OOC: Perhaps you missed the "There is no bank" part from my last post.

The Harpers Guild Hall is an impressive, tall, square building of stone and glass.  (mostly stone)  You hear a musical performance and see some sort of gathering and discussion going on on the main floor, but you pass that all by and make for a double staircase that lead to two parts of the second floor.  Genessa's room isn't far from this staircase.  The tall, yellowed window at the far end of the room is closed.  It lets in a good deal of light, but you can't really see in or out of it.  (Glass widows is rare.  Clear glass windows are almost unheard of.)  There are paintings, candle holders, shelves, and cabinets along the walls, a low table in the middle of the room, and more than enough chairs for the 5 of you to all have a seat.

The 5 includes the 3 PCs, Gennesa and Cuma, but not Samuel.  He went on his way elsewhere.  If you don't want Cuma tagging along you should tell him and pay him his 3 gold.  The eye is here too.

Genessa pours everyone a cup of pink wine and then sits down.

"I can tell you delivered the letter to Pippen.  He showed up not too long ago and attacked Arthur right out in the street.  I thought he'd killed him for sure, but the coot somehow survived and recovered.  Pippen was tossed in the stocks and later thrown out of town."

Genessa sets down her drink and wipes her gloved hands tidily against each other three times.

"So that's one of your jobs complete.  I'm not too surprised Mord didn't return with you.  He didn't seem that invested in your tasks.  I don't think his heart was in it."

"I'm eager to hear about the songbook and Jacob.  You've returned with one and not the other.  How did things go?  Please start from the beginning."

Farden sees no reason for Cuma to tag along, and would have paid him off before they reached the Harper's Guild.

When Genessa asks her question, he waits for the others to speak up. Mostly, he's still annoyed about Jacob slipping through their fingers, and doesn't want to talk about it.

OK, Cuma has been paid 3 Fgp.  New totals: 2043 Fgp and 2000 Fsp

Glumr gestures an inquire and then lights a rolled leaf up when there is no protest coming.  "My lady..." Glumr starts out "I have to say that Jacob is quite the advisory.  He bested us near twice, and in business Jacob is going to always be the one to come out ahead.  He is alive and enjoying his life I do not doubt.

The book we acquired after is parted his hands.  It was destined for the empire, part of a buyer's warehouse of goods.  I must say that the means to our ends were not the most chivalrous. I loose no sleep over it as I believe the man from the empire knows that the goods he is purchasing may not be coming from their rightful owners.  During the... 'transaction' we indicated that this was ill gotten property hoping the ownness would fall back on Jacob, but that being said I wouldn't be surprised if someone were to...  'inquire' with us about it in the future."

Glumr stops and blows a smoke ring, looking to Genessa to see if she how she will respond.

"There's no need to be vague on the details.  We're in this boat together, you and I.  Harpers are, as I'm sure you've heard, keen on information.  Perhaps I should guide you towards the specifics that interest me."

She pauses for a moment before continuing.

"It sounds like you were able to find a lead on Jacob's whereabouts in Crim.  Please tell me about this lead and your first encounter with Jacob.  I'd prefer if you didn't leave anything out."

"I'd also like to know about this buyer.  If you want to get to that mater as it comes up chronologically, that's fine," Genessa adds.

OCC - Really dont want to type out the narrative.  There's so much.   Glumr is happy to answer specifics. :P  (If you'd rather I narrate, then I will)

Glumr goes into detail about the entire adventure.  He tells Genessa about the first battle with Jacob (and how the old man tricked him).  He tells her of the warehouse and the empire's men.  He tells her about what he saw and the farm house and then the smash and grab to get the book.

It's a lot of talking for Glumr.  He tries to re-account all the details.  Gesturing and acting pieces out, tailing smoke around the room.  When it's all said and done, he's almost a little winded from the excitement in the story.

"That is the literal chronology of the events."  Glumr finished with.  "It leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth to know that for a few gold pieces, wonderous items are being sold from our lands."  He pauses "and our floating eye friend.  I found he knows the music in the book.  I feel like some ill cure has caused this form.  I feel like the eye could tell us secrets, perhaps about these very topics, if only we could remedy it."

OOC:  That will work nicely.  I'll assume you included Leonardo and Elias in the story, but left out Reynard, since he wasn't directly related to the songbook in any way.



"Yes, we know your floating eye friend here knew music from the book.  We looked into the matter as I said we would.  It was very puzzling at first.  We accounted for nearly everyone who knew the song your eye played for us, and ruled out the rest for being verifiably deceased, mad, or otherwise clearly not turned into an eye.  So where did that leave us?  We were stuck at a dead end until we turned up a harper who had been out doing field research in the area near where the book was found, but he never returned.  His disappearance was inexplicable and mysterious enough to be noted in a few verses of a song.  The harper's name was Scottfard Ferisedan," she stops and looks around at you all including the eye, but the name does no elicit any responses from you, so she continues.

