Session 8: BLACK HELM TOWER

• The group reconnoiters at the Gooseberry Inn. Searos is accompanied by a new lizard friend named Quagask. Paws manages to refocus her dilated pupils away from Quagask and discusses her conversation with Ashen Tamoor and his evaluation of her “opal”. The party discusses next steps and sets their course.

• Vic consecrates a bottle of water, conscripted from Kas’s beer brewing while Paws and Searos each nap and Harvey prepares the mules. Kas arranges for a courier to send a small package consisting of two letters, an unopened bottle of Valon’s Valor, and a sum of gold to Droop at Raven’s Call in Phandalin. The party opts to decline Roallet’s offer of assistance with Black Helm Tower and departs with their personal caravan by mid-afternoon.

• During the hours-long journey, Kas makes some no-bake energy bars while she listens to Paws tell Vic about their past adventures. Paws includes details about Kas’s previous state, their mission to fill in the blanks of A Deep and Creeping Darkness, and their brush with news of a strange cult of Myrkul through a young convert, Pel. Vic shares that his superiors also registered the cult of Myrkul as a growing concern.

• As night continues to fall and deepen, the weather grows worse, as an early snow begins to fall and accumulate. Their passage isn’t significantly hampered with Harvey helming the group’s small caravan. Past midnight, the party makes camp at a safe distance from the tower. As they discuss strategy, Harvey scouts the tower and its collection of ruined outbuildings, the contents of which suggest a tiny, self-sufficient community that once supported the tower. Black Helm Tower itself appears seamless, its door ageless, the guardian statue motionless. Harvey cracks the unlocked door a few inches to catch a view of a well-kept drawing room.

• When Harvey returns, his companions are working through how they feel about possibly making neutral contact with whatever entities may reside in the tower. All make their way up to the tower following Harvey’s report and are met with a door, which Harvey left open moments ago, newly closed. The statue’s unresponsive form earns it several solid swings from Vic’s hammer and Paws’s claws, damaging it heavily. A mighty swing from Vic’s hammer causes a chunk of rock to knock the door wide open.

• The specter that dispatched an unaided Vic just two nights prior looms forth, its distended gaping jaw a black well of fear to which some of the party succumb, terror-stricken. Paws, poised for action, sends ki-shining fists through the spirit’s clotted darkness, diminishing it with every hit. Its eyeless sockets burn with cold fury as it moves to take refuge in the broken statue. Paws reacts with practiced awareness: her final punches dissipate the eidolon just before it reaches safety. As the wails of the spirit dissolve into the snowy night, the door to Black Helm Tower stands open.

******** (speaking of death) an old friend was interested in toying with life and death. had an interest in a person named merkel. had a coin. i brought him. my fault.

200-300g for Droop

I want to write Droop a letter that I'm alive, very lightly whats the valon situation, where to send me back a letter and send him gold for the town/bar/manor

and ofc, the latest recipe for Valon's Valor (prunes ofc being the secret ingredient)

With the seaways closed for the season (barring extreme circumstance), your main option right now is hiring an independent courier. One of the two districts you haven't explored yet in Daggerford is the Caravan Grounds, the center for overland transportation and you can easily find a courier here that could take the gold (which amounts to 6 or 7 lbs of weight) and light materials like letters. Uninterrupted, you could expect them to arrive in 2 weeks.

lolol so i will put candelkeep as my return address. Is that even allowed?

For cost, you can find two tiers of courier, effectively basic or premium. A cheaper courier may take more time, may be less experienced, or run into issues they cant handle, compromising the cargo. A pricier courier has a greater chance of arriving on time and handling problems on the road. The rates are 2sp/day and 2gp/day respectively and they require payment up front

you have a lot of trade goods in the Dock District warehouses from your river adventure

you could alternatively hire a caravan and send everything at once

that would mean more hirelings, a slower speed, and a little more risk, but its an option

Solution! My premium courier plan letting him know all I wanted plus the incoming caravan (plus a bottle)

1/2pm. bless for 22 hours left.

searos gets a fire lizard. quagask

paws wants to eat it.

Kas doesn't want to be responsible for Ned's death.

need some holy water. vic blesses the water in the beer bottle.

1 hour of casting.

