Arkomir writes...
The Electors Library
I wake early, leaving Dharra to sleep. I head downstairs to keep practicing my swordplay and meditating on
Corellon. At one point, Fastolm appears to have been watching me. I head inside and Dharra is here and we arrange some breakfast and have a chat. We will have a longer and more measured chat with Katya later today. But first, we will head to the
Elector's Library looking foir information about Bruno & the Vanguard,
The Cleansing Wave, the voice I have been hearing in my head and ways to fight undead and fey creatures. We finish our breakfast, get ourselves geared up, and head out to the Crown and the Elector's Library.
We head up through Rapid Spray Park and up through Elector's Gate into the Crown. In Elector's Square there is a bustle of people about, certainly busier than yesterday. At the large gate heading into the Electors Keep, there is a notable heightened guard presence. We approach and speak to the first guard. She seems ok with our paperwork and leads us into the keep grounds. We are asked to leave our larger weapons in the guard house for the duration. We do so, and head to the library.
The library is a pretty old structure that may have been built as something else before being turned into the library. We head in the double doors at the front and find ourselves in a reading room. We are approached by Gaveth who will help us today. We find out a large amount of information...
Bruno, it turns out, was a slave from birth. He was held, along with his family, by hobgoblins. Jack was kept as a slave by a giant nearby to
Foresthome, and was used as a scout. Bruno and Jack met on the battlefield and used there combined abilities to escape their captures and strike out on their own. Jack was aware of Zula and they freed her from her Giant capture also. This was the first iteration of the Vanguard.
El'Ultrin came from
Foresthome, having lived in resistance settlements. He was on the run from Mervyg's forces and managed to free some folks in the process, including Garv. They did this with the help from The Vanguard and El'Utrim and that was the point Garv joined. It was not until The Night Terror was slain that they found Dusk in the
Hobgoblin encampment. When Night Terror fell a great deal of chaos ensued in the lands (on the northern coast).
Dusk came from a family that was loyal to the Night Terror. When Night terror fell and the chaos ensued, Dusk was captured by Hobgoblins and later freed by the Vanguard.
The Cleansing Wave is mentioned in the story during the fight with Night Terror. Some other groups are mentioned as well, The Western Irregulars and
Moradin's Hammer.
Moradin's Hammer was involved near Steinwark were they helped build the wall. The hobgoblins were driven into the Unclaimed Lands and the wall was built to keep them out.
Zula is Teifling but may be from the FeyWild and she is also described as green. The Storm Giant (somtimes referred to as The Tempest Lord or Thryk) attack on
Port Zaram is when the rest of the Vanguard were lost. Bruno married Taeryn but she perished in the fight with the Storm Giant. The Storm Giant (sometimes referred to as Storm Bringer) and its allies rose from the sea and the fight was brutal. Zula managed to take the Vanguard, the Storm Giant and some of its allies to another plane, possibly the FeyWild. A day after they left, only Bruno returned. He said that he was able to find his way back, bringing back a memento of each member of the Vanguard. Bruno never specifically says that they died, only that they gave their lives to prevent the giants return.
After a while Bruno put together another group which included some of the Western Irregulars. This new group was sometimes referred to as Vanguard's Vengence. They tried to travel back to the Feywild on the night of a green moon. They returned a year later without the Vanguard. That group included Baxter, a human scout; Sabrina, a human devout warrior; Narlia, a Sylvan sorceress; Eamon, a Human Cleric; Elandra, a half-elf bard.
He finds a book of old tales that recounts the stories of the Cleansing Wave meeting eachother. There is a story of them escorting dwarves back to Earthspine and being attacked by a White
Dragon.
Melody falls during this fight.
We finally ask about how to defeat Undead and Fey. They are a defiance of the natural order and some of the gods might even traffic in them. Radiant damage and damage from divine sources is best against them.
We leave a good donation and Gaveth, who has been helping us today, also extends us the offer to come back for another day should we need to. We gather our belongings and we are asked us to go and see Capt Figgis at our convenience. We head over to the barracks to meet with her straight away.
