The troupe helped Dorn get his revenge on the necromancer, Kryll. After learning Simmeon gave the order to betray the Blackguard, Dorn wishes to travel to Baldur’s Gate once it is open so he can complete his quest for vengeance. The troupe has also taken in Samuel, an injured Flaming Fist deserter, and must pass through the Friendly Arm Inn to find a healer.
20 Kythorn 1368
It takes us a full day to travel to the Friendly Arm Inn. When we arrive at the Inn, a messenger approaches us looking for Gavin.
Gavin: Ye, I am he. What can I do for you?
Temple Messenger: Mornmaster Kelddath Ormlyr bids you return to the Song of the Morning Temple as soon as conveniently possible. He has a task he wishes you to perform.
Gavin: Thank you for delivering the message. Please tell Mornmaster Kelddath I shall go to the temple soon.
Temple Messenger: Very well. Safe travels.
Gavin: Another messenger, Aegon! Might I beg your indulgence to return to the temple?
Aegon: Yes, Gavin. We will go with you.
Gavin: Once again, I thank you for being so understanding.
We have another temple to get to first, however. We find Gellana Mirrorshade in the Temple of Wisdom.
Aegon: This man is named Samuel. We were told to bring him to you.
Gellana Mirrorshade: Oh, dear! It is Samuel, and what bad shape he is in. I am glad you have brought him to me. Such a fine young man, it’s a pity that he let himself be persuaded by Lena to desert the Fist. Well, nothing can be done about that, but something can be done about his health. For the service that you have provided, I want you to have some potions as a show of my gratitude.
She gives us a Potion of Heroism that should help us survive longer in a fight.
She also gives us an Elixir of Health to help against poison and disease.
I ask Ratava Artsym to help us identify Kryll’s robe and amulet. Her robes were simple Traveler’s Robes like my own. Her Amulet of Spell Warding can protect against powerful magic, however. It seems fitting that Dorn should wear this amulet.
They tell us that Baldur’s Gate is still closed, so Dorn’s vengeance will have to wait. But the Fates have given us a new task: we go back on the road, to the Song of the Morning Temple.
21 Kythorn 1368
We arrive at the temple before sunrise. Thankfully, the Mornmaster is early to rise for his duties.
Kelddath Ormlyr: Gavin, once again, I must ask you a small service for the temple. Before we see to the needs of your companions, I must tell you of an evil mage named Mutamin.
In an area east of here, Mutamin, insane, by all accounts, has been attempting to tame basilisks. He is obviously either oblivious to the dangers of this undertaking, or his evil knows no limits. We attempted to contact him, to warn him of the risks involved, but the messenger has not returned and we can only assume the worst. Gavin, if you and your companions are willing, there would be substantial reward for this service.
Gavin: I will speak with my companions. I will not commit to such a quest without Aegon’s endorsement, but we might be able to help.
Kelddath Ormly: Splendid, I shall eagerly await your report.
Another insane mage to hunt down. At least this one isn’t a necromancer. Is he even a mage? Basilisks turn people to stone with a gaze. Mutamin must have some way of protecting himself if he even has a chance of taming them.
We leave the temple and we talk about the possibility of taking on another quest for Lathander.
Aegon: Why not? He does sound too dangerous to ignore. We shall set to it at once.
Gavin: Very well, but let’s prepare ourselves properly. Maybe we should restock on supplies and get a good night’s rest first.
He’s right. If we’re going to wander into basilisk territory, we need to prepare. Kelddath gave us 6 Potions of Mirrored Eyes. I pass them around. One for each of us.
Time for shopping and rest. We go into town, to Feldepost’s Inn. We empty our gem bag to see what Feldepost will give us for our collection. We are surprised when he offers us over 3000 coin for the treasure.
This should help us buy supplies tomorrow. But first, we use some of the money to get us a nice room for the night.
After a good rest we return to the Temple and buy some Stone to Flesh scrolls. We don’t plan on becoming statues, but we’ll need a contingency in case we do. The half-orc takes point, and we begin our journey to the east of the Temple.
Close to the temple we meet someone who must have wandered a bit too far from an Inn last night.
Aegon: Ah, look fella, we’re not going to give you all of our money.
Drunk: Wrong answer, boys.
He hiccoughs. Clearly he’s very drunk.
Drunk: You shoulda givens me the moneys when I asked ya. Ya know what I am! I’ll lets ya into a little shecret… I’m a LICH. Yessh I am, powerful magicsh I wields, and now you’ve made me mad. You’ve gots one last chancesh, give me alls your money!
