Valldel Amakiir - 2nd Level Male Elven Rogue
Akadum Ironbeard - 2nd Level Male Dwarf Fighter
Dolin Stoneflare - 2nd Level Male Dwarf Light Cleric
Shiso Shinjitsu - 2nd Level Male Human Fighter
Kethry - 2nd Level Female Human Wizard
26 May 981, Thursday, continued
Fine spring weather, few clouds
It is late evening when all dies down. There is a visit to the hamlet's general store and a few adventuring items are purchased.
Kethry studies the Black Book of Llaregubb and is able to transcribe into her spell book Charm Person. The other spells she can understand are Read Magic and Shield. There are three more that she cannot make out.
27 May 981, Friday
Weather Miserable, cold and heavy rain
Despite the terrible weather they make their way to the Two Goblins Inn on the coach. The coachmen is very excited telling them that he loves to stop there as there is a good restaurant, gambling, and female entertainment.
About noon they approach the Inn from the west they see a wrought iron bridge over a weed choked moat. The bridge is like a covered bridge and at the top are the metal statues of two goblins looking east and west. Beyond is covered in black flagstones that are cracked and broken with age. In a square grid every 50 feet there is a black wrought iron column rising up about 50 feet. The base of the columns are four clawed feet, the shaft is two bodies twisting around each other, and the capitol is two goblin faces. Each one is different. Kethry can see all these glowing fiently with magic. Those few that are not are rusted, broken, or leaning off vertical. To the north and south they can see two bridges similar to the one they crossed going over the River Pegridge to the south and the Moonwash River to the north. These two clearly meet just to the east.
The inn itself is a large five story building including some of the columns in its structure. It is best described as a cross between a dark, gothic haunted house and a Las Vegas casino. As the coach pulls up to the Inn there are other coaches arriving from the nearby large town of Stattleford full of folks preparing for a weekend stay at the Inn. Akadum is a bit surprised to see many of the workers who arrive to tend to the horses and carry away the bags are goblins. They are wearing clothes sporting a two goblins logo, which they begin to notice everywhere. On the bottom floor they see what appears to be a large emporium, much like a K-Mart, and a big restaurant much like an Applebys. Many of the guests are streaming into these.
The party approaches one of the humans who is supervising the goblins, telling him they have a message for Zelda Spinewith. He is at first skeptical, but upon inspecting their letters, he apologizes and leads them into the Inn and up the stairs. The second floor is a casino, the third floor is fine restaurant and a room for live shows. There are offices and a spa on the fourth floor. At the offices, where the Two Goblins logo is prominent there is a beautiful woman receptionist behind an impressive counter. She too is skeptical, but when shown the letters she calls a goblin who takes the letters back into the depths of the office. She
offers them any thing they would like to drink and they note that it all comes in Two Goblins bottles and glasses.
After a short wait the goblin returns, whispers to the receptionist, who then leads them back to meet Zelda. They find her occupying what appears to be a meeting room with a table with many books some of which are open with an open ledger in which she is clearly filling with notes. She is small with black hair, dressed showing rather a lot of skin, and speaks in a high squeaky voice. She has clearly read the letter and looks shocked. She thanks them for their news and asks them about the circumstances of her father's death. They tell her he was killed by animated paintings. Animated paintings she asks? They then describe the happenings in Drigbolton they witnessed just a few days ago. She tells them she too is aware something strange has happened, she was distracted during the evening they saw things fall from the sky on Drigbolton, but she can tell that the "Veil has weakened and arcane powers have waxed." She tells them she has just finished her studies at the White College in Leechfeld and was preparing to move to Mora where she was going to take up a position as a Professor of Magic at the University of Mora. She now has to rethink, as she now has to consider her duties as the new Miss of Dirgbolton.
She writes them a sort of credit voucher and says they are free to do whatever they would like at the Inn free of charge, and invites them to dinner with her and her guardian Dunston Hurley who is the boss of the Two Goblins enterprise.
Akadum and Kethry goes down to the first floor emporium and restaurant. Akadum has a couple of cups of Two Goblins Ale and begins challenging folks to arm wrestling. He mostly loses, has a good time, and learns that most of the visitors here are workers from the shoe and machinery factories
of Stattleford taking a weekend break at the Inn. Kethry notes the staff doting on a very old, obviously wiizard who is propped up in an over stuffed chair with his feet up. He is Elvamaez and tells Kethry an obviously fantastical tale of the spell he is working on called Subvert Government and Transfer Loyalty. He claims it requires an organ of a massive sea creature that must be caught and killed during the dark of Moon, and he begins to go into distressing detail on how to cut open the creature and extract the required organ. The staff asks Kethry to change the topic, and she asks him about recent events in the heavens. The old man's eyes change from clouded, to clear and bright and he begins to tell the now familiar story of the weakening of the Veil, the growth of arcane power, and the danger of those that dwell below. But then he talks about another veil. Apparently not a physical veil but some sort of agreement between those that dwell here and those that dwell in the stars in the sky. They will now be able to ignore something he calls the "Compact" and will be coming here. It will be time of trouble and danger, and he feels lucky that he will soon be passing through the "veil below" and will not be around to see the strife.
