Pasch's first impression of Nicodranas was that it was loud.  The hustle and bustle of the city's docks was an assault on her ears after so many weeks at sea.  Sure, the crew of the The Southern King could be loud when they chose to be, but there were also periods of blessed stillness, and quiet, where you could hear your own thoughts.  But Nicodranas had that feeling of permanent noise.  Birdcalls and shouts of dockhands would fade as the day passed, only to be replaced by the sounds of revelry and carousing as evening deepened into night.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine."  Kana's hand rested on one furred shoulder as her voice sounded in the opposite ear.  A second later her body warmth was pressing against Pasch's back.  There wasn't anything romantic in the gesture; it was just Kana's way -- she was a toucher.

The Southern King bumped and groaned as it hull rubbed against the pylons alongside one of the docks of the Restless Wharf, but eventually came to a halt.  Warehouses, small huts, buildings and cranes were tightly packed in along the wharf, and the cries of seagull and other birds filled the early morning air.  A dockmaster approached the ship as she came in and started talking with the captain, who handed over a manifest of passenger names.  From there it would have been a few minutes wait while the crew hauled the passenger luggage up from below decks, but Kana and Pasch had no such hinderances; their entire worldly possessions amounted to little more than a backpack each.  Pasch had doubts about the scraps of paper that Kana insisted would be sufficient to buy their passage across Wildemount, but it turned out the druid had been telling the truth.  She watched as Kana gave one of the "letters of credit" to a money-lender, and received a bulging sack of coin in return.

"This will get us to Jigow, my home," Kana said, "but there won't be much left after that.  Still, it's a three month journey from here.  I doubt Darke will be inclined to go quite so far to find his lion."

An hour's walk through the town saw the pair at the northern gates of Nicodranas.  Kana spoke to a caravan master, pointed at herself and then to Pasch, and handed over the majority of the coins she'd claimed only an hour before.  She came back bearing a chit of baked clay, with the name "Jigow" carved into it.  "Don't lose that," she warned.  "It's your ticket to the caravan.  Lose that, and we're walking the rest of the way."

Eventually, the caravan departed, a team of wagons and carts set out north.  For twelve days, the caravan made its slow inexorable way between the Cyrios Mountains to the east, and the Ashkeeper Peaks on the west, with only the tiny, but well-travelled road between them.  The mountains grew taller every day, to where it seemed the world shrank to space between them, each range competing to dominate the other.  Eventually, the caravan reached the Wuyun Gate.  The gates stood at least 50 feet high, with two iron-reinforced doors at least 20 feet high leading into a short tunnel to emerge on the other side.  From the depth of the tunnel, it looked like the walls of the gate were at least 15 feet thick at the base.  Here, the caravan was stopped and searched by a group of heavily armour soldiers, but allowed to pass with only a short delay.

From the gates it was a five day journey north up the Amber Road to the city of Alfield, then another four days to Felderwin, and then a week to the fortress at Ashguard Garrison, to pass through the Ashkeeper Peaks into Xhorhas.  There were many questions from armed guards at the garrison, seeking spies from the Kryn Dynasty, but ultimately the party was allowed through.  As they passed through each city and town, the caravan would stop and overnight in town, one or more travellers would depart the caravan, and others would or would not join the following morning.

Three days down the road saw the party to the city of Asarius, the City of Beasts, with its white spires reaching from the ground like the rib cage of some long-forgotten primordial being.  Asarius was the last city the two travellers saw for some time, as the caravan headed north for Jigow.

"Jigow's more a collection of fishing villages," Kana explained one morning, as she yet again talked up her hometown.  "It must be getting close to the Festival of Merit -- that's why so many people are on the road this time of year."  Whenever she was pressed on what exactly a festival of merit was or what it might entail, she always replied with a "You'll see," and a sly wink.


Humu declined the offer to journey with the party to Jigow, citing a need to return to his studies, and declaring himself not cut out for adventuring life.  The little Kenku booked himself passage on a caravan heading west, stating an intent to return to Westruun on Tal'dorei.

OOC: Humu has left the party!

Hannah and Kursak worked together to procure horses and supplies for the journey ahead, depleting much of their hard-won treasure in the process.  But here in the City of Beasts, it was not hard to find animals and travelling gear.  In the end, they acquired a horse for everyone, though Rain settled on a smaller pony, and Frilia found a pair of large dogs, which the gnome could right quite comfortably.

