Hey Nonny Nonny! Here's last time.
Our heroes awakened in Cian and go about their errands. They briefly discuss splitting up, but pretty much everyone wants to be present for all the things, so they all seven of them troop off together. Fearg says that the battle-ax they found, the one that calls itself Shol, identified the man who bought the pick (the axe's "love") as a Sworn named Séadna. Of course, he was a Sworn decades ago, so he might be dead by now.
First stop: The magical trinket shop of Darragh Bumpshadow. Darragh welcomes them warmly (she'd better, they saved her life last time they were here). Aisling pulls out some of the stuff they've acquired on their travels for appraisal.
Gold rings set with bloodstones, a silver necklace set with a bloodstone, these are nice pieces, but not magical or otherwise interesting, and Darragh buys them (figuring she'll enchant them and them flip them). The bronze crown that they found in Madoc's Keep, though, has some historical significance - Darragh says that the Sworn, the hand-picked royal guards, used to wear these about 50 years ago. She doesn't see any markings to indicate who might have owned it, but Aisling figures someone in the Sworn might want it just for historical reasons.
The carved statue of the dragon-person baffles Darragh, though. She can't figure out the material - too heavy and smooth to be bone, and Zook's suggestion that it's a dragon's tooth makes sense, but she thinks the texture is wrong (though freely admits she has very limited experience with dragon teeth). She suggests they check with the Wizard's College.
The gold-woven vestments, though, she can identify. She has Dara cast a moonbeam spell on it, and there on the inside is an insignia that only Dara can see. She reproduces it for Darragh, and she identifies it as the mark of Aindrias, an elf and metalworker who used to live and work in Cian. Last Darragh heard, he'd moved up into a mountain village near a gold mine. The heroes decide to hold on to the vestments - if their travels take them up that way, maybe they'll find him!
That's all they have for Darragh, except that Aisling commissions a ring with two hands holding a heart, and asks it be enchanted to make the wearer warm and cozy, warding off cold. She agrees and tells Aisling to come back tomorrow and they can talk pricing, and the heroes move on to their next stop!
That stop happens to be the Wizard's College! They are admitted to see Luch, the wizard that they spoke with about demons and such things last time they were here. He takes them to his offices, strewn with books and magical trinkets, and a shelf of little mouse figurines ("oh," he says when they ask, "my name - Luch - means 'mouse' in some dialects, so, you know").
They show him the statue, and he casts a spell on it to identify the material, and then excitedly shows them a picture of an immense beast with huge ears, a skinny tail, but a weird, long, hose-like protuberance on its face and enormous tusks! This creature, various called an "olyphant" or a "pachyderm" is the source of the material, called "ivory." Dara isn't happy about harvesting such materials from an animal, and Luch admits he isn't sure whether you have to kill it to take the ivory. Not much is known about these creatures; they live far out in the western badlands.
As for what the statue depicts, Luch shows them pictures (in a different book) of "dragonborn," offspring of dragons and humans. (Clara: "...how?" Aisling: "Dragons can shapeshift in a lot of stories." Keenan: "Gods, I hope so.")
From there, they move on to the contract between Orcus and Madoc. Luch reads it over and comes to the same conclusion they did, that Madoc was a revenant and the contract extended his year-long "unlifespan" as long as he stayed in the keep. But, also like the adventurers, Luch is fascinated by the third signatory, the "Witness," who signed with a mark and a cryptic phrase: "I won't lie if there's something to be gained." He asks that they leave the contract with him for further study, and they agree - since it's void, it's not likely to be dangerous.
Finally, Aisling and Zook both show Luch some trinkets they've been carrying. Aisling produces a book that won't accept writing; anything she writes in it fades immediately. Luch says it's a prank, a book enchanted to mess with wizards. It must be old, because when it was new, the magic wouldn't kick in immediately, it would wait until someone had written for a while and then fade. He casts a spell and breaks the enchantment, so now at least Aisling has a blank book.
Zook shows him a small cube, weighing only an ounce, of a material he can't identify. He found it in the robes of the wizard who died near his village, the one whose spellbook he took up when he became an adventurer. Luch casts the same identification spell on it, but then winces in pain, and his nose starts to bleed! He says that he cannot identify the stuff, but only knows for sure that it's not alive. Zook apologizes, and Luch says to keep him appraised if they figure it out.
The heroes take their leave, and head to Armorer's Row to try and unload the breastplate they found. They find a blacksmith with an oddly green skin tone and large teeth, who examines the armor and says that it's made of mithral - pretty rare! As none of them can wear it (rather, Belle could, but she doesn't want to), they work out a trade. The smith, Peadar, will make some new armors for Belle and Aisling in exchange for the breastplate (he'll also pay a bit of gold for it, and he's still coming out well ahead).
And then on to the library! They do a bit of historical research and find that every Sworn has a book dedicated to their exploits. Some of them are blacked out (because sometimes Sworn go bad), but they find Séadna's and learn that he's still alive and living in Cian. They dig up his address, and decide to head there.
