Session 21 — Misplaced Trust

An entry in Kerath’s private journal:

In a rare moment of lucidity, Lyra explained everything. She claimed that Dark Warren was once the benevolent and rightful ruler of this city until Kane arrived in Blassingdell over 20 years ago. She said Kane made a pact with Cyric, the evil god of lies, that enabled him to steal Warren’s seat of power. Kane placed a curse on the city, erasing the memory of its past, and transformed Warren into a dragonborn while also robbing him of his memories. Lyra was a servant girl in Warren’s household and barely escaped with her life, but her memory is still fragmented. She struggled for decades to put the pieces back together and wants to see things return to how they were.

Though this tale would be horrible if it were true, I can’t yet trust Lyra. Perhaps I’m still just put off by her behavior, but I find the explanation “no one remembers because everyone’s memory was erased” to be much too convenient to take on faith. Surely my traveling companions would agree these extraordinary claims require some evidence!

Apparently not. I learned later that while Lyra was explaining all this to Blumf, Zin, Jade, and myself at the Stagnant Pool, the others received a similar revelation. Qeew, Argora, and Charlie were visited by Snuff Pagus himself who told the same story, with the added embellishment that he’s an angel sent as an emissary representing an alliance between Mask, god of thieves, and Pholtus, god of light and law, who want to see Cyric brought low. Apparently we’re supposed to believe that we’re in the middle of a cosmic battle and no one else raised an eyebrow. I might be younger than I look, but I’ve seen enough illusory magic to know you shouldn’t just trust a spectral being claiming divine authority.

Lyra and Snuff expect us to believe without any proof that they and Dark Warren are on the side of right and that we should risk our lives to overthrow their enemies. However, we have only circumstantial evidence that Kane may be evil: he treats some people poorly and had nothing good to say about the poorest citizens of Blassingdell. That hardly makes him worse than most rulers. He may be corrupt and cruel, but I didn’t sign up to be a freedom fighter. If I tried to right every wrong I encountered in my life, I’d be long dead.

If there’s anyone I’d expect to be wise to schemes for stealing political power, it’s Charlie, but he seems less interested in verifying whether this story is true and more in punishing Kane for his vices. I’m afraid his commitment to this mission might really be about obtaining surrogate justice for his family. Surely he can see parallels between his story and Warren’s. But what if none of it is true and we’re dupes helping the real usurper?

While discussing these matters outside of town, I pleaded with the others to hold off on trusting Lyra until we had some independent evidence to back up her story. Lyra was standing right there, but I didn’t worry about offending her since she seems to be perpetually offended. She wanted Durgeddin’s weapons to help start an uprising against Kane, so I proposed that we go into town and set up at the Pool where we could discreetly try to kill two stirge with one arrow: find anyone who can corroborate the story and find fighters for the rebellion.

Since the city guards would recognize Argora, Charlie, and Qeew as associates of Kane, we decided they’d need disguises if they were to come back into town. While Charlie fabricated his own disguise, Lyra shapeshifted Qeew into a hummingbird. Argora volunteered to stay with Jade outside of town.

Before I left with the others, I trusted Argora with the bag of holding, containing all the weapons we scavenged from Khundrukai, since we didn’t want to risk them falling into Kane’s hands. We also had not yet agreed to hand them over to Lyra or Warren. I indicated to Argora to be wary of Jade Eyes, since Jade’s primary motivation appeared to be to get paid by Lyra. Imagine my chagrin when I later learned that Argora’s primary motivation was to get laid by Lyra, and he gave up the goods without asking for anything but a date!

We worked to collect those stupid blades for what felt like three months! We killed for them and risked our lives–Blumf DIED! And what did we get in exchange? Absolutely nothing! Jade promised Argora half of the meager bounty Lyra owed him and said he’d put a good word in with that unstable druid in exchange for handing over the treasure that the entire party sacrificed so much for. If they weren’t already so convinced of Lyra’s unbelievable tale, I think the others would be just as outraged that our shared property was given away without consultation. Even if her story turns out to be true, he had no right to make that decision alone!

We were told that for centuries countless treasure seekers before us have sought Durgeddin’s coveted steel and failed. Surely the twenty weapons we recovered were worth a fortune! I’m not one to get fixated on wealth, but gold was the entire reason we accepted that risky venture in the first place. Argora comes from nobility, so a few thousand gold might be nothing to him, but when you live from hand to mouth like I have you understand the value of a gold piece. I learned something very important this day: Argora thinks more with his balls than his head. He’s good in a fight, but I won’t make the mistake of trusting him with money or property again.

Anyway, things did not go as planned once we got to town. We were stopped by guards at the city gates, and immediately one started picking on Blumf. The guard called him ugly twice before Blumf clocked him. At this point things got really tense, as we weren’t sure if we were going to be further harassed, arrested, or murdered on the spot. My hand went to my crossbow, but Charlie had better instincts and encouraged a one-on-one fist fight, which the antagonizing guard accepted to save face. Spectators quickly formed a circle, and I scanned the crowd for anyone who seemed thrilled by one of Kane’s guards getting their deserts, hoping they might be a useful ally in a rebellion. Still in hummingbird form, Qeew pooped directly on the guard’s head–or at least that’s what it looked like. I’m not sure he noticed.