Without much issue, the party headed north the following morning.  The road remained mostly clear, with only a few days of fog in the middle, most of which burned away as the sun rose, bringing with it the warmth of the day.

The party maintained a steady pace, breaking at the sundown to strike camp, and keep themselves fighting fit.  Frilia discovered a surprising new use for her small magical talent, gathering glimpses through time, able to see -- even just for a moment -- the way things might have unfolded.  More, she found herself -- perhaps due to her small magical talent, perhaps not -- able to hold onto those glimpses of herself, and keep them in the here and now.  They were frail things, vanishing at almost the slightest touch, but her connection to them was undeniable; with only a small effort of will, Frilia found she could swap places with her double, though the effort left her a little winded.

OOC: Flavour to describe the echo knight subclass.

Hannah ended up as Frilia's frequent sparring partner many an evening.  Quite apart from her massive greatsword, which possible weighed as much as Frilia herself, the paladin of Bahamut had developed a truly terrifying battlefield presence.  Just the image of her chainmail-clad form swinging that sword as she strode onto the field was enough to make the gnome's knees turn to water.

OOC: Enter the Oath of Conquest for Bahamut.  Interesting choice.

Without Klaven there, the journey would have been dull and boring.  Despite many misgivings about his obvious and unashamed cowardice, no one could deny that the bard had failed to step up when the chips were down.  Several in the party literally owed their lives to the bard's timely efforts, and he was surprisingly humble about it, deflecting any attempts to bring himself into the spotlight.  "It's a poor storyteller who makes himself the star," he would say.

Many an evening found the bard in conversation with Minho, working through intricate finger and hand movements -- a necessary part of playing the fifteen-stringed lute he pulled out every night for their entertainment.

OOC: Klaven's taken a level of Rogue...

If Hannah was the strident, unbending voice of the platinum dragon, Kursak was a study in the opposite.  The half-goliath cleric could often be found not in prayer, but in study often with Shera, poring over notes on anatomy and physiology, sometimes with arcane notes thrown into the mix.  At some point in time along the journey, though no one could pinpoint precisely when, the raven he called Isolde rejoined them, as if she had been there the whole time.

The brothers from Rexxentrum, Minho and Felix, largely kept to themselves in quiet conversation.  Occasionally one or the other could be drawn into some of the evening's festivities: Minho joined Frilia and Hannah for some sparring practice, his quick feet and opportunistic style making him a good match for Frilia's speed, and a tricky challenge for Hannah's more direct approach; while Felix, who was given to periods of great moroseness, could occasionally we brought out by the chance to compare notes and match skills with Klaven.

But no matter how many miles they travelled, or activities of the evening, everyone's eye was not far from Rain's egg.  From the curious to the concerned, to a few jokes about making omelets in the morning, the egg was never far from everyone's thoughts.  Quickly taken in and even more quickly obsessed with the idea of hatching the egg, the ranger spent nearly every available hour with it.  Initially, she kept the egg warm, hoping it was like any other mammalian egg.  If anything the opposite held true; the egg started to lose its lustre, growing dull and lifeless.  Thereafter, the Tabaxi kept the egg well away from the campfire, in the deepest, most shadowed parts of the camp.  She woke every few hours to pour cold water over the egg in the dead of night, watching as the water droplets quick spread into a layer of hoarfrost before fading away.  Every night, the layer of rime across the leathery surface of the egg was deeper, and thicker than the night before.

And then, in the middle of the night in the middle of the journey to Jigow, the egg began to hatch.  Rain was in the middle of pouring cold water over the egg when a *crack* sounded through the camp, and a fissure appeared on egg's surface.  Rain's cry of surprise and elation brought everyone running, and the whole party was present to witness the drake's birth.  It was a stubby little thing, low to the ground, with narrow eyes and needle-like teeth overlapping the jaws.  The nose was hooked like a beak, and its eyes flashed a bright blue.  A small set of overlapping bone-like plates adorned the head, heading straight back over the neck, which stretched long and low out from a body not much bigger than a housecat.  Two painfully thin membranes on frail thin bones that folded flat over the back promised that one day, this creature would fly, but there was no way they could support its weight just yet.  Behind, a thick muscular tail dragged behind.

