The areas surrounding Daggerford has been plagued with attacks from all sort of beast and demon in the past couple of tenday. Travelers knew it was bad outside the walls of a protected city but the violence and destruction has increased as of late.
Inside Daggerford, inns are full and The Commons, the grassy area surrounding the ducal castle is now filled with tents filled with families seeking shelter from the violence in the surrounding areas.
Princess Elora flies through the Commons planting apple seeds and magically maturing them until the whole area is now an orchard and the people cheer her as she flies through.
Messick's Secret Mission
Messick, leaves the group and seeks out Lacene, the woman who had lent him her farm's workhorse for his mission to protect the caravan a few tenday ago. He finds her and thanks her with coin. Then with the aid of a few locals he learns that the best place to look for dogs, would be at the guard barracks and adjacent stables. There he finds a squire packing up the belongings of several of the newly deceased guard. The attack on the walls by the demons has left the city with a fraction of its guards. There is indeed a dog, Sir Peter's dog, a greyhound is now homeless since Sir Peter didn't have any family. Messick thinks on this but he is sure a puppy would suit his purposes better. Making his way to the stables he finds a mother collie and two of her pups. Messick picks one and places it in his backpack.
Eventually everyone gathers again to return Junia to her tavern. Run by her sister-in-law during Junia's absence. Junia finds that under the ducal order, all taverns must take in as many refugees as they can, regardless of their ability to pay for lodging. The Happy Cow Tavern's common room is now filled with families trying to make a living space in such crowded circumstances, their meager belongings stacked into makeshift dividers for a sense of privacy.
The Cistern Mystery
As the group moves through the city streets, they hear of rumors of the cisterns, the city's water supply, having run dry. There is a growing shock and worry as each cistern is found drained. Lady Mara, a newly minted and self described adventurer is eager to get to the bottom of the problem and help the people. With the aid of Gunter's disguise kit, she runs to the nearest cistern opening and asks what the group plans to do. She is ready to climb down.
Her obvious inexperience and over-eagerness worries the others. They do their best to explain that one doesn't just jump into the unknown without a plan. "Splitting The Party" is never a wise thing to do. Messick tells Lady Mara that they must seek out the Duke, her father. A good adventuring group lives on the proceeds earned from such endeavors. He asks if she thinks she can pull off seeing her father. Lady Mara is confident in her new disguise and decides it would be alright, especially if she hangs back behind the others.
Where is Delfen
As they move through the city, they hear decries of "Where is Delfen?!?" "Why do we have a wizard if he's not here to help?", "Delfen help us!". Passing bits of conversation also hint at the fact that he in fact hasn't been seen for at least one or two tenday. The group heeds it little mind, they are the solution the city needs.
Gaining An Audience
Together they move through the city approaching the gates to the Ducal Castle. Two very young guards attend the gates. Their armor and uniforms fitting loosely on their smaller than average frames. They aggressively halt the group. The adventurers ask for an audience with the Duke and say they can help with the cistern problem. The young guards, unsure of themselves, aren't convinced. Eda, the wizard, approaches them and tries to intimidate them but the sight of her hairless cat familiar horrifies them. One of the young guards screams, "Demon!" and stabs the cat through with his halberd. "Demons are in the city!", he yells.Eda screams at them but before she can cast fireball the others intervene and de-escalate the situation. Eventually, they gain an audience with the Duke. Inside the walls of the Ducal Castle all is quiet and empty, compared to the crowded constant noise of the rest of the city. The Duke, followed by a trio of regular guards, approaches. Messick steps forward and explains that the group can help with the city's recent water problem....for a fee. Pausing only briefly, the Duke agrees. Messick then turns to Lady Mara who is a little surprised that Messick would draw attention to her. He kneels down in front of her, reaching into his backpack he retrieves the stray pup and places it Lady Mara's arms, then places his massive hands upon her shoulders.
The Curse Of Lady Mara
"I'm sorry.", Messick says truly seeming to regret something. He keeps repeating the apology to Lady Mara who can only look on with confusion. He continues his "I'm sorry" and stands bring Lady Mara up and off her feet. He turns and presents Lady Mara to the Duke. The Duke looks on in shock as he realizes it is his daughter.
Messick explains Lady Mara's bravery during the caravan's attack and her subsequent desire to be and adventurer. They could not keep her in Triel. Her enthusiasm combined with her inexperience will be her death, Messick explains. He tells Lady Mara that with training and devotion to Lady Sirius her day will come when she can truly call herself and adventurer but until that day he will not let her come to a bad end. Hopefully she will come to realize the wisdom in this and hopefully find the group again. Until that day at least she can be safe.
The Duke has her taken away by two of the guards. Lady Mara curses Messick over and over, vowing to get revenge for this betrayal. Messick implores the Duke to provide here with proper training, lest she decide to escape her enforced life once again. The Duke thanks the group and decides to provide them with a larger compensation, if they are successful in solving their cistern problem. He seems to put little thought or stock in the idea of training his noble daughter in the ways of murder hobos.
Azula, rushes up to Lady Mara who looks excited at the prospect of being rescued from this horrible mundane life by the dark elf. Instead Azula roughly begins removing the chainmail shirt that she had lent Lady Mara. Lady Mara resumes her cursing of Messick and now adding Azula to her list of those who will taste her revenge!
The Cistern System
The group, a little unnerved by the whole ordeal, take solace in the fact that it had to be done. She wasn't ready. They all confirm this to each other with small stories of her inexperience, her recent attempt at jumping down into a dark unknown cistern. They make 'tisk'-ing sounds and shake their heads sadly. Then gather at the nearest cistern and descend.
Beneath the city, the cistern system is a collection of connected stone lined chambers, intended to catch rain water and store it for the city's consumption. The cistern's walls and tunnels are still wet, the dripping sounds echoing through the vast complex. The water here was emptied very recently. But how?
As they cautiously move through the tunnels, they quickly come across sections of newly tunneled earth. After some quick investigation they conclude that some massive creature has tunneled this out, making a way for the cisterns water to drain away. They feel the ground beneath their feet rumble ever so softly. They pause but when the rumbling stops they continue on, moving through the new and roughly excavated tunnels.
A Wyrmling, A Bulette and an Ilithid Walk Into A Tunnel
As they hear more rumbling, this time more loudly and violently, the ground in front of them breaks open and a large worm like creature rises up and out of the ground. It attacks.
An even larger hole breaks ground, and a massive, bulette climbs out of the hole and attacks. Princess Elora sends her giant rat army to attack while Eda summons a storm sphere around the creature. Azula, seeing the horrifying vision, flees down the corridor only to be stopped by the wyrmling emerging up out of the ground in front of her.
Azula, closes in on the magical ilithid, and proposes a bargain, in which the ilithid can remain alive and have power only a drow can offer. The creature turns to Azula and tells her that nothing can match the knowledge promised to it.
Negotiations failed, the group finishes off the creatures.
<someone finds something magical inside the wyrmling>
Azula rifles through the robes of the ilithid and finds a small vial, green liquid sloshes inside revealing a small tentacle inside.
Messick casts speak with the dead and questions the ilithid. It tells them that it was promised secret forbidden magical knowledge from Kenavu The Undying, as long as it delivered the city of Daggerford to her. Oh and yes, the potion isn't magical, it's a snack.
With that the group decides to return to the surface and claim its gold for a job well done.
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