← Previous Session: Session 023: Gundren's Return to Phandalin

8 Mirtul, (Day 44)

Mid Morning

Stonehill Inn

• The Party wakes after their late-night revelry.
  • Mo wakes at the table he passed out at, Verna still sleeping on the floor near his feet, using Baby Wolf Friend as a pillow. 
  • Sildar seems to have woken up at the table earlier and gotten to work already, probably violently hungover. 
  • Rae and Vala made it to their rooms, covering the party members that passed out at the table with their cloaks.
• Vala enters and sits beside Mo, handing him a mug of ale mixed with juice, greeting him with a cheerful but mindfully quiet “Good morning, Mo.”
• Mo drinks immediately and then asks what it was. Vala tells him it's a little hair of the dog that bit him. Mo looks confused by the phrase, but just keeps drinking. 
• Verna wakes, barking out a confused “Where’s my money? Money.” then sees Vala and focuses, saying “We’re owed money.” Vala echoes this, saying the Lords' Alliance will pay them 500 GP for clearing Cragmaw Castle and they had loot to sell as well.
• As soon as she’s fully awake, Verna hears a familiar voice that seems to be coming from within her own head, Halia Thornton's voice.  
  • Halia says “I'm glad you made it back from your journey as my little sand viper. I do expect an update when you get a chance to come by my offices.” and just cuts out. 
  • Verna responds telepathically with an ecstatic “I was just thinking about you! I’m so glad to hear from you. Updates soon. Kiss kiss.”
    • Verna notices that the pendant gets slightly warm when while Halia’s voice is in her head.
  • Mo notices Verna behaving more strangely than usual and asks her the perpetual question: “What’s your deal?”
  • Verna responds with no hesitation, “Just talking to somebody in my head.”
  • Mo responds, “Great!” but does not seem to mean it. In fact, he seems somewhat alarmed.
  • Verna tells Vala and Mo that it’s a friend she and Rig have in common, but it’s a secret friend, so she can’t tell them about it. 
• From upstairs, Mo, Vala, and Verna hear “WHAT THE FUCK?!” followed by a bunch of stomping. Rig comes barrelling down the stairs, missing a step and falling on her ass.
• Rig immediately asks Vala “Is Persi here?”
  • Vala tells her no and becomes concerned about how hard Rig hit her head during the party’s escape from cragmaw, they haven’t seen Persi since he disappeared with Rig and it’s been nearly a month since then. Vala gently reminds Rig of this.
  • Rig says she was hoping he would be here at Stonehill Inn when they returned, but she guesses not. She sighs, saying wistfully, “he was so soft.”
  • Vala agrees but clarifies, “not in temperament, but in fur.”
• Rig joins them at the table, taking a performative breakfast salad and a large helping of sausage. 
• Mo gives baby wolf friend a sausage. Verna says that they need to find Baby Wolf Friend a vest with little pockets on it. 
  • Vala perks up at that asking Mo if she can make his wolf a vest. 
  • Mo tells her he can’t stop her. 
  • Vala excitedly asks Verna what is should look like and Verna begins to consider what color would look best with the wolf's green eyes.
  • Rig tells them to make sure they leave a pee hole and Verna clarifies thats why she pitched a vest - open front. 
• Orthanc wakes in the hayloft to Rigs screaming and makes his way to the Stonehill Inn, politely asking Toblen for a bucket of food when he arrives.
• Toblen motions to the table, telling Orthanc they had been expecting him and already had a bucket prepared. 
  • It appears to be something like a shrimp cocktail, but with sausages around the rim and runny eggs in the middle. 
  • Orthanc scoops a handful up with his bare hands, and begins to eat
    • Rig and Vala are visibly disgusted.
• To distract herself from Orthanc's horrifying food and table manners, Vala turns to Toblen and tells him Rig was hoping for a bath, and Toblen calls workers to prepare one for her.
• Mo asks Vala if she’s spoken with the mom of that nice little kid yet. Vala asks if he means Qelline Alderleaf and says no, she hasn’t, but she needs to. The two of them plan to head there after breakfast. 
  • Rig cuts in to say she wouldn’t call Carp Alderleaf a nice kid, he’s a little shit.
  • Vala defends him, but Rig says he’s sneaky and she had a lot of brothers and sisters; she knows a little shit when she sees one.
  • Rig hipchecks Orthanc on her way to the bath, splattering even more runny egg on him. 
• Rae asks Vala how long she’ll need to train in town and also if she knows the smith in town. 
• She tells him 5 days and that she doesn’t know the smith, but she tells him where the smithy is located and, furthermore, wonders if that might be more of a jeweler thing. Perhaps something to be bought from Halia or at the mining provisions. 
• Rae tells them that he’s been thinking while they eat and he thinks he’ll have some silver rings made for the party 
  • Vala says immediately that this is an excellent idea,
  • Rig says she’s more of a gold girl and Verna gasps “Rig’s the doppleganger!” 
    • Vala throws one of her silver rings at Rig, making sure that she is not, in fact, the doppleganger. 
  • Rig catches it deftly and pockets it, saying thanks. Vala is so relieved Rig isn’t the doppleganger that she doesn’t ask for her ring back
• Verna says she needs to go speak with Halia
  • Rig says she can tag along and take the parties loot to Halia to sell. 
  • Rae goes with the two of them to try to purchase the silver rings for the party.
• Orthanc wants to go to the smith and get a maul.

