03 - Gathering allies

We see no Collars in sight, which allows us to split and investigate each on our side.

• Nesvalyn: A white dragonborn approached him (Pria)
  • She confirmed that the Collars are regular in this place.
  • Jonni has a contract with the Collars to make them pay half price
  • She did some work ranting related to that, as when the Collars are here, they're half paid.
  • Nesvalyn took a room with her to spend more time with her and having her as a contact. (nothing sexual happened)
• Persy: Bumped into a gnome (Rush)
  • Happened to be Lord Wringer former lover
  • He seemed to be gone crazy with time
  • Hasn't been seen there in three months (which seems related to stomach problems)
• Willum: Found a young half-elf with her head down, seems to be working here (Hosta)
  • She's really nervous (she is chewing her nails)
  • She cried when Willum appeased her
  • She asked Willum to promise to help her if she tells the truth (he agreed).
  • She asked to meet her tomorrow at the tavern.
• Graath and Reylynn: No one interesting approached them.

Upon their researches, the party regroups, minus Nesvalyn. The party is called by the Aasimar receptionist, mentioning that we are invited to see Jonquil, the matron of the place.
[Insight check - Pass✔] They're inviting us as we look like adventurers, which means we have a lot of money to spend.
The party agrees as it is the occasion to talk to the owner. We climb up the stairs and we realize that the top floor is a green house.
[Wisdom saving throw - Fail❌] We are met by Jonquil, a very beautiful person, who asks us to call her Jonni.
She's asking what we're doing around here, and tries to know more on why the party didn't paid for any one. As the answers given are pretty vague, she commands Persy to leave.
[Wisdom saving throw - Pass✔] Persy stands up and leaves, to play along as he felt the magical intent.
Upon that, Jonni asks Willum about what happened and who he met the past four days.
[Wisdom saving throw - Fail❌] Willum starts to tell what happened on the boat and being very talkative.
[Arcana check - Pass✔] Reylynn recognizes that Jonni is actually an Anthousai.
The party notices there are many Jonquils and Narcissists on the desk, and there's a glass terrarium present, with a frog of the same species met in the Grove of Summer.
The party bids to leave, and try to pull out Willum from the office, where he resists a bit. However, he keeps talking, and upon passing the door, the last sentence he says is "Oh, and we met Chef Cook and we're helping him".
Once outside, they seem to gather their minds.
[Nature check - Pass✔] It seems that the plants have a charming effect on the people smelling them.

The party is heading towards the entrance, joined by Nesvalyn, and catching up. As the sunset is getting there, the party decides to rush towards Chef's Shop to warn about the slip up.
Once told, Chef Cook seems to laugh about it, and doesn't seem worried about it. He reveals that Jonni is bound to her place, probably due to her Fey nature.
From that, the party decides to call out a day and to rest at the safehouse.

The duo is going to the Grove of Summer to get answers about their deal. Once in, they notice the knight present, taking a bath. Raina is present. She forces Reylynn to get her payment, and Reylynn pukes three baby bunnies.

Raina insists that the power they'll have is to be sure that no one is being in our way. When asking for proof, Raina sighs and gives a medal each to Reylynn and Persy.
Upon giving them, Raina swore to not harm these two.
[Arcana check - Pass✔] The medals are Token of wishful, a physical representation of the vow.
Upon that, Persy tries to know a bit more on what is going to happen.
[Persuasion check - Pass ✔] Raina suggested to pay attention to the feet of the knight.

Willum meets Hosta at the tavern.
She joined last year, and somebody caught her attention: a Collars' Lieutenant hit on her, and it's not the type of person of being kind. That person is referred as "Beast".
The Jonquil's Delight has always been working by the book, but it changed as people started to be missing a few months ago.
Jonni is selling the workers to the Collars to make them live in their HQ.

The duo heads to Chef's Shop, where Nesvalyn decides to work part-time and give a hand, while Graath will be vibing there.
Chef Cook has to leave the shop for a while for an errand and gives the surveillance of the shop to the duo in the meantime.
Graath takes the opportunity to investigate while Nesvalyn prefers to not touch anything, trusting Chef Cook.
[Investigation check - Pass✔] Graath finds a false drawer with a mace in it, along weird looking pedals (which seems to be defense measure). From that information, Nesvalyn agrees to have a look on the pedals.
[Investigation check - Pass✔] The pedals are arming various traps. From left to right:

• A net is thrown from the ceiling.
• Projectiles are shoot from the front of the stall.
• A flamethrower shot in front of the stall.

