Terra Povos: Dwarven Citizenship

Cast List:
Amergin, male dwarf druid
James male-presenting halfling stabby thief
Pythia female dwarven cleric
Whisper male dwarf rogue
Lithos male goblin wizard
Archibald male human bard

It’s late and the evening is slow, and we are attending to our duties around the Shattered Golem inn. This is located in the town of Stoneshore, on the underground shores of Lake Opreto, not far from Silverkeep. Because there are people from a variety of races here, there are lamps with continual light along the streets and inside the buildings. Nori Thunderbrew is the Alderman, and Max Glibbergab (a goblin) is the Quaestor’s contact here in town; the Quaestor lives in Silverkeep proper. Max is also buddies with the Alderman. 

The inn is also where we live, and there is a back door to the tunnels (kind of like a mall). The second level is adorned with a woodlike facade, built from fungal planks, as a sign of a successful establishment. We all share a room. 

Max Glibbergab has come bustling in because Amergin is back in town. He’s like, “Man, business is booming, like when you figured out why Lady Gleamstone’s jewely was missing.” He’s feeling nostalgic and recounting our past discoveries. "Or when you found that guy Karl trying to purchase fake steel!" There are a lot of humans in this bar, weirdly. "I ran into some more humans in the square, and it turns out they're Karl's brothers, and boy are they pissed!"

He just finishes saying this when they all stand up. Pythia moves to intercept two of the guys. Another one casts Flare on Pythia, but it fails to affect her. Lithos puts the two guys on the ground floor to Sleep. A man comes down the stairs, and utterly fails to notice Whisper, who promptly blackjacks him, leaving him swaying on his feet. 

Archibald – “uncle  baldy” since he can't grow a full dwarven beard – casts a lullaby spell on two of the enemies upstairs; one of them falls asleep. The human wizard looks down the stairs at Whisper and Pythia and hits them both with Flaming Hands. Lithos looks at the wizard and casts Grease, sending the wizard tumbling down the stairs into the guy at the bottom, who is now out. The wizard takes a little bit of falling damage. 

James steps over and swings his trusty pick at the wizard, burying the sharp tip in his chest. The wizard is now dying. The bowman on the balcony sees this, curses, and fires an arrow at James, putting it through his shoulder for a fair amount of damage. Amergin, who prepared magic stones, slings one at the archer but misses. Whisper realizes that the stairs are covered in grease and not usable. He gives Lithos A Look, but Lithos shrugs; what else was he to do? Then Whisper starts climbing up the wall. Archibald drops his lute and pulls his crossbow, and shoots the archer in the back. Lithos throws an Acid Splash at the archer but misses; James ducks under the table. The archer shoots at Archibald and puts an arrow in him. 

Archibald: “You shot me!” He shoots back, but misses. 

Pythia grabs the guy on the floor, heals him back to being stabilized, and puts an axe to his throat: “Do you want to lose another brother?” Unfortunately, the archer doesn’t hear her. Whisper is still trying to climb. Archibald finally manages to shoot the guy, and he goes down. We stabilize him, too. Our first battle, and nobody actually died.

A few weeks later Max is back, along with Nori the Alderman. It turns out the two guys on the floor and the wizard were Karl’s brothers. Quaestor Hammerheart has been getting congratulations because apparently these guys were causing trouble across multiple delves; they were wanted men, and we took care of them. Max has a nice new vest, with silver buttons. Our father is positively glowing with pride in us. 

Alderman Thunderbrew comes around and congratulates us each, personally; he's looking pretty good too, after all this. 

Our father stands up and makes an announcement: it’s time for us to take our citizenship tests. Well, three of us: Archibald, Lithos, and James. The test is in two days! And he’s been saving up a bit for each of us, 250 gold apiece, as soon as we pass the test. The citizenship test is a written test, and then there’s a test of dwarvenly might afterwards. 

The woman who will proctor the test is named Ilva Sternbrow. She’s going to use the Shattered Golem as the testing location. Ilva has a written test that keeps with her; she’ll take rooms here, along with her two guards. 

We start preparing: oiling hinges, checking for what might be on the test, figuring out how to get the information we need. Yes, studying would have been easier. No, we aren't going to do it that way. Yes, it's vitally important not to let Amergin figure out exactly what the rest of us are up to.

Ilva arrives, accompanied by her two guards. Mom & Dad have hired a few extra servers. She goes up to her room with two guards and comes back down with one. She has her very fine quality dinner. Archibald attempts to schmooze, and offers to play whatever she wants. 

Archibald summons a lute, and begins singing. Ilva is not impressed. Whisper is hiding in the back. One of the guards came downstairs and took something to the storage room and locked it in; the key is no longer on the wall. Whisper is the only one who knows this. Pythia takes a plate up to the guard in the room. He’s pleased to have food, and chats with Pythia for a bit. 

There’s a chest at the foot of the bed, and a chair that he’s using to sit on. She doesn’t manage to get him drunk -- neither of them will risk Ilya's wrath by drinking on the job -- but she does gather some information. The guard doesn’t really like this assignment, because Ilva is a pain in the butt. She has a whole setup and she’s very particular about it. She knows every trick in the book. If she catches you cheating you’ll never in your life be a dwarf. 

He is very much in a hurry to get out of this gig, and he's getting short; three more months and out.

James is dancing on one of the tables, and Archibald is encouraging her. Ilva, suspecting trickery, demands that James get down. Archie just goes with it, and they do the Dirty Dancing lift. The crowd is going nuts. Meanwhile, Whisper breaks into the storeroom, and sees a satchel sitting on one of the barrels. This is new, and probably what the guard brought down.

He wedges the door shut behind him, and examines the bag. 

There are a dozen variations of tests, and different numbers of each – an average of six of each, but with a lot of variation. He takes one from each sheaf, stashes it elsewhere in the storeroom, and then put it enough blank pages to make sure it isn’t immediately obvious. Then he slips back out. 

Pythia heads out as the guard she was talking to is about ready to go to sleep.

Ilva retires, and the guards are in the room with her. 

We head back to our room. Lithos naps, then Whisper wakes up Lithos, James, and Archibald, and leads us quietly down to the storeroom. He makes his way to the room and pops the lock. We grab the tests, head back upstairs, and do our best to cheat. 

The time of the test arrives. Ilya walks around and starts announcing questions. Amergin drops Guidance on Whisper, who is trying to help us cheat. Whisper sneaks back out from our bedroom. He is extremely subtle, and she doesn’t see him. 

Ilva: “Today we will be using Test Form number four! What is the name of the Gard you live in? Question numbert two: What product is your gard most known for exporting? How many legions are there in Deepterre? Where are the majority of the legionnaires in your province deployed? What are the majority of the emperor's property taxes used for? The Legion is controlled by what? And the laws are enforced by whom? Who nominates candidates for consul? Who elects the consuls? Who appoints Praetors?”

James hands his test over and throws up on her. She releases the scores that night, and we pass; next up: the physical tests. Eight of us move on to those. The events include: a stone toss with a five pound rock; a bull rush; a grapple; a crate smash; an obstacle course. 

Archibald immediately bribes the other contestants to throw the contest. First one: Bob 20 gp. Second one: Jason wants 30 gp. Gary wants another 30 gp. So Lithos ends up wrestling a human to the ground, and he’s just blown away by how strong he actually is. Well, he decides, or humans are just weak compared to dwarves.

We are the beneficiaries of full dwarven citizenship, and also (OOC) we’ve had a basic introduction into skill use. We now have 1420 GP between us.