The Story So Far
THE STORY SO FAR…
PART 1: PRISON BREAK
On the 21st of Hearthfire, 818, seven prisoners escaped Meredith Mine. First, Brother Elijah Solis. Elijah was a human and a cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun and healing. Elijah was imprisoned with his friend, Leo Albright. Leo was also a human and also a devout of Pelor, and the son of a bishop in the Order of the Golden Sun, though he was a paladin instead. Next was Sarkas Mistletoe. Sarkas had his own sense of morality. He had no problem with killing but was still honest and fair. He was self-described as the Kingdom's second-best archer, and at one point part of a mercenary group. Also escaping was a hobgoblin named Tibor Snick. Tibor was a mystic, but also an aspiring actor, which was unusual for a goblinoid. She behaved strangely, always wearing a comedy/tragedy mask and reacting as if an audience was watching her life as a performance. Fifth, there was a githyanki diviner named Xzamodas Quith. Quith was sent to the material plane on the orders of Vlaakith on orders to gather knowledge of the plane before it is raided. He had a mask, wand, and spellbook made of remains of an illithid he supposedly killed. Escaping with them was a human rogue who went by Bootknife. He was jumpy and strange-acting, but he orchestrated the escape.
The six of these were chained up in the mine for various crimes when Bootknife announced to those next to him that he was planning a break out and, on his signal, to break the chain connecting the six of them to the others. Once the guard patrolling the wing of the mine came by, Bootknife and Sarkas attacked. They broke the chains and fought their way through the prison until they were near the entrance. Quith saw the warden, Zoth gro-Zul. The warden was wearing Quith's mask and wielding a greatsword. Quith fought the warden, killed him, and retrieved his mask and Leo took the sword. The party fought the guards and took their weapons and armor and made their escape out of the mine.
Running into the woods outside the mine they found themselves in a cold, snowy region. They hid in the trees from the pursuing guards, attempted to hide but were found. The two guards who found they were killed by Quith and Sarkas. They saw the seventh escapee, an orc, run by, being chased by the guards. The six, once the coast was clear, continued down the road to the nearby mining town of Meredith's Hook. On the way there Quith recognized the sword as a githyanki silver sword and took it back from Leo. He performed a ritual to contact Vlaakith who replied, “Bring the sword to Frostpoint,” a city in the northern reaches of the Kingdom.
Soon, they reached Meredith's Hook. It is a small town consisting of only three shops, and inn, many shacks, a small guildhall, a temple, and administrative buildings of the mining companies. Bootknife went into the Open Window Inn, where he claimed to know the owner. The rest of the group first went into the general store, where they met the owner, a creepy high elf named Phostos Grim. Soon after, Quith and Elijah went into the Inn. There they saw a dwarf passed out drunk (that they would later learn is named Tharden Bleaker), a cowering drow bard dressed colorfully (who they would later know as Maru the Bard), and Bootknife holding a knife to the throat of the innkeeper. Bootknife asked Quith and Sarkas to help him in robbing the Inn. After some deliberation, they decided to hold him away until they better figure out the situation. Bootknife broke free and ran out of the Inn and down the road to the south. The innkeeper, a human woman named Erryn Lord, was grateful and offered to let the party stay at the Inn and gave them the lead that membership in the Lawbringers' Guild would absolve them of the crimes they were imprisoned for, and that the guildmaster would honor her recommendation.
The party followed this advice and went to the town's Lawbringers' guildhall and met the guildmaster, a hill dwarf named Settakana “Setty” Sil. They learned about the Lawbringers' Guild, a guild devoted to upholding “the lawful nature of the good and natural world”. The party signed the contracts, joined the guild and was offered a contract right away. The other mine in town, Granlund Mine, recently broke into some sort of underground ruin full of skeletons, on the fourth layer of the mine. The other guild member in the town, a gnomish wizard and owner of the town's wizard's shop, Addis Coppercoin, was previously sent in, and hasn’t been heard from since. The party was assigned to investigate this ruin and find Addis. The party learned Settakana and Erryn Lord were married. Before their expedition they stopped for supplies. General supplies were purchased from Phostos Grim at General Mine Supply Company. Sarkas and Elijah went to the Heartforge where they met the Orgnar and Hadvar Heartland, the town's blacksmith and woodworker respectively. Both were beefy human men but Orgnar was cold, terse, and truculent while Hadvar was friendly, inviting, and ran the store in the front of the workshop, and would actually talk to people. Sarkas traded up his shortbow for a longbow. Elijah borrowed a wooden shield. Both were made by Hadvar.
