Session 43

The party decides to browse around the trade festival in the time remaining. Dain encounters his cousin Gloin selling cheap knock-offs of his Steel Defender after a nobleman who bought one and saw Dain's far superior model felt slighted and pointed Dain in his direction. After a brief argument, Dain ominously told Gloin he would be returning to Reshyk to clear his name. Afterwards, Dain and Icarus subtly manipulated the crowd to embarrass and drive Gloin away.

Dain manages to find a buyer for the Shadesteel Longswords he crafted -- Arromar, an Elven weaponsmith from Valensir. He then had the wizard known as Andraste make several spell scrolls for him so that he could add them to his growing spellbook. He also borrowed 10 Potions of Healing and 5 Potions of Greater Healing from Eldham's Excellent Elixirs. As a result, this will cut into Dain's profits for the month of Lysten. Finally, Dain loaned Grim 3,000 GP so that Grim could buy Bracers of Defense from the Dwarven armorer known as Helda.

Icarus decides to purchase the Dead Goose Inn from Tabitha, allowing her to finally move to Mythwell to start her new life there, where she plans to start a new business. Icarus was just a little short on coin, so Tabitha agreed to take what he had and the rest would be taken out of the inn's profits from Icarus' pastries for the rest of the week. Then, Icarus encounters his old friend Nyxmare, whom he believed to be dead. At this point, Nyxmare swaps places with Icarus in the party. It turns out that Nyxmare just never told Icarus that she survived the fire Icarus believed she perished in.

Ferel Shaethe approaches the party with an air of importance and tells them about her father Evaryan's expedition and sets up a meeting for the following day. The group meets with him and agrees to go on the expedition to the Catacombs of Blackfrost. Evaryan has the party all sign liability waivers in case something happens to them.

The party heads off on the expedition and while Evaryan and his proteges set up camp outside the cave, the party heads in and despite setting up a rope for climbing down, only Nyxmare attempts to actually climb down it, and quickly loses her grip and plunges into the cold water below, having to be saved by Grim because she cannot swim. After the rest of the party swan dives into the water, Dain realizes he could have cast Feather Fall on them all to prevent possible injury.

The party gathers around the shoreline of the water in the cavern and decides that it's too risky to attempt to swim through the underground passage in the water and investigates the walls to see if there's another way in. Dain, being a Dwarf, notices that some of the rock on one of the walls facing the direction of the underwater passage seems weak, and he and Kongol begin hacking away at it, revealing a narrow passage leading to a crack in the wall of the Catacombs of Blackfrost. Inside, they see the entryway and some Dwarven writing above it, which with a good History check, Dain is able to decipher as the word Blackfrost. They proceed inwards…

In the preparation chamber, Nyxmare investigates the pottery in the room, finding what is very clearly fragments of bone in them, and decides to eat a piece, telling the party: "These treats they left us aren't very good…"

The party presses onwards after investigating the strange medical instruments near the skeletal remains in the preparation room and proceeds down a hallway into one of the ossuaries. After passing by a strangely darkened portion of the hallway, the shadows leap at Summer, as two Black Puddings attack them. The party quickly deals with them, but takes a good deal of damage in turn.