Session 11 - Timeout in Targos

General Summary

With a moment to breathe at the Blue Clam Tavern in Termalaine, the Party paused to consider a number of competing challenges (Side Quests), among them:

Continuing to pursue Torrga Icevein and her band of bandits (last seen in the Lonelywood area) in search of answers regarding the death of Zanborin's mother;

Potenitally encountering Ravisin, the druid in thrall to Auril, and her awakened beasts in that very same Lonelywood area;

Investigating the Zhentarim prison hidden somewhere in the wooded surrounds of Termalaine, purportedly inhabited by inmates with the temerity to challenge the authority of Naerth Maxildinarr, Speaker of Targos (potentially, including Old Man Gallaway ).

The Party (now including the ghost of Janth in the physical form of a human from Termalaine) decided it best to leave Termalaine and briefly return to Targos, allowing Zarra to recover from her grueling battle with her new acquaintance Klaus Hildegard, and the Party to generally rest and refit for the challenges ahead.
Along the road to Targos, the Party encountered their new friend and mountain guide Garret Velryn, who advised that he was traveling to Kelvin's Cairn with three clients after they first visited and provisioned at Caer-Konig. Garret advised Zanborin that Ma - Ethen Yarbroul urgently needed to speak to him during his next visit to Targos.
The Party was met at the gates of Targos by Speaker Naerth who, having learned of Zarra's public humiliation of his lackey Lt. Skerrin Ristoff in Termalaine, ominiously but vaguely threatened the three adventurers for their "lack of cooperation". The Party split at this point, with Zanborin and Skolas heading to the 3 Flags Sailing Inn to see Ma. Zarra, with the magic-infused scale from the legendary dragon Pyrothraxis the Red clutched tightly in her fist, traveled alone to visit Graendal Granitefist.
Ma quietly confessed to Zanborin that she was, in fact, his maternal aunt. She rather urgently asked if he was in possession of his mother's amulet. Although Ma did not know the amulet's purpose or properties, she shared that his mother was concerned that she was being stalked, and that it was important that Zanborin possess the amulet rather than allowing it to fall into the wrong hands. A shocked and dismayed Zanborin left the conversation emotionally conflicted, and only somewhat comforted by Ma's gift of the Nature's Mantle, a magical item used by her ranger father, Zanborin's own grandfather.
Meanwhile, Zarra engaged Graendal Granitefist to forge a magical improvement to her own battle-axe using the rare fire dragon scale. Following a mystical, fever dream experience induced by Graendal's draught, Zarra awoke on the floor of the forge, having lost any sense of how much time had passed. Graendal dismissed her gruffly, bidding her to return to the Inn and await the completion of his work.
The Party remained in Targos for two days, Zanborin wrestling with Ma's recent revelations, Skolas tossing and turning with the unforgiving nightmares of his past military service, and Zarra tending to her wounds...and chafing to receive word from Graendal.
The word eventually came, and Zarra hurried to the forge. There, the usually stone-faced dwarf greeted Zarra with the merest grin of self-satisfaction and, with glistening eyes, presented her with his gleaming handiwork: a gleaming Dragon Fire Axe, now bearing only passing resemblance to its former self, and awaiting its naming by its master.

Report Date

20 Oct 2024