Session 05: The Babysitter's Club

The party spent the night in Eastbridge after guarding the Nymphgate Trading Coster caravan, determined to find new job opportunities to continue to pay their tax debt to Duke Hueck Greyhall. Searching the postings in the towns taverns, they found notices from Meabh Mhic Cailin who is seeking a reward for information for the culprit stealing her pies, a reward posted for the return of a lost black and white ‘champion’ mouser named “Treacle”, notice of a missing child, Cruinn Taithligh, last seen playing in the forest, and a flyer for the Battle of the Bards night. None of the positions seemed lucrative enough for the Adventurer’s League to participate in.   While searching for jobs postings, Reita attuned herself to the cloak that was discovered in the Kobold lair, uncovering that it is a Glamerweave Cloak, capable of performing harmless illusions.   While the group was looking for work, the Duke’s tax collector, Erastus Beard found the group in the tavern and introduced the group to Bolvaic Boradrak, a Dwarf who was the final inheritor of Wendell Cuthbert Wallace’s estate--and tax debt associated with it. Erastus had already signed Bolviac onto the Duke’s property holdings and it was left to the party to explain the tax debt that he was now tied to.   The group was then approached by a courier for Duke Hueck, inviting them to the Duke’s estate to meet with him. The group, now with Bolvaic with them, met with Duke Hueck, who described himself as a frontier nobleman, who had carved the land out from the wilds and earned the title and lands and respect he now possessed. However, it is his concern that his son, Tertius Greyhall, has lived a life of relative ease and would not be respected when the time came to take up his mantle. The Duke asked the party to “make a man” out of his son and to have him join the Gentleman's League of Explorers and Adventurers. It was the Duke’s intent that the party would “soften up” some of their opponents and allow Tertius to deal the final blow to gain prestige and renown for being an adventurer. In exchange, the Duke had offered to nullify the back taxes owed on the inherited property. The party agreed to try to keep Tertius alive and further bargained the lending of four of the Duke’s horses to the League.   The party met Tertius, a human lad just barely fifteen. He was rather scrawny and not particularly experienced in the ways of combat or battle--nor was he learned in the ways of magic either. It was determined that Tertius would move his residence to the League headquarters and he would help pay for food and supplies with his retainer. They also discovered that Tertius had made a list of deeds to pursue, based upon the conversations that his father had with him in regards to his time as an adventurer and what would make him renowned. The deeds included:

• Rescue a damsel (alternatively, five maidens)
• Defeat a dragon
• Recover a magical weapon (sword preferred; wands, staffs, et al. excluded)
• Explore a ruin
• A classic dungeon crawl
• Engage in a spontaneous bar fight (preferably not in Eastbridge)
• Battling pirates on the high sea
• Uncover the nefarious plot of an evil vizier
• Find a secret chamber
• Perform the old switcheroo
• Destroy an evil cult
• Slay a demon (devil qualifies)
• Revenge adventure
• Save a town from being raided
• Get hired by someone secretly evil and be led into a trap
• Have a one night stand with someone you rescued (refer above to damsel/maidens)
• Stop a ritual just before it goes off
• Develop an archrival bent on my destruction

  The party then sold and restocked their supplies as Tertius readied his possessions to take to the League. While continuing to look for work, they discovered that someone had been looking for protection, and was sent to the League to hire the party.   The party returned to the League, where Reginald met Bolviac and gave him Wendall Wallace’s letter, which revealed that Wallace had led "the White Dragon That Breathes Fire” to Bolvaic’s clan, Clan Aldevorgrik, and was able to escape the dragon’s pursuit as the dragon slew Bolviac’s entire clan.   Also at the League was the Northlander, Thormod Gudasson. Thormod was looking to hire the party to take him back to his homeland--or at least to a ship that could take him there. He claims to have been the sole survivor of his previous expedition, where the mast was destroyed and they were lost at sea. He had enough water from the rains, but there was no food on the ship. He said that he had prayed to Tempest and Ran, but they did not answer his prayers, so he turned his back on them and was lucky to make it back to land at all.   The party had the impression that Thormod was holding back and not telling them everything and they were all immediately suspicious of his job. They had assumed that Thormod must have survived starvation by eating the rest of the ship’s crew. The party demanded payment of five hundred gold, with two hundred paid upfront. Even through the negotiations, the party had a notion to distrust the Northlander and agreed to help lead him to town, but would not follow him into it, concerned that his intention might be to sacrifice them before he set sail.