Kallynnen says he wasn’t very coherent. He was wandering around in this area. This was “many moons ago”.
The falls go down 10-15 feet into a tight chasm in front of us to the river farther down below.
Kallynnen says she’s stood up here but not explored.
Storr wades out to the rock. There’s another drop off below the twin falls.
Storr swims back to get the spyglass and goes back to the rock. He looks through the spyglass, and sees some detail on close rocks, then looks up. He sees that there are hills in the distance, and that we indeed took the right path. It makes sense why Kellennen came here. There’s ample foraging opportunity.
Branwen sees through Koweth’s eyes, Koweth flies directly down the chasm over the falls. Branwen feels a sudden pain in her head as he cross the furthest fall.
We cross back the way we came. It’s thick, we make slow progress.
As we move, we notice someone is standing above us in the trees above us on a boulder.
Branwen says hello
He looks down at us. “Who are you that disturb the peace of Kosoleth?”
B: “We’re seeking a man who we think is possibly disrupting the balance last seen near these waterfalls.
“Who is this person and in what way do you suspect him of disrupting the balance?
“GHe once went by Musk. It’s been a while since we saw him. He was disheveled and stole an important child that coincided with earthquakes and violent upheaval.”
“You accuse him of kidnapping?
Yes.
Another centaur takes up a post on the other side of the river with a bow and arrow.
“Who are you to make accusations?”
“We wwere tasked by a man named Bryok to find Musk”
“You were coming into a sacred (not quite the right word) place, Those who would enter Kosoleth with respect and honor, and you are in the process of being judged. So I ask you again, why do you come to this place? Why do you seek this person? How are you that have a right to come to this place?
“We fear that mistakes are being repeated, and we seek the child and Musk to solve it”
He looks at us. He tells us a riddle.
The answer is from Krambler: “A river” K pulls out his hammer, and the centaur’s eyes go wide.
Centaur ignores B, and asks K, “What is that that you carry with you?”
K: This was a gift from the abbott, who I grew up with.
He makes some hand signals to the other centaur, and she disappears into the woods.
He stands and looks, and waits. And says: “I will watch your progress.” and steps back, disappears, but we sense that he is still watching.”
Storr offers the longbow to Branwen. She says “No thank you”
Silas sees some ripples in the pool that seems like there might be something down there.
The rocks are precipitates, about 15 feet down, and the water is about 3 ft deep. The rocks further down step down gradually. On the other side, there seems to be a pebble beach.
As we progress, we hear some rustling behind us. Two other centaurs appear, along with the original one.
Branwen asks if we’ve faltered, but they dont answer.
What can you tell us about this sacred place?
They don’t answer.
Have you seen a haggard man?
No answer.
Silas scales down the rock face (5 ft) with Arthen into the water.
Silas looks up river. The centaurs are still stationed above us. There’s now a visible flat spot below a rock wall further up river that we couldn’t see before.
We move slowly toward this shelf.
Off to the left is the mouth of a cave, down inside is some firelight. No signs of Koweth.
Silas lights a torch. Storr moves into the cave and sees someone in the cave with his head down, with something in his hand.
Storr: who are you?
He looks up, sees us, and he looks down and has a raven in his hand.
Branwen: You there man, that bird belongs to me. Is he okay?
The man holds up the bird. B takes it. Koweth looks up and shakes his head. Has a wound on the same side of his head that she felt. She strokes him because he’s a good boy.
B: thank you sir. Are you Musk?
Man; I’ve not heard that name in a long time.
How long have you been here?
I don’t know,. Why are you here? What brought you here?
He’s twitchy and overwhelmed. It didn’t appear that he was being threatening toward the bird.
Storr: What happened to the bird?
I heard a splash, and the sentinels keep a watch.
What do you call yourself?
I think I recognize the name you said. What was it?
Musk?
That sounds right.
Do you remember Bryok
He snaps and looks at you and his eyes widen
Storr sits down next to him, reaches out and holds his hand.
We were sent to look for the child.
She’s not here. She left
She was an infant. How could she have left?
No, I gave her away. I couldn’t look after her.
Why did you take her?
I didn’t take her.
Then why was she with her?
I found her. It’s a long story….
