Mattiverse Next - Session 19

Office Search

• Four and Beldon stand watch while Banner and Bobwhite probe the Archon's office with magical hands.
• The secretary's office attaches to a records room with bureaucratic recordings of all sorts of church activity (which, in turn, means also business of the city at large). There is too much here for any specific thing to be useful, though.
• At the desk is an appointment book. It is mostly mundane, save hours-long stretches of "UNAVAILABLE" time earmarked at least once a week.
• Time running short on their pass without trace casting, they move on to Bethenalay's office proper.
• On a bookshelf near the entrance, one of the books is put on the shelf upside down. It is Modern Hymns and Sermons - Fifth Edition. Published Ubrekti University, 1498.
  • Peculiarly, page 87 has been torn out of the book.
• At the desk itself is all sorts of stuff.
  • A ledger.
  • A logbook.
  • Church documents of high rank.
  • Stack of letters.
  • Valuable (mundane) knickknacks.
• Bobwhite scans the letters and nothing catches his eye, until, just as he sets it down, one pops out of the stack that is very interesting.
  • She complains about how the "old man" was a bit of a hoarder and that she is personally tasked with going through all his old shit in addition to her many other duties.
  • Bobwhite assumes the "old man" is the previous Hadriarch.
• The logbook confirms that this "old man" indeed had a whole bunch of shit. There's too much to thoroughly investigate, so Bobwhite looks specifically for wands:
  • Nothing interesting catalogued, but in the "uncatalogued" appendix are five still-unidentified wands.
• There's also a statue on the desk of a halfling in church garb. Its plaque reads: "MY MOTHER WOULD BE SO PROUD OF YOU. LOVE, GRANDPA" [ed meta note: is great-grandmother Bethanalay or Kimi?].
• Time running out, they search the other bookshelf in the room, but in their rush miss anything interesting that might be there.
• They leave as much as they can as they found it, but don't have enough time to lock the doors.

Sermon Search

• They decide to lay low for a bit after their heist to let any heat cool off.
• Bobwhite resolves to find the book of hymns as follow-up, and Four tags along.
• Beldon thinks that's dumb and goes to find Hot Rod instead, with Banner.
  • They shoot the shit, it's hilarious
• Bobwhite and Four go to the booksellers'.
  • They track down a copy... of the third edition. The bookseller is ecstatic about the 15 gp he is able to extract from Bobwhite for it.
  • Page 87 is a hymn, but given the difference in editions Bobwhite can't be sure that it's identical.
  • They spend some more time looking around but don't resolve any more.
• Bobwhite decides the University Library might be more fruitful, and spends the rest of the day whipping up a "letter of introduction" to support.
  • Since they're trying to keep the heat off, he plans to just talk his way in and read the book there, no heist shenanigans.
• The rest go see boss Redhand. They talk tactics.
  • Wydmoor proper probably won't care about any developments in the swamp until they're causing problems, which for them would mean raids in the farmlands to the South. There's no reason to think the orcs would put siege to the city, because that's historically gone very badly for them.
  • Rates to smuggle over to and from Moyria's Crossing have doubled, although they're still too piddly to really be of interest to the Boys.
  • The swamp becoming inaccessible does mean a squeeze on the Ghostwise, because it means their usual income streams are becoming too dangerous.
  • He's very interested in any more intel from the swamp, although he falls short of putting an actual price on that information.
• Next day is library day. Banner tags along. Four and Beldon busk the Pilgrim's Square.
  • Beldon puts on an adequate performance. Four keeps an eye on the Cathedral while they're there, and doesn't see anything particularly interesting except Bethenalay walking in with a very stressed look on her face.
• Bobwhite and Banner, armed with a forged letter of introduction, bluster their way past the guard without issue.
  • After some searching, they find the book, in the correct edition.
  • Page 87 is a different hymn from the third edition, but it does exist in that book on a different page (page 83).
  • Banner gives it a once-over and with an eye to musical notation points out that a couple of notes are different between the editions.
  • Bobwhite painstakingly notes the difference on a scrap of paper to keep with his third edition copy.
  • That done surprisingly quick, they decide to just browse around.
  • By sheer luck (better lucky than good!) they stumble upon a book in Petaran, with Edi on an ex libris and gibberish Ubrekti marginalia. It is obviously not much-trafficked and appears to have been overlooked for quite some time.
  • Bobwhite decides this to warrant an exception to the "no heist shenanigans" policy declared for the mission. He shoves it under his shirt without a second thought.
  • He almost sweats out on the way past the guard, but Banner causes a commotion at a key moment, and they make it out.
• They regroup with the rest and share notes.
  • They spend a bit of time making fun of Four's crush on Bethenalay, but the larger point that disturbing her makes their jobs harder is still taken seriously.
  • With a comprehend languages ritual, they deduce that the book is a book about childrens' fireworks. The marginalia is still gibberish, so Bobwhite decides that deciphering it has taken a massive priority.
  • Beldon, initially disapproving of breaking the "lay low" principle, reverses course when they find out exactly how cool a find it is.
• There's a race that night, so session ends as they get ready.