Inland Empire¶

2023-Feb-05

• After a frenzied half-day of shopping, the party stops by a library to prep for their work at Candlekeep. They study the institution of the great library itself:
  • Candlekeep is a neutral ground, outside the jurisdiction of any external entity
  • A supremely resilient fortress, it has ancient and powerful arcane defenses
  • Each individual seeking entrance to Candlekeep must contribute some new or notable piece of knowledge in order to gain access (in perpetuity)
    • The party believes they have a good shot between the maps they took from the Thunderbird, the mirror dimension story and symbol, and Kleb’s pamphlets
• Afterwards, Rulkorf leads the group to The Locker, the sailor hostel that he stayed at regularly in his Mistcutter days
  • The dwarf settles his outstanding tab with the halfling matron, including paying for some repairs to the building. He maintains that the damage wasn’t his fault, but guilty-by-association is a bitch
  • Rulkorf decides it’s time to talk a bit about the circumstances that led him to flee the city originally (he was attacked while sleeping and nearly killed by an unknown enemy). Hoping that there might still be clues about exactly who or what attacked him, he recruits the guys for some detective work
  • Kleb arm wrestles a drunk guy, loses, and heads outside
• Upstairs, Rowan and Rulkorf find the bunk that was the site of the incident. The walls of the building are made of bricks to mitigate fires (with a veneer of wood for ambiance), but this area has been covered with magic
  • Rowan senses an evil staining the bunk and wall. This place is unlucky and resists any attempts at repair. An illusion was necessary to give the appearance of an intact, normal space but they sailors have nevertheless shared a belief that this particular area is cursed
  • Rulkorf and Rowan convince Kleb to try and climb up the exterior wall and see what he can discern from there. The fighter cleanly vaults his way up a post and through the window, but was not able to inspect the wall closely
• Rulkorf tries to sleep in the nightmare bunk briefly
  • Half-awake, he dreams of the attack, and pictures the assailant as little more than a distortion of air. However, he gets a sharp image of its piercing blue eyes
  • The party resolves to research this at Candlekeep
    • They have learned a bit even from this scant evidence. The attack was the work of some sort of invisible and powerful creature, but not a spell. The fact that Rulkorf survived also rules out a class of overwhelmingly lethal entities such as vampires, even though they can turn invisible
• Return to the Oremaster
  • Mezzos is here, but Tesia isn’t. Lots of new faces in the hired crew
• Next stop, Baldur’s Gate!