CAMPAIGN: The Unburning (D&D5e)

[Newbie Newtype]

Normin spends the evening disrobed and working only wearing a very modest one piece undergarment and his hat, but not without practical reason, of course: he spends time at a desk squeezing out the remaining damp fluids of the alchemy concoction into a bowl.

He prods a stick into the liquid, stirring it slightly. As of right now there is nothing he can do to separate the mixture into its individual components, but something about the idea strikes him- like he is supposed to know more. As he stirs with the stick, its wooden composition is thought to be silver in his mind. The more his idle tinkering continues, the more the elderly gnome feels as though his ideas are natural and instinct.

He is starting to recall transmutation.

His next morning is spent finishing the transfer of spells that he had borrowed from the school, adding to his timid collection he has already. He has not made any agenda besides otherwise.

[Bob the Hamster]

Night passes

If anybody missed doing anything they wanted to last night, we can do it in a flashback

The sun rises over the city of Great Bakak on the day of 19-Midwinter. It is a rare cool day, with winds blowing down from the mountain-slopes.

Each member of the Guild of Arcane Firefighters wakes up in their own way, and at their own time.

Sharn

Underneath Sharn's bunk is a worn leather backpack. If she bothers to open it and look inside, she will discover:


50 silver
35 doses of Lesser Polymorph - ingested
10 doses of Doomcap - ingested
1 dose of Orgyflower - ingested
1 dose of Refined Hothead - inhaled
1 dose of a thick brown potion you don't recognize
1 dose of a green liquid you don't recognize
1 vial of clear liquid you don't recognize with an applicator sponge on one end

A note that reads "You have made a friend of the Rottenmead Sisters. If you ever need us, send a message by way of Jack Boots -- Silva"


Neither Silva nor Elsinore are anywhere to be seen. They must have taken their leave of the Firefighter's Headquarters sometime during the night.

Cece

Cece dreams in the bunk adjacent to Sharn's. The smell of barbecue sauce is noticeable.

Caldon

Can we have a dream about Caldon's wife and child? I'd like to know more about them in case I can work them into the story in the future

Normin

Normin has been working. In examining the residue of the green liquid he recovered from his hat and clothes, he learned that its purpose is to temporarily and partially paralyze anyone who ingests it. Skin contact seems harmless. The amount he recovered is probably not enough to administer a full dose.

Outside Headquarters

Provincial Pilsbury is knocking on the front door of the Guild Headquarters.

He seems cheerful and patient, and does not seem upset that nobody immediately answers his knock. He has not tried the knob yet.

[Newbie Newtype]

Soon after Normin rediscovers memories of transmutating liquids.. he sniffs.

Oh, how could he have been dense this whole time! His observation from an alchemist's standpoint are not useful to determine the contents as his memories remain shrouded, but the tingling sensation as the scent bristles his nose hairs prompts familiarity: whatever is used in this mixture is the same as in illegal brews popular among drunkards that wish to destroy themselves with great efficiency.

But for what purpose? Was it the arsonist's tool to solve impediments, something that required being put to flame, did it come from a room where an experiment went awry causing the building to combust, or is it simply coincidence from an unrelated event and it is simply chaos showing all extremes from a single isolation. Surely the answers will come without question.

[Spoonweaver]

Sharn has always found that she sleeps well when heavily dosed with lazy leaf. Not half as well as when she mixed lesser polymorph and orgyflower, but she always woke up so sore the next day when she did that.
She could feel the lingering affects of the lazy leaf still drifting around in her body. She slinked around her bunk, not venturing even a full stride away. Her mind raced as she discovered the contents of the backpack under her bunk. A silent cackle erupted from deep within her.
Sharn lit a fresh dose of lazyleaf with a large smile across her face. She had clearly made the right decision when she chose to join this fire battling group. Sharn planned to spend as much of this day in her bed as she possibly could.

[Gizmog]

Bright, bright, terribly bright! These thin, non-metallic walls do so little to keep out the sun. Cece pulls the covers up over her pointed ears, the thin, non-metallic blanket doing nothing to silence the hustle and bustle of morning in the firehouse. It hasn't even been a day, and she already misses home.

Home, with the little puddles that never seemed to dry and avoided any attempts at being absorbed. With the walls that kept the sunlight out and the strange silvery torchlight in. That strange silvery torchlight that only attracted owls and which turned everything it touched to an ashen shade of gray. Everything except the walls of the dumpster. Cece still often wondered what the University had been teaching that week.

