RealmsToowoomba Recap # 66 [RPG]

[13 Flamerule 1372 continued)

Mellia, Cain, and Fargrim head for Silverymoon’s northwest exit, the Moongate.  Before leaving the city, Mellia stops at a magickal supply shop and purchases some spellwriting ingredients and a new spellbook, as her previous one had no blank pages left.  Once they’re well outside the city walls, however, Fargrim suddenly clutches his head and drops to the ground in agony, babbling about visions.  Cain examines him and concludes that nothing can be done—the two of them are cursed, and only time will make the fever dreams pass.  Cain and Mellia half-carry and half-drag the heavy, incapacitated dwarf down the road as far as their exhausted muscles will take them.  With the River Rauvin just yards away and the massive Rauvinwatch Keep visible in the distance, the trio set up an early camp along the side of the road. The day is heavily overcast and rainy, and thunderstorms look to be on the horizon.

Meanwhile, back in the city, Dolcetto and Markus continue their preparations for a journey to Startop Mountain.  Dolcetto begins scribing a spell to summon spectral mounts into her spellbook, and tasks Markus with the errand of picking up a list of magickal paraphenalia to aid in their travel.  She accompanies the list with gold and instructions on what to prioritize.  Markus hustles through the rain-slicked streets of the city and finds his way to The Shining Scroll.  The proprietor looks over the list and regretfully shakes her head at everything but some valuable pearls.  She sells these to Markus and takes a commission to scribe some scrolls from the list for sale in the next two days.  Markus continues asking around the city and searching for a means to purchase the other items on the list, but he finds that through a combination of the rain and the fact that the military has been making large purchases, his efforts are in vain.  He returns to Wayward House, soaking from head to toe and suffering from a cold.  Once there, Dolcetto purses her lips and mumbles that it was a poor decision to send Markus on such an important task.  She says that they may have to delay the beginning of their journey if the items on the list cannot be obtained soon.  

Dolcetto continues spending the rest of the day and much of the night writing in her spellbook, sleeping little but looking quite rested nonetheless.  At one point during the night, both she and Markus realize they are being scried upon!  Due to the city’s powerful wards, they’re able to learn the identity of those watching them: horned but beautiful human-like figures with large wings, backdropped but a landscape of flame and flowing lava!  The scrying quickly stops, but Markus is spooked and suggests leaving immediately.  Dolcetto says that they are erinyes, and that it will be safer to remain within Silverymoon’s warded walls.  As consolation, she tells Markus that soon she may be able to craft him an elven courtblade, an object he has long desired.

Back outside the city, once night falls, Cain and Mellia continue their discussion about what to do in Nesme.  Cain’s terse “burn them all” is met by Mellia with the response that that plan only works if the Aurilites conveniently gather in one place.  Cain mentions, cryptically, that he has access to certain “helpers.”  Mellia suggests that, once their dwarven friend is conscious, he would be a potent weapon if turned invisible and hasted through magick.  She also suggests the group not teleport directly into Nesme, but somewhere near Nesme so that they can surveil the city before attacking.  The conversation turns to Kossuth as Mellia asks Cain for further instruction in the ways of the Flamelord.  When they go to sleep, Fargrim lays nearby, moaning and twitching from the feverish dreams that have taken a firm hold.

[14 Flamerule 1372]

During the night, a heavy thunderstorm continues to pelt the Silverymoon area.  At their campsite, the adventurers destined for Nesme are sound asleep when a bolt of lightning lands right in their midst!  Fargrim is miraculously unharmed, but Mellia and Cain are both severely burned.  Cain, however, refuses to remove the heavy metal armor he was sleeping in.  After he heals himself and Mellia, the two go back to sleep.  In the morning, Cain begins adding a stylized flame motif to his armor while Mellia studies.

Ralkin spends the day inside Silverymoon making the rounds of local alchemists.  He earns a nice pouch of coins in “Rorfarrel’s Concoctions and Conundrums”  by selling the proprietor something something he had spent days looking for: the remains of a flesh golem (obtained by Ralkin in T’Klack’s complex).  In a grisly turn Ralkin even offers the alchemist “tiefling beef”, by which me means Myst’s corpse!  Rorfarrel is interested in the fingers and teeth of a tiefling for his concoctions, and Ralkin happily complies.  After leaving, Ralkin picks up an item he had commissioned and then he leaves the city to find the trio of adventurers who are waiting for him.

