Skipping Town

Leaving Toulon

<Part of this changed based on Timm’s encounter with Francois.>

As Shady as Shade

Timm will let the party know that Francois has the ability to remove cursed items, used it on Timm and would help any party member out who needed it. He told the group he thought they should go into hiding and that he was checking out of the inn. He told Rose he was staying an extra week and paid in advance. He had asked Bertrand for a map to <some city in the three kingdoms> but had no intention of going there. He would stop by Rene’s shop to look at some items before they left and ask about one of those bags that could hold more things than it should. He would tell Rene that he was headed somewhere that he was not.

Not only did no one know where he was headed, but most were misinformed. How many dead ends would someone have to follow only to discover he was in none of those places. He had said he would leave in a day or two but wanted to leave immediately. Would the group go with him? Would they meet him?

He knew it was paranoia but why hadn’t anyone shown up to investigate? This Zuc guy had lied to everyone for five hundred years and he had to know…he had to know Kempin wasn’t destroyed. The longer it took, the more worried Timm was becoming…his mom had always said, “the longer the fuse, the bigger the boom”.

If this secret society could bring the three kingdoms back to Kempin, Zuc would have way bigger problems to deal with than the peon who took the orb…and magic would be reintroduced to Kempin. Three healthy, magic using, and heavily armed kingdoms led by a 500 year old wizard emperor popping into Kempin out of nowhere would certainly shake things up…and give the inquisitions a larger target to pursue. Timm smiled; the inquisitions would lose against this foe.

Regrouping

The only place he could think of to go was the cave. The same cave where they found Arwin and Vincent, only in this realm. It should still be there, and it was a place everyone in the group should be able to find. If we stagger our departures, travel separately, and meet there to figure out the next steps, we might have a chance.

He had to leave but couldn’t abandon his friends. So, one and two at a time, between drinks and salutations, Timm whispered in their ears, “if we get separated, meet where we found Arvin and Vincent. It should be here too.”

With that, he took his leave and headed back up to his room. Gathering all his possessions and packing them into his backpack and bags, Timm took a final look around the room. This really was a great place and damn, he should have bedded Rose. Timm walked over to the door and latched it…locking it from the inside. Securing the windows was a bit more complex. But four copper pieces wedged into the window frames would make them almost impossible to easily open and drawing the curtains shielded the room from viewing.

Hours later, as he heard the last of the patrons leave the tavern, Timm tossed a letter addressed to Zuc Swain on the desk, pulled up his hood and gathered his cloak around him and left the inn…the new way.

<Timm’s getting a bit paranoid and wants to get out of town. They’ve already attracted too much attention with the duel and outsiders are never treated well when a scapegoat is needed. His idea is for the party to meet up at the cave where we found Arwin and Vincent, but on this side of the gate of Oth and figure out what to do next. Parts of this will depend on how Francois responds to Timm about removing the cursed items and the book, but Timm will still want to leave town. If Shade, Gabe, Sempos, Vincent or Arwin feel like they’re also ready to bail on Toulon, they are welcome to meet up with Timm on the outskirts of town and travel to the cave together. I’ll put the letter Timm is leaving for Zuc Swain in the comments.>

Comments

    • Marcus Auerilius

      <A folded letter addressed to Zuc Swain, left in Timm’s room at the Trois Fleurs Inn. It is not sealed. It is the only thing left in the room. The room is locked & secured from the inside.>

      Greetings. I am Timm Valorson, Navigator, from the Kingdom of Eldermont…a younger nation across the sea and to the south from where your kingdoms originally resided in Kempin. Apparently, I am here because I removed the Orb of Om Radeen from a fancy looking pedestal in some ruins in an area known as the Wilds, in Kempin.

      I’m sorry to say it wasn’t an accident. I knew it was a gate to the Fey Realms but had no idea you had hidden yourself and three kingdoms full of people here for over 500 years. I was hired to close the Gate of Oth. It was an inconvenience to a few merchants and adversaries of Baron Fraeder of Darkhold and they had plenty of coin to spare.

      Sorry if I am too presumptuous, but I assume you and the Baron are familiar with each other. In Kempin, the Rangers of Oth work for Baron Fraeder, but here it seems they work for you, and so I assume there is a relationship…they didn’t seem smart enough to be double dipping.

      My sincere apologies for upsetting your elaborate deception. How you were able to fool multiple nations into thinking that Kempin was destroyed 500 years ago and continue to fool them until this day is inconceivable…or brilliant. I’m not sure. Do they suspect? Do you know? Twigtail has been dead for decades…my father helped dissect her. Are you aware that the Corpse King attacked Kempin fifty years ago and pretty much all magic was annihilated, is now prohibited and there are multiple inter kingdom inquisitions to eliminate all who use it?  Kempin was devastated more than once in the past 500 years, but never destroyed. It is not perfect, nor what it once was, but we are rebuilding and some day we will get through these dark times…this Age of Ravens.

      I expect that you are very upset and that you or your agents are looking for me and will find this letter. I suppose you could try to contain the truth, or kill those that know, but eventually it will be revealed…and I suppose you could return and conquer the rest of Kempin since you’d be the only one with armies that wield magic or sorcery, but that would require a new deception and from all appearances you seem very attached to this one.

      I regrettably do not have a solution for the problem it seems I was duped into causing and while it seems nice here, I’ve decided to go exploring a bit…hope you don’t mind that I didn’t wait around.

       

      Kind Regards,

      Timm Valorson - Navigator

      Kingdom of Eldermont