It's been a millennia since the now benevolent ruler of Fâerun usurped power from the dynastic King to bring peace, justice, food and medicine to the masses, but not everyone is happy... the land is rife with political unrest, and the stirring of an ancient magic can be heard on the wind if you're sitting at the right chair in your local tavern. Live and let live? or change the course of history? What secrets will our heroes uncover? As the sun sets behind the snow-capped Sword Mountains, the shadows grow on the streets of the small mining town of Phandalin, where we find our heroes...
As the door of the Stonehill Inn opens from the dusty streets of Phandalin, Toblen Stonehill glances over his shoulder as he polishes a freshly cleaned mug, struggling to see anyone who has entered. With a raised eyebrow, shifting his glance downward he sees what he can only assume is a Gnome, as he knows what a Halfling resembles, and this fellow, is no Halfling. As is customary, he exchanges in pithy banter with the sole agenda of selling a drink. The Gnome obliges Toblen, grabs his drink and a seat at the far end of the tavern, never tiring of how all furnishings are fashioned without consideration for those of his stature as he climbs up to his seat.
The door swings open again, and gracefully, Bel, a slight, pale human withbright blue hair enters, parched from her journey, and exchanges words for a drink from Toblen, taking a seat at the bar just to the right of the entrance. Bel is quite adept at getting into places, but she never forgets the value of being able to exit quicker than how she entered. Scanning the rest of the patrons stationed around the tavern, her eyes are drawn to a striking, firm postured elf seated at the far left of the restaurant. Although there seems to be nothing subtle about this elf, her presence is calm and serene... she doesn't belong here, Bel thinks as her focus is interrupted by the door opening behind her. As she twists to look over her shoulder at the stranger coming through the door, shecatches out of the corner of her eye that the elf is looking back at her, and she's no longer sure how long she'd been staring at the elf, nor how long the elf was returning her gaze. No matter, there's a new curiosity come front and centre now, a Halfling.
Without hesitation, the Halfling climbs up the stool, seated now to Toblen's right, not far from the Human with the bright blue hair. She too exchanges in short dialogue with Toblen, and orders what seems to be a simple drink of water with lemon, advertising her foreignness to the area, as lemons are scarce, and fetch a small ransom for Toblen who is happy to sling her the drink. Toblen, noting the uniquely coloured mud on her boots from the Triboar trail, is curious if she knows about the hidden gold from the ruins at Conyberry.
Bel's interest is piqued and enters into the conversation, enquiring for further details, and at this point, naturally, the Gnome's ear's perk up - as talk of gold cuts through the din of a room full of conversation as well as if someone said his own name. Saddling up beside Bel, he's certain of one thing: if there's to be an adventure after fortune, they that venture should be so fortunate to have him for a friend, veritably.
Toblen likes to inspire his patrons to seek out nearby fortunes, as they generally return to spend their new found wealth under his roof before venturing off over the horizon. He can't help but feel this trio is missing something, someone… the Ranger, the elf, she's the missing ingredient. While recommending her addition to the group, the elf becomes keenly aware that she is now the topic of conversation given the sudden, but parting glances her way. She strides over, like the wind across the floor, light, swift, but sure, and strong. Bel is not convinced of the necessity of the elf's presence, knowing that more hands, means more splitting of the goods.
"She doesn't look like the type to get her hands dirty," noting the obvious craftsmanship of the Ranger's attired. The elf gives her a stern, confident look as if to say, "I can handle myself." The Halfling noticing the rising tension, redirects their attention to the opportunities before them, and effectively rallies the troops.
Toblen, like any good owner of an inn who stands to gain from the success of his patrons, also let's the group know that they can find even more work at the Townmaster's Hall. As they get up to leave, he reminds them there is "one small thing" before they go, each one settling their tab, much to the surprise of the Halfling just how much a lemon is worth.
As they make their way to Townmaster's Hall, formal introductions are made.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm a gentleman of the road, Abaddon Tommyknock…" Bel, interrupts stating that she generally travels alone, but, will give this new found fellowship a chance to prove its mettle, yet.
The elf, feels inclined for some reason to share more than she usually does, given her past, "My name is Elanil, I'm a ranger, and if your cause is true, and good, you can trust I will get you where you need to go, good and true."
The Halfling, almost out of obligation, but mixed with an heir of pride, waxes about her love of nature, "My name is Cheechum, I speak to nature, and all nature speaks to me… and I'm a glassblower… if you need anything fancy like that."
"What a fascinating name," Bel remarks.
"In my native tongue, it means, 'You will find your place in this world.'"
Abaddon interjects, "Looks like we've found our place…" as the group arrives in front of the job board at the Townmaster's Hall. There are three jobs over which the debate endlessly the ethics of which they should do first as it is obvious, their motivations in life are not aligned. Concensus is reached, and they decide that the local mid-wife, Adabra Gwynn, should be brought back to Phandalin for her own protection from the wandering white dragon.
Taking all three notices off the board, the party sets out for Umbridge Hill.
Upon arrival, they discover a Manticore trying to knock down the front door of the windmill. Adabra, seeing the 4 travellers from the second story window yells out, "A little help here?!"
They quickly devise a plan to distract the manticore, and sneak in to rescue Adabra. Abaddon tries his hand at playing his hurdy-gurdy. Although it does seem to affect the Manticore, and draw his attention and focus while the elf sneaks around to the right of the windmill, he suddenly fumbles on the piece he's playing and the manticore's attention shifts swiftly to Elanil. Abaddon quickly shifts to his wit in attempt to pull the manticore's attention away from Elanil,
"Your mother was a housecat, and your father was a bat!"
The manticore unperturbed by the remarks, "She was! And I'm proud of it!" leaps over the fence at the front of the windmill, descending upon Elanil and chomps down on her arm.
Bel reacts quickly, leaping to the aid of Elanil, wielding her shortswords, she quickly deals two blows to the manticore's head, causing him to release his bite. Cheechum, who standing further away as she was trying to sneak in the lefthand side, seizes the opportunity to hurl her boomerang, weaving it between Bel and Elanil, it smashes into the manticore's face, causing him to pull back from the fray by leaping into the air. Bel seeing the opportunity, lashes out and takes another swipe at the manticore, carving into its flank. Elanil gets in slice as well. The manticore was hurting, surprised at how quickly this situation had turned dangerous for her perched herself up on the awning of the 3rd floor window of the windmill, launches her quills at Bel, dealing a deathly blow to her torso, collapsing her unconscious to the ground!
Abaddon, as quick with his hands as with his wit, quickly brings Bel back to the land of the living with his healing magic. Elanil, inspired, draws her bow, and lands her shot perfectly into the roof of the mouth of the manticore, bringing her to almost collapse. She removes the arrow from her mouth, painfully, struggles to stand, when Cheechum launches another attack with her boomerang - taking out the manticore's leg upon which she was placing all her weight! The manticore crashed down to the ground with a thud, lifeless.
The party approaches cautiously to confirm the kill and is met by Adabra - with gratitude. She offers them a healing potion for their troubles. Abaddon is curious if there's anything of the manticore useful for resale, but can't think of anything offhand. Cheechum, enquires if the manticore was pregnant - and as it turns out, there were two cubs in her womb. Cheechum and Adabra attempt to stabalize the two cubs, but only manage to save the one, who is incredibly weak, but alive.
The party attempts to persuade Adabra to come with them back to Phandalin, but she declines despite incredibly well formed arguments. She cannot be moved. She instead, offers them a note, sealed with her mark for Harbin Wester, confirm her safety. To further display her gratitude, she sells the remaining stock of her healing potions, one to each party member, in a 2 for 1 sale.
The party returns to Phandalin, to Harbin Wester's home, where he confirms their work, and slides their reward under the door, 50 gp, one piece at a time.
The party, a bit tattered and tired, enters the inn. Toblen notices they look a bit worse for where, especially Bel, but his eyes are suddenly drawn to Cheechum, and her new companion, Monty. Toblen alarmed proclaims,
"You can't bring that in here!"
The party, not in the mood for further 'combat' all simultaneously shoot Toblen a look that says there will be no debate.
"How did you come by this?" He asks. As they recount the events of the previous day, they notice two individuals paying closer attention than any others in the inn.
To the right of bar, sits a man with dark skin, and brown curly hair who is particularly enamoured with his drink. To the left, another man, tall in stature, whose clothes give him the appearance of the nobility.
The man with curly brown hair comes over to say hello to Monty - but can barely keep his feet under him. His congenial and affable nature are belied only by the sorrow and shame radiating from his eyes.
"The name's Ezra…" the man looks to begin a more elaborate introduction, but stops himself out some sense of self-pity, "Ezra," he says again, and with a warm smile meant to shift the focus, "and you all are?"
As the party engages in customary greetings and introductions, Toblen seizes upon the burgeoning comradery with requests for food and drink, and offers some bone broth for the baby Manticore, at which point, the man from nobility interjects,
"Get some pig's blood from a barber-surgeon."
"And you are…?" Cheechum scans the man up and down.
Surprised that the halfling didn't seem to know, the man introduces himself as "Arwald Jeggare, of the house of…" he glances at Cheechum noting her indifference and pivots mid-sentence, "agh. Never mind, such matters are of no concern to… to you."
Toblen diffuses the awkard moment with the dispensing of food, some bone broth for Monty, and a bowl for Bel to clean up a little. Cheechum recommends that Bel not clean up as the scent of Monty's mother is on her, and it may help bond Monty to Bel so that Monty doesn't want to eat her later.
As they eat, they're treated to an exchanged between Toblen and his son Loki, a precocious young lad who clearly would rather be anywhere else than working in the kitchen, that is quite entertaining.
As everyone sups, Abaddon plays a tune, "The Midwife and the Windmill" - which draws a few raised eyebrows from the group at the utterance of the title. Not his greatest hit yet, but enough to get the nobleman's attention once more, who raises a glass. After the performance, Arwald delivers something of a backhanded complement, as is his custom, and Abaddon, as is hiscustom, doesn't miss a beat and continues his performance - this time using witty banter as his instrument instead of his beloved hurdy-gurdy. The two soon discover they have a mutual friend in common: coin - and all the ways to acquire, and spend it, each with a preferred emphasis for one or the other. The distinction is not lost on any onlooker as to who is more keen to spend, and who is more keen save.
With new acquaintances present and accounted for, Toblen entices the party to venture to the Dwarven Excavation to retrieve a family heirloom from the two dwarves who are out there now, offering a free night's stay and a meal if they return it to him.
Wasting no time, the party ventures out into Phandalin for different supplies.
At the Miner's Exchange, Abaddon meets Halia Thornton, and discovers how to get in touch with his network of contacts. He lets her know that he's open to more "discrete" work. She's not sure of him yet.
Bel, Cheechum, and Ezra go to Barthen's Provisions. Bel buy's some ribs for Monty. Ezra buys 4 viles of ink, and 4 pieces of parchment. Cheechum buys some glass, and some peanut butter.
Arwald searches around town for as the business of others is always his business. He comes across a Shrine to Cyric, or so it would seem at first, but notices some strange markings for which an attempt to obscure had clearly been made, but insufficiently. While pondering how there could be markings beneath extolments to Cyric on his own Shrine of Luck, the keeper of the shrine surprises him from behind with a whisper, "they are the markings of Tymora." Taken aback by the public courting of blasphemy, Arwald has a brief encounter with the keeper of the shrine, assuming she is some heretical fanatic, shews her away only to be met with surprising calm and acceptance, "You have friends where you don't always think you do."
Upon returning back to the Inn, everyone turns in but Abaddon and Arwald. Arwald purchases some Dragon's Brew, a very potent, rare, and expensive wine that comes in a black bottle of indiscernible material. Loki wants to quit for the night, but Toblen asks him to wait just a little longer. The two of them attempt to drink each other under the table. Arwald wins and stumbles up the stairs while Abaddon passes out on the bar.
Cheechum, meanwhile, attempts to blow some glass in the tree outdoors that she prefers to sleep in. She hears a twig snap behind her, and something run off into the bushes. She also fumbles her creation and it cracks in two off the tree branch upon which she's resting.
Ezra begins writing a letter of appeal - a matter from his past, and hears footsteps outside his door, and sees a shadow casting underneath it. Sneaking over to the door and looking through the keyhole, sees nothing! He opens the door brandishing his envelop opener, to a very surprised Loki holding a pillow extended to Ezra, "You're my favourite." He says, and then leaves pale as a ghost to return downstairs, passing Arwald who is on his way up sleep.
Bel is kept awake by the loud commotion, pressing the pillow more tightly over her ears, yelling, "Keep it down out there!"
Everyone awakens in the morning, Abaddon feels like hell. They grab some food, Cheechum gets 3 free apples from Toblen. Each player receives a loaf of bread from Toblen.
Ezra, however, not feeling up to snuff, decides that his efforts are better spent back in bed at the inn.
About 4hrs in to their journey, as the tree line of the base of the mountains came into view, a shadow krept over the group as they marched. Frozen by the terror of expecting to see a dragon, they were met by another Manticore.
"You have something that belongs to me!" he belted.
Cheechum began to lecture the Manticore on his absentee parenting, arguing that he was unfit for the role of fatherhood.
"You know nothing of my fitness!" Spreading its wings and taking to the sky to attack, the group braced itself for combat. The manticore, unexpectedly fled - giving Cheechum a sense of validation. Then, an eclipse of the sun began, and a shadow fell over them all… except, it was not an eclipse - it was the white dragon whose size blotted out the light around them! Immediately they all attempted to hide in the tall grass through which they were walking. The dragon circled back and you could see the blue light of its frozen breath begin to illuminate within its chest! He opened his mouth to cast his icy fire when barreling from its flank, the manticore returned - sending the dragon spiraling off course, tangled with the manticore. An odd cacophony of the growl of the manticore and the screech of the dragon as they flew off chasing one another was the cue for the group to make haste for the cover of the forest.
Taking no refuge in having simply passed the threshold of the tree line, they continued on through the brush to the base of the mountain. Soon coming upon a large separation in the rock, large enough for passage. This face of the mountain was void of any tree or brush, only the occasional weed or moss sprouted from cracks in an otherwise sheer rock face. The forest ended abruptly about 20 feet from the foot of the mountain. It was as if the forest decided it would not attempt to lay root on this rock. Two trails encompassed the crevasse on either side, leading to look out points above canopy of the forest behind them, and allowing a clear shot on anyone passing through the crooked cleft in the mountain.
They sent the rogue in to scope out what may lay ahead, as brave heroes do. Bel quickly reported back that at the end of the passage, there were large iron gates built into the mountain side… ajar.
Upon entering through the gates, two dwarves rose quickly to greet them with a query and an axe.
"Who goes there?!"
"We were sent by Toblen. You have something that belongs to him!"
The two dwarves exchange worried glances. "Aye, aye we do. Problem is, we've only half of it." The Dwarves, Dazlyn and Norbus, then explain the work they've been doing in the settlement here for the last month and how - in attempting to find a way into the temple through the top after being stymied by the locked gates - they accidentally dropped the sending stone through a crack in the roof, and it was now inside the temple of Abbathor. Abbathor, they explained, was the Dwarven god of Greed.
Everyone was tired, and Dazlyn was injured. Cheechum healed Dazlyn's wound, and everyone setup camp for the night. Abaddon played them a tune to calm and relax them, lifting spirits and health before they all drifted off to the dream world.
Come morning, they searched through the ruins of the ancient settlement and found naught but dust and rubble, and a well filled with rocks. Bel sent her rat - Ratigan Rattatat - down through the stones to see if there was a secret way into the temple. Upon the rats reappearance, Cheechum spoke with Rattigan to confirm that there was nothing but stone all the way down.
The group ventured into the courtyard of the temple, adjacent to their camp site, through even larger iron doors built into the mountain. After searching around, they discovered a large glyph under the dust and dirt approximately 20 feet in diameter. Brushing away the earthen veil, they found ancient Dwarven Runes carved into the stone following the circumference of the glyph, and an inscription at the centre of the glyph, in the middle of another small circle about 5 feet in diameter. The inscription, in ancient Dwarvish rune read: Earth. Five feet to the North, East, South, and West of the small circle in the middle of the glyph, were 4 other circles carved into the stone. There were 4 glyphs in total of this size, equidistant from one another, in the four positions of North, East, South, and West. Each glyph had a different word at the centre: Earth, Blood, Fire, Gold.
The party tried for hours to discern the glyphs as a riddle or a puzzle, and it was chance that gave them the clue they needed. Bel stepped on small circle north of the inscription Earth, in the northern most glyph, and it illuminated with a ring of blue flame that dance like the lights in the northern skies. These weren't just circles! They were plates!
Through trial and error over the next few moments, they worked furiously to solve the pattern.
There are 5 plates in each glyph. They must stand on the 4 outer plates in the correct order: North, South, East, West. A glowing blue light, almost flame-like surrounds each plate when activated in the correct order. After activating the outer plates, the circle connecting the 4 outer plates glows with the same eerie blue light, and the middle plate rises, and the runes on the centre plate illuminate with same eerie blue light. They must present the correct element on the middle plate: Earth, blood (of a dwarf), a fire, and gold, respectively.
Once the element is presented, the entire glyph, including the outside runes, lights up. Repeating this process for the other 3 glyphs, upon placing the final element on its plate - a loud thunderous boom could be heard, muffled from under the ground, all for elements began to over in the air above their plate, as if gravity had lost its power. Bits of dirt moved around one another in perfect orbit. Globules of blood mimicked the same dance as the dirt. Fire formed into tiny molten globules, circumnavigating one another in turn. Last, the gold coins melted into a molten sphere and hovered.
On the steps before the doors to the temple, for more plates rose out of the ground, each with an inscription: Earth, Blood, Fire, Gold. Four of the group, Abaddon, Cheechum, Bel, and Arwald each moved an element from its plate to the small corresponding pillar that rose out of the steps in front of the door.
As they did, their hands began to glow with the same blue fire that circled the plates when activated, casting a bright light for 10 feet, and another 10 feet dimly. As they placed the last element on the pillar, the steps lit up with lines of the blue flame running from the pillar and up the walls of the façade, illuminating more runes, and a loud cracking could be heard as the large 20 foot stone doors opened to the entrance of the temple.
After a brief cheer of catharsis, they entered cautiously and soon found themselves at the threshold of a great hall with four massive pillars going from floor to ceiling. They'd also discovered two secret doors to their left and right just before the great hall. Norbus and Cheechum took the passage to the right through the secret door, Bel and Abaddon investigated the room to the left. Arwald moved forward into the great hall cautiously once Bel and Abaddon returned having discovered nothing the room but a collapsed in ceiling at the other end.
Cheechum and Norbus pushed down the long hallway that seemed to go on and on, until eventually, they came to a room, which had collapsed on one side. Looking closely at the ground, they found evidence of some sort of ritual that had been performed, but couldn't discern it's nature or origin. It was clear that the markings were inconsistent with the rest of the temple, and that they were recently made. There was a strange symbol, a circle with a cross in it, and in the top left quarter of the circle, lines had been drawn from x axis to the y axis in a pattern that gave the appearance of a web.
Meanwhile, as the rest of the group searched through the great hall, as they approached an altar at the far end, an Ochre Jelly dropped from the ceiling onto the altar - and began lashing out.
Arwald attempted to light his torch so he could burn it with fire, but the panic of the moment overwhelmed his nerves and he dropped both flint and torch to the ground. Bel slashed it with her blade, splitting it in two. Abaddon took on one of them by himself, a back and forth joust ensued with Abaddon stabbing at every chance, now avoiding slashing the Ochre which apparently splits them into more trouble.
Arwald got his torch lit, and smashed it into the Jelly - giving it a bruise and a burn. Bel changed her tactic to piercing to avoid further escalation. The Ochre didn't like Arwald's fire and attempted a massive blow with its pseudopod, but over extended itself, and like a rubber band effect, snapped past Arwald and into the pillar, opening a secret compartment at its base.
With persistence, they vanquished their quarry in time, but not without taking some injuries… and just when they thought it was safe, another Ochre dropped from the ceiling to their right. Abaddon took a massive slug to the head that sent him reeling from the force and the acid burn. Bel and Arwald continued their onslaught of fire and stabbing to avenged their wounded comrade. Suddenly, a secret door slid open right behind the Ochre - it was Cheechum and Norbus who had found their way back by accident!
Abaddon yelled a warning - not sure if the Ochre was visible to them yet - admonishing them not to slash it! Doing everything he could to stay in the fight despite his injuries. The Ochre soon proved no match for the efforts of the group and was executed with extreme prejudice. Abaddon was not in a good way, and needed to be healed.
Cheechum again offered her assistance, but Abaddon took matters into his own hands… or words, you might say, and healed himself.
