(G311 01/04/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK) SS19/WA1
Meanwhile back in Pedestal.
DAY 280 (15th Nightal)(December) continued ...
[Merlock Tomes continues his report]
This is the conclusion of my report. The group of adventurers known as the 'Buffalo Bunch' entered the chamber occupied by Fadheela and her cohorts and a melee ensued.
At the same time as they entered Dwerry Gentile finally revealed her true evil nature and turned on the others. I did not know this while I was in the Spike, but I have since learned that she was in fact a Vanguard of Sertrous agent known as Wathuss.
Fenrir had had previous dealing with her I am lead to believe, back in Waterdeep. Back then she had been the chief Vanguard agent and in a war of nerves and intermittent raids on each other's hide outs she had battled to keep Fenrir and his friends following the trail to Pedestal.
She, of course, had failed in that, but had at least infiltrated their group and in one last throw of the dice attacked them in the rear while they were occupied with Fadheela and her minions.
It was a brutal combat. To begin with, sensing that now was no time for messing about, Arahel for once used her head and summoned up a bunch of crocodiles (and a single wolf). They went in and engaged the grimlocks that surged forward in the first few moments of the battle.
Dwerry, or Wathuss rather, fire off two fireballs that blasted Arahel dead and Durz nearly so. Fenrir was injured too, they were all crammed in too tightly. Durz tried to get at her, but she avoided his blows as she fled down the corridor back to the stairs. When he was overcome with a torrent of magic missiles he chose to flee before he too was killed.
Meanwhile, in Fadheela's chamber Billi and Fenrir battled a bloodhulk. These things are immensely strong and it killed many of the crocodiles. Fenrir blasted at it and Billi shot it until it had taken so much damage it could hardly stand. At that moment, the wolf, which had been skulking about trying simply to stay alive nipped in and bit the bloodhulk in the leg and killed it.
While all this was going on Fadheela, who was a medusa, was trying to petrify Billi and Fenrir but she had no luck with that at all. Fenrir then blasted her once and Billi killed her with a single arrow through the heart.
The room cleared Fenrir rushed into the corridor to discover Arahel was dead. Enraged. he blasted at Dwerry with his magic, channeling everything he had into it. It knocked her down onto her knees, exhausted and badly injured. As she opened her mouth to plead for mercy he killed her off with another dreadful blast.
As they got their breath back, unexpectedly Maaril the Dragonmage (of Waterdeep) teleported in with four sellswords and two large gargoyles. Fenrir recognised him and took a step back as Maaril ordered his men to loot the corpse of Fadheela and to gather up the body of Dwerry.
From Fadheela he took a key and a staff, then without a word of farewell they all teleported out of the room once more.
Not entirely sure what all that had been about they then looted the chamber of all its treasure, gathered up Arahel's corpse and exited the Spike through Fadheela's secret door.
Next they went back to the Dripstone Inn where I gather Es Sarch brought Arahel back to life by some mysterious means. From what I heard, the process that he uses is rarely pleasant and falls a long way short of being what a cleric would call a Resurrection.
That night, from what I gather, the Bunch arranged selling the massive amount of treasure they had looted from the various places they had raided, again with Es Sarch.
They then spent the night in the Inn. The next day they left town.
I saw no need to confront them as they had essentially done us a huge service by clearing the Necromancer's Spike and proved themselves to be pretty tough customers. Despite the fact they had much money and valuable magic items about their persons an attack on them would require so much resource to hardly be worth it.
They certainly killed Elessarwa Nledoor, but it may be better to let Es Sarch think for now that his little plan worked. It will require careful thought before moving against him.
Billitoppe, Durz, Arahel and Fenrir should certainly be punished for their crime, however I recommend subtlety and not a direct attack.
Dwerry is dead and will most likely stay dead.
Here ends my report.
DAY 281 (16th Nightal)(December)
[Back to Rollo's Journal]
That's all I managed to get a hold of from the report by Merlock Tomes of Pedestal.
From what I gather though, Billi and Durz decided to head back to their mercenary company where they probably planned to have a six month bender with their newfound wealth. Berum went with Durz, her husband.
Fenrir and Arahel, an odd couple of travelling companions, left Pedestal and went across the Oceanbrigde to the Earth Node where they teleported back to the King's Barrow. From here they once more emerged at the Kingsholm Cemetery and walked back down into the town and went to get some food and drink at the Coronet and Cabbage. Cavu was waiting for them.
While they ate in his room he said,
'Well, I guess mixed success there. We knew Maaril was an interested party but rather hoped he'd stay out of it. Getting the staff back from him will require subtlety, so I think we'll try a few diplomatic approaches before resorting to .. ahem .. brute force and ignorance.
If you want a job in the mean time though I can give you one. Sort of... all a bit vague at the moment, but Gerty, bless the old girl, has got a real bee in her bonnet about a place called Westgate. She hasn't told me what's what, all I know is that she wants a base established there initially. I can provide transport and some funds to get you there and a contact. Interested?'
They shrugged and agreed, 'Why not?'
Within a few hours Cavu had organised some transport, a female human wizard called Thjodhild who teleported them to just outside of Westgate.
As instructed they first headed to the village of Ferbone that lay about five miles south of the city.
Here they asked for and found a lady cleric of Sylvanus known as Weynay the Worrisome.
