Session 3 - Finding Ava
General Summary
The story begins on Jundalph the evening of the 9th. This session spans until the 12th, the day before the Icewane Spring Festival.
The evening starts with the group interrupted over the sudden change of the comrade Aeric. After drinking from various vessels (a giant red hat and other cups), Aeric locked up with his body completely motionless and eyes wide. Bloodshot, his eyes experienced more than his glassy look let on. Crefalo was immediately concerned about his friend and began examining him discretely as to not raise any suspicion. He was able to determine from the symptoms that Aeric was displaying he had been exposed to Devil’s Root. Devil’s Root is a black root that is ground up and ingested internally. The user blacks out and sees visions of hell. Sometimes, these visions allow the user to see into the future.
Crefalo was knowledgeable enough to understand that his friend would eventually come out of it, and didn’t take any other action, as there was none available at the time. Kyros determined to it was the best time to practice is calligraphy on Aeric’s face during this time.
After some time, Aeric eventually came out of it. Despite pressing from the group about what happened, Aeric decided to keep to himself. Also, noticing the artistic stylings of Kyros, he used his magic to clean himself up. This washed away his disguise as well, but thankfully this went unnoticed through the rest of the night.
When Crefalo was satisfied that his friend was on the mend, he went to speak with Patroklos regarding the pan flute and its missing piece. Patroklos was forward about how the pan flute came to the inn and that it was actually the 2nd flute that hung above the bar. He maintained that his brother Polycarpios brought it home one day and since that point, the inn has seen a boon in business. Upon further inspection, the pan flute did seem to have symbols etched all over the instrument.
Around this time, a previously unknown man stumbled to the bar. Loudly announcing that they (people near by?) didn’t know anything about pan flutes and that one was bull. He started to climb the bar to get the flute to play it but thought otherwise at that point.
Patroklos somehow divined that Crefalo had the missing piece of the pan flute and asked if he would be willing to return it. Crefalo agreed, and Patroklos was very grateful. So much so, he sent his sister, Alexia, to serve the table a free round of drinks and food since Polycarpios had decided to leave. Crefalo invited the eccentric man at the bar back to their table.
Alexia begrudgingly brought what was requested to the table. When she arrived, she realized that Kyros was a half-elf. Disgusted by the half-breed she spat in his drink before serving it. Making of the best of it, he brazenly took a drink of the ale as Alexia stormed off.
The bard, currently known as The Dude, decided to start playing some music to liven the atmosphere. Despite the smaller crowd, the Dude’s playing was fantastic, raising the overall jovial nature of the inn that night. Drinks flowed and pipes were smoked more freely and the night finished up. Not before of course, Kyros switching his drink with Aeric’s (who was still recovering from the Devil Root).
The group woke the next morning with Elidi remaining in her room to recover from the previous days outing. The rest of the group decided to have breakfast at the inn and decided to head out after divvying up their current gold and spoils. It was hard to not notice the apparent abuse one of the elves that served the group was more prominent that morning.
Despite the cutting wind outside the group ventured out to find The Dude on the bench outside the Inn. He was quietly watching the road and goings on. They saw riders, two of Demoarchos Neophytos’ guard leave the city quickly.
Crefalo and Gavin saw what seemed to be a heated debate between Demoarchos and Ceolmund (Ceo) Eadburg (the priest of Pelor assigned to Maccion). They decided to try to approach the two who were standing in front of the government building/barracks.
As they approached, they began to make out what was being said. Ceo was pleading with Neophytos to send a search party out for a female friend of his Ava. She was recently sent north to the Red Fort and had gone missing. While she is not a full-fledged woman of Pelor, she did go with another man of the cloth. It was rare that they hadn’t returned. Neophytos was not willing to spare the men to go look for her at the time, as his other men were sent off to follow other orders.
The Dude had made his way down with Kyros about the time Neophytos left the conversation and went back to his office. After a stuttering plea with the adventurers, and some convincing from The Dude, Ceo was convinced to ‘review his coffers’ to find the necessary funds to support the expedition to find Ava. He agreed to 75gp each upon her return.
Before heading out, the group realized that they didn’t ask what Ava looked like…they then went to find Ceo to get more information. Ceo, distressed at this point of the professional level of his appointed search party, began to lose faith. The Dude stepped in and with a combination of smooth words and smoother Halfling Weed calmed Ceo down and got the necessary information from him. Ceo described her as a young woman with long black hair and simple garments. She would have a symbol of Pelor with her.
The group set out that day against driving winds to find Ava by traveling north. Through expert tracking Gavin was able to identify specific mint herbs stems commonly chewed by priests of Pelor. By following this trail, they were able to determine that Ava and her accompanying priest took the path over the river and into the woods, not north toward the Red Fort. More peculiar was there was no sign of struggle when they changed course.
During the night, the group decided to take shifts. That night, despite the lookouts, a steeder spider was able to sneak up to the part. Identifying the donkey as the easiest target, it was able to jump and strike the donkey dead with one swift move. After that it leapt away from the group while holding onto the donkey for a delicious meal.
Aeric, incensed with the death of Don-key brought down the fury of his magic, and with the assistance of his team, brought down the spider as a means of retaliation. The rest of the night continued without event.
The next day, the group continued north as a result of both the trail that Gavin had picked up on and the hut that was on the map that they recovered during their last encounter with the goblins. As they moved forward, they stumbled across a goblin encampment. The goblin guards, wearing blue arm bands, with bulging eyes and red teeth, immediately noticed the group. Before unleashing their worgs, a singular goblin moved up next to the guards.
Dressed in jester clothing, tattered and taunt, he cackled through a carved smile across its face. Sporting accented red garments, he demanded what the group was doing there, he didn’t wait long for an answer. Immediately bashing in one of the guard’s head he looked at the other guard who began to laugh uncomfortably at the display of his fallen comrade. Turning back to the group, this jester cast confusion, causing two members, Gavin and Kyros unable to focus on the task at hand.
At this point, the goblins began to engage the group from two snipers in the trees and loosing their wargs to attack. Seemingly due to the mockery of The Jester, the battle was hard fought, with every inch a battle. Even critical strikes such as direct hit to The Jesters chest, which would fell any goblin was met with laughter. It was during this time Aeric was felled by arrow fire.
Eventually, the goblin line broke, and charging forward, Gavin and Crefalo both fell victim to bear traps. Undaunted, the group pushed forward, with Aeric, being revived struck down the Jester goblin. Seeming to welcome his fate, his arms outstretched, he fell to the ground dead. The end of the battle was then punctuated by Gavin nailing a goblin to the door to the entrance of the goblin cave.
The adventurers had a moment to gather their breath and took in their surroundings at this point. In the clearing past the traps, there was an opening in the woods that had a fire pit, crates and a hanging cage with a woman in that cage.
Before any further action however, from behind the crates, out stepped another Jester. This one, dressed in blue accented garments, slowly moved forward while carving a smile on his face. Cackling, he stated, “That was some fun…Now, how can I help you?”
Rewards Granted
150 XP
Character(s) interacted with
Patroklos Aguila
Polycarpios Aguila
Alexia Aquila
Celmund Eadburg
Demoarchos Neophytos
The Jester
Report Date
03 Oct 2019
Primary Location
