Pliny’s hometown

• The party discussed the upcoming visit to Pliny’s hometown of Longbarrow and the opportunity to meet his mom Ruth.

Of Deer and Men

• That night, at the campfire, Aegar sat next to Zoyana.
• Aegar: “May I sit here?”
• Zoyana: “Of course.”
• Aegar: “We do not always see eye to eye, you and I, do we?”
• Zoyana: “No. You’re so much taller than me.”
• Aegar: “This is true, yes, Though I hesitate to reciprocate your good humor in talking about your height.”
• Aegar: “Help me understand, Zoyana. How someone can go out of their way to save the life of a deer, and have zero repercussions for taking the lives of three people because of an insult?”
• Zoyana: “Explain to me how someone can have the morality that it’s inexcusable to take the life of people for insulting but not seek to say the life of a deer. Because you didn’t do that.”
• Aegar: “You are right, I did not. I feel… nothing in terms of deer. I suppose I don’t know the wisdom of a deer. The morals of a deer.”
• Aegar: “I was raised outside of the woods and never gave it much thought. I suppose it is people that I am interested in saving. I am not sure that deers require that kind of saving that I am interested in.”
• Zoyana: “And maybe that’s where we differ in eye to eye.”
• Aegar: “People are like deer, to you.”
• Zoyana: “What you see and the value that you see in human life is the value that I see in nature. In animals and things that can’t defend themselves in the same way that those fuck-asses could. That being said, I let my temper get away from me. And I don’t feel good about it.”
• Zoyana: “And I don’t know how to stop myself when I go there. I’ve had to protect myself for so long. And I know where those things start. But now I can do a lot more damage than I could before… I changed. And I don’t know how to stop when I start going.”
• Aegar: “You are not the same person that you once were. You are more powerful. You havE changed. You do look out for Pliny and I. I think I was surprised by your action, because you are such a strong person that to see you react to words was surprising to me You are a strong woman and we count on you. I think that is where you start because learning to accept that you are not helpless. I can… help remind you if let me.”
• Zoyana: “I would like that.”
• Zoyana cuddled into Aegar.
• A couple minutes later, Fang came crawling up on the other side of Aegar.
• They cuddled for a long while.
• Zoyana: “We should probably have a plan, Aegar, for how you’re going to help me if I can’t stop.”
• Aegar: “I do not think that that will be an issue. As as difficult as that might be, I believe in you. I do not think there’s a need for a Plan B. Also, the thought of you turning into a Giant Ape and swinging me around does not spark joy…”

Liars Dice

• Pliny made some friends and risked 75 gp against some guards (Deception 17), and doubled his money, and then doubled it again (Deception 23) before returning to the wagon, pockets jangling.

Handing off the Longbow of the Golden Stag

• Zoyana apologized for doubting Pliny’s intentions in the chase for the stag, and gave him the Longbow of the Golden Stag
  • 
• They discussed his ability to shoot it, which ended with Pliny and the bow on the one side of a meadow and Zoyana on the other.
  • Pliny readied himself, aimed, and fired at the halfling, missing Zoyana by a good bit. And so began his training in the Longbow.
• Zoyana started using some downtime preparing Vial of Poison each day through her Alchemy Jug.

Group Discussion

Gambling Distraction

• Aegar and Pliny headed to the nearest Cult of the Dragon wagon, which happened to be the one of Enom Tobun, who sold Aegar the toolbox, including Larion Keenblade, who Pliny recognized as the half-elf who had helped Enom hunt the Golden Stag.
  • Enom Tobun
    • 
  • Larion Keenblade
    • 
• They were welcomed to the wagon, where Aegar started up right away with talk of gambling:
  • Aegar: “I thought perhaps we might enjoy a nice game of cards. It passes the time, though I may be a little rusty. I thought we might play for a meager some. 100 or 200 gold?”
• Enom Tobun: “I don’t know that it would be fair to play cards. You know, I… I spent some time with the elves. And you know they have a really well developed game. Is there is there a particular particular game, you were thinking of?”
• Aegar: “Do you know Dragon’s Rook?”
• Enom Tobun: “Dragons Rook, I do not well, not by that name. How is it played?”
• Enom Tobun waived his crew over as Aegar explained the game while dealing out the cards.
  • The cards themselves were quite fine, the backs painted with a gilded hand. The suits were various chromatic dragons.
• Pliny did a double-take, wondering how he had never once seen the deck of cards in all their travel."_
• They played for quite a while, betting silvers and occasionally gold.
• Aegar steered the conversation toward what Enom was hauling and what he intends to do with it once they get to Waterdeep."_
  • They learned that
    • They said they were carrying a load of small furniture (tables and stuff). Enom : “Not the most fragile cargo but also we do need to handle it with care. And that reminds me of a story…”
      • Aegar (Insight 16) was pretty sure that he was not telling the truth about what he was carrying and, as Aegar remembered from last time, he was also not telling you the truth about his stories.
    • Enom did share a tale that they were going to go to some warehouse or something in Waterdeep, and that part of the story seemed truthful.
• *Pliny (Deception 24) kept tight-lipped about their own plans, but Aegar, being Aegar, let slip some comments about being in the caravan for reasons other than guarding Timothy Dexter and searching that might or might not have gotten caught by either Enom or Larion**.
  • Pliny tried to cover it by making it so Aegar was part of his band and that’s why they were traveling.
• By the end of the night, Aegar and Pliny were quite friendly with Enom and Larion.