Abaddon, had not forgotten about the secret compartment that had been discovered in the pillar, and did a count of the gems, 25 in total, worth 10 GP each, which they divided amongst themselves.
"Now then," Abaddon spoke into the dim light of the hall, "shall we have a proper look around?"
The bright light of the sun shone through the window onto Ezra's face, who awoke initially, eyes squinting, and quickly turned over on his bed to face the wall and seek refuge in the shadow created by the ceiling slanting down into the alcove of the window. Suddenly, his eyes opened wide as he realized and shouted, "I'm late!!"
He jumped out of bed, realized he was still fully dressed, grabbed his letters and pen, and packed them quickly in his pack and bolted down the stairs of the inn and ran outside looking for the group. Seeing no one in sight, he popped back into the inn, Toblen polishing a mug as bartenders do, added to the obvious, "You're a bit late. You slept for an entire day! Your friends left yesterday… you were with them, but you came back and went upstairs and collapsed."
Ezra remembered none of this, but was quickly reminded of how hungry he was, and the need for haste. Toblen said, "You'll never reach them in time on foot, Loki here can help you."
"Follow me." Loki said already exhausted by his trade before breakfast. He lead Ezra around to a stable and stopped just short of the entry, "Not a word about the name!" he said tersely, "this is Cheval. She's not the fastest horse, but she's trustworthy and true. Treat her well, and she'll do the same to you… oh, and my father wanted you to have this." He gave Ezra a loaf of bread before Ezra jumped on the horse and sped off.
______
After the battles with the Ochres ended in the great hall, our adventurers continued their search of the room in hopes of finding some way out of what appeared to be a dead-end. A thorough search of the pillars was attempted, but as soon as Abaddon began his inspection, he was taken with the stonemasonry of the dwarves. "Look at the craftsmanship… what was I doing?" Bel moved to the left wall of the hall to search, but she too was distracted by the handiwork, "You're right… the craftsmanship is breathtaking… what are we looking for?"
Suddenly, foot steps can be heard coming from the entrance way, and everyone draws their weapons on the figure running into the great hall.
"Sorry I'm late guys!"
"Ezra?!" Abaddon double-checks his target.
"Yes! So sorry! What did I miss??!"
As the group forms a circle near the secret door on the right wall of the great hall and recounts everything that is happening, their attention to their surroundings drops, and suddenly, there is a knife at Ezra's throat, and a creature on his back! Everyone draws their weapons.
"My quarrel is not with any of you. I simply want what De'Tyron here has stolen from me, and revenge for ruining my life!" Confusion ensues and tensions mount. Abaddon attempts to charm the creature on Ezra's back, but fails. The creature begins to tell his tale of how in his hometown, he was known as quite the tinkerer among his fellow halflings who wanted to modernize their village. He trusted a half-elf to assist in this effort, but was betrayed, and the half-elf, De'Tyron, absconded with the village's Kresik - a magical item that helped shroud their village from discovery by the outside. Because of this, he was banished for vouching for De'Tyron, who betrayed him, and put his whole village in danger.
"So I've been wandering, looking for him ever since. And now I have him, and he's going to pay for what he's done!"
"But seriously, what's a Kresik?" Abaddon couldn't shift his focus.
"What do you mean, 'what's a Kresik?' Everyone knows what a Kresik is!?" retorted Scrayden. The entire group nodded in disagreement simultaneously. "Seriously?! It's a magical item that helps protect your village… doesn't every… it doesn't matter! He's here. I've found him! I'm taking back the Kresik!"
Everyone now seemed suspicious of Ezra, as after all, they'd known him all of a couple hours, for most of which he was drunk. Their weapons all pointed now at the sorcerer. Ezra then pleaded his case, telling the halfling his story with great passion and sincerity, and that this was a case of mistaken identity. The group pointed their weapons back to the halfling on Ezra's back.
Cheechum threatens him with a blast of frostbite if he doesn't release Ezra. Abaddon backs Cheechum, "Yeah, I don't think you want to experience that" he adds.
"You know, you haven't even looked at his face yet!?" Abaddon noted with the hope of someone who's found a missing key to a lock. Slowly, Scrayden pulls down the hood from Ezra to see that the ears were not that off of a half-elf. Feeling simultaneously dejected, but relieved, he releases his grip on Ezra, "Sorry. I'm, uh… going to get down." and slides down to the ground. Cheechum takes his dagger.
"I'm Scrayden Jellik, by the way. Nice to meet your acquaintance." He introduces himself with a forced normalcy clearly aimed to override the awkwardness of the moment.
"Jellik? Like the dairy farmers?" Quipped Abaddon.
"No, like the Blacksmiths," Scrayden corrected Abaddon who nodded as if it were all of a sudden obvious, "I like to tinker."
"Oh, I'll bet you do." Abaddon remarked.
"Is it the tools that give it away?" Scrayden brandished a large wrench. The banter carried on like this for a bit before Cheechum jumped into the fray.
"What are you even doing here? How do you even know this place exists?" she asks him.
"When I happened upon Phandalin, Thalia, from the Miner's Exchange, described a man like who I was looking for and that he had come to these ruins about a week ago… What's with the glowing hands?"
"It's a long story… but, it happened when we activated the glyphs to gain entry." Cheechum explained.
"Where are you from again?" Abaddon strokes his chin.
"Foghollowbottom."
"I may have played a gig there. It didn't end well if I recall."
"I've heard of that show." Scrayden says facetiously.
"I lost two roadies." Abaddon reflects with a lack of adequate remorse.
Once the group catches up Scrayden on their mission, Abaddon suggests he may be able to put in a good word for the halfling if he decides to stay and help, which he does.
They resume their investigation of the great hall - and upon further inspection of the altar, they discover something fascinating. Each corner of the altar has a large green gem embedded in it, save for one. Each gem has a Dwarven rune inscribed on it, one says Earth, another Blood, the third one Fire. In the middle of the table is a gully of sorts, with 4 canals connecting it with the gems. On the backside of the altar, which stands about 3 ft high, is a chamber covered by vented gate, filled with ashes. There are runes on the table, which Norbus roughly translates as,
"Life is precious, precious is life, under the sun, many are made one through strife. Utter and unfold."
The group ponders the phrase and then Scrayden and Abaddon pull out tools to forcibly remove the gems. Ezra and Cheechum both protest that they not vandalize a sacred place, Ezra especially given his past, and convinces the two of them to cease and desist.
Determining that there must be more to this temple than just this room, and that maybe the missing 4th gem is still around to be found, they resume their search of the hall. Ezra is the first to discover a secret door to the right of the altar, but it leads to a collapse. Bel sends Rattigan through the rubble to explore, and he returns nodding "yes." Since that proved inconclusive, Cheechum decides to change into a snake and go see for herself, and slithers through the cracks in the rubble and finds herself on the other side, in a long hallway.
Meanwhile, the group continues their search elsewhere in the hall and Scrayden discovers two more doors, one on the left side of the altar, and one on the left wall.
Meanwhile, Cheechum is surprised by an Ochre that drops down from the ceiling behind her on the rubble. It strikes with a solid blow from one of it's pseudopods, so hard that it knocks Cheechum out of her snake form. She casts frostbite on the Ochre and bolts down the hallway, also noting the superior stonemasonry of the dwarves as she retreats.
The group in the great hall is just about to enter their newly discovered secret doors when they hear Cheechum come yelling down the hall, "Oooochre!!"
Arwald rushes in the hall as Cheechum runs past him, followed by Scrayden, Ezra, and Abaddon. Arwald slams his torch down into the pile of goo, bruising and burning it. Feeling quite proud of himself, Arwald looks back at Scrayden, "Think you can do better?"
"Well I can't do worse." Scrayden says as he launches an arrow into the Ochre, piercing it through. "The floor is yours good sir," he says to Ezra as the sorcerer pushes to the front and casts firebolt! Immediately, Ezra feels that all too familiar, but unwanted sensation of Arcana tingle at his finger tips, "Oh no." And is instantly teleported into darkness.
The Ochre enraged by the sting of fire, immediately looks to attack the sorcerer back, but at the disappearance of the Ezra, despite being a pile of goo, seems to express a discernable sense of confusion with its form, and takes aim at Scrayden but misses with it's pseudopod! The group although shocked at the disappearance of Ezra, doesn't skip a beat. Bel does a one foot plant off the right wall, followed by another off the left wall and lands behind the Ochre, and stabs it with her shortsword. Abaddon attempts to stab it in turn, not wanting to be left out, but the Ochre manages to avoid the stab and clasps Abaddon's hands from either side with its gooey tentacles. There is a brief tug of war, which Abaddon wins, and a simultaneous exchange of what appears to be cut-eye is made between Abaddon and the Ochre. Cheech launches her boomerang but misses given the difficult angles of the narrow hallway. Arwald slams the torch into it once more, and finishes off the jelly, vaporizing it.
Ezra scrambles in the dark to find his flint and torch and finally gets it lit. He finds himself in what must be the Vestry of the temple. There are four mannequin torsos on stands, used for dawning the priestly vestments. There is an empty wardrobe next to them, a giant polished copper mirror hung on the opposite wall, a small table and chair against the same wall, and a bucket in the corner (filled with coal).
There is a skeleton clothed in garments different those hung on one of the mannequins, sat on the floor leaning up against the wall directly in front of him with a tattered leather book and staff in its clutches. Every page has something written again and again in an unknown language, and the penmanship indicates the onset of madness. The staff is made of weathered wood, with branches at the top twisted around a crystal, locking it in place. Ezra also discovers two secret doors, one adjacent to the mannequins, and one that the skeleton was leaned up against.
Back in the great hall, cheechum sprints through the secret hallway on the left wall, following it as it turns sharply to the right to a large stone door. She pushes it open to find a cot with one skeleton lying on it, and another seated on the floor leaning up against it. She inspects the garments of the skeleton on the floor leaning up against the bed, and discovers the missing 4th gem in a secret pocket! As soon as she takes it from the skeleton, the snapping and crackling of bones and sinew can be heard as the skeletons come to life!
The one on the bed jumps up and swings at Cheechum, missing by a hair as the blade flies over the top of her head. With the secret door open connecting the room Cheechum is in with the room Ezra is in, he is alerted to the commotion in the next room by the cracking of the skeletons as they come to life. Seeing the attack on Cheechum, Ezra immediately casts Magic Missile smashing into the skeleton and sends it flying back into the wall. The second skeleton turns to face the caster, surprised by his appearance - and Cheechum seizes the opportunity, and cuts it in half from behind, and it collapses to the floor. The skeleton on the bed gathers itself and takes another swing at Cheechum and misses, Ezra launches another volley of Magic Missiles at the remaining skeleton, smashing it back into the wall, and finally into a heaping pile of singed bones. And like that, the fight is over, with Ezra and Cheechum, catching their breath from the adrenaline.
After having killed the Ochre, those in the hallways pushed forward to where it came from, Bel and Abaddon try once again to search the walls for secret doorways but again are smitten and distracted by the stonemasonry. Scrayden, steps between the two of them to a portion of the wall, "Is this what you're looking for?" and pushes the panel that slides into the wall, revealing the long hallway.
About 10 feet ahead, a dim light flickered from a room on the right where the head and torso of a skeleton could be seen laying in the threshold of the doorway. As they approached, the arm of the skeleton twitched as Abaddon stepped over it, "Probably just the wind…" he thought to himself. Inside the room, Cheechum and Ezra stood still staring at one another as the rest of the group came in to see what they'd found.
Cheechum and Ezra recounted the events of the last few moments, and what they'd found… almost all of what they'd found. Cheechum was concealing the gem she'd found. It was… precious to her. Ezra showed off this new staff he'd found, and Abaddon decided he would like to know if it was magic, and if there were any other magic nearby. As the aura of the staff became clear to him, that it was indeed touched with magic, he also notices an aura emanating from inside Cheechum's pouch, where she'd hidden the gem.
"And what is it you're carrying?" Abaddon draws attention to the hidden artifact. Cheechum, now compelled shows the 4th gem to the delight of the group. Ezra recalls the notebook, and shows it to the group. Bel recognized the Elvish. The first page had the Dwarvish runes from the altar of sacrifice in the great hall, below that, is a translation, in Elvish, slightly different from their earlier translation:
"Blood is gold, gold is blood, in the flame the two become one and flood. Speak the words, and come undone."
It was written over and over again, as if by repetition the author hoped to gain some greater understanding of its meaning, but went mad in the process. Before leaving the room to venture further down the hallway, Cheechum kicked over the bucket of coal to see if the sending stone was inside. It was not, and Ezra quickly gathered the coal back into the bucket, and brought it with her.
They pushed forward, wanting to know what lay ahead, but discovered the way was blocked by rubble and debris from a collapse. They decided to clear the rubble and push onward, tired as they were, their wills were set. While clearing the rock and stone, they decided to bury the skeletons from the other rooms properly in a secret room Scrayden discovered shortly after reuniting that held nothing of particular import. After a couple of hours, they cleared a path to a large stone door.
Exhausted from their efforts, the group took refuge in the Priest's bedroom for a long rest to regain their strength.
The Hall of Greed
Opening the door, a ray of moonlight shone down through a crack onto a large stone table a little more than 10 feet from the door with three dwarf skeletons sat around it. One skeleton on the opposite side of the table, and one on each end. It was a small room, 20 feet by 20 feet with an alcove on either side. The right side filled with more debris from a collapse, but the left side had a statue of what was likely a physical representation of the god Abbathor, his arms stretched forward, hands cupped, holding a large golden sphere about the size of a halfling's head, seemingly offering it to whomever would take it.
On the table, in the middle are 4 metal rings fitted perfectly into the stone, a hands-breadth apart from one another in a line. Under each ring, is a recess in the stone, shaped exactly as the stones from the altar of sacrifice. Upon seeing this, the group decided to quickly return to the altar of sacrifice.
They placed the 4th gem its place. Like a magnet, it clicked into place, locked. Much debate was made about the meaning of the runes, and the Elvish translation. Abaddon and Scrayden took the opportunity to sharpen their wits against one another in some friendly banter that helped to lighten the mood of the group as they wrestled with the riddle. Finally, it was decided, they stoked the furnace in the altar with the coal, and elected to each cut themselves and drip their blood into the crater in the middle of the table, and add a gold coin for each person… except Arwald. He had no interest in scarring himself when their was plenty of peasant blood to go around.
As the gold began to melt, they realized, there was not enough to fill the crater… either more blood, or more gold would be required to overflow the crater into the canals that lead to the gems. They continued to drip their blood into the crater, then realizing, they should add more gold, they looked to Arwald to contribute, who was much more content to flaunt his wealth. Since they were splitting this evenly, Ezra pledged a debt to Arwald in return for covering his share of the expense. It took 10 gold pieces from each player, and Arwald topped up the rest, paying for himself, Ezra, and tipping the balance of the meniscus at 33 gold pieces.
As the blood reached the gems, the runes inscribed on the table lit up with the blue flames they saw on the glyphs outside the temple! It was working! Then, in accordance with the instructions Abaddon spoke the words in order:
"Earth! Blood! Fire! Gold!" He chanted, and the rune for Earth lit up on the gem. Then Bel spoke, "Blood!" and the rune for Blood lit up on that gem. Then Scrayden spoke, but nothing happened. Then Ezra, but nothing happened. Then Cheechum spoke, "Fire!" and the rune lit on the 3rd gem. It was clear… only those with the Touch of Abbathor, bestowed upon entry could speak the words. All eyes turned to Arwald, he spoke the words… but nothing happened! It was then that Abaddon recalled… "your blood, you did not offer your blood!" Reluctantly, but resigned, Arwald cut his finger, and time seemed to stand still as one drop of blood fell into the crater filled with his new friends' blood and gold. A rivulet of the blood-gold leapt into the air and splashed back down as Arwald spoke, "Gold."
A loud tremor could be heard and felt as the room lit up like the night sky, with decorative carving and runes on the walls, pillars, and ceilings all alit with the blue flame of Abbathor! With the runes on all four gems glowing the gems lifted from their place, hovering in place, surrounded by blue flame! Each person with the Touch of Abbathor was able to remove a gem.
Quickly, they sprinted to Hall of Greed, one by one placing their gems on the table in the correct order, they locked into place, and four stone cones raised from the table like granite fingers with the rings on each of them. There was a mad scramble by the group to grab one in a frenzy of… greed. Abaddon, Ezra, Scrayden, and Arwald were the quickest, and snatched them… but Arwald bobbled his and it fell to the halfling, Cheechum, as luck is always on the side of the halfling.
As soon as they place the rings on their fingers, the Dwarf skeleton sat at the middle of the table, still dawning tattered and torn cloth and armor, begins to fill with a golden light that shimmers like a heat wave in the desert. An ethereal flesh seems to envelope the bones, giving shape and form to them. Building like a fire inside, the skeleton inflates like one waking from a deep sleep. They feel a warm, steady wind emanating from the once and former Dwarf strong enough to rustle their clothes and hair. Cosmic energy swirls like fire inside the skull, light flicking like tongues of fire from it's mouth and eyes as the head tilts back and the figure stands upright out of its chair. Bright enough to cause them to squint, and glance away, the figure stretches it's arms out now - as if enraged… or in pain, before slamming it's palms down on the table, hunched over in anguish.
"Deceived… hhhhelp!!!" You hear a deep and tortured voice hissing through its teeth.
"Deceiver! Usurper! Thief!... Bring us back!... Will you bring me back?!" It's voice grows louder, and more focused. They can see whatever this being is, it appears to be fighting something they can't see, struggling to stay with them, and maintain it's form. A wave of sadness come over them at the sight of its pain.
"Swear… you… will… kill him. Find us!" It winces and stares piercingly at them as the waves of energy swell and push beyond its form now. They can hear what sounds like gale force winds, and the low roll of thunder as he lifts his arms and pushes its chest out. "Swear it!" it seeths, teeth clenched, barely audible below the howl of the wind as the light begins to envelope them like shredded curtains in a storm…. They can feel a force pushing against them, building in strength! The wind is so loud it's all they can hear! Light, sound, and the force all swell, overwhelming their senses and… in an instant, as if sucked through a drain, all light swirls back inside him, the wind stops, and the room is deafeningly silent as it collapses back down on the chair in the faint light casting off the hands of the four touched. A dim blue light begins to fade in its eyes…
"You… did… not… swear…" the words fall from its mouth, and the light in its eyes, vanishes.
"Aaaaaaggggghhh!" the skeleton leaps across the table at them!
Cheechum, still reeling from the overwhelming sadness she'd just experience, thinks for a moment of trying to reason with the skeleton, but it is clear to her, this creature is not the one who just spoke. The battle was lost and this foul wretch has come forth! Arwald seeing the hesitation in Cheechum, swings down across the skeleton now standing on the table, carving into it's thigh bone. The skeleton drops to one knee and in a continued motion swings back at Arwald, slicing across his chest, sending him reeling back into the wall behind the table. Then swings at Scrayden but misses.
Ezra blasts the skeleton with fire, singeing its vestments and scorching its bones black. Abaddon contemplates unleashing a deafening wave of thunder on the bones, but realizing his friends are in harms way, swings with his blade, cutting into the tibia of the creature, sweeping its legs out from under it so it falls onto the table. Without losing a moment, the creature rolls off back onto its feet. Scrayden slings an arrow through the eye of the skeleton. The skeleton lunges for Abaddon swinging wildly, but Abaddon is able to side step both blows. Bel steps to the side from behind the creature now, and looses an arrow that shatters through the back of its skull, piercing through its right eye socket. Enraged, the skeleton snaps the arrow head off, leaving the shaft protruding out the back of its head and dashes it on the ground.
Cheechum shifts into the form of a Saber-toothed tiger, astonishing the group as some have never seen such an ability, and lunges forward with a bite, but misses on her first attempt, the sound of which startles the group, but would not be denied on her second. Clamping down, she tears a number of ribs off the skeleton with some cloth, shaking its head violently to make a clean tear. Arwald as if rebounding off the wall from the hit he took, vaults over the table and swings an overhead slash down across the back of the flailing foe who was about to attack Ezra and misses with both its attempts. Ezra blasts it again with fire, and seeing Abaddon preparing to unleash his fury, steps to the side. The scorched skeleton struggles to stand, smoke rising from its form.
Abaddon leans forward and whispers, "If it helps, I would've sworn" and slams his hands together sending a shockwave of destructive thunder at the skeleton, disintegrating some of its bones instantly while pushing the bulk of its frame back across the table and back into the chair from whence it leapt… the red fire, fading from its eyes.
