Wiki of The Dungeoneering Crew

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.
Session 14, A Tinkle In The Forest

Paldegora 

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Session 14 – 2023-03-11

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Well, last week was a bit of an information dump. There wasn’t much action, but it set the stage for the rest of the story. With all of the revelations, Elmer was worried about his wife and needed to get underway. That is the task after all, assist Elmer with transporting his goods. With that in mind, they began the next leg of their adventure. Let’s follow along and see what a P break is!

When we left off, they were standing before, what appeared to be, the equivalent of a sign, floating in the air, magically glittering. It read, “Ready for a P break?”. They continued on! As they made their way down the road, Eryn remembered the patch with a dragon emblem on it. She pulled it out and showed it to Elmer. She told him that Evan found this on the goblins below. We already knew about it but forgot to mention it in all of our discussions. Sir Evan wanted us to show it to him and get his take on it. He pointed out that it was very crude and he didn’t recognize it. He told them it definitely looked like it was made by goblins and it was very disturbing. This tells him that they are definitely organized now, someone has organized them. He told them that he definitely intended to gather his wife and go south to stay with his brother. He said, “This is getting to dangerous, we’re too old, I’m too old for this.”. 

They travelled for another fifteen to twenty minutes and came upon another of these floating glitter spots. They expected a similar response from it as they approached it. They paused and looked around to see if there was any sign of anyone around but they didn’t see anyone. There were no fresh tracks in the road. When they got to within about 10 feet of it, it coalesced into a sign saying, “I’m so full of P, it’s pouring out of my ears!”. Well, this is very strange, they all thought. They felt safe to ride under it so they continued on. After about five minutes, they came across another of these signs. Still seeing no one around, they moved up to within about ten feet of it and again, it coalesced into the phrase, “When Paldegoran’s need a P, they see me!”. They continued on and after a short distance, the come upon another one of these. As they approached, it solidified into the phrase, “Tinkle up ahead on the right!”. As they continued on from here, they started looking more intently ahead and to the right. Pretty soon they came up on another of these signs and it coalesced into the phrase, “Grand opening special, free P for all the ladies!”. Angelique said, “no thanks!”. Eryn said, “Maybe he’s a perfume salesman.”. They continued on for another 50 feet or so and another sign appeared saying, “Hold it, you‘re almost at Tinkles P shop!”. 

As they began moving, they saw something up ahead and on the right. They stopped as-soon-as they spotted it. Those on the wagon, jumped down as Cal-El and Eryn moved up to scout. There was another sign that was flashing. It said, “It’s P P time, turn here and hurry!”. Symon looked to Elmer and said, “What new devilry is this?”. Elmer said, “You got me! This wasn’t here when I came down!”. As Cal-El and Eryn moved forward, they could see a marble path leading off of the road with colored lights marking it. It was a very wide path. They thought that if it wasn’t here when Elmer came by earlier, then they built this very quickly. They speculated it was magical, possibly an illusion. As they approached the end of the path, it went off down the hill. It’s almost dark out. As they look down the hill, they see a sight that was hard to describe. The pathway goes down a slight hill and stops or changes into a set of stepping stones that appeared to be floating over a path of stars. It went so far and ended. About half way down that path, it turned east and continued on. On either side of this path were pools of acid. Outside of that was another pool of lava, very wide and long, inclosing the area supporting the wagon on three sides, much like a moat. Set in the lava were some statues, a piano, some comfortable looking chairs, and some other musical instruments. They weren’t burning, just sitting there. The starry path continued on until it reached stairs that led up to a stone platform. On the platform was a large covered wagon of different colors. There is a rug on the stone platform leading up to a wagon. Above the wagon is a large chandelier hanging in the air with nothing holding it. To the east of the wagon, in another pool of lava, a pedestal with a throne, two chests, and gold piled up on it. 

Cal-El approached the void portion of the path, and reached out and touched one of the stepping stones. It felt real enough. Eryn motioned everyone else to come up to the path. Cal-El looked for signs of movement or people out and about. There was a sign over the door gong into the wagon that said “Tinkle‘s P Shop“. Eryn makes her way down to the void area. She picked up a rock and threw it into the void space and it seemed to tumble off into the void. Cal-El attempted to disbelieve what he is seeing. Seeing the rock that Eryn threw in messed with his mind a little and he couldn’t seem to shake the obvious illusion. Each member tried to disbelieve it, some of them a few times But they continue to fail. Symon shouted out, “Tinkle! You have guests!”. There was no response. Eryn shouted, “We need a P break. Your making us wait out here. Do you want me to pee in the void?”. Again, there was no response. Symon walked over to the lava and could feel the heat coming from it. He spotted a sign that’s said “Performing at 9:00, Barry, the Master Pianist!”. Angelique finally succeeded in shaking the illusion and was able to see it for what it really was. She still saw the illusion but it faded a little and she could clearly see the grass and ground beneath. She could see the path the wagon took, she could see that it was the only thing out here that was real, except for some horses tied to a tree. She walked right across the ground, over the illusion, and stated that it was not real. Symon told her he new it wasn’t real but couldn’t get his mind to see through it. The others continued to try and see through the illusion. Angelique had called out to the wagon from just outside it, and received no response. She knocked on the door and as she did, the illusion vanished and everyone clearly saw the ground.  They all made their way over to her. 

