Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Ballad of the Pigeon God #49: When in Rowand, Hit a Gnome

9 DecDec 1071, On the road back to Eding, Lake Apotheosis, Kingdom of Crosedes
On his way back to Maless Manor, Talis Makolin ran into his compatriots, Mellandria and Echelon.  He tried his best to explain the information they had learned about Count Zabty, as well as one of the weapons that they knew were hidden in White Plume Mountain.  This helped explain why Velandro had gone off on his own to Rowand City to search for the mysterious paladin, and somehow prevent them from questioning what Talis had done for most of the month.  If Talis read their body language right, him roasting chestnuts by the fire at the Chateau d'Echelon for the past three weeks was unacceptable.

They decided against their better judgment and headed to Rowand City to reunite with Velandro.

20 DecDec 1071 - Rowand City Kingdom of Crosdes
The weather had become passable again once the worked their way down to the southwestern corner of Crosedes.  It was cool, overcast, and not a flake of snow was nearby.  Once they reached the city, they found Velandro with a gnome named Dimitri Kobblecraft.  Echelon immediately asked Velandro for the password, and the cleric may have paused a second or two, forcing the cleric to stab him with his trident.  This quickly jogged Velandro's memory he yelled the password and all was well, save a collection of town guards who were alerted to the ruckus. 

Echelon demanded they test Dimitri to ensure he was not a spider person.  Talis tried to be practical, recommending that someone cast some evil detection magics, but Echelon and Velandro insisted that they had to bring him near death to truly test him.  To that end, Velandro hit Dimitri in the head with his mace.  The watchful town guard promptly arrested everyone and threw them in jail.  Velandro tried to give a feeble explanation that the guards simply refused to believe.
Dimitri Kobblecraft - Gnome Cleric
21 DecDec 1071 - Rowand City Kingdom of Crosdes
"Fortunately for Dimitri is a very kind or very stupid person and convinced the guards that we were his friends and they let us go."  - Talis Makolin

While holed up in the city prison, Velandro filled them in on what little progress he had made.  Zabty was mentioned with the same information as the sages in Omsjik.  It seemed that the Crosdean line of the Counts of Rowand decided to actively ignore their past.  No statues, no historic buildings, and a very haphazard write-up of the Ferasean history.  Rowand had a history of being a distant and corrupt domain within the empire, and had many gaps in rulership. 

While investigating Zabty, Velandro encountered Dimitri, a gnome cleric from Masgoth, who favored legends and conspiracies.   Dimitri introduced himself with facts about "The Dread Lord" that the group already knew, so Velandro and him traded tales.  At this point, any allies against the King of Crosedes and the impending apocalypse would be a good thing. 

Dimitri and Mell left the violent boys to go shopping.  Shopping was uneventful, but on the way back to the inn, some catastrophe happened at a grain mill in the city limits and an avalanche of grain half buried to duo (completely buried the gnome).

After using the help of bystanders to escape the grain, a strange brown-skinned man approached them.  He introduced himself as Petit-Singh and offered them dinner in return for a few minutes to here of an adventuring opportunity.

They grabbed the others for dinner, which, after scouting the location, everything appeared to be legitimate. Petit-Singh said he was acting for Lady Genevieve de Sephora, mother of Prince Etienne of Nouvelle Avennion in the Principalities of Emron.   The Prince had recently died and his mother was convinced that he could be brought back. 

The heroes would normally be doubtful of such crazy talk, but Singh (a) offered an obscene amount of gold to help  and (b) Mellandria had a delirious look of glee on her face, knowing quite well that it could be done.

4 UnDec, 1072  - Port of Golgonoza, Principality of Appresca
It took two weeks of travel through the Gnomish Kingdoms of Masgoth to get on a ship and sail to the Principalities of Emron.... via the port city of Golgonoza.

12 UnDec1072  -- Estate of Genevive de Sephora, Principality of Nouvelle Avennio
While the hills of the Gnomish Kingdoms were tough to travel, the hills turned to mountains that rivaled Skyforge and back down into rolling foothills in Nouvelle Avennio.  Another week of travel put them at the front gate of the palace of Genevive de Sephora.

GM Notes: The great search for Count Zabty seems to be going nowhere... and the lure of gold far away from the possibly intrigue of the King was enough for our heroes to drop everything and travel to one of the Principalities in Emron, and take a roundabout way of doing it. 

It's hard to believe that a modern fantasy country like Crosdes doesn't have a direct route from its capital and the largest city in it's south, but the Gnomish Kingdom take up a large swath of the territory, and they only wish trade routes that start/terminate with them, and none that travel through.  With future cooperation, a new road could shave a two days' ride off the journey... or even a direct route into the Principalities.

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