A Job for Captain Figgis
We head back over to the barracks and we are ushered into the cloisters and the courtyard where the Captain is sparring with some of the other wardens. She finishes up and then ushers us upstairs. She enquires as to our time at the library and we have a long discussion about the forces that seem to be following us around. We dont give a huge amount of detail but she seems ok with our responses. We also ask about Elsa
Valtervold Landry from Dunkelgrund East, and it turns out the Captain is not a fan. We say that we will keep her informed on any information we find about the forces we are fighting and possibly may ask for her help.
We then come to her request of us. She tells us this is a complicated city and over the last 6 months some city workers have gone missing under the Crown, in the sewers. It is too many to put down to misadventure or
The Quiet Hand. She will give us access to the sewers at a quiet time. There are a number of gates the close of this area with the surrounds and these will be locked whilst we investigate. She can offer us gold but she may also be able to offer us something else. We will meet her back here at the guardhouse tonight at midnight. We finish our drinks and head out toward the Stoneway.
A Deal with Katya
On the way to the Stoneway, I ask Dharra whether it might be worthwhile bringing Katya with us on this investigation. She is ok with that but we will gauge that over the course of the afternoon. We make our way across the Crown, through Sweetwater Heights and out the main gate to the Stoneway.
We settle into
Moradin's Beard where a Gnomish bard is playing today. There are a couple of dwarves here that just don't look quite local. They could be part of the entourage we saw yesterday. She heads to the bar and organises to play a short set first. Before she plays she heads over to the dwarves table and offers to buy them a drink. She has a quick chat with them which goes well and I am invited over for a chat as well. We mention the Cleansing Wave and Moradin's Hammer and they have heard of both. They are big fans of Moradin's Hammer. Dharra tells them of
Verdant Isle, the dwarven settlement and the Lava Forge and they are keen to pass this information along. We extend them an open invitation to our house and our island, once the island threat is cleared. Dharra heads up and plays and whilst she is playing, the dwarves I am sitting with are very interested in her songs. She finishes playing and comes back over and sits down at the table and they ask if we will be back at our tavern late tonight and we manage to hold them off till tomorrow night. After they leave, we finish our drinks, head upstairs and knock on Katya's door.
We enter Katya's room, I apologise and then I ask her to lay out how she came to be here. She lays out Pharom's fall, our fight with the Ettacap, the hobgoblin threat, Parom's return and his overall plan. Pharom is a member of a group calling themselves
Elven Pure. Pharom has convinced the Council in
Mol Gentra that Katya and I are both traitors and need to be dealt with. We decide to help her and then invite her along on tonights mission. She is agreeable to that. We have dinner downstairs and discuss our plans and make ready.
Ambassador for Earthspine
We organise our gear and have some dinner. Katya is keeping a lowish profile whilst we do so. We head back to
The Lively Grotto to gather ourselves and have a short rest. I make a brief stop by the stables to check on Fenor and our mounts. Dharra heads inside and catches up with some dwarves we saw at Electors Square.
Thicoul Stormwalker and two guards greet her. He asks if Dharra can play tonight. She agrees and heads up to play. Katya and I head back down to the taproom and find a quiet table to listen to Dharra play for a bit. Her set starts off a bit rough but she pulls it together. Thicoul had noticed her nervousness but he enjoyed her set and song selection. He takes out an intricate hammer and places it on the table. He says to Dharra that he has need of a bard but is aware she does not travel alone. She calls me over, so I leave Katya at the table in the corner.
I make my way over to the table and am introduced. Thicoul sits us down. He puts his hand on the hammer and asks to 'show us the truth of it'. He is here as an ambassador of EarthSpine. There are things afoot that make them want to know who their allies are. He would like to tighten relationships with certain allies;
Khurabil, Earthspine & Foresthome. On the way here they were attacked and some of their party fell, including their bard. There is to be a ball celebrating his arrival and he wants to employ Dharra to sing at the ball for him. He will give her some songs to sing that may aid in diplomatic relations. The ball is to be tomorrow night and she will be part of his entourage representing Earthspine. He passes over the songs for Dharra to learn in a small dark leather book. He would like her to learn The High Kings' Call and The Song of the Earthspine. Thicoul also says Dharra will need appropriate clothing for the ball and tells her to visit
Grit's Finest Tailoring to arrange all that she requires. They arrange to meet at the temple of
Kord as the sun goes down on the night of the ball.
