Session 1, Character Creation - 4/24/21
Berkley - Adriel, Sareth, Khal, Caldor
Session 2, Curious Kobolds - 5/1/21
Berkley - Adriel, Sareth, Khal, Caldor
The adventurers meet at the Adventurers Guild in Lasont and are assigned their first quest by Takerra, an Adventurers Guild officer. They travel east to the towns of Ryn, Etholur, and Deltholur to investigate a series of peculiar thefts. Before meeting Tryp Goodfellow, the mayor of Etholur and their quest point of contact, they encounter a blue dragonborn in a tavern in Bettle. The adventurers overhear that the dragonborn has just come from Ribek after purchasing dragon’s blood, a spell component used in powerful ritual magics. They attempt to follow the dragonborn, but only learn that he traveled north from Bettle. Continuing from Bettle, the adventurers meet with mayor Goodfellow, talk to craftspeople who were stolen from, and hit up a renowned aviary east of Etholur. By piecing together information from these encounters, the adventurers deduce that the dragonborn and a group of kobolds are intending to summon a powerful necromantic dragon somewhere in the Brothers, a group of two mountains to the west of Etholur. They also learn from Takerra through the book of far speech that such rituals must be performed under a new moon, which is only two nights away! The adventurers head west to thwart the ritual and encounter a baby ankheg and kobold hunting party along the way. A survivor of the kobold hunting party tells them the proximate location of the ritual cave. After resting to regain their strength, the adventurers enter the cave and defeat Tokelterain and his allies.
Session 3, The Lost Library - 5/8/21
Hales - Adriel, Khal, Benoweth, Caldor, Sareth
At the suggestion of Takerra, the adventurers start out by meeting a few shopkeeper NPCs in Lasont: Bobert the gnomish potions master, Narisha the deaf dwarven smithy, and Zinfandel the magician. Zinfandel, the red-wine-drinking, silver-eyed, elven wizard, also happens to be the adventurers’ quest point of contact. He requests them to fetch a powerful book (“On the Harnessing of Draconic Power”) from a forgotten library a few days travel southeast of Lasont. He also gives them a purple gemstone ward that allows them to enter the premises. On the travel southward they meet another adventuring party headed by the dwarf Grimmel who were also summoned by Zinfandel. Grimmel’s task from the wizard, he shares, is to recover several dragon bones from the illusion-guarded remains of a red dragon lair to the southwest of Lasont. After staying in the town of Nelfell for a night and defeating a gnoll scouting party, the adventurers arrive at the location of the library entrance. After overcoming a mephit combat and a few tricky puzzles, the adventurers enter the library and find a sleeping blue dragon within! They awaken the dragon and discover (fortunately!) that the dragon was an illusion produced by a (significantly less menacing) faerie dragon. The faerie dragon gives Khal his warlock pact tome and Benoweth eventually finds the powerful book that Zinfandel requested. Benoweth is also given a book by the faerie dragon called “Transferral.” With some prompting from the faerie dragon, Benoweth realizes that on that fateful night 10 years ago, his sister transferred her powers to him, and in doing so sacrificed herself. The adventurers also note that the faerie dragon has used the powerful wards of the library to protect a large red dragon fang. The adventurers correctly determine that this dragon fang is part of the remains that Grimmel’s party was sent to recover. Being skeptical of Zinfandel’s motives, the adventurers decide to leave the tooth untouched in the library. On the way back to Lasont, the adventurers notice smoke coming from the city, which they later learn was caused by a fire in the military district. That evening, after giving Zinfandel the book he requested and collecting their reward, the adventurers all feel a chill run down their spines, hear an unearthly howl from above the city, and see an amorphous shadow fly above the city and dart southward.
