FR: Quest for the Forgotten Key IC (Sequoia)

[mauslin]

Fatha
Chuckling to herself at her companions' antics, Fatha addresses the hostess.

Umm, does it cost extra to house my mule? If one of the stable-boys could give him a good feed and a rubdown, I'd be appreciative.
Also, could I trouble you for a piece of paper and something to write with?

[The Great Skenardo]

Teb Hokk
Teb chuckles to himself, and adjusts his grip as he continues to climb the stairs towards the room.
"So...headin' to the room, right?"

[Ozzy_G]

Yeah... leh me wak meselve. Ark stumbles out of Teb's arms and startes to sway drunkenly up the stairs.

[knewsom]

The halfling nodded.

"Pay the stable boy 1 gold tomorrow, he'll take care of everything. You'll find stationary and a pen at the writing desk in your room."

When you finally manage your way up the stairs to the room you find it to be rather nice for the price, there's even oil lamps, and a rug on the floor. In the writing desk is indeed as promised, stationary and a pen. Attached is a small washroom with a cistern half full of water, a bucket, a primitive toilet, a primitive stove, a sink, a tin bathtub, and towells. Ark and Teb find the balcony without trouble, and they both manage to fit on it fine for sleeping, head to toe. The view is of the docks and the wyvern-water, and the sound of creaking ropes once again can be heard with the door to the balcony open.

[The Great Skenardo]

Teb Hokk
Teb looks around the room in astonishment.
"If yer gonna make a room this big, why not jus' sleep outside? It don't make no sense!" He pokes around the various compartments, puzzling over some of the facilities in the bathroom, before finally working his wya over to balcony. He stamps on the surface one or twice, testing its strength.

[mauslin]

Fatha
Fatha sits down at desk, and starts writing down the relevant details of the quest. What she knows about the Drawer of Forgetting, the name and location of her employer, and so on.

[Ozzy_G]

Ark slumps on the balcony floor. It betta no rain, he slurs, before dozing off. The fact that he's lying on hard stone doesn't seem to bother him.

[The Great Skenardo]

Teb Hokk
Teb smiles in a smug sort of way. He lumbers over to Ark's discarded backpack and begins rummaging through it. Finally, he straightens up, holding Ark's blanket. Standing over Ark's slumbering form, Teb puzzles about the best way to put a blanket on someone sleeping for a minute, but then settles for draping it about his shoulders, and tugging the overlap of his cloak to cover him a little more.
"Heh. You ain't a man yet." Teb murmurs. Finally, Teb takes a seat on the stone, unlooping the gigantic steel axe from his back and setting it to one side as he lies down next to Ark.

Looking up at the overcast dusk, Teb allows a smile of contentment to cross his face as he drifts off to sleep, nothing above him but the sky.

[mauslin]

Fatha
Finally satisfied with her work, Fatha put down her pen.

She had been quite disturbed by the loss of memories that morning. What if it happened again tonight? What if it caused everyone to forget what they were doing entirely?
She felt a little silly taking the extra precaution, when everybody else seemed unconcerned. But, she felt a little easier having done so; besides, it wasn't any sillier then getting drunk, spending 30 gold on a room, and then sleeping on the balcony.

She stood up and started towards a bed, but then paused with a guilty look on her face. How long had it been since she last wrote home? She returned to the desk sheepishly, and started writing a letter to her parents.

[dgray]

Svanna walked over to one of the beds. laid her bow down next to the head of the bed. took her sword out of its sheath and laid it on the bed as she crawled into it.

The bed was surprisingly comfortable and reminded her of home. She thought to herself how long had it been since she slept in her own bed in her family home? With thoughts of fencing with her Father dancing through her mind she doozed off into a deep sleep.

[knewsom]

You all dozed off easily, happy to be so comfortable at last.

A gentle breeze wafted through the door to the balcony where teb and ark were snoring softly, and you all snuggled a little tighter under your blankets.

Spoiler

Show

I'll need listen checks from everyone please at -8 for being asleep, and will saves as well.

[knewsom]

The next morning, you awake at around 10AM to the sound of commerce flowing in like warm molasses through the balcony door. The smell of fresh fish is wafting in as well, off the newly returned boats that regularly fish the wyvernwater. Men and women are calling out below, selling their wares, carts rattle by, a dog is barking, and someone is throwing a beligerent drunk out of a tavern. Everyone remembers everything about the drawer, with the exception of Chanda and Teb. Everything seems normal for a moment, as you stretch and slowly start to rejoin the land of the living, but wait - was that where you put your bag? Why is it left open? You KNOW you closed it, but there it is - open. Looking around, you notice that the others are in a similar situation. Yet oddly, nothing seems to be missing. At least, at first. Ark notices that his map has mysteriously reappeared on the writing desk, and that a sheet or two of paper are missing, along with some ink, some of which has been spilled in a few drops on the desk - it's mostly dry now, telling you that it must have been used hours ago. Fatha gets a sinking feeling about all this, and quickly checks her money pouch to find all her money there, but... the letter she wrote to herself, gone, and not on the table either.