They went to the nearby Granlund Mine later that night and the lift operator, the dwarf they’d seen in the Inn earlier, let them down to the fourth level. In the mine they saw it was broken into a small closet full of empty shelves and a door the miners say there were skeletons behind. Inside they found a chapel full of burnt skeletons and at an alter in the front was a skeleton holding the hilt of a sword with an inlaid diamond. Throughout this underground ruin they fought living skeletons armed with swords and bows. They explored and fought through a tavern, a smithy, a meeting room of sorts, a bathhouse, a restaurant, and a store. In the store was a skeleton who didn’t attack them and instead was serving as a shopkeep. It spoke a language none of the party understood but offered five large, ancient coins when Quith displayed the hilt from the chapel, which Quith accepted. Tibor performed an interpretive dance which the skeleton appreciated and tipped one ancient coin.
Continuing through the ruin they went down stairs to what appeared to be a throne room, where a fight was ongoing. A human man in a long tan coat with gray hair wielding a mysterious weapon, a handheld firearm, standing on the throne and shooting skeletons attacking from below. On the throne was a giant skeleton, inanimate, and over 12ft tall. Upon seeing the party, this man asked into a stone of far speech if could, “kill them yet”. Upon receiving an evidently negative answer, he took to bashing the head of the giant skeleton against the back of the throne until it broke off. Once the skull was removed, the animate skeletons around the room all fell at once. The mysterious man then reached into his coat, pulled out a small bead and threw it at his feet, then disappeared.
Soon after, many of the skeletons started crawling back and formed into one large bone colossus. The party fought this, and the burned skeletons from the chapel who also came into this chamber. The fight was stupidly easy. They quickly continued through the rest of the ruin and found through the kitchen of the restaurant a natural cavern with a huge waterfall. In a small tent in this cavern was Addis, who was hiding out in this area of natural beauty. The party left the ruin and the mine and returned to the Lawbringers' guildhall. Here Settakana paid them for the contract and said she contacted the head guild in Goldmask, the nation's capital, and had been sent more supplies now that the guild has grown in members. She handed out badges of the guild to all the new members, and announced she was given three stones of far speech. She kept one, gave one to Addis, and gave one to the party, which Quith took.
Over the next few days the party stayed at the Open Window Inn. Elijah paid Hadvar for the shield and had him carve a sun design into it and repair it. With Addis’ shop, The Second Sun, now re-opened, Quith and Sarkas trained with him in magic. Meanwhile, Elijah helped the priest at the temple to preform funeral rites for the guards killed in the prison break. Quith made a deal with Phostos Grim, agreeing to take him up to Frostpoint when he leaves to buy and sell goods there in a few days. One of these days a human in full plate armor who rode into town on a white horse. He introduced himself as Sir Wellyn, Protector of the Northern Realms, the region of the Kingdom that Meredith's Hook and Frostpoint are in. His job is to visit the small villages around and serve and protect them. He rode into town to help those in need, check in on how things are going, and investigate the recent prison break.
Around this same time Setty Sil called the party back for another mission. A wanted necromancer was found nearby and the Meredith's Hook Lawbringers were the only ones close enough to stop them before they get away again. This necromancer was seen moving North through the mountains. The party bought supplies including heavy winter coats from Phostos Grim and set of on their expedition. Sir Wellyn offered to go with them but the party declined, not knowing whether to trust him yet.
They began to head up the path to the North, up the mountain. On the way up there were figures watching over them, who the party attacked, and they attacked back. The party continued to the top of the mountain and found this was a tribe of Goliaths living at the top. Through some translation shenanigans they managed to communicate to the Goliaths that they meant no harm and they were looking for a necromancer. The Goliaths let them rest in their village and explained that their sacred totem, an ancient warhammer, was recently stolen. They did not know who stole it. They believed they saw the necromancer in the nearby Granlund Manor. The party went there next. The party snuck around the back and climbed over the wall to the garden and went in through the back door. Inside they fought the two Orc guards, with Quith and Sarkas killing them when they tried to flee. After this from the top balcony the necromancer revealed herself.