Noon

Miner’s Exchange

• Rae, Verna, and Rig depart the Stonehill Inn and head to the Miner’s Exchange to speak with Halia.
• Halia looks up and sees Verna immediately saying, “Ah, my little sand viper has returned.” then notices Rae and continues, “I feel like it should have been obvious to you that this was going to be a discussion between just the two of us.” 
• Rig pipes up, pointing to Rae and says “He wants to buy some rings, and I’m just here to hire a courier.”
• Halia smiles when she hears Rig saying “Ah I see you have two interesting people in your party again.”
  • Rig pulls her vest to the side and in the inner pocket is the super worn Heat of the Tieflings book Halia sold her over a month ago.
  • Halia’s grin widens. “It’s a good one, right?” she asks Rig
  • Rig agrees, telling Halia it’s her third time through.
  • Halia offers Rig use of her personal library while the party is in town and Rig checks out 10 books and plans to find a good porch and camp out to read smut for days on end.
• Halia turns to Rae asking how she can help him. He tells her that he’s looking for Silver Rings.
  • Halia says, “Oh yes, we have plenty of that to go around.” and opens up a box full of silver and gold and even platinum rings and asks “What would you like?”
  • Rae buys 8 silver rings, making sure to find one large enough for Orthanc, and also buying one for Sildar to put Lady Vala at ease.
  • Rae pays Halia 100GP and she says “Always a pleasure to do business with a holy man.” and it sounds extremely disingenuous. 
• Rae tells Verna and Rig they know where he’ll be and goes back to the Stonhill Inn to make Vala scroll of Augury per their scroll trade.
• Halia silently watches Rae leave, unwilling to talk to either Verna or Rig until the holy man is gone.
• Rig, thinking Verna and Halia are flirting and looking to get out of the way, starts to ask after the courier, but Halia puts up a finger to silence her and watches Rae until the door closes behind him. And then she waits for another second and turns to Verna, gesturing to Rig and saying, “This one's okay. We can have our conversation in front of her.”
• Halia goes over to her desk shuffling around in a stack of papers, asking Rig “You needed a courier?”
  • Rig says yes and Halia hands her a piece of paper and a pen and says “Tell me where it’s going and then write out whatever you want to send on this and I’ll tell you how much it costs.
  • Rig takes the paper and pen, telling Halia the letter needs to go to Neverwinter, no special delivery or anything. 
  • Halia responds that it should take about 5 days with the road conditions, and she has a courier arriving in a day or two. The letter should arrive in Neverwinter within 10 days.
  • Rig sits down to write her letter and pretends not to be listening
• Halia turns to Verna and says “Little sand viper, what news do you have?”
  • Verna tries to recall everything the party has done and gives halia a rundown.
    • There was a dragon in the ash town with the druid in it, Thundertree she thinks. There was a dragon at Thundertree, but the dragon has been temporarily scared off so that place is clear. 
    • Halia asks what flavor of dragon they’re talking about
    • Verna says it was a green dragon and it was basically her just stabbing it. She scared it so much with her violent stabbings that it had to leave. That’s basically how the battle went down.
    • Halia seems somewhat suspicious but says that sound plausible. She asks Verna if it was a full grown dragon.
    • Verna nervously says she wasn’t sure it was a full grown dragon exactly, but she doesn’t have a lot of experience with dragons. It probably was not full grown to be perfectly honest. It may have been a young dragon. 
    • Halia says that it’s still an impressive feat, and that she imagines that if the party ran off the dragon, the obtained it’s hoard. 
    • Verna says yes, but it was a young dragon so the hoard was small. The main thing the party obtained was information about that cave everybody is talking about. 
    • Halia asks “Wave Echo Cave? Have you found the location.”
    • Verna says well not the exact location but pretty close. 
    • Halia says she heard Master Rockseeker made it back to town as well, and alive to boot.
    • Verna corrects her, saying “well he’s sort of alive. I call him half alive.”
    • Halia asks if she’s saying that the prognosis is grim.
    • Verna says it’s negative, that’s all she can say about it. But she doesn’t know, he’s not doing great but he could be doing worse. He was tortured a bunch. Probably sexually. But he did that dwarfy thing and held strong and that’s why he’s probably barely going to survive. He just wouldn’t let it be done.
    • Halia says that the stout folk can be very difficult to get information out of. Much easier to just kill.
    • Verna says that she doesn’t think he really has too much more information to be honest. She think’s they’re good to go, that they’ll be headed out again as soon as the wizard lady is clean again. Or... spells. That was it she needed spells. Then they’ll be off to wave echo cave and Verna will have a bunch of cool stuff and they’ll ride off into the sunset…
    • Halia interrupts and asks where they ended up finding Gundren
    • Verna says Oh Cragmaw Castle. 
    • Halia is intrigued that Verna knows the location of Cragmaw Castle
    • Verna does note that it’s not cragmaw castle anymore, it’s occupied by a bunch of Bloodshield guys.
    • Halia mulls saying that anyone trying to use that location would have a bit of a fight in front of them. 
    • Verna agree’s saying that saying that the Bloodshield warband sent a search party after them. There were a lot of them. They had chased the party through the woods all night, so she’d say they were pretty intent on keeping the castle. 
    • Halia says this is all interesting and useful information for the network
    • Verna is ecstatic to have given her useful information
  • Halia tells Verna that she may have noticed that the pendant Halia gave her allows some communication between them. Verna may or may not be aware, but Halia has the ability to scry through that pendant. Not constantly, but she had been checking in on Verna’s progress and was pleased with how forthcoming Verna had been in her recounting
    • Halia gives Verna a sack of gold with 200 GP in it.
    • Halia says “I found something you may find rather useful. They’re rather hard to find” and opens a drawer, pulling out several items and handing them to Verna.
      • Drow hand crossbow
      • 20 hand crossbow bolts
      • Leather holster
    • Halia says “Along with the acquisition of this hand crossbow I managed to get some information out of the previous owner and make this for you.” and hands Verna a recipe for drow poison telling her “it can knock almost anything out. It's non-magical as well, so it's useful against elves. “
    • She also takes out a little like oil skin packet and she opens it and inside there are mushrooms, but they’re completely black like they've been soaked in oil. ”This was also taken off of the previous owner. This is. These are called Lolf's kits. They're mushrooms that only grow in the underdark. Keep them wrapped in this out of the sun or they will go bad. And do not touch this. The oil that comes out of them with bare skin.”
    • Verna says she would never let Loth kiss her and receives
      • Recipe for Drow poison
      • Oilskin packet full of loth’s kiss. 
    • Rig pops up and says “Did you say non-magical?”
    • Halia asks if Rig has finished her letter and Rig hands it over telling Halia she’s free to read it, there’s nothing in there she didn’t already tell her. 
    • Verna is still in awe at her gifts and exclaims that she could put a drow to sleep and do stuff to it that drow do. That sounds awesome. 
    • Halia says that she imagines the “lady wizard” as Verna calls her, may be able to help her with making the drow poison. The mushrooms are the principle ingredient. 
    • Verna says she’s good at making stuff. She made her an arrow that lit things on fire.
    • Halia is impressed that Vala made an alchemist arrow, noting that they have the tendency to blow up in the maker's face.
  • Halia says ”I also, with all of your help and continued help with bringing information to the network, I've contacted some of our operatives in Neverwinter who have. I understand your interested in sentient weapons that have some possible information on leading to such arms that may be in or around the Neverwinter area. So once you get there, go to [NEVERWINTER ZHENTARIM HIDEOUT]  and show your pendant there. And someone will get in touch with you to bring introduction inroads into Neverwinter.”
  • Verna says “You're the best friend I've ever had. I can't wait.”
  • Halia says “Yeah. Friends and business partners. It's good to have those all in the same person.”
  • Verna heartily agrees saying “Obviously. Romantic partner, best friend, business partner. If they're all the same person.”
  • Rig completely agrees. echoing “Can’t go wrong.”
• Halia turns to Rig and says she’s glad she survived and made it back. Other than her little sand viper, Rig was the only other member of the party that she felt could be of interest to the exchange.
• Rig says that’s nice, but asks if she met the cat.
• Halia replies that Persi had seemed a mite unpredictable, that any business that she would have with any potential business partners would need to keep to their agreements and do things properly. Otherwise, that business partner is no longer useful. And things that are no longer useful are usually discarded.
• Rig says that’s cool and she’s already got a romantic best friend business partner. So you know. She’s good.
  • Halia seems surprised saying “You do?”
  • Rig replies “of course, I mean all rolled into one. The best way to do things.”
  • Verna says Lucky you
  • Halia tells Rig and Verna that she has very little time for romance, but she’s happy to hear that she found someone. Halia wonders if it's anyone known by herself or perhaps by the network. She tells Rig she may be surprised at the information that comes across her desk.
  • Rig says she probably wouldn't be surprised at all.  But Halia isn’t the only one who values discretion.  So do other people.
• Halia says “Yes there is nothing more important other than profit. Discretion is the only other thing that important to the network, and  as I imagine the two of you know that our conversations are not to be mentioned to any others.”
  • Rig says she didn’t hear a thing
  • Verna says she would never tell somebody that she thought was like a good person.
  • Halia says that good people do tend to get in the way of the work. 
  • Rig and Verna agree, Verna saying, “Yeah, real wet blankets.”
  • Halia says that she hopes Verna enjoys the gifts from the network and finds them useful. And to just remember that we're always watching. Not always, always. But always liable to be watching.
  • Verna says you could be watching at any moment. That's very comforting.
• Rig shows Halia the parties loot inventory and gets small coins exchanged. Everyone is paid out: 
  • 150 GP
  • 172 silver
  • 26 electrum
    • Cart overflow round up:  3 SP, 3 Electrum  
• Halia also informs Rig that Vala had arranged for Rig’s antiques to be collected when she traded the location of Wyvern Tor for the retrieval of Silverwing and Orda’s remains, but Vala hadn’t known where to send them. Rig arranges for the goods to be delivered to the same location as her letter. 
• Before leaving, Rig asks Halia if there’s a mismatist around, a collector of rare coins. She has eight unusual coins and she wants to know more about them. 
  • Halia seems interested and Rig shows Halia her favorite, a biphasic coin with Tymora on one side in gold, and Beshaba side was some sort of dark iron.
  • Halia pulls out a little jeweler's loop and starts looking at them, especially the biphasic coin Rig favors, saying, “This one. So one of them is ancient Netherese coin that is tens of thousands of years old. She's just like, I haven't seen these coins in quite some time. It would take me some time to determine any value for a collector, but you definitely want to just hold on to that.”
    • Rig says she was gonna throw it in the well, but she guesses now she wont!
  • Halia looks through the rest of the coins, recognizing the imagery one of them, telling Rig it’s Umberlee on the face side, and flipping it over to see a sinking ship on the other. She says it doesn’t look pressed and minted, it looks hand carved. 
  • Rig says she’ll have to keep asking around about the rest and Rig and Verna leave the Phandalin Miner's Exchange.

