The older of the two Thaig brothers, Bertrand is obsessed somewhat unhealthily with his family's history. He claims to have found ancient records indicating his ancestors were dwarven nobility, though these are apparently secondhand accounts that are unable to be officially confirmed. Seeking to restore the Thaig family to its former glory, Bertrand has funded an expedition into the
Underdark to find his ancestors lost holdings and proof that his family is of noble blood.
Table of Contents
Welcome to Haven City Arc
Recruiting for the Expedition
To hire help, Bertrand rented an office in
Haven City's Hightown and received so many applicants he was forced to interview them in groups. One such group consisted of
Elycia Mirais,
Jake F. Statefarm,
"K" the Bugbear,
Leh'ct, and
Vinnie Vice, each of whom seemed to have skills that would contribute to the expedition. Unknown to Bertrand, his brother
Ernest provided the group with an additional test and offered to make them equal partners in the expedition due to Bertrand spending more money than they had due to his mix of inexperience and overenthusiasm.
After their misadventure in the demiplane of
Pompolius the Powerful,
Elycia and
Vinnie recovered to hear
Ernest arguing with Bertrand. He was saying that the
Underdark would be at least as dangerous as what these adventurers had just been through, which is why he wanted to hire seasoned people instead of taking along whoever.
Itassis scolded both brothers for continuing to argue when the injured adventurers presented a more pressing matter and they moved their argument outside.
Flight from Haven City
Bertrand was a equal parts nervous and out of his depth when the adventurers his brothers had been working with showed up in their warehouse the day before the expedition injured and exhausted. The adventurers, namely
Leh'ct, had offended
the Crows leader
Marchioness Eve and the crime syndicate was out for blood. Though he was suddenly afraid, very afraid, Bertrand's good heart won out and he told the other expedition members that they'd made a contract to take these adventurers with them and were bound to honor it. Seeing as they now needed to get out of town ASAP,
Villamax was able to teleport the group to a rendezvous point where they would meet the guide who would take them to the
Underdark entrance. Unfortunately, his spell could not bring the pack animals or the supplies they were meant to carry as well, forcing the expedition to leave much of their supplies behind before their journey had even started.
Journey Into the Underdark Arc
Entering the Underdark
Bertrand had always thought he'd be excited when his journey to find his ancestral homeland truly began, but he couldn't shake the uneasiness of having indirectly made an enemy of
the Crows. He remained withdrawn for the early parts of the journey, letting his brother take the lead in decision making as they descended into the
Underdark while hoping
the Crows weren't behind them.
After the tunnel was safely collapsed, they met the forward party at the bottom of the deep pit to get a sit rep about what they'd found while scouting. After resting up a bit, they kept moving forward onto the
Silken Paths where Bertrand remained with the rear party. When they were attacked by both giant spiders and
darkmantles, Bertrand could do little more than stay out of the way (and cower) while the warriors surrounding him did their work.
Sunny, having noticed the explosions from
Villamax's fireballs, arrived shortly afterwards and provided fire support as they finished the monsters off.
This experience seemed to shake Ernest, who was not used to this level of danger and violence. He requested
Sunny send
Jake back to him to talk. Ernest, still shaken, asked
Jake if this sort of thing was normal.
Jake, not one to sugarcoat things, very matter-of-factly said that this was nothing and questioned whether Ernest was cut out for this expedition. This made Ernest nervous enough that he scarcely noticed when
Bertrand moved
Jake away to talk privately.
Errands at the Deep Spire
When the Thaig Expedition arrived at the
Deep Spire, Bertrand spent much of their weeks there talking to traders and locals to find out all he could about their path ahead. He confirmed the name of the city they were looking, Auldbaern, and not long after the adventurers of the expedition confirmed that what was once Auldbaern was now the drow city of
Vlyn'darastyl. Ernest refocused his efforts on learning all he could about the drow city, including try to figure out a plan on how to get in and out alive and unchained.