Séadna lives on the third floor of his building, and rather than have a whole mob of people go up, Fearg and Aisling go. They knock, and an old fella with a leathery look and a missing ear answers. He confirms that he's Séadna, and they can see the pick hanging over his mantle.
They make a bit of small talk, and Aisling shows him the crown. He says that some Sworn carved their names into their crowns, but the inside of this one has been worn smooth. He also says the practice of wearing them fell out of favor because of the relative ease of casting heat metal.
Séadna confirms that he bought the pick from a man named Breasel some 50 years ago and it served him well in his career. He agrees to sell it - it's magical so he takes 20 gold for it, which is considerably less than the heroes have kicking around. He hands it to Fearg...and Fearg immediately goes dead in the eyes, runs forward and out the door, and leaps off the balcony!
Aisling follows, and sees that Fearg has landed on the next building and keeps running. She yells for the others (who were grabbing a snack at a cafe on the corner), and they spring into action!
Clara and Belle just parkour their way up the side of the building to chase them. Keenan, not an athlete at the best of times, casts haste on Zook and Clara. Zook jumps on Maeve and has her start taking the stairs up to the roof, while Dara turns into a cat and climbs up that way. Aisling and Keenan stay on the ground and start trying to get ahead of him.
Clara, of course, is the one that catches up with him. She runs up and tries to get him to stop, but he ignores her. Muttering a quick "sorry!" she strikes him, stunning him, and then pulls the pick from his hand. Fearg immediately snaps out of it.
He says that he just kind of went away when he grabbed the pick, but his goal was very clear: Kill Breasel. He knew where he was going, though it's vague without the presence in his head - out in the countryside somewhere. Dara takes up the axe and talks with Shol some more, and Shol tells her the truth - it and Ros were once Sholeros, a treant, and Breasel murdered him and turned his body into the two hafts for the weapons. Split forever and rendered into this form, Shol wants nothing but vengeance. Dara tries to convince it that it could carry on in some other form, but Shol thinks of itself as dead, wanting only to kill its killer.
Dara relays this to the others. Fearg and Zook aren't necessarily opposed - treants are living, sentient beings, and if this guy murdered one then he might deserve it. The others aren't so keen on murder, however. They decide to find Breasel and see what he has to say.
They go back to Peadar and ask if he knows him, and he calls his mom out, a gruff, broad human woman. She confirms that she knows Breasel - talented woodworker and weaponsmith, from the south, used to sell goods in Cian, kind of a dick. She says that he retired to one of the villages around the city, but isn't sure exactly where. She says he's the kind of guy who'd find a bird's nest and eat all the eggs, just no respect for nature.
The heroes talk about what to do, but eventually decide to let Zook hold the weapons and then follow him; he's not as fast as Fearg and they figure he won't be as dangerous because he won't be able to cast spells while holding the weapons. He takes up both the axe and the pick and zoom! He's off!
The others keep up as best they can, but Zook doesn't tire and soon it's just Belle and Dara keeping pace. Dara grabs his wrist with a thorn whip to try and yank the pick away, but he keeps his grip and strikes her with the axe! Dara realizes he's much stronger with these weapons in his hands. She casts entangle, but he tears right out.
Belle puts a dart in his shoulder, and when that doesn't work, yells for Dara to let him go and puts an arrow in his shoulder. And still Zook runs! By this time, though, Aisling has caught up, and throws a sleep spell at him. Zook collapses, and everyone takes a rest.
Zook wakes up and his legs are killing him (plus he's wounded; Belle apologizes, but Zook is understanding). They ask around since they've drawn some notice, and they're told that Breseal lives in a cottage just down the way. They find him, an old, grumpy man, sitting outside a cottage, smoking.
Breasel initially denies ever killing a treant, but when Clara mentions the axe buried in a rib cage, his eyes get wide and he grudgingly confesses. He brought the weapons to Cian and got in a brawl over a woman with a man named Conchúr, and killed him with the axe. He buried his body (and the axe) in a lot that was meant to be built over, but apparently that didn't happen. He expresses no remorse for anything he did, and while he never quite cops to killing the treant, he does say tell the heroes where he got the wood he used to make these weapons. It's a few days walk from where they are.
Breasel tells them he's got one foot in the grave anyway - they want to kill him for something he doesn't remember doing 50 years ago? Go ahead. Shol is all for it (and in fact pushes so hard to possess whoever is holding it that Dara plunks both weapons into the bag of holding Aisling is carrying). The heroes are all set to start walking, but Keenan reminds them they have other irons in the fire in Cian. They decide to head back to the city and get their ducks in a row before doing anything.
They get back to the Lute's Echo just after nightfall, and go the heck to bed (Zook's quads are killing him). They have plans for the morning - Aisling needs to go back and see Darragh Bumpshadow and Peadar the armorer. Clara is going to find the city monks and do some meditating, maybe learn how to cope better with crowds. Zook needs to transcribe some spells into his book, which is time consuming. He figures he'll invite Silé to join him and maybe pay for her materials. Dara intends to hit the library again to learn more about treants, and maybe try to figure out how to put Shol and Ros to rest without killing anyone.
Next time - further adventures in Cian!