She introduced herself as Guinnevere, former Queen to the Kingdom of Goldmask and head of the Lawbringers' Guild, who was recently run out for treason, reportedly making an attempt at the King's life. She begged the party to spare her, but they didn’t know if they should trust her. She was very not forthcoming with information, instead just equivocally assuring that she was on their side. In the end the party decided they’d take her back to town where Addis could wipe her memory of necromancy, then they’d let her leave the Kingdom. The party investigated this manor and found that some ritual was performed in the basement, where Leo also found a book on magic that he gave to Elijah.
The party made their way back to town. Quith brought Guinnevere to Addis’ shop where Addis performed a lengthy ritual that would supposedly remove Guinnevere's memories of the past month and place it in a vessel (a bottle) as Quith watched. Meanwhile, the rest of the party returned to the Open Window to find that there was a celebration going on to commemorate the re-opening of Granlund Mine. The party members joined in the revelry. Maru the Bard played the drum as Tibor danced. A drunken Hadvar enthused Elijah about a shipment of Eastern Rosewood he got in, an expensive wood used for fine parts and instruments. Sarkas drank for the first time and got into a drunken archery contest with Sir Wellyn, adjudicated over by Elijah.
The next morning, after some prank hijinks, Quith's mind was bombarded with the message to “Bring the sword to Frostpoint”. He convinced the party that the best action for them was to all go to Frostpoint, bringing Guinnevere there so she could charter passage on a boat out of the kingdom. They bribed and threatened Phostos Grim until he acquiesced and brought them up to Frostpoint that day.
After a few days of travel, the party arrived near Frostpoint. They first saw smoke rising from the city as they approached, then the giant Githyanki raiding ship. Buildings were burning and civilians were being slaughtered. First Quith hopped off the cart and ran toward the ship. Githyanki saw him and let him up. He met with a commander and was told to go out and join the raid. Phostos wanted to turn back and return to Meredith's Hook. Elijah, Leo, and Sarkas hopped out to fight the Githyanki and try to save the civilians. Elijah and Leo ran out into the streets where Githyanki were killing civilians. Elijah was killed. Leo ran away. Sarkas climbed a tower and sniped from it. Sarkas killed many Githyanki including Quith but eventually got overrun and killed. Tibor ran away.
Thus ends the first party.
PART 2: SOME OTHER SHIT HAPPENS
Duffa Snick was a hobgoblin wizard and inventor, and one of the two daughters of Lumia Snick the Cruel. Duffa came to Meredith's Hook from The Horde to look for her sister, Tibor. She believes Tibor to be dangerous and that she needs protecting. Vask Sil, the Governor of Stormhold, heard about the death of his daughter Settakana and decided to travel to Meredith's Hook. He stayed at the Inn to comfort Erryn as Duffa went into The Second Sun to ask around about Tibor.
Elijah saw only darkness for a while, shadows of the material plane, for what seemed like ages. Until one day, he saw a light, sunlight, and naturally moved towards it. He felt himself split in two, half being pulled into the light and half being pulled somewhere else. He woke up on the dock at Frostpoint, with Guinnevere sitting next to him. She explained that she resurrected him partially using necromancy, that he was technically half-undead. She reassured him that while it may not seem like it in the future they are on the same side. She left on a sailboat with a large figure with their head covered. She left him a bag with his belonging and a scroll to teleport him back to Meredith's Hook. After seeing that the survivors were beginning to rebuild Frostpoint, he used the scroll and teleported back.
