Session 7 - The Party Avoids a Fight For Once

Session Date - December 10, 2019

Gonna keep this one fairly brief since I'm busy this week y'all

Session starts with the party having (offline) discussed various side quests and having received some gifts from the dwarves of the lower forge.

-- Party levels to 6 --

Sirac offers to accompany the party to Bryn Shander, and show them how the Rose Tinted Spectacles work.

The party heads back out through the mushroom forest. They find the orange one sleeping, and decide it best to not wake him up.and on their way out they do a bit of exploring, rewarded with the discovery of some flashbang-like fungus that they can use in a pinch.

At the camp on the other side, they find the other dwarf guards roasting the remains of the Cloakers, and one of them, Gurkle Roughewn offers the party some food and a rest, which they take. The party then heads up the elevator, and ultimately out of Gauntlgrym. On their way out they report to Bruenor using the sending stone they have, and let him know what happened.

Plotting their course to Bryn Shander, they party decides that their first stop should be Luskan, where they can find Oren's sister Lily and deliver the letter he wrote to her.

Finding only Pecker and one other of the four griffons outside, Stats asks them what happened and they say that they essentially fell into a trap laid for them by House Margaster, who they'd run into a bit of trouble with before (and eaten several of their well-loved horses) and the Margasters had captured two of the griffons.

The party agrees to try to save these captured griffons, and approach the Margaster camp to come up with a plan. The people guarding the Margaster all appear to be bearded women, oddly enough. After much deliberation, the party ultimately ends up waiting until the camp rests at night, sneaking in, finding keys for the locks, unlocking the chains tethering the griffons, and flying out of there without a scuffle. (but not before Drork manages to steal a suit of Plate Armor emblazoned with dancing horses). While flying out, Stats taunts the Margasters, saying "this was brought to you by the Stoneshaft Clan"

The group flies a bit away, rests, and sets up camp for the night. During the first watch, however, Raloric hears some grinding and stoping, and alerts the party. They sneak through the trees to observe two fire giants, a couple ogres, and handful of orcs heading up the trail dragging a huge chunk of adamantine. Drork and Raloric overhear them saying they can't wait to get this relic to Duke Zalto. Stats mentions to the party that there's some history of a colossal adamantine construct named Vonindod that was used in the war against the dragons. The party quietly discusses their options, and feeling outmatched, they decide to run the hell away. They then carry on with their rest.

The next morning they all proceed to Luskan.

Landing outside the town, Raloric relates a lot of history of what he knows about the town, including some previous experience of having spent time here. The group ignores a very friendly fellow introducing himself as Silvaeran Moonshanks offering to show them around, and then take the offer of a different hobo named Rollie to show them to the Happy Cow, which turns out to be a brothel that specializes in larger women. Seeing this, Stats is disappointed.

Inside the Happy Cow, Raloric approaches the bar and asks for Lily. The bartender pulls up her sleeve and reveals a lily tattoo, and says "you found your lily of the valley." Raloric hands over the letter from Oren, and she asks if there's any payment required for this delivery. Drork asks for some information about the town, and information on rumors or recent events. She mentions a recent attack by frost giants was repelled by the captains. She's heard rumors that some fire giants have been rumored to be roaming around and digging things up. She also mentioned that they had a curious

Lily also mentions that she married into the Hardcheese family, and their real revenue comes from moneylending, but lately the Zhentarim have been kind of undermining their business, and is looking for some people to talk to Jarlaxle, who's kind of the head of Luskan, to convince him to muscle the Zhentarim out of town. Raloric recognizes the name as the head of a drow mercenary house called Bregan D'aerthe.

Lily essentially wants to form a partnership between the Hardcheese family and the Bregan D'aerthe to do all the moneylending in town, and muscle out the Zhentarim, but needs the group to come along and be bodyguards as well as help negotiate the terms with the Bregan D'aerthe.

The party agrees and she sets up a meeting with Jarlaxle for this evening or next evening.

Meanwhile, Stats harasses the locals, and manages to befriend both one of the "pull apart" horses, and the horse master, by buying him some rum and chatting him up. He's invited to ride one of the horses during the next execution event.

Previous Session: Session 6 - Battle Below Gauntlgrym

Next Session: Session 8 - Dealing with Jarlaxle