The party returns to town, new prisoners in tow and freed prisoners following closely behind. People peer out of their windows or stop in their daily activities to stare at the strange procession. The family of the woodcarver alternate between smiling at those they see and casting their eyes downwards, perhaps in a bit of embarrassment at the attention.
As the party passes the Woodcarver's house the two women and the boy offer their thanks and rush into their home, eager for the relative safety of a familiar location.
By the time the party reaches the Townmaster's Hall they have quite a bit of a retinue. Small boys and adults follow behind at a respectful, if inquisitive distance and only stop when the party enters the building, heading to Sildar's office.
Entering the office it seems word has traveled quickly, as Sildar seems to know what and who you are bringing to him. His face is grim, but composed. He nods to you as you enter.
"My thanks." He offers to you. "Both for finding Iarno and stopping the Redbrand threat. I am ashamed to find out that a member of the Lord's Alliance, the very same Iarno who was sent here to establish law and order, was the leader of the threat."
He turns to two men to one side of the room and says, "Take the prisoners to the cells in the basement. I will make arrangements to have them transported to Neverwinter for trial."
It seems Sildar has not be idle while you were away and has begun to recruit locals into a constabulary of sorts.
Iarno opens his mouth in protest. "But Sildar! You now me! I had no choice. The Spider forced me into it!"
Sildar's mouth compresses to a thin line. "There is always a choice, Iarno. You took the coward's way out and people suffered because of it. You will stand trial for your crimes. Take him away." He orders the men.
Iarno and the Redbrand prisoners are shuffled off through a door to the cells below.
Turning back to you, Sildar reaches into a desk drawer and removes a sack of coins and hands it over. "200 gp, as promised." He says. "Have you leaned anything that might lead to finding Gundren or this Cragmaw Castle?"
He was a bit worried that some of the town's folk might decide on some 'immediate justice', but that didn't seem to materialize. He smiled and waved to the former prisoners split off for their home. As far as he was concerned, =that= was the best part of this whole thing. He just hoped that they would still be able to rescue Gundren soon too.
He was happy to let Sildar deal with their captives. "Nothing obvious yet, but we have not really had a chance to think on and discuss what we learned. Hopefully something will present itself."
Any input from Balthazar or Lingo on next steps? Here is what you have:
Mission Offers & Rewards 1 - Sister Garaele - Asked you to go to the lair of a Banshee and ask her for information about a Spellbook belonging to a legendary mage named Bowgentle. She said the Banshee was vain and offered a Silver comb as a bribe for the Banshee. She offered 3 Potions of Healing as payment.
2 - Harbin Wester - Townmaster has asked you to take care of Orc Raiders near Wyvern Tor. He offered 100gp as a reward.
3 - Sildar Hallwinter - Asked you to find Cragmaw Castle, where Gundren was reportedly taken, and offered 500gp if you find it and defeat the inhabitants.
4 - Quelline Alderleaf - Told you about a Druid named Reidoth who knows all the wilderness areas nearby and might have clues to places you are looking for to find Gundren. He went to a ruined town called Thundertree. She gave you directions.
5 - Daran Edermath - He has heard someone is digging around in some ruins known as the 'Old Owl Well'. Several prospectors have reported being chased away from the area by undead. He asked you to visit the ruins, find out who is there and what they are up to. He knows the ruins are actually an old watchtower of an ancient magical empire known as 'Netheril' and he is worried there might be dangerous dormant magic there.
6 - Mirna's Heirloom - In return for your freeing she and her children she tells you about an Emerald Necklace in an abandoned alchemy shop in the town of Thundertree. The town was abandoned after it was overrun by undead.
7 - Halia Thornton - The leader of the Miner's Exchange in town asked you to explore the Redbrand lair under Tresendar Manor, eliminate the threat and the leader Glasstaff, and to bring back to her any correspondence you find there. She offered you 100gp if you succeeded.
He considered where they might do the most good next. He suggested "We could travel to Thundertree investigate, deal with the undead, find the necklace, talk to the druid who might know of Cragmaw Castle. Does that seem interesting?" He was always interested in aiding life, destroying undead would do just that, and druids always helped life, in his experience.
[OOC: Thanks for the reminders, that helped bunches. I had forgotten over half.]
"Our first priority =should= be to find and rescue Gundren. Since we have no idea where this 'castle' is, I say that the mission that has the best chance of getting us the location of the castle is the next step. While I agree that, if we did not have prior commitments, it might be a 'good deed' to take care of these 'undead'. But I don't see how they would be able to give us any useful information on our mission to find the castle and free Gundren. The Druid or the bansee seem a more likely source of useful information."
"The druid seems like a logical direction for our next pursuit." he agreed, nodding as he pondered what would come next.
OOC: I assume that if there was a spell book that Balthazar would have it as I did indicate that he had searched the lab and room for anything of interest to him.
Before leaving the Town Hall you ask Sildar about the Wizard's effects and he brings a sack containing what was found on him when the guards did a thorough search. Among some personal effects is a small bound tome.
Balthazar takes the book and opening it he sees it is indeed a spellbook and contains the following spells:
(Note: It takes 2 hours and costs 50gp per spell per spell level to copy spells into your spellbook. Cantrips are effectively free. Balthazar also needs to attune himself to the staff Iarno carried so he can use it, which would take a short rest.)
The group returns to the Stonehill Inn to relax and have some drinks before deciding when to set out. Balthazar needs some time to take advantage of what was found on Irano.
Sitting down you find that your money is no good today. Drinks are brought by Elsa and she refuses your coin, saying only, "You have our thanks for saving Thel's wife and children."
Once the drinks are in hand, Lingo, who is always keeping track of potential monetary gains mentions that, "Hey, we shouldn't forget that Halia Thornton, that woman who ran the Miner's Exchange, promised us 100gp if we eliminated the Redbrand threat, including Glasstaff, and brought her his papers. We shouldn't leave money 'on the table'."
(OOC - I neglected to add that quest to the main thread. Added now. Also, new map attached, see below:)
"Good for keeping us on task." While money is not the reason he does most things, it does make some things easier.
"My only comment is that we do not know who is involved in the scheme. Passing the papers is like passing information to unknown parties. I am fine with it. Just pointing out that we know next to nothing."
Last edited by Pandemonium; Mon 09/11/1517:53 UTC.
(OOC - OK, from what I gether you planned to go to Halia Thornton to turn over Iarno's papers and collect the reward she offered. Next go to the town of Thundertree to look into Quests #4 & #6.
So, for now, I mostly need input from Balthazar regarding how long he wants to take to attune himself to his new staff and to copy the spells in Iarno's Spellbook into his own. Time/cost requirements to do all of it are:
After sharing a single drink, he bids himself leave and heads up to look over the staff and decide which spells he is going to transfer into his own book.
OOC: He will plan to copy as many as money and time allow
The halfling was taking full advantage of Elsa's offer. It wasn't every day that free drinks were the prize of the day. He meant to get sloshed. Within the hour he was dancing on the tables.
(OOC - Ken - "He will plan to copy as many as money and time allow" - that is the question I need an answer to. Both of those depend on you, not me. Plus you may have some of them already and not need to copy those.)
As for the Staff, after an hour of study it reveals itself to be:
While he also plans to enjoy the 'down time', he has not intention of trying to match the little guy. He =does= do his best to encourage Lingo's efforts to entertain the place.
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