Rain promptly adopted it, and in return, the drake bit her quite savagely on the hand.

OOC: 22:42, Tyrsoir rolled 25 using 1d20+5 ((20)).
22:44, Tyrsoir, rolled 7 using 1d6+2,1d4 ((2,3)).
This wound would have healed through the long rests you all took on the rest of the journey.

It took the rest of the night for the drake, whom Rain called "Tyrsoir" to settle enough to accept food.  Acting on a hunch, Rain eschewed the cooked meal that the party had prepared that night, and instead offered Tyrsoir chunks of dried meat which she first soaked in cold water.  Once it started, the drake's appetite became ravenous.  Once its hunger was sated, the drake curled up into a dark corner and lay still.  It was hard to say whether it slept, or merely waited as its eyes remained half-open, and seemed to track any movements nearby.  In the morning, Rain repeated the trick with the dried and cold meat.

Leaving was impossible the next morning, with the drake snapping and hissing at anyone who approached except Rain.  Even that was a stretch for the beast, as the ranger could only get close by offering food.  The second day was much like the first, though by the end, Tyrsoir allowed Rain to touch him -- while he was eating.  Apparently by the second day, Rain had cemented her position as food-bringer enough that Tyrsoir no longer hissed warningly whenever she approached.  On the morning of the third day, she found the drake sitting on her chest when she woke, his blue eyes demanding food.  Tyrsoir coiled around her as she began to prepare the food, and apparently found great pleasure in sinking his claws into her armour, using her as a perch to get a better vantage point to watch the food being prepared.

The fourth day saw the party back on the road, with Rain in the lead, Tyrsoir alternately perched atop her pack or perched on the saddle of her pony (much to the pony's wide-eyed dismay).


Jigow started as an amalgamation of coastal villages that originally settled by clans of orcs and goblins, and it certainly looked the part -- like a hodgepodge of village thrown together in an almost haphazard fashion.  While it might have been originally settled by orc and goblins, it may played host to many races.  Though more than half of the people which could be seen in the street were either orcish or goblin in descent, there were a fair few drow walking about, as well as a few humans, a gnome or two, even a minotaur and a leonin could be seen in the twisted streets.

---

You have entered the Jumble, a large district of tangled roads and single-story buildings in the town of Jigow.  Throngs of people, most of them orcs and goblins, move through the streets, laughing, singing, running, and sightseeing.  All are enthralled by the raucous sights and sounds of the town’s Festival of Merit.

You hear snippets of conversations as people pass by: a goblin mother telling her children not to go near the baby horizonback tortoises, a drow guard in shining insectile armor complaining to his partner that his gauntlet was crushed by a hulking orc while arm-wrestling, and a pair of young orcs in swimwear hollering as they rush toward the banks of the Ifolon River.

All around you, colorful signs and banners point toward festival booths surrounded by cheering people.  On this street alone, you can see a meat-pie eating contest near a shop mounted on the back of a massive tortoise, and on the other side of the road, a banner emblazoned with the words, “Riddles and Rhymes: Unbeatable Riddles!”  That banner points toward a three-story temple in the center of the Jumble.  The town is yours to explore — where do you want to go?

---

OOC: Map is here: https://i.ibb.co/SsqFrLY/Jigow-Start.png

The pink circle is where you all start.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:35, Thu 10 Nov 2022.

Rain walked at the head of the group (As was her way), Tyrsoir at the moment perched on her pack as she walked with a smile. The tabaxi still had some fur missing on her hands from the bites from the drake, but this was a inconvenience she could bare for the return of her new friend.

She found over the days she traveled, a bond that linked them. Only yesterday, she reached into her nature magic, changing the drake's size to be much smaller (Much to his annoyance). Rain laughed right up until when he bit her ankle. Even this very morning when they left, she tried again, but whether her concentration was off by the barking hounds, or something else, she managed to make Tyrsoir look like a hound. This surprised both herself and the rest of the group.

Standing at the edge of town, she had enacted this to make Tyrsoir look like a lizard, perched on her pack. She looked at the group and smiled. "Looks like we made it here...at last.  Maybe we can get something other than meat." She looked over her shoulder at Tyrsoir "What ya say buddy....want some fish for a change?"

"I would rather eat anything than another pack of rations." Hannah said, walking forward to stand near Rain.

