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eveglassRight. This is another long write-up, about 3100 words. It will probably only be interesting to people playing the game or who have been following the sessions so far. Everyone else may feel free to skip. This has not yet been proofread, because it's 1 am and I've just spent two hours writing.
D&D Prequel Session #2; Interlude #1
April 11
Prequel, session #2:
Corrigan and Seb arrive at their home of Morningvale to discover from the rangers that it had been hit, hard, by an orc attack. They rush past Methri Sarlaine, the ranger, over the bluffs and past the barricades into town.
As they reach Corrigan's parents' house, Ivellios leaves towards the docks. Seb and Corrigan are greeted at the door by Corrigan's tearful sister, Arren. Arren reports that her father, Mik, was wounded fighting off the orcs and begs Seb to help him. Though Seb wants to return to his own family, he agrees and quickly casts a cure spell on Mik. Arren also tells the two that Kevan and Mossa, their younger brothers, had disappeared during the orc attack, apparently with Mik's two shortswords.
With a few words of parting, Corrigan and Seb again take off towards Seb's parents' house, at the far side of town just beyond the woodline. Seb quickly outstrips Corrigan in his haste to reach the farmstead. On her way there, Corrigan sees Oshwin in a pitched batle with two orcs. Refusing to let her friend face the orcs alone, Corrigan rushes in and engages the two orcs. Corrigan manages to kill the first orc, but not before he seriously wounds her in turn. The two friends are barely able to take down the second orc, and as Corrigan deals the death blow, she passes out from loss of blood.
Meanwhile, Seb has discovered several orcs around his parents' home, two of them apparently digging through his garden. He kills all the orcs in quick succession with his expert marksmanship, but realizes there are more in the house.
Corrigan wakes as Oshwin pours healing potion down her throat. With a start, she remembers she had told Seb she would follow him to his parents' house, and together she and Oshwin proceed to the treeline. Oshwin realizes he is too wounded to be of much help, especially with his staff broken by the orcs, but he casts Enlarge Person on Corrigan. Now double the size and eight times heavier, Corrigan rushes towards Seb's house.
Meanwhile, Seb hears an orc emerge from his house, apparently to check on its now-dead companions. With two arrows, Seb fells it. Another emerges from the house, and though Seb plunges an arrow into its arm, it manages to return to the house and bar the door. From within, Seb hears the sound of a woman screaming.
Seb smashes on the door and eventually it gives. In the main room of the house, Seb sees two orcs: one wounded by his arrow, the other wielding a spear. Spurred on by the sound of screaming from the next room, Seb engages the spear-wielding orc, but neither are able to land decisive blows. At this moment, Corrigan barges in past the dead bodies in the courtyard and skewers the spear-weilding orc. Together they handily dispatch the second orc and smash in the door to the dining room.
When they break in, the see that the room has been ransacked. Everything is broken, smashed, and searched. Nothing remains intact. The door to the final room of the house is barred, but it flies open at Corrigan's massive weight. In the bedchamber, Seb finds his mother: beaten, stabbed, and dead.
Corrigan hears a sound from the first room and returns to find Kevan and Mossa. As she and Seb try to keep the boys from discovering Seb's mother, Kevan rushes out into the back courtyard, only to find the body of Seb's father, surrounded by a ring of eight dead orcs. Seb brings him back inside just as Corrigan returns from checking Seb's shed, which was also destroyed. As Corrigan kneels down to talk to Mossa, in shock because of the death of his parents, she sees a leather-bound book, a leather-bound sheaf of paper, and a scarab medallion hidden below a floorboard. Slipping them into her pack, she ushers the others out of the house and back into town.
*****
Further backstory, narrated quickly, for the time between the prequel game and the current game:
By the next day, the orcs had been driven away by rangers and Amasar.
There are rumours that the warehouse district of town had also been targeted by orcs. Also, as the militia was called away to deal with the orcs, some of the ruffians from up-river raided the area, killing some of the townspeople including an old fisherman called The Sifter. Several warehouses were raided, and several riverboats gone from their normal docks. A few days later, the body of the Sifter appears, looking like it had been skilfully tortured to cause excessive pain by at least two people. His tongue had been cut out.