COURRIER.

walk the sunlite path, seek the guidance of lanthadarr, vic could bless us.

https://beerrecipes.org/Recipe/470/klingon-stout.html

Ingredients:

6.6 lb dark malt extract syrup

1 lb crushed crystal malt

1/2 lb black patent malt

1/3 lb roasted barley

1.5 oz Phandelver Brewers hops--

(boil 60 min.)

2 quarts Phandalin prune juice

ale yeast

3/4 c. corn sugar to prime

Dear Droop,

I'm alive.

the latest recipe for Valon's Valor (prunes ofc being the secret ingredient)

send back a letter to candlekeep.

+ bottle.

300g +30g tip

pick up letter in daggerford. will wait for me here at the courier. Raven's call.

Dear Droop,

I'm alive. Valon saved me.

But the cost was too high and he is missing.

But I'll find him! I swear. It will be a bit before we can come home

but I won't come home without him.

I'm sending you this letter to ask you to please keep taking care of the

Raven's Call for now.

I've enclosed some money to help with both the Bar and the Manor.

I'm also sending you my latest recipe for Valon's Valor

(prunes of course being the secret ingredient) .

Please see if you can start brewing this as a special at the bar.

Enclosed is a bottle of Valon's Valor for testing.

If you want to send back a letter, send it to Daggerford with the courier I've sent.

There were possibly be an incoming caravan of trade goods to keep for us.

I look forward to seeing you again soon Droop.

Thank you,

Kas

3pm head out.

will be arriving at night but alittle light due to elevation.

vic ready his horse.

krik and krak and teh wagons.

after a few hours the road branches.

vic and paws chat with everyother. merkul.

paws explains an old friend was interested in toying with life and death. had an interest in a person named merkel. had a coin. i brought him. my fault.

osveldt

merkul/lanthandar two sides of a coin.

coin melted and buried with Pel. vic feels worried.

more reasrech in candlekeep.

heavy road, darker, snow. heavier and heavier. starts to hamper the journey.

good job harvey leading the caravans.

granola no energy bar. treat. Harvey, Osveldt, Paws. SORRY SEAROS> I OWE YOU.

make it to the tower,

osveldt offers to protect the mules and horses. 600ft away.

this is it.

this creature is trying to protect something.

MAGE ARMOR. 15AC

paws and vic up front.

maybe we just need to talk to it? Paws did a great job with the wisps. i'll hide behind her. pocket healer.

BLESS

Kas would liek to be closish to the creature. she wants to talk to it.

don't eat teh lizard.

Kas has a lizard on her shoulder.

stay behind.

we all dsicuss how to approach. destroyt eh statue. talk? knock on the door?

humanoid figure next to the door.

Kas pats osvedlt with a light spell.

the statue. is minus the book and one of it's hands. it has not changed positions since last seen.

100feet away.

harvey steals up

searos gives harvey arrows.

good for 1 hour, 12 shots. searos concentration.

harvey opens the door a tiny bit. shadows of furniture. a sitting room

self succifient coomunbity. structures around in sharp contrast to the tower. all ruined buildings.

Harvey expressed himself in Auran because it's easier to explain.

the tower is nice. door is in perfect condition. looks easy peasy.

me sneaky, no die.

door left cracked open.

we get up and the door is closed now.

doorbell sound with prestidigitation. she wants to talk.

Vic will smash the statue at the same time.

Paws attacks it too.

kas doesn't want to hit the statue. wants to knock on the door.

4 levels. windows on each. window arrow slits.

vic attackes the statue one more time.SHatter the shoulder.

chunks rain onto the door and the door swings open.

from out of the darkness, a familiar visge. skeletal. point of piercing blue eyes. peircing veil

primal dread latches onto my heart. adrenaline pumping. FRIGHTENED> dash and move away. at the start of each turn. saving throw at the end of each turn.

A frightened creature has disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls while the source of its fear is within line of sight.
The creature can't willingly move closer to the source of its fear.

Paws just destroyed the spirit in one take.

Osvedlt, is this the thing that killed you?? not bitchy, just truly curious.

we see a drawing room and plush furniture and chandeler in the tower. finely worked tile floor.

vic wants to have a fire cat.