Zoyana and Fang investigate

• As soon as the first card hand was delt, Zoyana cast Pass Without Trace on herself and Fang and shifted into a spider.
  • They had little challenge keeping quiet.
• Fang found a couple of finely wrought chairs in the crates he was investigating, along with some other some nice furniture and Zoyana found some jewelry wrapped in wool. Some obviously precious gems, gold necklaces with relatively small stones, and the like. Nothing was actively glowing or obviously magical.
• Zoyana backed away behind a tree and ritual cast Detect Magic. When she returned to the wagon, she saw a faint glow of Enchantment magic."_
• Zoyana put Fang on lookout, wildshaped back into a spider, and followed the glow (Investigation Nat 20). She saw two things glowing in the box:
  • One ws a small metal disk inscribed with the image of a feather, and
  • The other was a sphere it’s like almost a foot in diameter, made of stone, with mystic sigils written all over it.
    • Zoyana (Arcana 19) was able to decipher something about dirt and cleansing coming off of it. It seemed like a tool for cleaning or a preparation tool for some kind of a magic
• Zoyana crawled closer to where Pliny and Aegar were playing their game and mental messaged them what she saw.

Pliny Came Home

• Pliny headed toward the Rusty Nail, and when he entered, Ruth was cleaning the bar.
  • 
• Pliny: “Hi mom.”
• Ruth looked up, “Pliny! You look all clean and fancy.”
  • Pliny: “You have no idea.”
• Ruth exclaimed, “My goodness.” as she started wiping down her hair and her dress to make herself look presentable. “If I’da known you were coming, I’d have cleaned up.”
• Pliny: “No need to clean up. I’m just happy to be here.” And he took the cleaning cloth out of her hands. “When’s your break?”
• Ruth called over her shoulder, “Ted! Ted get out here! My boy Pliny is home.” She turned to Pliny, “Now. I’m taking a break now.”, she called over her shoulder again, “Ted! I’m taking a break now!”
  • She scurried around the bar and opened up her arms to give Pliny a big hug."_
• Pliny reciprocated all excited.
• Ruth: “Pliny, I missed you!” and she started crying in happiness, because she hadn’t seen him in so long.
• Pliny: “I got you something on my adventures.”
• Ruth: “Where’ve you been? Where’ve you been? What? You got me something? What?”
• Pliny pulled out his degree from Hopstra University, “Ma, I finished..”
• Pliny proceeded to describe going back and finishing his degree.
• Ruth held up the degree and started dancing around the room, “My son the graduate!”
• Pliny: “Hey, keep it down, keep it down. I have a reputation around here lady.”
• Ruth: “I gotta tell everybody. Everybody’s gonna know Pliny”
• Pliny: “Don’t. Nobody. But here, this is what you can tell them. I wrote this to finish.” He pulled out a copy of his dissertation. “This is the story of my adventures until that point, so I want you to tell all these stories around town, I want you to just let everybody know about Pliny the hero.”
• Ruth paged through, “What is this about goats, you wrote?”
  • Pliny: “That’s my friend Aegar. You’ll meet him later. Just wait till you get to the chapter about him and the water. I think you’ll like it.”
  • She paged forward, “Oh. I don’t think I want to read this around you…”
  • Pliny: “I don’t think I want you to read until I get out of town too.”
• Ruth out the dissertation away, “But, but I want to hear the stories from you.”
• Pliny: “Hey, listen. I’m excited to see you, but there’s some danger that’s following us too. So I can’t be here through tonight. I can’t be here to tell you the story, so read that.”
• Ruth grew concerned, “Okay okay.”
• Pliny: “And I’ll and I’ll and I’ll be back. I’ll be back. I don’t want anything to be getting you.”
• Ruth: “Nothing’s gonna… nothing’s going to get me. But you just got here. You’re… Wait, how long are you gonna stay?”
• Pliny: “Right, maybe through dinner. You can meet my friends for dinner, but then we’ve got to get down the road I’m on.”
• Ruth sensed something was weird, but deferred the discussion until dinner, “Well. It’s great to see you Pliny, and, oh my gosh, I’m so excited!”
• Pliny: “I’m excited too, ma”
• Ruth: “You’ll bring them back here, then?”
• Pliny: “You still get that discount?”
• UnknownSpeaker: “The.”
• Ruth: “I do still get that discount plenty yes…”
• Pliny: “I’ll pay the rest.”
• Ruth: “… The one you’ve had all your life.”
• Pliny: “All right, I’ll see you soon.”
• Ruth: “All right. I’ll have something for you. I’ll see you see you for dinner Pliny.”
• Pliny turns and said, “Hey Ted.” and flipped the bird and walked out.
• As he closed the door, Pliny heard Ruth say with giddiness, “Pliny came home!”

