RealmsToowoomba Recap # 67 [RPG]

[15 Flamerule 1372 continued]

After a night interrupted by both erinyes and ghasts, morning finally dawns for the quartet of adventurers headed for Nesme.  Fargrim gradually regains consciousness after his disabling affliction, but he remains sick and shivering from the ordeal.  As a drizzling rain pours down on the campsite, Ralkin explains how he came to be here.  Mellia asks Fargrim about the feverish nightmares he suffered, and the dwarf replies that he remembers seeing something about black towers but his memories are cloudy.  Mellia suggests the group continue onward.  She draws a sketch of the campsite, notable by the blackened crater from the lightning strike, and then prepares to teleport the group.  Before they leave, Ralkin mentions that tomorrow is “our” birthday; when asked by Mellia, he explains that he and his siblings hatched on the same day.

The adventurers arrive at their old campsite alongside the Rauvin and across the river from the village High Hold.  Now that they are safely outside of Silverymoon and the perceived danger of being overheard, the group starts to plan strategy.  Ralkin is disappointed that Mellia can’t recall what Nesme’s buildings are constructed out of, and he explains that the knowledge would be quite important in deciding the best way to burn the city to the ground.  Fargrim is tired and distracted and does not notice the statement, and Mellia quickly shushes the kenku.  She says that if she can get within a mile or so of Nesme, she can use divination spells to scout its defenses.  Fargrim eventually speaks up and says it would be wise to know the numbers of the defenders in the city, but remains confused about who they are fighting before Cain explains that an evil cult has taken over the city.

As Mellia needs more time to finish scribing a spell into her book, the adventurers plan to stay at the campsite for the day.  As late afternoon progresses, a barge is beached nearby.  The vessel’s master shouts at the group that they’re crazy to stay on this side of the river, and that it’s even crazier to do so after nightfall.  He explains that this part of the Evermoor is swarming with undead, and that the situation would be even worse if it weren’t for the heroes of Nesme who broke through a siege of the town and drove the creatures into retreat.  The bargeman offers to ferry the group across the river to High Hold, where they’ll be much safer.

The adventurers agree, and board the barge.  Ralkin realizes the bargemaster is eventually headed downstream to Nesme, and the opportunity to gain entrance is tempting, but Mellia decides against it.  During the short trip across the Rauvin, the bargemaster speaks in glowing terms about the priestesses of Auril and how they used an ancient relic of the faith to erect a dome of ice to help save the city when the undead launched their invasion.  He also claims they have brought order to Nesme and are helping it to rebuild and prosper.  Some dissidents, he acknowledges, have fled and are rumoured to have set up a “New Nesme” somewhere.  Cain bristles at the homage being paid to Aurilites, but he manages to keep his anger in check.  Mellia draws him aside and has a whispered conversation while Ralkin distracts Fargrim.  Mellia tells Cain that they’ll need to find the Aurilites’ relic and destroy it; Cain says that will be easy to do simply by finding the largest concentration of heretics.  The two talk about whether they should bring Fargrim into their confidence, and agree to approach him the next day. 

The adventurers soon find themselves on the edge of High Hold, a small village that serves as an important waystop for the river traffic between Silverymoon and points west.  The adventurers’ first stop is the Settler’s Inn, a two-story building that looks well-maintained.  Inside, Mellia negotiates with the portly innkeeper, a man named Barnabas.  He seems distracted and hasty to get a deal done regarding the price of the room while he pores over an accounts ledger.  The adventurers take two comfortable rooms, one for Cain and Mellia and one for Ralkin and Fargrim.  

Mellia hurries out into the village and manages to find a seamstress who can alter some clothing left behind by a previous client to Mellia’s tastes.  Cain spends the evening continuing his cosmetic work on his new armor, using his skill with armor-smithing to add realistic-looking flames.  Ralkin is quite successful in tracking down someone who knows something about Nesme: a former resident by the name of Borus.  Borus describes the priestesses of Auril as cruel and fickle, says they’ve forced those they’ve angered to stand in the street holding a block of ice as large as a brick until it’s melted completely, and that although the town was in poor shape in past years from repeated attacks by trolls and hill giants, the situation may be even worse now.  He does grudgingly give the Aurilites some credit for saving the city from the legions of undead that attacked, but says they should have turned control of the city back over to Tessarin and resign the controlling majority they were given on the town council.  Last, he advises Ralkin to watch out for “bears and wolves.”

