21 Eleint, 1493
❧Amyana makes an oblivious spy
Afternoon
We’d found ourselves in some kinda travel hub in the middle of some woods. Since we got teleported here, there weren’t no way to tell where on Toril we were, or even if we was still on Toril! The troll that brought us here spoke Common, so we’re probably still on Toril, at least. Anyway, we wandered ’round the building till we came face to face with a half-elf woman who sure wasn’t happy to see us. She saw right through our story about bein’ there to investigate some missin’ loot.
Lucky for us, Talis got a real hate on for some chick named Rezmir and asked us to take her out so Talis could move up in the cult. In exchange, she gave us a cultist banner and a passphrase—Tiamat, our mother and strength—to help with our cover. She also agreed to take us to the sky castle. It’s really called the Castle in the Clouds, but ain’t nobody calls it that. Not only is Rezmir supposed to be there, but that’s where all the loot’s headed after passin’ through this place. Seemed like a good chance to catch up with it, so we followed her through another portal.
Parnast is a sleepy little logging village, barely even got an inn! The castle was floatin’ over the village with a big ol’ scaffold dock leadin’ up to it. We split up and took a look around. I went to the General Store to grab some rations, but the shopkeep was rude as hell, like I’d spat in his food or somethin’. He was actin’ all suspicious and weird, so I didn’t even haggle when he asked for an outrageous price. I handed over 10 gold for 10 iron rations! Yeah, I really need to learn how to manage my coin better. It’s a darn good thing I ain’t no kinda spy! I asked him if he was alright, and he just said he was fine. Checked again, and he mentioned some weird stranger askin’ him questions. Ain’t wrong, that’s weird. Soon as I left, he shut and locked up the door, closin’ up for the day.
We made our way to the village’s one tavern. About a dozen people were inside, and they went quiet as the grave when we walked in. The taverner sold us some stew for 3 silver each (3 copper for beer or 1 silver for whiskey) and said we could sleep in the common area for 20 silver a night. He didn’t like us much, so we all agreed to sleep outside. I’d finished my stew and was nursin’ my beer when a military fella marched up to our table. Looked like someone of rank, but I ain’t familiar with the ranks ’round here. He demanded to know why we wasn’t followin’ protocol, and our bluffs fell flat. Talis had told us to act like we was better than everyone else and nobody would question it—maybe Talis don’t know as much as she thinks she does.
❧You can’t jail us!
He dragged us to the local jail, sat behind a desk, and demanded to know why we was wearin’ cultist gear in town. Apparently, it freaks out the villagers. We told him he ain’t got time to be worryin’ about the village and that we needed to be on our way. He mentioned we had 12 hours ‘til the time Rezmir said the castle would be movin’ on, then asked who sent us. We told him it weren’t none of his business, and Kalama pulled out the passphrase and declared we needed to be on the ship. You should’ve seen the color drain from his face when she said that passphrase! Boy howdy, he was quick to get us an escort to the ship. To avoid trouble, we took off our cultist robes.
It weren’t ‘til we got up close to the castle that we saw it was made outta ice as strong as granite, with thick fog underneath hidin’ whatever was at the bottom. The door was huge—like 20 feet tall and 8 feet wide, with ceilings 30 feet high! Maybe it was built for dragons or somethin’. We also spotted big ballistae in both castle towers, each one manned by at least three ogres, maybe more that we couldn’t see from down below.
The first inside door led us to the barracks. There were a lot of beds with folks sleepin’ or playin’ cards. We spotted a few open footlockers, but it weren’t ‘til later that I realized we probably could’ve just claimed those beds and gotten some shut-eye. Did I mention we hadn’t had a full night’s rest in a while at this point? Lhel asked them troops about Rezmir, but they didn’t have a clue. They did tell us she ain’t in charge of the castle—some fella named Blagothkus owns it. When we pressed, they said maybe she’d be ‘round the wyrmspeakers’ offices on the north side of the castle.