Afternoon
Crooked House Inn, Trade Ward, Waterdeep
Cold, overcast, storm finally cleared
Downtime Avialble: 6 days (19th to the 25th)
After the harrowing earlier day in the Sewers, the Heroes returned to the Crooked House Inn on the evening of the 18th. Here they cleaned themselves, ate some food, and prepared for the meeting with Celeste, Alobron's friend. After a short while a elf from the Court of Evermeet introduced himself to Kamist, having overheard Tarquin mention the name Eligos.
The Elf, one Menelvagor, indicated he was seeking Eligos and had come to Waterdeep on a mission. A bit too trusting, Menelvagor provided all the details of his mission immediately to the Heroes, but curiously was accepted by the Heroes, all except Alobron still wary of Doppelgangers. As it turns out Menelvagor was dispatched by Melvinar Thanthazilith of the Elven Court at Leithispar (Evermeet) to travel to the Western Heartlands and the Sword Coast to investigate strange happenings and to assist one Eligos Jhanczil a Damaran Human Sage. Menelvagor relates three rumors he has uncovered:
-Evil Priests of the Dead gods Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul have begun working together in a plot. They call themselves the Ebon Triad and are gaining in power.
-A terrified and quite insane elven sailor was rescued off the coast of Sumbra…all he would speak is a single word…”Kyuss”. Research into the name leads Elven sages to records thousands of years old when the Realms were more primitive. The only entry matching the name is that of morbid mystic who once led his followers deep into the jungles of the Chultian Peninsula. It is reported that they found a great city of monoliths and vine snared idols to alien gods. The only other records were that this group disappeared and was never heard of again.
-Having heard an interesting sermon while in a small town in the Western Heartlands an Elven traveler wrote it down and passed it along to Menelvagor. It seems a Priest of Lathandar was quite insane, but very passionate about his beliefs. The Elven traveler thought it might be prudent to record his words so the Wizards and Sages of Evermeet might make some sense of them.
After introductions, the Heroes hustle Menelvagor upstairs and place him in front of Telakin's magnificent magical mirror and ascertain that he is in fact not a Doppelganger and is a true Sun Elf. After some hijinx and merriment, two hooded strangers are observed entering the Inn and Rumple makes his move to snatch something 'good' from one of them. As it turns out, this is Celeste and her patron Ekyam Smallcask, visiting the Inn to meet with the Heroes. It is a little awkward as Ekaym physically removes Rumples hand from his necklace but all is forgiven when Alobron intervenes.
Celeste is a real beauty, and though a little rough and tumble looking, has the deepest blue sparking eyes and speaks with
the grace and eloquence of royalty or an Elven diplomat. Egwaine observes a faint aura of goodness that surrounds Celeste. Egwaine wonders how such a rough looking rogue would exude such holiness and grace. Celeste then introduces Ekyam and catches up with Alobron. After the Heroes place Celeste and Ekyam in front of Telakin's Magical mirror, and they are convinced that they too are not Doppelgangers, the meeting gets down to business. It takes little coaxing for Celeste and Ekyam to enlist the Heroes. Egwaine then negotiates a fair split on the winnings. Ekyam will pay the 5,000gp entrance fee and will get 30% of the winnings as the team manager. After reviewing the rules of the Champions' Belt Tournament, Ekyam agrees to meet the Heroes on the Afternoon of the 25th and collect them for the 'Free Dinner' that evening. Ekyam has the Heroes sign the Champions' Belt Games Application and then he and Celeste say farewell and depart the Inn.The Heroes then set a watch schedule and retire for the evening amidst the terrible raging storm outside. Kamist and Storn have trouble sleeping; Kamist because of all the thunder and lightning, and Storn because his father, Armand, wakes up screaming on two occasions with terrible nightmares. On Tyree's watch, after going back downstairs, he is attacked by the last of the Doppelganger Gang. Tyree splatters three and the other Heroes arrive in time to dispatch the rest. It turns out they were disguised as City Watchmen. Tyree had observed them earlier and had noticed that three of them were armed with scimitars but thought nothing unusual of it. In hindsight Tyree realized that this should have been a clue as the uniformed and disciplined City Watch have never been armed with Scimitars before.
The next morning Tarquin refreshes the Heroes including the fatigued Kamist with a special breakfast of seared fish on herb toast with a honey and fruit sauce. All eat the healthy refreshing meal and head out to cover some leads prior to the lunch meeting with Eligos.
Morning, 18th Uktar
-Egwaine conducts a Divination and Begins construction of a Wand of Lesser Restoration (to be completed on the 24th, 180 XP, and 2,250gp).
-The Heroes sell treasure and split proceeds to include a visit to the Lords' Bank at Castle Waterdeep (Location C76)
-While at Castle Waterdeep the Heroes report to the HQ of the Lords' Alliance. Here they ask to meet with Fenten but are instead directed to Oliver Westar as Fenten is away to Cormyr. Oliver rewards the Heroes for Zyrxog and authorizes their participation in the Champions' Belt Tournament.
-Rumple travels to the Blackstaff Academy (Location C6) and has his Ring of Protection enchanted to +2 (6,000gp) and has his mithril chain shirt enchanted to +2 (3,000gp) and his Amulet of Natural Armor enchanted to +2 (6,000gp). Talk about spending some coin.
Midmorning, 18th Uktar
-Kamist travels to the Eltorchul Academy(Location $22) and purchases a Cloak of Charisma +2 (4,000gp) and a Momenta Magika (1,500gp).
-Tyree travels to the Balthor Rare and Wonderous Items (Location C14) and purchases Gauntlets of Ogre Power (4,000gp) and Boots of Striding and Springing (5,500gp).
-Alobron travels to Halls of Hilmer (Location C23) where Storn's father works and has them add Keen to his weapon (6,000gp).
-Alobron travels back to the Black Staff Academy and buys a ring of counterspells (4,000gp).
After this the Heroes just have enough time to make it to Eligos' Estate (Location $14) by highsun. Here, after being greeted by Pollard, the Heroes are taken to Eligos where he spends all of highsun talking about his discoveries and research related to the items and notes the Heroes brought him. He too suspects Raknians involvement with the Ebon Triad and the prophecy of the Age of Worms and thinks the Champions Belt Tournament would be an excellent cover to infiltrate the Field of Champions Facility and explore Raknians operations. He is particularly interested in Raknians apparant acquisition of the Apostolic Scrolls. He becomes very serious and dark and relates that the Apostolic Scrolls are rumored to have been penned by Kyuss himself and that amoung other vile incantations and rituals they detail the creation of an undead horror known as an Ulgurstasa which is apparently a massive undead creature that is allegedly capable of consuming the living and regurgitating them as undead.
Further Downtime Resoltion Next Post.
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