Angelique knocked again and still received no response. A sign outside said “Welcome! Come on in!”. She opened the door and everyone but Cal-El and Xor went inside. They entered into, what appeared to be a shop. There were some shelves on the outer walls and some display cases spread across the center, all empty. There were some books scattered on the northern floor just beyond the last shelves. There was a table with gold and valuables spread out on it on the southern wall just passed the shelves. There was a desk straight ahead With a lot of writing materials on it. In the northeast corner and southeast corner, on the floor were two large circles with the school of magic symbols and up on the wall was a circle with the magic school symbols. Just below it, in the center of the floor was a large crystal, about 5ft tall, glowing blue. There were some levers also. There were some mirrors on either side. Behind the desk, they saw a little gnome gentleman. He was young with yellow hair and well dressed. He saw us come in started waving everyone to come in. Symon attempted to disbelieve while Eryn looked for obvious traps. Angelique said, “Hello!”. The gnome hopped down from his chair and came around the desk approaching Angelique. He said, in a really loud voice, “Welcome! Welcome to Tinkles P shop! We have every P you could ever need to take! If it’s phenomenal, perpetual, plain, practical, personal, purple, private, putrid, or even perfectly plump, we will have it!”. Angelique said, “You forgot pink!”. He answered her, “We have pink!  So please, honored patrons, peruse our priceless products and become perplexed per our pretentious portementals, and powerful prestidigitational acts. Promiscuity, you may ask, positively, why we even have porno pictures of prominent yet portly princes paddaling pretty prostitutes! Isn’t that just profoundly peachy? It’s our grande opening and we have polished platinum pendants with princess cut periwinkle stones just for you two ladies. Yours to keep, in perpetuity!”. The gnome presented two necklaces to the girls that look really nice and expensive. They slowly take them but don’t put them on.

The gnome spoke again and said, “Oh, by the way ladies, I also have a special running to. Would you like to purchase one of my pickles? They’re pleasingly plump, perfectly portioned, and will simply pulsate with power on your palate. What do you say?”. Angelique, unable to control her laughter replied, “No thank you!”, to which the gnome said, “Ah shaw!”. Then he looked to the men in the group and said, “or perhaps you gentlemen would prefer a petite pussy instead! It’s ##### and proper, and when you stroke it, it always purrs with vociferous delight!”. He held out his hand and up popped a kitten! Symon spoke up and said, “Preposterous!”. The gnome asked, “Would you like the kitten?”. Symon, loving this stuff replied, “Yeah!”. The gnome, smiling said, “Ten gold pieces!”. Symon replied, “Ten gold pieces?”, as he sighed and he told the gnome that he only had five gold pieces. The gnome grunted another “Ah shaw!”, and saying “Sorry Persephone, not today!”, he simply made the kitten disappear again. Eryn told him to wait, as she pulled out another five gold pieces and gave them to Symon so he could complete the purchase. The gnome re-presented the kitten and handed it to Symon while he took the gold. He told Symon that the kittens name was Persephone and she’s really sweet!’. The gnome then said, “Now, how about a pack of poodles!”. And with a single motion, made appear a swarm of poodles all bouncing around and barking. Angelique replied, “No thank you!”. The gnome said, “Ah Shaw”, and snapped his fingers and they disappeared. He then said, ”Just pick around, if I can persuade you to purchase something, don’t be perplexed, just purse those lips, or open that puss, pontificate it and I’ll pickup my ears, pinch my #####, look with my peepers, and procure it for you pronto! Isn’t that just fabulous! Wait, that starts with an F, but not if you spell it with a PH! It’s phantastic…tic…tic…tic...tic!”. He appeared to hang up, stuck repeating, tic…tic…tic. The glowing blue gem in the back is starting to flash. Every member of the party present stood, staring with concern at the creature, wondering what the hell was going on.

Then they heard a voice say, “Barry!”. Everyone turned toward the sound but they didn’t see anybody. “Barry!” The voice sounded again! Suddenly another older gnome popped up in the southern circle of magic symbols in front of them and looked at the stuck gnome and grimaced!”. “Barry, it’s messing up again! See if you can fix it!”. The gnome we can see, must be Barry. Barry rolled his eyes and walked up to the blue stone and smacked it. The broken gnome sputtered out a few more odd sounds before he broke into the opening line again, “Welcome to Tinkle’s P shop!”. The other voice called out, “Just turn the damn thing off, I can’t hear myself think for it anyway.”. Then appeared another gnome we learned later to be the real Tinkle! He was a very old looking gnome. Barry did something and the glow went away. Tinkle said, “Thanks Barry! Now I can have time to think!”. He’s went back to looking at a book. Barry make a sound, like clearing his throat, and when Tinkle looked back it him and asked, “What?”, Barry looked toward the party before them. Tinkle looked over at the group, startled and said, ”Oh, sorry, sorry, I forgot you were here! Barry? You can go!”. Barry rolled his eyes, went back to the back wall and pulled a lever! Tinkle broke in and said, “Oh Barry, by the way, if you don’t mind, would you bring me the treatise on “Alpha Male Orcs and Their Relationship to the Flying Squirrels of Bongadar?”. Barry shrugged as if questioning and Tinkle replied “from the library”, Barry looked at him again and Trinkle said, “oh, uh, uh, It’s filed with cookbooks!”. Barry looked peeved, rolls his eyes and pulled a lever and he disappeared. 

