Session 13

=Session 13 - April 12th, 2018 - Elturiel and the Warlock=

The session began with the party assembling in the evening at “A Pair of Black Antlers”, the tavern headquarters of Ontharr Frume. Once all there, Leosin introduced them to the dwarven paladin. Seemingly unimpressed, Ontharr demanded that the strongest among the group wrestle him in a contest of good faith. Amused, Rachen stepped forward to brawl as the dwarf paladin began removing his armor with the help from his scrawny human squire. The other guests in the room helped clear the tables from the center of the room, and then the two grappled for a few seconds.

Rachen barely bested Ontharr, but all the same he had the dwarf pinned. Ontharr tapped out and immediately burst into joyous laughter. Leosin and the paladin then went into the back room to speak alone first. A few minutes later the squire showed the party into the same room. It was comfortable and had a long table with benches and multiple jugs of dark red wine.

Ontharr thanked the party for what they had already done, the information they had already recovered, and apologized that more coordinated action had not yet been taken against the cult. He assured them, the greater Order of the Sword that he represented, was aware of and concerned about this cult right alongside the Druid Dominion. Leosin and Ontharr had worked together for their two factions before, and have been long time friends. However, before any real power can be brought against these cultists they would need more evidence, and more information in general. He assured them his paladin order could charter a river boat to Black Landing within a day to help them with Leosin’s plan of following the treasure.

Together, the two patrons asked the party if they would continue their course. The mission was to discover where the cult was taking the stolen treasure, and if possible how they plan to release their evil dragon god. The paladin questions this ultimate plot, never knowing the gods to walk the plane of mortals, but is concerned what it could mean. The group agreed to help, but they wanted to ensure sufficient compensation for their actions and risks. Ontharr offered them each sacks of fifty golden griffons to get supplies, but they wanted more. Reluctantly, he pulled out a magnificent ruby he claims to be worth twelve hundred gold, to which Rufus attests is cut wonderfully.

If the group succeeds in their mission, he assures them he will have the gem find them at their destination. To this, Leosin tells them of a Dominion contact in Black Landing they will meet at the river docks. This contacts name is Ackyn Selebon, and he can help them in the city and will ensure to get information back to Leosin and Ontharr about the next, or final destination of the treasure. Before they departed for the night, the paladin had one more thing to possibly help them on their journey. More specifically, one more person.

The dwarf laid the situation straight, his paladin enclave that protects Elturiel had recovered an unholy warlock that had worked for the cult. Ontharr believed the tale of this warlock, saying he wished to turn against the cult, but many other paladins did not. Ontharr feared the warlock would be executed, but instead wished he could be made use of to the party. They had been ‘questioning’ this ‘guest’ in the enclave’s citadel, the tallest building in Elturiel, and the warlock said he had just made a big mistake, and wanted to turn against the cult. He was saying he was just an initiate, and believed he knew nothing of value about the cult.

Ontharr told how this dragonborn warlock was said to be helping the Cult of the Dragon in a raid against a village on the outskirts of Elturiel’s territory. A patrol of paladin knights intervened against this raid, and captured this warlock. He claimed to be turning against the cult, as that was supposed to be his first raid, but it was against the human village he was raised in. Some sort of sick test that he rejected. However, he carried with him a tome of obviously powerful dark magic that the paladins identified immediately, and therefore distrusted everything he said.

The party agreed to go see this warlock and speak with him themselves, and so Ontharr and Leosin escorted them through town, and up the central hill towards the highest point where the citadel sat. During this time, Thia was being shown the large walled forest area that was like a backyard to the monastery. Apart from the great Citadel of Light, the rest of the large central hill that Elturiel was built around housed this walled forest and monastery. Her escort was the head monk, the abbot, who was concerned about what Thia was to do with her two remaining dragon eggs. As members of the Dominion, he assured her their monastic order approved of and believed in her choice to try and raise these dragons with good intent.

The abbot showed her to the middle of the forest where there was an entrance to a large underground cavern system beneath the monastery. Deep within were many chambers that could serve as suitable incubation chambers if she chose to hatch them. The abbot offered her the services of the monastery and these caverns to house and feed her whelps, as she surredly could not care for all three at one time. Feeling as this was the closest thing to a home for her in the Storm Coast, she agreed, already wanting to hatch the other whelps to bond and imprint upon them. It was during this time that the rest of the party was being led into the underground room in which the warlock Rhogar was shackled to the walls.