Frilia nodded when Hannah spoke, then smacked her lips. " I also thirst for some good beer, lets find an inn we can both rest and restore ourselves! "

Tyrsoir hissed happily and clacked his jaws together, dangerously near Rain's ear, which twitched reflexively.  Hannah and Frilia joined her a moment later.

On the eastern edge of the Jumble, the docks rose upward from the river to run alongside wooden shacks built on stilts, casting crooked shadows over the wetlands below. Some areas of the wetlands had been cordoned off to create rice paddies, which were now ready for harvest.

Blue and green banners waved over one end of the docks, where two elderly goblin farmers presided over the contest. “You know how it goes!” one hollered out in a reedy voice. “First team to harvest the rice from their section wins!”  OOC: Marked as position 5 on the map.

Continuing beyond the rise paddies, the road bent around the right, and toward the riverbank.  A new road split away at an intersection, and a small crowd could be seen down the new road at a further crossroads.  OOC: positions 1 and 8, down the road.

Where would you like to go?  Any of you can go anywhere you'd like.

---

Map: https://i.ibb.co/GWZLq7D/Jigow-20221112.png

Her ears twitching in pain with all the noise, Pasch looks about as the cacophony of noise around her grows louder. Kana, I wouldn't have thought it possible but this place is even noisier than the seaport where we first landed. How did you grow up with all this racket and not go crazy! Is this the festival you were describing? Could we go somewhere quiet where you can explain just what in the name of Bastet is happening here?
This message was last edited by the player at 19:57, Sat 12 Nov 2022.

Kana laughed, her face split with a huge smile as memories collided with current events.  "No!  I mean, yes!  And no!  This is the festival of merit!  Once a year, people come from all over Xhorhas to engage in a day of competition!  Pie-eating!  Arm-wrestling!  Riddles!  Mazes!  Any kind of competition would can think of!  And at the end of the day, the there's a team event for a prize and bragging rights!"

Kana laughed again as she had to dodge aside when two goblin children ran past holding a meat pie.



OOC: Kana's shouting to be heard.  Pasch is close enough to hear already -- if anyone else would like to overhear, make a Perception vs DC:15 check.  Success indicates you catch the whole conversation, on a failure, the words are swept away by the wind, or you're distracted by something else nearby.

Rain walked on, listening to the snippets of conversation. She heard words between a cat person (one larger than herself so she assumed she wasn't a tabaxi like herself). She looked at the two with a smile. "Excuse me....you said pie-eating! That sounds like fun.  And a maze - myself and Tyrsoir will be in that."

She looked at the others. "What ya say....we have some fun!" She looked at the two with a smile. "You mind if we tag along.....new in town and all.  I'm rain, and this rapscalion is Tyrsoir. Careful - he has a bit of a temper on him - still young."

---

<OOC: Rain rolled 21 using 1d20+4 with rolls of 17.  perception check.>
This message was last edited by the player at 07:53, Sun 13 Nov 2022.

OOC: A small Tabaxi in leather armour with a exquisite longbow approached from a passing small crowd.  A large white terrestrial lizard sat on one of her shoulders, it's beady eyes trying to look everywhere at once, and defend its territory -- which clearly included the tabaxi.

"Ah!  Welcome to Jigow!  I'm Kana, and this is my traveling companion Pasch, come to visit my hometown."  The human woman pointed down the right side of the street.  "The pies will probably be down this road here, and if you keep going down to the water, you'll hit the festival entrance grounds, where they usually set up the maze."  She glanced aside at Pasch.

"What say you, dear?  Fancy a pie, or the maze?  There's also the wetlands paddywhack right behind us...." Kana gestured to the rise paddocks.  "Traditionally, there's a prize for the winner of every event."

The small gnome followed Rain, grinning. "A maze you said? Oh those are always fun, my mom had one set up every year at harvest time! And pies? Where do I sign up?

Pasch looks to Kana with a shrug. Dealer's choice. Lead on.

"Pies, then.  They're closer, and directly across is the temple of the Luxon.  You can stable your horses there for a small fee," Kana said with a shrug and a smile.  The smile seemed to get broader every time she looked around.  "Gods it's good to be home.  I have missed this place."

Turning down the southern road, Kana lead the way.  The party with their horses moved slowly, and the stream of pedestrians parted around them like a river parts around rocks, heading this way and that.  A group of goblin children made a game up running under the horses' legs, causing Tyrsoir to spin back and forth as he tried to keep an eye on them, his thick tail *thwacking* Rain on the back of the head every time he did.