Phandalin Square

• As soon as they’re out of earshot, Rig says “Sentient weapons? If you’re lonely, I’m pretty sure she was down to fuck.” 
  • Verna is disgusted, saying “Ew, I don’t like people.”
  • Rig, confused asks “You want the weapon?”
  • Verna clarifies, telling Rig “I want an object that is like a person that you talk to but that doesn’t move or have bodily functions. That's the ultimate goal. But, you know, I'm expecting this to potentially take decades.”
  • Rig starts offering Verna all kinds of inanimate objects she keeps on her, but none are what Verna’s looking for.
• Verna walks about Phandalin, flailing her hand crossbow wildly. 
• Rig walks up to a vendor in the square and buys an apple, then runs over to a wall, and puts it on top of her head, offering her .
• Verna understands what Rig is offering and lines up the shot and pulls the trigger without hesitating. Her first try misfires, the trigger fires, but the bolt doesn't go anywhere. Verna realizes she didn’t load it properly and reloads it, firing a second time. Her bolt goes straight through the center of the apple and just sticks in the wall. The apple cracks in half and falls into two pieces.
• Rig flinches just a little bit and then yanks the bolt out of the wall, eating the apple half still attached to it right off of it.
• Verna tells Rig she admires her lack of care for her own safety, not caring if she dies. 
• Rig corrects her, saying she does care. She cares quite a lot actually, but she has no real control over it so why fret? It’s all in the hands of Tymora and Bashaba. 
• Verna could not agree more, though she follows the more cultured and worldly elven gods.

