Session 86

As the dust settles, the party searches the bodies of Calantha and her Sahuagin for valuables, taking Calantha's trident, potions, and other goods. However, Dain notes that many of her possessions are related to Enchantment magic, and decides he'll have to turn them over to the authorities when he gets the chance. In the meantime, Merrick hears the voice of someone calling out for help and Dain follows it to the nearby tavern, which is burning down. Dorin uses a conjured storm cloud to start putting out the fire on the roof while Dain breaks down the front door and uses Frost Fingers to begin putting out fires while working his way to the back, where he finds the tavern owner pinned under a fallen cask. Dain uses Stormsmasher to break down the nearby wall with some effort and uses Vortex Warp to teleport the man outside, and then helps him up after the party heals him. The man thanks Dain, telling him that if his tavern survives the ordeal, he will give Dain and his friends free drinks. The party then hears more voices in the distance, a woman and a child. Dain again breaks down the front door, narrowly avoiding a burst of flames that erupts as the air rushes into the inferno while Dorin summons another rain cloud to douse the fires on the roof. Dain finds a beam blocking the door to a room and knocks it aside, then breaks down the door with Stormsmasher and finds a woman and her now unconscious daughter inside. He again uses Vortex Warp on both to send them outside, where Dorin tends to the child and Merrick heals them both. The child recovers, and the woman thanks them. The group then sees Enforcers rushing towards them, weapons at the ready. Dain calls out to them, telling them that they're friendly, which the Enforcers agree and thank them for their aid, telling them of the Sahuagin attacking the city, saying that the Enforcers have mostly dealt with them and that the damage didn't spread much beyond the harbor district thanks to them taking out Calantha. They tell the party that the remaining Sahuagin made their way to the Statehouse, and about 80 Enforcers have lost their lives across the city, so the party makes their way towards it.

Arriving at the Statehouse, the party finds bodies, both of Sahuagin and Enforcers alike littering the streets, and heading inside the Statehouse, they find a group of Enforcers finishing off a group of Sahuagin. As they head towards Solomon Bersk's office, the arrive just in time to see a Sahuagin flung against the wall out of the doorway and another one skewered through the head by a rapier, as they see Solomon emerge, clearly unharmed. They seem amazed at his skill and he explains that he does fencing in his spare time, and is grateful to hear of their intervention not only in killing the Juvenile Kraken, but in dealing with Calantha. He sits down and has a drink and tells the player that once things settle down in the city and he helps everyone rebuild, he'll see about their payment, but that it will take a bit of time because there are more important things to deal with.

The players decide to head over to the Reckless Rudder, and find it mostly intact, but with fires on the roof and some scorch marks. Dain puts out the fire and proceeds inside, finding Travaran, who is surprised to have customers in the midst of all the chaos. He agrees to let them stay there after they graciously offer him 60 gp, which sends him into a cooking frenzy bringing out his best ingredients. The party then rests for the day. The next day, everyone begins helping out around town, doing repairs where they can and they spend a few days performing relief work while waiting for the payment that Solomon said would be ready within a week. A few days later, there is a commotion as citizens are seen running away from the harbor while Enforcers charge forward towards it. The players pursue and find a gathered crowd with a line of Enforcers surrounding an Elf… Seylas. The Enforcers demand an explanation, on guard after Calantha emerged in a similar fashion a week ago. Dain halts the Enforcers, explaining that they know him and that he's not a threat. A nervous Seylas seems to relax and goes with the party, where he explains that after their last encounter, he had a bit of a nervous breakdown and went to Valdor, but upon leaving, he dropped his journal, and then hid upstairs. He said that Valdor found him after the party left Seryndor and, knowing about Ardnys thanks to his journal, they sought her out and Valdor decided to stay in the city while he looked for a way to cure her of her transformation. Seylas, however, seemed eager to explore the town after being trapped underwater for more than half his life. They brought him to the Reckless Rudder and got him what was likely his first meal that didn't involve fish in centuries, which he eagerly devoured. He then seemed to want to explore, and the party went out on the town with him before he stopped in front of a building, Talavir Tailoring, confused and explained that that was his name -- that his name is Seylas Talavir. He proceeded inside, meeting the head seamstress, Shanna Talavir, and questioning her about her family name, and asked about someone called "Keishara". Shanna explained that Keishara was her grandmother and was out gathering supplies. Dain began to explain who Seylas was, and Shanna didn't know how to respond. However, Keishara came back through the front door and dropped her things, incredulous to see her long lost brother standing before her. After reuniting, the party left them to catch up.