He starts hiccoughing again.
Aegon: Look, guy, we’re not gonna give you any money. Now bug off.
Drunk: Whao, ya guys jusht don’t get it do ya. I’m gonna killsh you with alls my mighty magical powers. So nows what’s it gonna be, death or… or… or somethin’.
Aegon: We’re leaving now. Bye.
Drunk: Hey! Whats are you, uhhh…
He falls to the ground and starts snoring.
Dorn: How about we take *care* of this drunk and spare the wolves the work.
Drunk: Hmpf… Huh?
I’m amused by Dorn’s joke. Or at least, I think he was joking? Either way, we leave the drunkard to recover on his own. Wolves shouldn’t wander this close to the temple. I think…
Somehow, the next person we encounter turns out to be more annoying than the drunk.
Aegon: You are from Waterdeep? I should like to visit that great city someday.
Ashen: I doubt you would find MY circles to your taste. Not nearly enough mongrel people wandering around smelling up the place. No, you stick to your environment, and I shall gladly retreat to mine.
As he walks away from him I suggest to Dorn we spare the wolves the work of taking care of *him*. He lets out a deep laugh as we continue our way.
We see wild dogs in the plains here. They run away as soon as they spot us.
One of the dogs gets too scared and attacks us.
Killing it angers the other dogs.
We kill one, and the other runs away. We let it go.
We soon encounter another pack of dogs, but this one leaves us alone.
We find a robed man who seems to be trying to measure the sky with some kind of tool.
Aegon: And what have your observations revealed to you?
Galileus: Oh, I couldn’t possibly tell you all that I see. There is so much raw data that must be interpreted and examined thrice over. It is a wonder that even I can assimilate all that information with no ill effects. Still, the long and the short of it reveals interesting times ahead. If I did not know better, I would say that the heavens themselves look on with interest. Conflicts of great significance are on the horizon.
Finch: What a fascinating scholar! If only he had talked longer. Then again, I might not have had enough parchment!
She rolls up her parchment and tucks it back into her book bag.
Further to the east we see a man running toward us, clearly close to panic.
We find the cave to the east, we cautiously make our way inside and find a giant spider with sharp sword-like legs waiting for us.
Gavin is not excited about the encounter.
The spider hurts me badly, so I try to run away.
Dorn manages to distract the spider, so I throw a Magic Missile at it.
Dorn is hurt, so Gavin throws him a Potion of Healing.
Gavin summons some Magical Stones and starts to hurl them at the spider.
Finch Blesses us.
I throw a Chromatic Orb at the spider.
Dorn is seriously wounded by the spider’s blade-like legs and is forced to use his Elixir of Health. Rose manages to get an arrow through the sword spider’s carapace and it drops down, motionless.
We heal ourselves up. This creature was exceptionally bug-like for a ghost.
We form up with Dorn in the lead again, and slowly work our way deeper into the crypt. This time we are faced with a wolf, it’s mane almost looking like its soaked in blood.
I hit it with a Magic Missile as it charges us.
The vampiric wolf bites Dorn and he finds himself unable to move. Gavin attempts to Command the wolf.
Gavin’s Command fails so Emily uses her cloak to summon weasels to our aid.
Rose realises her weapon is ineffective so starts to sing instead.
I hit it with a Chromatic Orb. Emily draws her Sword of Flame and charges the wolf.
Finch heals Dorn to keep him alive.
I cast another Chromatic Orb, then prepare my Armor of Faith.
With my Armor ready, I draw my Hammer of Corrosion and charge the vampiric wolf.
Gavin kills the wolf with a Magical Stone.
I heal Dorn while he stands there paralysed.
The weasels scurry away while we wait for Dorn to move again.
When he does, he approaches one of the crypts. As he’s about to open he is surprised by a spider teleporting next to him.
Dorn is poisoned by the spider and gets close to death. He drinks a Potion of Extra Healing.
The astral spider teleports and attacks Gavin. I rush to try and heal Dorn before he is poisoned to death.
Emily kills the spider, and Finch rushes to provide extra healing to Dorn.
But all is in vain as the poison fills the half-orc’s veins.
At least it is a short walk back to the temple. We decide to let Kelddath know about the drunk before we raise Dorn. He doesn’t deserve to be fed to the dogs. He’s not a noble from Waterdeep, after all.
