Chapter Text
The party sits in the White Lady at the beginning of the night’s rush. They idly chat about what they should do next when Irafros walks in from the front door.
“I am proud to announce that we are now home owners.”
Felix seems justifiably confused. “What do you mean we? Owning a home? Who the hell starts a conversation with this?”
“I rented a house for us to use from some guy named Fredhethen, it used to be rented out to the Red Wizard before he got roasted.”
Thorne mirrors the confusion. “How could you afford this on your own? Why would we even want a house?”
“Well, I was doing some quick math and it would pay for itself if we just stayed for a week’s worth of nights there. In terms of money, that’s no problem.” He tosses a sack of gold coins on the table, “Got a couple more of those too. Barding pays well.”
At this point the party notices a group of people talking about something very passionately, perhaps even complaining about something.
Irafros naturally seems interested instantly. “I think we should go talk to them.”
The party gets up and approaches a group of three working men. The one in the middle finishes, “It’s not like I can use the thing when it’s frozen but ghosts are a pain in the ass anyway.”
Calathea dives in, “Did you say ghosts sir? Maybe we could help?”
“You want to try to exorcise my ferry? Thing’s useless to me now but you’re free to give it a shot, the Dinneshere Ferry, couldn’t miss it.”
Irafros pushes ahead, “Well fortunately you’re looking at the foremost ghost hunters in all of Ten Towns, perhaps in all of the Sword’s Coast. If you must know, Will-O-Wisps are our speciality”
Gilbert tries to wave him off, “I don’t think I’d say that.”
Felix interjects, “I hate to ask but is there any kind of reward?”
“My eternal gratitude, Can’t offer much else I’m afraid.”
~~~
The following morning the party walks across the docks, particularly the part that’s been permanently frozen over. Among the various canoes and kayaks, the one two tiered ship is easy to find. It might’ve once been considered quite a grand ship but the neglect is obvious. The blizzards have damaged the rigging and faded the hull to the point where abandonment is unquestionable. That being said, the structure it still somewhat stable so the party wastes no time to hoist themselves onto the deck.
Strewn about are discarded ropes and crates although nothing of interest or value. To the bow and stern of the ship rest a door each that lead into small raised structures. Calathea decides to explore the bow on their own. They face no issue as they open the door to reveal what frankly looks like a storage room. Even more discarded rope and crates lay about although Calathea decides to take their time to examine the various objects for anything interesting.
The rest of the party explores the stern, which seems to be the slightly larger and more solid structure. They get into an agreed order of Gilbert first followed by Thorne, Felix and then Irafros. Without resistance, Gilbert opens the door and steps inside. The room is slightly lit by a few small windows to light the scene. The original desk and chairs that furnished the room have long been thrown about, damaged or outright destroyed. However, on the floor are two sleeping bags with small bits of equipment strewn about including a backpack.
Felix immediately examines the bags, “They’re cold. Whoever was here must be out.”
They rummage about a bit, finding iron rations but not much else until Thorne pulls a map out of a backpack. The map is inscribed in dwarvish which nobody knows.
Gilbert takes the map, “Give it to me, I can read.” His eyes take on a magic hue as he examines what looks very much like the map of Icewind Dale that the party carries around. He points out a location outside of Caer Konig marked “Fortress.” A location in the Spine of the World, “Sunblight.” A location at Caer Dineval, “Base.”
Felix leans against a wall, “What good does all this matter from some squatters?”
At this moment a knife plunges through Felix’s chest riddled in some fluid other than his. From this knife materializes a pale dwarf with white hair who is towering over even Gilbert and a second Duergar of expected size, Felix immediately crumples to the ground with glazed eyes.
The reaction is surprisingly immediate. Gilbert grows to his larger size and immediately starts whacking the large dwarf away from Felix’s body. Thorne starts blasting his fire bolts at the dwarf as well. The conjoined attack is enough to make the first dwarf crumble immediately, returning to normal size on the ground as Irafros slides in behind Gilbert, intent on healing Felix. The second dwarf shrinks to an incredibly small size as Calathea bursts into the room. A different magical hue covers their eyes and allows them to guide the rest of the party outside, after the dwarf that managed to fit through a mouse hole. Everybody but Irafros charges outside, leaving a giant Gilbert shaped hole in the doorframe. Somehow, Irafros manages to bring Felix back to life and they both follow, although a good few seconds behind.
