Chapter 2, Part I: Call of the Knightingale

Chief Paws took off to the docks to spy on Zeb, their interest piqued by the moniker of 'Ol' Zeb.' Keeping quiet and sneaking along the edge of the dock, Chief Paws watched as Zeb searched flusteredly for the lost books in shipment crate 105. A single book with a wooden cover floated to the surface, and as Zeb pulled his bag to the side to keep it from getting wet while he reached for the book, a few papers fell out.

Chief Paws snatched the papers out of the water, seeing one with a familiar symbol. Bright orange parchment boasted the flyer for an activist rally, the double-headed bird symbol from The Knightingale's letter embossed into the top corner. Knowing Zeb would not know them as a member of the party who helped with the unloading of the shipment, they approached the teenager and asked him if he needed any help.

Zeb, a lanky half-elf with a crooked nose and small eyes hidden behind glasses which made them look comically large, was startled at first, but immediately grateful for the offered help from his new cat friend.

With careful questioning, Chief Paws was able to learn about the event on the flyer. Zeb told him that it was a group of people who were tired of the way things in the city have been going. He complained about his boss at the bookshop and how he is treated and paid poorly. He also mentioned that, at these rallies, the participants make and wear masks to keep from getting in trouble with their jobs if they were to be seen attending things like this.

Chief Paws told their new friend that they would keep in touch, and they wished Zeb a good day before they headed off to join back up with their party.

While Chief Paws was making friends with the working class, Corky was using his time to try and poke the underbelly of the city in the hopes that some useful information would fall out.

He remembered his first day in the city and his visit to a clandestine shop where he purchased his porous dagger called the Bowman Ken, which Corky knew as Thieves Cant for "Safe Place for Thieves and Rogues". He had a feeling this was probably the best place to start his quest for the city's seediest people.

The thieves cant markings were made on an otherwise unmarked door in an alley in the central area of the Gilding marketplace. Inside, Corky was greeted by the sight of the same man who was there the first day he visited. This proprietor was a stony-faced human man who regarded Corky with unimpressed eyes but otherwise didn't say anything.

Corky, deciding on using deception as his primary strategy, utilized the clues the party had found to attempt to convince the proprietor that he knew the Bandit King, who the party believed was named Arcturo due to the letter they found from The Knightingale. As the party didn't have all of the pieces of information placed together quite right, the proprietor became immediately suspicious regarding the inconsistencies. He pushed Corky to be straight forward with him, or to give him a bribe to "grease the wheels," neither of which Corky felt was the best strategy.

Instead, Corky made a deal with him that if he could make the proprietor laugh, then he would be given an answer to his question. When his initial attempts didn't work to crack the man's stony face, Corky cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter on the man, who contested it successfully.

Suddenly, aware that Corky had just attacked him with magic, the man pulled out a weapon and told him to leave the store immediately. Backing up quickly, Stefano Romano fell over and ripped one, causing the man to bark a short but distinct laugh. Corky interjected that because the man laughed, he owed him an answer to his question.

The man told him he would answer one quick question and then Corky would be on his way before things got ugly. Corky asked him about Arcturo, and the man's answer, although he did not know who Arcturo was, implied that Arcturo and the bandit with the large axe were not the same person.

Getting his answer, Corky and Stefano left quickly to join up with the rest of the party at The Adventurer's Guild.

You walk into the Adventurers' Guild, and the sight is as it usually is. There is a concierge at the main desk who smiles at you with eyes that don't join the gesture. Through the doorway to the tavern area, you see patrons in beat-up leather and metal armor downing drinks at their tables or chatting idly in the hall. The Quest Board, which never seems to go bare, is sitting at the back of the main hallway and you notice Booger is perusing it with his wand absently picking something out of his teeth.