Session 3, Conflict at the Wyda Gorge - 6/25/21
Hales - Adriel, Corvus, Khal, Caldor, Benoweth
The adventurers convene in Takerra’s office a week after the events of the Lost Library, ready to take on another quest. In Takerra’s office in the heart of the Lasont Adventurers Guild the party learns about the next quest they are to take on. Takerra explains that a conflict is brewing between the Federation of Alia and the Starr Kingdom at the Wyda Gorge Crossing, two days travel south of Lasont. Merchants have been disappearing crossing the bridge and both sides hold the other accountable. They are instructed by Takerra to act as a neutral party and investigate the disappearances by descending the canyon. The adventurers are also advised to meet with their point of contact, captain Yuri Jensk of the Starr Kingdom. After visiting Zinfandel to purchase spell scrolls and Bobert to purchase potions, the adventurers head south the following morning, intending to reach the town of Nelfell by nightfall. After an uneventful day of travel southward, the adventurers reach the town of Nelfell and find a tavern to dine in and bed down for the evening. An assassin, however, has other plans for Benoweth! The halfing assassin poisons the naïve Benoweth and attempts to flee, but the party cuts him down. Before taking Benoweth to a local cleric to purge the poison, the adventurers find an amulet of the dragon god Tiamat on the body of the dead assassin.
After a night of uneasy sleep pondering the motivation of the assassin, the adventurers depart Nelfell and travel south. The adventurers reach the gorge crossing without trouble and find Captain Jensk. The captain informs the party that the following evening an unearthly howl emanated from the canyon; maybe the merchants were not apprehended by Federation forces after all! The captain requests that the party descend the canyon to investigate the following day, but advises the party to speak with Alia forces before descending, lest Federation archers assume trickery and turn the adventurers into pin cushions. With a mixture of spellcasting, stealth, and charm, the adventurers gain the audience of the Federation captain, Anika Felwyn. Captain Felwyn approves the adventurers’ descent on the condition that they are accompanied by the scantily clothed monk, Corvus Hot. She also advises them to find the local ranger Kirk Elway for details about goings-on of the canyon.
Rather than brave the treacherous path down the canyon, the party opts to simply jump off the bridge with the intention of casting featherfall near the bottom of the gorge. During the free fall, a group of harpies moves in to attack, using their bewitching song to attempt to break the party up and charm their spell caster. In a tense combat the party defeats the harpies and stays within the spellcasting range of featherfall, alighting safely on the canyon floor. After reaching the bottom of the canyon the adventurers quickly spot the abode of the local ranger, but find it empty. The last entry on the ranger’s journal is dated to the previous night and explains that the ranger has gone to investigate a strange cave nearby. Fearing the ranger dead or captured, the party follow the ranger's map to the cave.
As the adventurers exit the rangers hut, they hear signs of a great struggle in the direction of the cave. Several minutes later when they enter the cave, they witnessed a truly awesome spectacle. A fully grown silver dragon is locked in mortal combat with a sinister shadow dragon. Although the battle is fierce and close, the adventurers watch as the silver dragon defeats the shadow dragon, triumphantly roaring in victory. In its death grips, the shadow dragon looses an unearthly howl, and its spirit departs its body, blasting out of the entrance of the cave and out of the canyon to the northwest. The bloodied silver dragon notices the party, lets out one last triumphant roar, and disappears in a flash of blinding light. Stunned, the adventurers process the battle they just witnessed. After some investigation, the adventurers find the enchanted bow of the deceased ranger. Leaving the cave, the adventurers ascend the canyon without trouble and report to Captain Jensk, their quest successful. The adventurers then return to Lasont, noticing from a distance that smoke is rising from the city.
Session 4, Death and Taxes - 7/24/21
Berkley - Adriel, Benoweth, Khal
Tax day is approaching in the city of Lasont and collective stress is running high in the city. After the adventurers gather in the Adventurers Guild headquarters, Takerra informs them that a quest is available pertaining to the movement of a powerful magical artifact known as the Equiperian stone. The Equiperian stone is a round ball about a foot across that has a different appearance to every onlooker. Importantly, the stone gives a visual cue when a person touching the stone knowingly lies. The city uses the stone to ensure that people truthfully disclose their earnings and pay the appropriate amount in taxes.