Alderleaf Farm

• Mo, Vala, and Baby Wolf friend head to Alderleaf Farm, finding Qelline in the fields picking spring vegetables. 
• She warmly greets Mo and Vala, saying “Oh you’re back! Did you find Reidoth? Is he alive?
  • Vala assures her that Reidoth is alive and well, hale and hearty.
  • Qelline seems relieved, saying that she knows he’s a Druid and tends to disappear at times, but that she usually gets word from a passing squirrel or a robin or something, indicating that he's still alive, but it’s been some time. That said she knows Thundertree is a dangerous place, even to this day.
  • Mo tells her that makes sense as the plants and animals were not very friendly when the party got there.
  • Vala agrees, adding that the dragon may have killed anything meant to send Qelline a message before it ever left Thundertree.
  • Qelline is surprised, asking “there was a dragon?”
    • Vala confirms, hitting the “was” hard and telling Qelline that it wasn’t dead but that the party ran it off, then turns to Mo saying emphatically, “You were MAGNIFICENT.”
    • Mo humbly thanks her, saying that was sweet and he’s doin’ alright.
  • Vala tells Qelline that it’s likely Reidoth will remain in Thundertree for quite some time, tending to the plants and trying to return the area to it’s natural state.
  • Qelline says “That definitely sounds like my good friend disappearing friend, Reidoth. Well, I'm glad to hear it and I can't thank you enough for checking in on him. And I imagine you got the information that you needed.”
  • Vala says they did, and more, and gestures to Grew, the staff Reidoth cleansed and gifted to Mo. 
    • Qelline looks at the staff in wonder surprised that Reidoth took to anyone, much less someone he just met, enough to give them such a gift.
    • Vala shrugs, saying “druids” and Qielling agrees saying it must be the druidic bond.
• Qelline tells Lady Vala that she collected a few things for her while Vala was at Thundertree and Cragmaw castle. Qelline gives Vala:
  •  Recipe, Potion of Cat's Eye I (Lesser)
    • Qelline tells Vala that some of the ingredients are hard to acquire; less scrupulous alchemists in the past, as you can imagine from the name, actually made it from cats. She has yet to find any herbs that can replace that ingredient, but something similar may work if you come across anything.
      • Vala recalls the vitreous humor from the nothic’s eyeball she salvaged months ago and thinks that may work
  • Rogues Morsel
  • Weavemoss 
  • Recipe, Potion of Spellpower I (Lesser)
  • Recipe, Potion of Healing I (Lesser)
• Qelline tactfully tells Vala “I know being one of small stature and needing many things for my alchemy skills can be quite a hassle, and you seem to be similarly struggling. I have this for you.” and hands Vala a little backpack saying “this may look small, but you’d be surprised the number of things it can hold, it’s called a Handy Haversack.”
  • Qelline tells Vala that she may be a halfling, but she’s seen many of her people that she thinks could carry a little more than Vala, not to belittle her stature.
  • Vala is not offended in the least, saying  “thank the gods I am so weak, Qelline.” and takes it gratefully. 
• Qelline tells Vala she hopes it helps her on her travels and adds that she knows Gundren has made it back to town and that she’s been helping Sister Garale treat him. She also gathered the herbs that were used to treat Rig’s head injury. She is very hopeful that Gundren and his brothers may yet bring economy back to Phandalin and keep the little hamlet running for quite some time.
• She also invites Vala to use her herbalism hut anytime she is in town. Vala happily accepts and asks Qelline if she has met Tomlin Helder yet, Vala’s old butler who is staying at the Stonehill Inn
  • Qelline asks if she means the elderly gentleman with the large mustaches and Vala smiles fondly, verifying. Qelline tells Vala that the old man comes and just sits in her flower gardens sometimes. He told her he tinkers a bit with Alchemy. Vala verifies this as well, telling Qelline that Tomlin trained her in the art.
• Vala asks Qelline to give Carp her love and Qelline notes that she hasn’t seen him for a couple days, but that isn’t unlike him. She knows broadly where he’s at, but he has begun to range further and further. He’s also been trying to use a rather large knife. Vala knows this to be the giant-sized dagger Orthanc gave Carp and laughs as Qelline tells her and Mo that the boy can barely get it off the ground, but he talks about it all the time. She fondly notes that he’s a very determined little boy, saying in halfling “a little shit, you may call him.”
• Qelline thanks Mo and Vala warmly for all they’ve done for Phandalin and sends them on their way.

The Phandlin Smithy

• Orthanc commissions a custom Maul from Phandalins resident smith, Smith Smithington. 
  • As Rig walks back to the inn with her stack of smut books, Verna in tow, she calls over to Orthanc telling him to get it riveted like a meat tenderizer since he likes to eat what he kills.
• Orthanc thinks that’s a fantastic idea and commissions the mace with added rivets, paying the Smithy 25 gold and receives Orthanc's Meat Tenderizer.