Once everyone was there together, the party attempted to figure out their next direction. Gyome paid Booger for his help with the Inkling's job, and then joined the rest of the group as they talked through their handful of options. The letter seemed a promising lead, but to what, they were unsure. Leozumin reminded the party that he was originally with them to help them get to the Risorial Woods, but it seemed there was more to be done here than to simply head into the woods, looking for a fading and vague lead on magic for the Professor who seemed quite content to be a resource to their travels rather than the impetus for them.

After some back and forth, the Party decided to follow the lead in The Knightingale's letter that would lead them into the residential district of Gilding. The plan was for Corky to arrive first and secure a gig at the tavern connected to the inn that night and then for the rest of the party to arrive.

With the plan not firmly in mind, the party began to head out of the Guild and off to the inn. However, noticing their departure, the concierge at the main desk waved them over. She confirmed with Gyome that they did indeed finish their last quest for Inkling's bookstore, causing the concierge, whose nametag read "Judy" to congratulate them in the same overly cheerful voice she used for nearly everything. She then proceeded to give you a well-rehearsed speech regarding the enterprise that is The Adventurers' Guild International.

Congratulations, gentlemen! It looks like you have completed all of the entry-level quests for the Adventurers' Guild. You have now earned the right to register your party officially with our prolific Guild.

If you would like to take any higher level quests at either this or any other Adventurers' Guild Hubs, it is required that you are officially registered.

The Adventurers' Guild is a world-wide organization, established to assist Adventurers, Heroes, and Explorers alike in their quests to make Roost a better, safer, and more exciting place. Joining The Adventurers' Guild International, or AGI, will allow you access to hundreds of quests in every city that has an AGI Hub. Although we understand that questing is our Adventurers' main passion, we are thrilled to offer a variety of benefits through our AGI Membership, including but not limited to: discounts on all tickets for the Arlon Rail and select other specialized transit, discounts on lodging at all of our AGI Hubs, discounts at participating restaurants, access to unique and specialized magical items, and much, much more!

At level two, all Guild Members will have access to an AGI Docent to assist them with AGI matters, questions, paperwork, and access to all of our specialized resources. All members can select their own Docent by day seven of their membership, or one will be assigned for them. A Docent can be changed at any time by filing an appeal for replacement with any AGI Hub. Docents are often able to find a base of operations that your team can use as their main headquarters. And lastly, Docents will be privy to many of a team's Adventuring secrets, so it is important to select the correct fit for your special team.

Speaking of your special team, in order to join AGI, all Adventuring Parties must register under a unique Party Name. All deeds, quests, and accomplishments will be recorded under this name, which will help to bolster the party's reputation through all of Roost's fabulous regions. Each party member must fulfill a specialized role and register with an AGI Hub by day seven of membership. Please see the Guild Positions Pamphlet for all options.

After explaining the AGI (pronounced A-Gee) in great depth, she then extended a weighty pamphlet that described each of the roles and the perks that would come along with those roles. After careful consideration, the party selected both their official name and their individual roles.

They were registered officially with the AGI as The Easy Marx, and they were all presented with an AGI badge, the letters A, G, and I overlaid to create a symbol on a silver medal with laurel leaves framing the sides. The bottom had insets for 5 stars, on the first of which had a tiny gold star pressed into the hole to designate their Level 1 Guild Status.

~*~

While Corky headed out to the inn in the residential district, Gyome stopped by a shop in Gilding to pick up the Rod of the Pactkeeper before following after him with the rest of the party.

The address leads you into the residential district of Gilding. The entrance of the district is on the opposite side of the city center from the guild. You see a pair of guards standing at attention on either side of the entrance. They eye you as you approach, but otherwise don't move to stop your progress. As you cross through the entrance way, you are met with some decent-looking stone housing. The homes that are visible to you are modestly sized with slate-shingled rooves and fresh paint jobs. In the center of the first group of houses are taller buildings with signs that announce that they house luxury apartments, and they block the view of the rest of the district from your current position. Up front, nestled within the homes and just ahead of the apartments, surrounded by a sizable courtyard, is stately lodging and accommodations with a sweeping entrance and wide, bright windows.

