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Goodberry turns to Cadroc and asks "Are there any larger entrances than the one we came in? Our chef won't be staying this size for long, and I don't think he has enough time to make it the the surface the way we came in." while motioning to Adoett

Ahz pulls out his pocket watch and speaks to Cadroc. "I can help you remember if you've seen the axe since then," he said, "Basically, I can help you remember things you've forgotten."

(Diplomacy: 1d20+11 = 22)

"There's another route that goes up to a hidden alcove in Cross district near the market. It's the way we go through normally, only slightly bigger though" Cadroc tells Goodberry before turning to Ahz, looking uncertain. He then takes a look around, seeing the same worried expression in the kids nearby, before taking a deep breathe. "Sure, let's try it. Maybe it'll get something."

Ahz proceeds to attempt to hypnotize Cadroc to let the youth bring out any forgotten memories about the Axe.

(Diplomacy vs DC 20 vs Cadroc's Will Save for Mind-Affecting (Compulsion): 1d20+11 = 29)

Ahz does his weird hand wavy thing on Cadroc for some while but... the teenage boy shakes his head. "Nothing new, still the same axe we barely paid attention to."

Ahz thanks Cadroc for his cooperation and scribbles some notes in his journal about what they've learned so far, after putting away the pocket watch.

"You know, since the Cyrans believe this is a kobold lair and this was all done by kobolds," Vice raised the idea, "there's no reason why you can't claim you recovered all this from a hidden underground kobold lair you found. We would promise not to try this stupid stunt again, and they could seal off the tunnel entrances to be sure. We didn't mean for anything to escalate this much anyway, and if you did this then none of the Cyran kids would get in trouble either -- because at this stage, they'd be worse than ostracized by their own folks."

Ahz shows a momentary pang of reflection back to his own past as an ostracized child in House Tharashk due to his uncertain parentage. "Ostracization is bad enough, I don't want think about things that are worse than that..." he mumbles, before regaining his composure. "I see nothing wrong with that idea, as long as if you kids promise to let us know if you hear or remember anything about that axe," Ahz suggests, "if the information pans out to help us recover it, perhaps we can come up with some sort of compensation."

(Diplomacy: 1d20+11 = 27)

"That seems doable." Gadget agreed.

Over the telepathic link Goodberry suggests "Now that we are working like bees with pollen, i suggest we get Adoett above ground before he is trapped down here."

Adoett looks up suddenly from his cleaning at that, calmly puts everything away, and then starts hightailing it for the exit before the shrinking wears off.

"Of course," Cadroc agreed with Ahz's request as though it was obvious.

(If you have any other topics to raise, post; but I figure it's been long enough that I should wrap this up)

It takes the remaining party members the rest of the night to sort through the items and organize them for the trip back up (some disassembly required for the furniture). Since an agreement was reached to conceal the kids' hideout, the goods had to be taken up the long way, through the winding tunnels. Cadroc and the rest did help by pushing items halfway up the tunnel to hide their involvement. However, this process would still take up the entire next day and leave the party members exhausted. The Cyrans provided help on their end by taking over the cargo once it arrived above ground, and by sorting out the contents.

Lucille, the merchant and customer for this mission, informs everyone that most of the reported goods had been recovered, apart from some food parcels and some missing chinaware. They also found a lot of dents on the recovered furniture, including some that looks suspiciously like bite marks of some kind -- possibly kobold?

But most anxiously, he await information from the party on the cultural relics, alongside any other results of cleaning out this crime wave.

( This takes up all time on the night of February 3 and all of February 4; since Adoette has no way to effectively help out in the tunnels, he does have the day time slots of Feb.4 open if he wants to do something )

On February 5th, Ahz reports to Lucille with the results of their delve into the tunnels beneath Stormreach, presumably with several other people since Ahz can't exactly carry all that stuff. Three of the four retrieved cultural artefacts are assembled, Ahz is currently holding on to the Zaelshin to ensure that he will at least get a chance to attempt to make his point to the Cyran that it should be returned to the Valenar.

"Well, we found four out of the five artefacts," Ahz says, motioning to the table, banner, and the model of the city of Metrol (in a bag sitting on the table), "but the axe wasn't anywhere to be found in the tunnels. We're looking into a few other leads at the moment, but going by what we found down there the kobolds had bartered it off to another group, possibly sahuagin."