He was down in the caves, and talks about this big cavern in the caves. There was a scream through the cavern, wherever it was disturbed it would light up momentarily. The rocks were powerful. He touched the pile of rocks, and havoc was everywhere. There were voices and the room started shaking, yelling and screaming within the earth. He fled. Not sure where or how, but was following passages and ended up wandering around, found rock falls and was totally lost, and eventually saw light and he moved towards it. When he got to the edge of the cave,. There’s an entrance, there’s tons of noise and everything is speaking to him,and it sounds like everything is identifying itself with names (the names of things!) It’s overwhelming, so he hides. He sees two people come out of the cave he just came out of (they were following him) and they’re holding a baby and it’s wrapped in a blanket and he thinks this must be his niece and does not like the look of these two people and starts asking the stones of the cave for help. The stones grab these people and beat them up, so he grabs the aby and starts running down this path. It’s loud, no idea how long he was going. He found this spot and everything was quieter. He saw a path going up one side of the river and saw people walking one day with heavy backpacks, and he gave them the child saying i can’t look after her. He’s not sure how long ago this was.
Quartzite? Yeah. They were mining clear crystals. The party we saw did NOT have a baby.
Time is being weird? Baby was still a newborn when given away.
Do you still hear the names of things?
That’s why I’m here. I don’t know if you hear the sound of the river, but in this place it’s quieter, I can be here and not be overwhelmed.
You never heard the names until you touched those rocks?
Never the cacophony.
These centaurs, do they watch after you?
He doesn’t know. He likes them, but is also terrified. He comes out of the cave and looks at the sky and watches the river flow past.
Why did you leave Twesek?
I couldn’t get back. I fled and was lost in the stones.
Would you go back if you could?
I would like to speak again with Bryok.
We tell him the story of Bryok.
He freaks out about Bryok not being around anymore.
Storr hugs him and its awkward.
K does sense that he’s being authentic. K has met him before, and he was always hard to understand, but also if this was deception, then he would have been deceiving him always. This is normal behavior.
Bran: You gave away the child to a stranger with a kind face?
Musk: He saw the people walking through the cafe with her, it seemed wrong, he called out in fear to the stone, which has never answered before. K could imagine him asking something of the rock. Then the rock answered and he was flabbergasted.
B: Aside from your familial connection, what’s the significance of the child?
M: I thought you just said somebody was kidnapped? Can you bring her back to her paretns?
B: Did your touching the stones caused an earthquake?
He hunches in and doesn’t answer. He looks guilty. He’s not exceptional old, just ragged and doesn’t take care of himself.
K pulls out his hammer and hands it to him.
M: He handles the hammer and starts saying “Dorgrys” over and over again.
We start discussing things, one being potentially finding the other entrance to this place that Musk happened upon. Chimes start chiming while we talk.
COUNCIL
We decide to try and relieve him of some shadow points, which he seems to be suffering from. We’re looking for more information about the child, and secondarily we’re interested in his ability to hear names of things.
DM’s interpretation: our request is friendship and knowledge. Will you allow us into your space? Can we continue conversing?
We use a fellowship point to roll with advantage for the charisma check (persuasion). Branwen succeeds. We can reroll three (because of the 20) failed ability checks.
Branwen attempts to use her leechcraft to remove a shadow point from Musk, and she SUCCEEDS with a dirty 20. There is some apparent psychological healing that happens. He looks at B wide eyed, and says: “Go raven lady, indeed” (t-shirt idea) He’s looking at B and says “What can I do in return for this kindness?”
We want to find your niece.
Okay, why?
Because Bryok tasked us with it. (21 roll)
We have convinced him (we’ve succeeded the two required successes) He’s amenable to us staying here and to whatever knowledge here. B secondarily asks about the names of some things (sidebar during the week)
The people that he gave the child to. They were going up to the cave to get crystals and they said something about seeing the stars that he didn’t understand what they were talking about. The woman who he gave the child to, he felt that he saw her as a beekeeper. That was the connection that he made. He’s a little incoherent, but is associating this woman as a beekeeper. He got the sense that they came from far away on an expedition far away from the mountains. That’s all he knows, but he feels confident that he did the right thing, because there was no way he could take care of her. He would also talk about this place, which has a lot of power associated with it, it’s special, he can feel it,. Not loud babbling, but he can hear music, the running of the river, but he can concentrate and be calm here. He doesn’t know much about the centaurs, he is fearful of them, but trusting. At some point, he is going to invite folks to watch the river go by.
B tells us a story… Mons and Bargos.
As far as accompanying Kallynnen back to the village, she had said before we had left we could talk about next stepsonce we arrive. We could head due west toward another tributary and down to the lake, or back to Meander and take a boat.
We’ll talk more over text with questions for Musk and or Kallynnen.