Campaign Diary: Strange Beginnings

General Summary

The party meets in the small village of Ockney's Hold the day before the festival of Harvest begins, they have all been gathered by a job posting from a Captain Bradley Tarves. The group was hired to work security for the tournament and the other goings on of the tournament, however the captain also informed them he'd like to offer them a more extensive job of spying on the Mayor and discovering the cause of some sudden behavioral changes he has undergone. The mayor was traditionally a shrewd businessman and administrator but had allowed the town and the mine it was so well known for to fall into a state of economic decline. The captain suspected an affliction or even magic at play, and mentioned the area's local mage, a strange fellow named No'Luck was missing and unable to assist.  The party had a little fun in the inn with a traveling band, The Silver Strings with Dok failing to live up to the skill level of their leader and lutist; Ludist.   The party consisted of Noel, a joyful elf from the mysterious Savage Lands beyond Andrim's Borders from an equally mysterious elven tribe, Mora; an older though none the wiser martial artist from the eleven homelands of the Elder Hand Isles, Dean Castillo, a half elf mage learning to control his brimming and budding powers and the poorly spoken dragonborn warrior, Dok O'Varr. The group had an uneventful day patrolling the tournament grounds, briefly seeing The Baron Sir Thomas Bettigar IV make his appearance as well as meeting the Mayoress, Lady Eliza. They met two farm boys attempting to help their friend Derrig fight in the tournament, but unfortunately he had too much to drink the night before and was unable to compete. The Twins Phillip and Caleb removed his armor, leaving it in the stables as they said they would take him back to the Patchwork. Noel and Dok ventured south of town to No'Luck's hut and found traces of his presence as well as his disappearance; writing in his spell book that he was leaving this place. They returned to town just in time to see Squire Olex, student of Lady Avalina defeat Heironmouys Lex, the young Squire of Ser Erron Black to qualify for the Tournament of Storms at Bettigar Keep. The Silver Strings band was present and playing some music as Dok and others listened on.   Once the day's festival events were wrapping up, Tarves assigned the party to security detail at the Mayor's keep as discussed previously. The group helped the incapacitated mayor back to his study when they heard a scream; Lady Eliza and her handmaiden were attacked by a jewelry box mimic that proceeded to kill the poor girl and begin eating her. Lady Eliza reeled in horror as the party sprung into action, Mora charged in fearlessly but was knocked out by the venom of the mimics bite and nearly killed; seeing a brief vision of a mysterious young figure with gaunt, pale features and black hair.  Dok managed to finish off the mimic as he arrived on the scene with his spear.   investigating the mimic they found a section of D'canno's robe, the mayor's adviser stuck in its entrails leading the party to suspect him responsible for the attack on the mayor's wife; they found a secret passage from the old Ockney's Hold days that lead directly to D'cannos Manor. The group followed the tunnel directly into the basement of D'canno's manor. They snuck in and managed to incapacitate the drunken Groundskeeper Horace, before moving up stairs and dealing with D'canno. As they moved into the foyer they heard some struggling coming from the garden outside. There they came upon a giant plant monster fighting what appeared to be the members of the Silver Strings band; now clad in armor and bearing weapons. Not wanting to get involved, the party headed back upstairs to take care of D'canno   Upon using Horace's keys to open the door of the study, they found a version of D'canno chained to the wall, and the adviser D'canno appearing to pack up some backs for his swift exit. The party dispatches the Doppleganger with relative ease, and allow him to confess to his crimes; The Doppleganger Vorice was assigned to this Town to replace D'canno by his employer, The Ceaseless Syndicate. The Syndicate had some kind of scheme running with the mines, shaving profits of the town off the top; however, recently a rare and powerful arcane material called Azurite was discovered and The Syndicate wanted a piece of that as well, they brought in their Arcanist an Illithid named Marlipp to refine and process the material. However Marlipp began ingesting the Azurite and has developed a dangerous addiction in the months since, taking the mines off the rails, not reporting back to the syndicate or delivering the azurite on time in addition, learning that the mayor had discovered the secret of the Azurite as well, the mind flayer began dominating his mind and controlling him.  Vorice allows himself to be restrained by the group and begins to be escorted out when the surviving members of The Silver Strings greets them; still led by Ludist, now referring to himself as Xaiver. The group was in disguise as a band of minstrels but in reality were adjudicators of the Syndicate, coming to question Vorice on the missing Azurite.    The party agreed to sell Vorice to the Syndicate for 350 gold and the life of the real D'canno, they were seemingly to hurt to go to the mines and face down Marlipp, opting to leave town with Vorice before they were discovered. They reported back to Captain Tarves who asked them along with Lady Eliza to journey out to the mines to destroy the creature and restore the mind of Mayor Shillard in return for more gold from the town's treasury. The group heads back to the Blue Belly Inn for a rest and dead looks out into the horizon and sees a blue pillar of light plummeting from the sky and into the ground in the east, the directions of the mines...

Rewards Granted

Two health potions 350 gold

Character(s) interacted with

Players met with Captain Traverse    Squire Olex defeated Hieronymus Lex in a duel     The Mayoress and Mayor reunited with the baron of Bettigar    The party defeated Vorice and turned him over to the syndicate instead of the authoritie   The real D'canno's memories of the events were wiped