The party asked questions of the beaten and bruised silver dragonborn, who assured them of his mistakes and desire to live to correct them. Lachlan pressed him with many questions, about the cult, his intentions, his story, and specifically about this unholy book of his. Rhogar told his tale, how during his time as an initiate for the cult he was given access to one of their libraries. There, while peeking at tomes he should not have been, this dark leather bound book appeared out of shadows on the table in front of him. Thirsting for the knowledge such magic promised, he found himself pouring over this dark tome that he could somehow understand.

Soon, Rhogar found he could use magic of his own, and used it to escape his fellow cultists during the raid on his home village. Unfortunately, he didn’t get very far as the band of paladins found him fleeing. The warlock swore his service to the group and to freely give what knowledge he had, just as he had been doing for the paladins, in exchange for his life. And his book. The party agreed, and Ontharr instructed his squire to retrieve the unholy artifact.

After the squire returned with the wrapped tome, without touching it he dropped it on the lone table in the interrogation chamber. Everyone could see it was clearly a powerful artifact of dark magic, as it visibly shimmered with wisps of shadow. Ontharr used a key to free Rhogar from his shackles, and also gave him a small sack of fifty gold pieces. Under suspicious eyes throughout the citadel the party escorted the warlock outside and back down to the monastery, where they learned Thia had chosen to try and hatch her eggs. By Leosin’s count, even with a long riverboat trip, they had at least six days to spare before the cult wagon train should arrive at Black Landing.

And so, for the next few days the group went about various downtime activities in the small city of Elturiel while Thia stayed in the dark chamber beneath the monastery. It took three days until both the eggs began hatching. The smallest was a female she named Kiruna, and the other a male she named Maximus; however, he quickly got the nickname “Toothless”. In the three days before they hatched, Rachen sought temporary employment and made about fourteen gold pieces, which was a decent wage for an entire week. Barlo the half orc barbarian began practicing his bagpipes in the streets the first day, and soon he had huge crowds. By the end of the three days, Barlo had raked in thirty nine golden griffons!

Cadmus spent the three days at various gambling establishments he discovered throughout the city, surprisingly only starting with ten gold and coming out with twenty. He had used the rest of his gold first on as many healing potions as he could find, which was eight. Rhogar wanted to try and use his fifty gold to find a seller of magic items in the city, and convinced the pirate Rufus to chip in fifty gold with him to make it happen. The two spent their money on bribes, and gifts to get information on any dealer of magic goods, and eventually found their way to an antiques dealer. This dealer did have a few very rare magical items, with the two being especially interested in a set of magic paints, but they were all vastly out of their price range. For now.

Lachlan spent the time combing through public libraries trying to research anything he could learn about the mysterious 'Naerytar', the unknown person, place, or thing to which all the treasure was being taken to. After awhile he did find some moderate success, he learned that Naerytar is the name of an old castle belonging to an extinct kingdom. Unfortunately, the best he could learn as to its location was a reference linking the castle to the 'heart of the Storm Coast'. By the fourth day, the hatchlings were all born and fed, Elysian took a surprise liking to his siblings, and the group was ready to depart.

They left in their chartered riverboat in the late morning and sailed the entire day without issue. The only other person on the boat was the driver, a man who went by the name of Captain Jack. Having plenty of extra time, the group decided to be safe and tie off the boat at night. The second day of river travel began smoothly, until around midday when they came across a stone and wooden bridge crossing the river.

Beneath the bridge was all manner of wooden sticks and obstructions, and atop the bridge were two fat ogres. An additional ogre stood on either bank of the river. One of the ogres on the bridge yelled to them, that to cross would cost them five hundred gold pieces. The party didn’t even respond, but began attacking the ogres at range. Rachen made a running leap off the side of the river boat and landed on the left bank, attacking the ogre there.

Lachlan, Rufus, Cadmus, Barlo, and Thia used their ranged weapons to fire on the other ogres. Rhogar used his eldritch blast to not only strike at the second ogre on the bridge, but the purple energy pulled the monster into the river. The ogre left on the bridge who taunted them, reached behind him and hurled what looked to be the carcass of a dead deer onto their riverboat, which erupted into pieces, strewing guts and blood across the deck of the boat. Immediately afterwards, at least three crocodiles erupted from the water and ravaged the body. The group had Captain Jack pull the boat to the left bank, as some debarked while ranged fire continued to strike at the ogres from across the river.

It was not long until the group had slain the last of the ogres. They spent some time resting and removing the debris blocking the way under the bridge. During this time, after some searching they found what little treasure the ogres had stolen from others hidden under the bridge. The small chest contained coin totalling around ninety golden griffons, and two gems Rufus estimated were worth about twenty five gold each. The session ended here as the group prepared to continue sailing east down the Black Channel towards the bustling port city of Black Landing.

Click Here for the Next Session