Rose, Aegon, and the Troupe have just slain the bandit leaders in Tazok’s tent. They have learned that Tazok is in the Cloakwood and that an organisation known as the Iron Throne is behind both the bandits and the iron crisis. Now they have to escape the camp and the dozens of bandits that surely heard their leaders being slain.
18 Flamerule 1368
The berserker warrior Minsc is slain. Much to Kagain’s chagrin, his rodent has taken a liking to the dwarf. Rasaad keeps Boo under control for now.
There are too many bandits out there and we are weak. Even with the scrolls of Restenford we don’t stand a chance. But there is still a way to escape unnoticed. Ender Sai had the right idea. I pick up my familiar and hide him in my pack.
Then we gather up our Potions of Invisibility and drink one each. As long as we are quiet this should work. Leaving the skeleton warrior behind should be enough of a distraction.
We sneak out of the tent. Taurgosz is already on his way into the tent. He doesn’t notice us as we slip by.
20 Flamerule 1368
We make way for Nashkel as soon as we leave the camp. They either aren’t able to track us, or don’t even realise it was us. After a couple of days we arrive and take Minsc to the temple. Nalin asks us for 200 gold to resurrect the berserker.
No sooner has Minsc arisen than he starts to annoy our fellow dwarven mercenary.
Minsc: Uh… what… oh. Boo informs me that you have said something. It is rude to address Boo directly. Especially you, for Boo doubts your commitment to stomping your feet on the neck of Evil.
Kagain: I only suggested ye begin stomping yer foot anywhere. Ye’re like to take root as ye were.
Minsc: Oh, I am sorry. The contemplation of thoroughly butt-kicked Wickedness had transported us.
Kagain: Transported, eh? Not so well that your feet wouldn’t do better. Let’s move.
Minsc seems eager to get moving, but Rose and I politely suggest he take some time to recover from his death.
It’s been a long time since Valerie fell to an Xvart shaman. She wanted to help with the mines, perhaps she would be willing to help us in the Cloakwood.
Aegon: I do. We leave at once.
I catch her up on everything that has happened since we went into the mines. She had already heard some of it from the mayor, but was keen to hear the details she missed.
Aegon: You saw the letter. Your thoughts?
Valerie: The plot thickens. Mulahey struck me as too stupid to do this on his own, frankly, but we have a thread to follow.
Aegon: Any Cowled Wizard insights into what happened down there?
Valerie: Not really. We’re trained in arcane matters, but aside from the poison itself, I don’t know what to think. Making trouble *is* what Strifeleaders do, but so far this is outside my area of expertise.
Aegon: Any guesses where this thread will lead us?
Valerie: To Beregost. Oh. Well in my professional and magical opinion… I have no idea, sorry.
Aegon: No sense standing around here, then.
Rose lets her take a look in the Bag of Holding for anything she might be able to use. She takes the Staff of the Blue Dragon that we found in the caves beneath Bone Hill Castle.
For protection she takes one of the Bracers of Defense.
And to help the braces she dons a Traveller’s Robe.
She asks if we have any of the poison left that was used by the kobolds in the mines. There happens to be some stored in our Potion Belt.
This reminds me that we gave Taerom Fuiruim some of this poison to take a look at. It’s been more than two tendays since we gave it to him. We should visit him and see if he made any progress.
Valerie prefers to use her sling when she’s out of spells, so we go to the Nashkel store and purchase a small shield to help protect her even more.
This storekeep isn’t knowledgeable about magic items, but I remember there is someone outside the inn who sells magical shoes. Perhaps she can help identify some of the weapons we found in Restenford.
Rose: Just around. Why, do you want them?
Karaea Harfurthock: I love gooseberries! They’re my favourite!
Can I buy them from you?
Rose: Here, take them as a gift.
Karaea Harfurthock: Ooh! Wonderful! Now I can make my favourite kind of pie!
Rose: Yes, I would like to see your wares, please.
Karaea Harfurthock: Here’s my wares, then! I hope you find something you like!
We show here some of the equipment we brought back from Restenford with us, as well as the weapons we took from the bandit camp. She can’t tell us what they all are, but she does recognise the cloak of an orc shaman.
The axe is the Screaming Death, a war axe created for someone who was unable to fight. Kagain says he’s unable to fight with such a large axe.
The wand is similar to Xan’s, allowing the user to conjure fire. I keep this one in my belt.
One of the swords we have is another Varscona, similar to the weapon Fabio wielded when he was among our troupe.