After a while, Chef Cook returns with a crate.
Nesvalyn gets paid 10 gold for the part-time.

As we noticed we have a Portable Hole, Persy decides to go investigating the hole.
[Investigation check] There is junk from the previous owners.
[Arcana check - Pass✔] This place doesn't make sense to Persy, as it should be cramped, but it looks infinite. He goes to investigate, and we don't hear from him for a while.
We see Persy scrambling out from the hole and runs out. He says "There's no end in there, and there's something down there."
Willum decides to enter the hole on his turn, and pulls out a tablet, where unknown ciphers appears.
Ozzy gets back from the hole, to which we ask questions about the entity:

• Is it alive? ❌
• Is it a magical force? ❔
• Would it have killed you? ✔

From these information, the party is perplex, and prefers to have another look later and to focus on the Collars and the remaining places to visit.
[Quest added: ✔The entity of the Hole]

The building seems to be a structure for the giants, along all its equipment, meaning that only large creatures can use it (such as minotaurs and half-giants at least).
We asked to meet the Forgemaster, where we're being led in an office, which looks like a workshop. However the desks are covered in dust.
We're meeting Bron, a Cyclops with a blindfold, declaring he used to be the Forgemaster.
He stopped forging because of the Collars, they were the main buyers. They stopped paying them, and Lord Wringer came to ask for an exclusivity contract, along doing these for free. Bron refused, and the Collars stole his eye.
We managed to prove we're the resistance and being dangerous for the Collars by showing the Sorceress' lieutenant badge, along the Vicious Spear from the Horux Knight. From that, he agreed to explain a bit more how the Collars work.
From that, Bron explained how the Collars are working: There are 6 lieutenants answering to the Right hand of Lord Wringer. They run by street names:

• Hellcat (Dead 💀 - Was the old sorceress)
• Crash (Dead 💀 - Was the Horux Knight)
• Wingnut
• Howler
• Creep
• Zen

From what, Bron would like to help us, but he can't as the raw materials are distributed to the right amount, so they can't make equipment for our cause. Nesvalyn suggested that the quality of the forged equipment could drop or be faulty for the Collars.
However, Bron proposed another way to supply us.
As they need raw materials to forge and their side is controlled through a receipt to ensure that he forges what they're asked for, the Collars are keeping the materials into a warehouse.
He asks us to break into another warehouse to edit the receipt on the Collars' side to be able to create weapons for our cause.
The heist is planned tomorrow night at midnight, as the backdoor will be opened. We have to clear the way, and open the front door for Bron's crew.
It is his condition to help us against the Collars.
The last place remaining for the party is the Temple, where we headed after accepting the agreement for Bron.

Once arrived at the place, we noticed many people praying to different altars from various beliefs and religions. We had been approached by a gentleman, who revealed himself as the Town Preacher, Father Thatch.
We asked some information, pretending we arrived in town and we wanted to get general intel about the city. He also mentioned a group of ruffians, referencing once more the Collars' gang, as they're taking all the money given to the Temple. As we noticed he was also targeted by the Collars, we tried to persuade him to help us.
[Persuasion check - Pass✔] Father Thatch made a golden holy zone.
While we were in the zone, he agreed to help us as long we don't reveal our link with him. He will act as an informant (as half of the town come to confess) and can heal us if needed.

After that, Reylynn buys 3 holy water flasks, and Nesvalyn gives 10 gold pieces directly to Father Thatch to support the Temple (and not through an altar).
Before leaving, he warns us about the Grove of Summer and to avoid to enter it, due to the Feywild link. We revealed we already went there before.

After this interaction, we're stepping outside the Temple, where we all felt a weird sensation. Some ink appeared in our palm.

Dangerous people in town, please regroup at a local center.

The ink disappeared after a while, where we think it's the Collars putting more efforts to retrieve us as we're proving ourselves dangerous to them. When checking around us, we found some posters with:

Next session: 04 - Breaking in the Lab