Phandalin Street

• Walking back to Stonehill Inn from Alderleaf Farm, Mo asks Vala what kind of eye she talked about having in her alchemy supplies. 
• Vala tells him it was a Nothic's eye, casting Prestidigitation to show Mo the horrific creature, telling him that the party met one and slew it at Tresendar Manor.
• Mo’s never heard of such a thing before. Vala tells him that she was raised on horror stories of it, it was a cautionary tale for all wizards, a warning to not reach too far or use magic too powerful. The nothics were all once wizards, but they tried things they shouldn’t have trifled with and were twisted into something monstrous. She quickly assures Mo that she shan’t do the same.
• Vala tells Mo that the Nothic spoke to them telepathically and tried to feed on the emotions of everyone it encountered, with particular interest in the young, whose minds and fears it called “delicious”.
• Mo seems horrified which Vala finds to be a reasonable reaction and she reassures him that it’s dead - they killed it. 
• Vala explains that a Nothic is what happens to wizards when they try magic they shouldn't trifle with, things that are beyond their power. She assures him she shan't.
• Mo says that’s good news.
• She also tells him that Rig promised to kill Vala personally if she ever fell to such a state, which Vala finds to be a true blessing, and she invites Mo to do the same should such a thing occur.
• Mo seems perturbed by the nothic’s method of communication, asking where they found it, and hearing about Vala, Orthanc, Rig, Persi, and Sildar’s trip to Tressandar Manor.
• Vala asks Mo “ Have you ever had something talk to you inside your head?  You seem very averse to it.  If that's not prying too much.”
• Mo says it's fine, then tells her, “Once. But it wasn't scary. I don't know. It was weird. But it wasn’t scary.”
• Vala tells him that’s how prophecy works for her sometimes, then asks if it was at all comforting or just informative. 
• Mo says he doesn’t think he'd say comforting. It was interesting.  And it was [I cannot for the life of me tell what Rin is saying here and neither can the ai transcriber. 1:28:27]
• Vala asks Mo if that’s part of why he’s here and Mo says yeah. Vala simply tells him that she’s glad he’s here and Mo says, somewhat surprised, that he thinks he is too.

Stonehill Inn

• While Rae works on a spellscroll of Augury for Vala in his room at the Stonehill Inn, Sildar knocks on his door asking for a word.
• Sildar enters says I "First I just want to thank you for your steadfastness and vigilance and your obvious willingness to sacrifice yourself to protect the other members of your party. It's something that I don't see done non-performatively by many people in my line of work as a soldier. I have something for you."
• Sildar opens up a small bag and takes out a pair of spiked gauntlets and gives them to Rae, saying "I think you might find these useful. I came about them in kind of a strange way and I feel like for some reason they were meant for me to give to you. These are called Helm's Hands."
  • Helm's Hands: +1 spiked gauntlets. You can cast shield of faith # of times a day equal to your proficiency bonus recharging at dawn. No Concentration.
• Sildar also explains to you that it does not require concentration, as the shield is tethered to the gauntlets themselves.
• Sildar also tells Rae "These were previously owned by an enormously strange acquaintance of mine that I came across several times in my duties as a knight of the Lord's Alliance, a paladin of Tyr named Granthar Hammerhand. No one ever knew if Hammerhand was his actual family name or an honorific that he went by. Frankly, he, as a paladin, either had a very wry sense of humor or was a complete and utter dolt. It was very difficult to determine one way or the other. These were actually not his originally. He got them from a cleric companion of his that was killed in battle and he renamed them The Hands of Tyr. I tried to explain to him the irony that Tyr famously only had one hand and the conversation wasn't very productive. He just said, 'I'm a paladin of Tyr. These are the Hands of Tyr.' I believe they were originally called Helm's Hands. Granthor was a wandering paladin that eventually became obsessed with ridding all of Faerun of Cyric's followers of the mad God Cyric. He came to this conclusion because heard the tale of Helm killing Tyr in a duel and he was offended that such a thing could happen, especially because it was due to trickery by the mad God Cyric. I tried to explain to him that it happened over a century ago and that most followers of Cyric were gone, but he was a paladin and decided that he was going to wipe them out. The last time I saw him, he said that he had learned that the house of Cyric, the one of the main holy houses that still remains for Cyric, is located in Skullport and he was going to single handedly go and wipe it out. I never saw the man again. I believe he's dead, as one day, these gauntlets just appeared in my quarters in Waterdeep. I think the gaunlets are enchanted to teleport away from any evil-aligned beings that end up possessing them."
• Sildar reiterates that he feels he was meant to give them to Rae.
• Rae thanks Sildar, saying "It is an honor to be given these, and I will do everything I can to use them to protect the party.
• Sildar puts his hand on Rae's shoulder and says, "I know that you will, son. I know. I had very little question of that when I gave you the Lord's alliance emblem. And I hope that you can wear it with pride and you make the alliance prouder by wearing these as well."

Early Evening

The Stonehill Inn

• At dinner, Sister Garaele Xil'oama informs the party that Gundren will need some time to gain the energy to have a sustained conversation. 
• The party sleeps.

