Previously: Chapter 16: Facing the Black Spider
Leaving Phandalin
Granny wakes in the morning to the sound of people sawing and hammering. Looking over, she can see a group of people working on some cutouts, using paints to color it in, to apparently depict the sun. She wanders over to them, Pip in tow, and inquires as to what they are making. They tell her that the Festival of the Sun is fast approaching, so they want to prepare for the festivities. Excited, Granny runs back to the inn to find the rest, but finds only Penny, who seems to have awoken earlier than normal. She tells her about the upcoming festivities, which makes Penny light up with excitement. Wanting to let the party rest as much as they can, they decide to leave the inn and look around at the preparations instead.
Willowbark is awoken by a cow licking her face, as she fell asleep in their pasture. She gives the cows some well deserved scratches, happy to have woken among them, and then sees Granny and Penny wandering out of the inn, so she goes over to meet them. She tells them about the large group of squirrels she saw last night running towards the woods, remarking how unusual it was, ignorant to the true cause of the event.
When the rest of the party wakes up and goes down to eat breakfast, Penny, Granny and Willowbark return, and join them at their table. Toblen brings over their food, and inquires if they are staying for the festivities. Demetrius tells the others who are unfamiliar with the festival that it is a big deal in his home town of Cantalos, and is usually celebrated with lots of grand parades, flowing wine and beautiful women in the streets. Theren, seeing the faces of those not used to the celebrations, explains that it is a large festival that celebrates the sun and its importance for the world. There are usually games, good food and various kinds of entertainment to enjoy.
The party decide they want to celebrate, but Toblen admits that although there are some fun games held in Phandalin, it’s nothing compared to the one in Maplemere, which is much more grand and better organized than the one they have. The party figures if they’re going to enjoy it, they might as well ENJOY it, so they decide to set out towards Maplemere to partake in the celebration there.
After breakfast, Penny asks Theren if he would be willing to examine the key for her, wanting to know if it is dangerous to be carrying it around. They head to Penny’s room, with Theren sitting down, explaining that he has to touch the item. She reluctantly holds it out, and he touches it with his finger, as he starts doing his incantations to cast the spell. He has a weird feeling by being in contact with it, but after 10 minutes the spell goes off, and he gets an indication of what the key is capable of.
He explains to her, looking a little bit concerned, that she can use the key to charm people, but it requires a sacrifice, either the blood of a creature, willing or unwilling, or it can draw life energy directly from Penny. There are more aspects of the key, but the spell cannot reveal them. He does however get the sense that she shouldn’t travel too far alone, as it might be dangerous, but he doesn’t elaborate, assuring Penny that she’s fine.
As they come back down, Willowbark is in the middle of a lively discussion with Demetrius, and it becomes apparent that she is having a hard time understanding what a festival is or what the point is, with him having difficulties explaining the point in a way that gets through to her, embellishing and exaggerating, and telling it from his point of view as opposed to a more neutral one.
Toblen overhears the party discussing heading over to Maplemere, and gets a sad look, as Penny’s entertainment has brought in a lot of customers over the last weeks. Penny notices this and goes over to him to promise that they’re coming back some time later to play in the tavern again, before they head outside to get their horses.
When they walk towards the stables, they meet Sildar on the way, and he bids them goodbye, thanking them for all the help they have given, and tells them to find him in Elvenroth if they are in the area, saying that his home is there, in a small house on the outside of the walls. Kal stops by the Shrine of Luck and gives a small donation, as well as exchanging some parting words with Sister Garaele, before they depart the town on horseback.
On the Road Again
As the party sets out, they make sure to travel by road, as it is definitely the safer option. Even though the Black Spider has been taken care of, his minions might still roam the countryside, awaiting new orders or learning of his demise, so best to be on the safer side. After a day of travel, pushing their horses to the limit, they manage to get rather far onto the main road leading to Maplemere. As the day draws to a close, they decide to make camp for the night, near the foot of The Iron Hills.
During the night, they decide to play it safe and keep watch in case someone gets too close. On Demetrius’ shift everything seems to be normal at first, until he can suddenly get the chilling feeling of being watched. Looking around, he can see a hooded figure standing a bit away from the campsite, barely visible at the edge of his darkvision. He rises up, and illuminated by the campfire he moves his cloak to the side to show the figure that he is armed, in an attempt to intimidate it to either leave, or at the very least not get closer. It doesn’t seem to do anything, as the figure just stands there, observing.
