AAR: [3H] False Profit (2021-01-10@20:00 GMT)

[Lashana]

LFG: False Profit
Time: 2021-01-10@20:00 GMT
GM: Shannanigans (LaShana/Amhran)
Questgiver: N/A
Circle: 3H
Rumor: A traveling merchant has returned to Throal with a wild tale regarding his encounter in a small village called Moskva. He states there is a “profit” named Rasputeen who has completely changed the town. They have closed themselves off and shun strangers. Throal is worried as this town is the gateway to a small but valuable living crystal mine consisting of a vein of vibrantly colored crystal.

Alternate Reward: half price living crystal

I can accommodate up to 6 players

[Abrahms]

Name: Warak Nendul
Date of Last Game Played: 01/03/2021
Circle: 2
Discipline: Swordmaster
Quote/Unique: "My dear, the pen is only mightier than the sword if you don't know how to write your legend in bloodied steel."
Notable Abilities: Social Climbing
Downtime: N/A

[Sharkforce]

Name: Orlam
Date of Last Game Played: Jan 2
Circle: ECR 4
Discipline: Elementalist 3
Unique: healing boosts, combat buffs, comfort, navigation, and evidence analysis.
Downtime: Research (Skill, rating 3, step 9); +3 step available by paying 20 sp to access the great library of Throal.

[ChrisDDickey]

Name: Truck
Date Player last played: Nov 28th.
ECR: 4
Discipline: Warrior 4th circle - Windling.
Quote/Unique:  
Notable Abilities: Slice and Dice
Downtime: None.

[verse86]

Name: Vallone
Date of Last Game Played: 1/2/2021
ECR: 4
Discipline: Shadow 4
Unique: A dodgy little windling who throws shadow spears. Hates crows.
Downtime: N/A

Have a hard stop at 7 PM EST.

[kaetaur]

Name: Arphen
Last game played: 01/03/2021
Discipline: Elf Scout 2
Quote/Unique: He doesn't say much for an elf so young.
Notable Abilities: I am aware of my surroundings and I can live off the land. I am able to find and disarm traps.
Downtime: Craft Weapon (Skill)

Note: I am interested in playing unless someone else is a better choice or wants it more.

[Sharkforce]

Orlam Rolfsom, Journal Entry # 8: False Profit

I am so confused. I can't say what happened in the small mining village of Moskva. Something definitely happened, but I simply can't make much sense of it.
A notice in the market indicated that Adepts interested in working for the Miner's Guild should report to the Drunken Goose. That sounded much more promising than working for morbidly incompetent farmers, so I was immediately interested. Our contact, Firgeg Opalcloak, was not able to give an abundance of information. A small mining village up in the mountains near the Blood Wood, known for the brightness of living crystal coming from it, had recently begun to slow down in production. On top of that, a merchant returning from the place had brought back news that something very odd was going on there; a new arrival, by the name of "Rasputeen" had seduced all the women of the town, which was very odd. We were tasked with going to the town, figuring out if there was a problem, and solving it.

Joining me on this expedition were Vallone and Strata, who I knew, as well as Truck (Windling Warrior) , Arphen (Elf Scout), and Warak (Human Swordmaster). The trip there was relatively straightforward... the guild was paying for a riverboat, so we just went up to Sosanopa and booked passage on the first ship we found that didn't sound like the captain thinks he's a pirate. The ship took some hull damage on the way up, and the captain stopped for a bit to have inspections and any necessary repairs done. There was a group of what Arphen said were called pangolus (which looked to be covered in a sort of armour plating) with their young, and apparently the males are very territorial, so we kept our distance.

We arrived in the foothills and started on the trail to the village. The land there was very confusing, but we got on the right trail eventually. We were accosted by some large black birds that had an insatiable hunger for our eyes, about 20 of them I think. I was lucky that the one pecking at mine hit my eyebrow ridge instead. Vallone was absolutely terrifed of them and spent the whole encounter in Strata's pack, it seems she was among the Windlings that fled the Crow King and now reside around Lake Ban. I fear that experience has left scars that my physician skills cannot heal.