She was the cleric of a temple on the edge of the village and when they explained who had sent them she said,
'Oh right. Cavu sent you? I've never met with him, but a friend of mine vouches for him. My friend said that he can be trusted up to a point and that he aligns with Sylvanus generally. Very well, I can help you. Go to the Purple Lady and ask for Nebulus the Rascal. He's an old friend of mine and owes me a huge favour. Tell him you are calling it in. He can help you. Don't let him fob you off or give just a little bit of help. He owes me big time and he is stinking rich. Get him to help you with advice and such in Westgate. He'll be a big help getting to know the place and making contacts, he has a finger in every pie in the city. He's a good enough sort really, but don't trust him, not to begin with anyway and don't flash any obvious wealth or magical items in front of him, he's a terrible crook and you'll only put temptation in his way. Other than that, good luck and let me know how you get on! And come back any time if you need any restorations or such like!'
Although they could both fly if the wanted to, for perhaps no other reason than to enjoy a nice walk through the snowy fields and copses of the Dragon Coast they arrived at Westgate again as it grew dark. They had no great problem with gaining entrance and after asking around for a shop that dealt in magic items, headed to Gondeth's Magery and arranged to spend some of their money.
Once that was all done they went to the Purple Lady Tavern and 'Festhall' to meet their next contact a merchant known as Nebulus the Rascal.
He was signing documents as they entered. Two scantily clad wenchs also reclined on couches at the back of the room. The rear windows were open and the sound of the street and the docks gently wafted inside on the icy winter breeze. Despite this though the room was warm from the well banked fire in the stone fireplace.
Nebulus was a short fat man with a bald head. He was well dressed, as you would expect from a rich merchant in fine furs and with a gold chain around his neck. He seems pleased to see them.
'Come in, come in! Have you eaten? Are you hungry? I've got in a shipment of spices from Calimsham.
I've been cooking with it ever since! Some lamb? Some chicken? Girls, bring up some food and wine for my guest!'
He eyed up then said to Fenrir,
'Can I also offer anything for your, servant? Pet? ...Daughter..?'
He sounded serious, but Fenrir wasn't so sure,
'My name is ... ah, Raziel Lightningrod. My companion is a young lady of independence and intellect known as Arahel.'
'Does she speak?' asked the merchant.
They talked for a while longer, Fenrir was in no huge hurry to start Cavu's mission just yet and preferred to go back down and arrange his dinner and a room.
He opted for the luxury version with all the 'extras' while Arahel went for a more basic arrangement.
Here now I will introduce someone new, a man called Harvel who had lived in Westgate after arriving from the Dale Lands about a year ago. He was a middle aged man who sported a red beard that was peppered with grey. He was watching Fenrir and Arahel, not just because he was the sort of fellow that watched strangers out of habit, but also because he was employed by Nebulus to do so.
He'll be playing a prominent role in this tale as it moves forward.
DAY 282 (17th Nightal)(December)
Having now established a 'base' in the Purple Lady and after a night of having relations with the tavern prostitutes Fenrir ate his breakfast that morning with a sense of achievement.
Both he and Arahel spent the day relaxing. They certainly could not be blamed for doing so as they were still tired from all the fighting back at the Spike and the travelling the day before.
Meanwhile Harvel did some asking around town and discovered that they had arrived by teleportation.
He past this information on to Nebulus.
DAY 283 (18th Nightal)(December)
Fenrir and Arahel went back to Gondeth's Magery to check up on their magical armour orders then wandered back to the Purple Lady.
Waiting to meet them was Cavu. He had a girl on his knee and was singing her a love song.
When they could talk in private he said,
'Oh, the whole Maaril thing was kind of Billi's fault. Well, I don't blame him. He was given a Stone of Sending by an agent of Maaril, probably that Jolly Underhill character and then he gave it to Dwerry. She used it to feed lies to Maaril, so who knows what he thought when he teleported in and grabbed the staff and key. If he uses magic to speak to her or bring her back I dare say he'll learn the truth. He is no friend of the Vanguard, but then, he's no friend of ours either. Next time, put your back into it Fenrir old chap, if you'd managed to bring her onto our side then we would have the staff, the key and a valuable asset in the form of Wathuss herself. You seem to think the only way to seduce a woman is to stick your spear in her, one day remind me to teach you how to treat a lady properly.
Well, I suppose we dealt with Fadheela and are a step closer at least.'
He then gave them one thousand gold and told them to buy or rent a property then find a faction in Waterdeep they liked the look of and join it.
'This is the priority. She still hasn't told me what is going on, but it seems very important. One other thing, not quite so important but anyway... Maybe you've figured this out and maybe you haven't but Gerty gets really excited about Snake Gates. All the time I've worked for her she's been on the look out for them and I suppose that's why she's up against the Vanguard so much. Anyway, she think's there is one either in Westgate or near to it and she'd like you to find it. I've got no more information than that, but you are resourceful chaps. Make very very delicate enquiries, you don't want to draw the Vanguard down on you. After all, they will probably not be happy that you thwarted them in Pedestal. See if you can't find where it is and then report back.'
Fenrir tried not to giggle when Cavu described them as resourceful. Didn't Cavu realise they were idiots?
Harvel had managed to eavesdrop on this conversation and report it back to Nebulus.
It didn't really matter though as it was not long before Fenrir and Arahel were back talking to the merchant, seeking his counsel.
They discussed the city and the factions that were in it to some extent then Nebulus told them to go downstairs and ask for his man Harvel who would be able to guide them around the city as and when required.
Harvel took them to his office, which was not too far from the tavern. It was a small terraced dwelling, a room downstairs he used as his office with a living area above it.
Harvel made his living as a sort of private investigator, a similar sort of role to Merlock Tomes I suppose.
He'd take any work he could get though and arranged a small fee to be paid to him much to Fenrir's displeasure.
After discussing the city factions (more on that later) they decided to look at property in the city. Harvel introduced them to his own landlady, a woman known as Hildigunn. They settled on a cottage just outside the western walls and arranged it to be cleaned and staffed by a housekeeper.
They then went back to the tavern for the rest of the evening.