Feeling unnerved by the presence of the mysterious figure, he quickly tries to wake the party, telling them to wake up as they have a visitor. As soon as the words leave his mouth, the figure suddenly vanishes, leaving him dumbstruck at what happened. The rest of the party cannot see anyone, and so asks if he was dreaming, but he tells them that he is sure that he saw someone. To convince them, he walks over to where the figure was standing, and when Kal comes over with her illuminated mace, they can spot two footprints after someone who was standing there, bare feet.
Theren asks him to tell them exactly what he saw, which Demetrius does. Hearing the description of the figure, Theren remarks that it reminds him of the figure that they saw during their trek to Thundertree the first time, suggesting that someone is keeping tabs on them, or at the very least, checking up on them. As the figure hasn’t attacked or harmed them, they decide to leave it be, but tells everyone to be on alert for their watches in case they return, but the figure remains elusive for the rest of the night.
When they wake up the next morning, as they are eating breakfast, Willowbark remarks that she hasn’t seen any animals in the area for a while. Looking around, she discovers that there has been no animal tracks getting close to the party during the night, which she finds highly unusual. The party theorizes if the presence of the mysterious figure is the cause of this. Penny unconsciously fidgets with the Key while the party theorizes.
On the trek south, Willowbark rides up to Kal, and begins to inquire about why she is so angry with her god. Kal doesn’t really want to answer, but tells her they have different opinions on things. As she has been chosen as a cleric, her god wants her to go on an adventure, but she does not. All she wants is to go home. But as she has a “divine purpose” she has to listen to what her god says. Willowbark then asks Theren about his god and how he works, but Theren replies that he doesn’t follow a god. Willowbark looks puzzled at Theren, before he continues to say that he made a deal with someone.
As he says this, smoke begins to billow out of the ring he carries, and out of the smoke appears a large red skinned man, with jet black hair and eyes glowing like embers. Theren points to the genie, and tells them “I made a deal with that guy”. The genie greets the party and introduces himself as Ranesh, and explains that Theren works for him, and that he is his patron. Willowbark looks on Ranesh in awe, asking if he is a god too then, since he grants Theren powers. The party notices a slight smile on Ranesh, but he continues saying that although he isn’t a god, he is powerful, and grants Theren powers as long as he provides him with information.
Penny approaches Ranesh and shows him the Key they retrieved, asking if he knows anything about it. Taking a closer look at it, he says that it is much older than he is, so he doesn't know a lot about what they are carrying, but he can tell that it is quite powerful, and that she should keep a close eye on it, being careful not to lose it. Granny asks why Ranesh only made a deal with Theren, but he hints that he might have some other deals with other mortals scattered around the world, but refuses to elaborate further. As his wish to introduce himself now has been fulfilled, Ranesh gives the party a bow and vanishes back into the ring.
Theren then explains a bit further about why he has been missing some nights, with Demetrius giving a smug look as if he knows what's coming, and tells them that he likes to sleep in the ring sometimes, for protection. Plus it’s much more comfortable, as he has a large spacious room filled with pleasant pillows that grants him quite the break from sleeping on a bedroll. The party wishes they could enter the ring as well, but Theren explains that he can only bring himself into it.
Willowbark doesn’t understand why everyone has a problem with sleeping outside.
Sir Solomon Bentley
Heading closer to Maplemere and the celebrations at hand, they can suddenly see what appears to be a misplaced nobleman standing by the side of the road, with a beautiful white horse waiting next to him. As the party comes closer, they can see that he notices them noticing him, so he perks up, puts on his biggest smile, and waits for them to get closer.
The party gets up next to him, stops next to him, and waits for him to start speaking. He looks at the party, still grinning like an idiot, before saying introducing himself as Solomon Bentley, and that he is looking for a group of brave adventurers to aid him and his horse Oswald on a courageous mission to take down a mighty and dangerous beast that roams the lands. Having heard rumors of the beast's ferocity, he would love to have it on his wall, and offers to pay a worthwhile amount of gold if they are the group he is looking for.
The party stares down at him from their horses. Granny whispers to Kal that she doesn’t trust this guy, but she whispers back that she thinks he’s telling the truth, but that he’s just eccentric. Granny goes against her judgement as she trusts Kal’s judgment of character. The party inquires about what beast they are talking about here, with him giving a vague description, saying it’s big, long and scaly with large teeth, not a dragon, definitely bigger than a snake, brownish in color, huge, has a big tail, bipedal, and he has not seen it run. If the party is interested he offers them 100 gp for each member who helps him out.