There are rumours that two strange, short men in robes had been at the docks before the fire. One fisherman says he saw them stealing his boat later that night. Another says that he nearly hit the same boat, and that he heard the voice of the first yelling to him. The first, however, swears he had not been on the river that night.
Though Seb had run off after leaving Mossa with Corrigan's parents, he returns in the morning to bury his own parents. The funeral is officiated by Ardru, priest of Kalemvor (God of Death). When Seb and Corrigan return to the house, the realize that orcs had apparently sacked it a second time overnight and completely ruined it. Nothing is left in one piece.
About fifteen people died in the raids, and another twenty or thirty are wounded.
Upon further inspection, Corrigan learns the following about the materials she retrieved from Seb's house.
- The leather-bound book is full of tight writing in some sort of cypher, in Amet's hand, though she has no idea what it says.
- The leather-bound sheaf of paper is a correspondence in many hands, in the same code. It also contains some maps.
- The medallion is a Scarab of Protection (luck bonus to saves, bonus against minor magics), inscribed with elven runes. It appears to be especially useful for spellcasters and those with elven blood.
Corrigan gives the book and sheaf to Seb, but keeps the medallions so she can identify it later.
In the aftermath of the battle, Corrigan's family takes in Mossa while Seb goes off on a quest for vengeance against the orcs who killed his parents. Saxat, his sword, keeps the bloodstain from the orc Seb had killed in close-combat during the raid on his parents' house. Seb develops a wolfish, predatory feeling he cannot shake as he hunts the orcs. He hunts for six months, picking off one member at a time and torturing them to find out more about them. He learns they are the Ragged Claw Band, a group of orcs, goblins, and hobgoblins.
During this time, Seb sees a small band of goblins, orcs, and hobgoblins baiting and taunting a wounded wolf. In a rage, Seb pulls out Saxat and kills them all, supported by the power of his sword despite enduring wounds that should have killed him. The next day, he wakes to find the wolf still near him, and he becomes Seb's animal companion, Eemin.
After long months of hunting, Seb finds their headquarters in the northwest of the Reaching Woods towards the Trialta Hills. The group is led by a "learned" half-orc, half-hobgoblin called Smerdegar. Though Smerdegar had not been at Morningvale himself, he had given the order to attack and find whatever the orcs were looking for at Seb's parents' house. Smerdegar was away from the camp but due back within a month.
Seb returns to Morningvale to gathers Corrigan and Glothram to smite Smerdegar. Before leaving, Seb gives the book and sheaf taken from his father's house to Clenstantia, in the hopes that Myrthas will be able to decipher them. Then the group leaves and reaches the orcish encampment in good time.
The lay an ambush for Smerdegar, who returns with a group of six elite armed orcs and two hobgoblin archers. After a pitched battle, Seb rages and strikes the death blow on Smerdegar. Meanwhile, Glothram and Corrigan have been forced into a fighting retreat, when a brown bear charges in and Gospin appears raining down arrows from above. In the end, none are left standing. Looking at the body afterwards, Corrigan finds a red brand on Smerdegar's palm, a skull devouring a rod: the Red Brand of Orcus. It is rumored that Graj Dur'ba'mog carries a similar brand. Some of Smerdegar's retinue have pale, flushed skin, and there is a stitch of black hair woven into their skin. When the hair is removed, their skin returns to its normal coloration with an eery sigh.
Of the maps in the leather-bound sheath, two are recognizable to Corrigan:
1. A small Lathandrian temple to the north of town, built inside a ring of druidic stones. The stones were long-since broken, and the temple had been abandoned for many years. There is a symbol of a hammer on this map, though Corrigan has no idea what it means.