Tinkle approached the group then, and said, “How can I help you? Oh, by the way, have you heard about that?”. Angelique and Eryn responded at the same time, “About what?”. Tinkle replied, “About the flying squirrels of Bongadar and the Orcs.”. Both replied again, “No!”. Tinkle said,. “It’s the oddest thing, when they get within 50 feet of each other, they go nuts.”. Angelique said, “…..Okay…..”. Tinkle said, “It’s fascinating!”. He followed up with, “My name is Tinkle, this is my shop. I apologize for the salesman, I bought it 6 months ago. It’s all the rage in Gilpliset. Everyone has them there now apparently. I think I got took! The magic in it is flawed, the base magic.”, then he asked, “You wouldn’t happen to have a dragons toenail, would you, or clipping?”. Angfelique answered, “Sorry, no! I’ve never seen dragons.”. Eryn followed up with, “I didn’t know dragons were real?”. Tinkle said, “That’s what I need to fix it!”. He followed with, “I’m sorry, can I help you with something?”. Angelique asked, “What’s with this necklace that he gave us?”. Tinkle replied, “Oh, well, that’s just a gift! It won’t kill you, it’s perfectly harmless, I give those away to all the ladies that visit the shop.”. Angelique asked, “Then what’s with all of the illusions around this place?”. Tinkle replied, “Oh, well, you don’t want riff-raff coming in!’. He said, “Any kind of race that is all about their preservation will not take a chance, and if they do, they’ve got to go through my lava pit to get to the gold back there. Do you know how many have dropped dead doing that?”. Angelique answered, “I can imagine!”. Eryn asked, “Why is there a pile of books on the floor?”.Tinkled told her he is an archivist doing research. He said, “That’s one of the reasons I bought the salesman. That way I wouldn’t have to worry about running the shop, I could do that and he could take care of the shop. He really hasn’t worked out so far!”. Eryn also stated that their was nothing on his shelves. He said, “Oh yes, sure there is, a little bit if everything. What do you need?”. Angelique said, “To see what’s on them!”. Tinkle looks up and shouted, “Barry…..Barry…..”. A moment later, Barry popped back into the room, he looked perturbed. Tinkle said, “The security system, turn it off so they can see what’s on there.”. Barry rolled his eyes and moved to the southwestern area of the wagon and pushed something. When he did, all of the shelves suddenly had things on them, and all of the display cases. There are potions, books, weapons, armor, everything you can think of. Then Barry came back to Tinkle and handed him a book. Tinkle said, “Ah, this is it! Thank you Barry!”. Barry looked perturbed and rolled his eyes.”. Tinkle told us that Barry doesn’t ever say anything. He thinks he can talk, but he doesn’t seem to find anything worth saying!”. Barry goes back to the lever and pulls it, disappearing again.

Symon asked, “Where did he go?”. Tinkle replied, “Probably, our quarters, or the library. I have an extensive library!”. Symon followed up with, “So that’s a teleportation portal?”. Tinkle replied, “Yes, don’t you have one?”. Symon responded, “No, I’ve never seen such a thing!”. Tinkle followed up with, “Where would I put all of my magical archives, files, records, and all my books that I’ve been studying, got to put it somewhere!”. Angelique asked, “Did you ever run into somebody, in your studies, I think the name was Sullivan? Tinkle pondered the question saying, “Sullivan….Sulivan, Sullivan who? What’s your name?”. Angelique said, “My name is Francesca Hahn!”. She said, “I’m not related to this person, it’s a friend of mine! I just… I can;’t remember his last name, just his first name is Sullivan!”. Tinkle said, I don’t know, I meet a lot of people, I go all over the place, as a matter of fact, where are we?”. Angelique told him he was just outside of Frosthaven.”. He didn’t know where that was. Symon and Angelique mentioned town names and lakes and mountain regions before he realized that he was in North Philanon. He said he hadn’t checked in a while, so he didn’t know where he was. He said he doesn’t control the traveling, the Salesman he bought does that. Everyone started looking around some to see what he had to sell. They found he had almost anything you could think of, to seek, that is magical. He said, “I might have met a Sullivan or two but I wouldn’t know unless I had a last name. By the way, what are your names?”. He started with Symon who said, “Symon Sayess, at your service.”. Tinkle asked if his was the magical type which Symon told him yes, but that his magic pales in comparison to what he is seeing here. Tinkle indicated that he was very old and Symon should give it time, and lots of studying. Eryn was looking around at all the cases when Tinkle asked her name. She told him that her name was Eryn Nial. She said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I like your shop.”. 