Elijah was teleported back to the teleportation circle in the basement of Addis’ shop. He met Duffa and the two of them would soon after begin investigating the recent murders. They learned that the woodworker, Hadvar Heartland had been murdered, and that Settakana Sil and Sir Wellyn have disappeared. The party asked around town and searched some buildings. The Guildhall seemed un-broken-into. Investigating the Heartforge, along with a very fancy shield and set of wooden armor, Hadvar's workshop, the scene of the murder. They found shavings of Eastern Rosewood and a small yellow fiber. Also during the investigation they returned to Meredith's Hook Mine where they learned Mogrul gro-Zul, the son of the warden, was investigating the prison break. The party spoke with Tharden Bleaker who revealed that the day-shift lift operator, Maarvey, was acting strangely. At Granlund Mine, the party learned that Maarvey's splattered body has been found at the bottom of the lift shaft. The party spoke with the new lift operator, Mark, and the guard from Frostpoint assigned to the bottom. The party deduced that Maarvey must have jumped.
Upon hearing music playing lightly through the stone of far speech, the party solved the mystery. Maru the Bard threatened Hadvar into making him a lute to specific specifications then killed him with his own axe. He then charmed Settakana and lead her to the mine. He charmed Maarvey into jumping to his death, then brought Settakana into the dungeon. At some point Sir Wellyn caught on to what was happening and followed Maru into the dungeon.
The party destructed the bricked-up entrance to the dungeon and hurried inside. They saw Sir Wellyn with his legs smashed up inside, who told them to go stop Maru. Inside the cavern the party came across a grisly sight. Maru the Bard, with his eyes seemingly removed as bloody holes, was sitting at the edge of the water playing a lute beautifully. The body of Settakana was lying on the ground nearby, mutilated. The lute Maru was playing was made of Eastern Rosewood and the strings made of sinew pulled from Settakana's body. Really gross and really evil shit. When confronted as to why he did it, Maru said that he didn’t really know. Perhaps because she was a vampire, perhaps because he wanted that lute, perhaps because none of it matters, or perhaps because he was just bored. The party fought, and easily defeated Maru. They destroyed the evil instrument.
Over the next few days, a funeral was prepared for Settakana, Hadvar, and Maru. At the funeral was Maru's brother who seemed unfazed, and another drow who was mourning. There was also a human man in a wheelchair aided by an orc. He introduced himself as Atticus Brando, current head of the Lawbringers' Guild. He said that because of their help in solving this murder and stopping Maru, he'd like to induct Duffa into the Lawbringers' Guild, and move her and Elijah to the New Stormcastle branch. Erryn announced that she would be leaving Merideth's Hook. The party finally decided to get the fuck out of this podunk-ass town and began their journey on the long road South-East to New Stormcastle, with the scary possibly-vampire Governor Vask Sil going along with them.
After one of these nights on the road, Elijah and Vask woke up tied to chairs in a small room with an orc, Bootknife, and a human who introduced himself as Calm Daniel. He asked about Sarkas and where he was and Elijah told him Sarkas was in Frostpoint. The situation quickly turned hostile and CD told the orc, Mud, to guard the door. Silence and Darkness were cast for an interesting fight. It ended with Elijah escaping under Invisibility. They found themselves at a large stone bridge with four towers with archers, two at each end, whole place crawling with bandits. Elijah and Vask were in the base of one of the towers. CD sent Bootknife and Mud to get Sarkas. Elijah, trying to make his was back across the bridge, was re-captured.
Vask went up to CD to talk with him. The next day Calm Daniel, an ogre named Gerlach and one of the elf archers named Trin, headed south.
Elijah was tied to a chair in the same prison room as before. This time he had two guards, a gnome and a hobgoblin. Elijah tried to convince them to let him go, and for them to escape with him. At first they were dismissive of this, naturally, but Elijah learned this gnome was named Deanell Coppercoin, sister of the wizard Addis Coppercoin who she hadn’t spoken to in years. She agreed to the escape if Elijah would give her the stone of far speech to speak to her brother. The hobgoblin, Red, was a bit more hesitant. He agreed to go if Elijah beat him in a card game, which he did. They left the prison room, crossed the bridge, and the three began heading south.
Meanwhile, Duffa woke up in a dark room on the second floor of another tower with a sheepish warforged who over his stone of far speech was called “B”. After many attempts Duffa escaped the chair she was tied to and grabbed her wand and cast Reduce on B, stuffed him in a barrel on the first floor, and climbed up to the top. Upon exiting she was met by the elven archers at the top. She hit one of them with an acid arrow then jumped down with feather fall. When she landed she was seen by a half-elf archer. He took her aside, asked about B and took the stone of far speech. He made up a lie about Duffa killing B and escaping but he would track her down. He then took Duffa to the stables, killed the orc stablekeeper and told her to take a horse south to the old wooden bridge, find Calm Daniel and kill him. Duffa did this and began heading south.
