Bram nodded as the drow spoke, listening with intent focus.  At this last phrase he smiled and replied as he reached down to his travel pack that laid by his seat, [Language unknown: "Is, al moieth it.  I nahoin wa on hinaon k taolfi ardoutons, hasousthaour einehoom poout prool al k ee.  El iv urul thadi, ecof redyiners hasta ted resee eve ek!"]  He lifted a leatherbound journal onto the table, unbuckled the cover and flipped to an empty page and began scribbling rapidly with a quill.  [Language unknown: "For po ee mowil hisvorwilcon ereivesta se ne Nteoulhiswitant al o ut th, tiovernte be moevonar ar p ngfo any utlano.  Meneauandtio m san ure vorouttra adain e thoicawhe, di unmo resain tin mo vorsanyinest.  Isshe ntevenwas po utut traartpre alomus hired Of Tedvenlar, ri inss'endi t he ount menhiskor om thostande ofni itpr haine."]

He finished writing and seemed about to say something when the lad from the inn came asking for orders.  He asked for water for himself and another of whatever drink Verthel was having, and reserved himself a spot in one of the dormitories for the night.  By then a quite interesting conversation had struck up between his travel companions, the drow and a few other patrons.  He scribbled a few further notes in his journal before mention of elemental portals caught his attention.  He spoke up in Common, "Elemental portals, you say?  I've been charged to discover such a portal myself, and the doings of its keepers.  It seems that we might help one another."

Morg and Asano walk along the Long Road as they talk, keeping an eye out to the left for the bathouse. The townsfolk and travelers have begun to thin as the sun falls further toward the horizon. The air feels a tad lighter now, and the heat is beginning to abate.

The smell of worked leather drifts through the air as the pair passes a shop on the left advertising itself as "Chansyrl Fine Harness".  This is followed by the scent of warm bread, presumably wafting from a shop advertising itself as Lorren's Bakery. Stomachs rumble.

The next shop is the promised Haeleeya's. Half-barrels planted with aromatic herbs and flowers flank the entrance, and the windows are decorated with flower-filled window boxes.

Inside, the shop is split into two sections. A tidy room to the left displays several dresses and fitting rooms, though both appear to be unoccupied. A wide hallway to the right ends in a set of double doors, in front of which a small crowd has gathered. Travelers and townsfolk alike speak with a bronze-skinned human woman of medium build, who chats with everyone animatedly. Given the weather, it's no surprise the bathhouse is busy today.

"Well don't go dunking him! I'm sure he'll come to his senses eventually," she finishes as Asano and Morg approach. The two girls she talked to titter, then turn away and bid farewell.

As the woman turns to the newcomers, she adopts an easy smile. "I assume you're here for the baths, not for the dresses? It's 4 silver for the half hour," she says lightly, as she bends to greet the dwarf.

But as she turns to Asano her eyes widen. "Asa- as a taller fellow, the cost is 4 silver for you as well." She gives him a meaningful look. "I know why you're here. You're not here looking for dresses."

She collects the coins from Asano, then motions through the double doors. "Choose a bathchamber as you like - once you're cleaned up, seek me out and we will have some private words."
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:45, Tue 18 Oct 2016.

The boy nods and places the cup of wine in front of Verthel. Minutes later he dutifully returns from the kitchens with cups of water for Bram and Mayon.

---

Mayon knows essentially what's on page 301 of the PHB - basically, that elemental planes are examples of other planes of existence. They are not simply other worlds but different qualities of being, governed by elemental principles abstracted from the everyday world. They sound fantastic and dangerous, and a portal to such planes sounds doubly so.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:46, Tue 18 Oct 2016.

Asano hands the coins over with a short nod, and proceeds to the first empty bathing chamber. He folds his clothing neatly, though keeps his wand within reach. If one person recognizes him, maybe others have, too. Mayhap even his quarry. He bathes quickly, wondering what words the proprietess would have for him.

OOC:
If nothing happens during the bath, Asano returns to the front.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:17, Tue 18 Oct 2016.

Verthel nods to the boy, but otherwise says nothing as he begins sipping his wine.

"Very well, that seems reasonable enough, Glyphscribe. What is the saying... you scratch my back, I scratch yours? Besides, I know little of the Arcane. It will help having one of your expertise around for this task."

"Great-grandfather Breathkill sounds remarkable."

"Bram prefers the heat, but I'll put up with more of it to make up what I lost to the dice in Amphail." Morg says, rubbing his still aching jaw below his purplish-blue left cheek.

---

Kaylessa smiles as she sees the four guests converse and make plans together. Then she turns back to her charges, checking on dinner preparations.

