Death of a Salesman

After waking up for breakfast, the group runs a few last minute errands before their meeting at noon. Adalia and Nira go to the Abbot House to check on Elentiya and Onyx. When they arrive, the yard is empty and the house quiet so they let themselves in. Elentiya is making tea and offers them each a cup. They thank her and give her the books about curses they took from Spindledown (Bell, Book, and Candle shop) as well as the human skin covered ledger and ask her to take a look at them. She agrees and says that Onyx is doing well, she had Sundrop bring some rabbits for him to eat so he wasn’t starving, but she hasn’t really been able to get much out of him. Nira tells Adalia she wants to speak to Onyx before they leave, so they head up the stairs to the attic. He is awkwardly laying on his side in the cage, he opens his eyes and stares at them, but doesn’t get up.
“Hello. I believe we met a relative of yours.”
“Oh? Who?”
“Well they had a very similar collar at least. Maybe a friend?”
“You have taken all my friends away.”
“Not this one, but we are about to. Does Lady Elaine ring a bell?”
“NO. I don’t know any ladies.” He looked at her as if this was ridiculous.
“Ok. Adalia, who was the girl we met the other day?”
“Nadia.” Adalia supplied
“Right, Nadia, do you know her?”
“No.”
“Well we might be able to get that collar off soon and have a friend for you. We are clearing out the same rabble you were running around with. Your parents, or your home as you called them. How do you feel about that?”
“I mean, I don’t have any friends other than the ones you guys fought and tried to take, so I guess it's fine.”
“Why do none of your friends come from Thornyside?” Adalia changed the subject.
“I don’t know. I just never went there.”
“Any reason why?” She pressed, hoping for a lead on the new missing children.
“They said there weren’t any good friends there for me.”
“Hopefully your parents aren’t there. Otherwise we will find them and who knows what will happen. Hopefully they are out looking for you.” Nira smiled and nodded but did not fool Onyx.
“Oh, they always know where I am.”
Adalia scrutinizes his face. He doesn’t seem to know who Elaine and Nadia are, but it is not clear whether he thinks his parents can truly track him down or if it is just the faith of a child.
“Maybe they are trying to get my friends first so they are safe. Cause I’m strong. I can protect myself, but they can’t.”
Adalia nods and pulls on Nira’s arm to signal it is time to leave.
“I think the sooner you accept that they don’t care about you, the sooner you can start to help yourself.” Nira throws over her shoulder.
He stares petulantly at them as they go back down the stairs. Nira shares their exchange with Elentiya, then they head back to Iron Key House.

