Aethra Chatoyant [Magic-User 1 – apprentice of a famous master / elf-sister]; Ayleton the Cat [Familiar 1 – animal familiar / ship cat of unknown port]; Oland [Rogue 1 – Spy / personal keyword not yet defined]; Brömm [Dwarf 1 – Dwarf-raised / Bonded Clockwork Guilds-dwarf]
The still woozy Aethra sits to go through the ogre’s possessions – turning up a large pouch containing 500 GP in mixed imperial coin! – while Brömm and Oland go through the crates. Two of them, full of tea and paper, were both too damaged by elements and time to have any value. The other 4 hold woven rugs, salt blocks, teak boards, and packed jars of dyes and pigments, any of which could have real value in Amethyst Spire! But it’s all so big! Under Aethra’s direction the chest of paper is emptied and refilled by one or two examples of each chest, and then with a gesture the magic-User calls on her remaining spell to lift the crate in the air.
Abandoning cautious movement over the path they just took the adventurers move as quickly as Aethra’s wounds allow to the Customs House ballroom (stopping to make a prayer gesture at the arch, just in case). They reach camp just as both the floating disk enchantment and Aethra’s stamina give out. It’s still before noon and if they hurry they can make Amethyst Spire before gate-close. The mule is loaded with their newfound trade goods and everyone moves at their best speed back along the road towards the town. The plan is to take the same circuitous route back to keep their entry into Lost Galmagia a secret.
Without losing speed they keep eyes peeled for any evidence of where a wagon or two might have gone astray… say, a caravan of goldsmith’s guild vault contents. To their shock Ayleton does locate something! The cat’s keen senses (and high Divine Favor!) reveal some overgrown ruts that might have been a side road a quarter century ago. Their need to get home overrides their desire to pursue this lead so they mark the spot and keep moving.
Arriving at Amethyst Spire’s ‘Gate Ward’ just at sunset the garrulous Richard Stockton wheedles their way in, sharing stories of a visit to Turnip Hill to the north to explain their crate of mixed trade goods. The group decamp to the Axe and Thistle, where Stockton is part owner and arranged for the party’s goods to be stored in their basement. As a first proof of concept the delve was a remarkable success! No one died! Bags of Gold! Perhaps not enough to retire on but certainly enough to fund a return trip.
Over the next five weeks the adventurers heal up, divide their treasure (with Brömm and Aethra holding the Ogres bag of coin as an emergency reserve), purchase equipment, and line up possible buyers for the crates of goods based on the samples they returned with. Brömm estimates the crates in total will fetch around 500GP (the rugs fetching the least at 50 GP, then the wood at 100, the salt at 150 and the dyes at 200), if they can get them back here. Mules? Multiple trips with Aethra’s magic? Hiring porters?
Aethra spends her time looking for other methods past the Amber but finds nothing else: she needs to locate either a Hold Portal spell and gain enough experience to reverse it, or find the even more complicated Knock spell. Her efforts turn to finding someone she can learn those from, while she copies the Protection from Evil spell into her spellbook.
Ayleton sneaks into the undercity of Amethyst Spire several times to listen in on the scholarly salons there, learning more about Goblins – that they were evicted from the Unseelie Court for not being cruel enough, but are altogether too capricious for the Seelie to tolerate, with their markets and trades in human foibles – and passes that along to Aethra.
Brömm tried to dig into the history of Robert the Chief Custom’s Clerk, but with no success.
Oland asks around concerning the private rituals of the matriarchy and confirms that none of them correspond to the outfit worn by the ogre-murdered man; it’s equally unlikely that it was the guard of a Brotherhood of the Stars cult. If the man was practicing a religion, it doesn’t correspond to one Oland can identify.
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