5th of Eleint: Evening
Chapter 1: Aftermath of the Ambush
The last bits of light dimmed into the dusk of the ending day as we looked around and realized that there was no one left to fight us. Dagger in hand, Atalaya reached for the lady’s neck, checking for a pulse. There was none. Grabbing one arm she began slowly dragging her back to the broken down wagon, dropping her to the ground near the broken wheel. She looked over the others, calculating their wounds. Her eyes lingered on Inman and Nevil’s wounds; wondering. Then she began scanning the area around the wagon, taking in the scattered belongings and trash of the bandits.
“We need to heal ourselves enough to get by, search the dead and the area and get out of here before those who got away come back. Boz nodded as he began stripping the armor off one of the bandits. Had he been called Jesse? Atalaya thought so, but maybe not.
She turned to Nevil. “Are you okay?”
Nevil responded that she wasn’t sure. “I don’t seem to be able to cast my healing spells. Can you?”
Atalaya stops and looks at her. Then reaching into herself, she connected to her grounding place deep within herself and connected herself to the energies flowing through forest. Reaching out she grasped Nevil’s shoulder and allowed the healing energy to course through her arm and hand as it seeped into Nevil’s body, searching for the most serious of her wounds. The most serious of her wounds began to mend. Atalaya gently removed her hand. “That’s all I can do at the moment. Did it help?” (Atalaya cast Level 1 Cure Wounds.)
Nevil nodded. “Yes. I can feel the healing starting. Thank you.” (+10 points of healing.) She turned to Inman, grasped his hand, and reaching for her own healing powers, cast a Level 2 Cure Wounds on him. The healing energy gathered and passed into Inman. (+17 points of healing.) Sighing in relief, she again cast a Level 2 Cure Wounds, this time on herself. Her eyes widened in surprise as she felt no gathering of healing powers or change in the state of her wounds. “Nothing,” she whispered.
Inman looks panicked as he looks at her. He begins casting a series of cantrips on himself, her and others of the party. They all work.
After a quick discussion, Atalaya cast a Cure Wound spell on herself. She again reaches for her center and, then for the healing energies and this time directs them to herself. She feels the tingling burn of the healing energy as it begins to repair her torn flesh, closing the holes left by the javelin points. (+10 points of healing.)
Nevil watches the sealing of Atalaya’s wounds, her concerns increasing. “I don’t understand.” Her thoughts whirl as she tries to comprehend what has happened. “I can’t heal myself. I can heal others, but not myself. I don’t understand.”
Atalaya looks around the camp and then into the forest lining the pathway. “We need to search the camp and get out here before the others return. We can figure out what happened later.” Seeing Nevil’s stricken expression she made her way over to her. “We will figure this out,” she promised.
Taking a deep breath, Atalaya turned towards the broken down wagon and started searching. The others turned to do the same. The search turns up:
a locked chest,
3 scimitars,
2 daggers,
2 shortswords
1 great axe,
3 sets of studded leather armor,
3 lanterns,
Velvet pouch with 25 gp, 13 sp, 5 foreign coins
3 unopened bottles of mead
Map of the local area
Caravan Schedule (for local area)
Silver Necklace
Gold and Carnelian Torc
Small chest of assorted jewelry and coins
We also recover several books, and unable to leave a book at this point, we take them also. (On Raising Goats, Halfling Pipeweed, An Investigation, Orcs and Diplomancy.)
Vaz checks out the small chest and finds it filled with jewelry and coins. Looks like someone was stashing the loot they were taking in here.
Gina: Is #1 and # 12 the same chest?
Atalaya has collected all spent arrows to reuse/repair as they searched the camp.
Items are gathered and stashed in the bag of holding.
We mount up. Lord Viallis is still tied onto Shep and Fargo had managed to remain unnoticed during the encounter with the bandits. We continue on towards Waterdeep, keeping careful watch while we travel. Atalaya keeps expecting a second ambush by the remaining ruffians , but we make our way undisturbed to Waterdeep. We travel through the night, unwilling to make camp along this path/roadway. By about 2:00 am Sorrow is getting surly.
Chapter 2: Entering Waterdeep and the War Wizards
By false dawn we make it to the gates of Waterdeep, arriving at the Southern Gate. The Watch is present and awake and greets us as we approach the gate. The lead guardsman’s eyes flick quickly over each of us. “He lost a bet?” he questions, his gaze remaining on the bucknaked, tied and gagged body on Shep’s back. Then his tone firming he demanded, “State your business.”
Inman responded, “This man has been arrested. We are returning him to the War Wizards.”
