Day 02 (S2)

The four of them awake in the inn early, and start heading southwest toward Vorovni. It was about a 12 hour walk to get there from the edge of Mistbrook where they were staying.
The city of Vorovni is very muddy and surrounded by the river Isely. The entire city was built on a swamp, some of the roads had sunk in and had multiple layers of stone and wood on top of each other to keep the roads travelable. Some still weren't.
It’s not too bad of a city, otherwise, and the people seem friendly overall.

In the center of the city, the mud and dirt has been built up, with a large wall surrounding it - as both a large retaining wall, and a wall between the rich and the poor of the city. Inside of this inner city also had some of the nicer shops, inns, and a Church of Luminus.

As the four of them made it through the lower city, there was an elderly woman at the base of a set of stairs surrounded by soldiers. It seems she's trying to get up the stairs to her home, but the three soldiers were holding her back.
Rina notices and uses Prestidigitation to mimic a sound of another person yelling "Guard!" far off, and two of the guards followed the sound. One last guard still remained, preventing the old woman from moving.
Alice ran up to her, "Granny!" she yelled, "Granny I told you to wait and I would help you up the stairs." she said as she glared at the guard. The old woman shrunk herself down a bit more to look more like a halfling to trick the guard to believing they're related.
"Humph" the guard snorted, "Fine, go. But don't let me catch you here without someone else again." he then walked away.
"Are you ok?" Alice asked, "That guy was an asshole for not even letting you pass."
The old woman did not react at first, just slowly glided her eyes from the ground to meet Alice's.
Then she suddenly began to stretch out, her legs and arms now long and spindly like twigs - her long, grey hair now blowing in the wind like leaves - her mole-covered, long nose now even more obvious. "Tee hee!" she laughed, "Thank you much deerie. Those soldiers were quite the bother!"
This woman was a hag.
"Now, give me something of yours so that I may repay you!" she said to both Alice and Rina, who had now approached the situation.
"What kind of thing do you want?" Rina asked.
"Ohhhh nothing big" the hag started, "maybe just... a fingernail."
Alice presented her pinky finger to the hag nearly immediately, and the hag ripped it off.
"OW!" yelled Alice, "Ok now what do I get for all this pain?"
"Teehee, you get a favor" the hag responded as she plucked a dried eyeball from her cloth pouch and handed it to Alice.
"If you eat this, you will get the help of all of my sisters" she said. "You see, I am a witch of the Sunblight coven, and now I owe you a favor for the help. See you later deerie!" and as soon as she had finished speaking, she was gone - as if she had never been there at all.
"Well, now you have a Hag Eyeball - gross." Rina said as she joined the guys again.
Alice put it in her own pouch for use later.

As the party approached the center circle of the city, there were guards in front of the gate preventing just anyone from walking through.
The four of them all pause a few yards from the guards.
"Ok, how do we get in?" Rina asked Kin and Alice.
"I don't know... just go talk to them. You're the charismatic one." Kin responded.
"I don't even 100% understand what you two actually need." Rina responded.
"We need a meeting with the mayor to negotiate the Sprite Light coven acquiring the Pixie Woods."
"Ok, here goes nothing" Rina started toward the guards. "Good morning!"
No response, the guards just raise an eyebrow.
"We need a meeting with the Mayor, can we get through?"
"You need a permit" a guard responded.
"How do we get a permit?" Rina asked.
The guard rolled his eyes, "I could give you one... but I'd need convincing."
Rina had no idea how to proceed, but then Aurelius walks up and hands him 3 gold coins, "Is that enough convincing?"
The guard nodded and handed them a piece of paper before letting them pass.
"How did you know that money is what he meant?" Rina asked Aurelius.
"Money talks in Asmery - just remember that" Aurelius responded.
Within the inner city, everything looked much nicer. The roads were much more easily walkable, though still a bit sunken in some places.

