Episode Ninety-five - Reprieve in Norden Keep

General Summary

In the tavern of Norden Keep the Dragon Marked met with Marvek, the advisor to the Castellan of the keep, and learned that Tirith and Varian were cousins with him. They asked their original question about the statue they'd found in the Fallen Citadel and learned that it was of Dimaethor, their kinsman. In conversation he told the group that the keep's reinforcements were being held hostage by the Champions of Destiny but that that'd just gone down to a dungeon in the Deep Road Inn and Tavern. Thwip repeated to him a speech Aldrich had made about leading the Champions of Destiny and Marevek expressed his displeasure with the Champions. He asked them then to speak with Aldrich and when all was said and done, the advisor left.
A baron from Glantri named Althon then approached and offered them gold for their services. He offered to hire them to go to Kundrakar and return with blades like the broken one he owned. They accepted the chance but informed him that it could be a month or more and he suggested that he was on vacation for awhile.
Over a week of rest, Thwip healed and tried to feed her pet mimic Echo in order to make him bigger. Varian trained with his time and Thwip at one point sent him through their portal during meditation and prayer but did help him back out. Tirith spent his time with the smith learning to better use heavy armor and guard himself with it. Bree finally took the time to sit down and read through and familiarized herself with the Dwarvish language's runes as she healed. In all that time, Aldrich painted upon his shield 'Death from Above' in Elvish and then the names of the Champions. He also gave Eldaberri a dragon tooth as a potential weapon as a gift.
After seven days of rest, Bree, Thwip, Tirith, and Varian met in the Stretching Goat for breakfast. Tirith then told the team about his vision and how it was from his god and gave them the details. Then, when examining the ring they were given after the kobold skirmish, Tirith felt that it was one of the rings worn by one of his companions in his dream and felt that he did not know who wore it.
Thwip then paid two silver to the bartender and learned that the tribes of the Caves of Chaos were different creatures and thus lived in different caves. Tirith paid and learned that an ogre sometimes helped the cave dwellers. Bumbo then offered to send word with a trader to the north about Sharwyn and Karakas' rings. The party had the rings sent and awaited a man who would know of the Caves of Chaos.
As the party waited, they met with a Vistani woman with a crystal ball named Madam Maggie. Thwip learned her mother was her home village's elder, Rae'ja the Long Lived. Madam Maggie told Thwip that the orc horde she feared would certainly come and that her people would find themselves in grave danger. She also told Thwip that she should mind and be careful of her greed for it will cause evil like Ra the Sun God.
The woman told Varian that his brother was fated to fight him and was in fact in consort with a hell dragon and had become an Illrigger, a paladin of hell. Varian suggested that all he had to do is travel to hell and defeat the dragon to free his brother. She told Bree her true father's name, Thenedain, that she was kin to the rest of the group, and in so doing told Thwip that she was distantly related to the rest of the group. In her goodbye, as she offered to sell her people's wagon to the party, she told them that she will never meet them again, though she would in fact meet them again.
The group ended up buying the Vistani wagon and payed a strange price. The man told them, "the Vistani people ask that you give us that which you already have but that you do not know."
It was what he called the payment of surprise and Tirith inadvertently agreed to the price and the man congratulated them and thus they gained a magic wagon.
Back at the tavern, the party met with a man named Trognar. He told them that there wasn't a master of the Caves of Chaos but that one of the two tribes of orcs could be the leader. He told them 'beware of treachery from within the party,' something a magic-user in his party had told him. He told them that the big dog-men lived very high in the caves, that there were hordes of tiny dog-men in the lower caves, that there are bugbears that one of his party saw living on the southern side, and that the inhabitants of the caves take prisoners and ransom them back to the keep. He mentioned that he's been there as he sometimes did the ransoms. Tirith described gnolls and he told him they were in fact at the caves. Trognar told them to take thirty or so men and 3 or 4 may survive after several expeditions to one cave. He told the group that his large group was looking piles of magic armor that were hoarded in the southern caves and that they never found the armor. He also said that the ogre was in one of the southern caves and that they fought him the first time and lost twelve men. He told the group that there were thirty or so entrances to the caves.
With that, the party gathered Aldrich from his room and took him along. Gathered with a growing Calcryx at the woods, the party made their way east bound for the Caves of Chaos.

Missions/Quests Completed

Quest Dungeons and Dragons Continued, Sidequest Keeping Secrets Started

Notes

Notable Party Damage:

• Aldrich has a horrible burn scar on the left side of his neck in front of the ear from an azure fire elemental summoned by Seldra Tylmarande. His shield is extremely claw marked from many Lizardfolk. His shield has a large fist shaped dent in it from when he was crushed by a Sacred Statue.
  Noted Effects: Horrible Scar (Neck). You are disfigured to the extent that the wound can't be easily concealed. You have disadvantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks and advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks. Magical healing of 6th level or higher, such as heal and regenerate, removes the scar. Dead.
• Bree willingly allowed her finger to be eaten by the dragon Calcryx.
  Noted Effects: Minor Scar (Missing Pinky Finger). The scar doesn’t have any adverse effect. Magical healing of 6th level or higher, such as heal and regenerate, removes the scar.
• Thwip is pristine.
  Noted Effects: None
• Tirith was stabbed in the left thigh by a goblin.
  Noted Effects: Minor Scar (Left Thigh). The scar doesn’t have any adverse effect. Magical healing of 6th level or higher, such as heal and regenerate, removes the scar.
• Varian is pristine
  Noted Effects: None

Report Date

20 Feb 2022

Primary Location

Outlands