Author: Dennis

Previously, the adventurers returned to Kingsport and spent the night at the Careless Wanderer where they spoke with other travellers and gained some sense of what’s going on the kingdom. The next day they ran some errands in preparation for their departure to Bournemouth and discovered that the rubies they retrieved from the catacombs underneath Lynnecombe were in fact highly unusual crystals. When paying a visit to the Sacred Baths, Emma was informed that a noble house wanted to have a well on their new property in Kingsport blessed, and it turned out to be a ruse by the Queen Isabella Valois of Lyria, who wanted the priestess to bless the watergardens behind the royal palace. Emma made a powerful friend, Emrys met an influential lover, and Luca met a mysterious abjurer.

Seventh Day, Third Ride, Summer Light, 1262

(Silvermoon is waning, Bloodmoon in low sanction. Darkmoon is waning.)

After the visit to the royal watergardens the adventurers were once again dropped off at the Sacred Baths. Emma decided to stay there to reflect on the afternoon while Emrys and Luca decided to pay a visit to the College of Bards in Sevenoaks. Astrid was bored so she decided to join them.

Making their way across the Knightsbirdge into the Northside ward they were surprised to bump into James on the corner of Tiverton street right in front of the Silver Cross tavern. Shocked at his reappearance, the four of them popped into the tavern for a drink and a discussion. It seemed that James was quite familiar with the place, which Emrys soon discovered, by the subtle way men and women came up to proposition Astrid, to be a brothel.

James explained that the night he disappeared he had gotten up and sneaked into the Sheridan library to snoop around. He doesn’t quite remember what happened, but he knows that something happened to him in the library. He doesn’t know how he came to be in the catacombs, nor does he remember how he got a strange burn mark on the inside of his right hand, spanning both the palm of his hand as well as several fingers. The others said that they had not noticed the mark on his hand when they found James in the catacombs, even though they examined him for injuries.

Luca examined the arcane mark on James’ hand and concluded that there was both an element of abjuration as well as necromancy involved in the magic which created the mark. James indicated that it was his intention to join the others in finding Lord Destan and he seemed eager to help gather information.

It was decided upon James’ suggestion to find the Sheridan representative in Kingsport who managed their mercantile enterprises might have talked to Lord Destan when he was on his way to Bournemouth. They found the harbour master and James bribed one of the assistants to direct him to the Sheridan representative who kept a small office on the docks near The Salt.

The man they found in the office, together with a handful of clerks and associates, was Caius of Lynnecombe, a neat and soberly dressed gentleman of middle years. He told the group that Lord Destan had come through the port with three guards on the day of the Greengrass festival and had departed at the end of the day on the Squall-Eater a ship that regularly sailed between the capital and Bournemouth.

An idea was formed that Lord Destan may have stopped by the Library of Ioun in the Ravensbourne ward. It was a part of the Bromley estate and run by Lord Caedmon, the head of House Bromley himself. The adventurers decided to pay the library a visit. They made their way north from the Docks, across the Lynbridge, across Steward square, and down the Elysian street to Ravensbourne. They passed the Daerlan Embassy and found the entrance to the library where they were confronted with a care-taker who had no interest in allowing them access to the library. He referred them to the Bromley manor, which was close by.

Once there, they noticed that the Ravensbourne district had a lot of patrolling crownsguard, which meant they had to result to subtle intimidation of the Bromley house guard to allow them to speak to the majordomo of the house hold. Luca was allowed onto the estate grounds and spoke to Hendrik of Grimsdown, the majordomo, who could inform him that Lord Destan had not called to visit in quite a few months. Another dead end.

The next stop was going to be the College of Bards where Emrys had a friend, Lord Andrew of House Selkirk, who was attending. It was Emrys’ hope that he could find out more about the Crimson Tower and its history and any other information relevant to their quest of finding Lord Destan. The adventurers made their way down North Street, towards the North Gate. Right before the gate, they turned left along the ramparts and quickly found the entrance to an amphitheatre that served as the college’s stage and, when not in use for performances, a place for students to sit, write, practice and debate.

After having spoken to a small group of people and aided one of the students in improving the poem she had been working on, Emrys was reunited with his friend Andrew who seemed equally jovial, frivolous and flamboyant as the sorcerer. Andrew admitted he had no knowledge that could aid them, but quickly got Emrys in touch with a slender, sullen looking man in dark clothing. He preferred the shade over the punishing afternoon sun and spoke in a thick Beauclair accent but was able to give Emrys some background information on the legend of the Crimson Tower.

By this point Luca, James and Astrid had departed. Luca went to find a bookshop while James had some personal errands to run. Astrid decided to go back to the Careless Wanderer.

The sullen Beauclair man told Emrys that the reason why the tale of the Crimson Tower was not well known in bard circles is because there was not hero, no positive outcome, no catharsis and no moral of the story that people could draw inspiration from. It was bleak, defeatist and ultimately a very tragic tale.

What Emrys did learn was that the member of the Silver Crusade which had betrayed the knights and lured them into defeat was a member of the Senhadrim, the mysterious council of scholars, mages, priests and elders who fought struggled side by side with the knights and against the fiends. He also learned that the devil prince who had orchestrated it all was called Mammon.

Before Emrys departed to make his way towards the Careless Wanderer, the sullen Beauclais was Adrien de Rouleau, better known as Le Papillon, the headmaster of the college.

Meanwhile, Luca had found a small bookstore called Adria’s Novel Idea, which was filled with stacks of books. It was run by an elderly gentleman by the name of Calford who had to disappoint Luca, who was looking for a small fortune in exquisite paper and ink which he wanted to use in his magecraft. They spoke a while and Luca decided to come back another day to go through Calford’s collection of books.