The adventurers then meet with their quest point of contact, captain of the guard Ford Ruthers. The handsome half-orc explains that the Equiperian stone must be safely moved from its heavily-warded safe in the palace (SW quadrant of the city) to the courthouse (NE quadrant of the city) for tax day. The day before the transport, the stone is moved from its heavily warded safe to a (less secure) holding room for intermediate storage. Captain Ruthers tasks the party with clearing the sewer underneath the stone’s path of transport to ensure that no ambushes beset the valuable Equiperian stone. He also asks that the party guard the sewer under the palace while the stone is in the intermediate holding room to ensure that no shenanigans occur.
Immediately after leaving the southwest palatial area of the city, Benoweth jumps into the sewer and goes exploring, leaving behind the rest of the party. Unfortunately for Benoweth, he quickly gets lost in the sewer. After a while of stumbling around, Benoweth spots a section of stone wall that seems out of place. Investigating the wall he reveals a secret door. Opening the door and entering into the medium sized room, Benoweth notes that the room is empty save for a large altar in the back of the room, a tiled mosaic on the floor, and glowing magical red lights on the walls and altar. The mosaic tiling the floor is a circular spiral made of five colors: red, green, blue, black, and white. In his infinite wisdom, Benoweth begins to graffiti the sacrificial altar, but is overcome by a profound malaise, quickly runs out of the room, and exits the sewer to reunite with his friends.
The three adventurers then perform their sweep of the sewers as tasked by captain Ruthers, finding and handily destroying a troll freak that had made the sewers its home.
Later that evening in a tavern, a hooded half-elven women approaches the party, introducing herself as Lateisa. She has a proposition for the party, but wants to meet in a more secure location. The party uneasily agrees, following Lateisa to a house a couple blocks away. There Lateisa reveals her identity as a member of the Thieves Guild and shares her proposition: that the party replace the Equiperian stone with a near perfect facsimile. The facsimile wouldn’t always reveal the truth of the speaker, allowing people (such as members of the thieves guild) to lie about their taxes. Lateisa goes on to explain that the taxes levied by the city are regressive, benefiting the rich at the expense of the poor. Replacing the stone, Lateisa argues, would help the people of Lasont. The party, especially Adriel, expresses some hesitancy with this risky plan, but the appearance of a dozen or so threatening members of the Thieves Guild convinces the adventurers to agree to Lateisa’s proposition, at least for now.
The adventurers then go to the wizard Zinfandel for guidance and advice. Zinfandel implies that he crafted the faux Equiperian stone and encourages the party to go through with the plan. The silver-eyed wizard claims that replacing the Equiperian stone with the fake really would help the people of Lasont.
The party follows through on Lateisa’s request, entering the holding room through the sewers and replacing the Equiperian stone with the faux stone, utilizing a bit of illusion magic to do so.
The following day taxes are collected and the number of impoverished citizens sent to prisons and labor camps hits an all time low. Furthermore, many noblemen and women are given fines and made to pay their fair share of taxes. The adventurers again visit Zinfandel, who takes the real stone from the adventurers. The adventurers learn more about Zinfandel's true identity, unveiling that he was indeed working with the Thieves Guild, among other things...
Session 5, Persona non Grotto - 7/9/21
Berkley - Adriel, Sareth, Khal
The adventurers are summoned to the guild headquarters to meet with Takerra, who informs them of a quest available off to the west in the city of Grotto. Before the adventurers depart, they meet with Zinfandel who comes clean about a few details of past adventures. Before the events of the Lost Library quest, Zinfandel explains that he was tricked by a white dragonborn into obtaining the book, “On the Harnessing of Draconic Power” and reciting a powerful incantation written within. In casting the spell within the book, Zinfandel unwittingly released the soul of a sinister shadow dragon from its home plane of Shadowfell. Zinfandel believes there is some draconic cult that is helping give the shadow dragon’s soul a corporeal form. He notes that after the events of the Conflict at the Wyda Gorge the shadow dragon’s soul was seen rocketing off to the northwest, indeed in the same direction the adventurers are currently heading for their upcoming quest in Grotto. Finally, Zinfandel advises caution and implores the adventurers to share information they may find with respect to the shadow dragon.