Angelique said, “So you like all magic stuff, right?”. He told her that magical stuff was his specialty. He is a gnome after all. She told him that she had a few items and wondered if he could tell her what they were. He told her sure, and asked to see them. She pulled out the ring, “He said it’s a ring of protection +1”. She showed him both of the shields. He said they were both +1 magical shields. Then she showed him the bracers. He said they were bracers of defense, armor class 7. He looked to Symon and said, “I’m surprised that you couldn’t tell what they were yourself, young man!”. Symon replied, “I can’t tell off the top of my head like you can. I have to cast a spell. I’m sure you are familiar with the identify spell. It is quite debilitating.”. Tinkle replied, “Not when you have a permanent one in your shop! I know everything that comes in the door.”. Angelique also showed him some arrows. He said that the arrows were +1 magical arrows. Symon started asking about spell components, bat guano, sulfur, gum arabic. Tinkle hollered, ”Barry!”. Barry appeared and Tinkle told him that Symon needed a list of things. On the list was Bat Guano, Sulfur, and Licorice Root. Barry went back and pulled a lever near the wall with the school of magic symbols and a portal opened and inside was a massive warehouse. Barry walked down the isle and looked at the list and pulled the items. He returned with them and handed them off and closed the portal. Symon asked if that was a physical place or some place on a different plane. Tinkle told him the place definitely exists, it’s here on this plane, it’s back at my place. Symon asked where he was from. Tinkle told him Gilpliset. (It’s known as a place where gnomes live, on the north/eastern continent) Eryn asked, “So you’re able to walk from here in Philanon, to another continent, Gilpliset, through that portal, that easily?”. He replied, “It helps me to make a living, and I can still do my research.”. Tinklle asked if there was anything else he could help us with? Symon asked about the fish, the one with the poison from the Nox region and how easy it would be to get. He told him that we’d seen evidence of it’s use here and were wondering how it could have gotten to this part of the world.  Tinkle said, “It’s very deadly! No, I don’t sell things like that.”. Then he asked, ”Where have you seen it?”. Symon told him that we’d seen it used as a weapon. Symon asked if Tinkle knew of someone in this region that might deal in it? Tinkle thought on it and said he didn’t know anyone, but he might could find out.

Symon asked, if we’d be able to find him again. He told us he’d be here for a while. We just set up the shop here and I have to get this salesman fixed. He told Symon that he had to figure out a substitute for the dragon toenail clippings. He’d figure out something. He said there was probably something in his library. Then he jumped up and ran over to the back wall and pulled another lever. A different portal opened to a massive, well-lit library, with rows and rows of books. He said, ”There is probably something in here.”. Then he turned and said, “Oh, I’m being rude!”, leaving the portal open he said, “I’ll check on that later! For a price, I might be able to figure out who sells it. I will tell you this, there is one particular group who likes to use it like we’re talking about.”. Angelique asked who. Tinkle said, “A group of assassins! They hire themselves out.”. Eryn asked if the group was large. He told her that no one really knows for sure, “I could probably find out for a fee!”. Eryn asked what the fee would be. Tinkle commenced to calculate to value of the service. He came to the price of 500gps. Eryn said, “For 500gps, you would be able to tell us who they are, how many there are, and where they are?”. Tinkle said, ”Probably!”. Symon asked how long he would be here. Tinkle told him probably for at least a couple of weeks. Eryn told him we may come back by and take him up on it. Symon asked him about his knowledge of dragon toenail clippings and if he knew where to find such things. Tinkle told him north, passed the cities and towns, north like in the mountains would be a good place to start looking for them. Symon asked if there were dragons there, or remnants of dragons. Tinkle said, “I don’t know if there are any there now, but there has been in the past! There were a lot of them here about 50 years ago!”. Symon asked, “Where’d they go?”. Tinkle said, “Ah, that’s the question. That’s the question everyone wants to know, including myself!”. 

Symon asked, “What do you know about Montague Island?”. Tinkle replied, “Montague Island? Very famous, very famous! Yeah, he started the whole thing you know! Well, maybe not the whole thing but he figured out how to use magic, how to do all the stuff. Yeah, famous island, pirates. The island was off the west coast of Bongador. It disappeared, no one knows where it went. Even I don’t know where it went.”. Symon asked, “Did it disappear or was it moved?”. Tinkle answered, “I’m, not sure! Why do you ask?”. Symon answered, “I’m quite a student of magic as you can probably tell, I’m young, and we’ve recently began to learn about Azar and Montague. It’s quite a fascinating tale.”. Tinkle asked, “Azar? Montague? Where did you hear that from?”. Symon answered, “Honestly? Tales from people we have met and spoken to along our journeys have spoken of this.”. Tinkle asked, “What did they tell you?”. Symon answered, “That Montague was kind of the father of magic, and they had artifacts that they had to hide, and they hid them, and Tim hid the island. This is all a little out of my league, but things that disappear like that kind of fascinate me.”. “Where did these people that told you this hear it from?”, asked Tinkle. Symon answered, “I don’t know, I assumed it was passed down?”. The first person I talked to was in robes, like a priest of some sort.”. Tinkle said, “Priest wouldn’t be interested in that kind of magic.”. Then he asked Angelique, “My dear, you are a priestess of Nah, right? Are you interested in that kind of magic?”. She answered yes to being a priestess of Nah and no to being interested in arcane magic. 

