Session 40 - The Day After the Festival

GM Observations
- Apologies for the delay in writing this up. We are still gaming. This session was run by Lurker37 over a month ago.

Realm 40 - Orlano (Brown Door)
Part 1 - The Mad Doctor
- Early in the morning Ethan is found by two guards. Seeing the state that he is in and the amount of blood on the street, they assume he’s been mugged. Ethan is woozy from loss of blood and used a lot of his reserves in wielding magic and Eidolon. He can’t stand without assistance, but he insists upon taking his sword (Gorgorin) with him. They half-carry him to an apothecary and ring the bell for assistance. A voice from upstairs booms - the doctor is very irate at being woken up so early. 
- The doctor is less than impressed with the guards - he assumes from the amount of blood on Ethan that they’ve brought him a corpse rather than a live man. He’s faintly surprised when he notes that there are no open wounds on Ethan (as a result of Ethan using Eidolon). He demands Ethan’s name and Ethan refuses. This makes the doctor even more mad and he pokes and prods Ethan, sticks foul-tasting syrup into his mouth and then feeds him some chicken broth. The guards leave as soon as they are sure that the doctor isn’t going to throw Ethan into the street - they seem scared of the doctor’s temper.
- The doctor helps Ethan into a cot in a second room at the back of the infirmary, and grumbles about his patient going to take up space for a week or two to recover. The doctor also complains about the limited medicines at his disposal and how things were never this bad ‘at the Academy’. Ethan offers the doctor a gold coin (his last gold coin) to compensate him for his trouble, and the doctor expresses further surprise. He takes the coin after testing its authenticity with a bite.
- Ethan rests, but he doesn’t feel that he can sleep in such a place. The soup has helped a little, but he’s exhausted and Gorgorin is making it almost impossible in his current state to use Eidolon. He is so tired that he can’t even use Eidolon to repair his clothes.
- Ethan takes out his Icon of Grant and asks for assistance. He asks for Marindan gold and a fresh change of clothes. He also tells Grant (who is still on Marindar) that he has been attacked by the Dwimmerlaik. Grant offers to come through and assist, but Ethan politely declines. They share a little about their adventures and each listens to the other, but it is not a lengthy conversation as Ethan feels that he could still be danger from the Dwimmerlaik and he does not know where Isabelle is. They cut the contact and a few minutes later Grant contacts Ethan again and passes through the gold and a change of clothes.
- Ethan ditches his ruined clothes and changes. He then attempts to slip out of the building but the doctor spots him. The doctor is at first astonished and then angry with Ethan. He yells a series of foul insults as Ethan leaves, telling him not to come back.

Part 2 - A Place to Rest
- Ethan feels a little better in the morning sunshine. He uses “The Force” (i.e.: Wayfinding) to gently feel the right direction for Isabelle. He wanders through the small town of Orlano, past the stalls and the markets to where the decorations stop. He finds the back door of a townhouse which leads into a double-story tavern and knocks on the unvarnished door.
- A middle aged plump woman answers the door. Ethan explains who he is, and the lady introduces herself as Yolanda and draws him inside. She calls out to Isabelle that her ‘man-friend’ has arrived, and Yolanda’s husband Stefan comes out from the kitchen to meet Ethan. He is a portly fellow with a big bushy moustache. Stefan smells of beer. Isabelle appears pleased to see Ethan but is smart enough to realise that Ethan is putting on an act and he’s not 100%. Yolanda offers him brunch and Ethan accepts the opportunity to sit down and rest. Ethan learns that Yolanda and Stefan are friends of Isabelle, and they are the proprietors of the “Golden Crescent” tavern. Both of them have large personalities, and Isabelle seems interested in how Ethan responds to them. Both Isabelle and Ethan tell them a little about their adventures together, and then Ethan offers a yawn and asks if there is anywhere that he might rest. They offer him a quiet bedroom upstairs, and Isabelle shows him the way. 
- Alone for a moment, Ethan confirms that Isabelle is okay, and then admits that he was attacked overnight. He asks her to be on her guard as he needs to sleep. Ethan falls asleep almost as soon as he lies down in bed, however he does not sleep well. He has terrible dreams about using Gorgorin to cut and burn people, including Grant and finally Isabelle. He wakes in a cold sweat and notes that the sword is vibrating nearby. There is something wrong.

Part 3 - The Abduction
- Ethan heads downstairs to find that the kitchen and living area at the back of the house have been trashed, and the door has been broken outwards. He can see no remaining threat, but finds Isabelle in the kitchen, pale and unconscious. Her arm has been slashed but it looks like she has also hit her head and is suffering a concussion. Using Eidolon (despite the strain), he puts her into a restful sleep and assesses her injuries. Her collarbone has been broken, her ankle snapped and some of her ribs have been fractured. She’s also been cut across the arm as if by a clawed hand. Ethan puts the sword to one side and heals the worst of her injuries. Ethan then realises that Isabelle’s compass is missing.
- Ethan quickly looks for Yolanda and Stefan but they are both missing. Whatever left the Golden Tavern must have taken them with it. 
- Ethan contacts the city guard and reports the attack. He then puts Isabelle upstairs in a comfortable bed and begins repairs on the back door. It is then that the same doctor that treated him earlier in the day turns up at the house. The doctor is not pleased to see Ethan, but changes his tune when he realises that Isabelle has been hurt. He knows her. He produces a stethoscope with a blue crystal in it which he uses to check on her. Ethan asks him if he knows Lucien. The doctor doesn’t seem surprised by the question, and confirms that he knows Lucien. He helped Lucien to map part of the stair a long time ago, but he says that he has very few of the medical supplies left from his travels.
- The two start over and Ethan gives his name. The doctor introduces himself as Heinrich. He is not surprised that Lucien’s compass is missing - according to Heinrich, the device can be used to find anything that one desires - and that is a powerful artefact which many would covet. The last time he saw Lucien was many years ago, but there were old, ancient things following him. Some of the locals of Orlano had travelled with Lucien in the past, the remnants of his various expeditions out onto the stair. One picked up a parasite, others have stopped ageing, one even becomes a wolf-creature when stressed. Ethan asks if any of these could do this and Heinrich guesses that only Eigen, the wolf-creature, would have the strength to break into the house and bodily carry off two people. 
- Ethan asks if Heinrich will stay and protect Isabelle while he goes to find Eigen. Heinrich agrees and Ethan heads out into the streets of Orlano to find Eigen.

Part 4 - Dead End
- Following the directions provided by Heinrich, Ethan heads to Eigen’s house, however the door has been smashed outwards. Inside the place is a mess - it is clear that there has been a fight. There are claw marks which Ethan assumes must have come from Eigen, but he was fighting someone that used a thin blade coated in something resembling acid. Ethan figures that Eigen was himself attacked and fled from the house. 
- With no obvious clues, Ethan searches the place and finds a hidden basement. He finds a series of practice dummies that Heinrich has used to spar with, but oddly there are no claw marks on them, suggesting that he has learnt to fight without causing grievous injury. Ethan also finds a velvet lined box but whatever was in it has been removed. 
- Ethan decides to head back to the Golden Crescent via the fruit market. He buys some fruit and heads back to check on Isabelle. Heinrich remains standing on guard, and he finds Isabelle sleeping soundly. There is a herbal smell in the room.

Session 41 was run about 2 weeks ago. I’ll do the write up in the next few days.