As Cece fell into sleep, she found herself surrounded by strange gray men, surrounded by owls, and though there was no sign of fire she was beginning to smell smoke.

[Mogri]

It's the same dream he's had most nights for the past few months. He returns home at the end of the day, and when he opens the door to the Morgensen estate, he finds Lord Vargas entertaining company.

"Caldon Morgensen," he bristles. "What are you doing here?"

At that moment, Caldon remembers that House Vargas seized the estate weeks ago. He leaves without a word, jogging back to the street. Rachel is there, holding Julian in one arm and a tin cup in another.

"Rachel! What are you doing?" Caldon asks.

She smiles. "Lady Fairmond gave me five gold pieces. Isn't that wonderful?"

Caldon's heart sinks into his stomach. "We are not beggars!"

The argument is cut short as Emily, Caldon's sister, walks up and scoops all the coins out of Rachel's cup. Emily flashes a patronizing smile and turns to walk away.

"You can't--" Caldon moves to chase Emily, but he stumbles on a loose cobblestone and falls into a puddle of mud. He finds that he is unable to free himself from the unusually sticky mud.

"Caldon? I can't raise Julian alone!" cries Rachel.

"Can't you do any better, little brother?" croons Emily.

The mud rushes into Caldon's mouth and nostrils. He feels himself suffocate, and just then--

[Bob the Hamster]

Caldon

Someone is rapping gently on the door of Caldon's apartment. Then a key rattles in the lock, and as the front door opens, a voice calls out "Mister Moooorgensen! Are you Deeeecent? I'm showing the apartment again!"

It is definitely Ms Delibes Pitt, Lord Fairmond's real-estate solicitor. She keeps doing this no matter how many times Caldon has told her it is not appropriate.

Mogri, can you describe Ms Pitt?

After Mogri has described her, anyone is welcome to jump in and play her if they wish. Her motivation is to sell this fabulous trendy apartment for Lord Fairmond-- in spite of the fact that one of Lord Fairmond's... friends? Drinking buddies? is squatting here.

Cece

Cece sleeps, dreaming of strange gray men and owls and smoke...

The smoke smells less like the building fire, and more like... lazyleaf...

Sharn

Sharn smokes. Somebody is still knocking on the front door. Does she care?

Normin

Can hear the knocking too. Where is Normin in the headquarters right now?

Ursula had been hanging around all night downstairs, reading the manual-scroll for the Alarmstones in the back room. She left headquarters just before sunrise. Said something about taking her kid to school.

[Mogri]

Of course Caldon is decent -- he's been as decent as he'll get today for hours now. He slams a mostly-empty tankard on the table as the cloying half-elf barges into the Morgensen estate without waiting for his response.

"Miss Pitt. The estate is not an apartment, and if you were to sell it for an apartment's price, eight generations of Morgensens will find a way to make you regret it from beyond the grave."

Delibes scrunches her nose in a way that would probably look cute to anyone who didn't know better. "Oh, my. You don't mean to say the house is haunted? Lord Fairmond didn't mention anything of that sort."

"It is also not a house. I understand you have no experience living on a property such as this, but it is your business to know the distinction."

If Delibes comprehended the criticism, she doesn't let it show. She busies herself tidying up messes real and imagined. As she takes Caldon's tankard quite nearly out of his hands, he considers protesting but decides it's not worth it for the remaining half an ounce.

"Miss Pitt, as usual, I must ask you to leave. Your intrusion here is unwelcome, and your dress is an eyesore. I'm making excellent headway in my campaign to have the High-Mayor declare that fabric color illegal."

[Newbie Newtype]

Normin is surprisingly not bothered by the knocking, but a quick turn to the stairs finds him what does him a bother: the stairs. As he struggles to hurry in his age and keeping himself from toppling down with a cane, he yells out, "Somebody favor me and answer that more quickly than I!"

If, unfortunately, nobody heeds the call and answers first, he'll be at the door when he can.

[BMR]

Kailyn wakes, stretches out and gets ready for the day. He does his morning prayers, grabs a quick bite to eat, feeds the Commander, and heads out.

Then, he remembers something, heads back, gets properly dressed this time, and heads out once more. His armor ready, his clothes fabulous, and his smile dazzling, he heads off on his jaunty little way to the headquarters, completely and utterly oblivious to the events the previous day.

[Bob the Hamster]

Caldon

"Oh, Mister Morgensen! You are such a kidder!"

She dismisses his gruff insult as if it had been a joking compliment.