Cheechum, compelled by curiosity in her cat form, attempts to grapple the golden orb in the statue and as soon as she clasps it in her paws, the statue cracks, and expands, and then shatters into pieces, sending shrapnel through the room. Everyone looks for cover… Cheechum was peppered significantly by the explosion, but it was poor Scrayden who took the brunt of the blow… now laying lifeless on the ground, with an uncountable amount of shards piercing his skin, and blood seeping out from around the stone bits and pieces onto his light olive skin.
Abaddon rushed quickly to Scrayden, casting a Healing Word to bring life back to the fallen hero. The pieces of stone pushed to the surface by the power of the spell, followed by the closing of the wounds, but the stains of all the blood could still be seen. Light returned to his eyes, and to the spirits all present.
They could not explain what they had just experienced. None of them had ever seen, heard, nor felt anything like it. It was a deluge of emotion, and stream of consciousness that did not map to any of their existing perceptions of reality. Nothing could be the same anymore, nothing in their faith could account for what they witnessed. No one could move. They stand in a circle, motionless, staring at one another with shifting glances, filled with a silence that speaks a thousand things no words can say, their eyes meet in agreement that history was changing. History has changed, and the world is something it was not yesterday. They, are something they were not yesterday.
Trying to figure out what they had just experienced, the could only surmise that they had been exposed to the Weave. As they stand huddled together, they notice that the Touch of Abbathor - their glowing hands - was beginning to flicker and fade… sound itself seemed to disappear into a void and all they could hear was their breath, and the beat of their hearts. There was no echo off the walls, the silence was deafening. Suddenly, the ground began to rumble and dust began to fall from the ceiling. The silence pierced by a loud crack as a fissure in the stone floor made its way from the mantle of the room to the back wall - splitting the party in on either side - and then up to the ceiling… the temple was collapsing.
Everyone sprinted for the hallways as the walls began crumbling around them, carrying the items they had just procured tightly in their arms. Cheechum, still in tiger form, leads the way as hey dash down the corridor. As they turn a corner to the right, Cheechum looks back and realizes Ezra is not with the group. She instantly bounds off the walls and in between the other members of the party to run back for Ezra to discover that party of the ceiling has collapsed on his leg, trapping him just outside the hall of greed. Cheechum knocks the rubble off his leg, and grabs Ezra by the cowl, and drags him back to the group.
As they continue onward, everyone running past whomever they can in the tight hallway, a part of the wall collapses on Bel and Arwald, trapping them both, knocking Arwald unconscious. Scrayden rushes over to free him, and begins dragging his massive frame across the stone - and incredible feat given the size difference. Cheehcum bolts to Bel and frees her from the rubble, and then grabs Arwald by his cloak and drags him towards the entrance.
Ezra, is desperate to get a sketch of the symbol from the room Cheechum found with the ritual earlier in their search and bolts off away from the entrance to try and find it. Past the altar of sacrifice, into the secret passage, and begins to capture a rubbing of the symbol on the floor. Meanwhile, a pillar collapses on Cheechum and Arwald. While attempting to steer his friends in the right direction, a part of the wall collapses on Abaddon in the hallway leading out.
Bel stuck in the middle, looks back and forth at the calamity and rushes to pull Abaddon free, but pulls the wrong rock and ends up trapped herself. Scrayden, seeing things taking a turn for the worse, hurries to try and free Cheechum, moving the rubble from off her leg, and then rushes towards Abaddon who finds his strength and frees both himself and Bel.
One by one they make their way out of the temple, Abaddon, Bel, are first. Scrayden did not make it too far after freeing Cheechum and Arwald, who are now making their way down the hallway to the entrace. Cheechum turns back to try and free Scrayden but can't seem to budge the rocks enough to free him and then rushes back to help with Arwald.
As Bel and Abaddon stand outside of the temple, they watch in horror as the full collapse begins without having full sight of their friends.
Inside, Scrayden manages to finally free himself and make his way out o the temple alongside Cheechum and Arwald. Ezra scrambling as fast as he can is knocked prone and trapped by a pillar that collapses as he runs past. Cheechum runs back in to find Ezra and tries to free him but is not having any luck. Abaddon this time finds his courage, or so it would seem and rushes into help Cheechum, he comes up to Ezra trapped under rubble and says, "Ezra! You can do it! And you've gotta do it yourself! Bye!" and rushes back out after inspiring Ezra to free himself from the rubble. Ezra completely annoyed by the nerve of the bard finds a little extra bit of muscle and free himself, grabs hold of Cheechum and they flee down the corridor.
The rest of the party stands outside watching the temple collapse, seeing it crumble in behind Ezra and Cheechum as they rush towards the entrance - swallowed by a cloud of dust and vanish!
The rumbling stops, the dust settles, and it is clear that all are present and accounted for.
Bel hurries to stabilize Arwald who has not yet come to. Abaddon, heals him, restoring vitality to him, giving him strength to move about on his own again.
Ezra glances over at Bel, and his intuition swells with suspicion… now that he's had a moment to reflect on all that's transpired, he's certain that Bel has taken something oh his while in the temple, and he wants it back!
"You need to give what you took from the temple, back! Because it is very important!" Ezra accuses Bel, who immediately objects, "What did I take?!" confused about what Ezra is talking about. As Bel thinks about it though, she interjects, "You have something of mine, and I have to have it back."
"Give what back?" Ezra asks, surprised at the turn.
"You know!" Bel gets stern.
A few feet away, Cheechum is also now convinced that she saw Abaddon hide something he found that belongs to her, and skulks slowly towards him, beginning to growl at a subdued, but threatening volume.
Abaddon recognizes immediately as the group descends into bickering and arguing that they have been befuddled by some curse, that thankfully, as a Gnome, has not affected him.
Things escalate and Ezra attempts to conjure a small ball of fire in his hand, but is struggling to produce the intended effect. Bel, in response pulls out her shortsword and points it to Ezra's neck, causing him to back up cautiously as they continue to bicker.
As Cheechum advances towards Abaddon, he calmly tries to dissuade her, "Nice kitty."
"Everyone, listen! You have obviously been bewitched by this temple of greed! Hear my song! A song of sharing! … I love you, you love me, we're all best of a friends as friends can be!" Abaddon bursts into a song of generosity.
Tensions continue to rise, and Ezra casts Sleep on Bel, who collapses to the ground into a quiet slumber.
Cheechum crouches and slinks forward… Abaddon immediately ponders if he has any sausage on him, realizing that he doesn't, he continues to amp up his performance, and as he does, all who are awake, suddenly realize they have been under some type of spell.
Ezra, feeling guilty immediately wakes Bel, who is still under the curse of Abbathor and lunges at Ezra with her sword. Ezra, immediately tells Bel, "Snap out of it! There's some kind of spell or curse that has affected us all!" convincing Bel to stand down.
Cheechum, halts her advances, circles, and lays down and begins licking her paws.
Abaddon recommends that the group tries to find the Dwarves, Dazlyn and Norbus, and Bel begins leading the way. Ezra and Abaddon have a brief conversation about the curse and reckon that their treasure that everyone took is cursed. Ezra relays the hypothesis to the rest of the group for all to contemplate.
As they come back to where the camp site was, Norbus and Dazlyn are gone, and the evidence that there ever was a campsite, seems long faded. From their investigation, it appears that it is simply the effects of time and nature that have eroded the evidence of the camp site.
Cheechum returns to her halfling form, and gazes up at the sky and observing the moon and stars cannot help but think that at least a month has passed since they first entered the temple. Everyone is confused. How could this be?
Abaddon preforms a ritual to sense the magic on the items and notes that the glow on the rings is different from that of the other gear. The rings are surrounded by a flame-red aura whereas the other gear emanate a blue glowing aura.
Ezra explained how in previous archaeological digs when they found cursed items, they would place them in the possession of one person rather than have the whole group affected by the curse. They decide to place the items inside Abaddon's chest until they can decide how to deal with the curse.
They note the inscription on the rings is the same as what was on the altar of sacrifice, "Blood is gold, gold is blood."
As they contemplate their next steps, exhaustion sets in on the group as they feel they have been walking for days. Ezra, Abaddon, and Bel, are too tired to stand, while Cheechum, Scrayden, and Arwald have a bit more spring in their step, but agree it's in the best interest of all to take a long rest, and make camp.
Bring the supplies to the Tibor Wester at the Logger's Camp
Main Quest:
The town of Phandalin and surrounding area has been under siege by a White dragon. Harbin Wester has assigned you tasks to help bolster the town's ability to manage during the occupation by the dragon, until such time as some brave heroes can rid the land of the cruel beast.
Bigger Picture:
Quillathe, the Crown of the Supreme Leader hosted you in her quarters where she channeled Syrhax himself, who invited you to help improve the land of Faerun by joining the Vox Popula, which you accepted, and were all given lapel ornaments in the shape of a hand to designate your position in the faction.
Shortly after accepting this charge, you ran into Cheechum's Uncle, Quimble, who painted a different picture of what was happening in Faerun. Speaking of secret societies, and dragons, a conspiracy of power, and a mysterious man named De'Tyron, whom Scrayden was looking for when he first met you.
What you will do with this perspective is undecided.
Side Quests:
Escort Xanth to the Circle of Thunder to dispose of the spell-casting orcs who drove him from his home.
Visit Falcon at Falcon's Lodge and assist him with driving out the spell-casting orcs who have taken up refuge in a woodland manse.
Investigate and prepare Axeholm, an ancient Dwarven fortress for the event the people of Phandalin need to evacuate an attack by the White Dragon.
Near the old lighthouse, there's rumour of sunken ships and lost treasure to be found, as Bel overheard at the Stonehill Inn.
Complexities:
Abaddon is in deep with Zhentarim and has been quested to be a double-agent, tasked with figuring out who are Melech and Immeral, people of import to Quillathe, and acquaintances of both Scrayden and De'Tyron - the details of which are unknown. Meanwhile, Syrhax having heard of "the masked lords and the baroness" would like Abaddon to unmask the secret societies that plot with greed and ambition to undermine the redistribution of goods and services to the poor and needy.
Ezra was recognized and praised by Syrhax for having destroyed an ancient temple that sought to sew heresy, and revisionist history, and invited you to join him at the palace in Waterdeep to celebrate and honour your courageous and wise deed.
Quillathe and the Vox Popula have arrived to research and uncover what exactly happened at the Dwarven Excavation where you all experienced some sort of time displacement.
Quimble gave Cheechum an update on her family, how they were seduced and deceived by a green dragon named Arvor. The fate of her brother unknown, her parents still remain in her hometown, Thistledell, Luiren - a world away on the south-east coast of Faeurn.
Mysterious Sundry:
Ezra is in possession of a staff - which gave him a vision when he touched it.
(Ezra or Abaddon) had a vision of a stone fortress on an icy peak of a mountain with a white dragon sleeping a top the structure.
Someone stole the gold bell you took from the Shrine of Savras and buried.
You discovered a mysterious key at the Shrine of Savras, and a chest with something missing…
At the Mt.'s Toe goldmine, you discovered a book written in a strange language, the size of which and the clasp of which fit perfectly with the indent in the chest from the Shrine.
Don-Jon told you Sister Garaele could translate the text for you - in truth she couldn't, but said that Falcon, at Falcon's lodge could introduce you to the people who spoke the language written in the book.
You discovered sarcophaguses with what appeared to be a version of yourselves, and a version of Ezra's journal, written in a mysterious language, with sketches of some things which already come to pass, and some things which have not yet.
The party gathered round the crumbled chimney in the ruins of an old cabin as Ezra lifted from under the rubble and ashes a foul-crafted assembly of sticks and twigs. Thirteen stick figures, coated in blood of some kind, with lightning bolts drawn onto their forms and wrapped in black hair, Bel and Abaddon concur this must surely be a totem purposed to bring ill on all who dwell near it.
"I believe destruction is in order." Bel nodded without breaking her stare at the totem.
"Agreed. Kill it with fire!" Abaddon proclaimed with certainty and resolve.
He poured some oil upon it and threw it back into the chimney, then doused it with some more oil, then again with some more, and a third time for good measure. He then stepped back and nodded at Ezra, "Do your worst," he said while stepping back quite some distance.
Everyone began to step back as Ezra slowly cupped a small flame in the palm of his hand, and let it grow with intensity before loosing a firebolt at the chimney - incinerating the totem and knocking a few more bricks off the back of the chimney from the force of the explosion. The brief sound of screeching - like diamonds on glass and the sounds of tortured cries could be heard emanating from the chimney. The ground beneath their feet trembled and quaked, and the sound of burrowed creatures moving away from the camp could be heard and even seen.
The apparent departure of the remaining ankhegs brought with it a small sigh of relief and the groups attention now turned to the log cabin to the west as the last unexplored part of the camp. Abaddon approached the door on the south-east side as Cheechum circled around to the north side. Knocking on the door, Abaddon could swear he heard and felt the tremors once more dashing his hopes of having dealt with the problem.
Cheechum, thought she heard a voice on the wind and shouted, "how many are you out there?" which was met with hushed, but panicked reply, "Sshh sshh sshh! Stop stop stop!"
Abaddon knocks again, more quietly, and again he feels the tremors underfoot and is met the voice of someone pleading, "Stop knocking!". Cheechum moves closer to the northern side and asks again, "are you there? How many are you?"
"I think I'm the only one left!" the voice calls back, as Cheechum can now see what appears to be a face in the window of the cabin. "Who are you? And BE QUIET!"
"What's the danger?" Cheechum asked.
"Are you freaking kidding me?! The giant ants!" Cheechum assured the man that everything was fine as she had back up. "You're gonna need a lot!" the voice replied snidely. "Do you have any food?"
Abaddon listening in chimed, "does he not know who were are?"
"Clearly not." Cheechum rolled her eyes.
Abaddon, losing patience, jiggles the handle on the door and then opens it to a very rustic interior. A bit dusty, but still clearly lived in, but nothing non-essential occupies the space. There are furnishings, table ware, and one solitary portrait on the wall, mostly likely of Tibor Wester himself.
"Who are you and what is your business here?" Cheechum asked the hidden voice.
"Are you kidding me?! I'm Tibor Wester! This IS my business!"
"We may have a package for you if that is in fact who you truly are." Cheechum replied.
"A lot of good it does me! Where are the men?!"
"They're here," said Cheechum.
"They survived?!" the disbelief in Tibor's voice gave Cheechum pause.
"Which men are you referring to?" she asked.
"My men! The workers!" Tibor was losing patience.
Now catching his drift, Cheechum confessed, "Oh, those men probably aren't here, but we are."
"Oh man. What am I going to do!" The concern in his voice read like fear to Cheechum, fear of something worse than the grief of the lives lost, as if now upon hearing the news, some worse fate awaited Tibor. She can hear him cursing the dragon under his breath.
"Which dragon are you referring to?" She asks.
A wave of shock and resignation rolls over his face, filling his eyes with not quite tears, "You mean… there's more than one?" he asks quietly with a small fear-induced crack in his tone.
"Oh yes there are." Cheechum says confirming his concern. She can see him now turn his back to the window, half his shoulder appearing, and pressing up against the frame on the inside and slowly sliding down to a seated position on the floor where his hopes also seemed to have landed. Cheechum approaches to climb into the window which is slightly propped open at the bottom, only to have Tibor immediately close it, commanding, "No one comes in or out until the ankhegs are gone!"
Meanwhile, as Abaddon presses in to the cabin a few more steps, the floor erupts as an Ankheg bursts through to grapple him, but he nimbly dodges the grasping attempts of the creature and readies himself for the next attack.
"You broke into the wrong rec-room!" Abaddon shouts. "I think I found the queen!" He yells back to the rest of his party. He begins to whisper a dissonant melody which appears to only mildly rattle the creature from the moment, and seizing that moment he extricates himself from the situation back through the door, putting a bush and 20 yards between himself and the ankheg.
The ankheg in turn, burrows back beneath the ground and disappears out of sight. The tremors and a visible fissure in the ground make a straight line towards Ezra culminating with the ankheg bursting through and grappling Ezra before he can react, plunging its mandibles deep into Ezra's torso. Ezra in a moment goes limp and appears to be entirely as the mercilessness of the creature.
Bel immediately jumps in with Venom's Edge and severs the limbs of the ankheg, releasing Ezra to drop to the ground. The creature roars in agony, mandibles open wide and a mix of saliva and ichor fly out of its mouth. Cheechum lashes her thorn whip at the monstrosity, tearing off the remaining limbs on its right side, and then takes her scimitar out and finishes the creature off with a flurry of slashes to ensure it has indeed been exterminated.
Abaddon quickly casts healing word to mend Ezra's critical wounds, brining him back to a stable condition, bring a look of relief as well as consternation over his face. He then immediately turns his attention to confirming the infestation has been eradicated and begins playing on his hurdy-gurdy a low tune with vibrato, aimed at stirring any ankhegs that may still be lying in wait beneath the terrain. Nothing stirs. All is quiet.
Ezra can barely wipe the look of consternation of his face as Abaddon begins to strum, raising his hands as if asking a question before pointing to his abdomen where the gaping wound was but a moment earlier as if to say, what the hell are you doing?!
"Ah, you'll be fine." Abaddon chirps dismissively. Xanth saunters over, folds his arm and looks down at Abaddon with approval, "Bold move, Bard."
"Fortune favours the bold my four-hooved friend." Abaddon says with a smile before his brow furrows at the sound of some dissonant noise competing with his artistry from the hill top to the west of the cabin. He can't be sure, but it sounds like… pigs attempting to squeal and snort along to his bassline.
"Not exactly the appreciation I was looking for." Abaddon chuckled.
Cheechum ventured into the cabin, being careful to step around the hole in the ground left by the ankheg and proceeded to knock on the door in the north end of the room, behind which should be Tibor Wester according to her sense of direction.
"You guys are unbelievable! Not only are you in here just knocking around, you're playing music loudly! Are you insane?!" Tibor did his best to muffle his exasperation.
"Some might think so." retorted Cheechum.
"Not at all, we were merely attempting to ascertain if there were any remaining ankhegs with which to deal." Abaddon said with a wink to Cheechum.
"So you killed them all?!" Tibor enquired.
"All that dared to show their mandibles," as if such a feat were trivial, Abaddon polished his nails on his coat before fanning his hand out in front to inspect that there was no dirt under his nails.
"Fantastic!... Who are you?!" Tibor shifted gears.
"We are just some folks who have come to deliver some supplies for you." Cheechum said reassuringly.
"Who sent you?"
"A friend of a friend," said Cheechum now tilting to the ambiguous before Abaddon sought to clarify, "… more like a blood relation. We represent townmaster Harbin Wester."
"Oh that's who it is!" Cheechum's memory now returning to her.
"We were commissioned to bring supplies to this logging camp and to obtain your signature, sir." Abaddon pressed with a sense of urgency.
"Those supplies were due here a few days ago!"
"We ran into some trouble on the road…" defended Abaddon.
"As you can imagine," added Cheechum.
"You know the old story," continued Abaddon as he and Cheechum nodded at one another in agreement.
"Trouble? What kind of trouble?"
Abaddon waved off Cheechum's reply and took the lead, "the kind that adds one or two days to making a delivery, nothing more," nodding to Cheechum with a wink and an expression of being impressed with himself.
An awkward silence blossomed in the wake of Abaddon's words before Cheechum broke through with a question about the supplies and a request for his signature. Tibor silently calculating returned to his fear of the ankhegs, "So, the ankhegs are all gone??"
"All that showed their face are gone." Cheechum confirmed.
The sound of locks could be heard turning and the door slowly opened a crack to reveal Tibor's eyes - which could pass for his half-brother Harbin's - darting around the room, behind Abaddon and Cheechum, and to the floor before he slowly opened the door wider. He seemed to catch a glimpse of himself in the faces of the gnome and the halfling, realizing he must've looked scared, he straightened himself up, puffed out his chest and tugged on either lapel of his jacket before circling back around behind his desk.
"So, what can I do for you? You have some supplies you say?"
"I'm Abaddon Tommyknock at your service, we have a cart full of supplies and we'll grab your signature and be on our merry way."
Tibor insisted on verifying the goods which seemed appropriate to the party, and then begins to ask a favour of Abaddon as he begins heading out towards the cart. Abaddon takes a quick glance at the signature on the stack of paperwork on the desk to serve as a comparison for the signature he soon hopes to capture for the receipt of goods.
Cheechum heads around the desk interested in climbing through the window to explore the area behind the cabin further, and also notices the words "Incident Report" on the same stack of papers on the desk. Reading through the first page details the account of a worker being killed after a pile of logs collapsed upon him. Pouring through them, she finds report after report of injuries or deaths that have occurred at the camp. She takes them over to Bel who begins her own investigation of the documents. Bel deftly analyzes that all the incidents are occurring on the same day, of the same week, of each month. The date itself seems to bear no significance to anyone, but simply strikes them as strange as the odds of all these injuries occurring on the same date are astronomical. Be also notices that some of the reports indicate that the injured were taken to Falcon's lodge for treatment.
