A shorter session. This session saw the party arrive at Germulus. The first order of business was to head to the inn and talk with some of the locals over drinks. They next headed to Turian Shipyards, where they found it had been abandoned and haunted by three nasty-looking ghosts. (which the party chose to split up, sneak up on while invisible, and then change their mind and get reinforcements before trying to take them out)
Before going to Turian, at the inn they learned from a goblin bard named Servius:
- There had been a murder at Turian shipyards about a year ago
- A year ago there had been a string of murders in the town - all 3 master shipwrights of the three ship yards in town. The city has struggled to recover since then.
- They partook in a local drink called "Zirbenz", made of pine needles
- A festival is going on called Lupercalia. It's a celebration of change, lust and/or infidelity and is loosely tied to water, wind and the gods Akalina, Candida and Sciurus. The bard relayed the following to you: "“In the old stories of Candida, it is said her servant, Sciurus, pursued Akalina in love, lust and passion, though Akalina was betrothed to another. Sciurus eventually won over her heart – which is the inspiration behind the festival. Some say he summoned the small creatures of the forest to his aid and through them, changed the very skies to snow in summer and rain in the winter, and this was what most impressed Akalina.”
- One participates by tying a blue strand of cloth to your right arm to signify you're looking for a change in your relationship or a little "side-action"
- And last, you learned from the bard that there is well-known man with a hook in Germulus named Gruybile (last name, according to the bard, "Van-something"). He works for the Church of the Fellow Sun as a sort of admiral, overseeing a small fleet the church maintains for its mission outreach, to supply to remote churches and to ferry church members to meditation retreats.
Some random trivia:
Lupercalia is very loosely based on a Roman holiday: https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/lupercalia
Zirbenz is a drink I invented for the game, I described as: "Zirbenz is a mildly bitter clear drink, potent in strength and tasting like a mix of pine needles, bark, tree sap with a faint trace of citrus. The opinion of outsiders is that it’s awful, but it is quite popular with locals." It had a different name at first; I renamed it Zirbenz when I found it was a real thing. https://alpenz.com/product-zirbenz.html