2. A series of catacombs, abandoned in the woods. The map contains many marginal notes, all illegible to her. Returning to the area, Corrigan finds a place where something heavy, round, and 10-15 ft. across seems to have been stored for a long time, but was removed long ago. It was so heavy it left indentations in the stone.
In the same chamber, Corrigan finds a few scraps of reddish, fire-blasted cloth. She also finds a piece of burnt parchment, which she thinks was a magic scroll, possibly even inscribed with Thayan runes. Finally, she discovers what looks like a charred, partly fused metal finger.
*****
Contemporary Game, Interlude #1:
Corrigan and Seb set out at the beginning in the month of Uktar, in late autumn, at the beginning of the stormy season. For the last two years, the climate had been getting increasingly unstable, and there had been a prevalence of lightening storms.
Though Ivellios had originally been planning to come with them, he was plagued with bad headaches and decided not to travel.
On the third day on the river, a storm forces the ship to stop at Morningvale: any further passage south is impossible. The two take Panlos to the Tabernacle of the Morning Lord and give him into the care of Kurias, the high priest of Lathander. Kurias, an older man from Cormyr, had come with Panlos to Morningvale eight or nine years ago, and is distraught at his condition. He tells the two that he may send Panlos back to Cormyr for better treatment if he cannot heal him in Morningvale.
Also at the Tabernacle, Corrigan finds Clenstantia, just finishing a class. Clenstantia had been in Morningvale almost seven weeks, and Oshwin was two days late in replacing her. Clenstantia is worried that something is wrong, but can't leave herself. She must stay in town in case Oshwin is merely delayed on orders from Myrthas. She gives Corrigan a key to a secret back entrance into the tower: a room with a teleporter to the main gate of the tower. Promising to do what she can, Corrigan leaves with Seb.
Not much is happening at Corrigan's parents' house. Kevan has apparently been getting into trouble at the docks and was reprimanded by Chameron, the unofficial constable of the town and a speaker of the town's conclave. Mikal, Corrigan's father, had also been made a speaker of the conclave in the time since Corrigan was last in town. Mossa, meanwhile, was apprenticed to Soreimar, an elvin ranger, who is training him.
That night, Corrigan goes to the Squeaky Eel to perform and catch up with the owner, a halfling called Balaquist Marfeldaar. Corrigan gives a masterful performance on her new horn and nets a tidy profit and a free room for the night. Balaquist also tells her that, according to Kendor (the owner of the tavern in Hill's Edge), Corrigan had made quite the impression in that town as well. Though she puts out feelers, Kevan does not appear to see her, and she settles for leaving a note with Balaquist for him.
Seb, meanwhile, had gone to see Amasar, but found his house empty. He had left markings, several days or a week old, saying he was with Gospin.
****
At dawn, Corrigan and Seb set out in the intense rain. They reach Gospin's house at the end of the first day. The door is ajar and slightly damaged, and there is no response from within. The inside of the house is windblown and obviously uninhabited. There are signs that Amasar had been there briefly: he left a message, carved on Gospin's table, that Gospin had been backtracking Smerdegar's path for some time, and hadn't attended the last four druidic circles. Even though Gospin had always been a wild spirit, Amasar was worried and went off after him. Seb leaves a message in response to Amasar, and the two friends (and Eemin) camp in Gospin's antechamber. The rain continues all night, and neither sleep well.
After two days, they reach the hidden entrance to Myrthas' tower. The storm has intensified around the tower. Obviously, Myrthas' machine to control the weather is not working. Every two minutes like clockwork, lightening strikes the peak of the tower, the flash illuminating an otherwise overpowering dark. Seb and Corrigan enter the chamber and teleport to the platform in front of the main doors. The garden, generally meticulously cared for, is overgrown.
The main doors are closed and covered in glowing blue runes. Two gargoyles flank the door, their eyes also glowing blue. Corrigan waves Clenstantia's key and the gargoyles back down, and the runes slowly wink out. As this happens, Seb realizes that a chunk of rock is sticking out of the ground, which he theorizes fell from higher up the tower.
