Whirlwind

The last couple of days were something to behold.
 
Didn’t expect the group of adventurers Theris mentioned the other day to be in town. Thought I’d have to make my way to Phandalin and track them down. Turns out Amarille, one of the group’s members, is a friend of Theris and others in the Harpers. The elf brought a paladin named Helaena with her to visit the House of a Thousand Faces in the evening. After brief introductions, we discussed what we knew about Ebondeath and the various dragon cults in the area. Hearing Helaena talk about the Necropolis Shard and the wardens that imprisoned Ebondeath, I got the impression that she was there all those centuries ago. Was she one of the wardens? Did any of the other wardens survive? How did Ebondeath escape? Unfortunately, my questions had to wait as our meeting was cut short.
 
Raina came running down the stairs and interrupted us with concerning news. Wolfaen, a member of Amarille and Helaena’s group, had been drinking at a nearby tavern when bandits captured him. Eethyl was waiting upstairs and needed help in freeing their companion. We quickly made our way up and found the gnome sitting in a booth. He spoke as if under the effects of the Haste spell and proceeded to lead us towards where the bandits were last seen. On the way, we exchanged introductions and Eethyl filled us in on the bandits that held Wolfaen. As we slowly made our way through a dark alleyway, a lone figure appeared ahead.
 
There was a brief exchange between Amarille, Helaena and what turned out to be the bandits’ leader. I wanted to survey the area and snuck atop a roof nearby to get a better vantage point. By the time I got onto the roof, Amarille and Helaena were engaged in combat with the bandit leader. Suddenly, the air in front of me began to heat up as flames appeared out of nowhere, engulfing the bandit leader and his assailants. Flames licked the stone walls of a few nearby buildings, leaving dark marks as they subsided. The fiery spell was enough to bring down Amarille and stop us in our tracks.
 
Thankfully, Amarille was just close enough for my magic to rouse her and get her back in the fight. She pressed her attacks with redoubled fury. Still smoldering from the fiery attack earlier, Helaena dispatched one of the bandits with a bright flash of steel and divine light. Under the cover of darkness, Todac sewed confusion in the enemy ranks with his arrows. Eethyl called upon additional companions to help even the field. One of the enemy spellcasters tried to engulf us in flames again but I countered their spell just in time. Another tried to Command me to fall from the rooftops. I refused. As two more bandits fell to our counter-offensive, it was clear the tide had turned. The enemy made a full retreat and escaped into the night.
 
Amarille spotted Wolfaen slumped against a wall in the distance. The rogue was in pretty bad shape and was out cold. With Lathander’s aid, Helaena healed some of his wounds and got him on his feet. Todac and I ended up following our new friends back to their inn. On the way, we told them about Nix and our encounters with her. The conversation carried on late into the night.
 
The next morning, I woke up to loud knocks on my door. Amarille had been abducted by Ebondeath cultists! We gathered our belongings and gave chase. Eethyl disappeared in a puff of smoke into some sort of relic after summoning his faerie companion Sila to help. The cultists had the advantage of flight and were halfway across the city before Helaena and I joined them in the skies. Todac followed our trail on foot. As we closed in on Amarille’s abductors, they tried to lose us in the urban sprawl of the Neverwinter slums.
 
Landing at the entrance of a dilapidated building, Helaena and I were greeted by Sila and Wolfaen. Eethyl reappeared in a puff of smoke and, with Sila guiding him from above, headed around the corner to give chase on the ground. The rest of us entered a building where Sila had spotted the cultists entering earlier. As we made our way up the stairs, we could hear a blacksmith working on a piece of metal nearby. The second floor had an open door leading to a small balcony and a narrow ledge. Proceeding cautiously through the door, we were ambushed by two cultists as we stepped onto the ledge.
 
I spotted the cultist carrying Amarille in the distance and tried to close the gap using Misty Step, narrowly dodging two balls of acid directed at me by hidden cultists in the area. The acid splattered onto the roof I was standing on and burned a large hole in it. Managed to jump away just in time. Surveying my surroundings, I could hear the slow crescendo of rustling armor and staccato footsteps on the cobblestone streets below. Todac had arrived.
 
