Between Sessions - Caves of Chaos, part 10.5

 Between sessions, I resolved some scouting by Llandor and Bert while the rest of the party spent a day at the keep. 

 Llandor and Bert set off early and were gone from the keep for most of the day. There were but two hiccups of note. Firstly the journey there involved a long detour, caused by a disagreement between Llandor, his map, and the terrain. Thankfully, other than the resultant increase in time and ration consumption, the detour was uneventful. The second hiccup was in Bert misunderstanding Llandor's gestured warning, and he got too close to a giant rat scavenging outside one of the caves. The rat only chomped on Bert's leg a little bit, before the poor unfortunate giant rodent was shot and clubbed to death. Thankfully the halfling's robust constitution prevented any lasting infection to the wound in his leg. 

 Those two distractions aside, the pair were largely successful in scouting the caves, including some that were hidden. Specific human activity was not identified, and no undead were spotted. There was the expected signs of humanoid groups travelling between the ravine and the surrounding forest. However, the pair have clues of some sort from most of the cave entrances without going through the portals themselves, and have apparently evaded detection. They returned to the keep safely towards the end of the day.

 Here a map I scrawled to show the relative positions of the caves and what they had discovered.

 Meanwhile back at the keep, the others gained some rumours at the inn...

Davin was warned: "Altars are very dangerous."
Miriam was informed: "There's a reward for rescuing a captured merchant who is imprisoned within the ca- Oh! You rescued him already? Do tell!"
Yvor was amused: "An ogre sometimes-" "You idiot! Haven't you heard? He's the knight what killed 'im!"
Hemmu was warned: "Beware the mad hermit in the forest north of the keep!"
Miao was advised that apparently: "A powerful sorcerer will destroy all invaders to the caves. Oh you- You have? Well, if you'll excuse me I have something urgent to do elsewhere..."

 Hemmu managed to overcome prejudice enough to impress the other inn patrons with her tale of fighting the orc chief. "Is it true that the leader of the orcs was clad 'ead to toe in plate, like a goblin knight? That's what I 'eard, anyway..."

 Miao also discovered that the jewel merchant isn't a permanent fixture at the keep, but is passing through. Rather than stay at the inn, he actually rents a private apartment within the keep. There are a small number of these apartments available, for those that have the means. Currently only the jewel merchant and a visiting priest are renting apartments. It seems they have both taken the largest two between them. Lady Miao was annoyed that she didn't know this sooner, however renting an apartment is probably above her current means.

 Davin looked for scrolls but there wasn't much for sale. The general provisioner of the keep had a charged wizardly scroll of Light, available for 2 shillings. A travelling peddler offers Davin his very last scroll, of the wizardly spell Itch, for the bargain price of 2 and a half shillings.

 Davin also enquired about the sale of supplies that might be of use to necromancers, but found no indication that such things were being traded. If such things were being sourced, then it was apparently not be happening at the keep. The provisioner insisted that all his supplies were ordered by the curate of the shrine, and are totally legit and above board, thank you very much.

 Hemmu and Davin both paid the keep armourer to expedite the refit of armour looted from the previous session. Hemmu took the light mail hauberk which she wore instead of her old armour. Davin got the orc chief's mail suit resized, but did not wear the leggings; the top half he layered over his cloth armour suit.