Aegar and Zoyana got a room

• Aegar and Zoyana headed off to get rooms while Pliny visited mom.
  • Zoyana: “Let’s stay in a fancy one.”
  • Aegar: “Yes, all right, I think a little bit of celebration is in order. It is Pliny’s hometown after all.”
• The Dragon & Goose Inn was a large half-timber building, with its own walled garden and finely crafted tables and chairs.
• The innkeeper was a nice human named Oron. He welcomed them to the inn, “A room for the two of you tonight, is it? We have a nice sweet available.”
  • For 10 gp each, Zoyana negotiated two separate suites. They were quite nice, with feather beds and everything.
• The pair got lunch, then explored the town a bit, such as it was.
  • Aegar sold his warhammer for 15 gp at the Thistle Do Nicely Outfitters.

Reconnecting the Luting Looters

• Pliny caught up with the others and they made a plan to meet up with Ruth for dinner.
  • The heckling about Ted and his step-dad vibes was kept to a minimum, and Pliny seemed nervous about the plan to stay in town overnight.
  • Pliny: “My mom she was good, she was really good, I think we should go have dinner with her later night and then hit the road.”
  • Zoyana: “I would love to meet your mom.”
  • Pliny: “Okay first off no. Second off, if either of you, if you need to flick anyone feel free to talk to Ted.”
  • Aegar: “Who is Ted?”
  • Zoyana: “Ted>? What’s wrong with Ted?”
  • Pliny: “You know, used to be my own boss, but yeah. Some weird step dad vibes now. Feel free to talk to Ted.”
  • Pliny: “Well, so but we’re getting on the road tonight, right? We’re not saying here?”
  • Zoyana: “We’re staying the night. We got fancy rooms, we thought you could show off one of the fancy rooms to your mom.”
  • Aegar: “The caravan doesn’t move on until tomorrow.”
  • Zoyana: “Yes, show her how well you’re doing.”
  • Pliny put on an incredulous face: “There cultist and talent my mom.”
  • Aegar, not catching on at all: “There are, yes. There are some with the caravan. If you’d like we can…”
  • Zoyana: “Let’s have your mom stay with us.”
  • Pliny: “I think that’s a good idea. I don’t want her alone while we’re here.”

