Information and Threats

Year: 1491, Month: Tarsakh, Date: 24th

Uncovering the Stoneface Mask

In the morning I ask Leo if he can tell me about the Stoneface Mask I purchased in Waterdeep.  I take it from my backpack, and hand it to him.  

Leo does the same incantation as before.  After a while he hands it back.  The mask is divine, made by a god.  He feels something else but is not sure what it is, although it doesn't seem benevolent, it feels 'tricky'.  Leo says we would need a powerful Cleric of the Trickery domain to identify the 'tricky' trait.  I recall the man we bought the masks from had the face of a cat, and who we couldn't attack, although Chello did try.  It dawns on me, did Chello try and assault her own God?  

In search of knowledge

Celery says she's going to go to the Library in Yartar to see what she can discover about Kraken and Harshnag. The library turns out to be a temple to the God of Knowledge - Oghma.  This is what Celery learnt about Krakens:
 
Beneath the waves, the kraken sleeps for untold ages, awaiting some fell sign or calling. Land-born mortals who sail the open sea forget the reasons their ancestors dreaded the ocean, even as the races of the deep ignore strange gaps in their histories when their civilizations nearly vanished after the appearance of the tentacled horror. 

At the beginning of time, krakens served as fierce warriors of the gods. When the gods' wars ended, the krakens shrugged free of their servitude, never again to be bound by other beings. Whole nations quake in fear when the kraken emerges from its dark demesne, and even in the middle of the deepest oceans, storms rise or abate according to its will. 


The kraken is a primeval force that obliterates the greatest achievements of civilization as if they were castles in the sand. Its devastating attacks can destroy ocean trade and halt communication between coastal cities. An ominous darkness presages a kraken's attack, and a cloud of inky poison colors the water around it. Galleons and warships vanish when its tentacles uncoil from the deep, the kraken breaking their masts like kindling before drawing down ships and crew. Not even landlocked surface dwellers are safe from a kraken's wrath. Krakens can breathe air as easily as water, and some crawl up rivers to nest in freshwater lakes, destroying cities and towns along the way. Adventurers tell of these monsters lairing in the ruins of lakeside citadels, their tentacles twined around leaning towers of disintegrating stone. 

Some krakens are virtual gods, with cults and minions spread across sea and land. Others are allied with Olhydra, the evil Princess of Elemental Water, and use her cultists to enforce their will on land and sea. A kraken pleased with its worshipers can becalm rough seas and bring a bounteous harvest of fish to the faithful. However, the devious mind of a kraken is ancient beyond reckoning, and is ultimately bent to the ruination of all things.
 
The most recent cult is the Kraken Society.  It is a secret organisation, akin to a thieves guild but usually its members are exiles, outcasts and lost souls.

Celery found nothing new on Giants, nor Harshnag.

Next we decide to go and see the Waterbaron to inform her of the creature that was lurking under the sewers in her town, but when we get to The Waterhall, we are told she is away for a meeting of the Lords Alliance.  While in the town we reprovsision as I don't think we will stay in Yartar much longer.  

We decide we should find Atallia.  She has a number of questions to answer, not least of which, did she drug poor Leo?  We head to the Grand Dame.

Pau Ming

We loiter about the docks waiting for Atallia to arrive at the boat.  Our wait is fruitless, the boat is preparing to sail, but Atallia has not made an appearance.  

Leo takes matters into his own hands, and creates an illusion of Atallias necklace. He approaches the Grand Dame's captain, Nelvin, at the gangway and shows him the necklace.  "That's the purple ladies necklace, what are you doing with that?".  Leo explains she must have dropped it and he needs to return it, but needs to leave for Waterdeep so it must be done today.  Nelvin says wait, then motions to Pau Ming, who is standing a little behind, and who slowly makes her way over.  

She looks at the necklace in Leo's open hand and smiles, "What seems to be the problem?"  Nelvin says Lady Atallia has lost this.  Pau Ming pauses briefly and then motions for Nelvin to leave.  She then pushes Leo's hand down. "You can put that away."  "Events are happening on your boat that have resulted in nobles being kidnapped and I've confirmed it's Attalia who is involved in the kidnappings."  Pau Ming considers for a moment, "That seems a little unbelievable, but regardless Lady Atallia is a guest, and hasn't been seen on the Grand Dame for a coupe of days."  

Leo threatens Pau Ming that he would inform Nestra of the boats.  She pauses, and suggests he leaves now, then turns and walks back onto the deck. Pau Ming watches him leave.  Leo says he had the feeling she's hiding things (but surely that's her nature anyway) but doesn't know what it is.  He feels she likes to think she can get the upper hand with anyone.

Once out of sight of the boat, Leo makes an invocation to locate Atallia's necklace.  Leo leads us back to near where the entrance to the sewer is, before turning down a dingy alleys, and leads us to some barrels.  There is a foot sticking out from the barrels, and once we moved them out of the way, its Lady Attalia's lifeless body.  Leo takes her necklace, and checks her, but can't find any external injuries but suspects she was killed by physhic damage.  Could this have been the Aboleth?  Because Atallia didn't bring Leo?

Celery picks up the body, Leo turns her invisible, and we go back to the Harper's sanctuary so that the next day Celery can speak with the dead on the agreement we will then take her body to a temple.  We discuss what questions to ask her corpse tomorrow, then go to sleep so Celery can learn Speak with the Dead.