As you walk further into the district, you notice the scenery change rather dramatically. The homes, mostly wood or mixed material, are small and tightly packed together. The stone buildings you see are tall, likely cramped apartments stacked almost precariously on top of each other as if the builders had run out of room for all of the housing they needed and threw a few on top of existing homes. The farther back you look, the smaller and more haphazard the housing seems.

With their combined passive perception, Artem and Chief Paws realized that the district was set up to look meticulous and put together when viewed through the entrance from the city center and was built that way to hide the more dilapidated aspects of the city.

They continued deeper into the district, following the street signs until they reached the short, narrow alleyway of Folton Street. The address, 243, glittered in brass on the wall of a taller building sandwiched tightly between two shorter ones. The sign just over the numbered address read, "Cuckoo Clock Inn."

Inside, a connected tavern could be seen to the left of the door, and a flight of stairs wound up and around the back of the main desk. A young half-orc girl with mountains of curly black hair sat behind it, her head lifting up from a book in her lap when she heard the bell above the door jingle. The orc girl smiled at Corky and the fangs that protruded out from under her lower lip bookended the gesture.

Corky asked if there was any way he could play a gig at the tavern that night, and upon checking with the owner of the inn, the orc girl told him that he was welcome to perform for the payment of a night of room and board because the person who was performing that night had called in sick.

After the rest of the party arrives and finds a seat in the tavern, Corky begins his performance, sticking to a theme of strong anti-capitalism, which the crowd in the tavern seemed to very much enjoy.

With a skillful investigation check, Artem and Chief Paws noted some signs that one of the tables held people who would be familiar with The Knightingale. After giving her arm the illusion of being mangled, Artem weaved a sob story for the three people at the table. The dragonborn there, feeling a great deal of sympathy for the injured girl, told her that there was a rally coming up soon that might be right up her alley, and to speak with Maggie, the owner of the inn, if she wanted any more information about the rally.

Gyome spent time at a table with Khalia, the half-orc girl from the front desk, one of the cooks from the tavern, and a man who sold produce in Gilding who was also a regular at The Cuckoo Clock Inn. The merchant complained about the strange happenings with magic, telling a tale of how one of his carrots had grown in size and sentience during his work day, growing claws and damaging his wagon on his way home. The rest of the people at the table mentioned similar things; Khalia told a brief story about how a wooden bench she had outside her home melted in the sun.

Khalia seemed to enjoy Gyome's company, and was remiss to leave when she did, but she had already stayed later than she usually did and needed to get home so she could return to work the next day.

The older gnome woman who had been pointed out as Maggie, the owner of the inn, stopped to congratulate Corky on a great set before he headed off to bed that night, counting his tips from the show well-done.

Corky, Leozumin, and Gyome bunked together and Chief Paws and Artem bunked in the second room. All five of The Easy Marx spent an hour training for their respective skills before taking a well-earned long rest.


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Occurrences of Note:

  • Interrogation of Zeb.
  • Introduction of the orange rally flyer.
  • Learned that masks are worn at the rallies.
  • Bowman Ken priorietor dislikes Corky.
  • Corky was not willing to offer a bribe to get information.
  • Debt to Booger has been paid in full.
  • The party was invited to join the Adventurers' Guild International, and accepted.
  • Official party named selected.
  • AGI Badges Obtained (1 Star).
  • Gyome obtained The Rod of the Pactkeeper.
  • Entered Gilding's Residential District for the first time.
  • Entered and stayed at The Cuckoo Clock Inn for the first time.
  • Meeting of Khalia and Maggie.
  • First reimbursed performance for Corky/Stefano Romano.
  • Successful performance for Corky/Stefano Romano.
  • Learned of magical disturbances in and around Gilding.
  • Increased Potential Point Counter.


Completed: July 2022