Symon asked, “What about a priest of Ahn?”. Tinkle replied, “Ahn doesn’t exist. No body cares about that anyway it’s all….You know the gods only got their power from the magic that came from the dragons anyway?“. Symon said, “But Ahn has followers!”. Tinkle replied dismissively, “Nah!”. Symon said, “They may be loons but they exist.”. Eryn asked, “So you’re saying that Ahn is not the father of the three?”. Tinkle said, “Oh, he is the father and he existed, so they say.” Angelique asked, “What happened to him?”. Tinkle said, “He left, or that’s what they tells us. I don’t half believe it anyway! As far as a priesthood of him, you all will believe anything won’t you?”. Symon said, “I don’t know if I believe, I’m just curious! I’m looking for wisened people like you to enlighten me!”. Tinkle said, “I probably could enlighten you about that! Hmm….50 gold pieces!”. Symon started digging through his pockets as he said, “I’ve always found in every legend, a modicum of truth somewhere.”. Symon finally produced 49 gold pieces. Tinkle accepted that amount and said, “Ahn did exist, according to all the mythology, and he created the gods that we all know. Your god, my dear,”, looking at Angelique, “Nah, the god of balance, then Phi, the god of good and light and all that stuff, and Sahn, the god of darkness and all that and eventually became evil, right? So, Ahn was never here. So, there is no priesthood of Ahn. There is nobody worshiping Ahn because they don’t get anything for it. If anyone is telling you that, they are telling you a story. I know, the ones that are telling you that….have you run across some?”. Symon answered “Yes!”. Tinkle asked, “Well who do you think they are?”. Angelique said, “Crazy people?”. Eryn added, “They tend to be highly emotional.”. Tinkle said, “They are crazy, they are crazy evil! Which god do you think they really follow?”. Eryn replied, “Sahn?”. Tinkle said, “Ah now your thinking. That’s who I bet it is.”. “Eryn said, “So bascially Sahn is fooling these people into thinking Ahn exists so they build a religion around him but in actuality, they are building a religion around Sahn.”. Tinkle Looked to Symon and  said, “She doesn’t get it, does she?”. Symon said, “Just straight up deceat?”. Tinkle said, “Yes, but the question is, why?”. Symon said, “For financial gain?”. Eryn said, “For Chaos?”. Tinkle said, “I don’t know, to be honest with you. I do know they are out there and I know that they have infiltrated everywhere. So you need to watch yourself around these people because they are crazy, and they’re dangerous!….There is no Ahn, there is no priesthood of Ahn, there is no power with Ahn. What better way to infiltrate every country, every major city, then pretending to be something you’re not.”. Eryn said, “They are ignored as they move around!”. Tinkle said, “Makes sense!”. He followed with, ”Hopefully you haven’t had too many dealings with these people.”. Eryn said, “No, not really”.

Symon asked, “Do you think it’s possible that the dragons could return?”. Tinkle said, “Of course! They’re not gone, they’re just missing! Do you know how I know?”. Angelique asked, “How?”. Tinkle said, “Look around! None of this would be possible without the dragons!”. Eryn said, “The dragons basically channel the magic, so without the dragons, there would be no magic?”. Tinkle looks to Symon and said, “He knows that, or he should know that! If the dragons were truly destroyed or dead, there would be no more magic, then I’d be out of job, what would I do then? I guess I’d be a librarian. I kind of am that now. That’s my specialty, books ands research.”. Symon asked, “Is there a place on the continents where the magic is stronger than others?”. Tinkle answered, “No, it’s the same everywhere. Are you sure there is nothing else you need me to identify?”. He looked at Symon and said, “Especially you young man, that you’d be willing to show to me?“. Symon started looking through his things. Symon glanced toward Eryn, Eryn realized that he needed some people to not be present during this part of the conversation. Eryn tried to get everyone else to leave the wagon and let them speak. They didn’t leave the wagon, but moved to the far end and started looking at items on the shelves. 

Symon reached into his bag and pulled out the book. Tinkle said, “Ah, now we come to it!”, he asked, “Do you mind if I look at it?”. Symon tried to determine if he should show it to him or not, and decided, based on a bad roll, that Tinkle is obviously 2 or 3 degrees out of phase with everything, but he seems to be genuine. Symon explained, “We came into possession of this book, and not very easily.”. Tinkle asked, “May I look! Or if you don’t trust me, just lay it on the table.”. Symon handed it over. Tinkle looked at it and said, Ah…I need a copy of this for my library.“. He flipped through it briefly and said, “Mmm….Mmmmm..You do know this is priceless, right?”. Symon said, “It has the price of life on it. Many people have died over this book!”. Tinkle said, “I’m not surprised! How did you come into possession of this?”. Symon told him, “It was intrusted to us, to keep it safe from these priests of Ahn/Sahn.”. Tinkle asked, “Are they after this book do you know?”. Symon replied, “It would appear so!”. Eryn said, “It appears they likely possessed it at one time.”. Tinkle said, “Ah..Tell me about it!”. He takes the book and closes it and asks, “If you don’t mind, I would like to make a copy!”. Symon asked, What does that entail?”. “It requires your permission and only takes a couple of moments. How do you think I got all of the books I’ve got.”. Symon told him it was fine if he wanted to copy it.”. Tinkle put his hand over the book and he held his other hand out. The book glowed and another book began to form under his other hand. A copy finally coalesced in his other hand as he thanked us. Symon noted that the books looked exactly alike. 

