Icewind Dale Session 1 Recap

Start Date - 14th Firstfrost, 906 SA
End Date - 16th Firstfrost, 906 SA   The HSAK Venturing Company has hired a number of individuals to mount an expedition to Icewind Dale, in hopes of securing trade and adventuring business as well as hopefully ending the never-ending winter that is believed to have been brought on by Auril the Frostmaiden, a deity with many followers in the far north.   Baldric, a crossbow-wielding treasure hunter with a flair for flamboyant attire, Wort, an enthusiastic wildlife lover and cleric of Moradin, and Uldak, an exceptionally pious champion of Pelor, arrived in Icewind Dale by ship, only to find that the Sea of Moving Ice was too frozen to access the river leading inland to the harbors of Targos. They, along with their expedition leader - a goliath named Tevon - began making their way by foot across the frozen tundra to town. Along the way, they came across a man wandering half-naked, clearly near the brink of death. They took the man in, warmed him up, and laid him in a tent to recover. Later that night, however, a strange man with piercing blue eyes and wielding icy weapons that seemed to materialize from his hands murdered the poor man. He subsequently killed Tevon when the group attempted to confront him. After a few moments of combat, strange creatures with eerie light where their faces should have been began to emerge from a blizzard that seemed to spring up from nowhere. As they began to fall unconscious due to the overwhelming forces of nature around them, the characters heard a chilling voice on the wind announcing a doom that awaited them should they interfere with Auril's affairs.   When the adventurers awoke, they found themselves in an Inn Room, stripped down, their clothes drying by a fire. They dressed and re-armed themselves, then descended to the Tavern floor of the Three Flags Sailing, a tavern in Targos. There they met the rest of their expeditionary group: a rough and tumble warrior named Akar, an aristocratic mystic named Valfiel, and the enigmatic Goliath called Zel. They also met their rescuer from the previous night, a gruff retired bounty hunter named Hlin Trollbane. Coincidentally, Hlin had been investigating a string of murders across Ten-Towns that seemed connected to the human sacrifices some towns have been making to the Frostmaiden. She suspected a man named Sepheks Kaltro, a bodyguard for a shady traveling merchant caravan called Torg's. She was actually in contract with HSAK via Tevon to hire the expedition group to investigate, but the events of the night prior put the party in a position to identify whether or not he was the killer. The group agreed to track down Sepheks and, upon confirming his guilt kill him.   After a detour to fill up on supplies a Triglio, Targos' primary general store, the party traveled to the Luskan Arms Inn to seek an audience with Naerth Maxildinarr, the Speaker for Targos, and encountered an old acquaintance of Baldric's named Skath. This turned out to be quite fortuitous, as Skath was Naerth's second in command. The party made their introductions, and after agreeing to a vague "favor to be cashed in later", the Speaker was able to inform them that Torg's would be in Bremen in two days time, giving them enough time to beat them there and prepare to confront Sephek.   The party arrived in Bremen after a 2 hour hike, during which they heard whimsical, only slightly creep childlike laughter, and were immediately approached by a dwarf with an exceptionally grumpy disposition named Grynsk. Grynsk told them that they were late and insisted they meet him inside a nearby Tavern. The party decided to just "go with it" and followed him into the Grumpy Moose, the last of five taverns in a run-down looking town square. There's Grynsk informed the group that they needed to head out on the Lake and fish for Knucklehead Trout for the (paltry) sum of 5 copper per fish. As the party tried to make sense of the confusing situation, a biologist named Tali interjected in the conversation and explained that Grynsk's actual employees had abandoned the lake after a Lake Monster destroyed their boats. Tali instead asked if the party would head out to the lake and attempt to document the creature, which she suspected might be behaving strangely due to the change in climate Icewind Dale had undergone.   Having agreed that Tali's offer was actually worthwhile, and with a day to kill, the party headed out to a dock on Muer Dualdon just outside town and set out in three boats. After catching a few trout, and determining that a 50-70lb fish was probably worth more than 5 copper, the Lake Monster suddenly slammed into Wort and Valfiel's boat. As it did so, Wort thought he heard the beast say the word "Sorry" and attempted to engage the creature in conversation. The Lake Monster, which the party named Plessy, was seemingly happy to tell Wort all about how a druid named Ravisin had made it smart and forced it to attack boats near Bremen by threatening to turn it stupid again. Just as Wort realized that the creature had been subjected to an Awakened spell (and was thus permanently intelligent), Akar chunked a Javelin at Plessy and enraged them. The creature slammed into Akar's boat, throwing Zel into the frigid water. A combined effort calmed the beast down enough for Valfiel and Wort to fish Zel out of the water, and the party was successfully able to convince Plessy that it was in no danger of becoming dumb again. Plessy graciously allowed Wort to sketch their features and take notes for Tali. After warning the party about a vicious awakened moose terrorizing Lonelywood, she happily departed to eat many fish in peace.