Day 13: Flamerule 18
Termalaine
More than any of the Ten Towns you’ve seen, Termalaine seems to have been planned by those who appreciate more than just the utilitarian uses of buildings and streets. For the first time in the Ten Towns, you are tempted to use the word “charming” to describe a village here. Here along the spacious streets, you see exotic wood, curved roofs, domes, statues, opulent decorations and colorful flags crisscrossing the tree-lined streets in the style of a far-off land. Magic appears to be practiced in the open, as you see magic users casting simple spells to entertain passers-by, then pass their hat for coins.
Town Hall
The town hall is the artistic centerpiece of Termalaine. Covered passageways extend meticulously designed curved roofs, giving the appearance of a domed structure. The roof is well constructed and can withstand heavy snow loads. The front waiting room includes a magnificent 30-foot-high ceiling containing two desks between a collection of caryatids depicting various gods.
Carrying the wrapped body of Bazahilda Barrelhelm, you ask about the reward. The attendant, Elka Verryt, summons workers to take the body to a barn for holding until her parents can be notified. She says for you to check in with the speaker at a place called Sune's Comfort.
Sune's Comfort
Ellienne Silverbalm, the proprietor, is a tall moon elf with a curly mass of red hair, greets you near the entrence. Sune’s Comfort is a sauna, hotspring, and bathhouse - there is a public area which costs five silver an hour and private rooms which go for two gold an hour minimum, as well as a lengthy list of extras. After passing along the phrase given to you to recite by Elka, she asks you to wait and disappears behind a screen for what seems like a very long time.
Eventually, she reemerges and informs you, "The speaker will see you now. You'll have to enter in a towel or robe to demostrate you are unarmed."
Deciding Noom will guard the belongings, Elva enters into one of the private rooms to meet the speaker, Oarus Masthew - a half orc - currently soaking in both a private bath and a half-empty bottle of faint brown liquor.
After listening to Elva, he offers another phrase to repeat back in Town Hall to receive the reward, provided the body is identified. Elva perceives the speaker has something weighing him down.
Confiding in Elva, the speaker confesses the town hates him: He was only voted in because his adoptive mother was the well-loved speaker for decades; that he's mismanaged the mine and the miners have lost all confidence in his leadership; that his only goal now is to stay alive long enough to lose the next election. Elva asks if you can help. Laughing at learning there are only two in the party, he tells her to come back when there are at least twice that.
Town Speaker, Oarus Masthew
Termalaine Market Square, at the central harbor
The Reward and the Market Square
Arriving back at town hall, you are given a reward of 50 gold pieces, and learn the body has been identified by the family who are still on premesis. Learning half the reward came from the family, Elva returns it to them. Asking if they know if they've heard of any other murders like this, the Barrelheims inform you that they do not but will give everything they own if the killer is brought to justice. Gold in hand, you set off for the market.
The market of Termalaine is a sight to behold as every stall is adorned with carvings. The merchants try to impress buyers with their intricately crafted log-built stalls, with the carvings indicating what wares are offered. Carvings of fish and waves suggest a food merchant, musical notes imply a crafter of instruments or decorative wares, and stalls with carvings of animals, wizards, or homunculi may offer more exotic goods.
What scrimshaw is to Bryn Shander, stained glass is to this place. Stained glass artists seem to outnumber all other types of merchants, combined. There are all manners of decorative panes: some new, but most appearing to have been pulled from abandoned buildings. These are now being repaired and cleaned up for sale.
After buying some new goods, you ask about healing potions and are directed to the Tower of Ingenuity.
The Tower of Ingenuity
A sign labels this odd looking structure “The Tower of Ingenuity”. The ground around the structure is littered with broken bricks and blackened planks up to one hundred feet away. The wide ground floor is constructed of thick stone blocks. Two smaller stories are built atop this, both made of wood. The wood walls appear new. Numerous gaping holes encircled with burn marks are covered in canvas. A large steel eight-toothed gear adorns the front and center
A reinforced bronze door automatically opens when touched, revealing a cramped foyer littered with material, including boxes and barrels filled with wood rods, copper gears, iron chains, sheets of canvas, and other tinker‘s supplies. A hole in the ceiling allows for goods to be lifted to higher floors. The floor is covered in soot. Countless footprints carve a network of tracks leading to a damaged spiral staircase and many doors that lead to small adjoining workrooms. At the far end of the foyer stands a 6-foot-tall steel construct supporting a 2-foot-diameter gearwheel which serves as an altar to, what Elva identfies as Nebelun, the gnome god of invention and craft.
Contributing a few coins to the shrine, Elva asks Craftsister Gladells Irlin Glasshopper if she might know of Ditte Bang. The sister says she does and that she would come by a few times a year to buy supplies she couldn't find elsewhere. Surprised to hear of her disappearance, she mentions that there one of her sisters also disappeared about a month ago.
Craftsister Gladells
Irlin Glasshopper
Slivith Gaddnem Clomwot (“She had the greatest potential of our up-and-coming craftsisters”) has been missing for a month. The tinkerer never returned from an evening walk. Gladells mentions she often woke at odd hours and strolled around town to clear her head and mentally work through a problem flummoxing her. (“Termalaine used to be a safe town!")
No clues were found in her quarters which Glasshopper has kept untouched, hoping for her return. Glasshopper shows a prototype of an "Impervious Sphere", which Glasshopper offers you in if you find her. Gladdells had become “obsessed with safety” after visiting Easthaven, although the reason for it was not revealed. Since her return two months ago, she had invented a theft-resistant pouch and impervious sphere.
Glasshopper directs the party to meet Culver Ailsen, a well-respected historian of the Frozenfar who resides in Caer Dineval, to possibly learn more about the abductions.
You forget to ask about the healing potions.
The Blue Clam
Bustling for a mid day, this tavern is mostly full of miners perhaps freshly off their shifts.
Among the miners, discontent can be heard - "The Speaker is to blame: He’s alcoholic, he’s a coward, he’s shirking his duty. Why hasn’t the mine been sorted out? How dare he ask the miners to go in and sort it out when it’s so dangerous. Why is he hiding?" Fudgel Groke is a dwarven miner and rabble-rouser, and is at the center of most of these denouncements, proclaiming that something should be done.
You finish your meal and head across town to the Eastside to find a place to stay for the night.
Fudgel Groke holds the attention of his fellow miners