Symon wondered aloud, why hasn’t someone done that before, if this book is so all important. Eryn said, “Maybe they have!. This may be the original but we’d have no way of knowing if someone had already done that.”. Tinkle told us, “No, that is my spell! I’m the only one who knows how that works!”. Symon asked if he had any incites on the book. Tinkle told him he’d need to research it. He does tell him, “This is an important book. Especially that last part. I might be able to figure out the missing lines but that will take time. I don’t have a spell that will just do that.”. Eryn tried to see if there was something that we could use to contact him. Tinkle told him no, there was nothing like that. Symon asked, ”Could you find us if you wanted to, if we were somewhere in the north land and you needed to communicate with us? I can assure you that we are on the side of good.”. Tinkle answered, “Probably….yeah, I could figure out a way!”. He followed with, ”If you weren’t on the side of good, you would have died when you walked through the door. I’m no fool. I have protection on my stuff.”. Symon said, “Okay!”. Then he followed up with, “In light of seeing this book, would you be able to tell us any more about these assassins? They killed for the book!”. Eryn added, “They used the fish poison on the people they killed as well.”. Tinkle said, “Of course they did!, I’ll have to look into this, that is disturbing. Are they around here?”. Symon told him that yes, we’ve come across them on a couple of occasions. They’ve never directly attacked us, but right now, we are felling a pretty defenseless. And in light of that, is there anything we can do to protect ourselves from that poison?”. Tinkle said, “They’re pretty bad! You know they come from Nox?”. Symon said, “We knew the poison came from there but didn’t exactly know where the assassins were from.”. Tinkle said, “They are a group of assassins that hire out all over the world. They cost a lot of money but they get the job done! Whatever they are asked to do, they generally succeed at it. I’m surprised! You said they are after that book? And you wound up having the book?”. Symon indicated yes to both questions. Tinkle asked, “Do they know you have this book?”. Symon said, they’re not supposed to but, you never know. I’m pretty sure my life is forfeit. They’ll likely find out I have the book!”. 

Eryn asked, “Can you tell if someone is scrying on us?”. Tinkle said, “Yeah, I’ll give you a freebie.”.  With that, he waved his hands, the whole place glowed for a bit and then it died down and he said, “No one is scrying on you!”. She asked if he could tell if someone had been scried on recently but Tinkle told her it didn’t leave anything residual behind. He said, “If you’re going to walk around with this book, you need to be very careful. Odds are in their favor that they will get it if they want it. Eryn asked if there was something that would allow us to see these assassins or to see if someone is scrying on us? He said, “there are things in the world that would let you see these things. I don’t have one, and if I did, you couldn’t afford it, but a gem of True Seeing would allow you to see these things. But they are expensive”. Symon asked if he had anything that would allow him to hide the book, a bag of holding or any kind of container that would make it undetectable? Tinkle told him a bag of holding might work but there are ways around it. He said, “If you want me to, you can put it in my library!”. Symon said, “If we had a way to find you, we can’t just lose the book!”. Tinkle said, “No, no, you won’t lose the book, it’s yours and you can come and get it anytime. This would give him a chance to research the original version.”. Symon asked, “How would I find you?”. Tinkle said, “For now, I’ll be here! In the future, you can just call my name! I’ll here you!”. Symon said, “I admit, I am sorely tempted. I can think of no other place to keep it any safer than your library.”. Tinkle said, “No one can get to it but me!”. We took a few moments and wrote down the text that was meaningful to us. Eryn asked if there was magic on it that would mask a code or hide something in the book”. Tinkle said, “No, there is preservation magic on it. That’s how you are able to walk around with a 2,000 year old book and it not fall apart. There could be a cypher but he’d have to research it to see. There is nothing that I can wave my hand and make appear.”. Eryn said that she thought it would be a good idea to leave it with him. ”If we can just call out his name and communicate, it sounds like it would be okay.”. Tinkle said, “He’d probably send Barry”. Barry, off to the side, kind of shrugs. Tinkle said, “Is it one hundred percent safe, nothing is, but it’s maybe 99.3 percent safe. I wouldn’t advise you to walk around with it, if they are after it.”.