The doors swing open and the two friends walk in with Eemin. Corrigan announces their presence and intentions, but no one comes to greet them. Finally, leaving Eemin on the main floor, Corrigan and Seb stand in the central well. Water drips down from above. Corrigan speaks the passcode and the runes around the well glow briefly. Just above the first apprentices' level, they shudder to a stop and start feather-falling downwards. Just in time, they duck into the corridor.
It is cold and wet. Rain pours in from the windows. A twinkling blue stone glows, inset into the wall, but otherwise the corridor seems deserted. There is a foul smell from down the corridor. Making their way cautiously, Corrigan begins picking the looks to the apprentices' room. Her own room is empty, save for the rain buffeting in through the open window. In Cassaran's room, Corrigan nearly misses being hit by a falling body. It is Cassaran, dead. Seb estimates he has been dead for at least three weeks. Saxat, Angarad, and Arviain all glow in the darkness of the storm.
Finding nothing in the other two rooms, Seb tries to make his way up to the senior apprentices' level. He realizes the runes spiral upwards along the well, and slowly makes his way up them. Corrigan follows after.
And that's where we stopped the session, because it was late.
*****
Rumours heard over the course of the game:
1. Corrigan's trumpet looks surprisingly similar and has the same magic properties as that of the grandfather of the owner of the Tarnished Trumpet tavern in Hill's Edge. Corrigan "neglects" to mention her own horns magic properties.
2. A man in Hill's Edge has seen the cypher from the leather-bound book before. (Corrigan had made a copy of a few pages.) After he had been travelling with the Bedin (desert-people of Aneroch, who claim to be descended from the Netherese), he was caught in a lightening storm at the north of the Sunset Mountains, a very out-of-the-way location. He sought shelter and found a citadel maintained by a small, hard band of men, kind but tightlipped. They called themselves the Guild of the Shattered Peak and used this cypher in their documents and inscriptions. A seagoing riverpilot says he has heard that the Cult of the Shattered Peak is a group of magic-hating zealots who interfere with mages hunting for old lore.
3. Several months before, while travelling in the north, Corrigan heard rumours of a haughty apprentice of a great wizard, who had been bragging about his master's research. She doesn't get many specifics. Perhaps it had to do with names and places?
4. In Morningvale, Corrigan hears about an incident which took places several months beforehand. Brudal had apparently argued with his sixteen-year-old daughter when she returned home one day wearing a shiny silver ring on her index finger. Brudal assumed she was engaged, even though he didn't know she even had a boyfriend. The daughter, Amia, swore she was not engaged, but refused to tell Brudal where she got the ring. On the third day (or somewhere around there), Brudal and Amia were at the docks. Brudal was convinced that Erak, a shipwright's son, had given Amia the ring, no matter how much Amia denied it. In a fit of rage, Brudal tore the ring from her finger. Amia began screaming and then spontaneously combusted. Brudal died two days later from the burns he incurred. The ring was never found, but was apparently bright, silvery, and perhaps engraved with a pattern (some claim it was a bird). Apparently Erak had just proposed to Airdre, Seb's childhood crush. Though the engagement had been approved by both families, it had not been announced publicly. The timing was, shall we say, unfortunate.
5. Some rangers have noticed something strange in the Reaching Wood west of the river, for the past three weeks: small areas of the wood have suddenly and inexplicably died. They have no idea why this is.
6. People south on the river before the storms report that they had sensed something out of the ordinary in the woods, but can't say what.
7. Some people report seeing lightening flashing in the south before the storm started. One person says he saw lightening as much as a month ago.
*****
Random Notes:
Scornubel = The Caravan City
- much larger than Hill's Edge => about 16-17 thousand permanent residents
- much larger trade on the River Chionthar between Baldur's Gate and Scornubel
Further Random Notes:
- Glothram's father = Melbant Ethelstar
- Ivellios' last name = Amistacia
- Ragged Claw Band of orcs (the ones involved in this raid) have the same symbol as Curgeon
- Morningvale has two drinking places: 1. The Drowned Hart Hunting Lodge, and 2. The Squeaky Eel
Now it's late and I'm going to bed. G'night all.
