Chapter 1-21: Return to Neverwinter
General Summary
Aetilius woke the party around 7. the sky was still dark, but the silvery light of Eleach's solitary crescent spilled in through the gaps in the canopy above, illuminating the camp site. Shivering in the cold wind, the party packed up their camp and headed west through the forest.
After a few hours of travel, the sun began to creep over the horizon, pale golden light filtering down through the close knit trees, casting jagged shadows on the forest floor. Most of the party had lost track time or direction as they pushed through the dense undergrowth. Miaug, however, was completely at home surrounded by the forest. She drove on ahead, unwavering, guiding the group along hidden paths between the trees.
About 4 the sun began to set, and the space between the trees grows darker. The party, feeling the effects of the pace of their travel, decided to set camp in a nearby clearing. Ryoko, Miaug and Ramas crept out into the forest to find food and water, while Clootie and Aetilius made camp. Clootie - a forest gnome raised in similar terrain - wandered about in a daze, unable to find any dry firewood for the fire. Eventually Aetilius got bored of waiting and gathered a plentiful supply of wood scattered around the forest floor to light the campfire.
After dinner, the party elected to turn in for the night. During Clootie's watch, a piercing shriek split the darkness, followed by the thunder off approaching hooves. The party snatched up their weapons and dove out of their tents to see an Owlbear charge out of the forest. Clootie smashed her hammer against one of the stones around the campfire - releasing a deafening peal of thunder, and wave of compressive force blasted outwards, sweeping the fire away in a cloud of sparks directly at the Owlbear. The pyrotechnic display caused the beast to rear up, arresting it's charge and causing it to approach more cautiously. Aetilius stepped forward, holding Talon in a parrying stance as he stared at the beast. Ramas darted past him, lifting his hand and blowing a tiny puff of bright green gas into the creature's face. The gas burned the creature's face, causing it to blink furiously, before it screeched again and swiped at Ramas. It's claws raked deep into Ramas's unprotected midriff, leaving deep ragged wounds. The Owlbear snapped at Aetilius with it's beak, sinking deep into his shoulder. Aetilus spun around from the force of the blow, shaking the creature's beak free and slashing it across the face with Talon.
Suddenly a howl echoed out from the darkness beyond the campfire. A small pack of wolves appeared from the shadows between the trees like ghosts, growling in a low baritone.
The lead wolf looked up at the party, then over at the Owlbear, before snarling a loud challenge at the beast. The Owlbear paused for a moment - before barking a respond. The rest of the pack formed up alongside the alpha and together they began to advance on the Owlbear. The beast looked confused for a moment, then began to back away slowly before turning tail and darting off into the darkness.
The lead wolf gave the group a long solemn look before loping off into the forest.
Miaug volunteered to take Ramas's watch to give him time to recover from his injuries.
The next morning, Aetilius awakened the party around nine. The sun was still below the horizon, and a thin coating of frost along the tree branches shimmered with reflected moonlight, seeming to light up like stars across the canopy overhead.
After a couple of hours of travel, the party broke through the edge of the forest, just as the sun set fire to the horizon behind them. They made their way the dusty road and began to follow it north towards the city. In the distance they saw the silhouette of a cart on the road ahead. After a brisk walk they caught up with the cart, finding it driven by Sildar.
He offers the party a ride in the cart to Neverwinter. He is driving a cart full of supplies, Neverwinter sent out messengers asking for aid from the nearby towns. Halia Thornton offered a cart, Quelline and Daran offered supplies, Sildar offered to drive.
He mentioned that a couple of people in Phandalin wanted him to look up people. Sister Garaele hadn't heard from her superior Mother Redwald; and Halia hadn't heard from her friend Adela Kincaide at the Customs House.
At the South Gate of the city, the party were met by Champions of Lathander, in place of the usual City Guard. The guard seemed relieved to see the supplies, gratefully ushering the cart into the city and giving them directions to the central supplies stockade.
As they travelled through the city, Aetilius flew up above the rooftops to get a bird's eye view and spotted a group of men looking suspicious on the route to the stockade. Ramas sauntered up ahead of the cart to speak to them, finding out they were desperate, but poorly armed and untrained. As they started to approach the cart, Ramas clearly explained how unlikely it would be that they would survive such a foolish action - very gently intimidating them. The leader of the group, a middle aged man named Baldric, relented quickly. Ramas gave them some coin and told them to get a drink at the Rolling Flagon.
