Moving through the dark caverns of the dragon hatchery the adventurers find a hidden rope ladder rising up to the roof of the cavern. Above the climbing T'an the way is blocked by what seems to be thick carpet. He uses a dagger to stealthily cut through enough to rise a small thieve's mirror. Using the mirror he can see a nicely furnished room with a human woman sitting at a writing desk. She is dressed in the now familiar robes of the dragon cult.
Frulam Mondath's Chamber
450 XP
As she moves he catches her reflection in a standing mirror on the other side of the room. He recognizes her face from the horrible night that his monastery was attacked and destroyed but a fortnight ago. He returns back to the others as they discuss a plan. Eventually they decided to try and cut through the carpet and attack as fast as they can. This proves a bit more difficult than they had anticipated. Unable to entirely cut through before they can move through the opening, the woman, Frulam Mondath, realizes what is happening.
T'an can hear her approach above and a voice whispers in his mind. "Let Go". He lets go. His body plummets to the ground below inflicting heavy damage on an already hurt elf. Danifae rushes below opening and lets fly a firebolt spell opening the small passage. Arno, the gnome climbs up and hurls spells against the cultist. Eventually all are able to move through the small passage and face the evil woman. All that is except Smallfang the dragonborn. He has jumped and grabbed on to the ledge above him but his strength fails him and is unable to pull himself up. Smallfang sees flashes of spell after spell unable to help.
Frulam has sent her guard to go and protect the eggs. The dragon eggs. She summons a magical weapon in her hand. A dagger with a dragon body handle. She thrusts the blade into the side of T'an. But before she can gain the upper hand in the battle the group easily overcomes her and she lies dead, as Smallfang pulls himself up and into the room.
Going through her belongings they find a writing desk littered with horribly written poems all about dragons as well as maps with annotations indicating where the cult may be headed next. As well, the notes allude to a leader, Remzir, who has graciously allowed some of his followers to keep some small bits of treasure for themselves.
The Dragon Hatchery
2,800 XP
They decide to move on and find the dragon eggs. It is not long before they come to another cavern with yet another caged in pit. They have seen this before. Smallfang, the sole member of the group without some sort of darkvision, pulls out his bullseye latern. Before he is able to scan much, Danifae rushes into the far end of the cavern, where he sees a smaller pit. Peering over the edge he discovers several kobolds lying in wait. He does not see them for long as they hurl firebombs towards him, one hitting him square in the face. They are kobolds and now the group is adept at dealing death to these creatures. They easily overcome them and grab the last one for questioning. Asked how many eggs there are he answers, "two". Danifae is not convinced of his truthfulness but they have to see for themselves anyway.
Danifae though remembers that perhaps he didn't believe the kobold, in that there were only two eggs. Perhaps there is another. He quietly returns to the cavern, keeping as far away from the last know position of the roper and uses his superior darkvision and dancing lights to look through the pit for any other eggs. He finds it hidden camouflaged in a corner. Together with T'an the two send attacks at the egg until it is destroyed. Confident in their completion of the mission of retrieving or destroying all the dragon eggs they run for safety outside this accursed cavern system.
Back safely at their modified horse drawn cart, the "tank", map in hand, they decide to follow Leosin Erlanthat's instructions of meeting at the city of Elturel. After resupplying at Greenest and giving the governor what news they could, including the fact that the treasure has been moved, they begin their travel. It is a few days before they arrive at Elturel.
Familiar Faces
Elturel is a large and orderly city open and unguarded, though is is protected day and night by a brilliant magical light which hovers high above it. Danifae finds the light difficult and must shield her face continually from the light. Soon after arriving and asking about for either Leosin, who no one knows, and for Ontharr Frume, whom everybody seems to know. They are quickly directed to a tavern, the The Old Kegs. There they encounter a large group of youngsters who are all practicing fighting with swords and fists as well as competing with bow and arrows. All seemingly to impress a large human male dressed in plate mail. Perhaps not large in stature but large in girth.
The group approaches him and he deduces by their eclectic mixture of races that they must be the group Leosin has told him of. He warmly greets them with a raised hand, which bears a tattoo of a dark dagger on its palm. The group learns that he is of the Order Of The Obsidian Dagger. He and a colleague are here in their usual scouting for talent. He challenges each in different ways witnessing for himself their abilities. But soon he suggests that they have important matters to discuss and brings them into the tavern. There another large crowd is surrounding a table where there is a contest of Mage Hand. An old kobold wizard is there and at the suggestion of Ontharr challenges the little gnome.
Afterwards the group meets with Ontharr and Leosin to discuss what they have learned. Ontharr and Leosin are of two different factions but these factions have decided to share resources as they share a common goal in finding out what the dragon cult is up to. They have tracked several raids back to the cult but have never been able to find where the treasure is going or for what purpose. They ask the adventurers to join a caravan which will probably include at least some of the cult and hopefully their ill gotten treasure. Perhaps the cultists travel along with others in a large caravan in order to hide their movements. If so the group could try to get hired on and move with the caravan, gaining what knowledge they can. Ontharr tries to convince the group that by showing their worth perhaps they in time could be considered for the Order Of The Obsidian Dagger. The great responsibility for protecting the realm does come with great rewards.