The party thinks about it and discuss among themselves, which understands, and tells them that several groups of adventurers have already come by and rejected his offer, but he has a feeling about this party, seeing true potential in them, not weak bushwackers like the others he has met. Penny decides to try to read his thoughts to get a better read on him, and apparently his confident exterior hides an insecure man who is deathly terrified of the creature he’s describing, and has met it at least once, but his excitement of having the creature on his wall exceeds his fear. Penny starts asking him about Morgan, but he says he hasn’t seen him.
Pushing the party for a decision, he tries to convince them to come with him, and promises that it will be fun. They eventually relent, but make it clear it’s only because of the money, and he excitedly exclaims for the party to follow him, as he mounts his magnificent white horse and leads them due west towards the lair of the beast.
The Beasts
After walking east for about an hour, he tells the party that it’s best that they walk the rest of the way. Doing what he says, they carefully sneak after the knight, coming to a small hillock overlooking some large boulders to the north. As the party peeks over the top, they can see the beast Solomon is talking about. A tyrannosaurus rex is resting in its lair, taking in the midday sun. Looking at Solomon, he just looks back at the party, saying “isn’t it beautiful?”. They glare at him, asking why they are attacking an innocent beast. Solomon assures them that the beast is far from innocent, having eaten several people already. They will be doing the people of the midlands a service by getting rid of it.
Willowbark, seeing this as just a defenseless beast wants to try to talk to it before they just attack it, in the hopes of maybe scaring it away before Solomon gets its hands on it, but the rest of the party is hesitant to allow it, as it would most likely lead to her being eaten by the dinosaur. Willowbark doesn’t listen to the party, and decides to approach it carefully, but stays within range of healing spells if things go bad. As she gets closer, the t-rex notices her presence and gets interested in the disturbance and intrusion to its lair.
Willowbark tries to tell it to please move away to a different spot so that they don’t have to kill it, but what Willowbark doesn’t know is that a t-rex has very low intelligence, so it cannot understand or make sense of her pleas, even though it understands her words. It roars at Willowbark, who, after realizing her mistake, retreats to the party. The dinosaur, now noticing the rest of the party, moves towards them, seeing a delicious meal.
The party does whatever they can to strike back and repel it, but the dinosaur is a fierce enemy, and the roars aren’t just to intimidate, but also to call for help, as suddenly mrs t-rex comes lumbering back from hunting, trapping the party between two large beasts. During the fight, Kal almost gets eaten, but with some well placed spells and some inspiring words from Solomon, they manage to take down both of the terrifying monsters. Granny finishes off the female one with an arrow to the eye, whilst Demetrius strikes the male one with his dagger, slicing its aorta, causing it to bleed out.
A Feeling of Senselessness
Exalted, even after almost dying, Solomon hurriedly runs over to the buck and takes out a large butchering knife, and begins to go to work on the beast. Seeing him in action one realizes that Solomon is a skilled butcher, as he easily separates the head from the body. Happy with the work he has done, he goes to town on the innards of the dinosaur as well, and after a few minutes of slicing and cutting, he eventually throws out a large phallus body part. Granny and Penny both ask if they can take a tooth, and he replies they can do whatever they want with the female, as it is “not as impressive” in his book. Feeling satisfied with his trophy, he throws each of them a small purse, containing 15 platinum each, as a bonus for facing two dinosaurs.
Penny and Granny both go to the female to retrieve their teeth, having to use quite a bit of effort to free them from the jaw. Kal asks Solomon where he lives, but he grows suspicious, asking why she would need to know that. She tries telling him that they might find more creatures for his collection of animal heads and impressive penises. Thinking over her proposal, he reveals that he lives in the Amber District of Elvenroth, and his house shouldn’t be too hard to locate. Granny helps Penny extract a claw as well, thinking that Penny might be able to make a weapon out of it.
Having concluded their business, Solomon calls his horse, and bids the party adieu, before summoning a teleportation circle with the wave of his hand, but Theren notices that he is using a magical ring to cast the spell. Theren tries to examine the circle, but it is too quick for him. Solomon, with head and penis in tow, rides through the circle, and vanishes in a torrent of dark smoke, as the teleportation sends him home.
The mood is somber, as Willowbark goes through her usual routine of flowers and rocks, trying to honor the killing of the two beasts. The party looks down at their reward, thinking to themselves if it was worth it, as it seems that the dinosaurs were living by themselves, a ways away from the road, not harming anyone who didn’t come too close. But what’s done is done, and so the party returns to their horses, and continues on their path to Maplemere.
