Session 57

The party, seeking answers as to who stole their hard-earned money and the Darkblade, head to the Twelve Flea Tavern to question the barkeep, Adrien, as to who could possible have done this. As they enter, they notice him pouring water into one of his open kegs of ale. He quickly stammers and puts the lid back on and asks them not to mention what they saw. Adrien unfortunately doesn't have much insight to offer them besides that it could possibly be the Crag Cats, a local group of young ruffians who likes to harass the miners, likely because there's nothing better to do in town. The party heads to the mines on the outskirts of town and finds the foreman, Miklos, and asks about them. He points them to a trail behind the mines and says they're not hard to find, so the party marches up the mountain.

Halfway up the mountain, Summer notices someone clearly ducking down, trying to hide on top of the nearby ridge. The Crag Cats begin hurling rocks at the party, and Summer begins stealthily making her way up the ridge, where she grabs one of the boys and tells him to knock it off. Meanwhile, Eskall notices another boy ducking around a corner up ahead and chases after him. Dain also follows, though he is not as fast as Eskall. Eskall chases the boy around a corner and calls out to him. The boy turns to face him, at which point, Eskall tosses him the Darkblade, which the boy eagerly grabs, binding him to the blade, and causing him to go into a frenzy, trying to attack Eskall. Dain rounds the corner just in time to see the boy attempting to rush Eskall and Eskall dodging and grabbing him by the scruff of the neck. He casts Remove Curse to unbind the blade from the boy. Dain and Eskall dive for the blade, and Dain is just a hair faster and manages to snatch it, and then gives Eskall an earful for attempting to grab it, given what the blade is capable of, and then wraps it up and sticks it back in the Bag of Holding.

The party travels along the road towards Nenthafiaran, the next stop on their journey, and after a few weeks, they come upon a forest near a small village in the distance where they notice some commoners gathered holding crude weapons and wearing crude armor. They question the commoners and find that they are searching for a creature which has been terrorizing their village, eating livestock and, most recently, killing three of their own. They admit that they have not seen the creature, but that the remains of those killed by it were totally mangled and unrecognizable, and it left behind massive footprints, which they show to the party. The party decides to investigate and tracks the footprints to a small cave in a hillside in the forest, where they can hear the crunching of bones and grunting. They listen closer and Grim can make out speech from three distinct voices speaking in the language of giants. As they are trying to figure out what to do, the creature hears them and charges out into the open, revealing itself to be a Dire Troll. It flails its arms wildly, dealing heavy damage to Dain, Grim, and Eskall. Ultimately, the party fells the monstrosity, and proceeds to harvest its heart and some of its blood, believing it will be of some use. The commoners who accompanied them cheer for them and offer to let them stay the night in their village, Aylesford, where the villagers hold a celebration after the commoners boast about their involvement in the slaying of the beast, downplaying the party's role, which the party chooses not to question, as it seems to make some of the ladies of the village interested in the men. In the morning, the party resumes their journey to Nenthafiaran.

As the party arrives at Nenthafiaran, they are greeted by an Enforcer at the gates that appeared to be nodding off as they approached. The Enforcer apologizes and says that Nenthafiaran doesn't see much foot traffic, being fairly isolated. The party questions where they can go to rest, and they are directed to the Mysterious Midget Inn, which the Enforcer says is owned by Shana Furrysack, but he warns them not to address her with her last name. The Enforcer also warns the party that Nenthafiaran is a dry city, meaning alcohol is prohibited. The party proceeds to the inn and are greeted by Shana, who is happy to see travelers, and laments that she has always wanted to travel to Odracanath after the party reveals their travel plans, saying that it is a fascinating city where they can find many trade goods and exotic foods. Eskall can't help but ask for the 20th time for the night whether there are any "food challenges", confusing Shana, who can't help but wonder what that means. The party wants to do some shopping, but due to how isolated Nenthafiaran is, there isn't much to do there, so they simply stock up on supplies and decide to get a good night's rest.

In the morning, as the party is preparing to leave on the road to Odracanath, a group of Enforcers approaches, and the man they were greeted by at the gates the previous day points them out and hurries over, at which point they accost Summer and question where the party was the previous night. The party is quite confused and tells them they were at the Mysterious Midget Inn, as the man had suggested to them. He informs the party that a Human woman was murdered last night in the residential quarter, and that a witness claims that an Elf was responsible. Given that the party are travelers in a city that doesn't see many outsiders and the fact that there is one Elf among them wielding a dagger, the Enforcers move to arrest Summer, and say that they will need to hold her while they investigate.