"Here's the catch.  Scottfard went missing almost 20 years before Eburacon was born."

Genessa walks up to the eye.

"Are you Scottfard?"

The eye looks around, but neither responds with yes or no blinks.

"If our friend the eye is Scottfard, would he know after all this time?" Holly says, and turns to the eye. "Would you mind us calling you Scott? Eye seems not enough now my friend. You have aided us much, and if you are willing to still join us on our adventures, I for one would like it." With that she waited for a reply.

Turning back to the Harper, she asked, "Do you know what Scottfard was researching at the time? That might bring light to the question."

The eye bobs.  You'd all feel more comfortable calling him something other than "The Eye".  You get the sense that Scott would like that too, whether he's this Scottfard Ferisedan fellow or not.

"Everlasting youth." says Genessa.

"Scottfard's grandfather gave him a cat, so the story goes, that had never gotten any older in all his grandfather's days.  Scottfard wondered how this was possible.  He asked around.  Many had gone looking for a way to stave off the wear of years and even cheat the grim reaper.  This quest was typically an old man's sport.  The young already felt as though they'd live forever."

"But Scottfard felt differently.  If there was a way out there to keep from aging, why not find it in your youth and put it to its best use?  He even had a plan.  Fairies stayed young forever.  Maybe he could find their secret.  He chased rumors of Fairy Circles.  Then there's the bit from the song..."

Returned to the village after months away
with only the word "Eureka!" to say

He went into the fire to sleep for the night
  with many eyes on him to show them the way
In the morn there was nothing where he had lay
  but a flute and a lute and the song of the Faye

His feline companion withered and grey
took it last breath on the very next day

Genessa sings the verse to you.  It's really quite a playful tune despite the lyrics.

"See?  Mysterious, and not much to go on.  This part of the song is often taken to mean that creating music will make you live on after you're gone, a sort of immortality.  Nothing about turning into an eye in there."

Farden has been listening carefully enough, but hasn't said anything. Mostly because there doesn't seem anything to say. He, however, does raise one question: "Eburacon's songbook, does it contain only those songs composed by Eburacon, or does it also contain songs Eburacon picked up from others? If the latter, then it might explain how a Scottfard could know a song from the book."

"Your theory is entirely possible," she says to Farden.

"The style of the songs in the book vary greatly.  It's hard to tell if they were all created by the same man.  However, they have all been unique so far.  There are no duplicates of known songs from elsewhere.  We've always assumed it wasn't a collaboration or collection because of Eburacon's aversion to the company of others."

Farden shrugs in response. Clearly, the whole mystery is of only mild interest to him. He looks at the others, to see if they have anything to say.

Holly had been listening carefully, and trying to think as the others talked. It seemed that the question of how Scott had become a giant eye, and had learnt all the songs in Eburacon's Songbook, was one worth trying to solve. That meant they might need a little information, and the Harper's were good with that.

"So would the Harper's be interested in how Scott here knows about the songs in the book? Enough to pay us to seek out some answers? Or perhaps you might be interested in us finding a Golem before the Empire steals them away?", Holly asked, aware she was looking for new adventures when perhaps their current ones were not fully over.

"That and you might want to hear more about this plate we brought with us." That Holly knew might be something her village elders might not appreciate having passed on, but Holly was willing at least to find out about the Harper's interest in such a piece of magic.

"Our guide through the marshes said that the land was causing serious trouble to the inhabitants, and I was wondering what the Harper's might know about the Darkness down that end of the world."

"Of course we'd be curious.  That's what drives most harpers.  We're on a never ending search for knowledge and we try to be entertaining along the way.  Additionally, you'd probably be helping out one of our oldest members,"

She smiles at the idea of the eye being an ageless harper from years gone by.

"However, we're not really what you'd call rich.  I know it might seem like it, the way we just laid out a couple thousand gold to get this book back.  It helps being under Limon's wing.  He encourages the collection and sharing of information, but a bunch of dancers, musicians, and storytellers do not exactly roll in the coins."

"Look, I know you're trying to scrounge up 10,000 gold to buy a magic book from Limon.  We could only hire you for smaller jobs like Arthur's letter.  I'm afraid researching Scottfard's predicament wouldn't pay very well either.  However, you might be on to something with the golems.  If you could dig one up it'd be worth quite a bit.  The harpers aren't in the market for golems, unless you find one that plays guitar or something," Genessa chuckles.

"This is a big city.  I'm sure you could find someone with deep pockets that would buy one if you had it.  Maybe the dwarves."