We arrived at the village, and all was quiet. No guards, nobody working the fields, nobody moving about town, nothing. Warak tried interviewing one of the townsfolk, but got off entirely on the wrong foot and we learned very little other than that the mean seemed to think nothing was wrong. We went to the mine and found some workers milling about aimlessly without any leadership. They said they had not seen the foreman in some time, but were showing up to work because if they didn't they wouldn't be paid. The villagers had become weird and unsocial, the men had ceased coming to the mine, and they didn't know what was happening either. We did get directions to the foreman's house, but the foreman wasn't there.

Instead, the house had 18 young women and one outlandish-looking man that they were all fawning over, who was of course the person we'd heard of. He was flanked by two large-ish dogs, and basically didn't answer a single question in the entire time we tried to get answers out of him, just gave vague non-answers that explained nothing. None of the people seemed to have any notion that all of the women in the town leaving their husbands was odd, or that all of them fawning over one man was unusual, even when we went to speak to another man in the village. The Astral did not look unusual, and while "Raspy" as the women called him was definitely magical, there was nothing overtly illegal or harmful about what he was doing, even if his presence coincided with a fifth of the male population randomly leaving without any explanation and the villagers just stopped working entirely. And believe me, we tried to get something, *anything* out of him, and this guy just wouldn't answer.

Anyways, while we were out and about trying to rule out other possibilities (we had earlier checked if people were meeting at some other location and leaving the town looking empty, and at this point were trying to get the viewpoint of other villagers and checking the communal kitchen to see if there were any human bones or similar), some of the others said the guy sung a song, then vanished along with his dogs right before their eyes. Warak says it was a song about the Passion Astendar, and that the locals had been praying for children (oh right, almost forgot... several of the pack of women following the man about like a stray puppy were pregnant with his children, and thought nothing unusual of it) and suggested that it might be the Passion Astendar himself.

Personally, I don't know. It seemed very odd that he would attract all the women in town to himself, or that he would cause all the people in the village to stop working, and we still don't even know why there would have been no children in town in the first place, or for that matter if everyone's memories had been somehow tampered with, or why really *anything* that was happening was happening. Was it Astendar? One of his Questors? Some other unknown force or entity? Honestly, at this point I'm not even sure if *my* memories weren't tampered with, and the whole thing has the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.

I don't think I shall be going back there any time soon. The guild paid us well, in spite of our inability to come up with anything solid, since the mine was being worked by the remaining locals again for unexplained reasons. The guild offered us some of the special living crystal in payment, but I for one am a little wary of it, and took my pay in silver. Signs point to there maybe not being a problem up there any more, but then, nothing pointed to the town having had no new births in 15 years before we went up there either. If there is anything to find, it will need to be from someone better at finding such things than I. And who knows, maybe there isn't anything to find. Maybe it really was Astendar.

I am glad at least that we didn't let our frustration get the better of us and start a fight. I would have hated to start a fight in that crowded area with all those young women where they might get hurt. Whatever this Rasputeen is, he was something powerful.

[kaetaur]

For the love of Children By Arphen Elven Scout.

The Miner's Guild was looking for adventurous adepts to travel to the town of Moskva to investigate why production has slowed to the point of stopping. I met Firgeg Opalcloak at tavern to get hired. Thankfully other adepts appeared to also travel to this town and investigate the circumstances. Warak Nendul, Strata, Orlam, Truck, and Vallone were also hired.

We travelled the road from Throal to Sosanopa where the river boat "The Howl of Liberty" was hired to take us to Moskva. I do not enjoy boat travel. The moving and not feeling the earth under my feet is rather disturbing. Something happened to the boat in an unspecified manner and allowed me to walk upon the earth again. I went looking around in the nearby trees, it was not thick woods. I was looking for some fresh meat because constantly eating fish is not a thing I enjoy. Fish have a weird texture and while some of them taste ok, two weeks of fish is too much. I went close to a tree and noticed some scat that I was not familiar with, of course I have only studied what is outside Throal since we opened four years ago. This is when I saw my first Angry Pangolus. I was rather lucky because the mother Pangolus was more interested in my backing up and not defending her baby. Upon further inspection the entire tree was swarming with them. Not a branch was empty, I assume it was some sort of communal breeding tree. We did not see a male as they are prone to protect their territory and once again ANGRY. I now know where the term PANG of ANGER comes from. Thankfully boat repairs were brief and we left quickly.

