September 28, 2019

--In the Guild Hall, Sparrowhawk lays down a plate on the table with some cookies for us for having capture the Balor, giving us a permanent +1 to all our ability scores!
--Sparrowhawk tells Jarl "It's time to tell your story."
--Jarl says that we should try to find his father. He looks at everyone and says he's the son of Jarlaxxle, put into slavery, he was a bastard son, so was thrown into slavery, grew up in slavery ni Menzoberranzan. When about 6, introduced to deep Gnome, thrown into same cell with him, been fighting for their lives ever since. He always stands with him (talking about Treznak). They've been covering each other's backs. Jarl recently found out who his parents are, and doesn't know whether Jarlaxxle will welcome Jarl at all.
--Trez won't let Jarl go alone to meet with his parents.
--We need to find his parents.
--Jarl knows where they're at, knows where to find them.
--Jarl never liked his father, but must find him to put an end to the child slavery.
--We need to find where the Tripps (triplets) are based out of.
--We can find Dervin at the inn to begin our quest of finding information to the location of the Tripps. He escaped their trenches and wars from the Tripps.
--Darvine is blind and old. His eyes were taken from him.
--Drow are not the only race found within the BDA ranks.
--The number of non-Drow officials who hold a title within BDA can be counted on one hand.
--Priest and Tish are going with Jarl.
--I do some shopping before we head out:
--Belt of Giant Strength +2: 4000g - 30% discount = 2800g
--Ioun Stone (Dusty Rose Prism): 5000g - 30% discount = 3500g
--Darvine is a friend of Jarl's and Trez's
--We make our way through the portal to the inn to meet Darvine.
--We speak with the innkeep, but she says nobody by the name of Darvine has a room. Our Sense Motives reveal she isn't being entirely forthright with us.
--Atavan runs in to the main lounge of the inn, signs something to Vale, runs over to the hallway door in the NW corner of the room, and screams "ASSASSINS IN THE HALL! WE NEED TO INTERVENE!"
--INITIATIVE!
--During combat, the innkeep tells the guards to keep one alive for questioning. We'll see what Atavan does with this information.
--We find Darvine in a room by himself. He was about to be assassinated.
--At Vale's mention of the Tripps, Darvine SLAMS his weapon onto the table, visibly upset, and says "I just hope you kill them. They are beyond evil. Using children, for what? Demons? Torture them because just killing them is too good for them." Atavan's eyes light up at the prospect.
--We can find them in the hills north of here. Their base is heavily guarded and fortified. The cave is tricky to navigate. There IS a hidden passage to the cave before we come to the stream.
--Finding the hidden passage is the easy part, but getting to them is difficult.
--Only one passage goes into their location: south of the base, hidden path is marked by Kingsblood bush. 90' above it is the cave. The path leads past the razor stones, right next to their cave.
--Several watchtowers lead up to their base, and two watchtowers inside. We'll need to take them out.
--The one closest to the cave is rarely used, maybe by one guard. The central one is heavily used, and very dangerous.
--Any sign of light (spells or possibly otherwise) will trigger an alarm.
--One of the Tripps is a swashbuckler, one a cleric, and one a spellcaster.
--If we do kill them, Darvine requests that we bring Sassy's head to him, so he can hang it as a trophy on his wall. Atavan enthusiastically nods in agreement to this request.
--When the innkeep begins her interrogation of the drow assassin we kept alive, she places her hand on his shoulder, and her eyes glow red.
--The assassin starts bleeding from his eyes, nose and mouth.
--As he bleeds, she heals him, but then he seems to hurt again.
--Keaton's Perception check of 32 leads him to believe it's a bit of Psionics going on with her interrogation techniques.
--The assassin's tongue was cut, so he's writing his responses. They were paid 8 rubies for the assassination of Darvine.
--Atavan tortures the drow by pulling his skin slowly off his body, then places his feet in boiling water, then freezing water, then back to boiling etc. Then asks for information.
--The drow doesn't know anything.
--We venture out to the area described to us, and we find the area. We just need to find the hidden entrance marker.
--We find the bush, and climb our way up to the hidden cave entrance on the side of the mountain.
--Inside, we find several cages with children in it, a couple horse-drawn carts they use to transport the children, a small watchtower with a guard who's looking away from us, and a larger watchtower with a couple more guards.
--The courtyard area is dimly lit, so this is where we need to keep the light to a minimum.
--We rescue the kids without anyone shedding a single drop of blood.
--We bring them back to HQ by teleporting out, and Sparrowhawk says she'll make sure the kids are returned to their parents.
--Thomas says he can get us back to the mouth of the cave, right back to where we were in the courtyard of the caves.
 
Atavan, Keaton, Kemurial, Thulahnear and Vale each receive 2620 xp.
Sholken and Mandolin each receive 1310 xp.