The adventurers make it to the town of Grotto uneventfully and meet with the dwarven mayor, Kleyth Farrowbarrow. With notable foresight, Khal disguises himself as an elf while in the town. Mayor Farrowbarrow explains that children have been disappearing over the past several weeks, the last one a 13-year-old Giako Burrowden, who was purported to have budding sorcerous powers. The mayor says their quest would have been to solve the abduction case and save the children, but it seems a traveling paladin just beat them to it! Just earlier that day, a golden dragonborn paladin of Bahamut named Jethro Minsk claimed that a local human healer named Morgana had abducted the local children. Jethro knew something was off about the healer and asked Eliza, the local cleric of Torm to dispel any magic surrounding the healer. In doing so Morgana’s true tiefling form was revealed. For the angry scared townsfolk, this disguise was all the evidence needed to convince them that Morgana was an evil witch who had abducted their children.
The adventurers then take their leave from the mayor and head to a local tavern. Soon after they find their meal at the tavern, Jethro enters. The adventurers approach Jethro to suss him out and determine his motivations. When asked how Jethro knew Morgana was a tiefling, he claimed that it was divine insight from his deity. The adventurers, suspicious of this narrative, go to the prison to speak with Morgana, but are stopped by Eliza, the local cleric. Eliza senses some shenanigans are underfoot and denies access to the prisoner that night, saying to talk with her the following morning.
The following morning the adventurers are allowed to speak with Morgana, who says she is being framed and that she did no wrong. She suggests that the adventurers explore the basement under her house and shares the location of the key to the basement. The adventurers then travel to Morgana’s house and enter the basement. Upon entering the basement, the adventurers find themselves immediately thrown into combat with a blue dragonborn warlock (Tokelterain, the same as in the Curious Kobolds adventure) and Jethro the paladin. Soon after combat begins, a small shadow dragon emerges from a back room to join the fight. In the combat Jethro falls and in doing so his true form is revealed. He was no golden dragonborn, but rather a green dragonborn. Sensing that the fight is going poorly, Tokelterain and the shadow dragon escape through a magical door cast by Tokelterain. The adventurers discover the unfortunate remains of the children in the back room of the basement, as well as the shards of the shadow dragon's egg. Upon seeing the shards of the shadow dragon’s egg Khal immediately enters a trance-like state and communes with his patron. The Archfey says that Khal must take the remains of the egg, for they possess a power of Shadowfell that the deity cannot easily access from Feywild. The adventurers then collect some loot and depart the basement.
After explaining the conspiracy to the mayor and demonstrating Morgana’s innocence, the tiefling healer is released and the quest is completed. On returning to Lasont, Zinfandel identifies the paladin’s sword as Mordecai’s blade, a cursed greatsword. For a sum of money, Zinfandel reverses the curse, allowing Adriel to wield the powerful blade. Zinfandel also hears from the adventurers about the shadow dragon and offers them an additional sum of gold for their efforts and information.
Session 6, Into the Underneath - 8/27/21
Berkley - Adriel, Sareth, Khal
The party finds the cultist room that Benoweth found in Death and Taxes. They destroy the cultists, preventing an ongoing ritual (perhaps summoning a shadow dragon?) from reaching completion.
