Chapter 8, Part I: Melodies & Memories
With their well-won merchant's pass, the Platinum Talons were ready to finally head to Brimhold. Vance used minor illusion to put a sign on their wondrously wagon, and Firebrook used tinkering to put "Talon Treats and Spirits" on the banner, making it smell like brownies.
Vance looked for some sort of magical scrolls for music and was offered a container for musical tablatures. He bought the music scroll case for 180 gold.
Vance recalled a Yurdrok dish named Gragpenada, made of ground meat, vegetables, and cheese, all stuffed inside of a thin dough and fried to a crisp, golden treat.
Vance went to Kazaht Ranch and he and Nohki brokered a deal for bulk supplies of produce for 15 servings for 3 gold. And Firebrook hoped to Astralshine from Jethrie the next time he visited the ranch proper. He noted that one of the stalls in the market had some magic meat, and ushered the party over there.
A steak smacked Firebrook in the face as a free sample at Mad Max's Meat Market. Mad Max explained that he had a great combination of ground meat called Bambalamb that was beef and lamb mixed together.
Vance felt good after getting some free samples of the magic meat, feeling energized. He played music and talked loudly and quickly, filled with magical energy. Mad Max mentioned that the Order of Righteous Conflict was trying to buy up supplies, especially the magical ones, and that he didn't much like them.
After the party bought the supplies they needed from Mad Max, Vance, cruising on a meat-induced high, went to the wine stall to get wine. He purchased a bottle, which had 8 servings, and a cask with 200 servings for a reasonable price.
Firebrook bought brewer's tools and found some herbs by the water, clipping them. He saw something moving under the surface and backed away quickly. The party saw a giant snake was in the water. Nohki talked to the snake, who said Firebrook had cut stuff in his garden and told them to get away, so they did.
BOJO then told them that the wildlife in Gragthar was actually much, much bigger than a typical species variant in other parts of the world.
Vance remembered that his parents had a little cottage nearby and directed the party to head that way. They took a short detour off the main road to the west and spotted the cozy looking cottage nestled in the trees. As they moved in closer, they all began to realize that something was wrong with the scene. The door had been ripped off the hinges, and the scene inside was no more comforting. Multiple near-skeletal frames littered the floor.
Vance saw the carnage in his parents' cottage, which sobered him up immediately. Nohki investigated the front of the house and realized that the scene was not at all similar to the gratuitous and violent deaths that they had witnessed from the Bone Devil just a few daya before. Nohki and Vance recognized that the bodies had been there for about a year or so. Vance saw a strange symbol of a face on the cloak that was still on the skeletal bodies in the house, recalling it was in a similar style to the kinds of simple symbols they had seen on cloaks of Order of Righteous Conflict members. Firebrook found a hatch into the basement, and followed it down to find preserved vegetables in glass jars and mostly nothing else. Vance saw a ledger from his dad, and he suddenly remembered a small hiding place his father had for his most valuable things. Vance's dad's tradition was to hide music until it was fully finished, and this place was in his bedroom, tucked under a loose floorboard. Inside, he found his dad's sheet music titled "Ode to Terravox."
Out in the backyard, Firebrook and Nohki found potatoes, spices, and herbs in the garden as well as a magically carved headstone that read "Valentin Vane-- Loyal Brother."
In his parents' bedroom, Vance started to play the song and then realized that the music was unfinished and it was asking him to complete it.
Vance, taking the hunch seriously, finished the song with the notes that poured from his heart. When he did, when the last note of the song strummed off the lute, and etched itself on the page, something appeared in front of him. A swirling sprite of whirling rocks appeared in the room. Realizing that he had another similar song, Vance reached into his bag and retrieved Nocturne's Nocturne, a song that had also begged him to finish it a few weeks prior. Upon finally playing the song, a small sprite of shadow appeared in the place of the rock tornado, solidifying the token of Nocturne's musical appreciation.
Nohki felt rumbling and, trusting his gut, brought himself and Firebrook into the house. They saw apes at the edge of the forest looking up into the house, Vance watchign from the window of his parents' bedroom.
Vance used major Illusion to summon a giant snake to frighten the apes away, which sent the large primates running back into the forest.
Vance met the other Talons on the first floor of the house. Firebrook told Vance about the grave in the yard, which Vance said had his uncle's name on it. Hating to see his parents' home defiled, he dragged the bodies out the front door and noticed other drag marks as he went.
The Platinum Talons got a shovel and dug up Vance's uncle in the yard, finding him wrapped in a blanket in the ground. Vance thought that this was done in a hurry.
Xerxes cast Speak with Dead and then they asked Valentin:
"Is the trail in front of the house safe?" He answered, "I don't know," telling the Talons that the trail was likely made after Valentin's death.
"Who attacked the house?" He answered, "The Order was looking for me."
"Who else was here helping you defend the house?" The answered, "Your parents."
"Why was the Order looking for you?" He answered, "The answer is held within you."
The group then followed the trail in the dirt through the trees as the gigantic nature called all around them. They found another skeleton by a large rock formation with an the same face-symboled cloak on it. The bones of the chest were perfectly bisected. They found a broken piece of porcelain beside the body, which they tucked away for later examination. Although they had not initially intended to make this detour, it had proved to be incredibly enlightening, in more ways than one.