Not long after that we landed on the path leading to Moskva. I am very eager to explore as I keep attempting to scout ahead without the experience to survive what I find yet. Thankfully Strata was calm enough to advise me to hang back despite my magic driven desire to explore. My keen senses were very much distracted by the excitement of being off the boat as I failed to notice the Blood Ravens. Reading about Blood Ravens does not do them justice. They are a sight to see. Their blood red legs and hunger for blood is evident in their gaze. Strata attempted to guard us and have us quickly move past when the birds hunger overcame their apathy and Truck was attacked. Truck is one tough windling. The birds had not chance as we handily slew them for attacking us.

After arriving in Moskva our group began the investigation. I have to say that I am not skilled with people and tend to stay quiet. After talking with one man, who said nothing was wrong we went to the mine. Some people working the mine, who live in tents outside of town, explained to us how things were off in the town and the men stopped showing up to mine. After that conversation, which was rather long and boring, we went scouting around the town looking for tracks. I was oddly against this plan as I thought we should just go to the foreman's house. We found track of various people in groups and nothing worth following up.

With no other plan in mind we went to the foreman's house where Rasputin had taken up residence and the foreman was not to be found. He was there with all the women of the town just living life and apparently making babies. Raputin had golden eyes and while not special looking in the slightest other than these eyes the women seemed to like him. There was a lot of judgement about him being some kind of weird sex cultist and the women were all sleeping with him and getting pregnant. He had these large hounds with him like nothing I have seen or read about. They were relaxed animals and not interested in anything so much, yet I knew they were powerful and could slay me. After we attempted to talk with him to get an idea of what was happening we left to talk with other men in the town. I will say we barely managed to get any information about what was going on.

As we were trying to figure out what to do next a beautiful song came from the foreman's house in a language I could not understand. It was a song to Astendar. Raputin and the hell hounds vanished and that is when we found out the whole town prayed to Astendar to give them children. They had not had a child in 16 years and Astendar provided. I wish Questors of not mad passions would be more direct, because the Questor of Dis that was in Coalton did not mince words and told us all what exactly her views were.

[ChrisDDickey]

From the journal of Truck, Windling Warrior. 

I heard that somebody was hiring Adventurers at the Drunken goose. When I (and several other Adepts) arrived at the specified hour we found a middle Aged dwarven gentleman (Firgeg Opalcloak) who represented the Throalic Mining Guild. He told us that a merchant of the mining guild visited Moscva (3207) a small town that operates the Moscva living crystal mine. He reports that the town has a new citizen (Rasputeen - human) who has turned the heads of all the town's women. The merchant found all the townsfolk acting differently. When he made inquiries he was ejected from the town. Mine production is continuing, but output is slightly down. He hired us to investigate the situation and make sure it did not affect future mine production. 

We traveled to Sossanopa and hired a boat "Howl of Liberty" to take us upriver to the point nearest Moscva.  At one point the boat hit something underwater, so the captain stopped for repairs, On the shore we found a colony of Pangolus females and babies which we left alone and simply waited for the hull repairs. The next day we disembarked at the trailhead that led inland to the town. We spotted some Blood Ravens and tried to ease by them, but they attacked us and were killed. There were about 20 of them. 

It was mid-afternoon when we arrived at the town. There was no activity, nobody outside. Warak Nendul (Swordmaster) knocked on a random door, and talked to a middle aged human man. Apparently they both made bad first impressions on each other and said unfortunate things, but the man did say that nothing was wrong in the village. We found some people half-heartedly working in the mine, but they said they were not from the village, but lived in the mine. they said that after Rasputan came the townspeople were all a flutter about him, but then slowly stopped coming to work. They said that they (for some unexplained reason) don't go into the village much and had never met Rasputin. Before going back to the village we circled around it and explored the area fairly good. We found no new paths or signs of migration or foul play. 

We went back to the village and went to the house that the minors told us the foreman (who they had not seen for weeks) lived in. There was no sign of the mine foreman, instead we found Rasputeen attended by 18 village women, aged 16 to 20. Rasputeen also had 2 large hounds of some (unusual) sort. Rasputeen told of how he had arrived at the village some months before starving and neer death, and how the village people had nursed him back to health. 