“Do you have identification?" the guard asked.
Inman turns up his collar, flashing a sigil.
The guard asks, “Do you require assistance?”
Nevil’s blatant, “Nope,” startled the guard.
Inman explains the situation enough to get us past the guard without an escort. He explains that we are headed to the Waymoot, a major crossroad and then to the Castle Waterdeep where the guards and the War Wizards are housed. We trudge up the High Road, seeing some drunks, lots of vomit and piss and some people fucking. Criminal shenanigans are taking place on the side streets. The inhabitants of the city pretend that they don’t see us as we pass them by. We travel a long way on this road, many blocks. The horses are tired, except for Nevil’s Shep. The battlesteed still looks alert and ready for action.
We make a left, heading to Castle Waterdeep and then take a side street that is more direct. We see an enormous statue…at least we think it is a statue. A gigantic Knight towers above us. (Think Godzilla sized.) It is one of the biggest statues we have ever seen. It is standing in the street with market stalls at its feet. Birds nest on it. There is graffiti.
We continue on, passing the Yawning Portal, a famous pub that caters to adventurers.
When the Castle finally appears, there is a highly increased number of guards seen. Atalaya asks Vasilya to put on his cloak and pull the hood up. Vaz offers to head back to the pub, The Yawning Portal. Nevil perks up at that and suggests that Sorrow accompany him there. Sorrow agrees and the two head back down the street.
As Boz and Sorrow head away, Nevil whispers to Inman, “I never thought I’d be doing this with you.”
“Approach the guard together?” Inman asks.
Nevil replies, “We are usually going the other way.”
“At least we can walk up to the guards,” Inman responds.
As we reach the gate the guards snap to attention and one calls out, “State your business.”
Inman explains that we have a captive that the War Wizards need to interrogate and confine, that he is a war wizard and that the rest of us are with him. Fargo looks very intimidated by all this. The guard nods and stands aside, taking a good long look at the naked man tied up on the battlesteed.
Nevil, noticing his interest in Lord Viallis explains, “Wizards are dangerous. We wanted to make sure he had nothing to ….” Inman just wants to get him turned in (and out of his hands). The guard asks if we want an escort, which Inman declines.
The guard, wanting us gone, lets us pass. Inman leads us to the War Wizard part of the castle.
We make our way through the castle, lots of administration type rooms and personnel. Inman continues on confidently. He knows where he is. Along the walls there are glowing rocks embedded in the walls. There are drifting globes like we saw in Candlekeep.
We finally are met by a man in long robes. He has a mustache. Inman bows to him.
Magister Boors greets Inman and invites us to come into his office. Recognizing Lord Viallis, he looks disturbed.
Nevil, seeing that the magister has recognized our prisoner, says, “We need to secure this guy.”
Magister Boors seems startled at this, but agrees.
Inman says that they need a safe place to talk. Magister Boors takes us into a planer room (like in Candlekeep). It is nice. There is a table with drinks and coffee ready. “We can speak freely here,” he assures us.
Nevil attempts to use her Divine Sense. As far as she can tell, there is no evil emanating from this man.
Inman takes a deep breath and then addresses the magister. “May I introduce you to Lord Viallis, who has established a Vecna cult here and in Greenfast. … Inman and Nevil explain what Lord Viallis has been up to and our concerns about his involvement with the Thyians and Red Wizards. He talks about the portals and shows sketches of the portal runes that he made when asked about them by Magistrate Boors. The Wizards are very interested in all we tell them.
Nevil and Inman also ask if there is anything that Magistrate Boors can do to determine why Nevil has been unable to heal herself. He responds saying, “What I know of the holy warriors, their power comes from the deity. I know a break in the line between the warrior and the deity can affect their powers.
Nevil asks, “Am I cursed? Can you detect curses?”
Magister Boors demurs. “This is not my area of expertise.” He then excuses himself to be sure that Lord Viallis is appropriately detained.
Nevil uses this opportunity to quietly ask Atalaya if she wants to bring up the idea of getting a pardon for Boz. Atalaya doesn’t want to bring him to their attention while he is within the city limits. Inman’s opinion is sought and Atalaya becomes more certain that she doesn’t want to bring this up.
Magistrate Boors returns with help to remove Lord Viallis. His helpers are not pleased to find out that Lord Viallis has been stripped naked. They do, however, haul him off. The three of us breath a sigh of relief as we see him led off.
When Magistrate Boors returns again he sighs. “That Lord Viallis is a _%#!&__.” Everyone agrees.
We go back to discussing the Red Wizards in the area and portals. Atalaya brings up the Red Wizards in Parabor and Somerset. The cult activities and portals in these areas.