Bel, suspicions now aroused begins searching the desk more thoroughly and discovers a secret compartment underneath containing two letters. The first one addressed to Tibor:
_____________________________
Tibor,
In order to continue business here, we will require one person per month to be transferred to our care. Failure to meet your quota will have dire consequences for you and your operation here.
My representatives will await at the exchange point as per our agreement. Do not disappoint or our broker may take matters into their own hands.
KM
__________________________________
The second letter:
Oh Mighty one,
Due to the presence of a dragon now hunting in the area, it has made it very difficult to recruit new workers from the surrounding area, please allow more time, or a reduction to one transfer per 2 months…
________________________________________
Tibor and Abaddon arrive at the cart and Tibor immediately begins inspecting the goods, "I know exactly what should be be here," and then glances at the breeches, which are thoroughly scorched by the icey dragon's breath.
"What the hell happened to the cart?!"
"I may have mentioned we ran into a bit of trouble on our way here. Nothing to worry about," assured Abaddon.
Tibor shifted a glance over his arm at Abaddon, "trouble doesn't have a propensity to follow you does it?"
"I'm not sure I take what you're meaning," chuckled coyly.
"Did you deal with said 'trouble' or is it still out and about?" Tibor pushed the inquiry.
Abaddon explained how they encountered the dragon but were not able to vanquish it. Tibor was nonetheless impressed at not only their survival but the ability to fend off the monster. He motions as though he's about to make an offer of some kind, but then gives pause for further calculation before presenting his request.
"We're under a lot of pressure here to help with the rebuilding of Neverwinter, and I've lost every one of my workers." He then asks Abaddon to implore his half-brother, Harbin, to recruit more workers, and extends the invitation to Abaddon to do some recruiting of his own. After shuffling his imaginary abacus in the air with his hand he offers Abaddon 20 gold per recruit. Abaddon being Abaddon is negotiates him quickly to 25 gold per recruit.
Abaddon strokes his chin, "that sounds like an interesting proposition, Mr. Wester. A very interesting proposition indeed."
"Indeed. Funding comes from Neverwinter, and supplies from Phandalin - taxes you see - and I like to invest in my brother's efforts, of course."
Abaddon nods, "and having access to those sweet, sweet reconstruction contracts… that's quite the line of work you've got there."
"It can have its perks, but it's not without its stresses either…" and at that his gaze veers to the treeline on the south east side of the camp, and a hypnotic gaze comes over Tibor as he drifts away for a moment in thought before returning to his inventorying of the supplies.
"Expecting someone are you, Mr. Wester?" Abaddon inwardly growing ever more suspicious of this fellow who uncomfortably reminds him a little bit of himself.
"No, no. Once bitten, twice shy, is all, as they say."
He offers to sign the cargo manifest so that Abaddon can claim his reward from Harbin. He then pulls out another piece of paper from the inside of his jacket and invites Abaddon to sign regarding the financial arrangements for his recruitment efforts, and the ancillary benefit of presenting favourably to the nobles in Neverwinter for his help with the reconstruction efforts.
"… there's plenty of money at the end of this train," Tibor adds to sweeten the pot.
Abaddon examined the terms of the deal in writing finding in summary, he was to:
Inform Harbin Wester in Phandalin to recruit more workers for the camp.
Recruit people himself, giving them the referral phrase, "tell'em Tommyknock sent you."
Collect payment on a quarterly basis.
Beyond that, Abaddon sees nothing out of the ordinary, or binding in the contract and signs with a false, incomprehensible signature, which Tibor studies along with Abaddon's face a few times back'n forth. He eventually decides it's on the up and up and requests the help of Abaddon to help unload and stock the supplies near the cabin. Abaddon of course volunteers Xanth for the job, which he politely accepts in good faith for the promised help of the party to help restore peace to his home turf.
Abaddon makes his way back into the cabin, stepping over the carcass of the ankheg outside the door before wiping the ichor off his boots at the entrance. Looking across the room, he sees Bel, Cheechum, and Ezra seated at the table pouring over a stack of papers with concerned looks on their faces.
"Why the long face, Cheechum?" He asks.
"Well, I'd like to hear a word or two from your friend - wherever he's gone to - about what is going on at his camp and with his workers" referring of course to Tibor and the contents of the letters.
Puzzled, Abaddon asked "whatever do you mean?" Cheechum then shows him the incident reports and of course Abaddon immediately analyzes the signatures on the manifest and the reports to ensure they match. Bel recounts her findings of her investigation to Abaddon, concluding that it appears Tibor is handing over at least one person to someone, for something, on the same day, of the same week, of every month.
Abaddon clarifies the charges before asserting, "If I'd know that, I wouldn't have signed for such a low rate as a recruiter," making it unclear of course if he was upset about the money or the morality of the situation.
"I mean, I didn't really plan on following through with any effort, I was simply hoping I could abscond with a signing bonus of sorts, but none was forth coming. I'm shocked, I'm truly shocked… ok, I'm not that shocked actually, but, still…" Abaddon downgrades the moral ambiguity of his position.
"Who is this 'KM' do you think?" reflecting further on the contents of the letters he'd previously not seen. No one could think of anyone, however, matching the initials.
Abaddon wonders if this is Makitryk, the cultest from the Ruins of Thundertree. Ezra remarks that the handwriting on the letter looks familiar, and quickly pulls out the many books he carries around searching for something he can't quite remember. Abaddon starts to think it seems familiar too before long and then blurts out, "The leger!"
Ezra shuffles texts quickly and then opens the leger they found in Mt.'s Toe goldmine with the unknown language. (This was the leger that fit inside the box perfectly that they found in the Shrine of Savras). They studied for some time before mutually concluded that the penmanship had remarkable similarities, despite being written in two different languages. Furthermore, the handwriting of the letter addressed to Tibor does not look like it belongs to that of a native speaker of common; the direction of the strokes and flares is off.
Tibor returns into the room, "Good fellow that Xanth chap," he says as he dusts off his hands.
"Yes, he's a real salt-lick of the earth type of guy," Abaddon says, doing his best to not alarm Tibor of their investigation with any odd body language.
"Indeed… you wouldn't be willing to part with him, would you? I could use his help around here, as you can clearly see."
"It's interesting you should say that…" and before Abaddon can finish his sentence, Tibor cuts him off.
"Oh, and by the way, who's hungry? There's some wild boar roaming around just up the hill? I'm sure we could whip one up into a decent feast."
Abaddon eyes the group before confirming their reservations at Chez Logger's camp, "If you're going to slay a boar, I suppose the least we can do is stick around for dinner."
"Fantastic! One problem however, I don't really do that kind of thing - killing and butchery and all, if you wouldn't mind taking the honour?"
"I may be skilled with the dulcimer and the hurdy-gurdy, but I'm no wizard in the kitchen," proclaims Abaddon.
"Well naturally," Tibor's gaze shifts to the two females in the party.
"Oh, Wester, you need to advance your thinking."
"Don't we all?" retorted Tibor, "but I'm still hungry."
"Well, chew on this," Abaddon now segues the conversation, "you have suffered quite a set back here with the loss of your labourers."
"Indeed I have, which is why you're going to help recruit some new workers," Tibor says matter-of-factly while gazing out the window towards the boars.
"Well, interesting you should say that, is that going to cause a problem with your associates?"
"Associates? In Neverwinter?" a puzzled look comes over Tibor's face as his attention swivels back to the party.
"No, the associates you meet at the exchange point. The associates lead by KM," Abaddon's left eyebrow raises with an air of pride in his craft of verbal chess.
The group confronts Tibor about their findings from the letters and the incident reports which Tibor disavows any knowledge of and pleads ignorance and innocence on all charges. As far as the group can tell, he seems to be telling the truth about his knowledge of the letters, and not knowing about the secret compartment under the desk. Tibor is a little offended at breach of privacy in having his office searched, but seems more concerned with the claims themselves. In disbelief, he enters the office to search the desk himself and upon seeing the compartment with his own eyes, folds his arms while stroking his chin with one hand, and says, "Well, would you look at that. What is going on around here?!"
"Don't you find it a bit odd that all these incidents seem to occur like clockwork on a calendar schedule?" Abaddon pressed.
And with that, in the same way a teacher recognizes the change in countenance when a students finally learns a concept, the group notices a similar expression on Tibor's face. His eyes widen, and mouth opens slightly to inhale as he raises a finger in exclamation before placing both hands on either side of his face, "You're right! What is going on here?! What kind of devilry has been going on here?! Under my watch! Oh I feel like such a fool!" he proclaims.
Abaddon enquires as to who has access to the room and desk, to which Tibor admits it could be anyone as they all come and go. He tells the group that he sends the incident reports to his sponsors in Neverwinter before it dawns on him the aim of the line of questioning, "Wait… you're not suggesting that I've had something to do with these incidents, are you?!"
Abaddon switches gears and entertains the notion that Tibor may have a problem that he didn't even realize he'd had, and furthermore, if an arrangement has been struck with a third party for these workers, they'll be expecting another delivery under threat of violence for failure to deliver. Abaddon recites the contents of the letter for Tibor who thinks for a moment and then announces he must return to Neverwinter to summon some type of security for the camp. He then interrupts himself, noticing the party donning the pins of Vox Popula on their vestments.
"Wait! You can help with this! This is exactly the kind of thing you do!" A brief exchange takes place again between Abaddon and Tibor over his involvement, and Tibor maintains his position of being non-complicit. The group, though wary of his words, tend to believe he's telling the truth.
"Allow us a moment to confer with one another," Abaddon ushers the group out of the office into the kitchen, beginning to close the door behind them.
"Locked in my own office? How do you like that!" Tibor snidely comments.
Abaddon halts the closure and moves into Tibor's personal space with an air of authority now, "Excuse us, we are Vox Popula so please show us the respect we deserve." Tibor sits down his chair feigning indifference, "Yes-yes… as you were."
"As you were." Abaddon in turn chirps back.
Abaddon says with a sigh after closing the door, "Well this is getting a bit ridiculous, isn't it Monty" trailing into tone of baby-speak as he scratches Monty under the chin. Monty endures it for a brief moment before attempting to snack on Abaddon's finger. Abaddon pulls his hand away in perfect timing as if expecting the behaviour.
Cheechum recommends reporting the fiasco here to Tibor's half-brother, Harbin back in Phandalin which everyone agrees is a good idea along with confiscating the letters and incident reports. They also agree to validating the claims of the incident report at Falcon's lodge of injured workers being sent their for care, since they're going there anyway.
Abaddon opens the door to see Tibor sitting at his desk still sipping water from his cup. "So am I to be drawn and quartered or are we going to eat this boar?" he asks.
"I see no reason why we cannot break-boar," Abaddon spins a pun.
"I've got a long trip ahead of me tomorrow as I need to return to Neverwinter and take those letters you've found and show them to my sponsors," Tibor says self-assuredly.
Abaddon laughs at the idea and informs Tibor that they will be taking the evidence to Phandalin and sharing with the Vox Popula detachment there. Tibor recognizes their authority and agrees that that is the correct procedure.
"What should I tell my sponsors though? I'm a dead man if I stay here, I'm a dead man if I go back." Tibor exclaims with fear and loathing. "Surely you can help me?" he pleads. Cheechum invites him to come along with the party.
Tibor explained how normally, once a week a worker from the camp would go down river to report to the sponsors in Neverwinter and submit any requests requiring more funding or support, but since no one remained, that task fell to him. Abaddon asked him what his plan was if the Ankhegs grew tired of waiting for another morsel, to which Tibor - in a moment of unexpected vulnerability confesses to having given up all hope.
"You have done me a great service, restoring hope where there was none. There are so many people relying on the work that is done here, I must return to Neverwinter and face whatever awaits me there. You take these letters to your people, and if you can, send a detachment here to fortify, and I will return in a fortnight."
Abaddon attempts to inquire about his sponsors, but Tibor sites confidentiality under a non-disclosure agreement he signed, and tells Abaddon that even though they are Vox Popula, they will require a court order to obtain that information, and due process must be followed.
Abaddon nods and pats Tibor in an attempt to calm him down, and Cheechum extends Monty towards him in the same hopes. Abaddon seizes the brief distraction to pick-pocket back the contract he signed and quickly slides it up the sleeve of his jacket.
"I've never seen a manticore cub before. I'm sure there's a fantastic story here you can tell me over dinner. But in the meantime, I've got to go see a man about a horse. I've been holed up here for a few days… don't drink what's in the pitcher." Tibor warns the party as he picks up his pace to exit the room to go and find some privacy. "Will one of you see to preparing one of the boars?" he asks while leaving the office. The sound of him discovering the ankheg carcass at the entrance to the cabin can be heard faintly by the group back in the office. "Disgusting!" he mutters as he steps through the ichor, and then vanishes into the woods nearby.
Abaddon quickly looks at the paper he pocketed to find it blank, realizing that Tibor was one step ahead of him it seems, and tips his imaginary hat to him. Abaddon displays the blank piece of paper to the group which is met with a myriad of eye rolls and confirmation of their suspicions. After a brief discussion amongst themselves, they decide to wash their hands of the entire affair concluding Tibor has sealed his own fate and being to look for Xanth, who is found watching over the boars up the hill.
Abaddon informs him that their business here has concluded and they are ready to move on. Xanth recommends they take refuge at Falcon's lodge before attempting to help him re-take his home. The rest of group has now caught up with Abaddon and Xanth and they're all standing on the bluff overlooking the cabin, watching the boars muddle about. They notice that 3 of the 5 boars are branded with the letters BAK, which would stand for Big Al Kalazorne, recalling that when the Orcs attacked the ranch they let lose much of the livestock. Abaddon takes a second look at the 2 unbranded boars look slightly different in breed from the branded ones.
Abaddon casts detect magic on the unbranded boars, but does not notice anything. The group does recall that Big Al would pay handsomely to have his boars returned. Cheechum begins to separate the branded from the unbranded, the two unbranded boars change shape into humanoid form.
"I don't think so! Those are ours!" one of the humanoid figures says.
Zawala appears, leaping from a top the log cabin with a hero's landing, commands one Anchorite of Talos to run in fear and Smites the other. A battle ensues, and the group eliminates the threat.
Monty feeds on the cooked corpse, courtesy of Ezra's firebolt.
Tibor Wester has vanished.
The party takes a rest inside the log cabin after building a pen for the boars (which Abaddon does not assist in building… but tends to "administrative work that Vox Popula will require"
Afterward, while sitting around the kitchen table, eating, drinking, and resting, introductions are made, and Abaddon weaves the tales of each member into a song for Zawala's sake.
Falcon's Lodge: The calm before the storm
The next day, they depart for Falcon's lodge, and arrive 3 days later.
Corwin and Pel greet them and escort them inside for a feast. Falcon joins and Abaddon and Bel participate in a competition for the attention of the impressive host, kicking off with Abaddon's gift of Dragon's brew, which Ezra and Cheechum abstain from.
After a hardy night of feasting, everyone retires to their chambers.
The following day, Falcon convinces Cheechum to leave Monty in their care and provides her with an amulet that allows her to cast the teleportation spell, tied directly to the lodge so that she can always pop back and visit Monty. The journey ahead is dangerous, he warns, and probably not suitable for such a young creature. Cheechum agrees and leaves Monty behind as the group sets out toward the Woodland Manse.
After a few days travel, they arrive and after a quick inspection, discover 2 more anchorites of Talos with a small platoon of Orcs have taken up residency.
After dispatching of some twig blights made in the likeness of the party, and Cheechum discovering some very nice panes of glass for the instrument she's building, they discovered a large Gulthias tree growing out of the well in the courtyard in the middle of the house.
Grannoc it til you try it!
Zawala entered the court yard, and yelled back to Abaddon, alerting the Orcs of their presence. A fast and furious exchange occurred, involving a thunderbolt and fireball, that not only blew out portions of the walls, but obliterated the Orcs who foolishly grouped up. What wasn't destroyed by those monstrous spells, was done away with by Cheechum's moonbeam.
The group then interrupted Taniks who was performing some type of ritual and his small entourage which did not go so well for the group, Taniks threatened Monty, and despite their efforts, both Zawala and Cheechum were almost killed before the party rallied to victory, capturing Taniks and severing his hand.
Taniks in tow, they searched the rest of the manse, decoding a puzzle of paintings to open a secret door to not just some magical items, but a text validating the work he'd thought he'd lost.
A well of trouble
They took a long rest, and the next day, cleared the rest of the house of any vile creatures, and uprooted the Gulthias tree, destroying it as Abaddon discovered that there was a tunnel at the bottom of the well.
With a few close calls, the group made it to the bottom of the well, with Taniks, and began a journey down into the earth that lasted several days.
I'd Drider be somewhere else
A conversation with Taniks informed the group of he and his allies desires to "bring back the old gods" and that in his estimation, they were out of their depth.
Soon, the group came into a series of tunnels, the group opting to go right after hearing some chittering from the left, Cheechum's curiosity got her killed as she strayed from the group to inspect some glowing mushrooms. The party rallied to her aid, fighting off a Drider and stabalizing her before healing her. In the midst of the battle, Taniks made a run for it while no one was paying attention.
Cheechum summoned a panther to pursue him while the group carried on leftward this time, literally chasing the wind they now could feel.
Eventually they came to a large cavern, with multiple platforms and discovered bodies encased in webbing, suspended in large spider webs, with one individual still alive.
Shadows of the past
Before venturing onto the web, Abaddon tested the web by touching it with his pole of collapsing, alerting the Giant Spiders to their presence.
A fight ensued with Abaddon getting literally caught up in the action before Cheechum spoke to the Spiders to see if they would barter passage for food, offering up Taniks in exchange for the unknown person on the web. The Spiders agreed, and brought the webbed mystery figure off the web to a platform for the group to inspect, as per the terms established by Cheechum's negotiations. It turned out to be Makitryk, the dragon cultist from Thundertree whom Abaddon had deceived about who he was.
Makitryk explained that they would have to set aside their differences for now, in the spirit of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" that he had been betrayed by Yargath, a name that cut like a knife through the psyche of Zawala as that was the name of a childhood friend… who perished… during a raid she participated in with her new Paladin enclave. But Yargath perished… or did she?? This Yargath that Makitryk spoke of was in pursuit of a dragon mask, and they must hurry to stop her from claiming it. Makitryk wanted revenge for Yargath's betrayal earlier, leaving him and his cultists as dinner for the giant spiders.
The party decided to renege on their offer and, with the help of a giant noxious cloud from Ezra, exterminated the large arachnids, but not before one of them vomited all over Taniks.
The group carried on in pursuit of Yargath, through another series of tunnels before coming into a large underground cavern that held what appeared to be an ancient, but abandoned city:
The tunnel from the platform an enormous underground cavern, and you can see across a narrow precipice ruins, and a gate of what appears to be… a city.
Passing through the gate, you enter a what was once a majestic concourse leading to a large stone gate. Six statues of snake-like humanoid figures line the concourse, 3 on each side and large broken statue of a dragon in the middle whose head lays on the ground.
There are places where some of the walls have caved in and rubble of earth and stone litter what was once worked slates of stone beneath your feet. The sound of dripping water echoes rhythmically into puddles of water scattered about. The water gives off a dim green glow as if touched by moonlight that reflects off the walls. There are a few emerald deposits protruding from the walls giving off a faint glow, while a giant tangle of roots has broken through the wall on last statue on the right. Thick webs cover all of the statues.
At the far end, the large stone archway is adorned with an ornately sculpted dragon's head revealing a staircase that goes down to another level.
By all appearances, the party seems to have discovered an ancient underground city of the Yuan-ti, an ancient race of human reptile hybrids that once dominated the land before being divided and scattered by the Dragon fall wars.
After exploring the concourse they discovered the statues created an anti-magic field, preventing any spells of conjuration from being cast. They also discovered a smaller statue of a dragon with a runic inscription, that could be rotated. After rotating it a full circle clockwise, they did not notice any change to the environment.
The gate at the end emitted a strange visual phenomenon reminiscent of beautifully hypnotic lights from the Dwarven temple ruins where the group experienced the time dysplasia. After some negotiation, they all went through the gate, one by one, to find themselves alone on the other side as if they'd walked through some type of portal, landing each of them in some haunted moment from their past.
