04.09.22
Back to the Past.
April 9th, 2022
When we last joined our adventurers, they had faced off against the potent magic of the mysterious envoy of House Cannith. Unable to dispel his potent magical ritual, they find themselves disappearing in a flash and suddenly found themselves just outside the city of Phandalin. A Phandalin that is no longer an outpost town, they find before them a full-fledged city with large stone buildings and towers. Looking around, they realized they had travelled not in space, but in time.
The party awakens bleary eyed in a blackened circle burnt into a small glade amongst the trees outside of Phandalin. Small mushrooms line the perimeter of the circle. Wanting to get her "bearings" Lillian uses Wildshape to transform into a brown bear and climb a nearby tree. From the higher perspective, she sees a nearby road. The road goes three hundred yards approaching a massive sprawling city with high white stone walls. Although never having seen the city before, the mountains and surroundings are too familiar to shake the sense of deja vu.
Lillian returns to her human form and explains what she has seen to her party members. The party decides to follow the road to the nearby city. Approaching the city, they see peasants, merchants, and nobility along the road. Their fashions are all foreign and distinctly anachronistic. Approaching an elderly woman, the party ask about their current location. The elderly woman explains the great city ahead of them is the city of Phandalin. The party quickly deduces that they have travelled in time but not location.
They follow the slow-moving caravan towards the city. Keras seeks out a merchant selling clothing to find something period appropriate. After a flirty exchange with a strapping cloth merchant, Keras walks away with three sets of clothing for various situations for 18GP:
One aquamarine and gold garish outfit
One formal silver and blue fitted outfit
One casual multicolor complimentary outfit
Demna decides to replicate Keras's tactic approaching a different merchant with a black clad teenage human manning a clothing cart. Demna selects a black formal dress with a black lace veil and a more functional black set of robes. After some forceful flirting of her own, she pays only 10GP for the outfits.
Billie patrons the same cart, paying 10GP for a utilitarian but semiformal black outfit that partially obscures his plate armor.
The party attracts the attention of the nearby travelers by changing in front of them. Keras plays it up, performing a musical striptease, and collecting a smattering of coins and a gorgeous pearl necklace from Franz. Keras uses the opportunity to get to the location of Franz's shop and clarify what is considered contraband in the city.
They are questioned at the gate. Unsatisfied with their answers, they are pulled aside for questioning in front of a "truth-seeker" completely covered in a hood and rags and chained to the wall. They identified themselves and their intentions, which had the guards on edge.
Billie saves the day with his creative application of the truth. Inspiring the whole party to honestly speak about their love and respect for the city of Phandalin. Which is true, but not *this* Phandalin.
As they exit the guard house, they spot a chain gang of people being sent out of the city. The party notices a red glowing number on each of their hands. Almost as if they summoned them, blue number 10s show up on their hands. The guard explains that the city has a mass enchantment on it called "the will of the city" which measures their reputation within the city. Scores improve with good deeds and decrease with crimes and mischief. Should anyone's number go red, they'll be incorporated into a chain gang and forced to improve their reputation.
Together the party heads out into the sprawling market district to collect information and perhaps a snack or two.
Together they approach Vince, an exotic jerky merchant, who very forcefully markets his exotic jerky with a mystery jerky guessing game. Keras and Billie both play the game, with Keras correctly guessing his variety (displacer beast) and Billie just missing his guess (dire bear). Deciding on variety grab bags, Keras and Billie buy 5lbs and 10lbs respectfully. Demna by comparison, talks to the vendor about perhaps procuring more snacking nipples. Together, they come to an arrangement to have some spicy nipples produced for Demna in about a week.
Together they go further into the sprawling city in search of a reputable inn. Eventually they find "The Second Breakfast Tavern" with an adjoining lodging called "The Long Night's Respite." Keras leads the party into the inn, to secure a room. Inside silk curtains break up the rooms and sweet-smelling smoke fills the main room. Thick plush rugs cover the floors which have large plush pillows. The halfling proprietor approaches them and explains that her shop specializes in *release* and relaxation. Keras politely declines and is directed to speak with Brutus at the tavern next door.
Walking next door, the party quickly identifies the frenetic proprietor Brutus. Brutus is a burly balding halfling shouting directions at serving staff. Keras arranges for four rooms for the next two weeks and the party requests a meal. Retreating to a table, the party sits down and is shortly approached by a glistening purple scaled gem dragonborn. Hot bowls of kraken egg drop soup and beverages are quickly handed out to each of the members.
After a very satisfying meal, the party secures their items in their rooms, and heads out in search of the location of Edermath Orchard, hoping to find their bearings in comparison to the Phandalin they know. Locating a city map, Billie locates what he believes might be the future location of Edermath Orchard. The party heads that way, arriving at a park towards the center of the city. As the party enters, the sounds of hustle and bustle magically fade away and the party feels as if they can finally breathe easy.
Stepping back out of the park, they notice an extravagant and official looking building just outside. The building appears to be some sort of courthouse. Again consulting the maps, the party identifies a series of water drop symbols, which they follow. Eventually this leads the party to groups of chained workers heading down into what is commonly referred to as the deeps. Looking at the chained worker's hands they notice nearly everyone's hands visibly show red glowing numbers. Closer examination shows most of the numbers aren't extremely high, but one person is quickly identified as a child. His hand shows 125.
This leaves the party with so many questions. They decide to continue their investigation of the number system.