The party delivered the supplies to the stockade. An obviously relieved official thanking them - this would be enough to keep the city fed until a shipload of supplies from Leilon could reach them. He also advised that there was a curfew in place and they only had a couple of hours before they'd need to get indoors.
Initially the party went to visit the various merchants they'd commissioned to pick up their equipment. Clootie picked up her custom spiked leather shoulder and knee pads; Ryoko picked up her wooden scale armour and her saddle. Miaug asked Raven if she could craft some spiked armour for Badger.
The party went next door to Donn Ingram at The Tempered Blade, where Aetilius picked up his shield and was also given a set of five empty vials for use with the shield. Clootie then showed Donn her hammer, Kulog. Donn was awed by the weapon - which it transpires is ancient dwarven craftsmanship, from before the Sundering, before much of the dwarven techniques were lost. He was able to translate another of the sets of runes on the hammer, which read Babalik (translated as Return). As Clootie said the phrase, the hammer leapt off the bar and into her hand.
Ramas contacted Faila, who suggested it would be better to come into the sewers during the morning dark period, to minimise the risk of being followed. Ramas and Aetilius then went north of the canal to speak to the apothecary and alchemist respectively. Ramas resummoned his familiar, while Aetilius filled his five vials with acid.
The girls went to visit Perry Topletter at The Hidden Door. Perry was delighted to see Miaug and Clootie again - Ryoko not so much. Clootie asked about translation of ancient dwarven runes. Ryoko asked how his wife was doing. Perry explained she was back from the temple, and had recovered from her Gutter Cough, but was acting strangely. He confided that he didn't think she was his wife any more. The girls were intrigued and promised to get to the bottom of the mystery. However, the curfew was fast approaching so the party made their way to the Yawning Noble and settled in for the night.
The next morning, as they sat at breakfast, Olexia Walnir arrived at the inn, looking for Miaug. She'd heard the group were back in town, and she came over to give Miaug a new prototype she'd been working on since their last chat - a rope arrow. She also explained that her friend Arwyl Calaudra had gone missing and she was worried about her. Miaug agreed to help find her.
The party decided to split up - Ramas, Clootie and Ryoko would go into the sewers, meet up with Faila and give the Thieves Guild refugees some food; Aetilius and Miaug would check out the Temple District, looking for clues about the mystery or any sign of Arwyl.
The sewers group quickly found the Thieves Guild remnants, hiding out in the old Maintenance Storage area of the sewer. There were only nine of them left, including two young children - Krynnt and Gwenn. Faila thanked them for the supplies, and filled them in on their condition - hunted by the Champions they could not come to surface to claim rations, so they had to try and scavenge what they could. They had resorted to hunting rats, and the children had tried to do some fishing in the harbour, but had been attacked by something in the water. Faila confided that she was concerned about the toll hiding was taking on some of the guild, people reporting hearing strange whispering.
In the Temple District, Aetilius and Miaug visited the Temple of Selune, where the Inquisitor had given Aetilius his coded message. They found the temple abandoned. They looked through, even going so far as to check the temple quarters. They found Amyr's room, but it was empty, with no evidence of habitation in some time. Aetilius remembered the final lines of the coded message "Find answers in the shadow of the crescent". He flew up to the engraved crescent moon symbol on the wall of the temple hall, and hidden in the recesses he found a journal. Reading through it, it chronicled the investigations of the inquisitor, Amyr Kreel, into the strange happenings in Neverwinter. [
It appears whatever was going on, it had begun with the Watchers of Kelemvor, and quickly spread to the Champions and to the Sisters of Silvanus. Investigating the Library of Kelemvor, he found a tunnel carved in the crypts leading down into the sewers. However, this tunnel with some form of magic. The investigation explains that he believed he'd been spotted searching the crypts, and that he was probably a target now, so he was hiding the journal in the hopes he could get the information to someone else. The journal finished with a drawing of a symbol.
Aetilius and Miaug then headed over to the Temple of Silvanus to look for Arwyl. Meanwhile, the rest of the party made their way out of the sewers to join them.
