Session 14 Report: Go to Print

General Summary

NRPD HQ

While they waited for Gyrm, Brand walked Carol through some breathing and meditation exercises to see what else they might learn as she recounted her feelings from the night in a more tranquil mindset, but nothing new came up. Gyrm arrived and after some inspection concluded that the effect wasn't caused by any nearby fiendish activity, confirming that all he could detect was the same thing Ravawynn could: the same slithery silver aura of enchantment every time Carol approached talking about the time she and Carli entered the crowd. Gyrm checked the magical item evidence locker to see if anything that could break an enchantment had been confiscated, but nothing had.   Eventually, the crew called in support from a member of the Major Crimes division, a cleric of Soliña named Susanna Whittingham. Studying the effect and conferring with the team on their findings, Susanna determined the spell was most likely a form of "Modify Memory" which could be cured with the spell "Greater Restoration" which was a bit beyond her level. The team asked Susanna if she knew someone at her church who could cast the spell, and asked Mindy if she had any ideas. Both noted there would most likely be someone at RUGL who could do this, someone in the School of Magical Arts who specializes in enchantment magic.   Meanwhile, Gyrm and Ravawynn start to investigate Stella's Journal, which Ravawynn had pocketed when they visited Stella's dorm room at RUGL. They were approaching giving up when Shoke joined in and noticed a strange shift in the tone of the writing. The entries leading up to the Pep Squad captain tryouts started off excited then suddenly shifted to a completely bland tone, entries listing out daily tasks.

Looks like the Pep Squad stole her pep...

— Gyrm

Shoke mentioned he wasn't very familiar with what a Pep Squad is, only participating in non-organized self-improvement sports when at school in Kore. Ravawynn decided it might be worth going undercover to check out a Pep Squad practice and speak with some of the members. In the meantime, since it was getting late, she and Gyrm would at least stop by the Student Resources department to try and get more information and maybe fine a professor who could help Carol.  

RUGL

Ravawynn and Gyrm made their way to the Student Resources office in the Gilinore building at RUGL and met Siril again manning the front desk. He recognized the officers and immediately agreed to help them dig up the following information:   Pep Squad

• Captain: Karen Den'Var (dorm: 201 Beryl Hall)
• Vice Captain: Trumor Mumin (dorm 123 fetton hall)
• Practice schedule: Togday, Vhemday, Thesday at 5:30pm

School of Magical Arts professors

• Headmaster of the School of Magical Arts: Cyril P'ilid
• Professor of Enchantment: Myri Mallo

Other info

• Carli Padfoot's class schedule
• Stella Bynwalyn's class schedule
• Kem Kardis's class schedule

From there, they headed first to Cyril's office but found it was locked and no one was answering. Next they tried Myri's office and found her relaxing at her desk, reading over some books. Upon hearing the mention that a student has been affected by some strong magic, she immediately snapped to attention, grabbed some things, and followed the officers back out to the NRPD headquarters.

NRPD HQ

Myri immediately got to work when the group arrived back at the SIDE office. She was able to re-diagnose what Susanna had found: this was the work of a form of the Modify Memory spell and was giving off an uncomfortably slithering silvery aura. Not wanting to miss what was happening, Ravawynn cast detect magic to observe Myri at work. As Myri started to cast, the slithery silver aura around Carol began to pulse slightly almost as if in response. Myri started to emanate a golden aura and used it to push against the silver one, eventually sloughing it away and off of Carol. Immediately, Carol starts to remember the rest of the night, as well as some parts which she now remembered differently. Starting from right after she went upstairs:

1. Carli introduced Carol to her Pep Squadmate, Stella, who was with her roommate, an orcish woman with dark hair
2. Carli and Stella chatted quietly about something serious-seeming but Carol couldn't hear
3. Carol and Carli headed back downstairs, grabbed a beer, then headed into the crowd as a new song was starting
4. All of the walls in the room began pulsing with the word RAGE displayed across them
5. She could feel herself becoming suddenly angry and uncontrollably aggressive for short bursts, rushing into moshes and trying to fight other people
6. In between bursts, noticed an awkward group of people that seemed to be resisting the effects:
   1. A dwarf man with a round face, no facial hair, a dark brown mullet, moving confidently at the front
   2. An older human man with dark eyes that seemed too wide open, short buzzed blond hair, lots of face scars, almost like a mercenary, rugged, and tough looking
   3. A younger but very tall Firbolg man with blueish fur, really red hair, a little trimmed beard
   4. A gnome-tiefling woman, purple hair, pink skin, curling ram horns, twirling some kind of poi that seemed to be stopping the rest of the crowd from approaching her. Wasn't sure if she was with the men or not.
7. The tall firbolg one reached out his hand toward the DJ box
8. The DJ box started smoking, the music stopped, and Roz collapsed
9. After that, everyone in the crowd looked around confused, then suddenly started filing out and went home. Originally she had had a memory of the concert finishing before going home.

    Now that she remembered the night, Carol noted how uncomfortable it felt to be controlled by something like that. Carol was exhausted after the afternoon and evening of questioning and magical analysis, especially so after having the Modify Memory lifted. Myri mentioned Carol should head home and get some rest, and agreed to walk her home. Just before they left, Ravawynn asked if she could come by and walk Carol to Myri's office in the morning to debrief one final time, Carol agreed as long as she came in regular clothing to not seem like a cop coming to her dorm room.  

Grand Market

Meanwhile, Shoke, Brand, and Karl headed off to follow up on some leads that Mindy had provided them when looking into the mysterious "C Logo" card. Three printing companies in Grand Market that had the potential resources to print something like this, called Blockstyles, Vermo's Printing, and Twinned Ink.

Blockstyles

At the first on the list, Blockstyles, the crew ran into a gnome man, Shin Gundere, a Senior Printer there. Shoke asked to see some examples of books they've printed which seemed to be primarily bulk-print children's books like "The Tabaxi's Hat" and other story books rather than business cards. Shin showed them the machinery, still humming and clacking away this evening. The printers were set up to have page-sized frames which would hold interlocking letter blocks for each page. The blocks were enchanted along a time-scale so that, when transitioning pages, they would magically rearrange themselves to that page's content so an entire book could be printed all in one go without post-assembly of the pages.   The group showed Shin the square business card with the C logo. Shin was impressed and pointed out the precise and perfectly uniform lines without any machine marks or ink spills. Something like that could have been made with a single, carved block which could be difficult without a very skilled craftsperson. More likely, he said, this was 3 blocks overlaid and printed on the same card: a C and the same oval shape in two orientations, assuming the mechanism could keep them in perfect alignment with each other.   The crew thanked Shin for his time and made a plan for the next two print companies to be more discreet. They would not show the C logo card but would instead pose as wanting their own business cards printed with intricately carved or overlaid designs and ask for samples of cardstock to see how well it matched.

Vermo's Printing

Their next stop was Vermo's printing. Here, they ran into a tiefling man, Dero Runecrest, head of printing QA. He was well dressed which, along with the fancy carved wood décor gave off an air that this was a high-end establishment. He seemed disinterested with the officers' queries until they noted they were trying to get some of their own business cards printed and were willing to pay for something nice. He quoted them at about 100 gold to print a total of 5 sets of 50 business cards (50 for each member), Karl mumbled quietly to the other two that it seemed a bit overcharged. They were able to get some free samples of cardstock and example prints to choose from and said they would return with their logo design.

Twinned Ink

Finally, the team stopped at Twinned Ink. Here they found a dwarf woman, Titha Sonaval, the resident Director of Machine Upkeep. The team started into the same proposition, wanting 5 sets of 50 business cards with the SIDE logo. Titha quoted them at around 40-50 gold without an image and pointed out that they rarely work with images so she'd need to check with some carvers she knew on whether or not she could get the logo image die made. The team collected some cardstock and print samples here as well and headed back to the office.

Character(s) interacted with

• Siril: RUGL Student Resources front desk attendant
• Carol Tin: Student at RUGL, reported her friend and roommate Carli Padfoot missing.
• Myri Mallo: Professor of Enchantment at RUGL
• Shin Gundere, a Senior Printer at Blockstyles, a printing company in Grand Market
• Dero Runecrest, Head of Printing Quality Assurance at Vermo's Printing, a printing company in Grand Market
• Titha Sonaval, the Director of Machine Upkeep at Twinned Ink, a printing company in Grand Market