After this we gather Katya and head upstairs for a short rest.
Into the Sewers
Dharra casts Rahalla as a ritual and then we leave for the Crown. We head directly up through Rapid Spray Park and see Captain Figgis seated on a chair in the foyer of the guardhouse. She comes out and greets us and then leads us around behind the guardhouse to a simple grate in the ground. She tells us the Cistern will be to our south and suggest we head west. She hands us a key to the grate and then we enter the sewers.
The sewers are dank and cool with minimal light coming from grates in the ceiling. Dharra dresses up Rahalla, gives her a candle, casts light on it, and sends her off. We head south and check out the Cistern first. There does not appear to be much in that direction so we backtrack and head west from our original position. We keep heading west trying to see anything. Katya grabs my shoulder and points ahead, she saw something ahead, roughly dwarven sized. We move up and we see a small flash of movement headed to the right. We keep moving up making some distance in this larger tunnel. A 'thing' shambles out and tries to attack Rahalla and wse enter into a fight with what appear to be the missing undead. We dispatch these guys and then investigate the area around us.
We discern that three of these were town guard and gather some personal items to give back to Captain Figgis. We investigate the area for any signs of foul play, sigils and magic. There are a few spots that look like footprints were they have been standing like statues. They appear to have be waiting to be animated, There is something weird about a certain section of wall that Dharra investigates and we discover a section of Stoneshape. This space has been magically sealed to look like stone. We move back to the main tunnel and cast divine sense and there are three undead down the corridor, moving toward us. We finish off these three ghouls in pretty short order and investigate the bodies.
We head back down the main tunnel and investigate the side tunnel we are yet to look down. This tunnel winds north. We keep looking but do not see much in the gloom. The tunnel we are in starts to veer around to the right, like we are moving around Electors Square. We start to hear some running water as we near a cross tunnel. We cross the water course over a wooden plank and keep heading down this tunnel. We move further up, checking the side tunnels as we do. The tunnel curves further around to the right and we hit a major tunnel that heads off to the north. On the edge of my hearing, I hear something like the squeak of a gate in the northern tunnel. We head down this tunnel to investigate the noise. The tunnel aheads dips downhill. I call out to see if we can get this thing to come to us. Ahead of us there is a gate that appears to be ajar. We move up and check out the gate and keep moving down this tunnel. We head down the stairs of this incline and at the bottom there is black water below us. We head back up to the other side of the gate and take a short rest.
We try to entice whatever is down here out again, with no luck. We close the gate and relock the padlock. We head back up this tunnel and then head east back down the main tunnel again. We investigate the side tunnels again find a bunch of rats which we deal with in short order. We continue down the main tunnel we are in we end up back where we started. We call it a night and head back to the ladder. I head up first, and as I open the grate, Figgis greets us. We hand over the accoutrements we found on the undead. We tell her about the gate and the stoneshape region of wall. We offer to keep investigating if she would like, and we head to the Swanway to investigate the sewers a bit more.
Captain Figgis grants us access to the sewers in the Swanway at a secluded point between two buildings. We take the second padlock from this grate and head down the ladder into this part of the sewers. The smell down here is quite awful, but Dharra creates some light and we head south briefly and then west as directed by Figgis. We continue our investigation and feel we have found the other side of the submerged tunnel we found below the crown. We head toward the sound of water, encountering a few traps alomg the way. We look ahead to try and find some more which Katya disables. Around yet another curve we come to a fairly wide open space. The room in front of us, although no supposed to hold water, currently is full of water. I cast Divine Sense but sense nothing but see something big move in the water. We enter into a fight with some crocodiles and this dwarf we have been hearing move about. During the fight, the dwarf transforms into an Oni, but we prevail and investigate its lair. We find a glaive, a suit of chainmail, a silver ring with a pearl and a large bundle of keys. We also find some coin and two potion vials (one green, one golden). We head back through the sewers to Captain Figgis, locking gates as we go. We pass on what we have learnt and found to the Captain and by way of thanks, I earn an invitation to the ball as the Captain's plus one. I should head to Silk and Satin to purcahse suitable attire and Figgis will collect me and we will go shopping together.
We head back to the Lively Grotto for a well earned rest.
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