D&D Prequel Session #2; Interlude #1
April 11
Prequel, session #2:
Corrigan and Seb arrive at their home of Morningvale to discover from the rangers that it had been hit, hard, by an orc attack. They rush past Methri Sarlaine, the ranger, over the bluffs and past the barricades into town.
As they reach Corrigan's parents' house, Ivellios leaves towards the docks. Seb and Corrigan are greeted at the door by Corrigan's tearful sister, Arren. Arren reports that her father, Mik, was wounded fighting off the orcs and begs Seb to help him. Though Seb wants to return to his own family, he agrees and quickly casts a cure spell on Mik. Arren also tells the two that Kevan and Mossa, their younger brothers, had disappeared during the orc attack, apparently with Mik's two shortswords.
With a few words of parting, Corrigan and Seb again take off towards Seb's parents' house, at the far side of town just beyond the woodline. Seb quickly outstrips Corrigan in his haste to reach the farmstead. On her way there, Corrigan sees Oshwin in a pitched batle with two orcs. Refusing to let her friend face the orcs alone, Corrigan rushes in and engages the two orcs. Corrigan manages to kill the first orc, but not before he seriously wounds her in turn. The two friends are barely able to take down the second orc, and as Corrigan deals the death blow, she passes out from loss of blood.
Meanwhile, Seb has discovered several orcs around his parents' home, two of them apparently digging through his garden. He kills all the orcs in quick succession with his expert marksmanship, but realizes there are more in the house.
Corrigan wakes as Oshwin pours healing potion down her throat. With a start, she remembers she had told Seb she would follow him to his parents' house, and together she and Oshwin proceed to the treeline. Oshwin realizes he is too wounded to be of much help, especially with his staff broken by the orcs, but he casts Enlarge Person on Corrigan. Now double the size and eight times heavier, Corrigan rushes towards Seb's house.
Meanwhile, Seb hears an orc emerge from his house, apparently to check on its now-dead companions. With two arrows, Seb fells it. Another emerges from the house, and though Seb plunges an arrow into its arm, it manages to return to the house and bar the door. From within, Seb hears the sound of a woman screaming.
Seb smashes on the door and eventually it gives. In the main room of the house, Seb sees two orcs: one wounded by his arrow, the other wielding a spear. Spurred on by the sound of screaming from the next room, Seb engages the spear-wielding orc, but neither are able to land decisive blows. At this moment, Corrigan barges in past the dead bodies in the courtyard and skewers the spear-weilding orc. Together they handily dispatch the second orc and smash in the door to the dining room.
When they break in, the see that the room has been ransacked. Everything is broken, smashed, and searched. Nothing remains intact. The door to the final room of the house is barred, but it flies open at Corrigan's massive weight. In the bedchamber, Seb finds his mother: beaten, stabbed, and dead.
Corrigan hears a sound from the first room and returns to find Kevan and Mossa. As she and Seb try to keep the boys from discovering Seb's mother, Kevan rushes out into the back courtyard, only to find the body of Seb's father, surrounded by a ring of eight dead orcs. Seb brings him back inside just as Corrigan returns from checking Seb's shed, which was also destroyed. As Corrigan kneels down to talk to Mossa, in shock because of the death of his parents, she sees a leather-bound book, a leather-bound sheaf of paper, and a scarab medallion hidden below a floorboard. Slipping them into her pack, she ushers the others out of the house and back into town.
*****
Further backstory, narrated quickly, for the time between the prequel game and the current game:
By the next day, the orcs had been driven away by rangers and Amasar.
There are rumours that the warehouse district of town had also been targeted by orcs. Also, as the militia was called away to deal with the orcs, some of the ruffians from up-river raided the area, killing some of the townspeople including an old fisherman called The Sifter. Several warehouses were raided, and several riverboats gone from their normal docks. A few days later, the body of the Sifter appears, looking like it had been skilfully tortured to cause excessive pain by at least two people. His tongue had been cut out.
