22 Eleasis

Well, Orsik finally made it back, around half a month later than estimated. Still, it’s good to have him back, it was nice to see him at the Font again. I didn’t actually realize how much of a fixture he had become for me until his absence. Self-study didn’t evoke the same level of enthusiasm without him around to engage and ask questions, whether he was able to give actual answers or simply direct me towards sources that could provide them.

He seemed a bit cagey about the exact details of the journey, but it’s clear that something happened. He seemed a bit tender moving around collecting books for our study session, which is strange when healing magic exists from clerics. I don’t know enough about that field to really speak on it, but for him to still be at least slightly injured after the journey back…

Well, he did reveal a bit about what he was there for at least. Nothing too specific though. He’s been researching to try and find the trail of some important magical artifact, something he said was powerful but relatively harmless unless it was in the wrong hands. That’s why he had come to Waterdeep, he’d been looking through records and investigating some of the noble families he thought could be connected.

Whatever the item was, it had been passed around from family to family, supposedly, but he wasn’t able to get any answers out of the ones left in Neverwinter. I had to wonder if that was because there wasn’t any, or if he had been forced away from the city and made to return.

I’d wish him the best of luck penetrating the Waterdavian nobility though, the ones I imagine he was likely to have to deal with for a known to be powerful magical artifact were hardly the types to part with it easily. It would likely be difficult to even penetrate their social circles to discover who’d have it. I doubt his magic was likely to be of great use in that endeavor either, what with what little he’s told me of various spoofing magics designed to counteract various divinations.

If he asked for my help though, whatever it was, he’d probably get it. It’s the least I could do for a friend who’s taught me so much. He probably doesn’t actually consider my offer very seriously though, I haven’t revealed my power yet to him, and I don’t think he suspects it. To him, I’m just the strange girl who’s far too curious about a great range of topics that he enjoys humoring.

14 Eleint

Holy shit I wish I did this sooner. I might be sore, but I did a field trip with the lizardfolk soldiers. There were a good number of non-soldiers or non-hunters? Honestly, the exact roles of individuals in the clan seem pretty mercurial. There aren't really serious physical differences between their genders, though from what I can tell most of the females tend towards the more domestic tasks than the males.

Anyway, I left early in the morning to meet up with a band of them. Thankfully they were understanding that forcing me to march through wilderness on my small legs would have just slowed everything down, so I got piggybacked for most of the journey. It was quite the experience since thus far I had kept myself to the well-travelled road to the south, I hadn’t previously ventured into the untamed areas nearby. Even patrolled as the area was, I knew there were still dangerous creatures out there, from packs of wolves to more fantastical options.

All those dangers kept away from a hunting band of lizardfolk though, and we didn’t try to bother them. We had a goal in mind, and only so many hours before I would need to have returned home to prevent worry with my family. So after travelling for a couple of hours on foot (I miss cars and helicopters), we finally arrived at a treasure trove. A lair of giant spiders.

When I say giant, I really mean it. These were easily large enough to eat a person, or a lizardfolk, probably even a horse if they were willing to share. Massive yellow and black striped things, they reminded me somewhat of wasps, though their patterns were less well-defined.

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We got to work quickly, splitting off into two general groups. One to assist me in forcibly harvesting the venom from my newly controlled horde, the other to help cut down the spider silk around their massive nest. We also tried having some of the spiders spin some threads of silk onto poles for collection purposes.

There was also some scavenging done from the leftovers from their feeding. Much of it was wild animals, but a few seemed to be people of varying sizes that had gotten caught. Hunters or merchants most likely, with the latter typically having some gold on them or at least some of their belongings were found nearby after a search. We’d bring them back to the city to at least report them, with what we could find that might help with personal identification. It’s better than what would typically be expected.

I also agreed to help walk back a few most of the way to the city, the lizardfolk aren’t picky about what they eat, so sacrificing a few of the older or injured ones for an easy meal for much of their tribe was one of the things they requested as a reward for this endeavor. It was certainly an easier give than the other request for most of the proceeds from the sales of the venom and silk we got today.

I’d have to actually figure out what means we can use to treat the silk and spin it properly. Too much of it was still sticky, so we’d be testing various means to remove that and then try running it through a loom. At least that’s easy for me to handle at the workshop while the others do much of the physical labour required. A visit to the Font probably, or investigating with the Order of Weavers and Dyers. Perhaps it would be the League of Skinners and Tanners? This is the reason why you hire people to help navigate the guilds for you until you familiarize yourself with the relevant benefits of each. Hopefully, they wouldn’t demand membership for answers.

Though with all this new venom, I doubt paying will be much of an issue. It’s a good thing we’ve been making connections with other apothecaries recently otherwise we’d never move all this stock. It felt a bit more legitimate too from what I knew. Giant spider venom like this was typically used nonlethally, a means to induce a temporary coma or sickness in proper dosages. Naturally, more of it could do more harm, but at that point, the stab wounds are probably less lethal as far as blood loss from the clotting that occurs. We’ll have to space out the sales so as to not draw too much attention just dumping so much into the local economy, legitimate uses or not that much would attract too much attention from anyone with fingers in the pie.

21 Eleint

The Brightswords festival this year seemed a bit less bright. Everything was just a bit smaller than previous years. It makes sense, with the military aid being sent north to Silverymoon. The bulk of the adventurers inclined to such long-distance travel and adventure had already left for it, and the standing army had also marched out with a variety of supplies to reinforce them.

Naturally, a siege and blocking out of the sun makes it a bit hard to harvest the crops. Carts ladened with foodstuffs both for the long march as well as to help alleviate the food demands of the local population. They linked up with a similar, though smaller, contingent from Neverwinter also fulfilling treaty obligations.

With the loss of manpower, you also saw a reduction or overworking of the patrols for the nearby settlements and roads. It’s hard for me to tell which was the case, but it meant that their section of the parade and show of force was lacking. There was a clear recruitment effort though, so while the parades around the city were reduced the actual martial events and show matches had the actual focus from them.

I think the most noticeable part though to previous years was the griffon rider display in the Field of Triumph. The Griffon Riders themselves were fine of course. They were a domestic force that handled law enforcement and defence of the city proper. The thing that was lacking was actually the support crew for it, typically a few dozen illusionists who would be summoning all sorts of creatures up in the air for battle. From weird flying elk monsters, to dragons, to a giant scorpion with bat wings at one point. I had to wonder, were all of those different creatures actually real, or were some simply invented from the imaginations of the wizards to give a bit more variety to the show?

There were some familiar faces I saw throughout the day though. Orsik was working the big Griffon rider event, along with that dwarf from Penelope’s Nose. There was also the barbarian from back then that had turned into a troll, who won a martial tourney. I guess their group decided to stay local rather than pursue the big payday as mercenaries up in Silverymoon.