Angelique had been looking at items on the shelves and remember something in her pack. She pulled out a yellow green vial of liquid from of her pack. She said “We were told this is Wyvern Venom.”. Tinkle said, “That’s exactly what it is!”. Angelique asked, “But there aren’t any of those around anymore, right?”. He said, “You’ll believe anything you hear too. Of course there are wyverns. There are dragon spawn around everywhere. They just don’t show themselves. They’re not as common as they used to be. A bunch of them died about 50 years ago in the war, but they’re still around.”. Symon asked, “Can they disguise their appearance?”. Tinkle said, “They just stay away from people! But wyverns, absolutely, there are wyverns!”. Then he said, “Wait a minute, let me see that!”. Angelique handed it to him. He said, “This is not just a wyvern, this is a drake wyvern.” Angelique asked, ”A drake wyvern?”. Tinkle said, “Yeah, you know what that is don’t you? A drake wyvern is a half dragon and half wyvern. They are badder than normal wyverns! This is pretty fresh! Where did this come from?”. Angelique told him, “In the sewers beneath Frosthaven, held by kobalds and goblins!”. He asked them to tell him the story. They told him what happened there. Then he wanted to see the badge so they showed him that as well. He said, ”You know what that is don’t you? It’s a wyvern! You can tell because it doesn’t have front legs. Dragons have four legs but wyverns only have two.”. Eryn asked if he knew what this meant and he told her, not a clue. Tinkle asked again, “So, do you want me to put the book in my library? I’m happy to do it, no charge. You can come get it anytime you want it.“. Symon said, “And all I have to say is, “I’ve got to tinkle!” Is that the phrase?”. Tinkle said, ”Yes!”. Symon looked to the rest of the group for a sign of what they thought. Eryn nodded her head in approval. Angelique said, “Yes!”. He said, “Thank you! I’ll keep; it safe!”. He went over to a lever and pulled it and the library opened and he went in and a few moments later came out and shut it. Eryn said, “If you study it and find out anything else about it, please include that in the communications.” Tinkle said, “I’ll see what I can find out!”. 

Symon told him that there is a companion map that goes along with this book. He  asked Tinkle if he knew anything about that. Tinkle said he knew nothing about a map. He asked if it was referenced in the book. We didn’t think it was referenced specifically. Angelique said, “We think that some people that tried to get the book, we were told, had a map, and needed the book in order to read the map.”. Tinklle said, “I’ll have to look into that. I don’t know anything about a map.”. Symon asked, “Do you know anything about what might be going on up north today, any armies building or anything like that?”. Tinkle answered, “No! I’m not really sure where I am at. I’ll have to look!”. Tinkle asked, “Where did you hear about this map?”. Symon asked, “Are you familiar with Sir Charles Gregory?”. Tinkle answered, “No, not particularly!”. Symon continued, “He was an elite guard for King Nordane. He was mayor of Frosthaven and was attacked and killed by these assassins, we think. He wasn’t poisoned though, just beaten to death. He told us, on his deathbed, that they had a map and were looking for this book. They didn’t know how to read the map.“. Tinkle asked, “And he had the book?”. Eryn said, ”He kept it hidden and didn’t give it to them.”. Tinkle asked, “How did he get this book?”. Symon told him, “From one of these Priests of Ahn!”. Eryn added, “When they were unable to get the information about the book out of Sir Charles, they killed the priest during their escape. They used the poison on him!”. Tinkle said, “There’s something going on here, wouldn’t you say?”. Symon said, “That’s what we are trying to piece together.”. Tinkle said, ”I don’t know about this map, I’ll have to do some research into that! Maybe I’ll find something out. If I do, I’ll let you know!”. 

Symon asked, “Have you had any unsavory folk visit since you’ve been here?”. Tinkle answered, “No, they wouldn’t have lived long!”. Symon said, “Would you know if they died from the illusion outside?”. Tinkle said, “Of course!”. Then after a brief pause he continued, “You have a friend up at the top of the hill sitting in the cart still.”. Symon asked, “So you would see people come here, and you haven’t seen anybody?’. Tinkle said, “No, you are the first customers since I opened up here.”. Symon asked, “Even with all that signage, no one else has come by?”. Tinkle said, “Not yet! Like I said, I just…”, he pulled out a little box that looked like a compass and he said, “I just give this a spin and the sales guy just goes that way and sets up shop! I don’t worry about it any more. It gives me more time to do my research.”, as he pointed over to the big pile of books. He said, “Is there is anything else you need?”. Symon asked, “I spent all of my gold, does anyone have any gold to pay for the Bat Guano, Sulfer, Rose Pedals, and Spider Webs.”. Tinkle said, “Since you shared the book with me, you can have all of that for half price!”. The party said their goodbyes. Tinkle told Symon, “You keep up your studies young man.”. To Angelique, he said, “And you, young lady, be careful!”. Symon said, “:You’ve been inspirational sir.”. He replied, “That’s what Tinkle is all about!…Well, I have to get back to what I was doing. Barry is going to give a concert in a little while and I have to be ready for that.”. Angelique looked at him and asked, “Why are you telling me to be careful?”. Tinkle said, “Common since dear!”. He and Barry walked to the circle and both disappeared.

They made their way out of the door. The illusion was gone and all they saw down here now were the wagon and horses tied nearby. They headed back up the hill to the wagon. Elmer and Xor were still waiting there. Elmer asked, “What was this all about?”. Symon relayed the story of what happened. Elmer said, “Gnomes, they always got on my nerves. They are a little crazy you know!”. Symon said, “His magic was way beyond anything I’ve seen!”. When asked, Elmer thought that maybe a little up the road, we could find a place to camp for the night. Eryn told him that Barry was going to do a concert later and that maybe we could watch that. Elmer asked who Barry was. Eryn told him he was one of Tinkles companions. They pulled off the road a little ways beyond Tinkles wagon and set up camp. They had a nice meal and Eryn listened for the concert to start. Symon took the bracers of defense. Eryn took one of the magical shields. Xor took the Ring of Protection. They split the +1 flight(not sheaf) arrows between Angelique and Cal-El, 5 and 5. Symon had the kitten. Cal-El gave Symon 50 gold pieces, since he doesn’t need the gold. Eryn gave him 50 gold pieces as well. He was going to see about picking up a scroll or two. They never heard any music or anything going on. As it got late, they set up a watch and turned in. Eryn took the first watch, Xor took the second watch. The night passed uneventfully.