It was very frustrating talking to Rasputeen or any of the villagers. They were all very calm, unnaturally serene, and evaded most questions. We slowly got a story about a village that had been in what anybody sane would describe as a crisis for a generation. It seems that the village opened up and left the mine a generation ago (more than 10 years earlier than Throal), but that as soon as they did so, their birthrate fell to zero. There were no villagers less than 16 years old. We never figured out a reason, and they never seem to have done anything about it except pray (and for some reason were praying to Astendar instead of Garlen).  However now many (maybe all) of the 18 women around Rasputeen seemed to be with child and everybody seemed very happy about that. After giving us the runaround for a long time, Rasputeen sang a song in praise of Astendar and then he (and his hounds) disappeared. 

We are all very confused. Why was the birthrate zero for so long. Why didn't the villagers do anything about it, or ask for help, or leave. This Rasputeen character seems to have solved the birth rate problem by knocking up all the young women. Is this a permanent solution and they are all now normally fertile? (we still don't know). Was Rasputeen a manifestation of the Passion Astendar himself? Was he a Questor of Astendar? The impressions I get is that he must be one or the other, but also that he could not have been either. We did a greeting ritual and Rasputeens artistic talent was acceptably good, but was not extraordinary. I am not certain that Astendar COULD  produce art so mundane, and don't think that ether Astendar or a Questor of Astendar would purposely do so. 

So we have no idea what we witnessed, other than that the villagers are all happy and back at their normal routines. The Passions work in mysterious ways. 

[Serespar]

Throalic Year 1424
From the Journal of Strata, Obsidiman Gauntlet

As I have learned more of the lore of my people, the obsidimen, I have gained a deeper perspective on the importance of understanding the young races and what they are up to, especially about how they use the bounty of the earth.

The Throalic Miner's Guild posted a notice that adepts were needed. I was moved to act on my new awareness and see what unfolded.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a few adepts of my acquaintance; Orlam, a human elementalist, Vallone, a windling shadow and Truck, a windling warrior. There were also two adepts I did not know; Arphan an elven scout and Warak, a human swordmaster.

The Guild Representative, Firgeg, described a small living crystal mine that produces minerals of particular beauty. Output had decreased since the arrival of a human in the mine village, one Rasputin. There was also something about gender roles and reproduction that I did not understand.

I moved into bodyguard mode and escorted the adepts as we traveled. First, to Sosanopa to take a riverboat. Riverboat travel is both soothing and exciting. I enjoyed meditating near the bow, but did keep an eye out for direction and distance to the nearest riverbank. Swimming is not a skill my people are known for. I did young race joke? Yes?

The boat stopped for some reason. Stood guard on the bank til Arphan let out a yelp, then moved between the scout and some creatures called Pangolus. I put out an offering of food and did not punch them. There were young. We withdrew back to the boat and asked the captain to mark the nesting site on their charts as a potential hazard for travelers to be wary of. It is best for both if the young races and nature's creatures live side by side but not too close. I took the opportunity to grab a long piece of bamboo, as a precaution should I need to walk along the river bottom.

We arrived at the point on the river where a small trail leads up to the village of Moscva and the mine (hex 32.07). As we walked along, an aggressive murder of blood ravens tried to eat my windling companions. I punched them.

I stood guard while my companions canvassed the village for clues. They seemed to be struggling with social norms and the relationships between "females" and "males" and the generation of children.

We went up to the mine and I had the opportunity to see the beauty of the living crystals. The memory is a source of great joy to me. Mother Earth did not seem to mind sharing her treasures with the miners, so I patiently stood guard. My companions asked more questions and got more confused.

We went back to the village and spoke with the nexus of change in the village, Rasputin. He had two large hounds that I assessed as very dangerous should they be stirred to attack. The room was filled with young "females" in the process of producing young. I stood between the young females and the hounds.

My companions went round the village searching for more clues, til I heard a song as though the beauty of the living crystal had been transformed from sight to sound, then expanded to encompass all my senses. I bowed low to the beauty of Astendar blessed in a moment of time.

My people use acceptance of what is to deepen their understanding of the world as it moves slowly through time. I am the first to admit I only gained insight into one of the most simple, presenting layers of what happened. The adepts I protected all returned alive. The villagers seemed pleased with the young they had on the way. The Miner's Guild was pleased that production had resumed. The Earth had no issues with sharing her treasures. A deeper understanding may come, *Shrug*