Calathea perpetually launches their arcane bolts at the dwarf who scurries away. Thorne and Gilbert follow suit with their attacks but with limited effect as they aren’t able to see the thing themselves. Ultimately they chase the Duergar under the pier but my sheer persistence they manage to land enough blows that the dwarf finally goes down, its body stuck under the dock.
Calathea claps their hands, “That went very well.”
Felix hobbles over, “Tell that to my literal bleeding heart.” He manifests some sort of fruit in his hand which he eats immediately.
Thorne pulls out the dwarf from under the dock, “Let’s bring them to Imdra, something’s going on here.”
~~~
The guards at the town hall take the Duergar who are somehow clinging to life from the party. The group is immediately escorted to Imdra who takes them down to the basement, They reach a room with a large black ship’s figurehead. “The Duergar have been harassing the town for a long time now. They seem to be trying to round up any bit of metal they can get but they want something in particular. Blacksmiths keep finding their supplies scattered about and everything of value that they know of is left. The only thing that seems to disappear is some black metal but we don’t really know what it is or why they want it.”
Calathea once again leads. “So you plan to lock these two up? How do you plan to keep them if they can just change their size?”
“We have methods. Ultimately we’ll try to bring in an escort from Bryn, maybe they can take the dwarves down south and away from here. We think that the long nights of the Rime are driving them up from the Underdark.”
Irafros raises his hand, “Before any of that, can I…Interrogate one of them?”
Felix seem doubtful, “Interrogate? You’re probably the least threatening one here.”
Imdra nods, “Sure if you want but I don’t see your plan.”
“First, make sure they’re locked up separately. Second, I need Gilbert to hit me a couple times. Not too hard mind yo-“
“Gladly.” Gilbert already starts wining up his swing.
~~~
The Duergar wakes up, his hands tied to the back of a chair facing his unconscious colleague. Notably, they both look terrible with the marks of their previous battle still incredibly evident.
“Pssssssst. Are you still alive?”
The second dwarf doesn’t even open his eyes. “Unfortunately. That turtle hits like a fucking Hammerer.”
“I’m sorry, I tried to escape to warn somebody that we’ve been caught. Have they tortured you yet?”
“No but if they did there’s no way these surface freaks are getting anything about the boss.”
The first Duergar chuckles painfully, “Aye. I just hope they don’t find the warehouse. We’ve put so much work into this expedition. They haven’t found it yet though, hiding in their castle all day.”
“Caer Konig isn’t the warehouse?” The second Duergar sounds confused.
“That turtle really does hit hard. I’m talking about Durthu’s you dunce, in Dineval. Even if they did notice the building Durthu’d take them out no problem.”
“I think I’m tired of Durthu’s crap at this point. This whole fucking expedition.”
The first Duergar chuckles again. “Just don’t say that in front of him or Sunblight. I do get tired of the abandoned building trend he takes on though. I miss the fires of the Forge.”
“Maybe a song could help elevate the mood?”
“A song? You don’t have a musical bone in your body.”
Without another word the second dwarf begins to blow into thin air which slowly materializes into the form of bagpipes. Further, the rest of his Eladrin elf body begins to reform as well before the Duergar’s eyes. The dwarf seems to be at a loss of words, especially at the damage to the elf that he recalls never inflicting.
“I should probably go air my complaints to Durthu personally, shouldn’t I?”
“With all due disrespect elf, you look like shit.”
“The turtle hits like a Hammerer.”
~~~
At this point the end of the day approaches and the party has an obligation to meet up with Fredhethen about the rental agreement. The light wanes and a few public places set out torches for the street but otherwise people are growing more reliant on their darkvision if they have any at all. Despite this there are still a lot of people running about with torches. The lack of daylight can’t hamper the working day after all or nothing would get done.