Ezra finds himself in an all too familiar place, a place he'd rather forget: The ruins of Arphesia. Suddenly, his mentor appears, Harrow Gildenwood, "Ezra! What luck you're here! Can you believe this place?! The likes of it have never been seen before! This will redeem us both!". This is exactly how it happened, everything is unfolding just as it did all those years ago. Ezra follows after his mentor who is excitedly exploring the ruins, trying to explain to Harrow something that he has learned since this time… but it's like Harrow cannot hear Ezra. Harrow implores Ezra to begin documenting their find, before discovering something truly wonderous and inviting Ezra over to examine; and just as it happened the first time, Ezra stumbles and crashes into the wall, collapsing it, and destroying the evidence… Harrow yelling, "You fool!" and as Ezra turns to face his mentor, instead he's met a decayed, necrotic shadow of himself, screaming terrifically and lunging at Ezra…
Bel appears in a dark alley way, in Waterdeep. Her mentor, Ürgen, is across the street bidding her to follow him just like the last time she saw him, here… in this place… before he died, before he was murdered. "Bel, this way! This is the house! Hurry! Follow me!" They approach a house, yes, the house. He begins to pick the lock and with the click of it opening smiles at Bel, "You see, it's all in the wrist," and walks into the house. "Bel, I'll go check upstairs, you stay here. Let me know if anyone's coming!" As he goes up the stairs, Bel hears a noise on the counter behind her - it's Rattigan! Or at least… the rat that she will name Rattigan. Captivated by this little rodent who is equally captivated by her, Bel realizes she's not paying attention to her surroundings when she hears a noise behind her go up the stairs. Moving towards the stairs a scream erupts from upstairs followed by a thud. Bel races up the stairs as quickly as she can to see Ürgen lying on the floor, dying… "You didn't warn me… why did you leave me to die?!" and at these words, he transforms into the cold dark horrific shadow of Bel - and reaches out to attack her!
Zawala's eyes open to the Orc village where she spent her early years as both adopted child, and spoil-of-war-turned slave. She sees her friend, Yargath in a panic telling her to follow, "I can hide you so they won't hurt you! Hurry follow me!" and runs ahead. Zawala hears then sees behind her her Orc parents who used to abuse her, Trog and Kalithnor, running towards her. Zawala runs after Yargath catching a glimpse of herself in a puddle and realizes she's a child again.
After following Yargath into an old temple looking for a hiding place, she momentarily loses track of her before Yargath calls her toward the east wing behind a pillar. Zawala races over and as she comes around the pillar, discovers Yargath lying wounded - just like the last time she saw her when Zawala's Paladin troupe massacred her tribe. "You were my sister Zawala… why did you do this…" as Zawala opens her mouth to speak, Yargath transforms into the dark shadow mirror of Zawala and reaches up to grab her while releasing a deafening scream of anger and hatred.
Abaddon finds himself on the streets of Waterdeep, strangely empty except for one of the Masked Lord's holding a knife to the throat of a woman… the baroness - who cries out to Abaddon to save her. The baroness screams, "Help me Abaddon… why are you doing this to me?!" Abaddon, having accepted the incarceration of this innocent woman as a necessary evil for the greater good, well, his greater good, pursued them out of morbid curiosity. Coming to an alley way between building he finds the Masked Lord has vanished and the baroness lying in a pool of blood on the ground with something in her hand. Moving closer to inspect the item, a voice could be heard whispering over his shoulder, "Never drop the bone to catch the shadow. For a greedy man, even their grave is too shallow," turning to see the horrific Shadow of his past lunging at him with a deafening scream of terror.
It's been a millennia since the now benevolent ruler of Fâerun usurped power from the dynastic King to bring peace, justice, food and medicine to the masses, but not everyone is happy... the land is rife with political unrest, and the stirring of an ancient magic can be heard on the wind if you're sitting at the right chair in your local tavern. Live and let live? or change the course of history? What secrets will our heroes uncover? As the sun sets behind the snow-capped Sword Mountains, the shadows grow on the streets of the small mining town of Phandalin, where we find our heroes...
As the door of the Stonehill Inn opens from the dusty streets of Phandalin, Toblen Stonehill glances over his shoulder as he polishes a freshly cleaned mug, struggling to see anyone who has entered. With a raised eyebrow, shifting his glance downward he sees what he can only assume is a Gnome, as he knows what a Halfling resembles, and this fellow, is no Halfling. As is customary, he exchanges in pithy banter with the sole agenda of selling a drink. The Gnome obliges Toblen, grabs his drink and a seat at the far end of the tavern, never tiring of how all furnishings are fashioned without consideration for those of his stature as he climbs up to his seat.
The door swings open again, and gracefully, Bel, a slight, pale human with bright blue hair enters, parched from her journey, and exchanges words for a drink from Toblen, taking a seat at the bar just to the right of the entrance. Bel is quite adept at getting into places, but she never forgets the value of being able to exit quicker than how she entered. Scanning the rest of the patrons stationed around the tavern, her eyes are drawn to a striking, firm postured elf seated at the far left of the restaurant. Although there seems to be nothing subtle about this elf, her presence is calm and serene... she doesn't belong here, Bel thinks as her focus is interrupted by the door opening behind her. As she twists to look over her shoulder at the stranger coming through the door, she catches out of the corner of her eye that the elf is looking back at her, and she's no longer sure how long she'd been staring at the elf, nor how long the elf was returning her gaze. No matter, there's a new curiosity come front and centre now, a Halfling.
Without hesitation, the Halfling climbs up the stool, seated now to Toblen's right, not far from the Human with the bright blue hair. She too exchanges in short dialogue with Toblen, and orders what seems to be a simple drink of water with lemon, advertising her foreignness to the area, as lemons are scarce, and fetch a small ransom for Toblen who is happy to sling her the drink. Toblen, noting the uniquely coloured mud on her boots from the Triboar trail, is curious if she knows about the hidden gold from the ruins at Conyberry.
Bel's interest is piqued and enters into the conversation, enquiring for further details, and at this point, naturally, the Gnome's ear's perk up - as talk of gold cuts through the din of a room full of conversation as well as if someone said his own name. Saddling up beside Bel, he's certain of one thing: if there's to be an adventure after fortune, they that venture should be so fortunate to have him for a friend, veritably.
Toblen likes to inspire his patrons to seek out nearby fortunes, as they generally return to spend their new found wealth under his roof before venturing off over the horizon. He can't help but feel this trio is missing something, someone… the Ranger, the elf, she's the missing ingredient. While recommending her addition to the group, the elf becomes keenly aware that she is now the topic of conversation given the sudden, but parting glances her way. She strides over, like the wind across the floor, light, swift, but sure, and strong. Bel is not convinced of the necessity of the elf's presence, knowing that more hands, means more splitting of the goods.
"She doesn't look like the type to get her hands dirty," noting the obvious craftsmanship of the Ranger's attired. The elf gives her a stern, confident look as if to say, "I can handle myself." The Halfling noticing the rising tension, redirects their attention to the opportunities before them, and effectively rallies the troops.
Toblen, like any good owner of an inn who stands to gain from the success of his patrons, also let's the group know that they can find even more work at the Townmaster's Hall. As they get up to leave, he reminds them there is "one small thing" before they go, each one settling their tab, much to the surprise of the Halfling just how much a lemon is worth.
As they make their way to Townmaster's Hall, formal introductions are made.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm a gentleman of the road, Abaddon Tommyknock…" Bel, interrupts stating that she generally travels alone, but, will give this new found fellowship a chance to prove its mettle, yet.
The elf, feels inclined for some reason to share more than she usually does, given her past, "My name is Elanil, I'm a ranger, and if your cause is true, and good, you can trust I will get you where you need to go, good and true."
The Halfling, almost out of obligation, but mixed with an heir of pride, waxes about her love of nature, "My name is Cheechum, I speak to nature, and all nature speaks to me… and I'm a glassblower… if you need anything fancy like that."
"What a fascinating name," Bel remarks.
"In my native tongue, it means, 'You will find your place in this world.'"
Abaddon interjects, "Looks like we've found our place…" as the group arrives in front of the job board at the Townmaster's Hall. There are three jobs over which the debate endlessly the ethics of which they should do first as it is obvious, their motivations in life are not aligned. Concensus is reached, and they decide that the local mid-wife, Adabra Gwynn, should be brought back to Phandalin for her own protection from the wandering white dragon.
Taking all three notices off the board, the party sets out for Umbridge Hill.
Upon arrival, they discover a Manticore trying to knock down the front door of the windmill. Adabra, seeing the 4 travellers from the second story window yells out, "A little help here?!"
They quickly devise a plan to distract the manticore, and sneak in to rescue Adabra. Abaddon tries his hand at playing his hurdy-gurdy. Although it does seem to affect the Manticore, and draw his attention and focus while the elf sneaks around to the right of the windmill, he suddenly fumbles on the piece he's playing and the manticore's attention shifts swiftly to Elanil. Abaddon quickly shifts to his wit in attempt to pull the manticore's attention away from Elanil,
"Your mother was a housecat, and your father was a bat!"
The manticore unperturbed by the remarks, "She was! And I'm proud of it!" leaps over the fence at the front of the windmill, descending upon Elanil and chomps down on her arm.
Bel reacts quickly, leaping to the aid of Elanil, wielding her shortswords, she quickly deals two blows to the manticore's head, causing him to release his bite. Cheechum, who standing further away as she was trying to sneak in the lefthand side, seizes the opportunity to hurl her boomerang, weaving it between Bel and Elanil, it smashes into the manticore's face, causing him to pull back from the fray by leaping into the air. Bel seeing the opportunity, lashes out and takes another swipe at the manticore, carving into its flank. Elanil gets in slice as well. The manticore was hurting, surprised at how quickly this situation had turned dangerous for her perched herself up on the awning of the 3rd floor window of the windmill, launches her quills at Bel, dealing a deathly blow to her torso, collapsing her unconscious to the ground!
Abaddon, as quick with his hands as with his wit, quickly brings Bel back to the land of the living with his healing magic. Elanil, inspired, draws her bow, and lands her shot perfectly into the roof of the mouth of the manticore, bringing her to almost collapse. She removes the arrow from her mouth, painfully, struggles to stand, when Cheechum launches another attack with her boomerang - taking out the manticore's leg upon which she was placing all her weight! The manticore crashed down to the ground with a thud, lifeless.
The party approaches cautiously to confirm the kill and is met by Adabra - with gratitude. She offers them a healing potion for their troubles. Abaddon is curious if there's anything of the manticore useful for resale, but can't think of anything offhand. Cheechum, enquires if the manticore was pregnant - and as it turns out, there were two cubs in her womb. Cheechum and Adabra attempt to stabalize the two cubs, but only manage to save the one, who is incredibly weak, but alive.
The party attempts to persuade Adabra to come with them back to Phandalin, but she declines despite incredibly well formed arguments. She cannot be moved. She instead, offers them a note, sealed with her mark for Harbin Wester, confirm her safety. To further display her gratitude, she sells the remaining stock of her healing potions, one to each party member, in a 2 for 1 sale.
The party returns to Phandalin, to Harbin Wester's home, where he confirms their work, and slides their reward under the door, 50 gp, one piece at a time.
Session 2
The party, a bit tattered and tired, enters the inn. Toblen notices they look a bit worse for where, especially Bel, but his eyes are suddenly drawn to Cheechum, and her new companion, Monty. Toblen alarmed proclaims,
"You can't bring that in here!"
The party, not in the mood for further 'combat' all simultaneously shoot Toblen a look that says there will be no debate.
"How did you come by this?" He asks. As they recount the events of the previous day, they notice two individuals paying closer attention than any others in the inn.
To the right of bar, sits a man with dark skin, and brown curly hair who is particularly enamoured with his drink. To the left, another man, tall in stature, whose clothes give him the appearance of the nobility.
The man with curly brown hair comes over to say hello to Monty - but can barely keep his feet under him. His congenial and affable nature are belied only by the sorrow and shame radiating from his eyes.
"The name's Ezra…" the man looks to begin a more elaborate introduction, but stops himself out some sense of self-pity, "Ezra," he says again, and with a warm smile meant to shift the focus, "and you all are?"
As the party engages in customary greetings and introductions, Toblen seizes upon the burgeoning comradery with requests for food and drink, and offers some bone broth for the baby Manticore, at which point, the man from nobility interjects,
"Get some pig's blood from a barber-surgeon."
"And you are…?" Cheechum scans the man up and down.
Surprised that the halfling didn't seem to know, the man introduces himself as "Arwald Jeggare, of the house of…" he glances at Cheechum noting her indifference and pivots mid-sentence, "agh. Never mind, such matters are of no concern to… to you."
Toblen diffuses the awkard moment with the dispensing of food, some bone broth for Monty, and a bowl for Bel to clean up a little. Cheechum recommends that Bel not clean up as the scent of Monty's mother is on her, and it may help bond Monty to Bel so that Monty doesn't want to eat her later.
As they eat, they're treated to an exchanged between Toblen and his son Loki, a precocious young lad who clearly would rather be anywhere else than working in the kitchen, that is quite entertaining.
As everyone sups, Abaddon plays a tune, "The Midwife and the Windmill" - which draws a few raised eyebrows from the group at the utterance of the title. Not his greatest hit yet, but enough to get the nobleman's attention once more, who raises a glass. After the performance, Arwald delivers something of a backhanded complement, as is his custom, and Abaddon, as is hiscustom, doesn't miss a beat and continues his performance - this time using witty banter as his instrument instead of his beloved hurdy-gurdy. The two soon discover they have a mutual friend in common: coin - and all the ways to acquire, and spend it, each with a preferred emphasis for one or the other. The distinction is not lost on any onlooker as to who is more keen to spend, and who is more keen save.
With new acquaintances present and accounted for, Toblen entices the party to venture to the Dwarven Excavation to retrieve a family heirloom from the two dwarves who are out there now, offering a free night's stay and a meal if they return it to him.
Wasting no time, the party ventures out into Phandalin for different supplies.
At the Miner's Exchange, Abaddon meets Halia Thornton, and discovers how to get in touch with his network of contacts. He lets her know that he's open to more "discrete" work. She's not sure of him yet.
Bel, Cheechum, and Ezra go to Barthen's Provisions. Bel buy's some ribs for Monty. Ezra buys 4 viles of ink, and 4 pieces of parchment. Cheechum buys some glass, and some peanut butter.
Arwald searches around town for as the business of others is always his business. He comes across a Shrine to Cyric, or so it would seem at first, but notices some strange markings for which an attempt to obscure had clearly been made, but insufficiently. While pondering how there could be markings beneath extolments to Cyric on his own Shrine of Luck, the keeper of the shrine surprises him from behind with a whisper, "they are the markings of Tymora." Taken aback by the public courting of blasphemy, Arwald has a brief encounter with the keeper of the shrine, assuming she is some heretical fanatic, shews her away only to be met with surprising calm and acceptance, "You have friends where you don't always think you do."
Upon returning back to the Inn, everyone turns in but Abaddon and Arwald. Arwald purchases some Dragon's Brew, a very potent, rare, and expensive wine that comes in a black bottle of indiscernible material. Loki wants to quit for the night, but Toblen asks him to wait just a little longer. The two of them attempt to drink each other under the table. Arwald wins and stumbles up the stairs while Abaddon passes out on the bar.
Cheechum, meanwhile, attempts to blow some glass in the tree outdoors that she prefers to sleep in. She hears a twig snap behind her, and something run off into the bushes. She also fumbles her creation and it cracks in two off the tree branch upon which she's resting.
Ezra begins writing a letter of appeal - a matter from his past, and hears footsteps outside his door, and sees a shadow casting underneath it. Sneaking over to the door and looking through the keyhole, sees nothing! He opens the door brandishing his envelop opener, to a very surprised Loki holding a pillow extended to Ezra, "You're my favourite." He says, and then leaves pale as a ghost to return downstairs, passing Arwald who is on his way up sleep.
Bel is kept awake by the loud commotion, pressing the pillow more tightly over her ears, yelling, "Keep it down out there!"
Everyone awakens in the morning, Abaddon feels like hell. They grab some food, Cheechum gets 3 free apples from Toblen. Each player receives a loaf of bread from Toblen.
Ezra, however, not feeling up to snuff, decides that his efforts are better spent back in bed at the inn.
The party sets out for the Dwarven Excavation.
Session 3
About 4hrs in to their journey, as the tree line of the base of the mountains came into view, a shadow krept over the group as they marched. Frozen by the terror of expecting to see a dragon, they were met by another Manticore.
"You have something that belongs to me!" he belted.
Cheechum began to lecture the Manticore on his absentee parenting, arguing that he was unfit for the role of fatherhood.
"You know nothing of my fitness!" Spreading its wings and taking to the sky to attack, the group braced itself for combat. The manticore, unexpectedly fled - giving Cheechum a sense of validation. Then, an eclipse of the sun began, and a shadow fell over them all… except, it was not an eclipse - it was the white dragon whose size blotted out the light around them! Immediately they all attempted to hide in the tall grass through which they were walking. The dragon circled back and you could see the blue light of its frozen breath begin to illuminate within its chest! He opened his mouth to cast his icy fire when barreling from its flank, the manticore returned - sending the dragon spiraling off course, tangled with the manticore. An odd cacophony of the growl of the manticore and the screech of the dragon as they flew off chasing one another was the cue for the group to make haste for the cover of the forest.
Taking no refuge in having simply passed the threshold of the tree line, they continued on through the brush to the base of the mountain. Soon coming upon a large separation in the rock, large enough for passage. This face of the mountain was void of any tree or brush, only the occasional weed or moss sprouted from cracks in an otherwise sheer rock face. The forest ended abruptly about 20 feet from the foot of the mountain. It was as if the forest decided it would not attempt to lay root on this rock. Two trails encompassed the crevasse on either side, leading to look out points above canopy of the forest behind them, and allowing a clear shot on anyone passing through the crooked cleft in the mountain.
They sent the rogue in to scope out what may lay ahead, as brave heroes do. Bel quickly reported back that at the end of the passage, there were large iron gates built into the mountain side… ajar.
Upon entering through the gates, two dwarves rose quickly to greet them with a query and an axe.
"Who goes there?!"
"We were sent by Toblen. You have something that belongs to him!"
The two dwarves exchange worried glances. "Aye, aye we do. Problem is, we've only half of it." The Dwarves, Dazlyn and Norbus, then explain the work they've been doing in the settlement here for the last month and how - in attempting to find a way into the temple through the top after being stymied by the locked gates - they accidentally dropped the sending stone through a crack in the roof, and it was now inside the temple of Abbathor. Abbathor, they explained, was the Dwarven god of Greed.
Everyone was tired, and Dazlyn was injured. Cheechum healed Dazlyn's wound, and everyone setup camp for the night. Abaddon played them a tune to calm and relax them, lifting spirits and health before they all drifted off to the dream world.
Come morning, they searched through the ruins of the ancient settlement and found naught but dust and rubble, and a well filled with rocks. Bel sent her rat - Ratigan Rattatat - down through the stones to see if there was a secret way into the temple. Upon the rats reappearance, Cheechum spoke with Rattigan to confirm that there was nothing but stone all the way down.
The group ventured into the courtyard of the temple, adjacent to their camp site, through even larger iron doors built into the mountain. After searching around, they discovered a large glyph under the dust and dirt approximately 20 feet in diameter. Brushing away the earthen veil, they found ancient Dwarven Runes carved into the stone following the circumference of the glyph, and an inscription at the centre of the glyph, in the middle of another small circle about 5 feet in diameter. The inscription, in ancient Dwarvish rune read: Earth. Five feet to the North, East, South, and West of the small circle in the middle of the glyph, were 4 other circles carved into the stone. There were 4 glyphs in total of this size, equidistant from one another, in the four positions of North, East, South, and West. Each glyph had a different word at the centre: Earth, Blood, Fire, Gold.
The party tried for hours to discern the glyphs as a riddle or a puzzle, and it was chance that gave them the clue they needed. Bel stepped on small circle north of the inscription Earth, in the northern most glyph, and it illuminated with a ring of blue flame that dance like the lights in the northern skies. These weren't just circles! They were plates!
Through trial and error over the next few moments, they worked furiously to solve the pattern.
There are 5 plates in each glyph. They must stand on the 4 outer plates in the correct order: North, South, East, West. A glowing blue light, almost flame-like surrounds each plate when activated in the correct order. After activating the outer plates, the circle connecting the 4 outer plates glows with the same eerie blue light, and the middle plate rises, and the runes on the centre plate illuminate with same eerie blue light. They must present the correct element on the middle plate: Earth, blood (of a dwarf), a fire, and gold, respectively.
Once the element is presented, the entire glyph, including the outside runes, lights up. Repeating this process for the other 3 glyphs, upon placing the final element on its plate - a loud thunderous boom could be heard, muffled from under the ground, all for elements began to over in the air above their plate, as if gravity had lost its power. Bits of dirt moved around one another in perfect orbit. Globules of blood mimicked the same dance as the dirt. Fire formed into tiny molten globules, circumnavigating one another in turn. Last, the gold coins melted into a molten sphere and hovered.
