Session 7: Deadly Summer Solstice Festival Games

Date: 2025-07-15
Game Date: 20th Kythorn 1495 DR
Tags: Level 1

Highlights

• F.B.N. takes first place in the Summer Solstice relay race winning 500 gold
• Dwarven Thunder dominates a pit fighting match and wins a purse of 4,000 gold
• Fordare earns the nickname "Thunder" from Kaladin after brutally winning the pit fighting match
• Valtair humiliates himself by falling unconscious to his own illusionary dragon during the Summer Solstice Relay Race
• Jilliean out smarts an illusionary gold dragon
• Josette Trelay introduces two new meads with special properties: Barbarian Courage Mead and Owlbear Spare Mead

Summary

Fordare carries John Summers into an alley and binds John with rope for questioning. Jilliean and Fordare learn that John is a docker hand that owes Big Boss 1,000 gold because he dumped smuggled cargo into the ocean during a cargo run between Neverwinter and Waterdeep.

John Summers insists that he cannot leave Neverwinter without paying his debt or Big Boss will kill him and his family. John recommends the party win the money to pay off his debt from the summer solstice festival activities and carnival games. The biggest payout is the drunken rowing contest in Bluelake to win a keel boat. There is also a Summer Solstice relay race with a first place prize of 500g that will test the party's strength, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. John also offers a connection to an illegal pit fight where deathmatches payout a large winner's purse.

F.B.N. decides to participate in the relay race, drunken rowing contest, and the pit fighting to help pay off John's debt and F.B.N.'s debt to Big Boss.

Summer Solstice Relay Race

The relay race consists of 5 stages beginning in the Bluelake District, running to the Docks District and then sending a message to the last runner in the Protector's Enclave who must sprint to finish line at Neverwinter Castle. At each stage of the race, a different character trait or skill was tested.

Stage Details

Stage 1 - Fordare's Anchor Run

Before starting the race Josette offers the party some bottles of her Barbarian Courage Mead, which provides the abilities of a barbarian. F.B.N. starts off the race strong with Fordare taking the lead in the anchor race, easily running through an obstacle course with the heavy anchor.

Fordare tries to clear a crowd of onlookers in her path with a furious battle cry, but the onlookers are mesmerized by the glowing runes on her skin and she barrels through them dropping the anchor. The effects of the Barbarian Courage Mead start to wear off and Fordare has trouble picking up the heavy anchor back up. Fordare manages to summon her strength reserves to lift the anchor, sprints to Stage 2 and tags Kaladin.

Stage 2 - Kaladin's Wisdom Test

Kaladin chugs the Barbarian Courage Mead for his sprint to the temple. Kaladin quickly assesses three injured persons checking for unconsciousness and looking for vital injuries. He correctly picks the person needing immediate healing. Kaladin runs to the next station to answer religious questions. He fails to name the Eleven gods, but is able to successfully create holy water. Kaladin sprints to Josette Trelay at the Halls of Justice where F.B.N. takes the lead in the race.

Stage 3 - Josette's Forest Navigation

Josette drinks her Barbarian Courage Mead to give extra speed as she runs to the forest outside of Neverwinter. Before heading into the woods she doses herself with Owlbear Spare Mead to prevent any owlbear from gaining her scent.

Josette Trelay finds a trail in the woods and follows it to a center point in the woods and finds the flag. Josette Trelay uses her pathfinding skills to find a way out of the forest to the dock where Jilliean is waiting. Josette maintains F.B.N.'s lead in the race.

Stage 4 - Jilliean's Intelligence Challenges

Jilliean uses her ring of water walking to sprint across the bay to the Moonstone Mask inn. She makes it to the inn but the bay was choppy, slowing her down. Jilliean enters the Moonstone Mask inn and is given list of four tasks and instructed to complete three of them to send a message to Valtair at Stage 5.

Jilliean's completed tasks:

• Illusion riddle: Solved in record time picking out the highest level illusion of an adult gold dragon by asking it to speak its name
• Runic puzzle challenge: Solved easily
• Game of Go: Beat a courtesan using illusion spells to distract the courtesan, forcing her to make a strategic error

She struggled with the magical images of Neverwinter Castle tracing challenge.

After completing the three tasks Jilliean sends a message to Valtair using a sending stone.

Stage 5 - Valtair's Charisma Trials

Valtair receives the message from Jilliean to open his letter. The letter is a list of four tasks which he must complete three to continue the race.

Task 1 - City Guard Challenge ✅

Valtair parleys with a city guard to get a token pinned to his shirt by challenging the guard to a contest. The contest is a simple game of touching dancing magical lights in the air. If Valtair wins he gets the pin, if he loses he gets mead from Beeme Brewery. The guard has never heard of the brewery, so Valtair gives him a bottle of Barbarian Courage Mead to sip. The guard goes into a frenzy and rips off his shirt allowing Valtair to recover the token.

Task 2 - Noble Entertainment ❌

With one token in hand, Valtair attempts to entertain a group of nobles with an elaborate display of illusionary magic. He conjures the form of a dragon using eldritch energy that chases him around. When the illusionary dragon finally catches Valtair it explodes and knocks him unconscious. The relay race judges have to heal Valtair for him to continue the race. The nobles are not amused and he fails to win their token.

Task 3 - Merchant Foot Race ✅

Valtair convinces a merchant to give a gem to charity by challenging him to a foot race. Josette helps Valtair out by sneakily tripping the merchant, enabling Valtair to win the foot race.

Task 4 - Noble's Signet Ring ✅

For the final task, Valtair has to convince a noble to hand over his signet ring. Josette helps out Valtair again by giving him 20 bottles of mead which he trades the merchant for the ring.

Valtair races toward Neverwinter Castle and rings the bell winning the race for F.B.N.

Underground Pit Fighting

The session ended with John Summers taking F.B.N. to an underground pit fighting arena where he enters Fordare and Kaladin a.k.a. "Dwarven Thunder" into a death match.

The Opponents

• Storm - human cleric, known murderer in Neverwinter
• Thunder - dwarven fighter, known murderer in Neverwinter

Pre-Fight Hype

Before the fight begins:

• Valtair and Jilliean hype up the crowd with their illusionary magic adding sounds and pyrotechnics to Dwarven Thunder's banter
• Josette performs cheers and acrobatic flips to sway the crowd to support Dwarven Thunder

The Fight

• Chopping off the head of Thunder
• Spearing Storm with The Mountain's Whisper after Storm yielded the fight

Kaladin for the first time experienced a little fear of Fordare's rage and fury. F.B.N. won a purse of 4,000 gold from betting on the match.

Current Tasks

• Pay off John Summers' debt to Big Boss
• Return John Summers to his family to get Big Boss's name
• Meet Rahvin Nevermoor at his workshop named Corvus Corax in the Tower District the next evening

Notable Items & NPCs

New Items

• Barbarian Courage Mead - provides the abilities of a barbarian
• Owlbear Spare Mead - prevents owlbears from detecting scent

Key NPCs

• John Summers - Docker hand in debt to Big Boss
• Big Boss - Crime boss owed 1,000 gold
• Rahvin Nevermoor - Contact at Corvus Corax workshop
• Storm & Thunder - Defeated pit fighters and known murderers