There are rumours that two strange, short men in robes had been at the docks before the fire. One fisherman says he saw them stealing his boat later that night. Another says that he nearly hit the same boat, and that he heard the voice of the first yelling to him. The first, however, swears he had not been on the river that night.
Though Seb had run off after leaving Mossa with Corrigan's parents, he returns in the morning to bury his own parents. The funeral is officiated by Ardru, priest of Kalemvor (God of Death). When Seb and Corrigan return to the house, the realize that orcs had apparently sacked it a second time overnight and completely ruined it. Nothing is left in one piece.
About fifteen people died in the raids, and another twenty or thirty are wounded.
Upon further inspection, Corrigan learns the following about the materials she retrieved from Seb's house.
- The leather-bound book is full of tight writing in some sort of cypher, in Amet's hand, though she has no idea what it says.
- The leather-bound sheaf of paper is a correspondence in many hands, in the same code. It also contains some maps.
- The medallion is a Scarab of Protection (luck bonus to saves, bonus against minor magics), inscribed with elven runes. It appears to be especially useful for spellcasters and those with elven blood.
Corrigan gives the book and sheaf to Seb, but keeps the medallions so she can identify it later.
In the aftermath of the battle, Corrigan's family takes in Mossa while Seb goes off on a quest for vengeance against the orcs who killed his parents. Saxat, his sword, keeps the bloodstain from the orc Seb had killed in close-combat during the raid on his parents' house. Seb develops a wolfish, predatory feeling he cannot shake as he hunts the orcs. He hunts for six months, picking off one member at a time and torturing them to find out more about them. He learns they are the Ragged Claw Band, a group of orcs, goblins, and hobgoblins.
During this time, Seb sees a small band of goblins, orcs, and hobgoblins baiting and taunting a wounded wolf. In a rage, Seb pulls out Saxat and kills them all, supported by the power of his sword despite enduring wounds that should have killed him. The next day, he wakes to find the wolf still near him, and he becomes Seb's animal companion, Eemin.
After long months of hunting, Seb finds their headquarters in the northwest of the Reaching Woods towards the Trialta Hills. The group is led by a "learned" half-orc, half-hobgoblin called Smerdegar. Though Smerdegar had not been at Morningvale himself, he had given the order to attack and find whatever the orcs were looking for at Seb's parents' house. Smerdegar was away from the camp but due back within a month.
Seb returns to Morningvale to gathers Corrigan and Glothram to smite Smerdegar. Before leaving, Seb gives the book and sheaf taken from his father's house to Clenstantia, in the hopes that Myrthas will be able to decipher them. Then the group leaves and reaches the orcish encampment in good time.
The lay an ambush for Smerdegar, who returns with a group of six elite armed orcs and two hobgoblin archers. After a pitched battle, Seb rages and strikes the death blow on Smerdegar. Meanwhile, Glothram and Corrigan have been forced into a fighting retreat, when a brown bear charges in and Gospin appears raining down arrows from above. In the end, none are left standing. Looking at the body afterwards, Corrigan finds a red brand on Smerdegar's palm, a skull devouring a rod: the Red Brand of Orcus. It is rumored that Graj Dur'ba'mog carries a similar brand. Some of Smerdegar's retinue have pale, flushed skin, and there is a stitch of black hair woven into their skin. When the hair is removed, their skin returns to its normal coloration with an eery sigh.
Of the maps in the leather-bound sheath, two are recognizable to Corrigan:
1. A small Lathandrian temple to the north of town, built inside a ring of druidic stones. The stones were long-since broken, and the temple had been abandoned for many years. There is a symbol of a hammer on this map, though Corrigan has no idea what it means.
2. A series of catacombs, abandoned in the woods. The map contains many marginal notes, all illegible to her. Returning to the area, Corrigan finds a place where something heavy, round, and 10-15 ft. across seems to have been stored for a long time, but was removed long ago. It was so heavy it left indentations in the stone.