9 Mirtul, (Day 45)

Morning

Stonehill Inn

• Mo decides to spend the remaining 4 days at the bar of the stonehill inn, where he drinks all day every day.
• The next morning at breakfast, Vala arrives with Slûûp, who is wearing the scarlet tabard she made him and thanking her profusely for it, as it is the first clothing he had ever been given. 
• The party takes their breakfast over to the Bar with Mo where Sluup greets the party, saying he is very happy the masters, both new and old, are alive and well.
  • Sluup corrects himself immediately, saying former masters and Vala echoes it. The former part is important.
• Nonetheless, Sluup tells her he was happy to complete the chores he left her. 
  • Vala exasperatedly tells him that he does not have to do anything, it is his choice, but he doesn’t seem to understand the concept.
• Vala asks Sluup if he’s had alcohol before and he tells her he used to sneak it from his old masters. Vala tells him, “No more sneaking.” and tell him they can go to the bar and order him his own ale to drink while they talk. Sluup is excited to tell everyone of his chores.
• Sluup gives the party the rundown on the three books he read:
  • Gomlee Moonstagg's Journal was the most confusing of the three. 
    • Sluup reports that , much of it is just a recounting of Gomlee Moonstagg's work and travels. 
    • It’s written in an odd, conversational style. Sluup is used to reading histories and things of the sort, and while Gomlee was obviously a letter gentleman, the journal reads like he was either writing it to someone or having an active conversation with someone through the journal. It's very strange to read.
    • It also seems to be either coded or in some sort of cipher. It's very difficult to understand.
    • It's written mostly in common, but switches between languages, including Chondathan, Cormanthan, Druidic and Turmish at random intervals. 
      • Gomlee seems to switch between these languages and use vocabulary and grammar from one language freely into the other. 
    • Sluup also found that some of the entries are magically protected.
      • When trying to magically force his way past the warded passages he gets a message that read:.” Not for your eyes, or at least not yet, you cheeky quid duck bastards.”
        • He doesn’t know what that means.
          • Vala knows that this means someone who is very nosy and looking for gossip/petty information. 
          • Rig does as well.  Rig collects insults in languages she doesn’t even speak.
      • Vala asks Mo if he will eventually speak with Meilu about it and hands him Gomlee’s journal, fully forgetting who she’s talking to for a moment. 
        • Mosley handles the book like he’s not used to it, flipping through the pages and skimming while Sluup continues talking.
      • Vala tells the party that given what Daran Edermath told her about a Gomlee Moonstagg who was famed on the Dragon Coast, the languages make sense. But what doesn’t make sense was the timelines. Daran had told her the Gomlee Moonstagg he knew of couldn’t possibly be the man Vala had known, as Gomlee of the Dragon Coast was from hundreds of years in the past, far too long for human lifespans. 
    • Sluup reads the party Gomlee’s Journal Entry from Spring Equinox, 19 Ches, 1383 DR, Year of the Vindicated Warrior.
      • Vala notes that Gomlee said he has two years to get something done, and Sluup supplies that the spellplague occurred two years later and further notes that the spring equinox is Miellike’s holiday and that’s when Gomlee seemingly returned. 
      • The party mulls this all over and will try to obtain more information about Gomlee while they quest
    • Rig has fully lost interest and takes a handful of ribbons and slips away to braid them into Meilu’s hair.
  • Urmon’s Journal: An Accounting of Phandalin Is mostly just a recounting of The The Wonders of Phandalin, as the party already knows, but Sluup did pull information on the local government structure and found it fascinating enough to share. 
  • Phandalin was in its heyday in the early 900’s
    • It was a fully independent city-state allied with other cities, baronies, duchies, and monarchies in the region, similar to the Lord’s Alliance.
    • One of their major alliances was with Delimberen, the Kingdom of Man, one of the first cities founded by humans in the West. It was known for being cooperative with many gnomes and halflings. 
    • Phandalin itself was modeled after the kingdom of Phalorm, which many consider a failure because it lasted less than 100 years, falling after a series of orc raids and other attacks. 
    • Phandalin was ruled by a council that contained one member of each of the species that signed the pact - humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings.
      • The party assumes that Cragmaw Castle was their stronghold, given the strange mix of pantheons they saw in the shrine there. 
  • The last thing Sluup shares is the contents of Hamund Kost’s Field Journal, an exhaustive recounting of his experiences at the Old Owl Well.
    • Every day starts with an extremely thorough detailing of weather conditions, the meals he prepared and ate, his progress. Every. Single. Thing.
    • As the months drag on, he starts to observe what he believes to be interactions between the zombies, and thinks they were communicating with each other. Then Hamund Kost himself started talking to them and detailing the conversations. 
    • Sluup says that he thinks the man was going a bit stir crazy in his isolation but notes that he was a consummate historian, philosopher and archaeologist. Most of his notes were on the research and the things that he found, how he found them, where he found them, what he thought that they were. 
    • Hammond writes very angrily about other red wizards and Thayans and seems to have been sent to the Old Owl as some kind of punishment, the more powerful Red Wizards of Thay growing annoyed with him and sending him away
    • In the entries after he had found the ring, his notes start to get more excited, saying that he thinks that he's found something important
    • Hammund thinks that the Thayans have underestimated this as an unimportant battle backwater, but he thinks that there's something more important there.  He posits that the old Owl well may be built by the low Netherese (the netherese lacking the status to live in the floating cities) over the remnants of a Netherese city that fell out of the sky during Karsus's folly. 
      • If that's true, there is a Mythalar which is the source of magical power that ran and powered each of those cities buried somewhere deeper beneath the Old Owl well.
    • Hammond also found evidence that the founding of the Old Owl Well’s foundational structure was built in part by the survivors of the fall of Netheril. He writes that the Netherese founded it and that they lived there for over a thousand years after Netheril fell. During that time, the old owl well likely functioned as a castle, governing the land until 300-500 DR.
    • It eventually fell at the same time as Phandalin.
  • Rig comes back to the table, having finished with Meilu's braid and asks about her floor tile. 
    • Sluup tells her that it is an archeological find, but nothing nefarious. 
    • Rig considers whether it would be a better accent floor tile or backsplash tile.
  • Vala tells her it would be a lovely backsplash tile and thanks sluup for all of the research. 
    • Sluup tells her he’s always his pleasure to be chores for a former master.
      • Vala almost corrects him about the chores, but decides that “former master” is a victory and leaves it for another day.
• Vala asks Sluup how his sword training is going and Sluup tells her he barely got to start as The Party called Ser Hallwinter away. 
  • Rig tells him that he should practice with the kid that had the dagger.
  • Vala, horrified that the two tiny untrained swordsmen will harm each other, exclaims, “You mean Carp??”
  • Rig says yeah and that she thinks it’s a great idea. There are two little shits that want to learn how to swordfight and the grownups are busy.
• Mo is still thumbing through a copy of Gomlee’s Journal but now is specifically looking for a mention of Meilu.
  • Meilu is mentioned for the first time after the onset of the spellplague.
  • She’s mentioned more and more as the journal continues, Gomlee clearly bonding with her.
• Vala and Rae mull over the journal passage Sluup read, worried about the mention of “the black hand” knowing it to be Bane.