On the steps before the doors to the temple, for more plates rose out of the ground, each with an inscription: Earth, Blood, Fire, Gold. Four of the group, Abaddon, Cheechum, Bel, and Arwald each moved an element from its plate to the small corresponding pillar that rose out of the steps in front of the door.
As they did, their hands began to glow with the same blue fire that circled the plates when activated, casting a bright light for 10 feet, and another 10 feet dimly. As they placed the last element on the pillar, the steps lit up with lines of the blue flame running from the pillar and up the walls of the façade, illuminating more runes, and a loud cracking could be heard as the large 20 foot stone doors opened to the entrance of the temple.
After a brief cheer of catharsis, they entered cautiously and soon found themselves at the threshold of a great hall with four massive pillars going from floor to ceiling. They'd also discovered two secret doors to their left and right just before the great hall. Norbus and Cheechum took the passage to the right through the secret door, Bel and Abaddon investigated the room to the left. Arwald moved forward into the great hall cautiously once Bel and Abaddon returned having discovered nothing the room but a collapsed in ceiling at the other end.
Cheechum and Norbus pushed down the long hallway that seemed to go on and on, until eventually, they came to a room, which had collapsed on one side. Looking closely at the ground, they found evidence of some sort of ritual that had been performed, but couldn't discern it's nature or origin. It was clear that the markings were inconsistent with the rest of the temple, and that they were recently made. There was a strange symbol, a circle with a cross in it, and in the top left quarter of the circle, lines had been drawn from x axis to the y axis in a pattern that gave the appearance of a web.
Meanwhile, as the rest of the group searched through the great hall, as they approached an altar at the far end, an Ochre Jelly dropped from the ceiling onto the altar - and began lashing out.
Arwald attempted to light his torch so he could burn it with fire, but the panic of the moment overwhelmed his nerves and he dropped both flint and torch to the ground. Bel slashed it with her blade, splitting it in two. Abaddon took on one of them by himself, a back and forth joust ensued with Abaddon stabbing at every chance, now avoiding slashing the Ochre which apparently splits them into more trouble.
Arwald got his torch lit, and smashed it into the Jelly - giving it a bruise and a burn. Bel changed her tactic to piercing to avoid further escalation. The Ochre didn't like Arwald's fire and attempted a massive blow with its pseudopod, but over extended itself, and like a rubber band effect, snapped past Arwald and into the pillar, opening a secret compartment at its base.
With persistence, they vanquished their quarry in time, but not without taking some injuries… and just when they thought it was safe, another Ochre dropped from the ceiling to their right. Abaddon took a massive slug to the head that sent him reeling from the force and the acid burn. Bel and Arwald continued their onslaught of fire and stabbing to avenged their wounded comrade. Suddenly, a secret door slid open right behind the Ochre - it was Cheechum and Norbus who had found their way back by accident!
Abaddon yelled a warning - not sure if the Ochre was visible to them yet - admonishing them not to slash it! Doing everything he could to stay in the fight despite his injuries. The Ochre soon proved no match for the efforts of the group and was executed with extreme prejudice. Abaddon was not in a good way, and needed to be healed.
Cheechum again offered her assistance, but Abaddon took matters into his own hands… or words, you might say, and healed himself.
Abaddon, had not forgotten about the secret compartment that had been discovered in the pillar, and did a count of the gems, 25 in total, worth 10 GP each, which they divided amongst themselves.
"Now then," Abaddon spoke into the dim light of the hall, "shall we have a proper look around?"
Session 4
The bright light of the sun shone through the window onto Ezra's face, who awoke initially, eyes squinting, and quickly turned over on his bed to face the wall and seek refuge in the shadow created by the ceiling slanting down into the alcove of the window. Suddenly, his eyes opened wide as he realized and shouted, "I'm late!!"
He jumped out of bed, realized he was still fully dressed, grabbed his letters and pen, and packed them quickly in his pack and bolted down the stairs of the inn and ran outside looking for the group. Seeing no one in sight, he popped back into the inn, Toblen polishing a mug as bartenders do, added to the obvious, "You're a bit late. You slept for an entire day! Your friends left yesterday… you were with them, but you came back and went upstairs and collapsed."
Ezra remembered none of this, but was quickly reminded of how hungry he was, and the need for haste. Toblen said, "You'll never reach them in time on foot, Loki here can help you."
"Follow me." Loki said already exhausted by his trade before breakfast. He lead Ezra around to a stable and stopped just short of the entry, "Not a word about the name!" he said tersely, "this is Cheval. She's not the fastest horse, but she's trustworthy and true. Treat her well, and she'll do the same to you… oh, and my father wanted you to have this." He gave Ezra a loaf of bread before Ezra jumped on the horse and sped off.
______
After the battles with the Ochres ended in the great hall, our adventurers continued their search of the room in hopes of finding some way out of what appeared to be a dead-end. A thorough search of the pillars was attempted, but as soon as Abaddon began his inspection, he was taken with the stonemasonry of the dwarves. "Look at the craftsmanship… what was I doing?" Bel moved to the left wall of the hall to search, but she too was distracted by the handiwork, "You're right… the craftsmanship is breathtaking… what are we looking for?"
Suddenly, foot steps can be heard coming from the entrance way, and everyone draws their weapons on the figure running into the great hall.
"Sorry I'm late guys!"
"Ezra?!" Abaddon double-checks his target.
"Yes! So sorry! What did I miss??!"
As the group forms a circle near the secret door on the right wall of the great hall and recounts everything that is happening, their attention to their surroundings drops, and suddenly, there is a knife at Ezra's throat, and a creature on his back! Everyone draws their weapons.
"My quarrel is not with any of you. I simply want what De'Tyron here has stolen from me, and revenge for ruining my life!" Confusion ensues and tensions mount. Abaddon attempts to charm the creature on Ezra's back, but fails. The creature begins to tell his tale of how in his hometown, he was known as quite the tinkerer among his fellow halflings who wanted to modernize their village. He trusted a half-elf to assist in this effort, but was betrayed, and the half-elf, De'Tyron, absconded with the village's Kresik - a magical item that helped shroud their village from discovery by the outside. Because of this, he was banished for vouching for De'Tyron, who betrayed him, and put his whole village in danger.
"So I've been wandering, looking for him ever since. And now I have him, and he's going to pay for what he's done!"
"But seriously, what's a Kresik?" Abaddon couldn't shift his focus.
"What do you mean, 'what's a Kresik?' Everyone knows what a Kresik is!?" retorted Scrayden. The entire group nodded in disagreement simultaneously. "Seriously?! It's a magical item that helps protect your village… doesn't every… it doesn't matter! He's here. I've found him! I'm taking back the Kresik!"
Everyone now seemed suspicious of Ezra, as after all, they'd known him all of a couple hours, for most of which he was drunk. Their weapons all pointed now at the sorcerer. Ezra then pleaded his case, telling the halfling his story with great passion and sincerity, and that this was a case of mistaken identity. The group pointed their weapons back to the halfling on Ezra's back.
Cheechum threatens him with a blast of frostbite if he doesn't release Ezra. Abaddon backs Cheechum, "Yeah, I don't think you want to experience that" he adds.
"You know, you haven't even looked at his face yet!?" Abaddon noted with the hope of someone who's found a missing key to a lock. Slowly, Scrayden pulls down the hood from Ezra to see that the ears were not that off of a half-elf. Feeling simultaneously dejected, but relieved, he releases his grip on Ezra, "Sorry. I'm, uh… going to get down." and slides down to the ground. Cheechum takes his dagger.
"I'm Scrayden Jellik, by the way. Nice to meet your acquaintance." He introduces himself with a forced normalcy clearly aimed to override the awkwardness of the moment.
"Jellik? Like the dairy farmers?" Quipped Abaddon.
"No, like the Blacksmiths," Scrayden corrected Abaddon who nodded as if it were all of a sudden obvious, "I like to tinker."
"Oh, I'll bet you do." Abaddon remarked.
"Is it the tools that give it away?" Scrayden brandished a large wrench. The banter carried on like this for a bit before Cheechum jumped into the fray.
"What are you even doing here? How do you even know this place exists?" she asks him.
"When I happened upon Phandalin, Thalia, from the Miner's Exchange, described a man like who I was looking for and that he had come to these ruins about a week ago… What's with the glowing hands?"
"It's a long story… but, it happened when we activated the glyphs to gain entry." Cheechum explained.
"Where are you from again?" Abaddon strokes his chin.
"Foghollowbottom."
"I may have played a gig there. It didn't end well if I recall."
"I've heard of that show." Scrayden says facetiously.
"I lost two roadies." Abaddon reflects with a lack of adequate remorse.
Once the group catches up Scrayden on their mission, Abaddon suggests he may be able to put in a good word for the halfling if he decides to stay and help, which he does.
They resume their investigation of the great hall - and upon further inspection of the altar, they discover something fascinating. Each corner of the altar has a large green gem embedded in it, save for one. Each gem has a Dwarven rune inscribed on it, one says Earth, another Blood, the third one Fire. In the middle of the table is a gully of sorts, with 4 canals connecting it with the gems. On the backside of the altar, which stands about 3 ft high, is a chamber covered by vented gate, filled with ashes. There are runes on the table, which Norbus roughly translates as,
"Life is precious, precious is life, under the sun, many are made one through strife. Utter and unfold."
The group ponders the phrase and then Scrayden and Abaddon pull out tools to forcibly remove the gems. Ezra and Cheechum both protest that they not vandalize a sacred place, Ezra especially given his past, and convinces the two of them to cease and desist.
Determining that there must be more to this temple than just this room, and that maybe the missing 4th gem is still around to be found, they resume their search of the hall. Ezra is the first to discover a secret door to the right of the altar, but it leads to a collapse. Bel sends Rattigan through the rubble to explore, and he returns nodding "yes." Since that proved inconclusive, Cheechum decides to change into a snake and go see for herself, and slithers through the cracks in the rubble and finds herself on the other side, in a long hallway.
Meanwhile, the group continues their search elsewhere in the hall and Scrayden discovers two more doors, one on the left side of the altar, and one on the left wall.
Meanwhile, Cheechum is surprised by an Ochre that drops down from the ceiling behind her on the rubble. It strikes with a solid blow from one of it's pseudopods, so hard that it knocks Cheechum out of her snake form. She casts frostbite on the Ochre and bolts down the hallway, also noting the superior stonemasonry of the dwarves as she retreats.
The group in the great hall is just about to enter their newly discovered secret doors when they hear Cheechum come yelling down the hall, "Oooochre!!"
Arwald rushes in the hall as Cheechum runs past him, followed by Scrayden, Ezra, and Abaddon. Arwald slams his torch down into the pile of goo, bruising and burning it. Feeling quite proud of himself, Arwald looks back at Scrayden, "Think you can do better?"
"Well I can't do worse." Scrayden says as he launches an arrow into the Ochre, piercing it through. "The floor is yours good sir," he says to Ezra as the sorcerer pushes to the front and casts firebolt! Immediately, Ezra feels that all too familiar, but unwanted sensation of Arcana tingle at his finger tips, "Oh no." And is instantly teleported into darkness.
The Ochre enraged by the sting of fire, immediately looks to attack the sorcerer back, but at the disappearance of the Ezra, despite being a pile of goo, seems to express a discernable sense of confusion with its form, and takes aim at Scrayden but misses with it's pseudopod! The group although shocked at the disappearance of Ezra, doesn't skip a beat. Bel does a one foot plant off the right wall, followed by another off the left wall and lands behind the Ochre, and stabs it with her shortsword. Abaddon attempts to stab it in turn, not wanting to be left out, but the Ochre manages to avoid the stab and clasps Abaddon's hands from either side with its gooey tentacles. There is a brief tug of war, which Abaddon wins, and a simultaneous exchange of what appears to be cut-eye is made between Abaddon and the Ochre. Cheech launches her boomerang but misses given the difficult angles of the narrow hallway. Arwald slams the torch into it once more, and finishes off the jelly, vaporizing it.
Ezra scrambles in the dark to find his flint and torch and finally gets it lit. He finds himself in what must be the Vestry of the temple. There are four mannequin torsos on stands, used for dawning the priestly vestments. There is an empty wardrobe next to them, a giant polished copper mirror hung on the opposite wall, a small table and chair against the same wall, and a bucket in the corner (filled with coal).
There is a skeleton clothed in garments different those hung on one of the mannequins, sat on the floor leaning up against the wall directly in front of him with a tattered leather book and staff in its clutches. Every page has something written again and again in an unknown language, and the penmanship indicates the onset of madness. The staff is made of weathered wood, with branches at the top twisted around a crystal, locking it in place. Ezra also discovers two secret doors, one adjacent to the mannequins, and one that the skeleton was leaned up against.
Back in the great hall, cheechum sprints through the secret hallway on the left wall, following it as it turns sharply to the right to a large stone door. She pushes it open to find a cot with one skeleton lying on it, and another seated on the floor leaning up against it. She inspects the garments of the skeleton on the floor leaning up against the bed, and discovers the missing 4th gem in a secret pocket! As soon as she takes it from the skeleton, the snapping and crackling of bones and sinew can be heard as the skeletons come to life!
The one on the bed jumps up and swings at Cheechum, missing by a hair as the blade flies over the top of her head. With the secret door open connecting the room Cheechum is in with the room Ezra is in, he is alerted to the commotion in the next room by the cracking of the skeletons as they come to life. Seeing the attack on Cheechum, Ezra immediately casts Magic Missile smashing into the skeleton and sends it flying back into the wall. The second skeleton turns to face the caster, surprised by his appearance - and Cheechum seizes the opportunity, and cuts it in half from behind, and it collapses to the floor. The skeleton on the bed gathers itself and takes another swing at Cheechum and misses, Ezra launches another volley of Magic Missiles at the remaining skeleton, smashing it back into the wall, and finally into a heaping pile of singed bones. And like that, the fight is over, with Ezra and Cheechum, catching their breath from the adrenaline.
After having killed the Ochre, those in the hallways pushed forward to where it came from, Bel and Abaddon try once again to search the walls for secret doorways but again are smitten and distracted by the stonemasonry. Scrayden, steps between the two of them to a portion of the wall, "Is this what you're looking for?" and pushes the panel that slides into the wall, revealing the long hallway.
About 10 feet ahead, a dim light flickered from a room on the right where the head and torso of a skeleton could be seen laying in the threshold of the doorway. As they approached, the arm of the skeleton twitched as Abaddon stepped over it, "Probably just the wind…" he thought to himself. Inside the room, Cheechum and Ezra stood still staring at one another as the rest of the group came in to see what they'd found.
Cheechum and Ezra recounted the events of the last few moments, and what they'd found… almost all of what they'd found. Cheechum was concealing the gem she'd found. It was… precious to her. Ezra showed off this new staff he'd found, and Abaddon decided he would like to know if it was magic, and if there were any other magic nearby. As the aura of the staff became clear to him, that it was indeed touched with magic, he also notices an aura emanating from inside Cheechum's pouch, where she'd hidden the gem.
"And what is it you're carrying?" Abaddon draws attention to the hidden artifact. Cheechum, now compelled shows the 4th gem to the delight of the group. Ezra recalls the notebook, and shows it to the group. Bel recognized the Elvish. The first page had the Dwarvish runes from the altar of sacrifice in the great hall, below that, is a translation, in Elvish, slightly different from their earlier translation:
"Blood is gold, gold is blood, in the flame the two become one and flood. Speak the words, and come undone."
It was written over and over again, as if by repetition the author hoped to gain some greater understanding of its meaning, but went mad in the process. Before leaving the room to venture further down the hallway, Cheechum kicked over the bucket of coal to see if the sending stone was inside. It was not, and Ezra quickly gathered the coal back into the bucket, and brought it with her.
They pushed forward, wanting to know what lay ahead, but discovered the way was blocked by rubble and debris from a collapse. They decided to clear the rubble and push onward, tired as they were, their wills were set. While clearing the rock and stone, they decided to bury the skeletons from the other rooms properly in a secret room Scrayden discovered shortly after reuniting that held nothing of particular import. After a couple of hours, they cleared a path to a large stone door.
Exhausted from their efforts, the group took refuge in the Priest's bedroom for a long rest to regain their strength.
The Hall of Greed
Opening the door, a ray of moonlight shone down through a crack onto a large stone table a little more than 10 feet from the door with three dwarf skeletons sat around it. One skeleton on the opposite side of the table, and one on each end. It was a small room, 20 feet by 20 feet with an alcove on either side. The right side filled with more debris from a collapse, but the left side had a statue of what was likely a physical representation of the god Abbathor, his arms stretched forward, hands cupped, holding a large golden sphere about the size of a halfling's head, seemingly offering it to whomever would take it.
On the table, in the middle are 4 metal rings fitted perfectly into the stone, a hands-breadth apart from one another in a line. Under each ring, is a recess in the stone, shaped exactly as the stones from the altar of sacrifice. Upon seeing this, the group decided to quickly return to the altar of sacrifice.
They placed the 4th gem its place. Like a magnet, it clicked into place, locked. Much debate was made about the meaning of the runes, and the Elvish translation. Abaddon and Scrayden took the opportunity to sharpen their wits against one another in some friendly banter that helped to lighten the mood of the group as they wrestled with the riddle. Finally, it was decided, they stoked the furnace in the altar with the coal, and elected to each cut themselves and drip their blood into the crater in the middle of the table, and add a gold coin for each person… except Arwald. He had no interest in scarring himself when their was plenty of peasant blood to go around.
As the gold began to melt, they realized, there was not enough to fill the crater… either more blood, or more gold would be required to overflow the crater into the canals that lead to the gems. They continued to drip their blood into the crater, then realizing, they should add more gold, they looked to Arwald to contribute, who was much more content to flaunt his wealth. Since they were splitting this evenly, Ezra pledged a debt to Arwald in return for covering his share of the expense. It took 10 gold pieces from each player, and Arwald topped up the rest, paying for himself, Ezra, and tipping the balance of the meniscus at 33 gold pieces.
As the blood reached the gems, the runes inscribed on the table lit up with the blue flames they saw on the glyphs outside the temple! It was working! Then, in accordance with the instructions Abaddon spoke the words in order:
"Earth! Blood! Fire! Gold!" He chanted, and the rune for Earth lit up on the gem. Then Bel spoke, "Blood!" and the rune for Blood lit up on that gem. Then Scrayden spoke, but nothing happened. Then Ezra, but nothing happened. Then Cheechum spoke, "Fire!" and the rune lit on the 3rd gem. It was clear… only those with the Touch of Abbathor, bestowed upon entry could speak the words. All eyes turned to Arwald, he spoke the words… but nothing happened! It was then that Abaddon recalled… "your blood, you did not offer your blood!" Reluctantly, but resigned, Arwald cut his finger, and time seemed to stand still as one drop of blood fell into the crater filled with his new friends' blood and gold. A rivulet of the blood-gold leapt into the air and splashed back down as Arwald spoke, "Gold."
A loud tremor could be heard and felt as the room lit up like the night sky, with decorative carving and runes on the walls, pillars, and ceilings all alit with the blue flame of Abbathor! With the runes on all four gems glowing the gems lifted from their place, hovering in place, surrounded by blue flame! Each person with the Touch of Abbathor was able to remove a gem.
Quickly, they sprinted to Hall of Greed, one by one placing their gems on the table in the correct order, they locked into place, and four stone cones raised from the table like granite fingers with the rings on each of them. There was a mad scramble by the group to grab one in a frenzy of… greed. Abaddon, Ezra, Scrayden, and Arwald were the quickest, and snatched them… but Arwald bobbled his and it fell to the halfling, Cheechum, as luck is always on the side of the halfling.
As soon as they place the rings on their fingers, the Dwarf skeleton sat at the middle of the table, still dawning tattered and torn cloth and armor, begins to fill with a golden light that shimmers like a heat wave in the desert. An ethereal flesh seems to envelope the bones, giving shape and form to them. Building like a fire inside, the skeleton inflates like one waking from a deep sleep. They feel a warm, steady wind emanating from the once and former Dwarf strong enough to rustle their clothes and hair. Cosmic energy swirls like fire inside the skull, light flicking like tongues of fire from it's mouth and eyes as the head tilts back and the figure stands upright out of its chair. Bright enough to cause them to squint, and glance away, the figure stretches it's arms out now - as if enraged… or in pain, before slamming it's palms down on the table, hunched over in anguish.
"Deceived… hhhhelp!!!" You hear a deep and tortured voice hissing through its teeth.
