Our heros awoke to their second nightmare: an itemized bill of their hotel rooms’ damage. Easily affording the costs with their potato sacks full of gold, the party paid Gumbledon the innkeeper for room and board for the next few weeks. They were also questioned by city guards, who had them fill out paperwork regarding the assassins they slew in the night. Heading out of the Inn they came across Peaches the bard working on a song for rival adventuring party The Raven’s Claw (caw!). Bestowing perhaps too much confidence in the resident musician, the party paid upfront for a song about their yet-unnamed group. Eager to get to work, Peaches left the Inn to go outside and draw inspiration from the whispering zephyr, or the tranquil beaches, or probably to go get high somewhere. You know bards.
Continuing their investigation of the town, our heroes entered the Adventurer’s Guild where they sought to formalize their union and color scheme and perhaps extend their visas by completing a routine task of adventuremenship. There they met Marshawn, the quartermaster, who had them begin the expected but still necessary paperwork. It was then they witnessed an argument at the door between the Guard Captain and the guildmaster Merissa. The Guard Captain was adamant that the city of Foundation must not draw too much attention from the kingdom of Aluminiumia, for while the city lay on the other side of a great, toxic marsh, King Lord Webber may soon justify an invasion that reclaims this region if sufficiently provoked.
The argument was soon derailed by the emergence of Trokul, the halfling, dragging the body of a Seeker Assassin he had slain, surely in self-defense, surely. The Guard Captain stormed off, and the party discovered that Trokul was in a suspiciously similar situation, escaping from the same Seeker’s vessel, being attacked by the same dastardly assassins, and sporting the same fashionable potato sack-- except, as they would learn, his was a yellow edition.
Deciding to join forces, our heroes recognized their nautical liberators inside the guild, from The Disruption, an adventuring party sporting blue and grey. Ave, presumably their leader, explained that they have been following The Seekers after they deciphered they were on a quest to collect four colored keys. They were not sure what they keys were ultimately for, but still they insisted that the party should register a quest-addendum to be a rider on The Disruptions’ official quest to thwart The Seekers, and that progress on this quest will likely result in extending everyone’s visitor status.
After much debate the party formalized its documentation and would be known as The Gibbon’s Fang. Gibbon’s do have fangs, right? They also decided on charcoal grey and forest green as their official party colors. With all this talk of color-coded keys and potato sacks, one can never be too careful when deciding on the trim of a cape.
Outside they saw a statue dedicated to Teresa, founder of Foundation. A plaque detailed her donating a vast fortune she earned from Capital to create the city.
With the mystery of the glowing red cube still full-on mysterious, the party visited the Foundation Community College in hopes of finding someone who recognized such a trinket. After getting the runaround from the Archwizard Orion and Achtinkerer Fidget, the party met the Chief Engineer, Richard. Being caught mid-experiment, Richard enlisted the help of Thorfin to hold onto two metal rods while a very janky set of machines hummed and zapped lighting out of all its pointy ends. Hand-wavy science hijinks ensued, but the upshot was that Richard determined the portal lead to Sigil, City of Doors, due to some planar alignment mumbo jumbo. He seemed not happy about this arrangement, though it’s unclear if he’s familiar with any other emotion.
Finally deciding to inspect the Seeker’s Cube, Richard taught the party how to open it up, revealing a large ruby in its inner workings. Richard speculated this meant the cube sought after a specific object that was Red, and that the Seekers often work on this painfully straightforward level when it comes to their magic trinkets.
Before following the cube’s lead out of town, the party first decided it was a good idea to visit The Temple of Pelor to receive a combat blessing. This was suggested to them by some guy at the Adventurer’s Guild, remember? This definitely happened. It made sense and felt natural. The blessing of Ki’ai would boost their damage when they cried out to whimsical Gods mid-battle.
As they left the city, they stopped at the help-desk to inquire about extending their visas, which now had only a single day left. The help desk lady (as she’s now known) had received forms from the Adventurer’s Guild about their quest addendum and instructed the party to return after they have completed their first task and their visa extension would be waiting for them.
A travelling merchant, Herold, was attempting to enter the city but was denied. He claims to have been delivering food and goods to the city for over a year, and that this unexpected denial of service was going to cost him. He questioned how the city got its food resources, being a coastal fortress with no dock. He set off to return to Capital and sell his products at a loss.
Under guidance of the strange glowing cube, our adventurers trekked for hours in the Ficus Forest until they came upon a Bugbear Cave. Once entered, the party was greeted by a ficus ballista guarding the entrance hall. Setting off a trap door, Thorfin was about to fall down to a dungeonous basement level when Aramis, the one responsible for thrusting the dwarf hapazardly down the hall in the first place, was able to miraculously blink to Thorfin and by the grace of the Eladrin God Corellon was able to blink them both to solid ground. A large fight ensued and five bugbears were slain. Our heroes instantly and incrementally felt more powerful than ever. If five usinous bugmen of the Ficus Forest couldn’t stop them, then surely neither could magic army of needlessly evil teleporting assassins backed by the full faith and credit of the region’s monarch. Surely…