In the same chamber, Corrigan finds a few scraps of reddish, fire-blasted cloth. She also finds a piece of burnt parchment, which she thinks was a magic scroll, possibly even inscribed with Thayan runes. Finally, she discovers what looks like a charred, partly fused metal finger.
*****
Contemporary Game, Interlude #1:
Corrigan and Seb set out at the beginning in the month of Uktar, in late autumn, at the beginning of the stormy season. For the last two years, the climate had been getting increasingly unstable, and there had been a prevalence of lightening storms.
Though Ivellios had originally been planning to come with them, he was plagued with bad headaches and decided not to travel.
On the third day on the river, a storm forces the ship to stop at Morningvale: any further passage south is impossible. The two take Panlos to the Tabernacle of the Morning Lord and give him into the care of Kurias, the high priest of Lathander. Kurias, an older man from Cormyr, had come with Panlos to Morningvale eight or nine years ago, and is distraught at his condition. He tells the two that he may send Panlos back to Cormyr for better treatment if he cannot heal him in Morningvale.
Also at the Tabernacle, Corrigan finds Clenstantia, just finishing a class. Clenstantia had been in Morningvale almost seven weeks, and Oshwin was two days late in replacing her. Clenstantia is worried that something is wrong, but can't leave herself. She must stay in town in case Oshwin is merely delayed on orders from Myrthas. She gives Corrigan a key to a secret back entrance into the tower: a room with a teleporter to the main gate of the tower. Promising to do what she can, Corrigan leaves with Seb.
Not much is happening at Corrigan's parents' house. Kevan has apparently been getting into trouble at the docks and was reprimanded by Chameron, the unofficial constable of the town and a speaker of the town's conclave. Mikal, Corrigan's father, had also been made a speaker of the conclave in the time since Corrigan was last in town. Mossa, meanwhile, was apprenticed to Soreimar, an elvin ranger, who is training him.
That night, Corrigan goes to the Squeaky Eel to perform and catch up with the owner, a halfling called Balaquist Marfeldaar. Corrigan gives a masterful performance on her new horn and nets a tidy profit and a free room for the night. Balaquist also tells her that, according to Kendor (the owner of the tavern in Hill's Edge), Corrigan had made quite the impression in that town as well. Though she puts out feelers, Kevan does not appear to see her, and she settles for leaving a note with Balaquist for him.
Seb, meanwhile, had gone to see Amasar, but found his house empty. He had left markings, several days or a week old, saying he was with Gospin.
****
At dawn, Corrigan and Seb set out in the intense rain. They reach Gospin's house at the end of the first day. The door is ajar and slightly damaged, and there is no response from within. The inside of the house is windblown and obviously uninhabited. There are signs that Amasar had been there briefly: he left a message, carved on Gospin's table, that Gospin had been backtracking Smerdegar's path for some time, and hadn't attended the last four druidic circles. Even though Gospin had always been a wild spirit, Amasar was worried and went off after him. Seb leaves a message in response to Amasar, and the two friends (and Eemin) camp in Gospin's antechamber. The rain continues all night, and neither sleep well.
After two days, they reach the hidden entrance to Myrthas' tower. The storm has intensified around the tower. Obviously, Myrthas' machine to control the weather is not working. Every two minutes like clockwork, lightening strikes the peak of the tower, the flash illuminating an otherwise overpowering dark. Seb and Corrigan enter the chamber and teleport to the platform in front of the main doors. The garden, generally meticulously cared for, is overgrown.
The main doors are closed and covered in glowing blue runes. Two gargoyles flank the door, their eyes also glowing blue. Corrigan waves Clenstantia's key and the gargoyles back down, and the runes slowly wink out. As this happens, Seb realizes that a chunk of rock is sticking out of the ground, which he theorizes fell from higher up the tower.