At this point Irafros gets called off by some people from the tavern who obviously seem to expect his presence for the night. He has always hated to disappoint people so he bows out and leaves the rental agreement to the party. The rest of the party goes off to Fredhethen’s house to pick up the key. After a fairly short and uneventful walk they end up in front of a three story housing structure, although the third story is likely just a storage attic with minimal real space.
The old man walks up and seems quite put out. “About time you showed up, I was about to leave if you took any longer.” He opens a gate that leads to a very small enclosed yard to the building and starts unlocking the front door. “I should warn you. Dzaan always mentioned weird spirits living in this house. I have no idea what he meant but whatever it was, it wasn’t enough to drive him out so I’m sure I can expect the rent from you all.”
With that he gives the party the key to the building and goes on his way. They step inside and take in the sight of the lower floor.
It frankly isn’t all that much. All five (currently four) party members could easily fit inside but not much more. The bottom floor is set out to be some sort of living common area with an attached kitchen section. It is all one large room with a staircase leading up. Inset in one of the walls is a fireplace and along the middle of the room is a ragged curtain that is likely meant to cut the room into a smaller and easier to heat section. The kitchen is best described simply as a line of countertop working space as the real cooking would be done over the fire. There is also a large mirror set into the wall that extends out to accommodate the stairs. The mirror is in amazingly good condition when compared to everything else in the room. There are plenty of chairs and stools but all of them could do with some sanding or lacquer or a new leg that actually matched the height of the others.
Regardless, this is home. A safe place that is the party’s and theirs alone away from the world. There is a back door that leads to another small yard area. This yard in particular has a small enclosed space to serve as a currently empty wood shed. If Dzaan left any wood it would seem that Fredhethen was quick to come pick it up.
The party makes their way to explore upstairs where they find a small hallway with four branching doors. Each of these doors leads to a bedroom. Two are notable for having windows to the outside while the third does not. The fourth however sports a nicely maintained pentagram in the middle of the room.
Calathea immediately jumps inside, “I call this room, it’s already got my circle just about prepared. I’ll have to change it…a little…but it’ll save me so much time.”
Eventually it’s agreed that the two windowed rooms go to Thorne and Felix while Gilbert chooses as normal to sleep outside in the backyard. At the end of the hall there is a ladder set against the wall. This ladder goes up to a closed trapdoor that must be the storage attic predicted from outside. Unfortunately there is simply no way for Gilbert to make it up such a small device through such a small hole so he decides to go straighten up downstairs. The other three make their way up the ladder.
~~~
Through the trapdoor they find a dusty and musty single room that is just about empty. A few crates lie around but they’re obviously open and filled with stale air. The room itself is about what was expected. The top of the roof is just tall enough to permit people to stand in the middle but stray too far and you’d have to crouch to save your skull. The party looks around for anything of interest but doesn’t manage to find a single artifact. Instead, that something of interest finds them.
A spectral snow tiger seems to materialize itself from behind Thorne, immediately going for the dragon. The first attack misses but the tiger stays engaged with its target prey. Arrows and bolts fly with shocking accuracy but it’s hard to assess the damage done to a ghost. The tiger charges for a second attack at Thorne which lands true, slamming him to the ground pinned. Despite being a spectral entity it would seem that the tiger possesses more than enough weight and strength to hold the dragonborn in place. More attacks fly but it would seem as if Thorne and the beast are destined to struggle a bit. Eventually the tiger gets poised for the traditional feline killing blow, of gutting the dragon with his back claws. At this point it would seem that something breaks from the continued attacks, causing the tiger to simply dissipate into thin air.
The three go downstairs while Felix gives Thorne a few berries that seem to help him recover a small bit. At the bottom they find a rather large turtle making a rather large ruckus as he cleans up the room while dancing and humming. It’s no wonder that the sounds of the fight never made it down that far with the noise that Gilbert is making.
Thorne points upstairs, “There was uh…A tiger in the attic…”
Gilbert makes for the stairs already pulling out his club, “There is? I’ll take care of it.”
Felix tries to push the turtle back but ultimately only manages to succeed at getting in his way, “Was a tiger. WAS!”
