a story to go along with each. That spear over there? It pierced the heart of the legendary goblin king, Gob Noblin. This armor? Survived a death ray from Bargle the Mad. When buying from the PC’s he demanded stories of the items sold to him, so Lela was sort of happy to tell him of Gargoyle the Giant and his wife Big Helda, the wielders of a magical shield and flail. Percy seemed eager to believe it all and scribbled it down on the tag of his newly purchased items. They got some prices on weapons but did not buy anything. They did buy some potions next store from Strange Brew, the local potions dealer.

While looking for work they came across the Bowerstone Adventure Company, recommended to them by Lord Monty. Entering into the very large building they learned about the company from the clerk, Fellin Darkeye. Founded by the legendary adventurer Barleycorn the Brave, the Bowerstone Adventure Company is the world’s first adventure tourism company. For very large sums of money the company takes wealthy nobles on exciting and dangerous adventures all around the globe. The lobby of the building was filled with posters of some popular destinations available for tourism; the Singing Caves of Amun-Sul, the Chasm of Time, the Frozen Wastes of the Northern Mount, etc…Fellin told the party that they were hiring, and if they were interested he could run them through the test dungeon to see if they are BAC material. The dungeon would test their ability not only to survive a dangerous dungeon, but also protect the nobles, and explain the environment and enrich the experience for the paying customers. The party declined for the time being, though Lela in particular seemed interested in escorting rich nobles into dangerous places with little supervision.

The party also spent some time trying to find some information on the background of Fiona, but the search turned up fruitless. However, while lunching at the high class Lighthouse they were approached by a cloaked figure with long blond hair and dressed mainly in white. He introduced himself as Mr. Autumn, a representative of the DuChamp family. He was upfront with the group and said that as newcomers to the area they were very valuable since they had no real allegiances in the region. He then explained how the rival Coleridge Clan had spies inside of their army and city, he wished the PC’s to find out who they were and how they were communicating. If possible he would like the names of people, rather than their heads. Though heads are acceptable as well. For each name that they provide and can be verified as spies he will pay the party 10,000 gp. How they wish to go about this is up to them. Autumn also gave them a magical means of contacting him, a wooden box that seemingly has the power to transport paper. Finished with his offer he paid for the meal and took his leave. The party seemed intrigued by it all.

Hungry for blood and combat the three of them were going to venture back to the mountains to see if they could locate the Medusa That Was Not Looted. As they began to set out they realized that between the three of them they had virtually no woodland or tracking skills and decided to stay in town until the rest of the party was ready to go as well.