The doors swing open and the two friends walk in with Eemin. Corrigan announces their presence and intentions, but no one comes to greet them. Finally, leaving Eemin on the main floor, Corrigan and Seb stand in the central well. Water drips down from above. Corrigan speaks the passcode and the runes around the well glow briefly. Just above the first apprentices' level, they shudder to a stop and start feather-falling downwards. Just in time, they duck into the corridor.
It is cold and wet. Rain pours in from the windows. A twinkling blue stone glows, inset into the wall, but otherwise the corridor seems deserted. There is a foul smell from down the corridor. Making their way cautiously, Corrigan begins picking the looks to the apprentices' room. Her own room is empty, save for the rain buffeting in through the open window. In Cassaran's room, Corrigan nearly misses being hit by a falling body. It is Cassaran, dead. Seb estimates he has been dead for at least three weeks. Saxat, Angarad, and Arviain all glow in the darkness of the storm.
Finding nothing in the other two rooms, Seb tries to make his way up to the senior apprentices' level. He realizes the runes spiral upwards along the well, and slowly makes his way up them. Corrigan follows after.
And that's where we stopped the session, because it was late.
*****
Rumours heard over the course of the game:
1. Corrigan's trumpet looks surprisingly similar and has the same magic properties as that of the grandfather of the owner of the Tarnished Trumpet tavern in Hill's Edge. Corrigan "neglects" to mention her own horns magic properties.
2. A man in Hill's Edge has seen the cypher from the leather-bound book before. (Corrigan had made a copy of a few pages.) After he had been travelling with the Bedin (desert-people of Aneroch, who claim to be descended from the Netherese), he was caught in a lightening storm at the north of the Sunset Mountains, a very out-of-the-way location. He sought shelter and found a citadel maintained by a small, hard band of men, kind but tightlipped. They called themselves the Guild of the Shattered Peak and used this cypher in their documents and inscriptions. A seagoing riverpilot says he has heard that the Cult of the Shattered Peak is a group of magic-hating zealots who interfere with mages hunting for old lore.
3. Several months before, while travelling in the north, Corrigan heard rumours of a haughty apprentice of a great wizard, who had been bragging about his master's research. She doesn't get many specifics. Perhaps it had to do with names and places?
4. In Morningvale, Corrigan hears about an incident which took places several months beforehand. Brudal had apparently argued with his sixteen-year-old daughter when she returned home one day wearing a shiny silver ring on her index finger. Brudal assumed she was engaged, even though he didn't know she even had a boyfriend. The daughter, Amia, swore she was not engaged, but refused to tell Brudal where she got the ring. On the third day (or somewhere around there), Brudal and Amia were at the docks. Brudal was convinced that Erak, a shipwright's son, had given Amia the ring, no matter how much Amia denied it. In a fit of rage, Brudal tore the ring from her finger. Amia began screaming and then spontaneously combusted. Brudal died two days later from the burns he incurred. The ring was never found, but was apparently bright, silvery, and perhaps engraved with a pattern (some claim it was a bird). Apparently Erak had just proposed to Airdre, Seb's childhood crush. Though the engagement had been approved by both families, it had not been announced publicly. The timing was, shall we say, unfortunate.
5. Some rangers have noticed something strange in the Reaching Wood west of the river, for the past three weeks: small areas of the wood have suddenly and inexplicably died. They have no idea why this is.
6. People south on the river before the storms report that they had sensed something out of the ordinary in the woods, but can't say what.
7. Some people report seeing lightening flashing in the south before the storm started. One person says he saw lightening as much as a month ago.
*****
Random Notes:
Scornubel = The Caravan City
- much larger than Hill's Edge => about 16-17 thousand permanent residents
- much larger trade on the River Chionthar between Baldur's Gate and Scornubel
Further Random Notes:
- Glothram's father = Melbant Ethelstar
- Ivellios' last name = Amistacia
- Ragged Claw Band of orcs (the ones involved in this raid) have the same symbol as Curgeon
- Morningvale has two drinking places: 1. The Drowned Hart Hunting Lodge, and 2. The Squeaky Eel
Now it's late and I'm going to bed. G'night all.