Inauspicious Arachnids - 7/21/22
Hales - Reptune, Meriele, Sloven, Noruxius, Yevelde, Thorn – level 5
The PCs meet for the first time in the Adventurers Guild in Lasont and learn about their quest from Takerra. Takerra informs the group about their adventure: giant spiders (some with seemingly magical abilities!) have been assaulting the town of Wayfair nightly and the town needs help eliminating the threat. The party travels west to Grotto and south to Wayfair over the course of three days, stopping overnight once in a small encampment east of the Excelsior tower and once in Eliza’s temple of Torm in Grotto. The journey west is unremarkable, but the voyage south proves to be more eventful. The path travels through the Juliup Meadow, a 4-mile-wide planar anomaly connected with Feywild. The area is encompassed by a faint pink-purple sphere and carpeted with extraordinary color-changing Juliup flowers. In the center of the meadow resides a nameless, timeless potions master. She offers the party antidote potions in exchange for components from Reptune’s alchemists’ kit, which the party gladly accepts. Soon after departing the Juliup Meadow, the party encounters a lone merchant traveling north. The party stops and greets the (understandably nervous) merchant and Reptune attempts to sneak into the back of the merchant’s cart. Reptune continues unnoticed until he triggers a cloud of daggers trap that was placed around the cart. The merchant freaks out and pulls a wand of fireball on the party, threatening to trigger the wand if they approach. Sloven tries to cast hold person on the merchant, but a ring on the merchant’s hand flashes and he resists the spell. The merchant triggers the wand and causes serious damage to the party before bolting back to his cart to escape. Before he gets there, however, the party cuts him down. In recognition of their rather hostile act, the guilty party revives the poor merchant, threatens him to tell nobody, and continues onward to Wayfair.
In the evening of the third day the party catches Franklin (a middle-aged, stocky, friendly human man with some dwarven blood) just before he leaves his office for the day. Franklin goes on to outline the sorry state of the town. The freight elevator that allows for trade up and down the Kulkarni Shelf has been recently broken (perhaps sabotaged!) and with nightly spider attacks, the townsfolk have not been able to repair it. The local spider attacks, concentrated on the eastern side of the town, have also drained the hastily put together militia and prevented farmers from doing their jobs. Towards the end of this exposition, a wood elven druid named Jayfa bursts in and exclaims that she knows the location of the spiders’ lair. Jayfa was seemingly previously hired by Franklin to deal with the spiders and has been unsuccessful as of yet. Jayfa is frustrated about having her share of the reward reduced, but reluctantly agrees to help the party find the spider lair. The party leaves with Jayfa the following day and finds the lair in the evening. The party decides to drop lit flasks of oil into the lair and smoke out the spiders. The webs turn out to be quite flammable and after half a minute or so raucous chittering begins and spiders start pouring out of the hole. Before combat really begins, Jayfa downs a potion and becomes invisible, not to be seen again for the rest of the adventure. The party successfully fights off brown-red giant spiders, black-green phase spiders, black-blue sword spiders, and black-purple assassin spiders. After healing themselves and waiting for the fire to extinguish, the party descends carefully into the cave and finds a relatively untouched side chamber that seemed to residence a humanoid. Besides a few Jayfa-sized outfits and a healthy handful of gems, the party only finds a notebook written in an uncommon elven script. Meriele reads the journal and discovers that the owner of the notebook was responsible for the spider attacks and was motivated by a certain “Tholvetta.” Upon returning to Wayfair, the party consults the town sage and discovers the uncommon elven script is of drow nature. The party earns 1200 gp as well as the appreciation of the townfolk of Wayfair. On the way back to Lasont the party trades some magical spider organs with the nameless woman of Juliup Meadow for 500 gp worth of potions.
Opalescence - 7/1/23
Hales - Meriele, Lia, Noruxius, Yevelde, Todo, Thorn
The party (minus Todo) meets in Lasont at the Adventurer’s Guild. Takerra offers the party a 1500 gp reward to help resolve a crisis at Opal Lake. Takerra shares what she knows: the lake has taken on strange properties and colors, and townsfolk report seeing otherworldly fey and elemental creatures in the area. High druid Clarise Elescoro of the Opal Moon Sisterhood, currently in Wyn Ferasatha, has reached out to the Adventurers’ Guild for assistance. On Takerra’s recommendation, the party meets with Zinfandel in Lasont for helpful enchantments, but the wizard isn’t particularly helpful. He recommends that the party find Florin’s Tower to the west of Opal Lake and allows the party to borrow the seeing stone that they will need to enter the tower.