As they approach the Mayor's office they see a young girl at a desk, working tirelessly over piles and piles of papers.
Rina approaches her, "Hello, we are needing a meeting with the Mayor. Can you help?"
The young girl stops, as if she did not notice the four of them prior to Rina speaking. "Oh, um... hello. I'm sorry. Um... The Mayor is quite busy. You will need to make an appointment for a future date."
"What's your name?" Rina asked her, "and how old are you?"
"Oh um... Neely is my name. I'm 17. Mayor Highwater doesn't usually employ anyone older than me. But I'm doing my best! I really need this job."
"Well, you're doing great" Rina responded.
"Thank you! Oh, and what are your names?"
"I'm Rina Afrisa Michaelis. This is Alice Moondance, Kin Ray, and Aurelius Ravenwood." Rina Responded, "So, can you get us a meeting?"
"Um. Yes alright, let me get his schedule book." Neely hops down from her chair, which is very obviously too tall for her, and picks up a very large book from a shelf nearby. She plopped it down on her desk knocking over other papers. "Oh shoot, oh no I had just gotten those in order" she complained as she went to pick up all the paper, trying to keep the pile in order as much as possible. "I just don't even know how I can..." she begins mumbling to herself, clearly more stressed than usual, "I'm so sorry I just have to get these things done before the end of the day and -" she is cut off by a soft, warm, motherly hug from Rina, who had walked to the other end of the desk silently as Neely attempted to clean up the mess.
"Oh... thank you..." Neely started, "This is... quite nice."
"Take a deep breath" Rina said, "It will all be ok."
After a moment, Rina let go and Neely took a big, deep breath.
"Okay, let's take a look at this old book, shall we?" Neely said as she opened the schedule. "It looks like he doesn't have any open official meeting times for 3 weeks."
"What about unofficial meetings?" Rina asked.
"Oh, um..." Neely stuttered, "it's just, I'm not supposed to say..."
Rina then took 3 gold out of her pocket and handed it to her.
"Oh, that's, um... very kind. But I just can't risk this job."
Rina adds 4 more gold to the pile.
"Oh wow. Well... there is one place the Mayor will be with lots of people where you could talk to him." She said, "But you have to have an invitation."
"How do we get an invitation?" Alice interjected.
"Um, well you have to be an official adventuring party and..." Neely started, "you have to have made at least 10,000 gold in missions from the Vorovni Adventuring Guild."
"TEN THOUSAND?!" Alice yelled.
"Please don't yell," Neely said, "I'm just trying to help. You all seem like... mostly... nice people. So, if you want to meet the Mayor that's the best way to do it."
"What is this thing we need an invitation to?" asked Kin.
"Oh, um, it's a ball for all of the higher level adventuring parties as a way for the mayor to thank them for helping the city. It's in 3 days." Neely responded.
"A ball?" the four of them say in unison.
"I'm going to need to get better clothes." said Kin.
"Thank you Neely, we will be seeing you." Said Rina.
"Oh, um, you are very welcome, miss Rina."
Neely tried to hand back the 7 gold, but Rina told her to keep it.

After their chat with Neely, they decide to head to the Adventuring Guild to see what jobs may be posted. There were many little jobs: deliveries, clean-ups, build jobs, etc. All very small, and not even every posting combined would add up to near 10,000 gold.
"What do we do?" asked Kin.
"We could ask Marcus." Aurelius said, "he's the one who runs this guild. He may have bigger jobs in the back."
"How would you know this?" asked Alice.
"I grew up coming here a lot, I know a lot of people in Asmery." Aurelius responded as he headed toward the back of the guild hall to the private offices.