Reaching Maplemere
After journeying for the rest of the day, the group finally reaches their destination. Demetrius goes straight for the Curious Forge, and is delighted to find that Bamin has already finished crafting his Venomfang Daggers. The dwarf remarks that once he had the first one complete, the second one was much easier to deal with and took about half the time, so they were done just a couple of days ago. Seems the party got here just in time. Demetrius pays the dwarf for his services, and spins his new daggers around his fingers for a few seconds before sheathing them both elegantly.
Penny takes out the hide of the roper they harvested before, asking if he could be able to make some new armor for her. He takes a look at it, testing its tensile strength, and figures it could make fine a leather armor, if he gets some time to work on it, at least a few weeks. He tells her that if she doesn’t come back for it he will be forced to sell it. This isn’t a problem for her, as she promises to come back.
(Spoiler: She never did come back for it)
After everyone else has finished their business with Bamin, she takes out her shield, and asks Bamin if he has any materials to sell so that she can improve the shield she tried to make. He takes a quick look at it, and up at Granny, and is brutally honest, saying this is not very good work. She looks a little defeated, until Bamin says that he can see potential. He brings out some new materials for her to work with, and gives her some pointers on how to do it correctly next time. Granny asks if she could use his forge to try to make it, and after some big innocent eyes from Granny, he obliges, saying she can use it tomorrow. Overjoyed with the opportunity, she pays Bamin extra for the materials, saying she will return the next day.
Wandering through the streets, they see that most people are preparing for the festivities in the coming days. As the rest of the party heads for the inn, Willowbark and Granny take a short walk towards the woods. Crossing the little bridge that goes over the river, they reach the edge of the forest. Granny sits outside, watching over Willowbark as she enters. Willowbark wants to feel her home again, but as she enters it, she gets a bad feeling. The forest feels wrong. Like it is not her home anymore, and feels like she is being watched from the moment she enters. Granny, sitting outside, also feels the tension in the air, and can almost feel a presence, but the feeling is more of a sadness than of a terror. As the firbolg comes back out of the forest, she sits down next to Granny, staring into the seemingly endless woods.
When the rest of the party enters the tavern, Percival is doing some paperwork, and nods to Kal as he looks up. They go up to him, and ask if he has any rooms available, and luckily they have just enough rooms available to provide lodgings for them. Looking around the tavern, it seems to be quite full already, with people probably coming from far away to celebrate the sun. Fie says that he doesn’t need a room, with Demetrius giving him a wink, as they plan to have Theren sleep in the ring while Demetrius watches over it.
When Willowbark and Granny eventually return, they all go to check out the preparations happening in the large field to the west of town. As they walk, they can see several shops preparing for the coming visitors, and in front of them a large tent is being erected in the field, along with several smaller tents to hold various games and gatherings. There is also a large platform being assembled, which looks to be prepared for combat, most likely a tournament of champions. The celebration seems to be a grand one, with much to enjoy.
As the party retreats to their sleeping arrangements, and lay their heads to rest, they all have various dreams, some more intrusive than others. Theren dreams about being caught in a forest during a forest fire, Granny dreams about her meeting with the mysterious woman during her death facing Nezznar, and feels a sense of serenity by knowing what awaits on the other side. Demetrius dreams that he is back in Cantalos, and that the sun suddenly disappeared, spellbinding everyone. Willowbark dreams about finding her tribe dead, after being murdered by a terrifying woman who pounces at her when she notices her.
Penny dreams about coming face to face with her patron, a pale, hollow eyed thin looking man. Penny is exposed in the dream, and is floating in nothingness. As the figure approaches, he eventually towers over her with his imposing size. He looks down at her.
“It’s time.”
He reaches out his hand, and takes out a distinctive twin-bladed dagger, which he uses to cut his palm, and points it at Penny. His blood flows out of the wound, and enters Penny’s body, causing her great pain, but lifting her up and awakening something within her. As she awakens from the dream, she can hear a faint voice saying “These are your first steps…”
Durin Kal’s dream, she isn’t really dreaming. As she lays down to sleep, she can see that right above her bed, there is a rift in reality, which she is pulled into. She faces her god, Udall, who tells her that they need to talk about her attitude. He shows her his shrines, or as he calls them, his places of power. Large pillars on top of mountains high above the clouds. Udall says that she doesn’t understand that what he is doing is in her best interest, as he wants to help her, and that she and her friends have set things in motion that cannot be stopped. Over time Udall will guide her on the path to the places of power that has been corrupted or abandoned, in order for her to make it right again, and he tells her that she cannot hope to do it alone. Sending her back to her room, he tells her not to forget what she is, and what she can become. And just as she is sent back to her bed, she can hear his voice booming inside her mind:
”Your mother and father send their regards.”