One of the bandit leaders was using a Long Bow of Marksmanship. Morwen says her bow is more accurate than this one. It was one of the reasons we were able to defeat the bandits.
This is all she can help us with. I will have to ask the Weave for help with the other weapons tomorrow. We thank her and move to the inn to get a room. The innkeeper has a warning for us.
Could it be the kobolds moving into town? This may be something to investigate.
21 Flamerule 1368
In the morning I am refreshed and I use a few spells to identify our remaining weapons. Rasaad’s weapon is actually carved from the fang of a dragon!
The other sword we have is the tool of a bard, allowing them to cast their spells as fast as a weasel. Not that weasels have been know to wield magic.
The staff we have once belonged to a mage known as Spendelard. I don’t remember ever reading about him. Valerie is happy with her Staff of the Blue Dragon for now.
Kagain expresses his frustrations to Valerie during breakfast.
Valerie: Beregost is Baldur’s Gate territory. Frankly, I’m surprised the Flaming Fist hasn’t given me trouble already.
Kagain: Don’t be daft. You’re Amnish. You know a coin in the right pocket can get you anything.
Valerie: There are larger concerns than your purse, Kagain.
Kagain: Are there now? I want those concerns’ heads mounted on my office wall.
I talk to the others about our next step. The Cloakwood is the obvious next step, but I fear we may be underprepared. I tell them that I have unfinished business that I’d like to take care of while we are in the south.
I’m not really ready to go through the Cloakwood yet, and I want to take some time to explore all the sidequests and areas before we move on to the next chapter. There’s still a lot of content, modded and unmodded, that should be worth seeing.
I want to avenge a lost friend and rescue one of hers. To avenge Neera’s death and finally free the wild mage they have captive. The rest of our party agrees to go along for now. After we have eaten, we pack up our things and set off on the road toward Adoy’s Enclave.
On the road we are accosted by Chill bandits. They don’t seem to know who we are, at least not yet.
These bandits die as easily as Kagain mocks them.
Morwen finishes off the last bandit. We loot their corpses of a few gems and move on.
Our journey takes us through the Gibberling Mountains where we run into a couple of dire wolves.
Rose is able to hold them at bay and they don’t give us too much trouble.
This is where we rescued Samuel from the Flaming Fist. I Charmed him and sent him deep into the mountains. I wonder what became of him. The others agree to a small detour, and we venture back into the mountain. We find more gibberlings have settled into the mountains.
They attack us on sight and we defend ourselves, only to find that the Flaming Fist Mercenary has settled down with them.
Before they can get too close, I put them all to Sleep.
We focus our attacks on the Gibberling King, and the minions that are still awake come to his aid.
Rose’s spear is able to pierce through his armour, and the mercenary stops moving.
The rest of the gibberlings give us no real trouble.
What a strange thing to find. A Flaming Fist Mercenary living with gibberlings? We should be more careful with our magic items. Who knows what other strange side effects they may have?
I’m metagaming a bit here. The party’s reputation is too high. Normally a high reputation is better for a good-aligned party, but when you want to rotate characters the way I’m doing it means that evil characters could end up leaving permanently. I want to keep my options open so I came back to kill this guy for the Reputation drop. The party’s Reputation is now 8 (disliked), but in this game it’s much easier to gain Reputation than lose it.
We make our way back down the mountain, back toward Adoy’s enclave.
22 Flamerule 1368
After a day’s travel we arrive at Adoy’s Enclave. The goblins are wandering around peacefully, just like the last time I was here.
The caves are as we left them, empty except for the back room. I don’t see any sign of Neera’s remains. Before we go into the cage I tell the others we should prepare. There will have a fight on our hands. Morwen hands out Potions of Speed to us all.
Rose and I prepare some protections against magic using the Scrolls of Restenford.
Kagain notices Valerie’s unease for the coming battle.
Valerie: I can keep up, nevermind that half of me would be only marginally smaller than you. Not everyone’s graced with the resilience and personality of a large rock.
Kagain: To a dwarf, that;s a high compliment! Moradin made us tough as stone! More than can be said for you, skinny.
Valerie: Ugh. Concentrated dwarf smugness is exceeding recommended levels. I suggest we move on before I choke.
Kagain: Hahaha! At least you’re too tall to be a blasted elf.
Rose tells them to hush and leads us inside the cell. Inside we find a man who has clearly not been treated well.
Rose: I am looking for a wild mage named Adoy.
Adoy: Adoy is me, and I am Adoy. Why have you sought me out?
Rose: Neera was a wild mage, too. She hoped you could teach her to control her magic.