The next day, the party went to Solomon to collect their payment and were given 500 gp, which was all he could afford given all the damage to the city. He also extended an offer that should they have need of a favor at some point in the future whenever they're in Caphanos, to just ask. The party decided to set out back for Eldham, but first decided to go get Seylas and properly introduce him to Evaryan, allowing the two to talk about Seryndor. Afterwards, they gathered their things and set out. Along the way, they stopped in Thenaphor, where Dain sought the Frostfire Brewery and purchased the recipe for Frostfire Mead from Chenna, and was directed to the vineyard of Salazar Marivaldi, a Human who cultivated many of the Frostfire Berries used by Chenna in her mead. Dain spoke to the man to learn how to cultivate Frostfire Berries so he could bring them to Reshyk so his people could enjoy the unique and potent mead. Salazar sold Dain some starter seeds and bushels, as well as giving him a recipe for a fertilizer that would help the growth of the berries. The party then set out for Malacanan, where Prenna decided that it was time to depart the group, realizing that their path wasn't what she thought she should be doing and that she needed to do some soul searching to figure out what she wanted to do, but in the meantime, decided to stay with her favorite school teacher. Dain gave Prenna 600 gp to help her out on her journey. The party then left and arrived in Eldham in late Umen.

As their first stop in Eldham, the group stopped in at the Dead Goose Inn, hearing a crash in the kitchen and some colorful language from Icarus, who was yelling at Cheese. Nuggie then charged out of the kitchen, covered in flour, and began licking Summer. Icarus then emerged from the kitchen, also covered in flour, and greeted the group. Dain presented Icarus with the magical cookware they found in Nola Jendor's home. Icarus seemed excited about the prospect of beating unruly customers with the enlarged cooking spoon more so than the actual cooking applications. Dain then proceeded upstairs to gather his Steel Defender, who was severely rusted. However, after reactivating it and cleaning it off, it was ready to go. Dain finally began identifying some of the many potions and items he hadn't had the time to while in Seryndor and presented Merrick with the Tome of Leadership and Influence found in Seylas' laboratory. He then headed over to Eldham's Excellent Elixirs to check in with Giselle and ask her about getting help to cultivate the Frostfire Berries, which Giselle admitted wasn't exactly her area of expertise, but said she would help create a suitable fertilizer for them. She tried to give Dain royalties from the shop's profits, but Dain refused, saying it was 100% hers again. Summer went to visit Reginard, who said that his home brewing situation had been successful and gave her 40 gp in royalties and said he would like some help expanding his setup and producing some more specialty drinks. Summer told him about Frostfire Mead and offered to help him grow some so they could brew Frostfire Mead for the Messy Cushion. She paid for half of the cost of purchasing some land to create a vineyard and began helping him to setup the operation. The group then went to collect their payment from Evaryan at his estate, where Dain decided to give him the Wayfinder's Sphere so he could more easily locate Seryndor again and perhaps find other lost cities. Evaryan also told him that a member of the Sorcerer's Cabal had arrived in Caphanos and had been asking around about Seryndor, seemingly interested in investigating a certain Elf from the city, and indicated it appeared he was searching for Valdor. He decided to send word to Seylas so that he could warn Valdor.

Merrick began regularly communing with the Deep One each week, trying to answer questions, and seemed curious how the Deep One always seemed to know where the party would be going before they went there. The Deep One responded saying that he could see possibilities and that he just knew. Merrick told Orick of this and Orick cautioned Merrick of the Deep One's childlike understanding of the world, saying that it could be dangerous, and said that he should think very seriously about any requests that the Deep One makes of him. The Deep One then made reference to the party's imminent journey to Reshyk, stating that he wished to know how a Flow Cell worked. Meanwhile, Dorin had an encounter while out shopping in the markets with a young Elven girl who seemed very angry with him, lashing out and hitting him, saying that he ruined her life and that he was useless. She said "You were supposed to save them!" and seemed very distraught. Dorin did not know what to say to her, and she walked off livid.

Dain began a months-long arduous crafting spree, creating several enchanted items to equip the party with, and was quite successful, even if it did drain him of much of the money he had earned from his expedition to Seryndor. Nearing the end of Lekaren, the trade festival arrived again and the party began to explore its wares. However, while exploring, Dain encountered a Dwarven woman named Kristryd Evermead, who appeared to be selling Steel Defenders, whom she called "Forgeborn", and was confused at Dain's assertions that Gloin had stolen his work, and got into a discussion explaining how his family's inherited runes were inscribed into his Steel Defender, which were not present in Gloin's work, indicating Gloin's work was not sanctioned by his family. Kristryd seemed interested, but confused, and didn't know what to say. She explained that King Rangrim had contracted Gloin and was shipping the Forgeborn across the world to be sold as laborers and guardians as a new source of revenue to fund the Runesmith's College, the renowned Artificer's college in Reshyk's capital city, Shimmerwind. This greatly bothered Dain.