Yukiko sat atop Felix's horse, pointedly ignoring the mastiffs the little gnome held.  The two big dogs held her heads high, wet nostrils quivering as they scented the air around them, but they held to their training, much as the beastmaster in Asarius had promised.  The tressym had not been impressed with Frilia's choice of mount, and had apparently decided to cope by pretending that they weren't there.

Isolde perched atop Kursak's head, causing several of the goblin children to point and laugh uproariously.  Upon noticing this, the raven started to put on a little show, hopping from shoulder to shoulder, before going back up on top of Kursak's bald head, and standing tall with wings spread.

The crowd in the centre definitely gathered more on the western side of the road.  The savory scents of meat, pastry, and spices fill the air around a three-story building mounted on the back of a gigantic tortoise.  A sign hung over the entrance proclaimed the building to be The Unbroken Tusk tavern.  A cooking stand and a festival stage with a long table were set up at the tortoise’s feet, where an orc stands over a massive oven.  She bustled from the oven to the stage and back, placing delicious-looking hand pies at each seat and stacking more of them on a cooling rack nearby.



As you approached, the orc calls out in a melodic baritone,  “Come to sample the best meat pies this side of the Wastes, yes? I sell ’em for meals up there, but I’m running pie-eating contests down here all day, if you’ve got an orc-sized stomach.”  She gestured to the raise platform, where three people sat already: a male drow elf, looking as thin a blade, a female halfling, and a scrawny young human with a mop of brown hair and a scruffy beard, who peered over the top of the crowd like he was looking for someone.  Conspicuously, a bucket sat next to each seat.

"Come on up, don't be shy!" the orc shouted from the stage.  "I'm Agathe Silverspoon, and I've plenty of pies to go around!  You there!" -- she pointed at Pasch -- "with the lion's face and the lion's belly!  Come, join us up on stage and I'll fill it for sure!  And any of your friends, too!  Only five silver to enter!  You'll not find a batter bargain all day -- all the pies you can eat in one sitting for five silver!"

Felix appeared from the back of the crowd, having slipped away unnoticed.  "Not for me, thanks.  I'm going to check out the Temple behind us.  I've already checked and they can stable the mounts for us.  It's five silver for each animal. -- Anyone want to give me their packs to stash while we're at it?"

---

OOC: @Everyone I've deducted 5sp (@Frilia, that's 10sp from you) from your money for stabling.  I've also deducted all rations and feed from your inventory, as this was consumed during the ride north.  @Pasch, you're exempt from this, since your caravan had food included.

Anyone want to enter the pie-eating contest?

Pasch looked at Kana and shrugged. I suppose you're going to enjoy leaving this "fun" to me, right? Tell me again, why did I agree to let you travel with me? A barely detectable smirk crossed Pasch's face before she shrugged her pack and handed it to Kana. She turned to the orc and bared her fangs. Stack 'em up, little lady.

After handing her the five silver, she took a place at the table closest to the cooling rack.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:06, Tue 15 Nov 2022.

22:42, Today: Kursak rolled 10 using 1d20+4.  Wis check. – [roll=1668487348.55981.365861]

Kursak heard bits and pieces of conversation all around him. Something about a pie maze and a bragging competition, or some such. Rain's hearing seemed to have been better than his own, and was drawn off to go start up a conversation with a nearby couple. Not sure of where else to go, or what else to do, Kursak followed.

Pie eating and a maze? Getting turned around in a maze after stuffing himself silly with a pie that was likely to be a new flavor, to him at least, seemed like a terrible idea. It would all be good fun, until digestion had other ideas. Digestive mishaps aside, food was a source of Life, and since accepting the priesthood, Kursak had taken vows to maintain a balance between Life and Death in his life, and gorging himself for "fun" was not on the list of acceptable practices.

His friends, however, had taken no such vows, and he was happy to cheer on any of them who wished to take up the challenge for themselves. "Go ahead, Frilia. Show the good people here how we used to handle pie back in the good old days."

Hannah stood near Kursak, her arms folded. She was a warrior, and couldn't afford to encumber herself by eating a metric tonne in pies. "Pie eating contests are not really my thing... I'll just watch."