Quid Pro Quo

General Summary

Following up on the note found by Felton about the Painted Man, the party spent a few days in Merylsward to prep for the next leg of their journey. After several rousing performances by Alice (who also found a new friend in a barmaid named Lacie) at the Purple Ostrich, the party met the dapper Goblin, Viggo. Viggo introduced himself as a retainer of the Painted Man and offered to make the introduction. Viggo warned, however, that any aid from his mysterious master came with a price.
The Painted Price.
On their way out of town in Viggo's strange mechanical carriage, the party witnessed a crowd forming around an unfortunate murder victim and stopped to investigate. Alton recognized the dead halfling as his friend from House Ghallanda. Before she died, the halfling had suffered severe violence at the hands of her murderer(s?). And perchance the message had not been received, a crude note of warning had been nailed to the young halfling's chest.
At the Black Lotus Alchemy shop, the party met The Painted Man, an obese though oddly agile bald man dressed in an exquisite silk robe and perfumed with an intoxicating aroma of jasmine and lavender.
After exchanging pleasantries, the Painted Man agreed to provide the party with information on where their quarry could be found. But first, the group had to agree to retrieve something of import. An inert Warforged Colossus left to rot on the Droaam, the Hag Realm side of the Byeshk Mountains still retained its power source, a Khyber dragonshard. Should the dragonshard fall into the wrong hands or should the Hag rulers of Droaam learn how to activate the colossus, chaos and pain would follow. The Painted Man tasked the group to retrieve the shard and return it to him.
Tapping into the carriage's strange powers, Viggo flew the party over the vast distance and the sharp peaks of the Byeshk to land them on the parched Droaam wasteland within site of the ruined Cazhaak Draal and the silent colossus.

Report Date

09 Oct 2021