Aegon: There is a drunk outside, North-West of the temple. I’d rather see him someplace safe.
Kelddath Ormlyr: Ah, Polus, I guess… Yes, I fear he has probably made a fool out of himself again. I know he can be quite determined to avoid help of any kind.
We’ll have a look on him. Don’t worry, we’ll handle that. Thank you for the call. We’ll probably just leave him there, but we will make sure he will be safe.
He charges us 400 gold to raise the half-orc. Lathander has little love for Blackguards, I guess. Dorn doesn’t want to stay in the temple, so he tells us he will be in the Friendly Arm Inn if we need him again.
We decide to avoid the cave after losing Dorn. It might be better to come back when we are better prepared.
Unfortunately when we are back on the road we face another fight we weren’t prepared for. A large group of hobgoblin bandits.
Aegon: We’ll not fight you. In fact, we want to join your group.
Cattack: You no join Chill! Not even funny! ‘Tis insult you die for!
The hobgoblins charge as I attempt to put them to Sleep.
All but two of them fall asleep.
Emily takes out a hobgoblin, but their leader is committed to its charge.
Emily makes him regret that commitment.
After that, picking off the sleeping hobgoblins one by one is child’s play.
They don’t have much on them except for a few coins. They clearly weren’t very good bandits. What did they call themselves? The Chill? Are these bandits in some kind of organisation?
As we approach a cliff face we encounter someone I had almost forgotten about. This is the man Ropar was talking about in Beregost.
Aegon: A man named Ropar hired us to take you to jail.
Garent: What’s the matter? I didn’t do anything reprehensible. Unless… my past has finally caught up with me.
Aegon: You know very well what you have done, kidnapper!
Garent: Oh, yes… I’m just an old man now, but once everything was completely different. But before you judge me, let me tell you my story. I’m not trying to evade, I just need to talk to someone.
I was a Shadow Druid, we lived near Cloakwood; I had three or four others with me. Our land was barren, so during the harvest, we entered the city, kidnapped and sacrificed babies to attract the favor of our gods.
But these sacrifices were in vain. I only realized it years later. The only rain that fell on the ground as a result of our actions was the rain from the tears of the unfortunate parents of the children. Our victims could not appeal to the gods, because we acted too secretly.
But I left our circle of druids and tried to start a new life. My new god Eldath does not accept violence in any form. I live alone and help everyone whom fate brings my way. But I… never forget the atrocities I once did. Every time it rains, the water feels salty from my tears and eats away at my flesh.
Aegon: It’s good that you admit to your mistakes, but nevertheless, you will have to come with us.
Garent: Prison is not an appropriate punishment for me. If I have to atone for my guilt, then only with my life. Once I took other people’s lives, and now I will give mine. I hope the gods have mercy and forgive me. Tell those who sent you that I am bitterly sorry for what I did.
It is already too late when I notice the dagger as he slits his own throat. I had assumed he was lying about his guilt. I guess I was wrong. Still, it’s hard to mourn someone who sacrifice children.
We move on to the east and find a lifelike statue of a woman. We must be moving in the right direction. I pull out one of the scrolls I bought at the temple.
The stone slowly gains colour as it returns to flesh. The woman starts breathing again.
Aegon: Thank you for your advice, but I would prefer if you joined me in tracking down these beasts.
Corianna: Oh no, you don’t… If you want to face that mage and his basilisk, that’s your business. I’m heading home.
So he is a mage. She moves west toward Beregost. We continue to the east. We are accosted by another wolf, this time a dread wolf.
Emily takes it out without too much trouble.
Another dread wolf decides to brighten our day.
It falls as quick as the last one. I am starting to understand how to use magic a bit better after all these battles.
Aegon gains some saves, lore and 2 hit points, and now has access to level 2 mage spells (4 per day).
I stop the group and take some time to scribe some spells into my spellbook. I learn how to conjure a Battering Ram.
Basically a more powerful Knock spell. Could also be described as Command except it also does damage.
I can also turn Invisible for almost a full day.
Can be used to scout out an area, but you are still usually better off with a stealthy thief that can find traps.
I can also Resist Elements and the damage they cause.
Could be a good general purpose spell against mages and elemental creatures.
Visions of death start to fill my mind again. Something tells me that going further north would be dangerous. We need to continue to the east. Toward the mage and his basilisks.
There’s a large group of wolves to the north. I tried, but they just slaughter my party at its current level. Well, next time we face basilisks! We’re going to need those mirrored eyes…