Afternoon

• The party spends the rest of the day training and resting in Phandalin.
• Rae begins to attune to Helm's Hands, polishing them and putting them on to pray to Helm.
  • While doing so, he is suffused with a divine energy and continues to pray, saying. "Let them help me revere the name of Helm and guide me in harming our foes and protecting the party."
  • Rae feels inspired by the Paladin of Tyr, who was thousands of miles from his homeland but still looking for his god, despite the widespread belief that Helm had been murdered. He sees something of himself and his devotion to Lathandar (and belief that he is not actually dead) in the former owner of Helm's Hands. 
  • When he finishes praying, a beam of light comes through the window, hitting the gauntlets and causing them to glow. 
• Vala and Mo spend a portion of the day making potions and alchemy agents in Qelline's herbalist hut.
• Mo spends the rest of the day at the bar, drinking himself into oblivion. 
• Rig spends all day porch-sittin’ and reading her tall stack of smut book.
• Toblen Stonehill tells Rae a rumor about Pavvaal Borsk, a Fanatical Paladin of Lathander, who attempted to enter the ruins of Leilon with his Party. 

10 Mirtul, (Day 46)

Morning

Stonehill Inn

• Rae gives Vala a scroll of Augury, per their scroll trade arrangement.
• The party spends the rest of the day training and resting in Phandalin.
• Vala and Mo spend a portion of the day making potions and alchemy agents in Qelline's herbalist hut.
• Mo spends the rest of the day at the bar, drinking himself into oblivion. 
• Rig spends all day porch-sittin’ and reading her tall stack of smut book.

Evening

• While eating dinner at the Stonehill Inn, Linene Graywind finds The Party and tells them of arumor  she heard about the brutal murder of King Grol of the Cragmaw Clan, which has shaken the goblins in the region.

11 Mirtul, (Day 47)

Morning

Stonehill Inn

• The party spends the rest of the day training and resting in Phandalin.
• Vala and Mo spend a portion of the day making potions and alchemy agents in Qelline's herbalist hut.
• Mo spends the rest of the day at the bar, drinking himself into oblivion. 
• Rig spends all day porch-sittin’ and reading her tall stack of smut book.
• While shopping at Barthen's Provisions, The Party hears a rumor about a potential Bonanza in Starmetal Hills.

Evening

• Vala takes the Gold statue of a Sun Elf the party found at Cragmaw Castle and tries to commune with it, feeling divination magic within it.
  • She uses it to cast the spell augury for something she feels is profoundly selfish, asking the gods “If I go to Sildar Hallwinters' door in just my cloak and drop it, will he finally stop being so honorable?”
  • She gets the result Weal immediately and does exactly that.
• Vala and Sildar’s two-person going-away party is loud enough that it’s heard in the common room.
• Mo, still sitting at the bar, look up at the ceiling and says “Fuckin finally.” then chugs his ale, and turns to Rae and asking “What do you think, holy man? How do you think that’s gonna work out?”
  • Rae says that he thinks it’s a good way to say goodbye.
  • Verna, on the other hand, is disgusted by the sound of all the fluids, saying “It’s so messy when there’s another person!”

