01 - Life's Bazaar: IC

Siirna pulls her hood up and turns back to face her companions. "I don't feel like staying in this rain for too long, so I'll lead the way." she says as she starts walking down the street. "I still remember the way to St. Cuthbert's Temple, in case you're worried." she says to Lord Vhalantru, Deril and Jaythor as she continues on her way.

"after you" says Deril. And follows her lead

You reach the temple with no problems. The streets are quiet and empty, much different than what you're used to during the day.

More clouds move in, fully blocking the moon and bringing even more rain. The temple it self is a two story building with tall windows and a tower rising to about four stories above street level. The white marble that it's constructed out of has veins of lightly glowing blue crystal that give it a very interesting look as the light is diffused through the heavy rain.

Two large statues, carved out of the same white marble stand on either side of the door raising their maces to the sky. The door is open and Ruphus ushers you all in. As you pass through the doors all the water and dirt sloughs off of you.
"Some wizard was passing through a few years back and warded the door. Does wonders for keeping all the marble floors clean. I had him do the same for my house," Vhalantru remarks.

The sanctuary is large, capable of seating a few hundred people comfortably. Large stained glass windows depicting various parables are lit up by the occasional lighting in the sky.

"The druids are saying the rainy season will be particularly bad this year. Follow me please," he says leading you to a large study that appears to double as the temples library.

"Jenya, Lord Vhalantru, and the brave souls that saved us are here," Ruphus says addressing a middle aged woman with graying brown hair seated at a large desk.

Jenya stands up and offers you all seats, "Thank you for helping Ruphus earlier, I hope you'll be willing to assist with this matter."

Once you've all been comfortably seated she continues, "As you already know the city has been plagued with many kidnappings recently. There's nothing that the victims have in common and no signs of why or where they were taken. One of the temples relics allowed me to divine the closest thing we have to a clue, which is why I called Lord Vhalantru here." She hands over a piece of parchment.

"Sir Tercival is absent for the moment, so I was hoping that Lord Vhalantru might be able to locate some people with to investigate this. Would the three of you be interested in figuring this out? I'll try to answer any questions you may have about the investigation so far." she asks wearily.

"What does this apostrophe here mean?" Jaythor asks, pointing near the end of the third line, "Is that supposed to be stronghold?... Parts of this are rather simple; like 'locks are the key to finding them,' that means that we must look where no one wants us to be... I'm afraid that we're going to have to examine the vaults of the banks of this city," Jaythor says with a completely straight face.

Siirna frowns, her right hand moving up to finger the crystal earring dangling from her right ear. "I may have to disagree. See here, it says 'look beyond the curtain, below the cauldron" she says, pointing to the lines. "Obviously the 'cauldron' is our city, Cauldron. So, I think what we're looking for is below us, underground somewhere." She pauses to think. "I'm not quite sure about the lines 'beware the doors with teeth' or 'Half a dwarf binds them, but not for long.' I think perhaps the doors with teeth may be cells? And 'where precious life is bought with gold' hints, or more like jumps in our faces, at some sort of slave trade. The only thing I can figure for the last line is that we don't have long to find those who have been kidnapped. After all, it says they are being held but 'not for long'." Siirna turns to look at Deril, "Do you have any insight into this riddle?"

"at the very least, im going to stick with toothless doors" he says. The riddle was quite frustrating to Deril, but not more than the fact that someone went out of their way to write in this fashion. "your guess is as good as mine, and i agree with most of it, but cant the "life for gold" part reference a place where people pay to be healed, like a church?. Also, maybe beyond the curtain could mean outside the walls. Both are just bolts in the dark though."

Dice Roll: 1d20+3
d20 Results: 17 (Total = 20)

wisdom check

Jenya pulls out a rather thick stack of papers, "I found some notes in the church histories about the Malachite Hold. It seems to have been an ancient dwarven fortress that protected Cauldron from the underdark. It's location was lost several hundred years ago, but a Zenith Splintershield claimed to have found it a few years back. He lead a large expedition to retake it, but was never heard from again.

I'm not much of a scholar myself, but you're free to use this library to try and find out more.

If you would like I can arrange quarters for you here while you investigate."

St. Cuthbert Library

"Tell me," Jaythor says bringing out a coin-pouch, "Do these mean anything to any of you?" he inquires laying 3 coins on the table.

The coins are gold but they don't have the usual pictures on the faces. There is a laughing monkey holding a purse on one side and a jester on the other. He arranged them in a heads, tails, heads order that allowed the viewers to see both sides at the same time.

Deril was used to the tedious process of research. Even now, he has to spend hours upon hours of his free time just to even get the slightest insight into magic. How hard can solving a mystery be if daily he is unlocking the mysteries of the universe itself?! "Im going to begin my research, if you need me i shall be amongst the books." turning to Jenya, "thank you for your hospitality and i would be very grateful to take you up on a room. Also, il look for some clues towards those coins as well, just come let me know if you find anything out Jaythor so i don't have to waste my time.' while he is walking away Deril turns to Siirna realizing that he might need her help, after all, she was a bit smarter than him. "Siirna, i could probably benefit from your help as well."

Siirna nods to Deril, "Certainly. I'll meet up with you in a few hours, though. I have some connections here in Cauldron that may prove to be of help. I'm going to meet up with them and see what I can find, then I'll come back here to see if I can help out at all." Siirna turns to Jenya with a smile, "I will also accept your offer to arrange a place for me to stay. Your graciousness and hospitality is greatly welcomed." Siirna pulls her hood up, preparing to go back outside and turns to Jaythor. "Do you think you could lend me one of those coins, Jaythor? I would like to see if my contacts know anything about them. I promise to return it to you."