Duffa arrived at the old wooden bridge and found Calm Daniel and his gang already there. She cast Shatter on the old bridge and it collapsed, dropping CD into the river. He made his was back onto the shore and joined the fight himself. He summoned a spectral sword and cast a few devastating spells. The fight went on, Duffa killed Trin and Calm Daniel, then stabbed Gerlach in the back, killing him. The party won! :D
Upon looting Calm Daniel's body, Duffa found his teleporting frock coat, a golden necklace with a strange symbol, and two unsent letters. The first was to an “M” regarding Sarkas, saying that he would deliver Sarkas to M soon, and he would give him M's gift. This was a magic deck of throwing cards. He then said that M's letter made him want to reunite with his own son, leading to the second letter. This one was to an “A”. It was apologetic asking A to come back home. After seeing some doubt upon reading these Vask assured them that Calm Daniel was a bad man. She also noticed a large tattoo of the spectral sword across his back.
Over the next few days Duffa once again set off for New Stormcastle. New Stormcastle was the biggest city any of them had seen, with buildings reaching high into the sky (the tallest being the 13-storty Mr. Lucky's Lucky 13 Hotel and Casino). Vask split off and returned to his palace while the Duffa went to the Lawbringers’ Guildhall. Inside the first floor was a tavern, with a warforged barkeeper. In one of the booths was a human and a dwarf. The human called the Duffa over and introduced herself as Captain Kathleen Darby, leader of the New Stormcastle Lawbringers' Guild, and welcomed her to the guild. They went up the elevator to the second floor to meet the rest of the team.
PART 3: NEW STORMCASTLE
On the second floor, in the middle of the large “common room” with a hearth in the center, they saw a bunch of people gathered around a woman in a suit of armor fighting a large brown bear. The bear won the fight and transformed back into a human. The Lawbringers introduced themselves. There was the dwarf from the first floor, Wortin von Mostliat, the quartermaster. The two practicing fighting were his human daughters, the paladin Nebby and the druid Lev. There was an old human man, Clifford A. Tarvoh, in charge of training, and the nerdy silver dragonborn, Glory Nestaff, in charge of R&D. Next was the halfling Zem Jamjar and the human fighter Garde. Finally, there was the old-old-old tortle cleric, Seer Yala. They would also be introduced to Idna Wildhorn, the gnome beastmaster who lived in the library basement floor, and her giant crab Charlie. She asked to find a specific book for her. Around then, Elijah, Dee, and Red also arrived and joined. The party was assigned rooms and officially joined the guild.
The next day the party was assigned to investigate a lead on a group called the Dark Moon. Elijah recognized this as the group that framed him and Leo, landing them in jail. The necklace that Calm Daniel was wearing was the symbol of this group. A man associated with the Dark Moon was seen visiting a warehouse in the city, so the party was sent to investigate. They reached the place and found it was occupied by a crew of goblinoids. Duffa went in after tricking the goblins at the door. There was a hobgoblin there who appeared to be their leader. Duffa incited a small riot of looting goblins, though this was quickly quelled. Elijah captured and tied the hobgoblin to a cart and took him back to the Guildhall while Duffa killed off the rest of this goblinoid crew, burning down the warehouse in the process.
Back at the Guildhall, upon seeing this prisoner, Captain Darby was annoyed and exasperated. She said this hobgoblin was Oraan, and he was “off-limits”. They had to let him go. This obviously caused some annoyance, especially when Oraan started bragging about how he had the information to take down Dark Moon. They had to let Oraan go.
The very next day a disheveled human man supposedly named Edmund arrived at the Guildhall, saying he wanted to join the Guild. He begged to stay for at least a day just to help where he could, and without any real reason to turn him away, Captain Darby accepted. Meanwhile, Elijah snuck off out of the Guildhall as Duffa spied on Edmund. When they started interrogating him he broke and left the Guildhall.