“Oh. That’s good then, maybe that was the ghosts that the old guy talked about. Anyway, I found a couple things.” Gilbert takes three books off of a nearby table. “One’s ‘Tusk Love’ for whatever that means, then we have a book with a bunch of numbers in it. The other’s ‘The Hellbent Highborn’ and you won’t guess who wrote it.”
Calathea shushes them. “Stop, that wasn’t the ghost upstairs.” Their eyes take on a magic hue. “There’s a bunch of-little people…” They walk over to a wall. With a quick snatch they somehow manage to grab something and bring it back to the group.
In their hand is a very tiny humanoid creature. It’s black limbed and gangly while wearing a heavy jacket outfit much like anyone else in the area. Most notable is its face or lack thereof. It seems to be wearing a white mask with runes too small to make out. It also has black hair sticking out in all matter of directions.
Felix squints to look closer at it. “I think it’s a Chwinga. I’d let it down, it’s best not to scare them and let them come out to you.”
Calathea sets it down gently on a table and it scurries away, “They seem to be congregating at the mirror.”
The party walks over to it and examines it to no real epiphany. Eventually Calathea seems to take some kind of note from the Chwinga and taps it with a dagger tip. The mirror lets out a loud ding in response and ripples slightly although nothing seriously changes. The Chwinga begin showing themselves, all roughly identical with minor variations between them. They seem happy, as if the party understood something that they don’t actually quite grasp. Regardless the Chwinga dance about and eventually they start leading the party in the direction of the front door. A couple of them climb on to them, mostly to the dragonborn and start trying to nudge them through the door. They all look at each other and shrug, the Chwinga haven’t done anything malevolent yet and Felix doesn’t seem threatened by them. The Chwinga seem to be guiding them somewhere now that the party has established some rudimentary communication.
Thorne tries to catch Felix’s attention, “What are these things exactly anyway?”
“Weather spirit things. I don’t entirely know. I just know that they aren’t a real threat, they might try to pull some light pranks but other than that they’re just curious about us.”
“Then where would they be leading us?”
“I have no idea.”
Eventually the Chwinga lead the party to a wooden door on the ground that leads to a basement and nudges them towards it. Gilbert lifts the doors up and to the side before lowering himself inside. As there are no immediate noises from the turtle, the rest of the party makes their way in as well. They follow a small tunnel/hallway into a large room. The walls are stone bricks with empty torch brackets and obvious signs of abandonment such as webs and deterioration. In the room however they find something else entirely.
In the corner are two young girls who look like they were separated from their parents. They cower in fear together as they are confronted with four giant rats who seem intent on the children. Occasional thrown rocks have held the rats at bay for a time but it would seem doubtable that the tactic will work for much longer. That being said, the rats don’t seem to have noticed the incoming party which makes the next step all the easier.
An arrow and magic bolt fly and hit the same rat, killing it instantly. A huge club comes swinging at another rat that sends in sailing into a wall leaving just two left. Unfortunately with just one fire bolt able to be thrown before the rat gets a chance to react, Thorne chooses instead to breathe out a cone of flame. This engulfs both creatures and ends their lives swiftly. The kids are scared for a brief moment before being thrilled at the prospect of heat, this is a very cold room after all and who knows how long they were trapped here. The dragon seems to immediately win out as the favorite as the children go up to him.
“Are those the Chwinga? Do they like you?” One of the kids ask.
Thorne smiles, “It would seem so, they lead us to you.”
The kids seem amazed and ultimately one gets to ride on Thorne’s shoulders and the other on his back while they head back to the house. The Chwinga seem even more fascinated by the children but leave them largely alone until they get back home. The party makes it back without a hitch and settles into the living area. They partition off the room with the curtain and break down crates from the attic for firewood. The group spends a relatively serene night together in relaxation, the kids playing with the Chwinga and vice versa.
Felix points to them, “We should take them to the temple orphanage in the morning. That’s probably where they came from.”
Thorne nods, “Or we could take care of them. The orphanage won’t treat them nicely and might even separate them. I think they’re sisters too, we’ll have to ask them their story after they’re done playing.”
“Fine, we’ll figure out what we’ll do with them later.”