Session 73

Before the group departs Eldham, Dain decides to leave the Steel Defender with Icarus at the Dead Goose, and puts it into stasis. Summer also opts to leave Nuggie with Icarus as well. And with that, the group departs on their way to the first stop on their long journey, Malacanan. They decide not to spend too much time in each town along the way and keep traveling towards Thenaphor. Along the way, they come across a Human man in the road who seems in pain. He explains that he was knocked off of his horse after his horse got spooked by a voice seemingly coming from nowhere that shouted "BOO!" at them, after which, his horse ran off into the woods, and he claims his coin pouch untied itself from his belt and flew off. Summer begins making her way over to the woods and quickly locates the horse, who is in a clearing where an Elf is attempting to calm the horse. Summer seems suspicious, and the man explains that he is a hunter who was tracking some game when the horse came up behind him, startling him, and he was trying to calm it down. Summer took over, calming the creature, before questioning the man, noticing that as she turned toward him, he seemed to be trying to hide a pouch behind his back. She immediately questioned him, and he claimed they were herbs that his wife asked him to gather. However, Summer easily saw through his deception, and as Dain and Grim caught up, the man bolted. Summer gave chase, but the man seemed to know the woods fairly well, and managed to give her the slip. Dain, wondering if he was simply hiding, slung a Fireball into the trees, but heard nothing, and put out the fires before Summer escorted the horse back to the man. The man seemed thankful that they recovered his horse, but distraught that all his money was gone, so Dain gave the man 50 gp. The party offered to travel with the man for the rest of the way to Thenaphor, and they continued on.

The party stops briefly in Thenaphor to rest and so Grim can try some Frostfire Mead again, which he is fortunately able to withstand this time around without passing out, baffling the Vesperkin brewery owner. They gather at the Misty Mountain Inn, where Merrick attempts to commune with Estrea, seeking answers about his past, hoping Estrea would be more forthcoming about things Orick would not reveal to him. However, Estrea implied that Orick was doing so for his own good and that she did not think he was ready to know all the details yet. She then told Merrick to gather the others so she could speak with them. Once everyone was gathered, Estrea briefly spoke to the party, wanting to thank them for their service the previous year, and offering them a boon -- that the next time they were on death's door, it would not be so easy for them to cross over (the next time they fail three death saving throws, they get a fourth roll, and if they succeed, they stabilize). She told Merrick that Orick had finally recovered and would be resuming his tenure as his patron, and bid the party farewell.

The next day, the party continues on their journey towards Esharreth, and upon arriving, notices a distinct willow tree in the center of town. They spend some time walking about town searching for an inn, and came across a brewery, where Grim took the opportunity to try some of their mixed drinks, and then they stopped a random local to ask where to find the inn, and were directed to one called Whispers & Winks, prompting the local to exaggeratedly wink at Dain after telling him to have a good night. This unnerved them, but they continued toward the inn, taking stock of the various businesses in town. The town does not seem to have much in the way of commerce, and seems more like a tourist destination, with many of the store fronts vaguely hinting toward spirits. As the party passed by the willow tree, they began to hear whispering coming from the tree. Walking closer, Merrick could hear whispering coming directly from the tree, but could not understand it. Dain took the time to cast Comprehend Languages, and heard the voices whispering something to the effect of "Just because the road has only two paths does not mean you must travel one of them.", a rather cryptic thing to hear. Everyone settled in at the inn, where they asked for rooms, and the innkeeper bid them a good night before giving them an exaggerated wink, unnerving them again. Retiring to his room, Merrick witnesses some sort of fluid dripping from the ceiling, pooling on the ground, before becoming spiky, as the form of some manner of creature with spikes jutting out of its skin emerged. Merrick heard the creature speaking in his mind, bidding him to prepare to serve "The Deep One", ignoring Merrick's protests that he serves Orick. The figure seemed to imply that he had "looked into the Abyss, and it looked into him, and he had not lost his mind, and he must serve The Deep One". Merrick was disturbed, and after the creature vanished, he attempted to rest, but had a disturbing dream. Meanwhile, each of the other party members awoke early in the morning, hearing whispering in their rooms. Dain also witnessed a shadowy figure in the corner of his room briefly observing him before turning and walking through the wall. The next day, the party decides to get out of town, grabbing breakfast and leaving immediately.

Arriving in Vardanorr, the party notices the city is half enclosed by the city walls and half outside of them, with a vast market sprawling the outer city, filled with carts of goods, including a Lynoxi woman hocking magical goods from a cart called Out of the Bag, where they purchased several items, before continuing and finding an Ettinor blacksmith who sold Summer a cutlass that seemed convenient for their upcoming adventure, called Wavecutter. Along their way down the main road, they encountered a lifelike statue of a Vesperkin man with a shocked expression and hands up in fear with lavender adorning the bottom. They asked a passerby and he explained the history of the statue, saying that hundreds of years ago, an ambassador of the Sudwin Valley region in Vardanorr was nearly assassinated, but as the assassin attempted to petrify the ambassador with a wand, it instead hit the Vesperkin man, who was invisible in the center of the room between them. They never knew what he was doing there but most believe he was an unspoken bodyguard of some sort, and they make offerings of lavender at his statue routinely. Dain briefly wondered if the statue was actually the Vesperkin's body, but the man did not know the answer to that, and offered some gossip, telling them of a purple lake to the north, and that there were rumors that the statehouse was haunted. The party then continued through the gates to the inner city where they found a fabric shop selling some fabrics with interesting properties, but ultimately useless to them. They then continued to a shop called The Grotto, run by an Ettinor man named Nalak, who was selling gems and metals. Merrick asked for information about each and seemed particularly interested in the Reef Lapis and the metal known as Eskite, which Nalak explained "It consume the flow, and then, it grow…" several times, indicating that the metal had the ability to grow by consuming the magical energy present in the atmosphere, and could even be used to create a prison cell with a magical dead zone where you could not cast magic inside. Merrick purchased some Reef Lapis and diamonds, and told Dain about the materials. Dain took an interest in a material called Petrasteel, which was somewhere between granite and steel and had the ability to absorb shock and vibrations -- brushing off a strong whack from Dain's warhammer with ease. Intrigued by the material, Dain purchased a large quantity of it along with some Shadowflame Coal, so that he might craft a suit of plate mail from it at a later time. They then left and asked around about an inn, being directed to a place in the outer city called Inn-cognito, where they purchased rooms and stayed overnight, before leaving the next day on the last stretch of their journey to Caphanos.

Arriving in Caphanos, the party went searching for an inn to settle into and were directed to the harbor where they found The Reckless Rudder, an inn built inside the wreckage of a ship that crashed into the harbor decades ago because the captain and helmsman were drunk, which resulted in them being thrown overboard and killed. They asked the innkeeper, an Elf named Travaran, about Evaryan, and were told that he had a room at the inn but was not currently there, and that he would tell him the party was searching for him if he came back. Dain then went to the harbor with Grim and found a dockmaster, and were told that two potential ships would be in port soon that could bring Grim to Greentide so he could speak to his people about the findings in the Catacombs of Blackfrost, but that there were issues with ships leaving port recently, with them being attacked outside the harbor by an unknown entity, who was sinking roughly half of ships coming and going. Grim then departed, promising to clear his people's name, and Dain returned to the inn.