"Deceiver! Usurper! Thief!... Bring us back!... Will you bring me back?!" It's voice grows louder, and more focused. They can see whatever this being is, it appears to be fighting something they can't see, struggling to stay with them, and maintain it's form. A wave of sadness come over them at the sight of its pain.
"Swear… you… will… kill him. Find us!" It winces and stares piercingly at them as the waves of energy swell and push beyond its form now. They can hear what sounds like gale force winds, and the low roll of thunder as he lifts his arms and pushes its chest out. "Swear it!" it seeths, teeth clenched, barely audible below the howl of the wind as the light begins to envelope them like shredded curtains in a storm…. They can feel a force pushing against them, building in strength! The wind is so loud it's all they can hear! Light, sound, and the force all swell, overwhelming their senses and… in an instant, as if sucked through a drain, all light swirls back inside him, the wind stops, and the room is deafeningly silent as it collapses back down on the chair in the faint light casting off the hands of the four touched. A dim blue light begins to fade in its eyes…
"You… did… not… swear…" the words fall from its mouth, and the light in its eyes, vanishes.
"Aaaaaaggggghhh!" the skeleton leaps across the table at them!
Cheechum, still reeling from the overwhelming sadness she'd just experience, thinks for a moment of trying to reason with the skeleton, but it is clear to her, this creature is not the one who just spoke. The battle was lost and this foul wretch has come forth! Arwald seeing the hesitation in Cheechum, swings down across the skeleton now standing on the table, carving into it's thigh bone. The skeleton drops to one knee and in a continued motion swings back at Arwald, slicing across his chest, sending him reeling back into the wall behind the table. Then swings at Scrayden but misses.
Ezra blasts the skeleton with fire, singeing its vestments and scorching its bones black. Abaddon contemplates unleashing a deafening wave of thunder on the bones, but realizing his friends are in harms way, swings with his blade, cutting into the tibia of the creature, sweeping its legs out from under it so it falls onto the table. Without losing a moment, the creature rolls off back onto its feet. Scrayden slings an arrow through the eye of the skeleton. The skeleton lunges for Abaddon swinging wildly, but Abaddon is able to side step both blows. Bel steps to the side from behind the creature now, and looses an arrow that shatters through the back of its skull, piercing through its right eye socket. Enraged, the skeleton snaps the arrow head off, leaving the shaft protruding out the back of its head and dashes it on the ground.
Cheechum shifts into the form of a Saber-toothed tiger, astonishing the group as some have never seen such an ability, and lunges forward with a bite, but misses on her first attempt, the sound of which startles the group, but would not be denied on her second. Clamping down, she tears a number of ribs off the skeleton with some cloth, shaking its head violently to make a clean tear. Arwald as if rebounding off the wall from the hit he took, vaults over the table and swings an overhead slash down across the back of the flailing foe who was about to attack Ezra and misses with both its attempts. Ezra blasts it again with fire, and seeing Abaddon preparing to unleash his fury, steps to the side. The scorched skeleton struggles to stand, smoke rising from its form.
Abaddon leans forward and whispers, "If it helps, I would've sworn" and slams his hands together sending a shockwave of destructive thunder at the skeleton, disintegrating some of its bones instantly while pushing the bulk of its frame back across the table and back into the chair from whence it leapt… the red fire, fading from its eyes.
Cheechum, compelled by curiosity in her cat form, attempts to grapple the golden orb in the statue and as soon as she clasps it in her paws, the statue cracks, and expands, and then shatters into pieces, sending shrapnel through the room. Everyone looks for cover… Cheechum was peppered significantly by the explosion, but it was poor Scrayden who took the brunt of the blow… now laying lifeless on the ground, with an uncountable amount of shards piercing his skin, and blood seeping out from around the stone bits and pieces onto his light olive skin.
Abaddon rushed quickly to Scrayden, casting a Healing Word to bring life back to the fallen hero. The pieces of stone pushed to the surface by the power of the spell, followed by the closing of the wounds, but the stains of all the blood could still be seen. Light returned to his eyes, and to the spirits all present.
They could not explain what they had just experienced. None of them had ever seen, heard, nor felt anything like it. It was a deluge of emotion, and stream of consciousness that did not map to any of their existing perceptions of reality. Nothing could be the same anymore, nothing in their faith could account for what they witnessed. No one could move. They stand in a circle, motionless, staring at one another with shifting glances, filled with a silence that speaks a thousand things no words can say, their eyes meet in agreement that history was changing. History has changed, and the world is something it was not yesterday. They, are something they were not yesterday.
Session 5
The Great Escape
Trying to figure out what they had just experienced, the could only surmise that they had been exposed to the Weave. As they stand huddled together, they notice that the Touch of Abbathor - their glowing hands - was beginning to flicker and fade… sound itself seemed to disappear into a void and all they could hear was their breath, and the beat of their hearts. There was no echo off the walls, the silence was deafening. Suddenly, the ground began to rumble and dust began to fall from the ceiling. The silence pierced by a loud crack as a fissure in the stone floor made its way from the mantle of the room to the back wall - splitting the party in on either side - and then up to the ceiling… the temple was collapsing.
Everyone sprinted for the hallways as the walls began crumbling around them, carrying the items they had just procured tightly in their arms. Cheechum, still in tiger form, leads the way as hey dash down the corridor. As they turn a corner to the right, Cheechum looks back and realizes Ezra is not with the group. She instantly bounds off the walls and in between the other members of the party to run back for Ezra to discover that party of the ceiling has collapsed on his leg, trapping him just outside the hall of greed. Cheechum knocks the rubble off his leg, and grabs Ezra by the cowl, and drags him back to the group.
As they continue onward, everyone running past whomever they can in the tight hallway, a part of the wall collapses on Bel and Arwald, trapping them both, knocking Arwald unconscious. Scrayden rushes over to free him, and begins dragging his massive frame across the stone - and incredible feat given the size difference. Cheehcum bolts to Bel and frees her from the rubble, and then grabs Arwald by his cloak and drags him towards the entrance.
Ezra, is desperate to get a sketch of the symbol from the room Cheechum found with the ritual earlier in their search and bolts off away from the entrance to try and find it. Past the altar of sacrifice, into the secret passage, and begins to capture a rubbing of the symbol on the floor. Meanwhile, a pillar collapses on Cheechum and Arwald. While attempting to steer his friends in the right direction, a part of the wall collapses on Abaddon in the hallway leading out.
Bel stuck in the middle, looks back and forth at the calamity and rushes to pull Abaddon free, but pulls the wrong rock and ends up trapped herself. Scrayden, seeing things taking a turn for the worse, hurries to try and free Cheechum, moving the rubble from off her leg, and then rushes towards Abaddon who finds his strength and frees both himself and Bel.
One by one they make their way out of the temple, Abaddon, Bel, are first. Scrayden did not make it too far after freeing Cheechum and Arwald, who are now making their way down the hallway to the entrace. Cheechum turns back to try and free Scrayden but can't seem to budge the rocks enough to free him and then rushes back to help with Arwald.
As Bel and Abaddon stand outside of the temple, they watch in horror as the full collapse begins without having full sight of their friends.
Inside, Scrayden manages to finally free himself and make his way out o the temple alongside Cheechum and Arwald. Ezra scrambling as fast as he can is knocked prone and trapped by a pillar that collapses as he runs past. Cheechum runs back in to find Ezra and tries to free him but is not having any luck. Abaddon this time finds his courage, or so it would seem and rushes into help Cheechum, he comes up to Ezra trapped under rubble and says, "Ezra! You can do it! And you've gotta do it yourself! Bye!" and rushes back out after inspiring Ezra to free himself from the rubble. Ezra completely annoyed by the nerve of the bard finds a little extra bit of muscle and free himself, grabs hold of Cheechum and they flee down the corridor.
The rest of the party stands outside watching the temple collapse, seeing it crumble in behind Ezra and Cheechum as they rush towards the entrance - swallowed by a cloud of dust and vanish!
The rumbling stops, the dust settles, and it is clear that all are present and accounted for.
Bel hurries to stabilize Arwald who has not yet come to. Abaddon, heals him, restoring vitality to him, giving him strength to move about on his own again.
Ezra glances over at Bel, and his intuition swells with suspicion… now that he's had a moment to reflect on all that's transpired, he's certain that Bel has taken something oh his while in the temple, and he wants it back!
"You need to give what you took from the temple, back! Because it is very important!" Ezra accuses Bel, who immediately objects, "What did I take?!" confused about what Ezra is talking about. As Bel thinks about it though, she interjects, "You have something of mine, and I have to have it back."
"Give what back?" Ezra asks, surprised at the turn.
"You know!" Bel gets stern.
A few feet away, Cheechum is also now convinced that she saw Abaddon hide something he found that belongs to her, and skulks slowly towards him, beginning to growl at a subdued, but threatening volume.
Abaddon recognizes immediately as the group descends into bickering and arguing that they have been befuddled by some curse, that thankfully, as a Gnome, has not affected him.
Things escalate and Ezra attempts to conjure a small ball of fire in his hand, but is struggling to produce the intended effect. Bel, in response pulls out her shortsword and points it to Ezra's neck, causing him to back up cautiously as they continue to bicker.
As Cheechum advances towards Abaddon, he calmly tries to dissuade her, "Nice kitty."
"Everyone, listen! You have obviously been bewitched by this temple of greed! Hear my song! A song of sharing! … I love you, you love me, we're all best of a friends as friends can be!" Abaddon bursts into a song of generosity.
Tensions continue to rise, and Ezra casts Sleep on Bel, who collapses to the ground into a quiet slumber.
Cheechum crouches and slinks forward… Abaddon immediately ponders if he has any sausage on him, realizing that he doesn't, he continues to amp up his performance, and as he does, all who are awake, suddenly realize they have been under some type of spell.
Ezra, feeling guilty immediately wakes Bel, who is still under the curse of Abbathor and lunges at Ezra with her sword. Ezra, immediately tells Bel, "Snap out of it! There's some kind of spell or curse that has affected us all!" convincing Bel to stand down.
Cheechum, halts her advances, circles, and lays down and begins licking her paws.
Abaddon recommends that the group tries to find the Dwarves, Dazlyn and Norbus, and Bel begins leading the way. Ezra and Abaddon have a brief conversation about the curse and reckon that their treasure that everyone took is cursed. Ezra relays the hypothesis to the rest of the group for all to contemplate.
As they come back to where the camp site was, Norbus and Dazlyn are gone, and the evidence that there ever was a campsite, seems long faded. From their investigation, it appears that it is simply the effects of time and nature that have eroded the evidence of the camp site.
Cheechum returns to her halfling form, and gazes up at the sky and observing the moon and stars cannot help but think that at least a month has passed since they first entered the temple. Everyone is confused. How could this be?
Abaddon preforms a ritual to sense the magic on the items and notes that the glow on the rings is different from that of the other gear. The rings are surrounded by a flame-red aura whereas the other gear emanate a blue glowing aura.
Ezra explained how in previous archaeological digs when they found cursed items, they would place them in the possession of one person rather than have the whole group affected by the curse. They decide to place the items inside Abaddon's chest until they can decide how to deal with the curse.
They note the inscription on the rings is the same as what was on the altar of sacrifice, "Blood is gold, gold is blood."
As they contemplate their next steps, exhaustion sets in on the group as they feel they have been walking for days. Ezra, Abaddon, and Bel, are too tired to stand, while Cheechum, Scrayden, and Arwald have a bit more spring in their step, but agree it's in the best interest of all to take a long rest, and make camp.
Previously, on Heroes of the Coast...
Current Quest:
Bring the supplies to the Tibor Wester at the Logger's Camp
Main Quest:
The town of Phandalin and surrounding area has been under siege by a White dragon. Harbin Wester has assigned you tasks to help bolster the town's ability to manage during the occupation by the dragon, until such time as some brave heroes can rid the land of the cruel beast.
Bigger Picture:
Quillathe, the Crown of the Supreme Leader hosted you in her quarters where she channeled Syrhax himself, who invited you to help improve the land of Faerun by joining the Vox Popula, which you accepted, and were all given lapel ornaments in the shape of a hand to designate your position in the faction.
Shortly after accepting this charge, you ran into Cheechum's Uncle, Quimble, who painted a different picture of what was happening in Faerun. Speaking of secret societies, and dragons, a conspiracy of power, and a mysterious man named De'Tyron, whom Scrayden was looking for when he first met you.
What you will do with this perspective is undecided.
Side Quests:
Complexities:
Abaddon is in deep with Zhentarim and has been quested to be a double-agent, tasked with figuring out who are Melech and Immeral, people of import to Quillathe, and acquaintances of both Scrayden and De'Tyron - the details of which are unknown. Meanwhile, Syrhax having heard of "the masked lords and the baroness" would like Abaddon to unmask the secret societies that plot with greed and ambition to undermine the redistribution of goods and services to the poor and needy.
Ezra was recognized and praised by Syrhax for having destroyed an ancient temple that sought to sew heresy, and revisionist history, and invited you to join him at the palace in Waterdeep to celebrate and honour your courageous and wise deed.
Quillathe and the Vox Popula have arrived to research and uncover what exactly happened at the Dwarven Excavation where you all experienced some sort of time displacement.
Quimble gave Cheechum an update on her family, how they were seduced and deceived by a green dragon named Arvor. The fate of her brother unknown, her parents still remain in her hometown, Thistledell, Luiren - a world away on the south-east coast of Faeurn.
Mysterious Sundry:
The Tibor Files
The party gathered round the crumbled chimney in the ruins of an old cabin as Ezra lifted from under the rubble and ashes a foul-crafted assembly of sticks and twigs. Thirteen stick figures, coated in blood of some kind, with lightning bolts drawn onto their forms and wrapped in black hair, Bel and Abaddon concur this must surely be a totem purposed to bring ill on all who dwell near it.
"I believe destruction is in order." Bel nodded without breaking her stare at the totem.
"Agreed. Kill it with fire!" Abaddon proclaimed with certainty and resolve.
He poured some oil upon it and threw it back into the chimney, then doused it with some more oil, then again with some more, and a third time for good measure. He then stepped back and nodded at Ezra, "Do your worst," he said while stepping back quite some distance.
Everyone began to step back as Ezra slowly cupped a small flame in the palm of his hand, and let it grow with intensity before loosing a firebolt at the chimney - incinerating the totem and knocking a few more bricks off the back of the chimney from the force of the explosion. The brief sound of screeching - like diamonds on glass and the sounds of tortured cries could be heard emanating from the chimney. The ground beneath their feet trembled and quaked, and the sound of burrowed creatures moving away from the camp could be heard and even seen.
The apparent departure of the remaining ankhegs brought with it a small sigh of relief and the groups attention now turned to the log cabin to the west as the last unexplored part of the camp. Abaddon approached the door on the south-east side as Cheechum circled around to the north side. Knocking on the door, Abaddon could swear he heard and felt the tremors once more dashing his hopes of having dealt with the problem.
Cheechum, thought she heard a voice on the wind and shouted, "how many are you out there?" which was met with hushed, but panicked reply, "Sshh sshh sshh! Stop stop stop!"
Abaddon knocks again, more quietly, and again he feels the tremors underfoot and is met the voice of someone pleading, "Stop knocking!". Cheechum moves closer to the northern side and asks again, "are you there? How many are you?"
"I think I'm the only one left!" the voice calls back, as Cheechum can now see what appears to be a face in the window of the cabin. "Who are you? And BE QUIET!"
"What's the danger?" Cheechum asked.
"Are you freaking kidding me?! The giant ants!" Cheechum assured the man that everything was fine as she had back up. "You're gonna need a lot!" the voice replied snidely. "Do you have any food?"
Abaddon listening in chimed, "does he not know who were are?"
"Clearly not." Cheechum rolled her eyes.
Abaddon, losing patience, jiggles the handle on the door and then opens it to a very rustic interior. A bit dusty, but still clearly lived in, but nothing non-essential occupies the space. There are furnishings, table ware, and one solitary portrait on the wall, mostly likely of Tibor Wester himself.
"Who are you and what is your business here?" Cheechum asked the hidden voice.
"Are you kidding me?! I'm Tibor Wester! This IS my business!"
"We may have a package for you if that is in fact who you truly are." Cheechum replied.
"A lot of good it does me! Where are the men?!"
"They're here," said Cheechum.
"They survived?!" the disbelief in Tibor's voice gave Cheechum pause.
"Which men are you referring to?" she asked.
"My men! The workers!" Tibor was losing patience.
Now catching his drift, Cheechum confessed, "Oh, those men probably aren't here, but we are."
"Oh man. What am I going to do!" The concern in his voice read like fear to Cheechum, fear of something worse than the grief of the lives lost, as if now upon hearing the news, some worse fate awaited Tibor. She can hear him cursing the dragon under his breath.
"Which dragon are you referring to?" She asks.
A wave of shock and resignation rolls over his face, filling his eyes with not quite tears, "You mean… there's more than one?" he asks quietly with a small fear-induced crack in his tone.
"Oh yes there are." Cheechum says confirming his concern. She can see him now turn his back to the window, half his shoulder appearing, and pressing up against the frame on the inside and slowly sliding down to a seated position on the floor where his hopes also seemed to have landed. Cheechum approaches to climb into the window which is slightly propped open at the bottom, only to have Tibor immediately close it, commanding, "No one comes in or out until the ankhegs are gone!"
Meanwhile, as Abaddon presses in to the cabin a few more steps, the floor erupts as an Ankheg bursts through to grapple him, but he nimbly dodges the grasping attempts of the creature and readies himself for the next attack.
"You broke into the wrong rec-room!" Abaddon shouts. "I think I found the queen!" He yells back to the rest of his party. He begins to whisper a dissonant melody which appears to only mildly rattle the creature from the moment, and seizing that moment he extricates himself from the situation back through the door, putting a bush and 20 yards between himself and the ankheg.
The ankheg in turn, burrows back beneath the ground and disappears out of sight. The tremors and a visible fissure in the ground make a straight line towards Ezra culminating with the ankheg bursting through and grappling Ezra before he can react, plunging its mandibles deep into Ezra's torso. Ezra in a moment goes limp and appears to be entirely as the mercilessness of the creature.
Bel immediately jumps in with Venom's Edge and severs the limbs of the ankheg, releasing Ezra to drop to the ground. The creature roars in agony, mandibles open wide and a mix of saliva and ichor fly out of its mouth. Cheechum lashes her thorn whip at the monstrosity, tearing off the remaining limbs on its right side, and then takes her scimitar out and finishes the creature off with a flurry of slashes to ensure it has indeed been exterminated.
Abaddon quickly casts healing word to mend Ezra's critical wounds, brining him back to a stable condition, bring a look of relief as well as consternation over his face. He then immediately turns his attention to confirming the infestation has been eradicated and begins playing on his hurdy-gurdy a low tune with vibrato, aimed at stirring any ankhegs that may still be lying in wait beneath the terrain. Nothing stirs. All is quiet.
Ezra can barely wipe the look of consternation of his face as Abaddon begins to strum, raising his hands as if asking a question before pointing to his abdomen where the gaping wound was but a moment earlier as if to say, what the hell are you doing?!
"Ah, you'll be fine." Abaddon chirps dismissively. Xanth saunters over, folds his arm and looks down at Abaddon with approval, "Bold move, Bard."
"Fortune favours the bold my four-hooved friend." Abaddon says with a smile before his brow furrows at the sound of some dissonant noise competing with his artistry from the hill top to the west of the cabin. He can't be sure, but it sounds like… pigs attempting to squeal and snort along to his bassline.
"Not exactly the appreciation I was looking for." Abaddon chuckled.
Cheechum ventured into the cabin, being careful to step around the hole in the ground left by the ankheg and proceeded to knock on the door in the north end of the room, behind which should be Tibor Wester according to her sense of direction.
"You guys are unbelievable! Not only are you in here just knocking around, you're playing music loudly! Are you insane?!" Tibor did his best to muffle his exasperation.
"Some might think so." retorted Cheechum.
"Not at all, we were merely attempting to ascertain if there were any remaining ankhegs with which to deal." Abaddon said with a wink to Cheechum.
"So you killed them all?!" Tibor enquired.
"All that dared to show their mandibles," as if such a feat were trivial, Abaddon polished his nails on his coat before fanning his hand out in front to inspect that there was no dirt under his nails.
"Fantastic!... Who are you?!" Tibor shifted gears.
"We are just some folks who have come to deliver some supplies for you." Cheechum said reassuringly.
"Who sent you?"
"A friend of a friend," said Cheechum now tilting to the ambiguous before Abaddon sought to clarify, "… more like a blood relation. We represent townmaster Harbin Wester."
"Oh that's who it is!" Cheechum's memory now returning to her.
