Budding Friendships and Trails of Blood Report

General Summary

The party's notoriety and fame skyrockets after their exhibition and victory at the Grand Coliseum of Port Nyanzaru. The Merchant Princess Ekene-Afa is thoroughly impressed and offers our heroes a dangerous and highly lucrative job.   Our brave adventures take a few days of well-deserved rest after their victory in the Grand Coliseum of Port Nyanzaru. While the party is recollecting on their recent exploits, a messenger arrives with an invitation to come have lunch with Princess Ekene-Afa at her palace on the 10th of December. The invitation is accepted, and once again she hosts an outstanding banquet for the Heroes of Chult. During the lunch she congratulates everyone on their outstanding display during the battle at the Grand Coliseum, and the party has a productive conversation about upgrading and repairing their adventuring gear. The Princess demonstrates an increasing fondness for Lord Rhogar and seems to have a bit of a crush on the massive warrior. The party takes great delight in how this seems to make the normally bold Rhogar quite shy and embarrassed.   After lunch is finished, the Princess gets to the point of why the party was invited. She tells them of a diamond mine that was established by her in the jungle, not too far off west, at the base of the Mistcliff Mountains. She tells the party that the mine had only operated briefly before all shipments and communications with it had ceased. She offered them a handsome sum of 2000 gold pieces and a 10% stake in future profits, should the mine still be viable. Her conditions were for them to lead an expedition out to investigate what had happened, and re-secure the mine. After some brief discussion, they agreed to Ekene-Afa’s offer. She informed the party it would take approximately one week to assemble everything for their expedition, and invited them to take advantage of her hospitality until they could depart on the 17th of December. Lord Rhogar inquired if Ekene-Afa had access to an armorsmith with the ability to make him better armor, and she insisted on Lord Rhogar taking advantage of her own personal armorsmith to help craft him a suit of banded mail armor. Metal was exceptionally hard to come by in Chult, but fortunately when the party had returned from Velen, they had industriously purchased a large amount of metal to sell for a profit. With that fortunate coincidence, Princess Ekene-Afa now had a ready stockpile of the needed material. She insisted Lord Rhogar take advantage of her offer, considering that the armor would increase his chance of survival for the upcoming mission and therefore indirectly benefited her. Lord Rhogar accepted and was informed that he needed to visit her palace in the afternoons to be accurately measured and fitted for the complex armor. The party took great delight in teasing our shy dragonborn warrior at potential ulterior motives the Princess might have for his now required daily visits.   During the wait, the party took the opportunity to further explore and get a bit of shopping done. They went and visited the shanty town outside the heavy gates of Port Nyanzaru, while Lord Rhogar visited Ekene-Afa for his armor fittings. They learned the shanty town was referred to as the "Old City'' and that the less fortunate and wealthy were its primary residents. While exploring the Old City, Morgrim hired one of the local boys as a guide to show them around. Their new guide informed them more about the fifteen-foot deep, fifty-foot wide, and two hundred-foot long channel dug right in the middle of Old Town. He informed them it was known as "Executioner's Run", used for regular events for criminals or those desperate for money. The contestants would be placed on one end of the long narrow channel while either wild beasts or vicious undead would be dropped into the middle of the channel. Anyone surviving the run from their starting point to the end of the pit and making it out alive would either be pardoned for their crime or paid an agreed amount for their participation. The party was disgusted to learn this grim practice was almost a weekly event, and highly wagered upon by the local population of Port Nyanzaru. Their guide informed them of a man named Chiwa, who had become a local celebrity by surviving Executioner's Run no less than four times! Morgrim asked to be shown where this man lived, and was led to Chiwa’s house. It was nothing but a very tiny shack. Morgrim knocked on the door, interested in meeting a man who would risk his life on four separate occasions. Chiwa was home and answered the door. He turned out to be a young man most likely in his mid to early twenties. Chiwa was lean and lanky and had many scars on his body. When Morgrim asked him why risked his life in such a reckless fashion, he learned it was for the money to purchase the home he now lived in. Taking pity on Chiwa, Morgrim gifted the man a substantial amount of gold, and told him he should never risk his life for money again. Chiwa was speechless for a moment, and then he could not thank our heroes enough.   The week progressed, and the teasing of Lord Rhogar continued about his visits with Ekene-Afa. They also took the time to better equip themselves for their upcoming journey, acquiring themselves some potions that would help cure their wounds or diseases that they might endure while traveling in the jungle. The party's warlock, Arryn managed to get a fine price for a magical scroll, but was dismayed to find out later that it was not a type of spell that he had access to. The deal in which he had made purchasing the scroll was quite good, and so he hoped to perhaps sell it for a small profit in the future. Lord Rhogar was given the opportunity to meet Ekene-Afa’s husband and her two teenage boys. During the daily visits she and Lord Rhogar had become quite friendly with each other, both sharing the common bond of being warriors. The party was invited to yet another lunch at Ekene-Afa’s on the 14th of December, so that she could discuss their imminent departure, and provide Lord Rhogar with some relief from the party's constant teasing. When Rhogar’s armor was finally finished, he discovered that Ekene-Afa had gone well above what he originally had paid for! His new armor was finely crafted steel bands with a black enamel finish and the edges of the wide strips of metal were covered in gold leaf, looking much like Rhogar’s actual scales as a dragonborn. The mighty warrior was left speechless, and thanked the Princess profusely for the finely crafted armor. She told him that she hoped it served him well for the expedition to come. A few more days went by, and early morning on the 17th of December, the party traveled just outside the gates to meet their guide and the caravan they would be escorting.   