Naras' Vignette

[JadedDM]

It's a beautiful, clear summer day when Naras disembarks from the merchant ship that transported her to the town of Narin. Narin is a small trading town on the northwestern side of the island, Vaneil. Unlike some of the more 'touristy' places on Vaneil, Narin feels more like a real, honest town of merchants, sailors, and workers just trying to get by and make a living. The town is overshadowed by the massive Warden's Keep. Once upon a time ago, it was where the prison guards watched over the inmates. Now it is home to the local law enforcement, that guard and protect its citizens.

There is a slight breeze, carrying the scent of salt water and fish toward the town. The sun is at its zenith, not a cloud in the sky. Sailors, fishermen, longshoremen and teamsters walk up and down the harbor, loading and unloading cargo, the catch of the day, and whatever else their vessels carry.

The young dwarven Kohen had multiple reasons for coming to this seemingly unremarkable town, and plenty of daylight left to explore the town and run her errands. It was only a matter of deciding what to do first.

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Town Map

[JadedDM]

Naras enjoyed the day, having a walkaround to get the feel of the place before heading off to her god's temple to see what facilities were there and find out about the inmates.
She rehearsed her "Hello, I'm Naras Stonebreaker and I think you've been expecting me," en route.

[JadedDM]

Naras walks down the docks and onto the shore, then heads for the temple of Gonto. She passes by the local lord's manor and the town windmill before arriving. The temple stands tall at the north end of the marketplace, a towering sentry of commerce and coin. It's an impressive structure, even more so on the inside than the outside. Almost everything has been painted gold, which is symbolic for the gold found within the earth, sometimes known as 'Gonto's Bounty.'


Stepping inside, she spots several acolytes working. Today is not a holy day, so there are only a handful of worshipers about and no sermon is currently being delivered. A couple of the acolytes are sitting at a desk, counting coins and scribbling on some parchment with an inked quill. Another one, a young human woman, uses a broom to sweep up the aisles between the pews.

[JadedDM]

Not being one to stand on ceremony, Naras heads over the the nearest of the three, "Hello, I'm Naras Stonebreaker. What's your name and who's in charge here today?"

[JadedDM]

Naras approaches the young woman sweeping and introduces herself. The girl is human with long, wavy blonde hair; probably in her late teens or early twenties. "Uh...I'm Leena," she says. "I'm the acolyte in charge. Are you the new Kohen?" she asks. "We received word that headquarters is going to send a replacement for Kohen Truestone. You're...younger than I thought you'd be," she admits.

[JadedDM]

"Hello Leena. Potentially, yes. But it's yet to be confirmed. I may yet be called away," Naras replies. "Will you show me around this place?" she adds, gesturing at the temple. "And tell me of its facilities and usual activities. I'm especially interested, as you might expect, in any crafting."

[JadedDM]

Leena sets the broom aside, leaning it against an empty pew. "Well, our previous kohen was more focused on history over crafting. We have a tomb downstairs for citizens who have died, which we maintain. We have a library of books we've collected and even written ourselves--mostly on history, though. There's the vault, where we collect and count all of the taxes and acquisitions we've acquired for the church, including historical relics but also just regular gold. It's a little empty these days...apparently a number of people think that no kohen means they don't have to tithe anymore." She shakes her head in disgust, unable to hide her bitterness. "As for special projects, I've just been focused on keeping the place running since the kohen's disappearance."

She sighs heavily. "What do you wish to see first? The tomb? The vault? The library? Or perhaps the kohen's office?"

[JadedDM]

"Thank you Leena. The place does look tidy. Would you show me them in that order: tomb, vault, library and office? If there is anything you think I would find interesting, please feel free to point it out, and any background stories too, if you think there is merit" Naras replies, trying to be encouraging, but perhaps not quite succeeding. She doesn't smile. Work is a serious business.

[JadedDM]

"Of course," Leena says stiffly. "This way." She leads Naras to the stairs that descend into the basement. Naras finds herself in a stone hallway. There are row after row of niches in the walls, each to hold a body. The ones that are filled are sealed shut, but the empty ones remain open. Next to each niche is a little gold plaque that states the name of the deceased. The entire place is immaculate--no cobwebs, dust, or any other creepy element one might expected in a resting place of the dead.

"Gylphs of Warding have been placed on all of the niches, except for the most recent ones. The kohen was the only one who could play the glyphs, so anyone who has died in the past three months has had to do without protection," the acolyte explains. "The glyphs are designed to paralyze anyone who is not a priest of our faith who tries to disturb the bodies. Also, the entire basement has been sanctified to prevent anyone from trying to reanimate the dead."

[JadedDM]

"I see. Well tomorrow I should be able to start rectifying that. How many are currently without protection?" the priestess comments, as they move along on the tour.

[JadedDM]

"There are two," Leena answers. "Old man Weatherby, who passed of old age two weeks ago and a young boy, Ceril, who died a month ago from a fever."

The two head back upstairs and Leena leads her to a heavy, steel reinforced door that looks like it could take a beating from a battering ram and still hold. She pulls out a key ring and unlocks several tumblers on it before it opens, revealing a small stone room. "The vault," she says as they enter.

The room is filled with chests, both large and small. Most of them are wide open and clearly empty. The only other item of note is an old tribal drum sitting on a little pedestal.



"We're down to our last forty gold pieces," Leena admits. "The kohen spent it all on his last expedition, hoping it would pay off. Obviously, it didn't. We still have this piece of junk," she says, gesturing to the drum, "from his last trip. It's largely worthless. And since tithes are down, we're nearly bankrupt."

[JadedDM]

On a whim, Naras invokes 'Detect Magic' on the drum and then pans around the room. "Tell me about the drum, and about the trip he got it on and also his last, unfortunate expedition." While Leena replies, her superior examines the drum in detail.

[JadedDM]

Naras casts her spell and pans around the room, scanning everything. She only gets a hit when she looks at the door that they used to enter--it has a spell from the Guardian sphere on it.

"Another glyph of warding," explains Leena, piecing together what she was doing and noticing she was looking at the door. The drum itself gives off no magical aura at all.

"Well," she begins, crossing her arms, "it all began a year ago. A storm blew a ship off course and they accidentally discovered a lost island. Kohen Truestone wanted to investigate it, as he believed it would have massive archaeological findings. He managed to secure funding and hire a group of mercenaries, then sail down there. But...the mercenaries cowardly backed out of the deal, forcing the kohen to turn back after having only found a single minor artifact." She gestures to the drum. "After that, he had a great difficulty in finding more funding for a second expedition. But he finally did, around three months ago and set off again. But he never came back. His ship, their crew, the mercenaries he hired--all vanished. They're presumed dead, as the tribals that lived there were quite hostile. No ship will go back there now. Sailors are so superstitious and they say the island is cursed now. Nobody is brave enough to set sail there."

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Naras casts Detect Magic for 10 rounds. She has a 50% chance of determining any aura's school (1d100): 4, pass.

[JadedDM]

"I see. Tell me, what other temples are there in this town? And is thre some kind of map or chart showing where this island is supposed to be?", she asks, and then examines the drum to see what, if anything, she can discern.

[JadedDM]

"This is the only temple in town," Leena explains. "And I believe there's a map still in the kohen's office with the coordinates for the island."

Naras examines the drum carefully. It's a simple wooden drum with some kind of animal hide stretched over the top. It's fairly primitive in make. Outside of a historical context, there's no worth to it at all.