It is disturbing for Orson, Redwald and Araxie as they cannot see. All they can hear is the rest of the group moving about and talking in whispers getting ready to move out. They hope for the best but plan for the worst.
H gives a very nervous Orson Goosecry a spare short sword. When this does not seem to alleviate the thin man's fears, H gives him his newly acquired magical ring. He tells Orson that if someone gets close to him, he can use the ring to bind them. Orson seems way but the ring helps calm his fears, if a little. To Redwald he pulls from his Heyward's Haversack, a shield and long sword. The man is definitely ready to move out and now bransishes the sword with more than a little skill. Vall takes the time to don his new armor which as he pulls it on, it seems to quiet his whole body and he no longer makes any sound.
Magic Items Corrupted
As they make their plans and ready themselves to move out, they realize that they have not seen their troll friend Jabir. Araxie calls out but there is no reply. Orson is more than a little disturbed that she is making so much noise. He cannot see anything. Vall hands him a torch and then uses a bit of magic to make the flame much brighter. Orson seems again a little more comfortable with this but he decides he will take up the rear. So as not to hinder anyone's eyesight, of course. Not for any other reason, such as cowardice.
As they move through the tunnel Araxie discovers she cannot see out of her right eye and begins to yell out, "I cannot see! I cannot see!". H covers her mouth but it is too late. He is sure that the wraiths or whatever they are have probably already heard. They have only moments to get ready. He drops down and pulls out his rife.
Vall notices from further back that Araxie seems to be agitated and yelling something but he hears nothing from her. He is able to hear the groans of complaint and horror at Araxie's outburst from those right beside him. Very quickly he deduces that his armor of stealth makes it so no one can hear him but he cannot hear anything beyond his immediate vicinity. The armor is not as good as he thought once.
The Wrath Of Wraiths
8,700 XP
Two Wraiths emerge and immediately blast them with ice storm. The daggers of ice shred into them and hail stones rain down on them. H, who was waiting for them fires his rifle but the amount of injury he was expecting does not happen to the specter. It would seem their incorporeal form resists much of the bullets damage. Vall's zombies and ghouls, who were leading the charge, are blasted to pieces leaving little behind.
The battle moves up towards the wraiths as the group tries to maim the wispy creatures. This close to the wraiths though proves dangerous. The wraiths, with a simple touch, seem to sap them of their life energy, leaving them injured and unable to completely heal. H remembers bullets created quite some time ago that he had charged with radiant energy. Firing these into the creatures seems to do much more damage than just the bullets alone.
The spectre that Vall fights turns to him with soulless eyes and he finds the creature so frightening that he cannot move. He watches as his friends around him take wound after grievous wound but cannot find it in his will to move against such a fiend.
Ondine's Final Fight
Ondine is then taken by surprise as he is shot by H. Angered he flies over to H and lands behind him. He leans down to put his foul hand right through H's back and grabs onto his heart. H fills the deatly chill creep through his body as his life energy is drawn out and into Ondine. Taelis sees this and pulls the damage into himself as H feels his life force return to him.
Taelis, though, now becomes so weakened that he retreats and barricades himself behind a barrior of magical energy. Ondine sees this and becomes incorporeal and moves through the stone wall to another chamber within the keep.
The frightened Vall has no way to fend off the specter as it moves towards him and damages him further while reaching into his pack and removing the spellbook that he had taken from the defeated mage, back on the road to this keep. Damn it. He didn't even remember that he had that book. The specter, book in hand, flies off to his master.
Araxie is surrounded by wraiths so Taelis charges her trident with radiant energy and in her barbarian rage she begins finishing off the wraiths.
These wraiths dispatched, the group rushes off and gives chase looking for Ondine.
They peek around a corner to see a room where Ondine is working on a magical circle in the middle of the room. The see Ondine take the book from the wraith and place it in the middle of the circle while he continues work on the circle.
H charges his bullets with fire damage and shoots the book away.
Araxie charges in and stabs repeatedly at Ondine, her radiantly charged trident ripping Ondine to shreds. "Let's see them bring him back this time!"
The wraith seeing his master now vanquished turns to fly away but is stopped by the arrival of Jabir coming through the door. He shrieks, grabs and bites the wraith. It bursts into a black cloud of vapor that quickly dissipates.
The group examines what Ondine was doing and from Taelis can determine, the circle which Ondine was working on is some sort of teleportation ritual portal. It's location is uncertain but it is far from here.
A New Recruit For The Order
Jabir tells them that he is tasked with watching the little one, Malak, and that the others, Mother and 2 brothers are outside. They are looking for these guys and they are probably going to eat them. The group persuades him once again, with promises of respect and honor as a soldier within The Order Of The Obsidian Dagger. But he must get his mother and his brothers away from the chain bridge. He should go to the main entrance and call them back inside, while the rest of them can make good their escape from the secret entrance. Jabir agrees and heads off.
