Session 26: A Solstice Surprise

Returning to the City of Thalmor

Making their way into the City of Thalmor, the party registered their boat and gave Steven (the most sea experienced person on the boat) 100gp to pay for repairs and try to make commerce with the funds.

From there, the party moved straight to the market and noticed the pile of corpses that appeared to be victims of slaadpoles. In front of the pile was an ominous floating arcane riddle that warned of doom at the end of the Summer Solstice.

The party decided to go shopping while the court was abuzz with chaos and bought some magical stuff at Rapi's Emporium, along with a sending stone that they would later give to Steven. They learned that Eldrin had purchased heliomancy supplies a few days prior.

The Solstice Mystery

From there, the party met with the Captain guard and Morthos, the captain. Morthos was surprised to see the party and their new member, "Brick" the dwarf. He offered them 100gp each to track down the source of this Solstice problem and end it. He gave them two places to check out: the temple of Varda Elementári, and Eldrin's house, a guard magician who had not shown up to work that day.

At the temple, the party learned that Eldrin had offered to see one of their scrolls, which gave information about growth rituals, one in particular that used the solstice as a focus for the powerful spell.

At Eldrin's, they believed that they saw indications that Eldrin may have been infected by the Blue Slaad that got away on the day of their death, but his odd behavior did not match anything they were familiar with in Red Slaad infections. They did note that one of the scrolls in his bookshelf mentioned a specific ritual that involved slaadpoles - with notes that connected it to the scroll found in the temple.

As the sun began to sink toward the horizon, Wu Odd began to feel weakened, recognizing the signs of a slaadpole emergence. He was rushed by Gimble to the temple, where they discovered it was a curse that had been afflicting him. A ritual of Remove Curse was sufficient to remove the plague within him, and from there they made their way to the Defender's Perch, the tallest building in the city, and once there they confronted Grokk, the Green Slaad of Heliomancy, concluding his ritual at the close of the Summer Solstice, alongside two Red Slaad.