Boors finally turns his attention to Fargo, who has said nothing since we entered the plainer room. When he asks about him, Nevil explains that he was connected to the Vecna cult that Lord Viallis had started in Greenfast, but had surrendered to us and broken his connection to the cult. Nevil says that he is prepared to provide information about the cult and its practices and Lord Viallis’ involvement. She asks for mercy for him and explains that his father is making his way to Waterdeep with Sir Vecken in the next day or so. She says that we are going to leave Fargo in his custody and protection.
The War Wizards agree to let the group keep original documents but they ask to make copies. Inman agrees to keep in touch. It appears that the War Wizards are at least heading the group's warnings.
As we leave the castle we see another giant statue, this one a huge Griffon. It stands on a ridge overlooking the castle. We go back to the Yawning Portal Pub to find Boz and Sorrow. The sun is rising and dawn floods its soft shadows over the road.
6th of Eleint: Morning
Chapter 3: The Yawning Portal Pub
We stumble our way along the street, headed for the Yawning Portal. As we approach the establishment we can smell coffee and eggs cooking. All Atalaya wants is to drink some coffee, eat some breakfast, get a room and sleep for about a million days.
The Yawning Portal is a famous inn and tavern located in the Castle Ward of Waterdeep. Adventurers can meet all sorts of colorful characters here.
The place is a stone building with a slate roof and several chimneys. Most of the ground floor is taken up by the tavern's common room, which contains a 40-foot-diameter open well (actually the outer shell of a sunken stone tower) that descends 140 feet to the first level of Undermountain, the sprawling dungeon under Waterdeep. A rope-and-pulley mechanism is used to lower adventurers into the well and hoist them out. .
The upper floors of the Yawning Portal contain comfortable, nicely appointed rooms for guests.
Durnan, the proprietor, charges standard prices for food, drink, and lodging (see chapter 5 of the Player's Handbook for costs).
Durnan: male Illuskan human innkeeper
Bonnie: Human female barmaid
Mattrim “Threestrings” Mereg: Male Illuskan human bard
Jalester Silvermane: Male Chondathan human fighter
Meloon Wardragon: Male Chondathan human adventurer
Obaya Uday: Female Chultan human priest
Yagra Stonefist: Female half-orc
When we enter the pub we look around. There are patrons eating breakfast but the first thing we notice is the gaping hole in the middle of the room with a block and tackle attached above it. Atalaya stares at it and then shifts her gaze to look around the room. No one else seems to pay any attention to the hole. A quick search reveals Boz and Sorrow seated at a table and enjoying their breakfast. We head over and Atalaya sits down next to Boz.
Sorrow grins at the group. “The meals are pretty good. I recommend the Pork Belly Over Eggs Benedict.”
Nevil asks about the hole in the middle of the room.
Sorrow replies, “The hole goes to the underdark.
Nevil: You’re shitting me.
Sorrow: No. It makes for an interesting tavern.
Nevil: Who the hell makes that decision?
Bonnie is the waitress. She comes over, greets us and takes our orders. We follow Sorrow’s suggestion and order the Pork Belly over Eggs Benedict and coffee.
Nevil is still in shock about the hole/portal and looks around. “That explains the wall”
Bonnie comes back with the eggs and coffee. She asks about why Inman is so tired. Nevil says it's been two days (since he has had any sleep). Nevil asks her about the trolls. Bonnie says something in answer. (I didn’t catch what was said.)
As we eat, Inman is falling asleep at the table.
Nevil calls Bonnie back over and explains that we have serval horses that need to be returned to the stable. Bonnie says that she can get a boy to do that. We arrange for rooms for today and tonight. Sorrow wants his own room, but Atalaya negates that idea. She doesn’t want him isolated from the rest of us, not feeling up to another rescue.
(meal costs 5 silver each. We get 2 rooms. One for Inman and Nevil, one for Atalaya, Vasilya and Sorrow. Rooms cost 8 silver per person.)
We sleep until around 4:00 pm (Long rest). There are no issues while we sleep. (When Atalaya comes out of trance she mended arrows and then pulled out her sketch book and sketched until Vasilya woke up.)
Chapter 4: The Shrine of Nature
We ask Durnan, the innkeeper, whether or not there is a temple to Eldath in the city. There is not a temple dedicated solely to her, but we are told that at the Temple of Nature, there is an area that is dedicated to her worship. There are areas is also dedicated to Silvanus and Mielikki. We decide to make our way there, so that Nevil may pray and to see if there is someone who can help Nevil figure out why she is not able to heal herself.