Vall follows along to make sure he understands but ends up distracting them with a prestidigitation light show.
Waiting for Jabir to distract his fellow trolls, H uses a scroll of gaseous form to enter back into the keep. He enters an area he has not seen before. Here he sees a young troll bowling with a rounded skull. Further along he sees a natural pool that glows with an eerie green energy. He continues along and sees a room where the trolls have collected up treasure in the form of coins from the numerous dead they have attended to.
H returns to the others and tries to communicate his findings via gaseous shapes to varying degrees of success.
After not seeing the trolls being called inside they debate the merits of sending out Taelis to distract the trolls while the others escape. But before they can act on it they hear Jabir calling his family in. His mother goes in while the brothers argue to each other outside.
The Escape Plan
3,600 XP
As they try to sneak across the courtyard to the chain bridge they are spotted by the brothers but quick and creative teamwork creates a swirling black snow cube, with showers of light and the gaseous form of a humanoid emerging from it, right in front of the troll brothers. This causes the brothers to run for the shelter of the keep.
The group takes the opportunity and rushes across the bridge.
On the other side they find their wagons and animals. The donkey is long since frozen to death and the horses not much better but at least alive. They make camp creating a fire to cook donkey meat and tend to their wounds. Some of them will need more than a short rest to fix their damage so they decide to rest overnight. Orson tries to engage the group in betting, even though he has no money, and ends up taking a wager of 100 gold against being a part of Araxie's new crew on her promised ship. He says the next troll out of the Keep will be Jabir.
They wait and sure enough a troll exits to relieve it's bladder and it is not Jabir. Araxie slaps Orson on the back and welcomes him as the first of her crew.
H takes the watch and finds an area to watch over the bridge using his rifle and scope. As the night's cold air makes everyone take shelter in one form or another. H watches. Soon enough he sees a troll figure emerge and begin to cross the bridge. But the complete dark makes it hard for him to see which troll. He makes an executive decision. He fires. He shoots for the foot and hits his mark. The troll makes a startled shout and plummets down into the ravine out of sight.
The others wake and question H. H calls out "all clear". The others decide to fall back to sleep. Some of them hope it wasn't Jabir that was shot at. Regardless they all fall back to sleep quickly.
The Codex Potentia
The morning greets them with sunshine and clear skies. They break camp and begin their journey back to Baldur's Gate. Araxie notices that she still is not feeling well. She has her proper eyesight back but now she feels exhausted. Something is wrong.
Once back in the city, Taelis bids the group a farewell and tells them he will return. He is heading back to his temple of academia. The rest of them enter The Order's keep to return the prisoners to Onthar.
The Reunion
1,000 XP
The reunion is a tearful one where Onthar thanks the group for the safe return of Stool, oh yes and Orson and Redwald of course. Through teary eyes he tells everyone assembled that he is retiring. Life is to short to not share the wonders of the world with someone you love. Yes, he loves Stool. Their love may not be understood by all but he and Stool will share the world and their time together.
Vall nods his head solemnly in approval. He understands forbidden love.
Before his departure, Onthar names his successor. He appoints Maddox as now leader of The Order of the Obsidian Dagger here in Baldur's Gate. Maddox stoicly agrees. He definitely has plans for The Order. It is Wonder Ales for everyone and then Onthar is off with Stool. Stool waves his goodbye and thanks to the group as they walk away, hand in myconid hand.
Maddox, tosses down his untouched Wonder Ale. Enough is enough. They will investigate this Wonder Ale, now that Onthar is out of the picture.
The Wonder Ale Inspection
The group travels down through the lower city to the commercial district and to the house of the Grayslicers. Maddox has learned that the Grayslicers have suffered a fire in their bakery some months ago but soon afterwards changed to selling the Ale created from an old family recipe. Since then they have done tremendously well and are now rebuilding their home and business.
The group enters the home, having to push through a long line of customers after passing a large waiting group assembled outside along the sides of the channel. The channel here is used by many businesses to move their trade goods in the city and out to the docks.
Inside they find a harried young girl, Lily who is serving customers. Araxie jumps over the counter to help herself to several flagons full of Wonder Ale straight from the tap. Little Lily about to protest is cut short by the toss of a gold coin, which she quickly pockets.
Maddox strides right through to the back after inquiring where he may find the owner of the establishment. Lily tells him that father and mother, that is Aldebrand and Parnella, are in the back mixing a batch of Wonder Ale. When he enters the back he sees the older couple, two very rotund people, counting coins and bagging gold. They protest but Maddox, using his new found title and power cuts them short. They will show him and the others where and how Wonder Ale is made.