With little time to spare they acquire equipment and a few rations from Ontharr and move by river to Baldur's Gate where they can hopefully meet up with the cult and get hired on to travel in the same caravan. A boat is waiting for them and they travel day and night to make up for lost time.
Baldur's Gate
They sail down the river along the river Chionthar towards Baldur's Gate. The boat docks just outside the city and the group must disembark and walk through the city. The city is old and crowded and does not allow wagons or pack animals inside the city. They move quickly to the north gate where they are told to meet Ackyn Selebon. Ackyn, a trader who operates a business in the Outer City just outside of the walls. He gets them hired on as guards to a half-elf named Beyd and his shipment of building supplies which is going to Neverwinter.As they sign up with Beyd and meet some of their fellow caravan mates and begin to move out, they hear that this journey will take the better part of two months. They have brought rations enough for just a few days. This was not well thought out.
Life On The Road
Life on the road is mostly tedious and tiresome as the group typically must walk all day beside the caravan. They spend the day chatting with some of the others.
They meet Noohar Serelim, a male Moon Elf merchant, and his twin brother Selvek who is mute. Noohar must do all the talking for Selvek and is not always inclined to be translator. They use a form of sign language that Danifae recognizes and Selvek then takes to chatting incessantly with Danifae after that.
T'an is taken with a beautiful young woman named, Orvustia. She has joined the caravan as a guard at the insistence of her aunt, who believes that this will broaden her horizons and make her a better person. She is quite proficient with a bow which she carries on her back, wearing little else.
They also meet Ledo Widris another young woman, but where Orvustia was slight and beautiful, Ledo is large and intimidating. She is strong and courageous though and demands much respect.
Lending A Helping Hand
1,400 XP
It is not long into the Fields of the Dead, just north of Baldur's Gate that T'an notices in a small valley below there is a wagon being attacked by a group of hobgoblins. Orvustia and T'an take turns trying to impress each other with their bow skills by targeting and hitting what they take to be the leader of the attacking hobgoblins. The rest of the group soon joins in and rescues the merchant and his guards. The merchant thankful and remorseful for ignoring the advice of his guards to join a caravan for protection gives the adventurers a reward in the form of gold. Sometimes doing good deeds does pay.
In among all of the new friendly faces in the caravan, the group keeps a wary eye on the cultists who now seem to perhaps recognize the group. In an unspoken truce the two groups keep to themselves and don't provoke anything more than cold glances.
No Room At The Inn In Dragonspear
700 XP
The night the caravan arrives at a small town of Dragonspear, it is cold and rainy. Many of the caravan try to get rooms in an inn along the roadside. Once inside though the group finds that a rude bunch of adventurers have taken up all the rooms for themselves and are having fun watching the discomfort on the travelers being turned away.
The adventurers are trying to convince Beyd, for whom the group is hired on as guards for, that he doesn't need to pay so much for so little. They could become his guards as they are more experienced and will do it for less.
This grates on the groups tired and frayed patience. Tempers flare and words are angrily tossed back and forth. Finally words to into challenges and it is not long before swords are drawn. Fortunately, the group notices that the swords the new comers wield are nothing but show pieces and with a good swing of a real weapon the props shatter. Beyd has been shown that it takes more than talk to be seasoned guards.
The Golden Stagg
500 XP
It is not long before they encounter a large herd of deer in a clearing and several arrows are loosed bringing down four deer. When everyone enters the clearing to collect their kills they notice a large stag standing on the opposite side of the clearing. He is large with impressive antlers and a coat that shines like gold in the sun. The hunting party is excited and each believe they can take down the stag. They run hurriedly after the stag into the woods. All except our adventurers.
The stag though, seems intelligent as it returns back to the clearing steathily losing the hunters which pursued it. The group follows it closely until they are able to approach. The stag stops and addresses them in elvish. The stag transforms into an elf and after talking to the group it seems to know of their mission. He warns them that one of them will die before they are through. In hopes of aiding them he removes his bow and places it before the group. T'an picks up the bow which he immediately senses as magical.
Unwanted Attention
Arriving at a small city of Daggerford the group notices that they have taken on a new addition to th caravan in the form of a small redheaded gone female. She introduces herself as Jamna Gleamsilver. She quickly takes to talking with Arno, the old rock gnome, who is even more tongue tied then he usually is.
The others, who are not as smitten with this new gnome as Arno is, notice that she moves from wagon to wagon pressing with questions that seem to pry, gently but persistently.
Days pass again with nothing but monotony. The days become cool as the season becomes autumn and the rains become cold. The rains continue for days. This forces the caravan to halt as people seek what shelter they can.