Kethry asks him to share a spell, and he is only too happy to reach into his volumous robe and pull out a scroll which he hands to Kethry. The effort seems to have exhausted him, and nods off to sleep.
Akadum and Kethry's attention is drawn to a halfling, who seems to be dressed like a goblin, and is sitting at a table with some buxom females and some large body guards. He is expounding the worship of the Great Goblin claiming that this place was once the Great Goblin's temple and is a source of great power. He is hawking a pamphlet for the low, low price of 2GP that will bring enlightenment, cure deseases, improve your love life, etc. if one just embraces the teachings of the Great Goblin as revealed by his humble servant Groulb. A number of the patrons are staring in rapt attention at Groulb, and Kethry buys one of the pamphlets. It is filled with a bunch of nonsense, platitudes, and many ads for more pamphlets, Great Goblin religious symbols, and seminars on worship of the Great Goblin led by his chosen one, Groulb.
Valdell goes up to the Two Goblins Show Room. There he meets a silverware salesman named Paulus Belasarius. He expounds the quality of his work, drawing Valdell's attention to the silverware they are using which features the two entwined goblins as on the pillars. He asks Valldel if he is interested in buying silverware or if knows anyone who might be interested. Valldel grows tired of his constant pitching.
A commotion breaks out. The famous bard Fitted Fast and her nemesis Dame Demented are getting into a shouting match over a handsome male dancer who looks bemused as the two statusque blondes escalate their encounter to bread throwing and a chase that ends up on stage. Suddenly the orchestra begins playing and the two begin singing a duet of one of Fitted Fast's recent big hits, "Me". Dancers appear and a big production number takes over the stage. Nearby patrons tell Valldel that this performance happens every few hours, and is a big attraction here at the Inn.
Women approach Valdell offering him company for the evening, but he brushes them off as he heads to dinner.
Dinner is a private dinning room with Zelda and her guardian Dunston Hurley. He is a man of size and dressed in clothes covered in Two Goblins logos, but always looks as if he has just slept in them. He talks a great deal trying to dominate the conversation. The banquet is sumptious and there are a horde of servants who see to any desire the diners might have. There is fine wine, and the meal features fresh fish apparently drawn from the near by rivers.
Zelda tells them that she will take up her birthright as the Miss of Drigbolton and forego her appointment at the UofM. She and her family beleive in the old ways where the power of blood is paramount, and it would be wrong of her not to take up her responsibility. She also mentions that many dangers are swirling about Drigbolton and the west of the Midlands. She fears for the people of Drigbolton and asks the party to escort her back and to stay on to be her strong right arm in protecting her new demense.
Before any one can speak Dunston butts in and begins to speak of the pride he has in his ward and the desire he has to see her and the other followers of the Old Ways throw off the yoke of the Morans. At this Zelda noticeably cringes. He goes to say that the key to this is to recover the Tablets of Chaos and he is confident that Zelda can do this.
Zelda manages to speak up and say the literature is not at all clear about the powers of the Tablets of Chaos, but are clear that they are in the Barrowmaze which is in the great Barrowmoor swamp west of Drigbolton. She notes that this place is well known as extremely dangerous, is likely to be even more dangerous with the weakening of the veil, but she does agree that Tablets should be gathered up. Things are likely to get much more dangerous in the days ahead. The signs point to the break down of the Compact that kept the dragons away from here and confined to the Moon and the 12 Dragonstars. There is strife there and it is only a matter of time before that strife spreads here. She greatly fears that a dragon will be attracted by the magical power of the Tablets.
At this point Akadum tells everyone he has seen this strife up close. He is from Mercury and was a crew member on a Dwarven space ship which was destroyed in a battle with the dragons who dwell on the Moon and the Dragonstars. He managed to survive the crash of his ship, and ended up in Drigbolton. He mentions Dwarven legends that all the stars
in the sky are connected deep underground, and if one goes deep enough other worlds can be found.
This brings a stunned halt to the conversation.
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