Tenkos, Cleric [plague doctor kit] (Sugarplum)
Last time the party took a huge chest of silver and half of the library from Cooper Thornhill's basement of horrors, told everyone about what happened, and finally made it back to Tenkos' patron's domain. Oh and Viggo is not dead but not the same, either. Edmond joined the party! They caught up to him when they rode their wagon into Meilleur, the first town within Prince Fabian's domain, after two days of breakneck travel. Fabian is Tenkos' patron prince so it was a mad dash to get from Stilton to somewhere a little friendlier. They arrived in town right after another traveler who looked even more haggard than they were. They went straight to the nicest inn they could see, The Maiden & Chariot, and invited their new friend along. The military insignia on Edmond's right hand as he shook Tenkos' indicated membership Prince Florent's military. He looked beaten and road-weary, with a thick cloak and heavy iron bracers around his wrists. He was certainly grateful for the hospitality.
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| Perhaps if I use gimp more I will not hate it so much and simple things like this will not take me FOREVER. |
Claus noticed all this but was more focused on the part where Edmond addressed TENKOS before CLAUS. SO RUDE. This was only underscored when they actually entered the the inn and the host, Mara, directly addressed Tenkos and ignored everyone else. She showed him great deference as she guided them to a choice spot near the fire and explained what culinary delights awaited them in this fine establishment.
For breakfast, roasted pheasant stuffed with its own deviled eggs and hot spiced cider (Edmond detected a hint of cardamom and felt warm and whole for the first time in DAYS). Supper would be smoked lamb, fat charred on the outside but stuffed throughout with morsels of garlic. I was going to get into breakfast after they had woken up the next day but aaaaaah it was fresh crawdads from the river. With luxurious butter sauce, creamed up. Dammit. Sidebar: I was told at one point that I should consider starting a food description ASMR channel. Perhaps I have found my true motivation in RPGs! Through all this food description Tenkos and Claus shared their story about what had happened in Stilton. Edmond confessed that he had been imprisoned in Prince Florent's stronghold wrongfully and, although he had not seen the prince involved himself, suspected some kind of deviation or corruption in the chain of leadership. He thinks it may have been related to his revelation that Prince Florent's soldiers were making possibly unsanctioned forays into Ghallia-That-Fell for purposes other than keeping the riverbanks clear. He managed to escape but kept the manacles around his wrists and the heavy chain links around his chest as a reminder. Sharing is bonding and they spent the next day resting and cleaning up from their travels, making their way deeper into Prince Fabian's domain and arriving at the town of Pastow. Edmond wanted to give something back to his new friends after their generosity in Meilleur so went looking for some general labor he could perform to earn some scratch. He quickly assessed the other patrons at the Drunken Fool, calling out one patron who was on the edge belligerence and another who was concealing a knife. The bartender hired Edmond on the spot for the evening! Edmond got the drunk to excuse himself, passing along a flask of cider and some whispered advice that, "The secret is a bit of cardamom." The man hiding a knife turned out to be a coward, and overall Edmond was able to easily manage the room and prevented any trouble from breaking out. Ransa Refont, propriertor of the Drunken Fool, was so appreciative that he paid more than the general rate (10sp), gave a bonus on top of it (another 10sp), and told Edmond that he was welcome any time he was in town. Sidebar: Pastow was about to be an eyeblink. This whole sequence all came off a "Hey is there anything else you want to do here before you travel on?" prompt. Hell of an opening play from Edmond! An entertaining sidebar and a friendly contact to boot. Tenkos, inspired, went about searching for some cardamom to buy for his new friend. "Isn't Cardamom from India?!" Turns out in real life, yes, yes it is, which is good enough for our "use real world geography as a very loose model because games are hard" campaign world. Luckily Tenkos' prince encourages living well so he was able to scrounge some up (at a not insignificant cost) and gifted the spice to Edmond. Now well seasoned, the group finally traveled on to Lenticot, Fabian's manor town near their fortress. I asked the party to be on the same page with what they want to tell Prince Fabian, figured travel time was a opportunity. Claus asked if there was anything they wanted to get out of Prince Fabian and nope, not really. Tenkos just wanted to execute his duty to his sworn prince! Claus was down to tell them in detail about all the stuff they found out in Ghallia with an eye towards portraying themselves as the heroes! Probably close enough, this time. Edmond wanted to try and get a private audience to discuss his concerns about Prince Florent and potentially illicit forays into Ghallia-That-Fell. Tenkos just wanted to go home for a bit and fill in prince. They entered the city proper and the guards at the gate immediately recognized Tenkos, first as one of the faceless and then called out by name. They dispatched a runner to inform Prince Fabian while two other guards began to escort them through the city toward Fabian's manor. In the distance they could see the prince's stronghold on the banks of the River of Thorns.
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