Storm Brewing

Todak, Imoen and I spent the last couple of days trying to track down Nix. I went back to Nix’s home and jewelry shop to see if she had returned to either place. No dice. Neighbors hadn’t seen her since her disappearance several days ago. Imoen made her rounds around the city and greased the palms of her most promising contacts in hopes of getting any information on Talos cultists operating out of Neverwinter. Ended up with a handful of rumors but nothing concrete. Todak went back to Neverwinter Wood to look for clues and track down cultists operating in the area. The trail seemed to be as cold as the Midwinter winds. Tymora must have taken pity on us as we were soon gifted with a solid lead that fell right into our laps.
 
While sitting at one of the booths in the House of a Thousand Faces, Imoen and I overheard two sloshed patrons talking loudly about a lucrative job they completed for a powerful benefactor. One of the men let slip that the benefactor was a tiefling who ran a jewelry shop in town and needed to move her inventory quickly. Our ears perked up as we heard this. Before Imoen could approach the men, a hooded figure entered the establishment and beat her to them. The hooded figure spoke quietly and left with the two men in tow. Imoen and I tailed them to a small house in the River District.
 
We hid in an abandoned home nearby and waited until nightfall before making our next move. Imoen had summoned Squeak while we waited and planned on using her rat familiar to spy on the men we followed. By the time Imoen put her plan in motion, a few more hooded figures had entered the house we were watching.
 
I waited alone in the abandoned house for what seemed like an eternity. More than once, I was tempted to sneak out and check up on Imoen. Of all of the people I’d met and worked with over the years, she was one of the sharpest and most talented. I put my worries aside and stuck to the plan. Moments later, I felt a light tap on my shoulder and Imoen appeared before me with a smile.
 
Upon returning to the House of a Thousand Faces, we found Todac sitting alone in one of the booths. His investigations in Neverwinter Woods did not bear any fruit and the wood elf looked dejected. The three of us made our way to the basement of the inn and sat down at an empty table. Imoen gave Todac a smile and told him the good news. She learned that the people we followed were working for Nix and had one more job to do before leaving Neverwinter. They planned on visiting a fence in the Docks District the next night. We spent the rest of the evening laying out plans to ambush and capture one or more of the cultists.
 
Our plan went off without a hitch. The cultists didn’t put up much of a fight though a few of them managed to escape during the brief scuffle. We ended up capturing two cultists and took them to a nearby safehouse. Imoen and Todac spent the next hour interrogating Nix’s minions and uncovered the Storm priestess’ plans. According to the cultists, Nix planned to perform a summoning ritual atop the Pirate’s Skyhold. Her goal was to summon a kraken and gain powers from it. The ritual needed to be performed during the Feast of the Moon which didn’t give us much time to stop her.
 
Imoen and I were a bit skeptical about the reliability of the information we learned from the cultists. Anyone that lived in Neverwinter knew that no one went up to the Pirate’s Skyhold. Those that managed to make their way to the earthmote were never seen again. However, this was the best lead we had and time was of the essence. We reported our findings to the Harpers and Lord Neverember and set about making plans to travel to the Pirate’s Skyhold.