[Ozzy_G]

Ark tries to get up, but falls over, his head swimming. Ugghhh...
Lying on the floor, he looks around the room. Great. Someone's made a copy of the map, so they can get their first. His eyes narrow suspiciously. Although... are they really so sloppy as to not bring their own paper? And to leave blatant evidence that they've been here? Since we were all asleep, they could put everything back... Either they were in a rush, or they wanted us to know they were here.

[The Great Skenardo]

Teb Hokk
Teb grunts and stretches his burly arms as he sits up, apparently still enjoying the sleepy transition between dreaming and being awake. He looks with puzzlement, however, at his knapsack. Apparently someone had taken the unsavory task of rifling through a barbarian's personal effects. Teb shuffles over to the sack, floorboards creaking softly beneath his weight. Looking around, he grumbles
"If'n you guys wanted somethin', you shoulda just asked, stead of going through my stuff." With Ill-temper, Teb gathers up the scattered contents of the pack and retrieves his axe and magic hands. He pats his coinpurse with one hand. He'd have to count those later.

[Ozzy_G]

Ark starts to gather up his stuff, scrolls and potion bottles. It wasn't any of us, says Ark... though he does give the others a suspicious glance. See, Teb, everyone's stuff's been gone through. Someone came in here in the night.

[The Great Skenardo]

Teb Hokk
"Oh." Teb adopts the stolid expression of someone waiting for the next thought to arrive.
"Who was it?"

[Ozzy_G]

That's a very good question, Teb, says Ark, frowning. As I said, it may be someone who knows what we're doing, and wants the key for themselves, and is either incompetent or in a rush. He starts to pace about. It's also possible that they're someone who believes that we're after something more valuable. It is possible that the whole thing is a bluff of some sort, which I suspect is what's going on, as I don't see why they didn't kill us in our sleep. But the most worrying possibility is that someone's playing with us. It could well be that the old Elven wizard did not tell us exactly what's going on. It could also be... he pauses, as if he was about to something but decided against it. Anyway, there are possibilities but no certainty until we have discovered more.
He turns back to the others. Are we all sure that nothing was taken?

[The Great Skenardo]

Teb
Teb's eye sort of glaze over as Ark talks about strategies and plots and possibilities, but Ark's last question catches his wandering attention.
"Uh...Got my axe. Got my hands. Got the ring, and the cloth thingy...Got my pouch..." He holds up the coinpurse, but then frowns. Taking it in the palm of his hand, he spills out its contents. There are a lot of coins. Most are silver and copper, but also some gold and a disc or two of platinum. Teb sinks into a squat and begins counting out pieces.
'One, two, t'ree, four, five..."

[mauslin]

Fatha

Well, I haven't looked through all my belongings, but I am missing one thing.
If you recall, last morning, when we woke up, all of us except Chandra had forgotten about the Drawer of Forgetting.

I was worried about forgetting again, so I wrote myself a note about it, just in case. I put it in my money pouch last night, before going to bed; it's not in there this morning.

Is anyone else missing anything?

[Ozzy_G]

Hmmm... Ark continues to pace about. Which reinforces the hypothesis that it was someone with an interest in the Drawer of Forgetting. Probably someone who is trying to get the key themselves. Perhaps they are worried they too will forget what they're doing, or perhaps they want a description of the effects for research purposes. Whoever did this must have been reasonably stealthy, but not a common thief, or we'd be dead. Someone with a certain level of decency.
Unless of course...

[The Great Skenardo]

After a little while, Teb sits back on his haunches, a puzzled expression on his face.
"Nothin's gone...but I got nineteen more coins than I did yesterday, an' all of 'em are gold-colored."

[Ozzy_G]

Ark sighs. They were given to you by that Wizard. Which reminds me. You guys all owe me 6 gold each for the room.

[The Great Skenardo]

Teb Hokk
Teb blinks. "Huh? Oh yeah...There was that elf guy. But why did he give us money?" Teb looks down at his gauntleted hands. "Hey, he gave me these magic hands too, didn't he? An' this ring. Nice guy. We oughta visit 'gain sometime."
Teb shrugs and counts out six golden coins. When it came to money, Ark usually knew what he was talking about, and Teb knew he'd just get confused if he asked why.

[dgray]

After looking through her belongings Svanna stands up" Every thing appears to be in my bag as well"
She hands 6 gold to Ark. "Hows your head feeling this morning?"

[Ozzy_G]

Ark gives the paladin an irritated look, but doesn't reply to her jibe.

[The Great Skenardo]

Teb Hokk
Finding all of his effects in place, the idea of a nighttime marauder holds little sway over Teb's attention. He scratches the back of his head, absently.
"So..." he rumbles, "What're we doing today?"

[dgray]

I think we should try and find out some more information about this town and the surrounding woods. Ulryn only told us a little bit about the area and I for one would like to know what type of people and creatures we may encounter. Svanna says while sheathing her rapier and tossing her bo over her shoulder.

[The Great Skenardo]

Teb Hokk
Teb brightens up "Hey, you mean we're there already? This job's gonna be easy!" He rubs his gauntleted hands together with the sound of grating metal. "Okay, so who we gotta hit first?"

[Ozzy_G]

Ark sighs. No, Teb. We are going to Forest Gate. The town we are in right now is called Immersea.

[The Great Skenardo]

Teb Hokk
The burly half-orc scratches his head. "How'd you know that, Ark? An' if this ain't...uh..place, then how far is it to...there?"