When most of the adventurers went off to
Charwell Fortress,
Leh'ct behind and came to Bertrand asking if there was any prep work he could assist with before the Expedition moved on from the
Deep Spire. Bertrand told him there was a local drow named
Sain who was not a member of
House Vaerixas and originally hailed from
Vlyn'darastyl. Bertrand thought the man might have useful information about the city but he hadn't wanted to discuss the issue with him. Thinking a fellow drow might have better luck, he sent
Leh'ct to give it a shot instead.
Leh'ct returned shortly thereafter, informing Bertrand that they were all but guaranteed to be unwelcome in
Vlyn'darastyl and that the drow were unlikely to have preserved any of the city's original history. Bertrand seemed confident that anything his ancestors considered worth hiding would still be safely hidden there, findable only by a dwarf or someone with
Moradin's blessing. As for actually being in
Vlyn'darastyl, Bertrand started pondering about how to pull that off while mumbling he had time to figure it out thanks to
Mott.
Leh'ct, remembering the last incident when
Mott was left unattended, cautiously asked what had happened. Since the Expedition had made little use of
the Grinning Widow,
Mott had taken it upon himself to rent out its services to
Gobo and assist the goblin merchant with a job he got catering the
Conclave of the Fleet. Needing something else to occupy himself now,
Leh'ct went to find
Mott and offer to assist him.
Welcoming Ban
Later that afternoon, Bertrand was having lunch with
Ernest and
Leh'ct when
Jake and
Elycia returned alongside a different-looking
Sunny. Come to find out this was not
Sunny but rather his brother
Ban. The adventurers had been ambushed by bounty hunters led by
"Black Hand" Kelly and
Sunny was "killed" in the process. Except he wasn't, because
Sunny had been a hamster piloting a construct rather than a warforged the whole time and managed to eject from his self-destructing
Gundam.
Though still alive,
Sunny was badly injured and had to return home for medical treatment.
Ban stated he'd be following the party around, both to finish hunting down the
Light Gundam (which
Ban clarified was a construct that had kidnapped his brother
Haz rather than
Haz himself as
Sunny had previously insinuated) and get a shot at the bounty hunters who'd injured his brother. Bertrand sealed the deal by shaking hands with
Ban (
Ban using both paws while Bertrand used just a pinky).
With that settled, the adventurers were ready to get moving before
Lord Varl started to make war with
Brazenthrone. Unfortunately,
Ernest informed them they'd have to wait because
Mott had taken it upon himself to hire
the Grinning Widow's services out to
Gobo.
The goblin merchant had talked his way into catering for the
Conclave of the Fleet and needed a ship to get all the food there. After the group decided to see if
Gobo would hire them on too so that they could keep an eye on the ship,
Elycia suggested the rest of the expedition come along so they could try to sail ahead of the
Tideborne Tribe's war fleet. Unfortunately, this wasn't an option as
Villamax and
Itassis had gone off somewhere and would be returning to the
Spire after their business was concluded. They had no way to tell the pair to meet them somewhere else. For now, the advance party would have to settle for traveling with
Gobo (who hired them as bodyguards from pirates and sea monsters for 200gp each).
The City of Brazenthrone
Preparing for Departure
Weeks later, the advance party sat down with Bertrand and the rest of the expedition to go over what they'd been up to while caught up in local events. Among other things, they'd discovered (or rather, been led to by
Mother Moth) the
Lost Catacombs of Auldbaern and found stone tablets detailing the Thaig family history. Bertrand was able to translate the ancient dwarven text; though it appeared to confirm what he wanted to know, he was disappointed to find the document was not notarized. However, he seemed to think that if this document survived for so long that a notarized version may have as well.
To continue their quest, the expedition would need to pass through
Brazenthrone. While willing to go, the Thaig brothers were uncertain how the duergar there would welcome a pair of surface dwarves like themselves. This was apparently something that
Villamax had been mulling over as well and he stepped over by the brothers and plopped a
Hat of Disguise on each of them to make them look like duergar. Though he did also warn them that these disguises would only take them so far, as the illusion would do nothing to hide their accents or let them copy local mannerisms.
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