The warforged bartender let the party know that Vask Sil requested them to visit him in his palace. After weighing the pros and cons, they decided to go visit him. Eventually they made their way to Vask's palace. The palace was massive and opulent, contrasting the rest of the city's cramped and dirty buildings it had a massive throne room. Inside was Vask, sitting on the throne wearing fine clothes and the Belt of Stormhold. To his side was someone in a set of heavy plate armor with large, leathery wings coming out of the back. Vask explained that Oraan was under his employ, and that's why he was off limits, and so was the Lawbringers Guild. After some convincing, Vask said Oraan was too much trouble to deal with and he was no longer “off-limits”, and that the party should “take care of him” for him.
The party then immediately went to Mr. Lucky's Lucky 13 Hotel and Casino, 12th floor, to Oraan's suite, to finally throw down with this punk. Kicking open the door to the fancy suite, they saw sitting at a table Oraan and Elijah, mid-toast, shocked-looking.
After feeling a strange déjà vu, the party quickly got into a fight with Oraan and the invisible Quintus Atrius who was holding a blade to Elijah's neck. Quintus was killed and his body gruesomely disposed of in the garden on the roof of the guildhall. Oraan is taken prisoner once again.
The next day, Glory and Tarvoh disappeared from the guildhall. The party set out after them to Kord Koldar, but were stoped by Glory at the Western Watchtower where she seems to have killed Tarvoh. She and the party fight, and the bodies of Glory and Tarvoh are sent back to New Stormcastle with Garde. Continuing west, the party was robbed while camping before arriving in Drain. Thugs stopped the party and lead them to The Yawning Portal where they meet Wurt Big-Cheeks who decided to join the party, knowing Duffa. The party went into the Southern Stonehills where they were attacked by a red dragon, but escaped into Kord Koldar. They made their way through the dungeon. In Kord Koldar, they meet Gulak who briefly joined them and helped them fight Lod Blackstone. The fight was rough, but the party killed Lod. They looted him and the dungeon, retrieving a set of spiked armor and a red dagger that seemed to emanate heat. The party left Kord Koldar and met up with Wurt's associate Fozzie who lead them back to Drain and set them up with lodging and transportation. Gulak and Siegmire Schumas sneak off in the night.
The next day, the party met with Kaza who teleported them to the Academy in New Stormcastle, but not before the party was attacked by a group of dragonborn chromatic cultists. The party fought them, killing two of them before teleporting away and one shortly after. After teleporting, the party was arrested for "unauthorized use Academy teleportation circles", but made a deal with Callin for their freedom.
Nideschaton found the party and joined them. The party made it back to the guildhall and rested.
The next day they were asked by Captain Darby to investigate an incident in the catacombs. They do though Seer Yala is insistent that she goes with them. When they reach the catacombs the mortician informs them there was a minor break-in. Seeing the body of Glory there, Yala cast Raise Dead to revive her. When she did, Glory revealed the truth that Tarvoh was still alive and he was controlling her mind at Western Watchtower. The party ventured into the catacombs where they found the skeleton of Sinnorus III with his hands broken. Duffa animated this skeleton and the party found that behind it was an illusory wall, leading to a sewer.
Exploring deeper into this sewer, after following a kobold called Oppo and fighting some troglodytes, the party eventually reached Galoth's Garden, a small hidden grove within the mountain. Around a small pond in the center was Tarvoh, as well as Maru the Bard and Lod Blackstone, evidently both had become liches! Tarvoh reached into the pond and retrieved a crown of bone. Around the same time, Akra and Dentratha also arrived at the Garden carrying an ornate golden case. From the golden case, Tarvoh retrieved the Black Dragon Claw. From Sinnorus' staff, the Blue Dragon Claw. Maru the Bard tossed him a necklace with fancy white inlay which he dipped into the pond, transforming it back into the White Dragon Claw. Then he used Telekinesis to rip the red dagger toward him, which he dipped into the water to retrieve the Red Dragon Claw. A fight soon broke out, but when Kalem's Comet appeared overhead and the pond transformed into a portal to the Feywild, Tarvoh and Maru jumped in. The party eventually followed as well, but not before Scorch managed to take out Akra with a fireball.