The Festival
The courtyard is a buzz with excitement. Merchants and peasants have come from all over the valley. Bakers, farmers, brewers, and chefs barter for the finest local produce. Rare merchandise from Marketh, cottons, jewelry bring an array of color to the booths. Blacksmiths and bowyers show off their latest crafts for the passing mercenaries and guards.
Jak and Squishy wander the flourishing market. The jeweler buys the gold ingot from Jak for 66 gp and the necklace from Squishy for 990 gp.
Squishy finds two students of the arcane in conversation. The two casters don’t recognize him as an illithid. He joins their conversation that gravitates to talking about the Planes in general. The topic switches to the Underdark, which Squishy lectures them about at length, being thoroughly familiar. The two are quite impressed by his knowledge. He later is at a loss as the conversation switches to the Elemental Plane of Fire.
The Tournament
Jak enters in both the melee and archery competitions. Jak is knocked out of the archery competition in the first round. Mary enters the melee competition as well. Mary makes it to the finals with two knockouts. Jak wins all 4 rounds of the competition with 2 K.O.s. Elf cheers for Jak and casts dancing lights over the crowd after each victory. [For reasons of simplicity, the character just appears in place of the dire badger, Selena. Selena was a dire badger. Mary appears as a half-badger barbarian. Nobody bothered to ask about some strange enchantment that might have been put on her, removable only through an act of bravery in combat. But who cares. Random acts of magic run rampant in Dungeons & Dragons.]
Solaera roams around healing competitors. She only has to cast cure light wounds twice. The Curate leaves the competition shortly after the new Priest arrives. The new priest in town is a priest of Erythnul. He is very charismatic and hold a lot of influence in the area. He is here to keep an eye on things to come. The Curate doesn't know, but doesn't like the Priest.
After the melee an argument breaks out over who was stronger, the Sergeant of the Guard or Maug, a mercenary that didn’t compete. Bets exchange at 2:1 odds for either side. The brawl ended in a draw: Maug laid out the Sergeant with a hay maker, but quickly passed out from exhaustion. Yes, it sucks when a barbarian rage wears off.
Jak mingles with the Sergeant and other competitors. The Priest talks to the Sergeant for a short while. The Sergeant is called away suddenly to the bank by a guard.
The Captain of the Guard & Curate await his arrival and go into the bank. [While at the bank, the Priest goes to the Chapel to learn what he can about Squishy] [The Curate emerges with two prisoners and heads for the barracks.]
Wandering the Streets
Jak & Squishy conspire to go to the bank. Squishy uses his abilities to give Jak a bonus on his bluff for...a few hours. They try to charm clerk, and fail. The clerk is rather amused that they tried and plays along. The two bluff that they are new guards for the caravan. They ask about what happened. "It was just another vain attempt to rob the bank. We are quite protected here, though."
Jak & Squishy continue to look for things to get into around the town. They bluff their way into the Guild House. With a brief flurry of words they are allowed to sift through the Guild records. Jak inquires about some discrepancies on the books that pertain to two wagons that came in from the north. The clerk says they had some old paperwork that just needed a few corrections. Just a small brush up. Jak says this is inexcusable. They will be back in the morning for a full audit of the guild records.
While walking around they see the Priest heading back to his quarters. Squishy says he will meet up with Jak later. Squishy follows the Priest & casts a 24 hr charm person on him.
The Priest invites Squishy in for a chat. He has actually been meaning to talk with Squishy once he found out that he was an illithid. The evil priest divulges the main plot of Erythnul & Nerull helping each other to unite the Bendros Empire to the southwest. He invites Squishy to join the cause. Squishy says he will give an answer by tomorrow and leaves the room.
After relaying the news to everyone else, the party decides to leave for the town of Forge Valley in the morning. [The Priest goes to tavern to gather more info from soldiers.] [The Guild Master asks about this "inspection" and what entries were in question.]
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