Symon went back to Tinkles wagon. He went to the door and there was a sign that said, “Closed”. He returned to the campsite and they had breakfast and started back down the road. They travelled for about half a day. The terrain got more and more wild and rugged in appearance. Around 1:00, Elmer started getting nervous. He said, “The horses are acting strange! We need to be more vigilante!”. Cal-El and Xor split to either side of the road and moved on ahead. Eryn pulled out her bow and stayed on the wagon with Elmer. The horse finally rears as Elmer struggles to control it. Suddenly, never casually, two very large wolves come out and flank the road ahead, snarling. Then some wargs with goblin riders on them closed for attack. The battle began. Symon casts shield. Cal-El attacked a goblin, hitting him once, and injuring him badly. Xor attacked and missed his goblin. Eryn jumped down from the wagon and moved about 30 feet down the road, she fired on a goblin scoring a critical hit but barely scratching it, stupid dice! Elmer was digging through a bag. The wolves moved up and one snapped at Cal-El and hit him. The other wolf missed. The goblin and warg on Xor attacked him. The goblin hit for a lot of damage. The warg hit him as well. A goblin attacked Cal-El and missed. His warg also attacked and hit. Angelique fired on the wolf she fired at earlier. Angelique fired again and hits the big wolf. Eryn fired her second shot and hit the goblin on Xor, killing him. Xor hit the newly riderless warg and almost killed it. 

The battle continued, Angelique cast a cure light wounds on Xor to help stop the bleeding. Xor was missed by both opponents and Cal-El was also missed. Two magic missile bolts shot into two of the wolves. As they glance back over their shoulders, they could see that the bolts came from a wand that Elmer was wielding. Out of the trees up ahead, they saw something they’d never seen before. It’s a white wolf with glowing eyes. It also spoke with a guttural voice and said, “You Die!”. Eryn dropped her bow and drew her sword and shield and moved in to attack a goblin. She missed! Cal-El takes out a goblin, and when attackied the warg he was riding and broke his sword. Xor attacked and missed. The white wolf charged in and attacked Eryn. He blast his frosty breath at her. She takes quite a bit of damage. Eryn shouted back, “You bitch!”. Cal-El and Xor were both missed with multiple attacks. Angelique fired at but missed the big white wolf. Symon fired magic missiles on the two creatures on Xor. Hit them both but they didn’t fall. From behind him came three more bolts that hit the two creatures and killed them. Cal-El attacked and missed. Xor moved to attack the white wolf and hit it hard. Eryn attacked the warg she was facing and missed. Angelique fired on the white wolf and broke her bow string. Xor attacked and hit the white wolf very hard.

Eryn attacked the warg again and missed. Symon pulled out his sling and fired on the white wolf, and hit it. The white wolf turned and bit at Xor and missed. Cal-El missed. Xor missed the white wolf. The warg hit Cal-El and the wolf hit him as well. Angelique cast produce flame and hurled one at the white wolf and hit it, he is burning. Eryn hits the warg she’s on and damages it but it’s still standing. Xor hit the white wolf and took it down. Angelique stepped to a different location and the threw another flame at the warg and missed. Xor hit the warg hard. Symon moved to a good location and fired at the wolf and missed. Eryn hit at the warg again and killed it. Cal-El was attacked by the remaining wolf and missed. Cal-El got in a final attack and killed the remaining wolf. We found a few silver on the goblins, (5 each) The wolves wore collars with the Wyvern image on them. Symon pulled out his kitten and starts petting it. Eryn told everyone that the white wolf pelt could be worth close to 5,000 gold pieces, it’s slightly singed. 

Let’s pause here. That was a lot to absorb. The book is hopefully safe and they’ve made another friend, possibly a very powerful ally. 

Everyone got 327xp’s and 1 silver piece each.

Dm gave us another 260xps a general experience.


==== DM Notes ====


They learned more about the gods, about Tim Montague, and about how the magic works. They learned that the Ahn priests are likely Sahn priests in disguise. Also remember a priest of Ahn had the book, where did he get it, where was he going with it. 

David thought Rogard was headed north, towards the dragons. 

Learned something about the assassins and the poison. They come from Nox but there is no identifying characteristic about them that would identify them as coming form Nox.

In nox, there are a lot of darklings there and the twisted races that the dragons created. Some of these assassins may even be some of these twisted or darklings. They hire out everywhere for a lot of money because the almost never fail. 

Darklings, and probably where the orcs and goblins came from, the dragons took the races and twisted them.

Chris said that Sir Charles said his killers were one man and one woman, that suggested they were human or very human like. 

David said that we also understand why Sir Charles was shutting down magic use, if using basic makes the dragons stronger, he may have been trying to weaken them.

We also learned that the emperor dragons are still here. They supply the magic and if they were gone, the magic would be gone. It proves the dragons existed and that they still exist.

Learned about the differences between the dragons an wyverns. Learned about Drake Wyverns, as that’s the venom we carry.