Belladonna and Venus went to the Feyblossom Ranger Guild. The guild was fairly busy, it appeared that they were preparing for battle, many rangers were walking about and passing around weapons with lots of animal companions underfoot. Seeing Declan Fennway, her first contact with the guild, Belladonna headed to him.
“Are you preparing to go to Thornyside?” she gestured at all the activity.
“Yes the guards came and talked to us yesterday so we called more people in. And the Hawthorne guild called after you visited. I’m glad you found them. They are a...fun bunch.”
Belladonna laughed, “Yes, they are. Any news on the Abbots?”
“No, we have Matilda taking care of Hannah, a family friend for many years, so at least it is someone she knows, but I hope we find them soon.”
“Me, too. I have one more favor to ask, I see that you are fitting bears and other animals with armour. Do you have any that would fit a badger?”
“I’m not sure. You should talk to Arabella, she is in charge of all of the animal companion training. She’s over there.” He pointed to a red headed woman putting armor on a large bear.
Belladonna thanked him and went to talk to Arabella, “Do you have any armor that would fit a small badger?”
“Oh, yeah, of course! What is your friend’s name?”
“His name is Scamander.”
“Oh what a cute name! I know we have some small stuff, but I’m not sure if we have anything badger specific.” She went into a large open shed and shuffled through the leather and armor and returned with a small leather backplate and helmet that would go down over his head and follow the white stripes on his brow.
He was very concerned about the helmet, but settled when he realized he could still see and move.
Belladonna asked Venus if Perry needed armor. Venus nodded and said it would be useful going forward.
Arabella smiled helpfully, “Ok, she’s a little small, I’m not sure how much I can put on her without weighing her down.”
She came back with miniature leather armor with long spines along the back. She explained it isn’t as strong as Scamander’s, but it is enchanted to help resist magic.
Belladonna smiled as Venus placed the armor on the small kitten and asked Arabella for something for the two leopards. She found two small silver chains with three round black stones on them and explained they are spell-storing collars. They will allow the pet to cast spells for the caster in battle, but only 3/day. She confirmed that they were meeting at noon in the town square and behind her they could see a gigantic tiger in full armor slinking about.
“He’s beautiful, what is his name?”
Arabella laughed, “Oh, I found Stripes when I was about 5, so his name is Stripes, but he is a very good boy and he has been with me forever.”
They say goodbye and regroup at Iron Key House. Nira had spent a little time in town getting waterproof gear, and was excited to get going. As they walked to the center they recognized a few people they had asked to come, a few Fey of the Wyrmwood Court, and a handful of Kitsune.
Nira asked if they should be worried that only a few Kitsune showed up.
She explained it is mostly that there is resistance because it isn’t their country, but also it is frowned upon to fight in general. Those that are here will fight well, but they are not directly part of the royal family, and wear the red and black that Galia wears instead of the greens of the royal family.
Two vaguely high-elf featured people came forward from the crowd, one in all black and one in all white, large smiles on their faces. They began speaking together, “Hi! I’m Alfie. And I’m Zed. We’re here to talk to you about Life- and Death Insurances. You’re adventurers, so you know you are at risk for life-and death!-all the time! We’re here to let you know we have your back. So we want to offer you a group discount for your adventuring team. Do you want to make sure you don’t come back as an undead? Death insurance is for you! You want to make sure you come back? Life insurance is for you! For the low, low cost of 50 gold per person per month, or with a discount if you pay yearly or have a group, we will make sure you are resurrected or properly buried so you cannot be resurrected or come back as an undead within 48 hours if you die.”
Adalia tried to offer a fancy salmon to Aquilla to chase them off, but Nira was intrigued.
Furus asked if they had any customer testimony and they happily pulled out a large scroll and unrolled it to show him endless scribbles.
“Basically we make sure to take care of you by having you wear one of our tracker beads. This notes if there is any change in your life force, and if you die, we will have one of our members contact you within 48 hours to pursue your wishes. However, there are additional fees for you or your family for things such as hazardous terrain, traveling to a separate plane, or anything that may endanger the lives of our members.”
“So if we die with the vampires would that count?” Furus entertained them.
“Yes! If the vampires are not completely vanquished, you may be responsible for some form of hazard pay.”
“How much is it?” Adalia heard someone ask and wished they hadn’t.
“Since you are such a large group, we can knock it down to 30 gold/member/month.”
“Can we cancel after a month?”
“Unfortunately we need a 3 month subscription at this time.” They gave a fake sad smile.
“How do those necklaces work?”Nira began an interrogation.
“Well they have a location spell and a life alert spell so we are notified instantly if you die and send a member to your location.”
“Excellent. How many do you have on you?” The chaotic energies grew around her.
“We always carry at least 50!” They were getting excited.
“Ok, I’m going to take all 50 right now. Hand them over right now, and then I won’t absolutely beat the tar out of you.” Nira smiled maniacally. She reached out and grabbed the closest agent, not seeing an obvious stash of necklaces to swipe, and she spun them towards her and pulled her sickle under their chin, blade against their neck.
The insurance agent did not resist and calmly said, “I would re-think your position.”
Nira paused, but let them go reluctantly, “Alright, alright. But we could really use those necklaces.”
“And we could really use gold! You really help out the church of both Zul-and Naeve-life and death--we appreciate your contribution.”
“I might have to make one of those, or if you’re at the temple of Zul, I can stop by.”
“We have temples everywhere! What we can do is give you one of our contact bracelets. You can contact us at any time. There is an additional charge if you start your subscription after being dead, but we will still resurrect you.”
“Have you done this for anyone?”
“Oh yes, the Assassins guild is one of our best customers.” They waved a hand towards the Torre D’Or behind the group.
“Ok.” Nira took the bracelet but was still a little bitter about the necklaces.
“Well let us know when you have money. Have fun adventuring! Don’t die! But if you do, call us!” they say and walk calmly away together, off to talk to the stragglers who are filtering in.

Carindrina pulled out her two battle axes and tapped them together to make a loud clanging, “Ok everybody, listen up. If you aren’t fit to fight, don’t come. We don’t need food for vampires, we need fighters. So pregnant women, children, sit this one out. Vampires don’t like sunlight or holy water. They do have a magical fog, so if the wind temple could help with that, that would be wonderful. Other than that, everyone pick a battle buddy, stick together, kill anything with fangs. Ok let’s go.”

Nira cheered.

They decided to use the mark of the star of the forest to tree stride the groups through (this allowed them to cast tree stride within the bounds of Wyrmwood Forest in Tricreche). Furus, Adalia, Belladonna, and Galia used their one use to help move groups through and so did the ranger guilds. They came to the gates of Hightown.

Adalia flagged Uden down to come hold the gate open. He smiled at Adalia and gave Belladonna a shy wave remembering her kindness talking to him. They decided to all go through the same gate, but Venus decided to check the gate for traps before they opened the gate as nothing was visible past the gate except the thick unnatural fog. She felt a magical tripwire along the gate. She wasn’t sure what the trap was, but decided to attempt to disarm it. She disarmed the trap successfully and the group entered carefully, Carindrina in the lead with the wind clerics, then Belladonna and the rangers, then Venus with the assassins, then Adalia and Galia with the fey and kitsune, and finally Nira, Furus, and Midna in the rear. The clerics pushed the fog back, but they couldn’t see anyone.

Adalia cast detect undead and the presence of undead was so overwhelming she couldn’t tell which direction they were. Nira added that she could hear them just beyond the edge of the fog, so be careful. Belladonna cannot identify where they are. Midna decides to take a risk and shoot into the fog. They hear the arrow hit and then a hissing and scrambling sound as things rush towards the smell of blood. Scamander taps Belladonna and points his nose towards the fog to indicate where he scented the blood.

Furus began playing a song and out of the fog about 13 vampires and thralls appeared. Instead of the mindless thralls, a few appeared to be more aware and ready to fight. Several had glinting knives ready and one raised a bow, shot an arrow at Carindrina and the arrow bounced off the armor and over her shoulder.

She smiled, “Is that all you’ve got?”