Elsewhere in the Gem of the North, Dolcetto’s unparalleled knowledge of the arcane world gives her an idea on another way to obtain the spells and items she’s been seeking.  She visits the Lady’s College, Silverymoon’s premier school of wizardry, and, after passing a modest examination, pays the steep fee to become a Fellow.  Affiliation with the school allows Dolcetto access to the College’s vast collection of spellbooks, and the tiefling immediately begins taking advantage.  Meanwhile, Markus follows Dolcetto’s direction to find them a place to stay that won’t be nearly as expensive as Wayward House.  The swordsman hears advice from his Marauders that clever travellers can squat for free in the homes of city residents who are away on business.  The Marauders lead Markus to a fine mansion, and tell him that as long as they avoid the occasional but predictable patrols of guards, they can sleep there.  That night, Dolcetto examines the mansion but deems it unsuitable.  She manages to obtain temporary accommodation at the Lady’s College instead.  Having also been asked to join the quest to Startop, Urius McBronzebottom begins making preparations for departure.

Ralkin reaches his allies’ campsite at sunset.  Soon after, a rift suddenly opens up in the sky, revealing an infernal realm!  Three erinyes leap out and bodily hurl Cain inside, and then the rift closes before Mellia and Ralkin can even react!  The leader of the winged devils speaks in a strange language which Mellia identifies as draconic.  It says that it has been sent for Myst.  Mellia explains that Myst was killed fighting a demon in Thay.  Nonetheless, the erinye demands Myst’s corpse, and says it knows it is hidden somewhere nearby.  Ralkin nonchalantly pulls Myst’s corpse from his magickal bag and lays it on the ground.  The erinyes take no notice of its mutilated state and carry it up into the sky, where the rift to the hellish plane opens.  Cain is returned, and everything is once again as it was.  Ralkin explains that he turned over the body as the best way to avoid a conflict, and neither Cain nor Mellia disagree.

The three adventurers decide that it makes sense to stay in camp for at least another night, in the hopes that Fargrim will awaken and be useful once they teleport to Nesme.  As they have dinner, conversation turns to the adventurers left behind in Silverymoon.  Ralkin tells the other two that Dolcetto tried to enthrall him after the attack by the kenku assassins, and that he thinks that perhaps the sorceress has been working against them from the very beginning.  Mellia adds that Dolcetto seemed ungrateful for the schematics of Startop Castle that Mellia volunteered, and that she seems quite manipulative for a supposed religious scholar.  The conversation shifts to the group’s recent exploits in Thay, and Mellia asks Cain to explain why he had indicated that he needed to be rescued when he was obviously handling things fine in the Flaming Brazier.  Cain explains that if he hadn’t asked Mellia for help, she would never have experienced the purifying rebirth that comes from journeying up the terraces.  Mellia says she still would have expected more gratitude.

Talk once again turns to Nesme, but soon the adventurers hear a low moaning coming from the direction of the river.  Mellia and Cain are unable to make anything out in the darkness, but Ralkin spots a large band of lurching creatures coming out of the water and straight for them!  He nocks an arrow into his massive bone bow and lets fly.  The shaft sinks home, but the creature and its companions continue to advance.  Mellia and Cain are caught flat-footed, and a terrible, noxious stench signals the approach of what are obviously foul undead abominations.  Cain and Mellia are surrounded within seconds by the creatures, and a sickened Cain falls to the ground from one of the ghast’s paralyzing claws!  Mellia lets loose with magickally summoned blasts of eldritch fire, one of which even includes Cain in its radius!  Still, although hurt by the blast, the downed cleric is lucky to be alive as the ghasts that had swarmed all around him are instantly incinerated.  As Ralkin searches the rank corpses for treasure, Mellia once again asks Cain to say thank you.  Yet again, the cleric is reticent.

[15 Flamerule 1372]

Back in Silverymoon, Markus and his Marauders are surprised by an unexpected patrol while lounging around in the mansion they’ve been squatting in.  Fortunately, after a mad scramble, the guards are evaded.  Markus and his followers decide to go straight to the Lady’s College to find Dolcetto.  After being repeatedly shushed by a gray-haired matron, Markus manages to get Dolcetto’s attention and learn that she is almost ready to depart the city.  Markus explains to his Marauders that he’s about to depart on an exciting, glorious quest to Startop Mountain.  He promises to return to regale them with tales of his exploits and with treasures for them to admire.  In the meantime, he asks Slace, Randee, and Khevinn to carry out plans for an idea that came to Markus the night before: he plans to start his own blademastery academy in the city!  The Marauders say their farewells, but as Markus, Dolcetto, and McBronzebottom reach Blacklar Gate, the Marauders suddenly reappear and take up a hastily-composed song about the wonders of Markus Kassul III until the trio of adventurers have disappeared over the horizon.

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