Genessa gives you a wry grin.

"I'd love to hear about it.  I didn't believe for a minute that you were as ignorant about its purpose as you claimed to be.  Your little group of Triplefang know quite a few secrets about magical items that you're not letting on to."




"The Dark Woods are a troubling, dangerous place best left alone.  I'd group the hills and marshes to its east in with it especially now that the goblins have set up some sort of forges there.  The Ferisedan are cautious, sending scouts out to keep an eye on them.  We don't need a war with the goblins.  They're far too numerous and far too close to Utsk.  The way things have gone has all but split the Ferisedan clan into north and south.  Trellor pretty much takes care of itself, and Gollag...  well, lets not talk about that."

We're wrapping up this chapter soon, so here are your experience point awards.

 25 exp  Chaos in Silvergate (Farden, Glumr, Holly, Israth)
300 exp  Fighting Dothorex  (Farden, Glumr, Holly, Israth)
400 exp  Alligogs (Farden, Glumr, Holly)  Funny that it's worth more than Dothorex
167 exp Returning the book and getting paid (Farden, Glumr, Holly)
----------------
892 exp total

Meager exp this chapter thanks to most of the adventure being talk and running away.  However it is enough to advance Holly and Glumr to 4th level.

OCC - Yay  ::Level Up Sound::

"We thank you and the harpers for the chance to do business together"  Glumr says to Genessa.  He's quiet and a bit puzzled from everything.  "If we find out more information, we will gladly share it.  But as you know, we need more lucrative endeavors to complete our quest at hand."

Glumr says to his companions "Shall we stay in town for a bit and find some new work, maybe relax and rest for a day or two?   On our way out of town, let's remember to stop past and see how our cottage is coming along."  Glumr says with a wink.

Holly nods, "That sounds ok to me. I could do with some items, and a chance to rest. That ride from Silvergate was a little too hectic for me, and being in the badlands was not good either." Holly wants to have a long bath, and a chance to go shopping.

"Genessa, can you recommend a good magic shop? And perhaps someone of the druidic order in the nearby lands?"

"Magic shop?  I'm not sure what you're looking for.  There are plenty of charlatans out there," Genessa switches to a more conspiratorial tone.  "Probably a few members of this very guild, who will be happy to sell you wondrous baubles.  I wouldn't vouch for their authenticity."

"Cordelia is Limon's Viseer.  You should talk to her about any serious magic matters."



"What an odd question."

Genessa then proceeds to say something long and unintelligible.  You think maybe you pick out Cuma's name in there somewhere.

"I'm all for a little R&R, but first we need to find some place to put this portal plate. It's heavy, no use to us, and too valuable to pay tax on every time."

"We should leave it at my family's farm on the way out, or perhaps back in volge. Wherever makes sense when we plan our next leg of this adventure."

"I'll take responsibility for it, until we decide what to do with it." Holly says, unwilling to leave it out in the public forum for anyone to use. She wasn't sure if there were other portal keys out there, but suspected there might be. For some reason, she felt happier if it stayed in their possession.

Telling the story of the tunnels, and the transportation through the portal to a hot and arid land, Holly asked Genessa whether she or the Harper's had any knowledge of whether the destination was one on this plane or the next.

"So now we know where troglodytes come from," Genessa says.

"It's my opinion that the hot, sandy land is not itself another plane.  We are only able to bring items and creatures from other planes to us.  Traveling to other planes ourself...  well, for the most part we don't know how to do it or if it's even possible.  Something on another plane might be able to call us there, but it would be temporary like our summoning is."

"The exception is the ether.  That's another plane- a dream world.  I've been told that a portal like the one you found near Gollag uses the ether to bridge distances.  You open the portal, travel through the ether with time nearly stopped, and slip back out in a new place.  There should be ways to stay in that plane, to sense time passage there, and maybe even peer back into our own plane."

"But all of this is beyond my powers."

"If you're looking to sell the plate, we could put the word out for you."

"I think we would rather keep it out of the hands of the Empire for the moment", Holly says, knowing it would be an item Flavius would be very keen on.

Turning to the others, Holly asks them, "Should we use the funds to buy a house here? Would save the taxes in and out, and when we needed the funds we could sell the house, or use it to pay for the book. And with a house, we could use it as a base of operations."

Turning back to Genessa, Holly asks, "Would the Harper's be willing to put out the word that we are looking for suitable employment that pays well?"

"Unless we actually plan to use that plate, I think we should dispose of it. Frankly though, I don't care what we do with it as long as I don't have to lug it around. If you want to keep it, its up to you."

Genessa assures you that word will get out.

You finish your wine, exchange some final pleasantries and depart Genessa's office, not really sure what to do or where to go next.