Pliny got a room

• Pliny shunned the fancy hotel and got a room for them at the Ridge Street Inn.
  • Pliny talked to Mary there. Just like he remembered, she was a little energetic, and high-strung. He was not entirely sure that she ever stopped moving or talking. she might not ever even sleep."_
  • Pliny: “Mary, I need a room for me and old Ruth tonight.”
  • Mary: “Oh, of course, welcome back Pliny.”
  • Pliny: “Hey. I’m good. It’s good to see you.”
  • Mary: “It’s good to see you.”
  • Pliny: “So I need a room. And if any of my friends come I don’t need any of the source for best coming up if.”
  • Mary: “You mean like…”
    • Pliny: “Nope.”
  • Mary: “Or about…”
    • Pliny: “Nope.”
  • Mary: But what about the time you…"
    • Pliny: “Nope nope nope..”
• Aegar followed Pliny, and suggested, “Pliny, you should treat your mom to a nice night. Why do I not stay at this fine establishment, and you can take the room over across the street.”
  • Pliny: “There’s nothing wrong with this place, Aegar.”
  • Aegar: “No, I I.”
  • Mary startled and frowned: “Pliny, who’s the lizard?”
  • Pliny: “Mary, that’s rude okay. Have a little culture.”
  • Mary grew nearly apoplectic: “He’s talking about going across the street!”
  • Pliny: “Mary Mary.”
  • Mary’s words came out in a jumble, and she started wagging a finger: “I’m being rude? He walks into my establishment and he starts talking about going across the street to that new place. That guy has only been here for like a decade.”
  • Aegar could not get a word in edgewise.
  • Mary: “…he is not one of us playing.”
  • Aegar: “No, you see, I already have a room over at the other place. But I… was wondering if it was possible that Pliny could switch.”
  • Mary: “What???” She was speechless for the first time that Pliny had ever seen…
  • Pliny: “No Aegar Aegar Aegar Mary Aegar Mary. I’m not… It’s going to be okay. I think everything’s okay. We are going to keep my room here, your room there, and we’re going to go. Mary I have a wonderful wonderful night tonight. Can I get a second room maybe?”
  • Aegar tried to get a word in edgewise, “It was a. It was a pleasure.”
  • Mary: “This dragonborn cannot possibly be your friend.” She covered her mouth, “You were such a good boy.”
  • Pliny: “Mary.”
  • Mary: “You can find better friends.”
  • Pliny: “Mary Mary. I am going to have to ask you to stop that.”
  • Mary: “Pliny, I’m gonna talk to your mother.”
  • Pliny: “I am sure you will. You never stopped talking Mary, and that’s why I had to leave you. Now please, go ahead book me and room. Thank you for this key, and have a wonderful night.”
  • Mary kept pointing her finger, “Pliny Melvin Pan.”
  • Aegar finally snuck another word in, “I apologize. It was a pleasure to meet you.”
  • Mary immediately changed demeanor, “It was a pleasure to meet too,” and she waved, “Have a nice day.”
  • Aegar: “You as well.”
  • Mary: “Bless your heart.”
  • Aegar turned to Pliny, “What kind woman.”
  • Pliny: “She’s some kind of woman. Let’s get the hell out of here…”

Dinner with Mom

• They party gathered Ruth at the Rusty Nail and Ruth invited everyone over: “Oh, I have some stew back at home cooking up. There’s enough for all of us, if that’s all right.”
  • Pliny: “Mom, I don’t think I want people to see where I live, there’s.”
  • Zoyana: “We would love to go.”
  • Aegar: “Yes, that sounds quite wonderful.”
  • Pliny: “Aegar. There are cultists in this town.”
  • Ruth: “Pliny, I have some things I need to pick up for you anyway, we need to go. Let’s go.”
  • Pliny said to her back, as she started walking out, “You’re gonna get killed…” She didn’t seem to hear.
• The others in the party didn’t seem concerned either.
  • Zoyana: " Pliny, we’re not going to kill your mom. Why don’t you want us to see your house?"
  • Pliny: “I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about the caravan, and the fucking cultists that are with us.”
  • Zoyana started humming to herself to drown him out.
  • Pliny: _"Pass With a Trace? Something?"
  • Aegar: “Why would they be after your mother?”
  • Pliny: “Because we killed three people in our caravan last week…”
  • Zoyana: “No one knows.”
  • Pliny: “Jesus Christ. Let’s go. You don’t fucking listen. You’ve never been able to listen.”
  • Aegar: “I begin to see what you are worried about. You are worried about retaliation.”
  • Pliny: “And my mother being murdered by the cult”
  • Aegar: “Right.”
  • While they walked down the street, acting a little shady, as they argued in hushed tones, Pliny looked around (Perception 22), but it sure didn’t seem like there was anybody looking at them, or even paying any attention to them.

Ruth the Spy

• Pliny handed off his Fine Writing Set to Ruth, with the request/instructions to keep track of people coming through the town. He gave her instructions to send periodic updates with the northbound mail to Leosin at the Beholder’s Lament in Waterdeep.
• Zoyana, having started her Plant Growth spell, stayed behind to spend the full eight hours to enrich the soil for a year.

Aegar’s Dream of a Green Dragon

• That night Aegar, Pliny, and Ruth headed to their assigned rooms.
• As Aegar slept, he had a dream.
  • Of a road
  • Looking off in the distance, he saw a figure shambling forward.
  • As he got closer, it was an almost-naked man, wearing a loincloth and only one shoe.
  • The man stumbling forward, and then Aegar heard a roar behind him. The same type of roar he had just heard a couple of days before.
  • And up above his head came flying a full-sized green dragon.
  • It swooped down and blew its breath.
  • A giant, green fog coverd the man.
  • Aegar heard the man coughing and wheezing. Ahhhhh-hhh-hhh… before falling face-first into the dirt.

  • ---

  • And he woke up sweating.
• Zoyana slept in the next day.