"The clients will be here in just a few minutes, I don't suppose you have somewhere to be right now, do you? I know you have some sort of family history with this place, but really, Lord Fairmond wants this place sold, and..."

She cups one hand and whispers as if confiding a secret

"The woman I showed through here last week said you were 'off-putting'! I don't like to gossip, but she may have used the word 'glowering'"

Normin

Nobody gets to the door before Normin, in fact the whole headquarters is pretty quiet and empty. Ursula is gone, Silva and Elsinore are nowhere to be seen, and only a lazyleaf cloud hints at life in the bunk-room where Sharn and Cece have been sleeping.

None of the other firefighters have arrived yet.

When Normin opens the door, there is Provincial Pilsbury, smiling wide, blonde moustache waxed, bald forehead gleaming.

"I brought breakfast for Lady Kari's finest!" he says, hefting an enormous bucket covered with a steaming towel. It smells like sausages.

"She heard about your good work yesterday-- and more importantly, Her Ladyship the High-Mayor heard about it. I'm to tell you she wants a meeting with the Guild of Arcane Firefighters this morning"

Kailyn

As Kailyn leaves his apartment the second time, properly clad, something out-of-order catches his eye.

Commander Bibbles has not yet emerged from his little nest of shredded cloth and paper.

The leaf of Bakak-Cabbage and the little heap of locally sourced grains are undisturbed on the feeding-plate where Kailyn left them.

Should he choose to investigate further;

The cage was latched perfectly, but Commander Bibbles is not there! The little bit of soft fur protruding from the nest is not the commander! Kailyn can recognize the similarly colored bundle of fur as being the collar of one of his fine jackets, apparently ripped off and crumpled up to commit this heinous deception. (this is the same perception check you failed last night)

[BMR]

Perfidy! Treachery! And other assorted and related adjectives! Kailyn searches the area for any clues (despite having pretty much zero idea as to what he's doing and what he's looking for), trying to uncover anything as to the whereabouts of the Commander. He also grabs the tuft of treachery, giving it a look to see if there's anything suspicious about it, other than it not being Commander Bibbles.

Should he not find anything, he'll rush out to find that painter... what's-his-name... with the brush. It'll come to him eventually.

[Newbie Newtype]

"Hmm hm hm," he muffles, waving an arm to where the platter can be delivered. He focuses on the subject of noble invitation, "Ill tidings for modesty this morrow. Very well. How urgent is our arrival? The firefighters are cursed never to be a singularity, as you can see. A shame for the wurst waiting cold for the others' return."

[Spoonweaver]

The smell of sausage hits Sharn's nose. There was something about lazyleaf that made her really hungry when she smoked it. She went for the food she squirreled away at first, but then she noticed the smell wasn't coming from her day old sausages but from somewhere else. It would ruin her plan to stay in bed, but she decided it a quick trip to possibly gain some good food might be worth it. Then she would return to her bed once she was well fed.
Sharn clutched the silver she had gotten last night as she ventured out of bed. She could eat like a king today, and no one could stop her. A greedy expression crawled across her face as she exited the bunk room. After finding that hat guy, the sausage man, and the platter of sausage being delivered, Sharn was delighted to see that her meals might yet again be free today.
Sharn made no attempts to greet the people in the room as she crept her way towards the sausages.

[Bob the Hamster]

Kailyn

The latch on the cage is closed, and there is no sign of tampering.

Smushed underneath the cage, Kailyn finds a fragment of yesterday's Bakak Cabbage leaf, only slightly wilted, as if someone had tucked it under there to hide the fact that it had never been finished.

The piece of fur is almost exactly the same color as the fur on Commander Bibbles's back.

In his closet, Kailyn finds the coat that it was torn from. The seams at the collar look like they were cut with a knife and then ripped off the rest of the way. Nothing else is amiss in or around the closet... except... in the vandalized coat's inner pocket is a scrap of paper from Kailyn's own stationery pad. It has a single large letter scrawled in the middle of it



Normin and Sharn

"Helloo!" says Provincial with a smile, letting Sharn take the bucket from him.

The bucket is bigger and heavier than the individual sausage buckets they had all recieved yesterday. Under the towel, Sharn finds many small sausages of two different kinds arranged in a spiral pattern, resting on a bed of many layers of pancakes that have already been liberally drenched in sweet cactus syrup.

Provincial turns his attention back to Normin.

"I expect her Ladyship the Mayor will want to see you before noon. I don't rightly know if she wants to see all of you, or just a representative."

"Lady Kari also asked if you had any success getting the Alarmstones set up yet."