Fungus Humongous
500 XP
 |
| Wow!Whoever painted this was sure eating some weird mushrooms. |
On the morning the rain breaks it is hot and humid as the ground is saturated with several days rain. The caravan slowly wakes only to discover the ground for a good mile around the caravan is covered in small mushrooms. As the group tries to move they find that the mushrooms when crushed scream and cry as if in horrible pain. Most of the caravan refuse to move for fear of poison or out of hesitation to kill something that feels pain.
The group studies the mushrooms as best they can but at best can only determine that the mushrooms may or may not be poisonous.
Danifae uses fiery blast after fiery blast to remove the mushrooms which results in massive amounts of spores to fly into the air around the caravan. People cover their mouths and noses as best they can. Smallfang, the dragonborn, gets down on all fours and crawls along picking mushroom after mushroom as gingerly as he can. Hours pass and the mushrooms seem to grow at an alarming pace.
The group growing impatient scares several horses causing them to run through the mushrooms pulling their carts behind them. After seeing the success of this plan the adventurers move through the caravan ushering each wagon through the field of mushrooms. The screams and shrieks growing louder and harder to bare. The strategy is successful in moving the caravan through the mushrooms but at the cost of much crying and wailing of the caravan's population.
Smallfang follows the trail of trampled mushrooms leaving his several neat piles of mushrooms behind.
Who's Your Friend
After several more days of travel and T'an and Orvustia getting closer as well as Arno and the newcomer, Jamna, the group ends the day in the early evening stopping the caravan and everyone settling in and making their evening meal.
The adventurers gather around a pot of venison stew they have made when Jamna comes over. She casually sits down and takes the bowl that Arno was just sitting down with a absent mindedly stirs the stew with her dagger. Arno is only able to stutter and get out that he'll get his own stew then. Jamna tells him no, that this is his stew but she's just busy with it for a moment.
Moments later she raises the dagger with what looks like a small bit of food at the end. It could be a bit of rice or an oatmeal lump. She wipes it off and shows them a curled bit, which may be bone but carved into a curl with several barbs. Jamna explains that had this been eaten it would have eventually unfurled inside the person's guts causing tears, internal bleeding and finally painful death. All of this never tied to the stew that they had eaten.
Jamna hands back the bowl to Arno, suggests that perhaps all their bowls have been tampered with and unhurriedly walks away.
The group puts down their bowls.
Had Jamna just saved all their lives, or was it something else. T'an, whose slight of hand is fairly good wasn't convinced that Jamna hadn't placed that either in the stew or simply on the end of the blade herself. He and Danifae vow to watch her.
That evening Jamna approaches Danifae and says that she knows that they too are following the cult, as is she. She proposes and alliance of purposes. She shares that she is of a faction that also wants to put a stop to this dragon cults doings. She is tracking treasure movement and suspects that this caravan is carrying such stolen goods. She offers to help look into one of the cultitst's wagons under cover of night along with Danifae.
As Jamna runs ahead, T'an watches her from the other side of the wagons and notices her run away unseen from Danifae and transform into the likeness of Arno. Without hesitation T'an lets an arrow fly and it hits it's target in the shoulder. In a movement to quick to follow the gnome is gone but the blood trail is not. They follow it until they are able to confront Jamna. Feeling that they cannot trust this gnome T'an marks her by slicing her ear and lets her go.
Murder Mosts Foul
Finally they are simply two days away from Waterdeep and this leg of the journey is almost at an end.
Unfortunately, it is the end of the journey for someone else. The group awakes to find a commotion around one of the cultitst wagons. It seems one of the cultists was murdered in the middle of the night. Accusations are bandied about and theories proposed. Someone says they recognize the wound as a sword wound. People look about but the cultists all look to our group. Specifically T'an.
The adventurers move in for a closer inspection and it does seem a blade has ended this persons life and all traces of footprints have been carefully swept away. Nothing else is noted by the group, except the absence of Jamna.
For the next two days T'an suffers the daggers thrown from the cultists eyes at every opportunity.
Arriving at Waterdeep the caravan disbands most disappearing into the large city. The group though follows close enough the the cultists to find themselves at the other end of the city. Here the cultists are joining another caravan to take them further north. The group will also continue on north continuing to server as guards to Beyd and his wagon of construction materials.
When the cultists realize that the group is still with them and joining the same caravan the group is met with undisguised hatred.
MetaGame Spoiler Inside
Carnath Roadhouse
The group is content to watch and see what the cultist do as most of the convoy moves either to the kitchen for supper or retire to their rooms.
Smallfang follows his stomach to the kitchen where most of the crews are eating. A rotund human is serving food and all the while mumbling to himself. He complains that lack of sleep is driving him mad. He hears skuttling noises and whispers in the middle of the night below his kitchens. Rats. Must be rats.
The cultists move to their rooms and the group realizes that there are no locks on any of the doors. No way to lock the cultists in.
In the stables they find the convoys wagons and T'an with the aid of Arno's tools decides to sabotage the wagons by sawing part way through their axles. This awakens the four stable boys who are easily both threatened and bribed into silence.
Then adventurers brainstorm plans while the roadhouse slowly falls quiet as night falls.
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