12 Mirtul, (Day 48)

Mid Morning

Stonehill Inn

• The party meets for breakfast at the Stonehill Inn and are joined by Sildar Hallwinter, who informs them that Gundren is awake and has started speaking. Sildar leads them to Gundren’s room at the Stonehill Inn.
  • Mo asks from his perpetual place at the bar if Gundren will want some beer.
    • Sildar says he hasn't known Gundren for long, but he’s sure he would absolutely love a keg of ale or a goblet of ale right now. 
• The Party arrive in Gundren's room to speak with him about Wave Echo Cave, his torture at Cragmaw, and his brothers. 
• The find Gundren still laying in bed convalescing, but awake and aware. He looks at Sildar and says “These are the ones that came for me, then? I must apologize. I don't have much of a memory of my time in captivity. I remember waking up briefly seeing a number of strange faces and then swiftly passing out again.”
  • Rig says maybe someone hit him in the head while they were dragging him away.
• Gundren says he does remember getting hit in the head repeatedly, but by a female drow that was far stronger than any drow had a right to be.
  • Vala and Rae inform Gundren that Vyerith, the “drow” that had been attacking him was not a drow at all, but a skinwalker (aka a doppleganger). 
  • Gundren says he should have guessed. When he was with… we'll call it “her”- she asked him many questions, only some of which he found useful or notable about Wave Echo Cave. She just seemed to be trying to keep Gundren talking and giving small details of his life.
• Vala introduces herself, telling Gundren she’s pleased to see him looking so much better than when she and Verna found him at Cragmaw Castle, when the doppelganger had been trying to stab Gundren with her ritual dagger.
• Rig interrupts to tell him that she thinks the doppelganger was trying to steal his identity. 
  • The party looks at her silently, having already reached that conclusion days ago.
  • Rig says “I'm sorry to interrupt you, Gundren. I thought that was epiphanal.” And Gundren continues.
• Gundren tells the party that Vyerith thought she was the clever one, but Gundren would only give her just enough information to keep himself alive. He knew that at the end, once they had all the information they wanted or felt they needed, that he would be heading to the Halls of Moradin.
• Gundren says “ I can't thank you all enough for saving me and bringing me back here to Phandalin and getting a sister of Tymora to go around and take care of me. And it hurts my soul to have to ask, but I still need your help if you’re willing.”
  • Vala tells him that the party plans to go after his brothers, if that's what he speaks of.
  • Relieved that they plan to go, but worried for his kin, Gundren tells the party that he left his brothers at the entrance of Wave Echo Cave months ago with limited supplies. 
    • Their names are Nundro and Tharden. 
    • Verna immediately vows to bring Gundren's brothers’ bodies back to him.
    • Gundren says that as a dwarf, he’s pretty no-nonsense. He knows they’re likely dead, but in case they’re not…
    • Verna vows to not kill his brothers if they’re not already dead.
  • Vala, attempting to be reassuring, tells Gundren he was assumed dead many times but made it. Perhaps his brothers will be as lucky.
  • Gundren says that he himself thought he was dead many times over.
    • Verna says that sexual torture will do that to you, then turns to the party and says they should all be prepared for it - the drow will sexually torture you.
  • Gundren says “I certainly hope me brothers are still alive, but they've been there for over two months with very limited supplies. And now that Vyerith and presumably the Black Spider know the location, it's almost certain that they've made it there.” 
  • Gundren doesn’t know if his brothers would have fled or hidden but asks the party to bring them back alive if they can, that would mean much to him. 
  • Rockseeker clan is much smaller than it was in the past and they’ll need as many able bodies as they can keep. 
• Gundren says there’s only a few people that know the location of the Forge of Spells and they're Gundren’s partners. The lot of them were planning on starting a mining concern there and trying to bring the riches of the mines to Phandalin.
• Whether or not his brothers are alive, if the party can secure the mine, the entrance to the mine, and the Forge of Spells, he’ll be happy to give each member an equal share in the Rock Seeker Mining Consortium. Which will means they’ll each get regular dividends from the mine as long as it's open, active and profitable.
• Mo tells Gundren stocially that they’ll find his brothers
• Rig asks what kind of metal they mine there. 
  • Gundren tells her that there are many different precious metals that come from the mines. 
  • It was originally opened as a mundane iron mine, but in the heyday of Phandalin, they found that there were deposits of Mithral as well as Starfall ore.
  • The forge of spells is built on a ley line so it has minerals with magical properties, perfect for crafting magical weapons at the forge of spells.
• The other thing that Gundren asks is that while The Party is there, they look for any evidence that you can find that the Rockseeker clan has had a presence there. In the past my clan has passed down stories from the original founding of Phandalin that my great-great-great-grand sire Thren Deep Delver Rockseeker was the warden and chief delve master in the mines.
  • If they can find some proof of his House’s presence in the mines over years, it will strengthen his claim when re tries to reclaim the lands.
  • Without that, there are many nobles from many places could come in and have either real or fabricated documents saying that they have claim to this mine
  • Gundren is hoping to avoid a protracted battle between the Rockseeker Clan and nobles of any other nearby city states.
• Gundren tells them that there are tales of the fall of Phandalin and the destruction and the loss of the mine that the Phandelver Guard (the military of Phandalin) collapsed the entrance to the mine to keep the orc horde that was raiding it from having control of the forge of spells. Gundren’s kin Thraen Rockseeker, would have been in the mine and perhaps dropped the ceilings himself. 
• The Party produces the map they found at Cragmaw and Gundren looks at it, describing a rock outcropping that will point them in the right direction and says it will take about a day’s travel.
• Gundren says he and his brothers didn't get deep into the cave but they heard many strange noises coming from there. 
  • The name Wave Echo Cave is describes a natural phenomenon: at fairly consistent repetitious time these loud booming sounds of what sounds like surf. Waves crashing on a beach. 
  • It echoes from all the way to the entrance of the mine. 
  • Gundren and his brothers heard it immediately when they broke through the wall and found the way in. They also heard a sort of crunching that sounded like crunching of bones, but they didn't venture far in as they needed more supplies and frankly, more manpower to safely map the area.
  • He turns to Mo and says, as a fellow stout folk, there were also smells that came out of there that warned me of impending danger. Not gas, but some sort of fungal smell. 
  • Gundren tells the party he doesn’t know what all they need to be prepared for, but definitely plan for cave-ins.
• Vala tells Gundren that with all the doppelgangers about, his brothers may not trust the party easily and asks if there’s something they could say that would put his brothers at ease and make it clear they were allied with Gundren.
  • Gundren tells Vala to tell them “A Rockseeker ne'er needing be told all that glitters ain't necessarily gold."
• Verna asks if he will make her a sword that talks pretty to her if they get the forge of spells up and running. 
  • Gundren says that will be mighty difficult
  • Verna retorts that getting his mine back is going to be mighty difficult
  • Gunden says not as difficult as making a sentient object, many of those artifacts were made thousands of years ago and the magics that created them have been lost.
  • Verna says that she’s finding the magic all the time, and clearly isn’t going to let it go.
  • Mo tells Gundren to not mind her.
  • Rig asks her if she’s ever met a sentient object before and Verna says yes, telling Rig that the talking sword was very close with her and probably would have chosen her if it didn’t have that pesky genie to go back to.
    • Rig asks why she didn’t just choose that one. 
    • Verna says it seemed extremely dangerous to take that one, so shes going to find her own.
    • Rig asks if it’s as dangerous as clearing out the forge of spells and Verna says more so since she has friends with her here. She’s got holy man, she says, elbowing Rae.
    • Mo tells her he wouldn’t go as far as to say “friends” and when verna seems sad, he assures her that he’s teasing.
  • Mo, oddly, asks Gundren if he heard any music while he was in Wave Echo Cave. 
  • Gundren tells him his brother Tharden tends to sing rather incessantly, but other than that, no.
• Sildar tells the party that as much as he would love to accompany them, he will need to stay and look after Gundren. 
• Sildar also needs to send word to The Lords Alliance to inform them of the situation in Phandalin and possibly get some hired hands to help with protection. They don’t know what kind of power the black spider has, and Sildar thinks he may be liable to attack the town.
• Mo tells Sildar that if the Pary doesn’t pull through, he’s going to need all the help he can get
• Sildar tells them to rest assured that if they all die, he will be there to collect their corpses. 
  • Vala thanks Sildar genuinely, finding that comforting.
• The party decides they’ll leave the next morning and spends the rest of the day preparing.
  • Verna shows Vala the mushrooms Halia gave her, asking if she knows how to make them into poison.
    • Mo warns Vala to definitely not touch the oil
    • Verna says she can probably touch it a little.
    • Vala shows Mo the recipe for lesser healing potion that Qielline had given her along with a mess of weavemoss and rogue morsel in case he wants to make healing potions and he accepts them and does that.
• The party spends one last night in Phanadlin, preparing before Wave Echo Cave

Next Session → Session 025: First Foray into Wave Echo Cave