Chapter 2: Arriving at Kassen

July 2 continued

In the morning, Ertak heals Kieron with a ritual. The ritual takes 24 minutes and is assisted by the singing of Neiia, Agnarr, and Kieron herself. To everyone’s amazement, Agnarr succeeds in his singing, as their previous experiences of his singing has mostly been his drunken off-tone songs.

The ritual succeeds and Kieron is in pretty good shape afterward. After the ritual, Neiia convinces Agnarr to dig her a sitting pool in the middle of the stream as the stream is too shallow for a proper washing by sitting in it. The digging takes about an hour.

During the day, Jaysek remembers that the sword probably came from Magnimar’s 10-meter tall warrior statue.

After this, the group spends the day in place so that Ertak can heal Jaysek in the morning, allowing them to get moving again tomorrow. In the evening, Ertak heals Ra almost back to full health.

July 3

In the morning, Ertak heals everyone to full health and the group continues their journey. Jaysek’s horse packing doesn’t go perfectly, or even close to perfectly, and the sword falls to the ground a couple of times and needs some repairs during the day.

In the evening, they arrive at Kassen and go to the inn first. They ask there about Mayor Jonark Uptal. The innkeeper directs the group to where the mayor lives.

The mayor tells them about the general situation in the area and states that tomorrow morning there will probably be a presentation ceremony, etc. The mayor directs the group back to the inn, where the group sleep, so that Kieron and Neiia sleep in the suite and the others sleep in two separate normal rooms. In the evening, Kieron and Neiia go to the inn’s dining hall to sing and play music, and Kieron even gets paid 16 coppers for her performance.

At night, Kieron and Neiia hear sounds from outside, and when Neiia looks out the window, she sees someone running away along the alley behind the inn.

July 4

In the morning, the group is brought to the square in the center of the village. Ertak, Agnarr, and Neiia drag along the copper sword.

The mayor introduces the local celebrities, meaning himself and the leader of the woodcutters’ guild, the captain of the guard, the local sage, and the priest. The mayor continues his speech in length, droning on and on without coming to a point, so Neiia interrupts and suggests that she could give a speech instead.

Neiia begins her speech by introducing all the group members and starts levitating when introducing herself. The local sage doesn’t seem to fully appreciate this gesture. After this, Neiia’s speech also becomes quite confusing, and Agnarr and Kieron leave the platform at some point. Finally, Neiia ends her speech and sings the song about the fight where they got the sword. After this, the mayor and the sage begin to explain what the group needs to do. They receive a map, 3 bottles of oil, and a prayer scroll. The group’s purpose is to go to a crypt 40 kilometers away. There are three oil pans there, each with seven small cups that need to be filled with oil and lit. After that, they need to read the prayer scroll.

In the crypt is the tomb of the town’s great hero, Kassen. This person is the founder of the town of Kassen, and the purpose of this ritual is to honor his memory.

After this, Neiia asks if they can leave the sword here for safekeeping, and when the mayor orders a few men to carry it to storage, the men don’t seem to be able to lift it from the ground because it feels like their hands are slipping off. When Neiia goes to investigate, she notices that the sword’s handles have been oiled, and to the side, Kieron is having trouble keeping a straight face and is giggling. Once the handles are cleaned of oil, the sword can much easier be carried into the storage.

The group sets off toward the crypt in the Serpent Hills. During the morning, the group sees something strange about 300 meters ahead. When the group examines it with Jaysek’s telescope, they can only determine that it’s a large dome or something that may be coming toward them. No one can figure out what it is.

A hundred meters from the creature, Agnarr identifies it as a snapping turtle. Its height is two meters, and the shield’s diameter is about three meters. Agnarr explains that it got its name because normally its head is inside the shield, but if it decides to attack, its head comes out quickly and it can bite off an adult man’s arm with one bite. The creature is very aggressive for a turtle, but it can be outrun. The group decides to go around the creature, although someone was heard muttering something about wanting turtle soup.

In the evening, the group camps near the shore of Gray Lake. While they are setting up camp, a centaur arrives, who is on his way to Kassen with the purpose of buying cured wood for a bow. He plans to run all the way to Kassen for the night. The group warns the centaur about the snapping turtle. The centaur warns the group that there is also a pack of wolves nearby, which had sounded hungry.