| Forgotten Realms Campaign 2001 18 June, 2001 |
Player Characters
Hoshi, a monk of the Shining Hand on "walkabout", visited a small monastery of the order in Quaevarr. On the day before Midsummer, a young monk of the order turned up missing. A farmer mentioned seeing the young man climb into an unmarked merchants wagon that then headed down the road towards Silverymoon. This had happened the afternoon of the day before. Hoshi, since he was in a mood to continue his walkabout, was sent to find the missing monk. Leaving at noon on Midsummer, Hoshi walked into Silverymoon on 1 Eleasis (Highsun), the day after Shieldmeet.
Hoshi decided that the Silverymoon authorities might be able to help, so he went to see the Knights in Silver. Ciawen, Officer of the Watch, listened to Hoshi's story, then told him to wait while she had some other people brought to her office, people who might be able to help.
Prodric, an investigator in the Knights in Silver, was sent to the hotel where Fraugh, Thartok, and Sam were staying to bring them to Ciawen.
When the trio arrived at Ciawen's office, there were 2 men waiting with her: a dusty, travelworn young man, and a cleric of Helm who was also a Knight in Silver.
Ciawen explained that since Fraugh and his friends had investigated the disappearance of 2 local young men, they were uniquely qualified to assist Hoshi. "You already have some history on this case," Ciawen told them, "and it might be a good idea if certain members of your group"--Ciawen glanced at Sam--"were out of town for a while."
The cleric of Helm was introduced as Lieutenant Mills of the Knights in Silver. He would be accompanying the group as they did a slow patrol between Silverymoon and Everlund, searching for the kidnappers--which Ciawen was almost certain were slavers. Ciawen estimated it would take them 3 days to search the road from Silverymoon to Everlund, and then back again for another 3 days, if necessary. So she hired them for the entire tenday for 30 gp upfront, and 120 gp when they got back. Thartok asked for beer, so a pack mule and 2 kegs of beer were included in the upfront payment.
The party set out in the early afternoon so they could reach The Friendly Stone House before nightfall. They would begin their search of the road from there. Nomli Mulin-son, the dwarven innkeeper of The Friendly Stone House, told them that an unmarked merchant wagon had, in fact, not stopped at the inn the previous night. Nomli's daughter noticed the wagon because it passed by the Stone House, and continued down the road, at a time when most merchants gladly pull in for the night.
Setting out the next morning, the party slowly scanned both sides of the road looking for wagon tracks leading off in either direction. At noon, they found the burnt-out remains of a small settlement. Thartok searched the grounds and found where a wagon had spent the night, two nights back. Just after lunch, Mills used speak with animal to ask a hawk for information. The hawk mentioned that he had seen a wagon the day before, travelling south. Beyond that, the hawk wasn't much help.
Towards nightfall, having covered nearly 20 miles since starting out, the party setup camp in a small copse of trees about 50 yards off the road. Mills used speak with plants to get nothing really useful from one of the trees around the campsite.
During the second watch, while Fraugh was standing guard, the party was attacked. Arrows came out of the darkness, hitting Fraugh, Hoshi, and Mills. Fraugh sounded the alarm as another volley of arrows came. Additionally, Hoshi and Thartok were the targets of a glitterdust spell that blinded Thartok temporarily.
More arrows were fired into the campsite while the party tried to locate their attackers. 2 men rushed to attack Fraugh. One was hit by a shocking grasp delivered from behind by Fraugh's toad familiar. The other was caught in Mills's hold person. Hoshi took out one of the snipers, and then dodged an attack by a small snake. Hoshi then found and took out the last sniper and the battle was over. Fraugh used his quarterstaff to pummel the held attacker into unconsciousness.
Thartok located what must've been the position of a fifth attacker. This unseen opponent had evidently panicked and run back towards the road. While he searched, the unconcious prisoner was bound in manacles carried by some of his dead compatriots, then tied to a tree.
The rest of the night passed without incident.
Next morning, while Fraugh studided his spellbook and Mills prayed to Helm, Thartok followed the trail of the fifth attacker. After some false trails, he eventually found where the panicked person had left the road and intersected a wagon trail that led back into the foothills of the Nether Mountains, east of the road.
Interrogating the prisoner proved to be fruitless, though he did identify himself as a member of the Cult of the Dragon. Mills, acting as judge and jury, sentenced the man to death for attempted murder, and then acted as executioner. It was a short trial.
Following the trail found by Thartok, the party came to the ruins of what had once been a stone tower. An unmarked merchants wagon was pulled up near the ruins. Upon inspection, the wagon stunk with the smell of human waste and suffering, the distinctive smell of a slave carrier. In the center of the ruins was a staircase that lead down into darkness.
Hoshi sneaked down to see what was at the bottom of the stairs. The bottom of the stairs were blocked by a black curtain. Peeking through the curtain, Hoshi startled a guard on the other side. Arrows tore through the curtain, but didn't hit the monk as he scampered back up to the landing.
The party quickly decided to attack and rushed down the stairs, with Mills leading the way. And straight into an ambush. Four assailants were on their flanks, and 4 more stood with shortbows not far away.
Despite the uneven odds, the party managed to hold its own, even when a wizard popped up behind the archers and attacked Fraugh with a wand of magic missile. Fraugh drew attention to himself by closing distance with the attackers and using burning hands to seriously injure several of them. Fraugh was being sliced from several directions and would probably have gone down if Mills hadn't saved him with a well-timed cure serious wounds. Thartok started the battle slowly, but learned what he was capable of and by the end of the battle had accounted for several of the enemy. Hoshi, despite his good showing in the first battle, seemed unable to get it together this time, though he did keep 2 of the Cultists busy while the other party members managed the battle.
The Cultist wizard managed to successfully charm Mills, but the trance was broken almost immediately when one of the other remaining Cultists attacked and damaged Mills. Mills then nearly killed the wizard with a single blow. Staggering, the wizard turned invisible and ran down another staircase.
After the battle, the party followed the wizard down the stairs. In the room at the foot of the stairs, 3 prisoners were manacled to the wall--the young monk and the 2 men from the knife-throwing contest. They did not see anyone run through the room, but they did think they heard someone. They reported that they heard voices arguing in the next room, but that the voices stopped suddenly.
Sam searched the room while the others unlocked the prisoners. A small secret room was found, containing a book, some scrolls, and some rapiers.
The trail of blood left by the fleeing wizard continued into the next room. The trail went into a small alcove on the south side of the room, where it stopped. No other way out of the room was found, so the party surmised that it must be a gate or portal of some kind.
Deciding that the most important thing now was to return the missing young men, the party collected the prisoners and as much stuff as they could carry and headed back to Silverymoon.
The trip back took 2 days, since the wagon could only go so fast. Ciawen paid the party members their remaining money, and the party took a day to get re-organized and sell and divide what they had accumulated.
Mills took some time to investigate the ruins they had found, and discovered that they had once been the tower of Darnarest the Bladesmith. Darnarest had been killed by a dragon nearly a century ago. With a bit more research, he discovered that Darnarest's tower had been built on the ruins of an earlier tower, built nine hundred years ago, by an unnamed wizard with known ties to Myth Drannor, the magical city of the Elves in Cormanthor.
Ciawen asks the party to go back to the ruins and investigate further. On 7 Eleasis they will head south once again. This time, since they know where they are going and all have good mounts (except Hoshi, but he manages to keep up), they expect to reach the ruins in a single day.
Everyone got 3000 XP for the session. [an error occurred while processing this directive]