The party takes a ferry to Wyn Druvella and marches north to Wyn Ferasatha, meeting a merchant on the way and purchasing a few magical trinkets to help them in their quest. In Wyn Ferasatha the party meets Derek Hammerhovel, a member of the Aegel Brotherhood, who lets them know where they can find Clarise. The party learns that the Opal Moon Sisterhood (predominantly wood elven) and Aegel Brotherhood (predominantly dwarven) work together, serving as custodians of the magical lake. The two druidic enclaves maintain an underwater shrine in the center of the lake, but recently they have not been able to access it. Normally they use wild shape to breathe underwater, but several days ago the water started changing. The druids (and the fish that normally reside in the lake) can no longer breathe underwater. As a consequence, they can’t reach the shrine and have become quite uneasy about its status. Clarise wants the party to get to the bottom of this problem (literally!) to ensure the safety of the shrine and the health of the lake. After meeting with Clarise, the party heads out west and circles the lake to see if they can spot anything unusual. About halfway around the lake, they find a crystal elemental chasing a dwarven druid and rush to the druid’s defense. After a protracted fight against the tough elemental, they defeat the elemental and head back to Wyn Ferasatha for the night. The following day the party sets out to Florin’s Tower to get the breathing charm they need to plumb the depths of Opal Lake. On arriving to the spot the tower should be, the party finds a large, empty, circular clearing. By using the green berylite seeing stone, the party cuts through the illusion and makes their way into the tower, where they are greeted by the butler fairy Jeeves. Jeeves gives the party a riddle, which Yevelde (of all of the party members!) quickly solves. Upon successfully completing the puzzle, a stone staircase descends and the party marches upward to meet the wizard Florin. Florin, a halfling woman, offers to give the party a breathing charm if they give the party the seeing stone. The party reluctantly agrees (it was on loan from Zinfandel, after all) and returns to the lake with the charm in hand.
As the group nears the lake they notice a miraculous change: the lake has turned to solid crystal! In the distance Thorn spots a humanoid figure clutching his head with both hands. As the party approaches the flabbergasted tiefling, he says the lake turned to crystal right in front of him after he tried to skip a rock on it. The party manages to calm the tiefling down after which he introduces himself as Todo. Todo, the party learns, was also sent by the Adventurers’ Guild and they agree to work together.
After a cautious investigation the party learns that the crystal is only about an inch thick, thick enough to support their weight, but thin enough to break through with force. By diving in the center of the lake with the ring of swimming, Lia descends all the way down to the shrine at the bottom of the lake, where she is ambushed by a blink shark. She ascends, swimming as quickly as possible, but not quite fast enough to avoid getting munched by the blink shark. After Lia gets to the surface, the party returns to the edge of the lake to test the breathing charm, and returns to Wyn Ferasatha for the night. The members of the Opal Lake Sisterhood and the Aegel Brotherhood are understandably quite distraught by the transformation of the lake and urge the party to complete their quest as soon as possible.
The following day the party embarks with three dwarven druids and a small boat. They make their way to the center of the lake and, after carving out a hole in the crystal, fall to the bottom of the lake with the help of Florin’s breathing charm. They activate the six control rods to open up the shrine entrance and quickly swim in before the blink shark returns. The party makes their way to center chamber of the shrine, where they find a sword spider, an assassin spider, Jayfa (the dark elf), Tokelterain (the blue dragonborn), and Tholvetta (the white dragonborn). In a tense combat, the party slays Jayfa and her spiders. Tokelterain (who looked like he was conducting some ritual with the large opal gemstone in the center of the chamber) casts dimension door and escapes with Tholvetta. With the combat over, the party saves the druids who were locked up with Ironwood magic-suppressing shackles. The party uses the secret exit that they learned of from Horace Hammerhovel, and returns to dry land with their quest complete and the druids saved. Over the next few days, the lake returns to its normal state and the party returns to Lasont, happy to receive their 1500 gp reward.