Having reached the Brendingund residence in Clerkburg, just down from the Black Dragon Inn, you are greeted by the sight of a large stone and wood home that sits behind the Gem and Stone Cutters Guildhouse. Wide stone steps lead up to twin mahogany doors where heavy tarnished silver knockers hang The home has a stately, dignified look but is wom and shows the generations it has served.
PCs knocking on the door will be greeted almost immediately.
Seconds after you knock on the door, the rightmost swings inward, revealing an elderly man informal attire. Jemar winks at you and immediately ushers you in to an interior sitting room. This sitting room contains several faded green overstuffed chairs and a matching couth positioned to face the unlit fireplace. The entire floor is covered with a fine, but worn, rug of Ketite make. Another pair of double doors leads from this room, Jemar disappears Within and closes the doors behind him- You can barely discern a muffed conversation beyond he doors.
Anyone wishing to listen at the closed double doors can do so.
- If successful, the PC will hear a Jemar tell Auldon Brendingund that there is a group of people in the sitting room that wish to discuss a business proposition with him.
- He responds excitedly to this possibility and then there is the distinct sound of footsteps moving toward the door.
After only a few minutes behind closed doors Jemar reemerges into the sitting room and ushers you into the offce beyond. Auldon Brendingund is a heavy-set human in his mid forties With thinning black hair and a patchy goatee His clothing is richly appointed, but seems a little too small and clings tightly to his and backside. He quickly moves to introduce himself, greet you and shake each of your hands earnestly before moving to seat himself.
Once seated behind his massive wooden desk, Auldon glances around nervously. The walls in this room are full of bookshelves, only half of which contain books, and a pictureque marble fireplace with a bare mantle. The sun-faded outlines of vases above the mantle show as dark shadows against the wallpaper, but there are no vases in sight There are eight serviceable wooden chairs arranged before the desk for your convenience. Auldon smiles a second time as you sit. "Thank you for coming this evening I understand you have some kind of
business proposition for me?"
Auldun has borrowed heavily from the Thieves' Guild against his family's properties, including his home, and has sold everything not vital to keeping the Brendingund shipping operations running. Unless something changes, Auldon will begin missing payments in the next two weeks and then he expects the Thieves Guild to begin getting violent If Auldon is unable to come up with something of substantial value by then Auldon plans to flee Greyhawk on one of his trading vessels.
Once the PCs reveal the letters from Auldon's great apnt, and their plan to search for lost family heirloom and other treasure, Auldon will be skeptical, but reveal that he has been researching a family mtne in the Caern Hills. Auldon has a journal from Efimus, his great-great grandfather in which one entry indicated that the "resting place" of the family's "greatest treasurer and refuge in time of need" was beneath the barn of a played out family mine in the Cairn Hills. This journal has recently come to his attention because he pays the City of
Greyhawk a fee each year for the right to work the mine, but there has been no income from the mine in decades.
Auldon is considering giving up the mine in order to avoid the fee and conserve what little funds he has. However, first he wants to understand his familfs involvement to make sure he's not giving anything valuable away- Tle is willing to undertake anything that might help his situation at no cost to him and will tell the PCs they can keep anything they find except the
"hetrloom".
If the PCs ask to see the journal, Auldon will refuse telling them the quote is: "I am newous that it is hidden so near a profitable mine. I plan to make every effort to empty that hill of emeralds as quickly as possible. Lostng that small treasure will make the resting place safer." If pressed to see it, Auldon will tell the PCS that the journal contains much information of a private and potentially embarrassing nature and he does not wish to share it. Auldon knows relations between his mother and her family were strained, but is unclear why. she spoke of
them very little when he was a child and never after her own mother died. Tle assumes that Great Aunt Bedilund received no aid. Auldon will converse with the PCs as long as they wish, and recommend that they get underway first thing in the morning.
He will then show the PC's a rough map of the southern coast of the Nyr Dyv including the Cairn Hills and suggest directions to the mine. The PCs can journey on the High Road until it forks a few miles into the Cairn Hills- From there they take the path to Blackstone until they reach a quartz boulder the size of a small house and head due south until they reach the mine. The
Brendingund mine is two days journey from Greyhawk and Auldon will suggest that the PCs stay at the Last Chance Inn, just inside the Cairn Hills. They can stay there the first night of their journey, at the mine the second night, return to the inn the third night and return to Greyhawk on the fourth evening. The PCs need not stick to this schedule.
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