After some arguing and failed attempts at negotiation, Aldebrand is forced by the threat of death against him and his family. He relents. He tells the others to follow him. A soon as he exits the building he turns to the assembled crowd and loudly pleads their assistance. "The Order is here to take control of Wonder Ale. Will you allow this?! Will you let the corrupt Order take this from you as well?"
The large crowd becomes agitated and begins shouting at the group and throwing their flagons at them. They press in but are held at bay by the fierceness of Maddox and his wolf. He tries to shout words of consilation and wisdom but they are not headed. He places Aldebrand upon the wolf and tells him to direct them to where the Wonder Ale is made.
As this is happening, Araxie and Vall are inside and little Lily pleads with them to protect her father. He is a good man. They were simply doing what they were told, which is to not ever talk about the making of Wonder Ale. The goblins said no one would understand. Yes, goblins are gross but these one are nice, mostly. Well, the one named snugs is nice and the mother is quite smart, for a goblin. Araxie and Vall tell them that their father will be alright, though Araxie's words are a little unconvincing as she has little talent for talking to children.
After moving up and down the streets of Baldur's Gate, Maddox begins to suspect that Aldebrand Grayslicer is leading them around in a while pig run. He is not going to show them where the Wonder Ale is brewed. Maddox returns him to his home and places guards around the Grayslicer abode, especially in the alley where they have discovered a sewer grate which has been rigged with a hook to hold the gate up and a pulley system within.
Fixing Broken Things
After returning to The Order's keep they attend some basic housekeeping they now have time for. They inspect their odd magical finds only to discover that some of their mage scholars are convinced that they had been true magical items but that have become warped due to some magical taint. Have they been somewhere where they might have come into contact with a source of magic that has become corrupted perhaps?
They think back to the odd magical pool with the sickly green glow back in IceThorn castle.
Can they be fixed? The scholars shrug and suggest praying really hard to their patron deity. Maddox has already tried remove curse but this simply broke the current curse of both Vall and Araxie but their items, both ring and armor, remained cursed. They would suffer the curse if they donned the items once more. Maddox goes off to his shrine to his god and prays on behalf of Vall.
Soon the armor is as it once was intended. As he shakes the armor it gives of no sound whatsoever. He hands it back to Vall.
Maddox then tells Araxie that her ship has already been commissioned and is nearing completion of it's retrofitting. They have taken The Order's only ship currently docked here in Baldur's Gate, The ship, formerly known as the Mirasandra, awaits a new name and a crew. The retrofitting was to make the ship capable of flight. It has taken the mages 4 tireless and sleepless days but they think they have it figured out. This was not a slight task. H offers to oversee the finishing touches to the ship, he will make sure it is supplied with goods and weapons, as he is able. This simply leaves the crew.
Into The Sewers
The next morning, the guards tasked with watching the Grayslicer home return. There was no suspicious activity. Jensen believed he heard noise from the sewer grate but when they looked there was nothing. The apologize and move off to find a bed and rest.
In the meantime, Taelis has returned back to his temple outside Baldur's Gate. He carries with him both a sample of Wonder Ale and the spellbook he has tried to decipher. He goes to seek advice and scholarly wisdom from his fellows in the temple.
Back in Baldur's Gate the group decides to investigate the sewers below the Grayslicer estate on their own. Vall descends down the ladder once the sewer grate is opened. Below he enters a dry storm sewer. The smell of sewage grows stronger as he walks along towards the sounds of rushing water. He soon comes to a river of slime and filth that flows along a channel in front of him. There are thin walkways along each side of the channel. He walks along the closest one until he comes to a large pit that collects sewage from several pipes and the channel he has walked beside.
Soon, Maddox's wolf pads up beside Vall and the wolf's ears prick up with the sounds of goblin noises and voices. Vall and the wolf hurry back down the channel in the direction they came from. Jumping across to the far side they hide themselves along a darkend wall and Vall uses his disguise skill to camouflage themselves. Soon they see three goblins walking along, each rolling a large barrel in front of them. they are complaining that one of them, Frics didn't deliver the Ale like he was supposed to last night.
They continue along the path that Vall had taken when he first descended into the sewers and past the grate where Maddox stands above. Using his connected senses with his wolf's Maddox follows where the goblins are going while walking above the goblins in the streets. He soon finds himself standing in front of the local whore house, the Whet Stone.
He returns to the grate behind the Grayslicer's and descends when the goblins have passed and returned the way they came. He soon meets up with his wolf and Valll.
Can Maddox let his indignation against Wonder Ale go for now or will he and Vall follow the goblins on their own towards....who knows what they will find in the sewers of Baldur's Gate.
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