Adoy: You wouldn’t want to, believe me.
It’s all part of the wonder of wild magic. You have to be ready for a little unexpected excitement at any moment.
As soon as he finishes his sentence wispers of white light start to spin around in the caves. They form portals and couple of men donning red robes step through, accompanied by a couple of warriors and an ogre.
Ekandor: Half-elf! You’ll regret spoiling my grand entrance once we subdue you for examination. And what is this? Another wild mage? Perhaps I should thank you for leading us to yet another test subject.
Adoy: Not if I can help it. Behold, the power of untamed magic!
Adoy starts casting a spell. I can’t tell what he is trying to do based on his hand movements and words. But it doesn’t matter. His spell surges back into him and he is turned into a small rabbit.
Ekandor glows as magical protections form around him. The warriors draw their swords. The ogre raises his club. Illusory men form around the other red mage.
As soon as they attack we attempt to disable their protections. Morwen hits them with a Dispel Magic, and I throw a Spell Thrust at Ekandor. Meanwhile Rose attempts to keep the ogre busy.
My Spell Thrust works, so we start to make use of the Scrolls of Restenford to summon support.
The bodyguards give us some trouble, chasing Valerie down and knocking Kagain unconscious. Rose turns her spear toward Ekandor. Taking out their leader quickly should win us this fight.
Ekandor summons a Flame Shield to distract Rose, but I summon some Shadows to help in our fight.
Morwen follows this by conjuring an Air Elemental. These new allies should be powerful enough to win the fight for us.
Despite all this extra help, the Thayans catch up to Valerie, nearly killing her.
Ekandor slows our party down with the Weave. Fortunately Rose and I are protected against his magic.
Valerie attempts to find a place to heal, but she is run down by the ogre’s berserk attacks. Her death seems to cause Kagain to wake up again.
I ask Corellon to Curse the Thayans for the rest of the fight.
The fight breaks into three. Rasaad and the Shadows take on the ogre and the bodyguards. Rose chases the lesser wizard with her spear. And Morwen’s air elemental attempts to chase down Ekandor.
The ogre claims its second victim as it slices Rasaad open.
I knock down the other Red Wizard with a Battering Ram. That should make him an easy target.
Rose takes advantage of this, forcing her spear through his neck. The ogre berserker tries to make Kagain its next victim.
Ignoring the air elemental, Ekandor hits Morwen with an Acid Arrow that burns away her flesh. She screams in agonising pain as she dies.
We reposition and the guards chase after me. Rose gets between us. The air elemental finally draws a drop of blood from Ekandor. Unfortunately Kagain is struggling to stay alive against the ogre.
Rose kills another Thayan and Kagain charges for one last hail Moradin against the ogre.
The ogre accepts Kagain’s life as a gift. Corellon grants me a Spiritual Hammer to help fight the second guard.
The ogre ignores the shadows and goes for Rose. Ekandor has almost destroyed the air elemental.
A wounded Ekandor sends the air elemental back to its plane of existence. The ogre is finding Rose to be harder to fight than its other three victims as the shadows tear into its back.
One of the shadows goes after Ekandor as he summons more defenses from the Weave.
Ekandor responds with a Cone of Cold, killing his own bodyguard. Our magical protections prevent the spell from hurting us.
This ogre is too strong. Time to take that away.
The Ray fails, but Ekandor solves that problem for us with a Fireball. For an oh-so-powerful Red Wizard he seems to be ignoring our immunity to his magic.
Just the two of us left. We are immune to his magic and he has no protection from our weapons. It’s time to finish this fight.
The wizard falls. As soon as he does, Adoy conveniently returns to his human form.
Aegon: What do those Red Wizards want with wild mages, anyway?
Adoy: The Red Wizards pursue your friend Neera and me to study us – or perhaps our brains – to learn why we can wield the power of arcane chaos and they can’t.
I seldom visit settlements these days, so perhaps you’ll get more use out of it than I do – and maybe a little peace of mind.
Aegon: That’s very generous. Thank you, Adoy.
Adoy: Oh, don’t think I’ve forgotten you, Aegon. Watch as I conjure my fabulous treasure trove, all for you!
Aegon: Wait, is that such a good idea for you to conjure-？
Before I can finish my sentence he disappears. Presumably he isn’t coming back. Rose and I look around the cave. So many corpses strewn around. So much blood and death. Why is my life filled with so much violence since I left the Keep?
We have four corpses to drag back to the temple.
Rose opens the Bag of Holding…
