Vistra puts out feelers to try to reconnect with the people she connected with. Tyener sells his old chainmail armor now that he has splint mail (30g for Tyener). He is also interested in the Order of the Gauntlet, so he visits Martin Foss and receives a pamphlet about it.
Kiya spends 100g and 4 hours copying Hold Person into her spell book. She then heads to Mantor Library to research Pools of Radiance and the Cult of the Dragon. Tyener visits the river docks to learn about the halfling, Zeram, if he can.
Tyener meets some characters at the dock, and though they say they haven’t seen anything, he gets the feeling that they aren’t being honest. When he attempts to intimidate them, they aren’t impressed. When asked about “Zeram’s River Adventures”, people do say that he’d only been there yesterday and they had not seen him before.
We decide to ask the Congress of Cats if they have noticed anything that could help us locate the cultists. Vistra heads out to the docks and is able to locate a cat that is able to bring her before the congress. She asks about Zeram and the Cult of the Dragon, and describes their amulets, their robes, and their interests in dragons and magic and mayhem.
The cats agree to confer among themselves to see if anyone knows anything. Vistra describes the Beached Leviathan, where we can be found if they discover anything, and thanks them for their help. Then she returns to the inn to look for her contacts.
Kiya heads to Mantor library and receives a book from the librarian to peruse about Pools of Radiance. It contains warnings about ways spells can go wrong – they are silvery luminescent pools, links to the Weave.
Meanwhile, none of Vistra’s contacts appear so she ends up having a quiet night. She joins a dice game, loses some gold and bows out. She and Kiya have a pint before heading off to bed.
The next morning, we visit the Pious Chapterhouse and see Oleida. She has some parchments on her desks but Kiya notices that there are some memos on her desk written in blue ink, in Cassra’s handwriting. We tell her about our encounter with Rythnax and the fate of the scribe of Mantor Library.
Oleida nods in approval and locks the door so we can talk. She says we are making a name for ourselves and she is impressed with the work we did. She is troubled by the resurgence of the Cult of the Dragon. She says she represents a shadowy group that fights despots and offers us membership. She shows us a purple tattoo on her arm containing a crescent moon with a harp, and says they are called The Harpers.
OHDAMN OHDAMN
She tells us they strive to fight evil, promote good, and preserve history. They don’t always believe the law is right, people take advantage of good people. They do have a council but do not have a central power structure.
Kiya says we will think it over and asks about Saures. Oleida says he’s been taken to a secure place to be rehabilitated, but won’t say any more at the risk of being overheard. We promise to consider joining the Harpers.