#kotap4

Maren tells everyone she's going to the temple of Selune to see about having her curse lifted.  

Cookie had just gotten one of the warm buns and began licking the side of it while staring around absentmindedly.  She does seem more presentable this morning.  Suddenly she straightens up and say, "Ok, I'll come too"  Only Maren seemed to hear.

This isn't the first time Cookie has spoken in Maren's mind and while she wasn't fond of it, neither was she surprised.

"This is a delicate matter, I don't have time for your particular brand of help." "No, you need help, I'll come."  

Maren walks out the door assuming that Cookie will get distracted by something shiny in the street before they arrive.  Maren moves with a purpose but Cookie keeps up.  While Maren isn't brandishing her symbol of Auril, she isn't hiding it either.  Looks ranging from angry to frightened follow them through the city.  Cookie is unfazed.  Maren realizes that Cookie most likely spends a lot of time getting similar looks.  

Cookie sees Maren leaving and pops up to tag along.  Things seem easier today with the crown on.  There is a clarity that comes with wearing it, but it does little to change the creeping darkness.  Skipping helps to shake the tentacles away.  Maren needs money, but why didn't we bring gold.  Gold is useful.  We should get gold, but all we have are...

"Gems!" screams Maren's head.  Thank goodness, thinks Maren, Cookie must gotten distracted.  Maren moves to speed away, but Cookie grabs her by the arm leading her off the large street down several alleys, stopping in front of a shop.  Cookie points to the sign of Halazar's Fine Gems.

Maren, "How did you know this was here?"

Cookie, "Most of my finest gems came from Halazar's, now they're just rocks.  But Halazar still likes rocks."

Halazar bought their rocks for a hefty sum.  Maren followed Cookie through the twisting side streets.  Maren is relieved to have all the eyes off of her, she only likes to be the center of attention when she's caught in the throws of her religious fervor.  And then sooner than she expected, they had arrived.  

While Maren noticed that Cookie has been more put together today than any previous day, she still doesn't trust her to hold her tongue while she pleads her case.  She needed her out of the way.

Maren: "Cookie, stay here.  I'll be back"

Cookie: "Soon probably" in sing-songy voice.

When Maren was taking too long to exit the temple, a worried Cookie went in after her. Cookie saw Maren in a heated argument with a group of priestesses and was worried that the proud dwarven woman would get herself beaten with one of those ornate silver maces. She knew her granddaughter Daria was an acolyte in this temple and that the fool girl was drawn to drama like a tentacle moth to an eldritch flame. A brief scan of the room proved her assessment correct as she saw Daria watching the argument intently from afar. Cookie strode over to her granddaughter and roughly turned her around.

Daria: "Grandmother! What are you doing here? Please don't do anything weird, I have to work with these people!"

Cookie: "Hush child, I've no time for your nonsense! That odd dwarven woman over there is an associate of mine and I need you to vouch for her to your superior before she gets herself imprisoned here."

Daria looks over at Maren in dread, thinking about what her superior, Feluna, would say if she tried to vouch for an Aurilite.

Daria: "Grandmother, I can't! She's an Aurilite! She's evil! She wants to see the world sunken into an endless night of darkness and winter! Better that she gets dragged before the High Priestess in chains before she causes any trouble."

Cookie: "That dwarf is no more evil than I, she's simply misunderstood. And you will vouch for her or I'll have a long talk with your parents about who exactly it was that burned down the kennel 2 summers back and lost them their prized hounds!"

Daria looks at her Grandmother in terror. They both knew that if her parents ever found out about that night she and her boyfriend had a secret candlelit interlude in the kennels that she would be disowned. Daria stammered a few more pleas but Cookie was resolute and Daria quickly ran to get Feluna. She was very convincing considering what was on the line, and Feluna was even a little interested in meeting this supposed non Evil Cleric of Auril.

Maren saw this exchange out of the corner of her eye while she was arguing with the Priestesses, but couldn't make out what was being said. Shortly after she was approached by Cookie and two Priestesses. She couldn't be sure, but it seemed like Cookie had somehow arranged a meeting with a higher ranking Priestess, and Maren was confused as to how this was possible. 

The new Priestess, Feluna, was willing to be much more reasonable and a deal for the armor and a cure was struck. During the discourse Cookie was deft and diplomatic, eloquently convincing the priestess that Maren had done no wrong and incurred this curse while helping a small town deal with an undead uprising. With that work finished, Cookie and Maren left the temple together, unburdened with the physical and and metaphysical weight of Korrigan's armor.

Cookie hopped down the stairs of the Temple with Maren following somewhat bewildered.

Maren: "Cookie, how did you know that young priestess and why did she help us?"

Cookie: "Granddaughters are not always respectful, certainly not mine, but they'll listen when properly motivated."

Maren: "It's good to have family." (Especially one that doesn't want to kill you, Maren thought)

Cookie: "It's good to have love, family is OK." (Minds are not the only things that are bent and broken by Old Ones, Cookie mused to herself)

Maren: "Aye. (A long awkward pause) Why would you leave your family to take on a life of adventuring?"  

Cookie: "I sought to save my family and my love, but I got lost along the way. I will not burden them with the evil that I found in the darkness between the stars. I will find a way to weave it into a prettier picture."

Maren knew well the cost of sacrificing for love. Cookie's sacrifices were just of a different variety.

Maren: "You seemed normal enough back there, if you can hold it together like that, why don't you do it all of the time?"

Cookie: "I could be a fish too if I could hold my breath indefinitely"  

Maren: "Well, thank you for your help today."  

Cookie: "We two old wolves must look out for our pack"

There was a strange understanding between the two. Maren didn't even roll her eyes when Cookie skipped down the street beside her.