Naturally, our Blumf eventually knocked this jerk out and he fell flat on his face. Also quite naturally, when another guard with good intentions tried to congratulate him, the dwarf was still seeing red and clobbered him too. This quickly changed the second guard’s attitude, and he demanded to know our business in the city. I fumbled for a lie and gave a half-truth: that we are here to help establish trade between Blassingdell and Diana Soots’ Smithy in Oakhurst. The guard recognized this name as a client that Kane wants to do business with, so he quickly concluded that befriending us could earn him points with Kane… crap!

He insisted that Blumf, Charlie, and I join him and the other guards for drinks at the Blessed Sun Tavern. When the innkeeper turned Keeva out, I used the opportunity to sneak away unnoticed. Charlie later told me that he got out by disguising himself in the bathroom, but not before overhearing the guard offer Blumf a job working on the grounds of Kane’s manor. Since he hasn’t returned, we assume he accepted the offer so that he could be our guy on the inside. Clever dwarf, that one.

Charlie and I met up at the Stagnant Pool where we found Lyra. Qeew, still a hummingbird and unable to speak, arrived later and tried to lead me toward the Founderstone where Dark Warren was studying the runes, as usual. I wanted to see if he would corroborate Lyra’s story (though if he did it wouldn’t lend much credence to it since he would be the primary beneficiary of deposing Kane), and I thought that if we eventually go forward with the rebellion that he should definitely be involved in the planning, so I followed. Before I got close, Warren fled, and I returned to the inn.

Lyra saw all of this and immediately criticized my actions with lots of yelling and stammering and the conjuration of woodland animals. You know, typical Lyra. I really cannot stand her! Whatever her real history is, she’s clearly not alright in the head. I know better than anyone how years and years of solitude in the wilderness will degrade your humanity and propriety, but she seems to lack reason and sense. Is this really who we’re putting our trust in?

I was fed up by this point and just walked away from the argument. I recognized one of the Pool’s patrons as a pro-Blumf anti-guard spectator from earlier in the day and sat next to him. He was a grizzled man named Moffett who seemed like he’d seen a lot of battle. I carefully probed to see if he’d be sympathetic to Lyra’s cause, and he cryptically claimed that things used to be much better for him and most others in Blassingdell. He didn’t seem energized to fight, but perhaps with a little hope he’d join her cause. Hard to say. He certainly didn’t give me the evidence I was looking for. It’s not unusual for an old man to say things were better when he was younger.

Qeew was apparently sick of being a hummingbird and got Lyra to change her into a crow, and then an eagle. I later saw her seemingly having a conversation with one of the conjured eagles, and they flew off together. They’ve been gone a long time… I wonder what they’re up to.

Argora and Jade eventually showed up at the inn. They told us that they too were stopped by a guard on their way into town and were recognized. Argora told the guard that they’d recovered the weapons for Kane as he’d asked, and the guard offered to take them to Kane immediately. They tried to buy time by claiming that Argora owed Jade a drink for saving his life. The guard insisted that they go with him to the “esteemed” Blessed Sun Tavern, rather than the “wretched” Stagnant Pool. They stalled further by saying they would join him in an hour and see Kane in the morning, but first they were going to take a piss on the lowly Pool… classy.

Charlie devised a plan to buy them a little more time: When they meet the guard for drinks, claim that their other party members have the weapons and are three days journey away from Blassingdell. By then we need to have a plan. For the moment it’s attack Kane while his guards are distracted by a riot. But can we really marshal a militia in three days, or even get to the truth of Lyra’s story?

When Jade and Argora left, we were worried about them, so Charlie and I followed from a distance. We observed them enter the Blessed Sun and later exit. They next went to a nondescript, unmarked door and knocked. I overheard them say something containing the phrase “habit forming”, and they were allowed in. Charlie and I were so curious that we tried to follow. I attempted to sound as confident as possible when I said “The password is ‘habit forming’,” but we were barred from entering. I guess they must have a rotating passphrase system or something. I wonder what those two are doing… seems very suspicious.*

I haven’t seen Zin since we learned that her patron god Mask was involved in this mess. Perhaps she’s gone to a temple somewhere to uncover more about the enmity between Mask and Cyric.

* Kerath didn’t see it, but Jade and Argora entered Matilda’s brothel, recommended to them by the guard for their last night before incurring the wrath of Kane for not having the weapons by the morning. There they were treated to alcohol and a procession of prostitutes: a female tiefling, an incredibly hairy female dwarf, a male centaur, a blonde female human, and female gnome twins dressed in matching leather masks and whips. Jade was enamored of the tiefling, and Argora was just glad to have another option other than the fur ball, the man-horse, and the S&M twins.