Abruptly the glasses on the tables begin to clatter, and several pictures hanging on the walls shake. The floor of the inn seems to be vibrating. The water in the bathhouse splashes, slopping onto the floor. Then, just as suddenly as the quake begins, it stops.

Several seconds pass in silence before an explosion like a thunderclap is heard from the backyard behind the inn. Kaylessa hurries to the window. "Not again," she mutters as she hurries out the back door.

"If it's the arcane you want then I should be of some use as well. Unfortunately I don't know much about the planes or portals like that, other than that they're dangerous..." Mayon muses, and then the quake hits and he instinctively grabs his quarterstaff.

When it settles, he hears the explosion and sees Kaylessa hurry out. Without another word to his potential new companions, he gets to his feet and follows.

As Asano leaves the bath he spies Haeleeya in the dress shop, tending to some of the clothes on display, returning some clothes to their racks after the earthquake.

She beckons him to follow her into a dressing room. The casual, breezy manner she displayed when chatting with her customers before is replaced with a businesslike briskness.

"I heard from some green friends of mine that you might pass through Red Larch in search of the one you seek," she began in low tones. "Simply know that your father has alerted some of these friends to your cause, and that we will pass along what help we can. Seek me out if you need assistance and I will do what I can."

She pauses to glance out at the empty dress shop. "I've heard no word of the man himself, but I have heard rumors of outlaws on the Cairn Road. Perhaps there is a place to start."
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:33, Tue 18 Oct 2016.

Kaylessa sighs to Mayon as he joins her in the back yard. Bits of meat and pastry are strewn about the yard mixed with bits of pottery and iron. "Well, so much for dinner," Kaylessa laments, looking at the remains of the makeshift stove that had been set up out here. "At least no one was hurt."

Several of the inn's staff were covered in what looked like soup, or vegetables, or pieces of meat pie, or all of the above. An unfortunate fellow in an apron was attempting to scrub the soot out of his hair, unsuccessfully.

She turns to Mayon and any other onlookers who had joined him. "I'm afraid dinner will have to be cold crumblecake this evening. Though I'd suggest that you instead visit the Helm across the street. Their food is quite good, and as far as I know their kitchen hasn't exploded twice in the last two days."

Jak raised an eyebrow at Bramwell getting so interested in the elemental portals and the drow. The young human merely shrugged at it all. Adventure and excitement and money were much interesting to him. And food. Definitely food. His stomach rumbled a bit.

The quake caught him off guard and apparently he wasn't the only one. He blinked as Kaylessa hurried out back. He followed after her and the half-elf Mayon. He stared a bit open-mouthed at the same back there for a moment. His stomach rumbled in annoyance at all the wasted food.

"You said 'not again'. This has happened before? Something common to this place?" He noted the suggestion about where to get food but hesitated a moment to see what she said.

"The regular kitchen caught fire when I was staying here last night. I didn't hear any explosions or quakes that time though." Mayon said, glancing around the scene with a frown, looking back to Kaylessa.

"You said strange things have been happening around here, and I'm guessing this is one of those...have any other places had explosions or fires like this? Recently, I mean?" It didn't seem right that a simple inn of all places would be having so much trouble.

Bramwell gratefully agreed with the drow to work together toward their common goals, at least for a time.  Just then came a rumbling followed by an explosion.  Alarmed, Bram hopped to his feet and stepped out back behind the inn, surveying the destruction as Kaylessa bemoaned the disaster.  Circling scene slowly, he asked the Inkeeper without taking his eyes off the wreckage, "Curious.  Do you know of any potential causes for the explosions?  Did this equipment utilize oil?"  That rumble seemed unusual, and more intense than might be expected from a kitchen mishap.

---

Investigation to attempt to deduce the cause of the explosion:

• 12:24, Today: Secret Roll: Bramwell Caulder rolled 14 using 1d20+4.  Investigation.

Arcana to attempt to identify if the rumbling was magical in nature:

• 12:28, Today: Secret Roll: Bramwell Caulder rolled 9 using 1d20+4.  Arcana.

This message was last edited by the player at 19:30, Tue 18 Oct 2016.

Morg tears out of his bathchamber, warhammer in hand, and helmet unsecured on his soap bubble covered hair. Not seeing anyone else disturbed by the quake and thunderclap, he slowly reverses back into the chamber and puts on his clothes and armor.

---

Verthel is initially shocked by the explosion, but once he realizes there is no threat, he begins to laugh.

"So the rumors were true! There is a portal nearby!" He chuckled. "This is what they do: they leak elemental energy, causing chaotic magical phenomena. We destroy the portal, and all this will stop."

"What in the Nine Hells?" Asano says as the bathhouse quakes. His eyebrows shoot up to his hairline at the sight of the soap-clothed dwarf, but he shakes his head and turns back to Haeleeya. "Does that happen often around here?"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:04, Wed 19 Oct 2016.

