Previously, the heroes spoke to the szygani in order to find out more information on the whereabouts of Luca’s friend Hamish. The szygani could tell them that he could be found somewhere in the locked down Kingsport ward of Grimsdown, where he was being held by the Steady Hand. Emrys and James used their combined talents for stealth and sorcery to scout the ward at night and found neither a sign of Steady Hand activity, nor a sign of any of the plaguemaidens which were the reason for the lockdown.
Second Day, First Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262
(Silvermoon is waxing. Bloodmoon in high sanction. Darkmoon in high sanction.)
After a long night the heroes woke in the Careless Wanderer. Only James had no intention of getting up, and it was hard to blame him; the weather was cold and wet, and he had been sitting on a rooftop getting soaking wet together with Emrys only a few hours before.
Luca woke up early with nervous energy running through his body, while Quentin woke up with some ideas based on the information that James and Emrys brought back from their scouting mission.
They came down stairs to find that a table had been set for them. Breakfast was still meagre with the continued shortages hitting the city. Magda came to talk to Quentin, mentioning that she felt that something in his demeanour had changed; he felt less radiant and capricious; more grim and sorrowful. Quentin asked her whether she had seen a similar changes in others and she confirmed that she had. Quentin took it to mean that Astrid had changed and asked whether she could sense the same bleakness. Magda said she felt something more akin to regret, but couldn’t be certain.
Astrid made plans to visit the harbour in order to find out whether there was a skipper who was willing to part with their ship. She reckoned that with the winter coming, as well as the lack of trade in the city, she might be able to convince someone to part with their vessel. She would wait out the morning playing demon dice and then head out.
Luca and Quentin went to see Vydia at her manse in Old Town. She received them in her kitchen and explained that she had dreamt that Hamish was being lead down the corridors of a dungeon, possibly in the waterways, and kept in a dungeon. There was a small drain leading to a sewer or a cistern, from which a strange tentacle rose up. Vydia apologised for not being able to provide more clarity; she was not an oneiromancer, so she was not specialised in interpreting dreams, but this was the way in which she had received her vision.
When Luca and Quentin returned to the Wanderer they found James was heading out. The young rogue had to pay a visit to the day master and asked whether Luca was willing to come along and stay within range of their magical earrings. Just in case.
James found that the butcher shop was completely empty, with no commerce or trade happening and the counter being empty. The back was also empty, with no carcasses being butchered. In the basement he found the day master, looking a lot better than the last time James had seen him. He was finally recovering from the wound that his mother had left him with.
James told, in great detail, what had happened in the sanctum of Dr. Arkenward, and what the heroes had found there. He also paid his tribute to the day master by handing over the two books he had liberated from the sanctum’s library. The day master seemed pleased and asked whether he could help James with anything. James, remembering that Luca had been looking for charcoal, looked around and saw that the basement of the butcher shop was filled with supplies and sundries. He asked for charcoal and was offered a jute sack full of it.
Asking about dark delirium, James learned what he had already suspected; the night master was in charge of dark delirium and it was considered an important source of income for the guild and one that the upright man had taken an interest in.
The young rogue also learned that high lord Gauthier’s retinue had grown to include two hundred horses and gods know how many travellers on foot, and that he was chasing down an ancestral blade.
Returning to the wanderer, the heroes retreated to Emrys’ room; the only lodging that was large enough to hold all of them. James shared what he had leared, including the information about the high lord’s intention to retrieve Róisín. There was some discussion on what Quentin would do if it came down to parting with the blade. The young knight said he would part with the blade if he must, which provoked a withering from the leaves and flowers on the blade’s scabbard in protest that only Emrys noticed.
The heroes decided to go out and find out more about dark delirium. Luca suggested going to see an acquaintance he had made when he first arrived in Kingsport from the Elder Foothills; mistress Minna Trelane. She turned out to be a rotund, homely looking woman with a friendly face. She ran a boarding house in the eastern part of Lewisham called The Fallen Angel, a half-timbered building that seemed so slanted that it felt like it could topple over at any minute.
Mistress Trelane could share that she had heard of dark delirium and that she knew that there was a man in the area that was known to provide it. His name was Jeroen the Daerlanian and he could be found two alleys down from the legendary establishment the Hoxton. The heroes headed there in the pouring rain and found a young, slender man flanked by two thugs, standing out of the rain at the back of an alleyway.