The party's guide was an albino dwarf named Musharib. He was very well-versed in the ways of the jungle, and being a dwarf he also knew quite a bit about mining and working in an underground environment. Musharib was of mixed heritage, his mother being from one of the local jungle dwarf tribes, and his father being a duergar that had long ago abandoned the Underdark and had begun a new life in Chult. Musharib had agreed to help the party and be their guide if they would consider providing him assistance after their mission with helping him reclaim Hrakbamar, his ancestral forge and mine that had been taken over by a clan of fire newts. The party informed Musharib that if he would provide his services that they would help him reclaim his ancestral forge. In addition to Musharib, a huge train of people and armored triceratops waited for the party outside the gates of Port Nyanzaru. Princess Ekene-Afa did not seem to want to take any risks with this expedition, and hired eight tribal warriors, ten common laborers, three priests, and four armored triceratops. The dinosaurs were loaded down with heavy looking equipment and dragging behind them sleds capable of traversing across the jungle floor. Our brave heroes and their entourage once again pushed away from civilization and into the wilderness of Chult.   The expedition made slow but steady progress traveling south from Port Nyanzaru on the eastern side of the River Soshenstar. After three days traveling South, the caravan came to a point where the river narrowed enough to attempt a crossing. It took a good part of that day, but before the sun went down everyone and their gear were safely across the river and now on its western bank. They continued south for about another day and a half before finally turning west and heading directly into the jungle. Their progress was slow, but steady. The massive triceratops were not fast, but not much could withstand their enormous strength and power when it came to blazing a trail through the undergrowth of the jungle. The party estimated they were halfway through their journey when they were brutally attacked. Storming out of the jungle, two massive eight-and-a-half-foot tall gorilla-like beings with four arms apiece came charging to attack the caravan. The warriors on the side being attacked bravely stepped forward to put themselves between these massive beasts and the men that they were hired to protect. They thrust their spears deep into the bodies of monsters but were unable to stop the hulking beasts! These horrid abominations were known as girallons, and while they resembled massive four-armed gorillas, they were not natural beings. They were known for being savage, territorial, and eaters of both men and beasts, and their attack upon the brave warriors who had stepped forward was brutal and deadly. Massive clawed fists came tumbling down upon the warriors, crushing skulls and spines like they were twigs. Within a matter of seconds, three of the warriors were smashed into a pulp. A lucky few were only moderately grazed by the girallons, and the priests healed them with their magics. The heroes rushed from the front of the caravan to bring their arms to aid the warriors. One of the monstrosities managed to get past the warrior line and instantly crushed the skull of a common worker cowering near one of the triceratops. Another brave spear-man stepped forward to drive back this monstrosity and was decapitated by the girallon's savage bite. Morgrim arrived at the side of one of these massive creatures and sank his rapier deep into its ribs, eliciting a roar of rage from the beast but failing to slay it. Arryn's faithful scalebeasts had been given to command to attack and began to savage at the now enraged girallon. Lord Rhogar drew out the greatsword that he had acquired in Velen, and stepped forward swinging it with both hands. The mighty blow struck true and the massive blade beheaded it, bringing an end to the beast. Gabriel summoned forth magical bolts of fire, streaking from his hand and scorching into the second girallon’s side. He then summoned a spiritual armored fist to appear next to the creature, and punched it squarely in the chest. The surviving warriors rallied around our heroes, thrusting their spears at the girallon wherever an opening presented itself. Morgrim used this opportunity to position himself behind the monster and thrust his rapier directly between the creature’s ribs and into its heart, finally bringing the raging beast to its death. As an unnatural quiet settled, our heroes assessed the damage. Six smashed and dead members of the caravan lie dead on the jungle floor. Three of the brave warriors had given their lives executing their duty, and three of the workers escorting the triceratops and their gear had been killed. The priests healed those who had been wounded but had survived the attack, and the party made camp early that day. They discussed if enough manpower remained for them to successfully accomplish their goal at the mine, and decided that while the losses were terrible, their mission was still achievable. The dead were buried and the party and the caravan continued west. Morgrim pondered if the two savage girallons had been the cause of the mine's initial failure, and after talking with Musharib they learned girallons are very territorial, and that might have been a possibility.   The smaller but still determined caravan continued to push west towards the Mistcliff Mountains and the entrance to the mine. Led by Musharib, they arrived at the mine entrance on the 26th of December. The tired group found their second wind after reaching their goal. The surviving warriors quickly set up a perimeter guard as the workers detached the sleds and heavy equipment carried through the jungle for the last 10 days. The senior surviving warrior came to talk to the party, explaining they had brought a set of heavy doors to secure the entryway of the mine. The workers had enough axes, ropes, and materials to set up a palisade with some towers that would be built with the surrounding trees and jungle materials amply provided. After the triceratops had all of their gear and equipment removed, additional armor plates were added to them. The three priests mounted them as mighty war beasts to safeguard the camp while the fourth triceratops was ridden by one of the commoners familiar with the controlling of such a massive creature. The party was informed the plan was to secure the entryway to the mine with the doors that they had brought along, two massive wooden and steel slabs with hinges designed to be hammered into the side of the mountain. The adventures would enter the mine, and then the doors would be hammered in place. This would ensure the remaining members of the caravan would not be attacked by anything inside the mine our heroes might flush out. When they were ready to exit, they were to knock a special code upon the door, and those outside would unlock and open the heavy doors to let them out. The party prepared themselves, looking into the foreboding dark entrance that had cost so many lives to reach, and with torches and magical lights readied, stepped into the mine.

Rewards Granted

675XP Each