"We were commissioned to bring supplies to this logging camp and to obtain your signature, sir." Abaddon pressed with a sense of urgency.
"Those supplies were due here a few days ago!"
"We ran into some trouble on the road…" defended Abaddon.
"As you can imagine," added Cheechum.
"You know the old story," continued Abaddon as he and Cheechum nodded at one another in agreement.
"Trouble? What kind of trouble?"
Abaddon waved off Cheechum's reply and took the lead, "the kind that adds one or two days to making a delivery, nothing more," nodding to Cheechum with a wink and an expression of being impressed with himself.
An awkward silence blossomed in the wake of Abaddon's words before Cheechum broke through with a question about the supplies and a request for his signature. Tibor silently calculating returned to his fear of the ankhegs, "So, the ankhegs are all gone??"
"All that showed their face are gone." Cheechum confirmed.
The sound of locks could be heard turning and the door slowly opened a crack to reveal Tibor's eyes - which could pass for his half-brother Harbin's - darting around the room, behind Abaddon and Cheechum, and to the floor before he slowly opened the door wider. He seemed to catch a glimpse of himself in the faces of the gnome and the halfling, realizing he must've looked scared, he straightened himself up, puffed out his chest and tugged on either lapel of his jacket before circling back around behind his desk.
"So, what can I do for you? You have some supplies you say?"
"I'm Abaddon Tommyknock at your service, we have a cart full of supplies and we'll grab your signature and be on our merry way."
Tibor insisted on verifying the goods which seemed appropriate to the party, and then begins to ask a favour of Abaddon as he begins heading out towards the cart. Abaddon takes a quick glance at the signature on the stack of paperwork on the desk to serve as a comparison for the signature he soon hopes to capture for the receipt of goods.
Cheechum heads around the desk interested in climbing through the window to explore the area behind the cabin further, and also notices the words "Incident Report" on the same stack of papers on the desk. Reading through the first page details the account of a worker being killed after a pile of logs collapsed upon him. Pouring through them, she finds report after report of injuries or deaths that have occurred at the camp. She takes them over to Bel who begins her own investigation of the documents. Bel deftly analyzes that all the incidents are occurring on the same day, of the same week, of each month. The date itself seems to bear no significance to anyone, but simply strikes them as strange as the odds of all these injuries occurring on the same date are astronomical. Be also notices that some of the reports indicate that the injured were taken to Falcon's lodge for treatment.
Bel, suspicions now aroused begins searching the desk more thoroughly and discovers a secret compartment underneath containing two letters. The first one addressed to Tibor:
_____________________________
Tibor,
In order to continue business here, we will require one person per month to be transferred to our care. Failure to meet your quota will have dire consequences for you and your operation here.
My representatives will await at the exchange point as per our agreement. Do not disappoint or our broker may take matters into their own hands.
KM
__________________________________
The second letter:
Oh Mighty one,
Due to the presence of a dragon now hunting in the area, it has made it very difficult to recruit new workers from the surrounding area, please allow more time, or a reduction to one transfer per 2 months…
________________________________________
Tibor and Abaddon arrive at the cart and Tibor immediately begins inspecting the goods, "I know exactly what should be be here," and then glances at the breeches, which are thoroughly scorched by the icey dragon's breath.
"What the hell happened to the cart?!"
"I may have mentioned we ran into a bit of trouble on our way here. Nothing to worry about," assured Abaddon.
Tibor shifted a glance over his arm at Abaddon, "trouble doesn't have a propensity to follow you does it?"
"I'm not sure I take what you're meaning," chuckled coyly.
"Did you deal with said 'trouble' or is it still out and about?" Tibor pushed the inquiry.
Abaddon explained how they encountered the dragon but were not able to vanquish it. Tibor was nonetheless impressed at not only their survival but the ability to fend off the monster. He motions as though he's about to make an offer of some kind, but then gives pause for further calculation before presenting his request.
"We're under a lot of pressure here to help with the rebuilding of Neverwinter, and I've lost every one of my workers." He then asks Abaddon to implore his half-brother, Harbin, to recruit more workers, and extends the invitation to Abaddon to do some recruiting of his own. After shuffling his imaginary abacus in the air with his hand he offers Abaddon 20 gold per recruit. Abaddon being Abaddon is negotiates him quickly to 25 gold per recruit.
Abaddon strokes his chin, "that sounds like an interesting proposition, Mr. Wester. A very interesting proposition indeed."
"Indeed. Funding comes from Neverwinter, and supplies from Phandalin - taxes you see - and I like to invest in my brother's efforts, of course."
Abaddon nods, "and having access to those sweet, sweet reconstruction contracts… that's quite the line of work you've got there."
"It can have its perks, but it's not without its stresses either…" and at that his gaze veers to the treeline on the south east side of the camp, and a hypnotic gaze comes over Tibor as he drifts away for a moment in thought before returning to his inventorying of the supplies.
"Expecting someone are you, Mr. Wester?" Abaddon inwardly growing ever more suspicious of this fellow who uncomfortably reminds him a little bit of himself.
"No, no. Once bitten, twice shy, is all, as they say."
He offers to sign the cargo manifest so that Abaddon can claim his reward from Harbin. He then pulls out another piece of paper from the inside of his jacket and invites Abaddon to sign regarding the financial arrangements for his recruitment efforts, and the ancillary benefit of presenting favourably to the nobles in Neverwinter for his help with the reconstruction efforts.
"… there's plenty of money at the end of this train," Tibor adds to sweeten the pot.
Abaddon examined the terms of the deal in writing finding in summary, he was to:
Beyond that, Abaddon sees nothing out of the ordinary, or binding in the contract and signs with a false, incomprehensible signature, which Tibor studies along with Abaddon's face a few times back'n forth. He eventually decides it's on the up and up and requests the help of Abaddon to help unload and stock the supplies near the cabin. Abaddon of course volunteers Xanth for the job, which he politely accepts in good faith for the promised help of the party to help restore peace to his home turf.
Abaddon makes his way back into the cabin, stepping over the carcass of the ankheg outside the door before wiping the ichor off his boots at the entrance. Looking across the room, he sees Bel, Cheechum, and Ezra seated at the table pouring over a stack of papers with concerned looks on their faces.
"Why the long face, Cheechum?" He asks.
"Well, I'd like to hear a word or two from your friend - wherever he's gone to - about what is going on at his camp and with his workers" referring of course to Tibor and the contents of the letters.
Puzzled, Abaddon asked "whatever do you mean?" Cheechum then shows him the incident reports and of course Abaddon immediately analyzes the signatures on the manifest and the reports to ensure they match. Bel recounts her findings of her investigation to Abaddon, concluding that it appears Tibor is handing over at least one person to someone, for something, on the same day, of the same week, of every month.
Abaddon clarifies the charges before asserting, "If I'd know that, I wouldn't have signed for such a low rate as a recruiter," making it unclear of course if he was upset about the money or the morality of the situation.
"I mean, I didn't really plan on following through with any effort, I was simply hoping I could abscond with a signing bonus of sorts, but none was forth coming. I'm shocked, I'm truly shocked… ok, I'm not that shocked actually, but, still…" Abaddon downgrades the moral ambiguity of his position.
"Who is this 'KM' do you think?" reflecting further on the contents of the letters he'd previously not seen. No one could think of anyone, however, matching the initials.
Abaddon wonders if this is Makitryk, the cultest from the Ruins of Thundertree. Ezra remarks that the handwriting on the letter looks familiar, and quickly pulls out the many books he carries around searching for something he can't quite remember. Abaddon starts to think it seems familiar too before long and then blurts out, "The leger!"
Ezra shuffles texts quickly and then opens the leger they found in Mt.'s Toe goldmine with the unknown language. (This was the leger that fit inside the box perfectly that they found in the Shrine of Savras). They studied for some time before mutually concluded that the penmanship had remarkable similarities, despite being written in two different languages. Furthermore, the handwriting of the letter addressed to Tibor does not look like it belongs to that of a native speaker of common; the direction of the strokes and flares is off.
Tibor returns into the room, "Good fellow that Xanth chap," he says as he dusts off his hands.
"Yes, he's a real salt-lick of the earth type of guy," Abaddon says, doing his best to not alarm Tibor of their investigation with any odd body language.
"Indeed… you wouldn't be willing to part with him, would you? I could use his help around here, as you can clearly see."
"It's interesting you should say that…" and before Abaddon can finish his sentence, Tibor cuts him off.
"Oh, and by the way, who's hungry? There's some wild boar roaming around just up the hill? I'm sure we could whip one up into a decent feast."
Abaddon eyes the group before confirming their reservations at Chez Logger's camp, "If you're going to slay a boar, I suppose the least we can do is stick around for dinner."
"Fantastic! One problem however, I don't really do that kind of thing - killing and butchery and all, if you wouldn't mind taking the honour?"
"I may be skilled with the dulcimer and the hurdy-gurdy, but I'm no wizard in the kitchen," proclaims Abaddon.
"Well naturally," Tibor's gaze shifts to the two females in the party.
"Oh, Wester, you need to advance your thinking."
"Don't we all?" retorted Tibor, "but I'm still hungry."
"Well, chew on this," Abaddon now segues the conversation, "you have suffered quite a set back here with the loss of your labourers."
"Indeed I have, which is why you're going to help recruit some new workers," Tibor says matter-of-factly while gazing out the window towards the boars.
"Well, interesting you should say that, is that going to cause a problem with your associates?"
"Associates? In Neverwinter?" a puzzled look comes over Tibor's face as his attention swivels back to the party.
"No, the associates you meet at the exchange point. The associates lead by KM," Abaddon's left eyebrow raises with an air of pride in his craft of verbal chess.
The group confronts Tibor about their findings from the letters and the incident reports which Tibor disavows any knowledge of and pleads ignorance and innocence on all charges. As far as the group can tell, he seems to be telling the truth about his knowledge of the letters, and not knowing about the secret compartment under the desk. Tibor is a little offended at breach of privacy in having his office searched, but seems more concerned with the claims themselves. In disbelief, he enters the office to search the desk himself and upon seeing the compartment with his own eyes, folds his arms while stroking his chin with one hand, and says, "Well, would you look at that. What is going on around here?!"
"Don't you find it a bit odd that all these incidents seem to occur like clockwork on a calendar schedule?" Abaddon pressed.
And with that, in the same way a teacher recognizes the change in countenance when a students finally learns a concept, the group notices a similar expression on Tibor's face. His eyes widen, and mouth opens slightly to inhale as he raises a finger in exclamation before placing both hands on either side of his face, "You're right! What is going on here?! What kind of devilry has been going on here?! Under my watch! Oh I feel like such a fool!" he proclaims.
Abaddon enquires as to who has access to the room and desk, to which Tibor admits it could be anyone as they all come and go. He tells the group that he sends the incident reports to his sponsors in Neverwinter before it dawns on him the aim of the line of questioning, "Wait… you're not suggesting that I've had something to do with these incidents, are you?!"
Abaddon switches gears and entertains the notion that Tibor may have a problem that he didn't even realize he'd had, and furthermore, if an arrangement has been struck with a third party for these workers, they'll be expecting another delivery under threat of violence for failure to deliver. Abaddon recites the contents of the letter for Tibor who thinks for a moment and then announces he must return to Neverwinter to summon some type of security for the camp. He then interrupts himself, noticing the party donning the pins of Vox Popula on their vestments.
"Wait! You can help with this! This is exactly the kind of thing you do!" A brief exchange takes place again between Abaddon and Tibor over his involvement, and Tibor maintains his position of being non-complicit. The group, though wary of his words, tend to believe he's telling the truth.
"Allow us a moment to confer with one another," Abaddon ushers the group out of the office into the kitchen, beginning to close the door behind them.
"Locked in my own office? How do you like that!" Tibor snidely comments.
Abaddon halts the closure and moves into Tibor's personal space with an air of authority now, "Excuse us, we are Vox Popula so please show us the respect we deserve." Tibor sits down his chair feigning indifference, "Yes-yes… as you were."
"As you were." Abaddon in turn chirps back.
Abaddon says with a sigh after closing the door, "Well this is getting a bit ridiculous, isn't it Monty" trailing into tone of baby-speak as he scratches Monty under the chin. Monty endures it for a brief moment before attempting to snack on Abaddon's finger. Abaddon pulls his hand away in perfect timing as if expecting the behaviour.
Cheechum recommends reporting the fiasco here to Tibor's half-brother, Harbin back in Phandalin which everyone agrees is a good idea along with confiscating the letters and incident reports. They also agree to validating the claims of the incident report at Falcon's lodge of injured workers being sent their for care, since they're going there anyway.
Abaddon opens the door to see Tibor sitting at his desk still sipping water from his cup. "So am I to be drawn and quartered or are we going to eat this boar?" he asks.
"I see no reason why we cannot break-boar," Abaddon spins a pun.
"I've got a long trip ahead of me tomorrow as I need to return to Neverwinter and take those letters you've found and show them to my sponsors," Tibor says self-assuredly.
Abaddon laughs at the idea and informs Tibor that they will be taking the evidence to Phandalin and sharing with the Vox Popula detachment there. Tibor recognizes their authority and agrees that that is the correct procedure.
"What should I tell my sponsors though? I'm a dead man if I stay here, I'm a dead man if I go back." Tibor exclaims with fear and loathing. "Surely you can help me?" he pleads. Cheechum invites him to come along with the party.
Tibor explained how normally, once a week a worker from the camp would go down river to report to the sponsors in Neverwinter and submit any requests requiring more funding or support, but since no one remained, that task fell to him. Abaddon asked him what his plan was if the Ankhegs grew tired of waiting for another morsel, to which Tibor - in a moment of unexpected vulnerability confesses to having given up all hope.
"You have done me a great service, restoring hope where there was none. There are so many people relying on the work that is done here, I must return to Neverwinter and face whatever awaits me there. You take these letters to your people, and if you can, send a detachment here to fortify, and I will return in a fortnight."
Abaddon attempts to inquire about his sponsors, but Tibor sites confidentiality under a non-disclosure agreement he signed, and tells Abaddon that even though they are Vox Popula, they will require a court order to obtain that information, and due process must be followed.
Abaddon nods and pats Tibor in an attempt to calm him down, and Cheechum extends Monty towards him in the same hopes. Abaddon seizes the brief distraction to pick-pocket back the contract he signed and quickly slides it up the sleeve of his jacket.
"I've never seen a manticore cub before. I'm sure there's a fantastic story here you can tell me over dinner. But in the meantime, I've got to go see a man about a horse. I've been holed up here for a few days… don't drink what's in the pitcher." Tibor warns the party as he picks up his pace to exit the room to go and find some privacy. "Will one of you see to preparing one of the boars?" he asks while leaving the office. The sound of him discovering the ankheg carcass at the entrance to the cabin can be heard faintly by the group back in the office. "Disgusting!" he mutters as he steps through the ichor, and then vanishes into the woods nearby.
Abaddon quickly looks at the paper he pocketed to find it blank, realizing that Tibor was one step ahead of him it seems, and tips his imaginary hat to him. Abaddon displays the blank piece of paper to the group which is met with a myriad of eye rolls and confirmation of their suspicions. After a brief discussion amongst themselves, they decide to wash their hands of the entire affair concluding Tibor has sealed his own fate and being to look for Xanth, who is found watching over the boars up the hill.
Abaddon informs him that their business here has concluded and they are ready to move on. Xanth recommends they take refuge at Falcon's lodge before attempting to help him re-take his home. The rest of group has now caught up with Abaddon and Xanth and they're all standing on the bluff overlooking the cabin, watching the boars muddle about. They notice that 3 of the 5 boars are branded with the letters BAK, which would stand for Big Al Kalazorne, recalling that when the Orcs attacked the ranch they let lose much of the livestock. Abaddon takes a second look at the 2 unbranded boars look slightly different in breed from the branded ones.
Abaddon casts detect magic on the unbranded boars, but does not notice anything. The group does recall that Big Al would pay handsomely to have his boars returned. Cheechum begins to separate the branded from the unbranded, the two unbranded boars change shape into humanoid form.
"I don't think so! Those are ours!" one of the humanoid figures says.
"Hogwash!" cries Abaddon!
Post-Reboot sessions 2 through 7:
A Boaring Encounter
Falcon's Lodge: The calm before the storm
Grannoc it til you try it!
A well of trouble
I'd Drider be somewhere else
Shadows of the past
The tunnel from the platform an enormous underground cavern, and you can see across a narrow precipice ruins, and a gate of what appears to be… a city.
Passing through the gate, you enter a what was once a majestic concourse leading to a large stone gate. Six statues of snake-like humanoid figures line the concourse, 3 on each side and large broken statue of a dragon in the middle whose head lays on the ground.
There are places where some of the walls have caved in and rubble of earth and stone litter what was once worked slates of stone beneath your feet. The sound of dripping water echoes rhythmically into puddles of water scattered about. The water gives off a dim green glow as if touched by moonlight that reflects off the walls. There are a few emerald deposits protruding from the walls giving off a faint glow, while a giant tangle of roots has broken through the wall on last statue on the right. Thick webs cover all of the statues.
At the far end, the large stone archway is adorned with an ornately sculpted dragon's head revealing a staircase that goes down to another level.
Ezra finds himself in an all too familiar place, a place he'd rather forget: The ruins of Arphesia. Suddenly, his mentor appears, Harrow Gildenwood, "Ezra! What luck you're here! Can you believe this place?! The likes of it have never been seen before! This will redeem us both!". This is exactly how it happened, everything is unfolding just as it did all those years ago. Ezra follows after his mentor who is excitedly exploring the ruins, trying to explain to Harrow something that he has learned since this time… but it's like Harrow cannot hear Ezra. Harrow implores Ezra to begin documenting their find, before discovering something truly wonderous and inviting Ezra over to examine; and just as it happened the first time, Ezra stumbles and crashes into the wall, collapsing it, and destroying the evidence… Harrow yelling, "You fool!" and as Ezra turns to face his mentor, instead he's met a decayed, necrotic shadow of himself, screaming terrifically and lunging at Ezra…
Bel appears in a dark alley way, in Waterdeep. Her mentor, Ürgen, is across the street bidding her to follow him just like the last time she saw him, here… in this place… before he died, before he was murdered. "Bel, this way! This is the house! Hurry! Follow me!" They approach a house, yes, the house. He begins to pick the lock and with the click of it opening smiles at Bel, "You see, it's all in the wrist," and walks into the house. "Bel, I'll go check upstairs, you stay here. Let me know if anyone's coming!" As he goes up the stairs, Bel hears a noise on the counter behind her - it's Rattigan! Or at least… the rat that she will name Rattigan. Captivated by this little rodent who is equally captivated by her, Bel realizes she's not paying attention to her surroundings when she hears a noise behind her go up the stairs. Moving towards the stairs a scream erupts from upstairs followed by a thud. Bel races up the stairs as quickly as she can to see Ürgen lying on the floor, dying… "You didn't warn me… why did you leave me to die?!" and at these words, he transforms into the cold dark horrific shadow of Bel - and reaches out to attack her!
Zawala's eyes open to the Orc village where she spent her early years as both adopted child, and spoil-of-war-turned slave. She sees her friend, Yargath in a panic telling her to follow, "I can hide you so they won't hurt you! Hurry follow me!" and runs ahead. Zawala hears then sees behind her her Orc parents who used to abuse her, Trog and Kalithnor, running towards her. Zawala runs after Yargath catching a glimpse of herself in a puddle and realizes she's a child again.
After following Yargath into an old temple looking for a hiding place, she momentarily loses track of her before Yargath calls her toward the east wing behind a pillar. Zawala races over and as she comes around the pillar, discovers Yargath lying wounded - just like the last time she saw her when Zawala's Paladin troupe massacred her tribe. "You were my sister Zawala… why did you do this…" as Zawala opens her mouth to speak, Yargath transforms into the dark shadow mirror of Zawala and reaches up to grab her while releasing a deafening scream of anger and hatred.
Abaddon finds himself on the streets of Waterdeep, strangely empty except for one of the Masked Lord's holding a knife to the throat of a woman… the baroness - who cries out to Abaddon to save her. The baroness screams, "Help me Abaddon… why are you doing this to me?!" Abaddon, having accepted the incarceration of this innocent woman as a necessary evil for the greater good, well, his greater good, pursued them out of morbid curiosity. Coming to an alley way between building he finds the Masked Lord has vanished and the baroness lying in a pool of blood on the ground with something in her hand. Moving closer to inspect the item, a voice could be heard whispering over his shoulder, "Never drop the bone to catch the shadow. For a greedy man, even their grave is too shallow," turning to see the horrific Shadow of his past lunging at him with a deafening scream of terror.