We find a crazy rickshaw type vehicle (1 silver) to take us to the Temple of Nature. It is in the Sea Ward, between Bliss Street, Ivory Street and the Street of Whispers. We are taken north and pass another of the huge statues. It is a long way. The “Temple” is an outdoor garden with a few oak trees and a pond and a garden. It is all very pretty. Atalaya breathes in the breeze as she notices the oaks. We are greeted by a cleric of Silvanus that Nevil recognizes.
When Nevil became a Paladin she was sent to Waterdeep to the Shrines of Nature, where a cleric named Lindon Bethil sent her to the Isle of Flighon via an Emerald Isle portal. Her sponsor into the Circle of Eldath was a cleric named Rain Silvertree. Nevil spent time with Brother Bethil.
Nevil greets Brother Bethil. He greets her and says, “I see you are still on your path.”
Nevil tells him that, “I am having some difficulties. I don’t feel like I’m disconnected from the Mother, but… I fear my judgment may have strayed. I came for self reflection. She has been very generous to me… more than I could have asked…”
Brother Bethil asks if she would like to go to the pond to reflect. Nevil looks relieved and says that she would very much like that.
The pond is a long thin sliver of calm water that is very pure. Brother Bethil walks her to the pond. Then says, “Please find me if you need help.”
Nevil asks for a large bowl. “I don’t want to taint the water, but this must be cleansed. She indicates her clothing and weapons. Nevil is wracked with concern. Brother Nevil nods and hurries off to find her a bowl.
Atalaya walks around looking at the garden and finds the area dedicated to Meilikke. Spotting the tallest oak tree there, she gives Boz’s hand a gentle squeeze and then begins climbing. Breathing deeply of the fresh sea breezes that rustle the tree’s leaves.
:: Working on mini cut scene.:: Nevil cleans her garments and weapons. She enters the water. As she prays, Nevil gets a strong sense that mercy could have happened but you didn’t. That she had been particularly violent when she could have shown mercy. She sees her arm crashing her morningstar on the sleeping cultist’s head.
Nevil begins crying. Her repentance fills her as she remembers what happened during the fight in the old tower.
From somewhere deep within her soul she hears the voice of the Mother. “Child, we can only strive to be good. We can only….”
Listening to the Mother’s voice Nevil is filled with the Mother’s peace. She feels better. The uneasiness is lifted. She realizes that Eldath is all about mercy. Coming out of the water, she collects her things and finds Brother Bethil. She asks him if there are any there who have come for healing. Brother Bethil asks her if she has resolved her problem. She says that she has. “Yes, I found where I strayed.” She explains that she needs to atone as best she can, and asks again if any need healing. Brother Bethil understands and takes her to the shrine. There is a petitioner there who had been injured while working. His arm is in a sling. Nevil moves towards him, greeting him and asking if she might heal his arm for him. She does after he agrees. He tells her that he fell off a roof while repairing it. Nevil is willing to use up all her healing points. She heals those who come by and blesses those who ask for blessings.
Atalaya spends much of the time that Nevil is meditating up in the oak tree, having her own time of communion with Meilikki. She remains open to the whispers that come from the rustling leaves as she turns her face into the breeze, letting it brush past her cheeks. When she feels full, she slowly makes her way back to the ground and then searches for Brother Bethil. Finding him, she asks him about interring the remains of Lord Viallis’ family and Sarah. She says that they need to be buried in consecrated grounds.
Brother Bethil tells her to take the remains to the City of the Dead. The ground there has been hallowed. He explains what they need to do when they arrive there.
Chapter 5: The City of the Dead
When Nevil is ready to leave the shrine, we start on our way to the City of the Dead, hiring another of the city's transportation vehicles when we find one waiting for passengers. (1 sp) When we arrive we enter through a gateway. The park is very large, filled with mausoleums everywhere. The gatekeeper directs us to the south end of the area where there is room in the gardens for interring the ashes. We tell him the names of the dead and he writes them down; Lady Maria, Melik, Janus, Tiann, and Sarah. Finding a peaceful spot in the area the gatekeeper directed us to, we dig a small hole and reverently pour the ashes into it and then fill in the hole. The container that had held the ashes is placed above the spot where they were placed. As we finish this, the ghosts of the murdered appear. We see Lady Maria hug her children and then smile at us. Sarah also appears and smiles. Then their forms disperse into the air, disappearing from our sight. We feel a great sense of peace with their disappearance.
Sorrow: “... can’t save….”
Atalaya: “I’m glad we did this. This feels good.”
Game Ends