As we get to the back Rina pops her head into an open door "Hello, we are looking for Marcus."
"I am Marcus." replied a large orc man who barely fit in his small office space, covered in books and papers, completely disorganized. "How may I help you?" he said in a thick, Orcish accent.
"We need a quest worth at least 10,000 gold" Rina said as the other 3 of the party show up behind her.
He looks at the four of them, a little skeptical that they could accomplish any single job worth so much money. But he turns around and grab 2 pieces of paper out of a box, "These are the jobs we have worth that. One is 11k, the other is 13k."
"What are the details of the jobs?" asked Kin.
"First is a village to the south called Riverbend, about one day's ride one way. All the people there have disappeared mysteriously. Whoever can solve the mystery gets the money."
"We heard about that in Mistbrook" Rina said to Aurelius.
"The second one" started Marcus again, "is way off in the east, more like a 4 days ride one way on a good horse. There's some trouble with a monster or a devil or some such."
"We don't have the kind of time for the Monster in the East job," Said Kin, "We will take the first job."
"Ok fine," said Marcus, "All adventuring parties who complete a quest need to fill out this form."
He handed them a form with a blank at the top titled "Party name" with smaller lines below labeled "Individual's names" and a large blank at the bottom titled "Job name/description."
"We don't exactly have a party name yet" Alice said.
Marcus rolled his eyes, "Just put your own names down there, then. But you need to have a party name when you turn in the quest."
Rina wrote down everyone's name on the list, and "Riverbend the Disappearing Village" in the blank for the job name.

As they left, Rina apprised Alice and Kin of what she and Aurelius had heard about the people who have been vanishing, only a blind man was able to escape. Cricket is his name and he is in Stoneslope.

"Now we just need to know where Stoneslope is... Maybe we should buy a map of Kay'Lend" said Alice.
"We should do our shopping before we get horses" said Kin, "I need to get some things, too."
"And we should eat!" exclaimed Aurelius.
"Ok, let's do food first, then shopping," started Rina, "We should hit an apothecary, a cartographer, and... anything else before horses?"
"I'd like to see a blacksmith or someone who may have a metal chest where we can lock up our valuables." said Kin.

They all started going to a small cafe in the outer city that specialized in baked goods, and also offered some teas and cheap coffee.
"I'll have pancakes!" said Alice.
"Same for me!" said Aurelius.
"I'll just have whatever's cheap" said Kin, who ended up with a bagel.
"I'd like to try whatever is your most unique dish - what is special to you here?" Asked Rina.
"Here we use shaved Withersalt on many dishes, would you like our withersalted bagel?"
"Sure" answered Rina, "Can you tell me what makes withersalt special? I have no heard of it before."
"Ahh, well Withersalt is the refined form of wither, which is sort of a salt-ore that's found in Desert Sandflake in the north."
"I passed that desert island on my way here" Rina replied, "I didn't realize that ore could be refined to something edible."
"Ahh yes, as an ore it's most known for being deadly to Devils" the waiter replied, "but we certainly don't have to worry about those here under the light of Luminus!"
The waiter walked off to get their food, and they all enjoyed their food. Rina noticed that the withersalt was light, almost see-through and feathery, and almost floating on top of the food. It was a unique salty flavor, that almost burned just a little to eat.
The party then went to a small apothecary, Alice found a few potions and Rina purchased a few also.
"Is there anything else I can get you?" the woman asked from behind the counter.
"Yeah..." started Rina, "Do you know where I could get some Wither?"
"We happen to have a small bag of pure wither here" said the owner, "but you can't eat this, it isn't refined!"
"I know, that's what I'm looking for. Thank you." replied Rina.
"Why do you want that?" asked Alice.
Rina sighed, "You never know when you may need to kill a devil."
Alice gave Rina a questioning look, but didn't say any more about it.
The party then decided to go to the local blacksmith. They walk in, Rina following in the back behind the other three, she has very little use for anything at a blacksmith.
"Welcome!" said the blacksmith, "What can I do for you?"
"We are looking for a small chest for valuables," started Kin, "one with keys and that can't get broken into easily."
"I have just the thing!" the blacksmith pulled out a somewhat small chest, one that can fit in a backpack, and handed it to Kin.
"There's 2 keys, best keep one and give one to a trusted friend." the blacksmith recommended.
"Here" Kin said as he handed Rina a key.
"Woah!" exclaimed the blacksmith, "You're an elf eh? You sure are brave just walking around with those pointy ears out."
Rina gave him a very judgmental look, but did not respond.
"Do you know where we can get magic weapons made?" asked Aurelius, "I know you don't do that here."
"Ohh if you want something fancy like that you should try Pennislovica. Castle Frey is not far, and they're um..." the blacksmith paused a moment and looked around to see if anyone else could hear him, "They're a little looser with their magic laws down there. With the Cardinals of Luminus having such a monopoly on healing magic, lots of people avoid magic all together."
"Thank you, we may head that way eventually" answered Aurelius.
"Have a good day!" said Kin as the party left.
"You too, good luck with everything - especially that pointy-eared friend of yours there." the blacksmith responded as the party walked out of sight.

