Beholder Group - "We need gold more than we need scruples!" - Session 15 - The Eye of Kronos

2nd Jan 2020, 7:45 – 11:30pm
In-game timeline: Start of session, 1489DR, Eleasis 12th. End of session, Eleasis 20th.

We rejoin our "Heroes" sunning themselves in Oakhurst after successfully delivering a middle-aged gnome to a likely death, and succeeding in annoying another town's justice system.

After spending a day or two catching up with old friends (friend, singular, in the case of Drogan) and training hard to gain the benefits of a new level, Alwaith persuades the rest of the group to cough up some party dosh to buy him a breastplate from the smith, Rurik, using the metal obtained from defeating some animated armour some weeks previously. Drogan manages to slip in some pink dye into the forging process, which provides much mirth when Alwaith first tries on the breastplate, but the colour does fade in a few days, meaning Alwaith can hold his head high once more.

The group decide to head to Neverwinter, to pursue Drogan's possible task, to be revealed later, and chose the shorter but less travelled route through Neverwinter Wood. After an eerie and jumpy first days walking through the wood, they settle down for the night at an already-established camp site.

After an uneventful Dwarrowsteel watch, Devon took up the mantle of guard, and, since no one wanted to light a fire to give decent light, decided to send Nige up to scout around. After a while Nige does spot something worrying, and Devon zones into Nige's senses to see what was happening.

DevoNige spots a large, bear-sized creature heading towards camp. It is, in fact, a bear. He also just about spots some movements either side of the bear, but cannot make out what they are through the foliage. Rather than wake up his companions, DevoNige decided to watch the bear for a while, maybe to tick a few more boxes in his "Eye-Spy Book of Bears". The brown bear stops, sniffs the air, then heard purposefully towards the camp. DevoNige continues to watch. And watch some more. When the bear finally breaks the treeline, almost waving an "I'm about to attack the camp" flag, Devon decides he'd better wake the others. Unfortunately he has no time to actually get into a tent and wake them, so just shouts "BEAR!" and runs away into the wood.

A small halfling shouting outside a tent is not a loud thing. Only Dwarrowsteel was sleeping lightly enough to be awakened by Devon's shout. He kicked Drogan awake, and ran out of the tent, shouting to wake up Alwaith. Dwarrow was greeted by the sight of a bear at the edge of the clearing and, more worryingly, two boars rapidly bearing down upon him! He managed to hit one of them, but they both charged him, one of them doing considerable damage and knocking him prone. Devon, from his position in hiding, does more damage to the one boar and Drogan steps out of the tent, flexes his muscles and decimates the other boar in a single swing of his rage-enhanced, reckless attack.

The other boar backs away, but Dwarrow takes it down as it flees. Attention now turns to the bear, which seems to be struggling not to charge into the group, but is hanging back. The rest of the party focus on the bear, including Alwaith who has now emerged from the tent. Drogan, Devon and Dwarrow all run to the bear, to prevent it from gaining too much cover from the trees, and together they all bring it down, though not before it has taken a chunk out of Drogan's shoulder - something he shrugs off as merely a slight flesh wound.

As Alwaith checks around the clearing, and Drogan and Dwarrow drag the bear back towards camp, for some reason, Drogan is suddenly hit in the back by a blast of force. Suspecting that Alwaith has once again accidentally hit him with an Eldritch Blast, he lets out a shout, but Alwaith was not at fault, and Alwaith, recognising the spell, turns to see where it came from. He spots a figure running through the trees away from the camp and gives chase, but is unfortunately stopped by stepping into a bear trap that had been laid just outside the clearing. As the fleeing figure gets away, Alwaith can only make out that it looks like a kobold.

Meepo! Is the expected cry from Drogan, despite having no evidence of the kobold's identity. Alwaith and Drogan try to track the fleeing figure, but it seems to be moving quickly, and the need to release Alwaith, and follow tracks, slow them down and they soon lose the trail. The kobold got away.

The party enjoyed roast boar for breakfast though!

The walk to Neverwinter was subsequently uneventful, despite spotting a large, potentially airborne, creature circling above the ruined town of Thundertree in the distance, which they sensibly ignored.

In the large, bustling town of Neverwinter, they retired to a tavern for the night, enjoyed some more Goblin Brew, by another name - Garon was branching out! - and Drogan met a contact who gave him more information about the potential job for the group.

The party have been employed to recover a gem from a Pirate Captain Bree - the same Pirate Captain Bree who had boarded Drogan's ship some years previously, presumably killing the rest of his crew. Drogan was out for revenge, and to earn some coin in the process, and the party agreed to help out. The reward for recovering the gem was 750gp, with 250gp paid in advance, plus a couple of healing potions too. A ship and crew will be provided - The Evening Mist.

The following morning, the party split up to do their own activities around the city and when they met up again in the evening, Devon, Alwaith and Dwarrowsteel all had their own possible missions that they were hoping to perform on the way to sorting out Drogan's Pirate Captain Bree problem!

Alwaith was keen to take out some sea monster in the Trackless Sea named Gorgoroth

Devon wanted to recover something from a wreck, the Emperor of the Waves, off the coast of the Whale Bone Isles.

Dwarrowsteel would like to take over an abbey on an island, Abbey Isle / Friendship Isle, that had been corrupted by some evil clerics a while back.

The group asked around about all these problems, and managed to get a number of bits of information about all of them. The group also agreed to forsake 15% of the loot from their Pirate Captain Bree adventure to some of Devon's contacts, in return for some useful information about the pirates.

Lots of information was gained from rumours and hearsay. Not sure which were true. Not all are covered here, but some of the salient points:

 - There are at least 3 Pirate Captain Brees operating in the seas - a drow, a duergar and a deep gnome

 - Each pirate captain seems to have his/her own 'pet' of some sort

 - The Brees all work for a slaving group by the name of the Radiant Sisters. It is not known where this group is based

The party discussed the next steps at length, and eventually agreed to head towards the wreckage (Devon's task), check that area of the sea for Bree, then maybe on to the Abbey Isle (Dwarrow's task) and check that area of sea, before aiming for the sea monster (Alwaith's task). That whole voyage would likely take months, but they are hoping to encounter Bree before the end!

Nobody except Drogan is looking forward to many weeks at sea!

Before they left, the party visited the Arcane Academy, got their magic items identified - sold on the cursed rings, once they found out they were cursed! - Devon took 'pot luck' with the student project sale and ended up with a wish-giving Monkey's Paw (complete with dire warning about its use!).

And so we leave our "Heroes" preparing for a possibly long sea voyage, considering whether to buy any more failed magic student projects, and working out how to go about killing Pirate Captain Bree and getting back the gem, which has been labelled the "Eye of Kronos", which may or may not actually be with the Pirate Captain, or may or may not be with the slavers group.