A warhammer-wielding dwarf surges through the double doors from the bath house wearing nothing but a loose helmet and soap bubbles. His appearance is met with shocked squeals and cries from several onlookers, who grasp at the walls to remain upright during the quake.

"Happen often around here? I can't say as I've ever seen that before," Haeleeya says, turning back to Asano with a smirk. "I've seen my fair share of bathers, but never a naked dwarf brandishing an axe."

Her smile faded. "I've never heard of an earthquake in Red Larch before, but you have more important things to worry about than natural disasters. I need to go check on the baths, we can't have leaks springing up."

---

=D

"I don't know anything about portals," Kaylessa began slowly, "but I haven't heard of any other fires in town. There's some among the farmers that talk of spontaneous combustion of cattle in the fields, but..." she trails off, thinking.

"There's been lots of weird tales around town. I've heard many tales of fogs in the Sumber Hills that don't burn off even in bright sunlight, sudden gusts of hot wind sweeping west out of the hills where breezes have always been cold, and of course the hot weather we're having when it should be gettin colder."

Kaylessa shivers in the heat. "There's more violent things too. Sudden bolts of lightning stabbing up from the hills into the clear sky. I guess we could add kitchen fires to the list."

"But the thing that gets my goat the most is the gossip about seeing strange things. Minthra's granddaughter saw a ghost by an old tomb outside of town, for example, and the quarry workers won't stay in the quarry after dark anymore on account of what they've seen at night."

"If you ask me, it's all fell magic from a evil presence out at Lance Rock. The Tarnlar children are going round telling tales about a plague out there, so I suppose there's something to my theory." She chuckles. "Maybe the spirit world is attacking my kitchen." One of the nearby staff members blanches at that remark, and Kaylessa moves to reassure the young man.

"The oven does use oil," she replies to Bram. "I don't know if that caused any explosions though. But in any case I guess I have a mess to clean up. Sorry again for the trouble of all this." She moves off to help clean up the yard.

---

Observing the scene, Bram thinks the staff tried to piece together the broken oven in the yard next to a large rock. He thinks it's likely that, when the earthquake hit, the oven pieces shifted and made them collapse, which caused the explosion.

Bram knows that earthquakes do happen naturally, and doesn't detect anything magical that caused this one.

This message was last edited by the player at 21:11, Sat 22 Oct 2016.

Jakrynn listened as Kaylessa spoke at length, listing off some of the strange things that had been happening lately. His eyes widened a bit at the enormity of it all, at least on the surface. He glanced at Bramwell, watching as the half-elf looked things over intently.

Then he nodded, and spoke, to himself. "Lance Rock. Got it. But for now? On to dinner!" He turned around on his heel and marched back inside to gather up his stuff, and Morg's pack. He put them away in the room before going across the street to see about dinner. Heroing was hard on an empty stomach after all!

"Exploding cows and ghosts certainly sound like a predicament." Mayon remarks wryly, though his expression is serious and thoughtful. And an evil presence, causing a plague...perhaps he could find some answers to his own search there.

"Do you know how far Lance Rock is from here, Miss Irkell?" It seemed like a good place to start if nothing else.

If I could, I'd like to roll to see if Mayon would have any idea what sort of creatures/magic could cause plague of some sort. Would that be Nature or Arcana in this case?

You can roll either or both - plagues could come in many forms.

Kaylessa turns back from picking up a sharp piece of pottery. "Oh, it's no more than eight miles southwest of here as the crow flies. If you head south on the Long Road you can't miss it on a clear day."

"But do be careful. If I'm right and that really is the source of fell magic it's like to be dangerous."

In that case,
19:09, Today: Mayon Graycross rolled 14 using 1d20+4.  arcana check for plague knowledge.
Don't really have anything IC to add, so Mayon's just thinking things over at the moment.

"We can go check it out, I suppose," Verthel says. "If indeed it is fell magic, my divine duty would be to cleanse it and allow this place to rest peacefully."

"That felt like, but didn't sound like, an open mine explosion." Morg says to Asano as they walk back to the inn. "Do you know what it was?"

"As for the business opportunity, I definitely need some coin, but I'll ask Bram and Jak what their plans are first. What does it involve?"

---

This message was last edited by the player at 14:37, Thu 20 Oct 2016.

"I've never felt the like before, honestly," Asano says regarding the earthquake. "Mostly, I just need help in tracking down some bandits that destroyed a small community a ways to the east, just outside High Forest. Rumor says they've moved to Cairn Road since. I would need help in ferrreting them out, and especially their leader. I would be happy to explain to your friends as well, perhaps over dinner tonight?"