After a bit of silence Rina said "I'd like to go to a post-office if possible... I have some family here in Kay'Lend that I'd like to write to."
"You have family here? I didn't know there were really any other elves here anymore." said Aurelius
Rina didn't answer, but started heading toward the post office, which was also a cartographer.
Rina picked up a post card and wrote a short letter on it. She added an envelope and put 4 platinum (40 gold) into the envelope with the letter.
"I need this to go to Basta'Thrope'" she said, "Freeway is the city, address to Darien Michaelis." Rina handed off the letter and said nothing more about it to the group.
"We also need a map" said Alice, "You don't happen to have one, do you?" she asked the person behind the counter.
"We have a standard map of Kay'Lend, is that what you're looking for?"
"Yes!" Alice replied, "Rina, can you hold onto this with all your other... papers...?"
"Of course!" Rina said, excited to have a map of this new place.

"Well, since the map is taken care of, we should get horses - there's no way we will get there and back in 3 days without horses."

They all went to Henry's Horses - a small shop & stall just on the southern outskirts of the city. 
Upon entering the shop they saw a young boy, maybe 14, sitting on the checkout counter.
"'Ello mates!" he greeted them, "Welcome to 'enry's 'orses! I'm 'enry!"
"You're Henry?" Kin repeated.
"Yep! The one and only!" he replied, "Well, except me pop and me grandpop. They're 'enrys too."
"Oh so your dad and grandfather run the shop?" Aurelius asked.
"Technically yeah, but I'm runnin it today! What can I do ya for?"
"We all need horses, do you have any for sale?" Alice asked.
"Of course! But quality all depends on the type uh money ya have to pay."
"What's your cheapest horse?" said Alice.
"Well we got one about your size here for... 50 gold!" Henry III
said as he showed her a hinny, which is similar to a mule but smaller.
"THAT's what you've got for me?" Alice exclaimed.
"Heh yeah don know how that 'orse got into the donkey pin, but hey - she's pretty cute!" Henry III responded.
"How about one for 75 gold?" said Aurelius
"75 ya say? I got me a pretty... mid horse for 75. He's the father of dat hinny. We don't need him, so he can go with ya for 75."
Rina was not about to pay more than 100 gold.
"Oi, 100 gold? Now that's some pretty good money right there! That will get you a pretty good horse!" Henry III walked over with a beautiful cinnamon colored Clydesdale "This right beauty looks just fitting for you I'd think!"
Rina petted her horse's nose and smiled "I think you're right... plus, Clydesdale's are my favorite horses. Thanks Henry."
Kin then plopped down a whole pouch of money, "How is $300 gold? Give me the best horse you have!"
"Oi mate! 300 gold!? Now that is definitely worth our best horse!" Henry III comes back with a large, black stallion with a long, beautiful mane and tail. "This guy looks too nice for this place anyway, was always afraid he'd get stolen! You take good care of him, now."
"His name shall be Stormbreaker" said Kin.
"I think I'll name my girl Cinnamon" said Rina.
"My horse is just... so mid. I'll just call him Midhorse" said Aurelius
"I don't even KNOW what to name mine" said Alice, "I guess just... Winny? Winny the hinny?"
And off they went with their new horses to stay the night at the local inn.