While Wolfaen kept the cultists on the ledge busy, Helaena made her way to me with a Misty Step spell of her own. Gwaur and Sila managed to draw the attention of a few cultists while Eethyl continued making his way through the street below. Helaena and I caught up to Amarille’s captor and began our assault. As I flung Mind Slivers at cultists ahead of and behind us, Helaena drew her longsword and struck the cultist carrying Amarille across the chest in one quick motion. Bright light enveloped the hooded figure as Helaena’s sword tore into his flesh, stopping him in his tracks.
 
Flying overhead, Sila shouted directions to Todac below and let loose an arrow at a nearby cultist. Missed. Wolfaen dropped one of the cultists on the ledge who ended up falling onto the street below with a wet thud. The cultist carrying Amarille motioned for nearby minions to engage Helaena and me. Using quick footwork and reflexes, he dodged Helaena’s next attack and ran off. The paladin deftly spun around mid flourish and dashed after him. Tired of running, I pointed my wand at Amarille’s captor and a cultist nearby and unleashed my magic.
 
Focusing my magic on the cultists ahead blinded me to the attacks from cultists approaching me from behind. A ball of acid flew past me, narrowly missing my head. Another one hit me directly in the chest as I turned around to face my attackers. The searing pain nearly caused me to break concentration on my spell. My instincts took over and I turned around and ran after Helaena. Behind me, I could hear screams of pain as Wolfaen felled another cultist and Todac struck one of the cultists chasing me with an arrow.
 
Under the effects of my spell, the cultist carrying Amarille decided to take flight to compensate for his slowed movement. Sila managed to strike him with one of her poisoned arrows just as he rose off the ground, causing him to drop Amarille. With Helaena preoccupied by another cultist, I sprinted towards Amarille’s falling body and just managed to catch her before she fell unconscious onto the street below. The elf awoke in my arms and I helped her onto her feet. Unfortunately, her captor’s tenacity was not sapped by my spell nor Sila’s arrow. He grabbed the monk by her right arm and pulled her towards his body, holding her against her will through sheer strength. Taking flight again, the cultist flew no more than a few feet away before being hit with a Sleep spell from Eethyl below. Amarille managed to break free from the cultist’s grasp midair and landed gracefully on the ground. Her captor, fully unconscious, hit the street below with a loud thud. Outnumbered and outmatched, the remaining cultists retreated into the skies, all except one.
 
Wolfaen followed the cultist into an empty home through a hole in its roof and subdued his quarry. Amarille and Helaena quickly joined him inside. The rest of us waited outside as Amarille and Helaena interrogated the captured cultist. Several unproductive minutes later, we decided to let the cultist go in hopes of tracking him to a nearby hideout. Didn’t pan out. With no other leads on Ebondeath or his cultists, we decided to depart Neverwinter for Leilon. Not knowing when I would return, I visited mother to get patched up and father to drop off some gold and pick up a package of his famous baked goods. I swung by the House of a Thousand Faces to check up on Imoen and quickly filled her and Henwen in on everything that had happened since I last saw them. Though Imoen’s spirits were high, her body was still recovering. With a heavy heart, I left Imoen with Henwen and joined the others at the southern gate.
 
It took us a day and a half to reach the Wayside Inn, a rest stop less than a day’s travel from Leilon. On the way there, I learned from Amarille that Ebondeath had manipulated a white dragon into terrorizing the areas east of Neverwinter. I had not expected the dracolich’s influence to be so great, especially while trapped in the Necropolis Shard. Made a mental note to discuss the matter further with Helaena.
 
Aside from Todac, the others had stayed at the Wayside Inn before and were friendly with the owner and those under her employ. Helaena’s conversation with the blacksmith Teega revealed a startling discovery. Nix is alive! Not only that, she passed by the inn recently and sold several pieces of jewelry to the people there. Lost my appetite after hearing the news. Tried to sleep after dinner but couldn’t. Need to try again. Another long day of travel tomorrow.