The Road to Waterdeep

Chad is back. It's time for some more Dungeons and Dragons.

We're traveling as assumed named with a caravan, to see where the dragon cultists are headed.

It's around 750 miles to Waterdeep. This will be a long trip.

Day 1

Luke has been assigned tent duty on Mondath. I've seen Alissa just following Cyanwrath around.

I try to keep away from the cultists, lest they notice me.

Day 2

One of the cultist wagons flipped out, leaving a ton of purloined treasure laying laying around.

Day 3

Several people were found dead. It was poison, apparently.

Later I found out that Alissa's eyes lingered on the treasure a little too long, which Cyanwrath noticed. They tried to poison her too, but she survived, and managed to get employ under Shale, to guard Aldor. Aldor apparently also made some really strange requests.

Day 4

We reached a small village late at night. It was a welcome sight after a miserable day, but apparently the only inn was reserved by a bunch of rich assholes.

Still, spent about an hour drying off and having a few drinks before returning to the camp.

I didn't see her, but I guess Alissa tried to steal from one of them after I left, but manage to only get a purse full of worthless stones. I did see Luke, and he later mentioned that one of the teamsters, a halfling, got in a row with those rich assholes. One of them had a hidden blade, and badly wounded the halfling, but Luke got him out of there.

Later in the night, a "brawl" broke out, and four bodies were found with neat little puncture holes in the back of the neck. Not sure what happened exactly, none of us were still there that late.

Day 16

High above we spot two eagle-like shapes, but with the head of a deer. Perytons! I've heard of them. They're ferocious carnivores, and use human hearts to hatch their younglings.

I have the guards under my command form a perimeter around the wagon, and Lai got under the wagon. One of our guards were grabbed and taken away, but the Peryton lost interesting, having his prize.

Shale (and Alissa) had better luck guarding Aldor and his wagon, and actually manage to drive the Peryton assaulting them away, but not before Aldor started running and screaming.

Later I found out Mondath summoned some demonic spirits, which prevented the Perytons from seeing the members of her group at all, and stood idly by. How heartless!

Day 22

Luke came to me this afternoon.

Some of the guards had apparently taken not of him over the last few days. At first he wasn't sure why, but he grew more and more concerned by the increasing attention.

It was surely no coincidence that Luke's horse also developed a limp, because after Mondath sent him to the back of the line where the blacksmith is to find out why, he was ambushed. The caravan had gotten out of ear and eyeshot by this point, Luke escaped with his life. The blacksmith wasn't so lucky.

Later, at night, I managed to convince Lai to let me hire Luke on. He was reluctant, and surely would refused had we not lost another guard a few days ago.

Day 23

We reached the town of Dragonspear.

Not much interesting, but I finally got a chance to give Alissa and Luke their harper pins back.

Aldor seems to be giving Alissa and Shale strange requests again. I didn't catch what exactly, but Shale seems to be getting pretty irritated by it.

Day 25

One of the nobles traveling in the caravan was mistreating his horses, and Shale refused to let it go on when he started beating one of the hoses. There was a bit of a row, but it ended with Shale buying the horse off of him.

Nobody thought the horse could possibly live, but nobody knew Shale is a paladin of Lliira either. I don't think anyone still knows, as she managed to disguise her healing of the horse when Luke was tending to it. Well, one of the teamsters might, but I don't think there will be a problem there.

Day 29

While we were having a rest, I was clumsy, and the damn glass eye fell out of my bag.

One of the merchants saw it, and took an interest, and wanted to buy it.

I have no idea what it is for. The notes and letters, they all led me to it, and it's the only thing I have remaining that might lead to my father, but not a clue what it means.

The merchant mentioned someone in Baldur's Gate would be interested in it, and that's why he wanted to buy it, but seemed completely uninterested in selling me the name of the person who might want it.

I can't sell it. I need to find out more, but with the way the merchant is bothering me, I'm worried the merchant might do something stupid, so for the time being, I've given it to Luke.

Day 30

That merchant is still bothering me. He won't even tell me his own name.

Day 31

We reach the town of Daggerford. Pretty uneventful.

He keeps bothering me. Nothing else happens. We reach the town of Daggerford.

Day 32

The caravan gained two more members. One of them is a human, who seems yet another one of the dragon cultists.

The other is a female gnome who seems to have a strange interest in the joined cultist, but she also comes around to say hi to everyone else in the camp. Her name is Gleamsilver, she says. She notices that she is noticed which we notice and she notices that we notice that...

Day 36

The campaign book dictates that we are eating our porridge together. Apparently we don't get any choice in this. Yupppp.

We have respite, where we meat up briefly. Gleamsilver walks up, and grabs Shale's oatmeal, and pokes it with her dagger, fishing out a tiny bead. She nods in the direction of the cultists, and says it's a sliver of bone. Swallow it, and the bone uncurls and pierces your gut and kills you. She says next that we should meet her, tonight. She walks off.

Alissa just dumps her porridge. Luke and I poke at our own. I don't find anything, and Luke thinks he might have, but isn't sure. Either way, we have no appetite left after that, so we dump our porridge too.

Luke and Alissa go to talk to Gleamsilver in the evening. They go to the woods, and Gleamsilver tells them while they don't work for the same people, they share a common goal. She's been trying to find out what is in the wagons, and where the cultists are going, but has had little luck. Alissa tells her we know one thing at least.

Azbar Jose is also interested, apparently, but he is of the Red Wizards of Thay.

Gleamsilver tells them that her current assignment is to observe only. She thinks the person she has been trailing is to meet with Monday that night, and she does not know why the cultists suspected us.

Day 39

Another holy day. Slow start tomorrow, apparently, too.

Day 40

Someone tried to break into Aldor's wagon. Aldor was highly paranoid, and booby trapped.

Sounds like Alissa's curiosity got the best of her, but only managed to purloin a beat.

Not really sure how they managed to smooth that over, but it didn't seem to do much to help Aldor's paranoia. It did somehow make Aldor even more interested in hiring Shale on permanently though. Or making a clone?

Day 43

One of the cultists was stabbed in the back with a sword last night, and left beneath one of their wagons.

The cultists immediately accuse me, and I show them my weapons. Two daggers and a sling. No sword.

They're not satisfied and demand to see the inside of Lai's wagon, but the rest of the caravan is not exactly enamored with them, so their demand is left unmet.

Azbor Jose intervenes, and it's agreed that whoever did it, will only face punishment at the hands of the gods.

I decide it might be a good idea to double our personal watch that night.

We reach Waterdeep the next day, and the caravan disbands, with everyone going our separate ways.

The cultists head to the North side of the city, and Alissa trails them while the rest of us wait at a less than reputable inn. Shale makes some friends when he heals several of them, and even after her divine power is spent, more and more mob her, so Shale leaves to take them to church, apparently donating large amounts of money to have them cared for. Some call Shale the Lord of Lepers.

We manage to meet back up, and find a proper inn. "The Hammer and Sickle." How very communist.

Alissa and Luke have been watching the inn where the cultists have been staying, and Luke found several of the cultists had been visiting a warehouse. We go to check it out. Cautiously

Luke makes Alissa invisible, and Alissa sneaks into the warehouse via a high window. The window is made of real glass, which takes little effort for Jeff to break through.

Inside, Alissa finds only various supplies. In one crate she finds white cloth. In another, nails.