Pulling the Zaelshin out of his pocket, he holds it well away from Lucille, just in case the merchant made an attempt to lunge for it before Ahz had a chance to speak his mind. "As for this fourth piece, I can't really speak about Cyran attitudes towards Valenar since I'm a Marcher. As a historian, however, I know the facts of both the Valenar rebellion and the events that took place after the Mourning, so I can understand why you'd see this as an important sign of victory over the Valaes Tairn. But as a Marcher, I can understand the Valenar obsession with family bonds, and the lengths to which they would go to to recover something of family significance. What you have here, friend, is a dangerous piece of history, one which would honestly serve your people better as a diplomatic bargaining tool than as a prize of war. Prince Oargev's diplomacy has been slow primarily because he lacks any actual bargaining power - and this right here is bargaining power. So, I have a few ideas for you on how you could use this to your advantage: One, the direct route - you reach out to Prince Oargev yourself and explain that you have the artefact and would like to use it to help the Cyran people. Two, the more...discrete route - we fabricate a story about how you had heard about the Zaelshin being lost and had us retrieve it for the purpose of handing it back to the Valenar via Prince Oargev. Both options net you a certain amount of personal prestige if this pans out into gains for the Cyran people, and the second option protects you from any possible reprisal from the Valenar for holding on to the item for so long. Option three: go independent. If the Cyrans here in Stormreach truly do believe that Prince Oargev is moving too slowly, then why not act on your own? And I don't mean like Dannel's Wrath, their activities of late are only serving to destabilize Stormreach and aren't helping the cause of the Cyrans at all. Maybe you and your friends could make an outreach to Valenar by returning this to them."

Having had his say, Ahz hands the Zaelshin over to Lucille, adding him "Anyway, the item has been retrieved, and the choice of what you do with it is your choice. As for the axe, we'll keep you in the loop as to what we find regarding the other leads."

(Diplomacy: 1d20 + 11 + 8 (Hero Point) + 2 Insight (Flash Insight) = 34)
(Bluff: takeHighest(2d20)+2 Insight (Flash Insight) = 20)

Adoett spends the intervening day selling more eclectic cuisine. (Generating Goods)

Profession[chef] (max(2d20)+12+12(economy)+10(company building) = 53)

Lucille looks apprehensive as Ahz finished conveying his long and extensive thoughts. For several moments, she only stared at the Zealshin, unsure of what to say. It took almost a minute and one long sigh later before her gaze leveled again with Ahz's.

"Honestly, I'm supportive of Prince Oargev's efforts, and so are some others here. But he's had four years, four! since the war ended, and almost no progress to speak of. But... you're right, some leverage like this might finally give him something to work with, and it's certainly of no value to us other than a decoration for pride."

She finally closes her fingers around the Valenar artifact and tucks it away.

"I'll send a message to the Prince's representatives first to discuss this. Some of my countrymen here may not like this, but surely using this to benefit the people of New Cyre is in the interests of all Cyrans. We don't really have anyone good at stately affairs here, otherwise," she lowers her voice: "Dannel's Wrath would never have gotten so radical either."

She cleared her throat before continuing, keen to hide her vocal disapproval of the organization that the rest of Stormreach now view as a terrorist band.

"But if the Prince agrees, I think your second proposal -- fabricating a story and all -- will probably earn us more bargaining points."

Lucille then surveys the rest of the goods.

"Well... while I wish the axe of our hero came back as well, I guess we should be grateful for what we can get," she spoke before opening up her purse and pulling out a bag of coins. "Here is your payment in full, though I expect that any information you discover as part of the axe won't have gold attached, since that really is part of this job."

"Also, thank you for the suggestion on the amulet," she smiles.



Mission Rewards:
4,000 gps
+20 relations with Lucille (now your contact with Dannel's Pride district)
+40 relations with Lucille for Ahz
+40 relations with Cadroc (and his group)

XP Rewards:
4,200 / 7 = 600xp
+1,000 for successful completion of quest
+500 for ending with the children unharmed
+500 for exposing Sear
+500 for the Zealshin Tu proposals
= 3,100XP each


Everyone has the rest of February 5th available (all time slots). Warforged characters also have the Late Night slot of February 4th available (but not Ring-of-Sustenance folks, because the day of goods moving has left you exhausted). Next mission (Carnivorous Gardens, per voting) will begin on February 6th unless people vote for more time off.

(reminder that Opening Week bonus is still active: all income generation checks using the company building receives a +10 bonus; will translate into a permanent +1 reputation bonus once opening week is over.)


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Current downtime resource generation progress:
Adoett (Influence): 53/150; (Goods): 53/150
Ahz (Influence): 57/150
Ashkharan (Goods): 50/100
Gadget (Goods): 62/100
Goodberry (Goods): 63/100; +1 time period Influence accrued
Gorin (Goods): 55/100
Leah (Influence): 45/150
Koko (Influence): 38/150