That night, Fargrim shares with Mellia that he’s remembered more from the visions that tormented him recently.  He says he saw black towers made out of bone hidden all over Faerun, much like the one he and Cain encountered when they were shipwrecked together on a mysterious island.  He says that in the dreams, the towers were sending out roiling waves of red mist and that unliving monstrosities rose in its wake.  From each tower, a beam of sickly energy rose into the sky, combined with those from other towers and refocussed into a single beam.  Finally, he says he heard a voice in the blackness say something about the rituals being on schedule and that the behemoth will arise on High Harvestide.  Mellia is unconcerned about the visions and says they’ll have plenty of time before anything develops from them.  To lighten the mood, she asks the dwarf how his attempt to learn to read is going.  He says he’s been reading a book most of the day, and has now reached page three.

After a late dinner in the inn’s common room, Cain notices Barnabas slowly putting coins into a lockbox and sighing heavily.  Mellia asks the innkeeper how business is going, and receives both an offer to sell the establishment and a poor attempt to hide the fact that the inn no longer makes a profit.  Barnabas is clearly troubled and nervous, but won’t explain why.  Fargrim comes down to dinner wearing only a towel and receives many questioning glances.

That night, after the other adventurers have gone to bed, Mellia stays up and ponders the implications of communications she has been secretly having.

[16 Flamerule 1372]

Shortly after midnight, the adventurers are startled by the sounds of shouting from the street outside accompanied by loud banging on the inn’s front door.  “Open up, Barnbas, you’re late and we’re here to collect!” a voice calls out.  Cain leans out the window and shouts for the newcomers to shut up, but they tell him to mind his own business if he knows what’s good for him.  Hearing Barnabas wailing in fear down in the common room, Fargrim rushes down the stairs to see what’s going on.  Just as he reaches the innkeeper, the front door crashes in and four heavily-muscled toughs appear, armed with clubs and crossbows!  Barnabas cowers behind the bar and hugs Fargrim’s legs, begging him to help.  He says the thugs have come to collect protection money he owes the Syndicate, but that he doesn’t have enough and they’ll kill him for sure.

Fargrim growls that nothing makes him madder than bad men picking on the little guy, and hefts his greataxe.  Meanwhile, Mellia turns invisible upon hearing the disturbance and comes to the top of the stairs, along with Cain and Ralkin.  Just as Fargrim and the bruisers meet up in a furious melee in the middle of the common room, Mellia conjures writhing black tentacles to hold and slowly crush them all (including Fargrim!).  Ralkin takes potshots with his bone bow at the immobile thugs, while Cain deafens them with sonic blasts.  One of the four enforcers succumbs to darkness when his ribcage is crushed by a tentacle, spurring furious efforts by the other three to escape.  However, one is dropped in seconds by Nightflower’s Retribution, while the other is cleaved nearly in twain by Fargrim’s greataxe!  The last thug makes a run for it, and although injured by a trap conjured by Ralkin, he escapes into the night shouting about retribution from someone named “Tyrone.”  Ralkin mischievously shouts after him “Tell Tyrone that Dolcetto will come for him!”

In the aftermath of the battle, Fargrim collapses in exhaustion.  Ralkin strips the bodies and is surprised to see they’ve carrying thousands in gold—payment for their recent services.  Mellia becomes visible and tells Barnabas that he should simply leave High Hold, as there is nothing more for him here.  Cain returns to his room.  Minutes later, Barnabas’ brother, Joseph, arrives at the inn with two guardsmen.  The younger of the guardsmen, Pickles, tries to convince Ralkin and Fargrim that they’re desperately needed to stop the criminal organisation that has effectively supplanted law and order in the village: the Syndicate.  Pickles says no one else, even guardsmen like himself, have been able to stand up to the Syndicate and that their front is a moneylender’s store.  The two adventurers insist, however, that they can’t help and that if the town is so far in the grip of criminals, it would be best for ordinary townspeople to simply leave.  “Some places can’t be saved,” Fargrim says.  Pickles and Barnabas are unrelenting in their pleas for help, however, so Fargrim says he’ll mention it to Mellia and they can talk to her in the morning.

No further disturbances interrupt the adventurers rest in the night.  In the morning, Ralkin distributes gold to the others.  Fargrim tells Mellia about Pickles’ and Barnabas’ pleading, but Mellia says whatever is happening in High Hold cannot be as bad as what the residents of Nesme face.  The townspeople there are like those poor souls who cling to their houses despite rising floodwaters that threaten their lives, and need to be persuaded to leave.  Mellia finds Pickles and tells the young guard that her group is not interested, even for a reward.  She adds, however, that another group of adventurers may stop by named “Markus’ Marauders” and that they’ll surely help.

Just as Mellia and the others assemble in the common room to teleport away, the escaped thug from the night before and two other heavily-armed men enter the inn!

Next Recap