Over a delicious breakfast of hot crossed buns our noble adventurers chat with Heyla and plan their day. It is agreed upon that everyone will take the day to see to private matters before getting back on the road to Daggerford. Heyla does not seem overly concerned that you aren’t racing off to save her son, but then again he will live to be nearly two hundred years old and “can learn to be a little more patient.” With some helpful advice from the motherly innkeep, Maren decides to head towards the House of the Moon to beseech the priestesses of Selûne for aid. Welcome or not, Cookie decides to tag along. Briel and Klarh take the party’s well-earned coin and head towards Essimuth's Equipment to upgrade their armor and procure a proper bow for the druid. Meanwhile, Thunder wakes up in a stable somewhere, groggy from the revelry of the night before.

Cookie proves to be an invaluable guide through the bustling streets of Waterdeep, taking a short detour to Halazar’s Fine Gems to convert Korrigan’s prized gemstones into cold hard gold pieces. Once at the House of the Moon, she waits patiently in a side alley while Maren enters the temple, hoping to pay for her cure quickly and be on her way. When the cursed dwarven woman doesn’t return to the meeting point, Cookie grows concerned and heads into the temple to investigate. The House of the Moon is stylized after Selûne’s holy symbol, that of two mysterious eyes wreathed by seven dazzling stars. A courtyard with two large altars stands open to the sky with seven proud towers ringing it. Cookie finds Maren arguing with a priestess while two of the temple’s guards stand nearby, maces in hand. It seems that the priestess is unwilling to let Maren leave with the armor, cured or otherwise, and is demanding that she hand the cursed item over. While she takes in the scene Cookie notices that one of the younger acolytes watching the scene from afar happens to be her granddaughter, Daria Stormweather. A short tug on that familial string lands Maren and Cookie in a private meeting with Feluna Moonstar.

The youngest daughter of House Moonstar’s patriarch, Feluna Moonstar is a fiercely independent and aggressive woman that commands any room she walks into. During the meeting, Feluna gives Maren a piercing stare down before deciding to give the Aurilite a chance. If the dwarf can prove that her heart hasn’t been completely frozen by the Frostmaiden and is willing to perform a service for the Moonmaiden, Feluna will give her Korrigan’s cursed armor back. As the Selûnite removes Maren’s curse, she tells the two women of a recent development in the Docks Ward. The Plague Rats, a gang of thugs and thieves run by wererats, has recently become more active in the City of Splendors. While in the past they have mostly kept to the sewers and back alleys engaged in petty thievery, they’ve recently begun expanding their influence across the city. One site of particular interest is the Helmstar Warehouse down on the waterfront. Feluna’s contacts have reported wererat activity there and she needs to learn more. Your mission is to find out what the Plague Rats are up to in the warehouse and to capture a live wererat for Feluna to question. Maren and Cookie leave the temple both curse and armor free, returning to the Armored Pig shortly after Klarh, Briel, and Thunder come back from their shopping at Essimuth’s. After considering the options, the group flips a coin and decides to investigate the wererat infestation.

The Docks Ward is on the opposite side of the city from the Armored Pig, so it takes you nearly two hours to navigate your way down to the waterfront. Klarh heads to the back alley of the warehouse with Briel hiding in his pocket, wildshaped as a rat. Once she’s snuck inside the warehouse, Briel sees four burly men moving boxes while a fifth supervises. Compared to the four strapping dockworkers, the man in charge almost looks like a wiry halfling. A pulley system has been rigged over an open sewer entrance in the middle of the warehouse. Though she’s no expert on public waterworks, Briel is surprised to find such an entrance in the warehouse. The men appear to be loading or unloading crates packed with large jugs of thick glass that contain a mysterious mustard-colored liquid. Unfortunately she’s unable to discover anything more in her current state, though she does glance inside the warehouse’s office and finds a portly human man slumped in a chair with his throat slit. Returning to Klarh outside, Briel regains her natural elven form and the two head over to the Salty Sea Dog Tavern to rejoin the others and formulate a plan. Ambush it is!

Before heading back to the docks in the morning, Klarh heads to the Fellowship of Bowers and Fletchers in the Trade Ward and introduces himself. Though the old men who run the guild know almost nothing about the Plague Rats or any strange orange liquids they might trade in, they are pleased to know that a Shadowbow is in town. Klarh is welcome any time and is free to use the guild’s workshop for anything he needs. Meanwhile, on the more clandestine side of things, Maren slips out of the Armored Pig late at night and makes her way back to the South Ward. After breaking a window pane of a somewhat rundown house in the district, she is admitted to the secret House of Winter, run by a human woman named Cassandra Whitemane. There is no love lost between the two Aurilite priestesses, but Cassandra nevertheless is willing to reach out to her contacts for more information on the Plague Rats. She claims to know a priestess of Shar (the Mistress of Night, Selûne’s sworn enemy/twin sister) who may have a better idea of what the wererats are up to. Maren pays tribute at the altar in the attic before returning to the relative warmth of the Armored Pig.

Returning to the Docks Ward as a group the next morning, Briel once again becomes a rat and sneaks into the warehouse’s office before becoming a wolf. Klarh goes to scale an adjacent warehouse but makes too much noise climbing the drainpipe. When a foreman comes to investigate, Cookie’s quick thinking has the man under her Charm spell before he can raise the alarm. Turning the tables, Cookie convinces her new best friend to get the whole warehouse singing as a diversion. When Briel bursts forth from the office and goes right for the skeevy supervisor of the warehouse, she lets out a howl to signal the rest of the group. Maren and Thunder break down the back door as Klarh rains silver arrows from a hole in the roof. The thugs are quickly dispatched, though the leader reveals himself to be a wererat as he escapes from Briel’s gnashing jaws and disappears into the sewers. Upon reflection, Briel realizes that her bites didn’t seem to do the wererat any harm.