Caddell Griffith Joins the Bucket Brigade

Life, Organisation Association

The War Wizards send Caddell Griffith to join the Bucket Brigade. Caddell convinces the party to search Hermit's Woods instead. He explains to them that the War Wizard academy is one of the leading authorities in the realms on dragons. His studies there have taught him that the forests are where green dragons generally prefer to make their lairs.

After a brief inventory check, the party reluctantly heads back out onto the road, again heading east following the coastal trail. They eventually come to a large bridge that spans an equally wide river. The parties' scouts conduct a thorough search of the area, but they find no trace of any type of cave structure in the area. They collectively decide to continue over the bridge to the opposite bank then continue along the path headed south-east for 30 minutes before Frozen can see the tell-tale signs of something large headed in their direction from up ahead. She silently motions for everyone to stop while motioning to the party to follow her gaze down the path. The rest of the party eventually spots the distant clouds of dust swirling along the sides of the path several miles out.   Fearing the worst, Oharn Stonebeard suggests to the group that they should pull off to the side of the road until they are sure what they are dealing with. Without knowing exactly what was headed their way, everyone was preparing for the worst. Several tense minutes pass before the sharp eyes of Nimbus can identify a caravan of 15 horses and mules accompanied by half a dozen armed men. The party, somewhat relieved, decides to allow the caravan to pass. Oharn and Izzy decide to stand in plain sight on the southern side of the road, while the rest stayed hidden behind the cover of trees. As the caravan rides past, each of the caravan members lowers their head in a polite nod in the direction of the Purple Dragon Cleric, in a formal display of greeting and respect. The party continues to stand around patiently as the caravan continues to ride off eventually disappearing from sight.   Turning their attention back to the task at hand, the group of adventurers start brainstorming ideas with one another. They are so distracted with their internal conversations that they are completely oblivious to the robed man making a beeline to their position. As he gets closer, he clears his throat to get their attention. As the party spins to face the unexpected stranger, the robe man smiles and extends his hand while introducing himself as a War Wizards named Caddell Griffith. He explains how he recently returned from Waterdeep and his new assignment is to assist the party in their search for the green dragon's lair.   He inquires why the party has moved away from the forested areas and Featherface and Frozen explain that the intel they received claims the dragon was spotted around the coastal area. Caddell explains to them that his extensive research at the college of War Wizards led him to believe that green dragons prefer the forests over the coasts and recommends they head back west and investigate Hermit's Wood. Armed with this new information, the party agrees and they head back across the same bridge they had crossed earlier that day. With the sun quickly setting, the party decides to make arrangement for the night. Caddell suggests a nearby small hamlet, Blustich, roughly 2 hours away in hopes of finding a local inn to stay the night.   Arriving at Blustich without incident, the party is met with an outdoor festival in process involving food, spirits, music, and a rather unique form of folk dancing. The inhabitants of the small hamlet barely notice the arrival of the party and Caddell hails the closest local to inquire about the cause for celebration. A middle aged man stops to greet Caddell, immediately noticing him as a member of the War Wizards. This seems to put a smile on his face and he explains that the locals have a traditional dance they perform which is supposed to bring favorable winds. Oharn thanks the man for his time and asks if he could point them to the local inn, which the man is more than happy to do.   As they head towards the crowded square, although no one is paying any mind to the party, Stella appears visibly uncomfortable and almost agitated while navigating through the crowds of people. A barely audible sigh of relief escapes her lips when they finally arrive inside the nearly empty interior of the local inn. The innkeeper and two of his staff hear the door open and look up from their menial tasks to welcome their new guests. The monk formally addresses the innkeeper, "Innkeeper, we have need of rooms for the night for my friends and I. Also, I'll take a pint of your cheapest alcohol. What will that cost?" He hands the monk a pint of ale and after some discussion regarding room and board, the innkeeper concludes that 52 silver would cover all the services they required. Stella hands the man 52 silver and the party members thank her for the generous gesture.   They inquire about local rumors to which the innkeeper mentions an acquaintance of his who often dealt in underground smuggling. Lately, he was having trouble due to constant raids from sahuagins. His sources seemed to believe that the sahuagins were hunting intelligent beings with the purpose of eating them and his guards had been turning up missing or dead lately. Seeing as the topic of conversation had shifted to food, Oharn felt it was the perfect segway to discuss the parties' dinner plans. Turns out the innkeeper also doubles as the head chef for the establishment and he recommends they try his fried sea bass seasoned with black pepper and salt. It'd been a while since anyone had a proper cooked meal and they all agree to try his fish. 45 minutes later the innkeeper returns with plates of freshly fried sea bass filets for everyone.   Oharn begins a short prayer with the intention of blessing the meal, but before the blessings are concluded, Featherface flings his piece of fish into the air, leans back with his beak open, then proceeds to catch and swallow the entire fish whole. Everyone, including the innkeeper, watches in stunned silence as the entire fish travels in one solid piece down the length of his entire throat straight into his gut. A content smile spreads across the monk's face which is abruptly interrupted by a deep ale-inspired belch. The party breaks into laughter and soon everyone else dives in and scarfs down the fried fish. After their dinner, the party is pointed in the direction to their two rooms upstairs. The party remains at the table as the innkeeper bids everyone farewell and goodnight while making a beeline for his private chambers.   Now that they were alone, Featherface inquires about the wizard's abilities regarding detecting and identifying magical items. More specifically, the new items they discovered earlier that day. Caddell confirms he does possess the ability to do both and begins examining the new items for traces of magical properties. He performs an intricate ritual with every item to determine if any of the new items were magically enchanted. Caddell's magic causes several items to glow with a faint light confirming magical properties within the bracers and the 4 black cloaks they recovered. Performing a different ritual, Caddell uses his magical powers to determine the nature of the magical enchantments. After several minutes of deep concentration, the wizard declares that the bracers are magically enchanted to improve the archery skills of the wearer. He also finds that all 4 black velvet cloaks have the same type enchantment: the wearer gains darkvision when the hood of the cloak is drawn over the wearer's head. After some thought, they collectively decide the ranger should equip the bracers of archery while the velvet cloaks are distributed to the party members who lack darkvision. Their duties finally concluded, the party retires for the night. A couple party members volunteer to take shifts for watch while the others manage to get in a long deep rest.