Ep. 14 Darkness Rising Chapter 1

## Listen

Ep. 14 Darkness Rising Chapter 1

—Sun Tzu, *The Art of War*

After losing Draconos, Beric and Dex try to take a breather. But things aren't calming down any time soon; a building is bombed, they find out Crast is working for the Dark Lanterns, and they find a new companion in Therudak.

## Synopsis

### An Explosion In Sharn

It's been a couple of days since Draconos was taken. Beric has retreated to his family's estate in First Tower, and offered Dex a place to stay. Dex, who has never been to Sharn before, is taking different shapes and wandering around, looking for people he used to run with. Not to meet up with them, but so he can know to avoid them.

Crast sends an agent to the estate and tells them to meet him at the Horned Eagle Inn on noon the following day.

On their way there, they swing by Tain's Foundry to check up on Mulrick. Dex changes into Draconos. The guards are the same two as before, and when they see the tiefling who was so intimidating last time they become nervous. Dex tells them he's going to check on things and just walks right past them. The guards don't even try to stop him.

Mulrick is sitting behind a deck, half his face covered with bloody bandages. He moans that Scythe nearly killed him and half of his guards in their fight. Dex has no sympathy for that and gets to the point about him beating up his employees, and Mulrick tells them he hasn't touched them since he was threatened last time. Dex nods and reminds him that they'll be checking up on him.

At the Horned Eagle Inn, Therudak is behind the bar washing glasses. Beric and Dex approach for their meeting when all of a sudden the noise of the busy life of the city is drowned out by an incomprehensible boom. A building, a place for offices and housing for ambassadors for different nations, has exploded. It's across the walkway and about three floors up. Fire erupts and people start screaming. There's an exposed part of the building attached to the walkway, easily accessible.

Beric and Dex run over and see people are in need of help. The closest person is trapped under a huge stone, but they can't quite lift it so they look around for an extra hand.

Therudak grabs his battleaxe and heads towards the commotion. He sees Beric and Dex trying to get this person out, and helps them lift it. The person crawls out and Dak gets them to safety.

Beric thinks back on his fire safety training, how he was told to never take the stairs during a fire. He runs towards the towers and sees the hole. Considering for a moment, he runs towards the base of the tower and is swallowed by shadows, reappearing inside.

Dex considers his own way of getting into the tower and tries to parkour his way up. There are some lights and windows and he starts climbing, but hasn't considered the structure being compromised from the fire. An everbright lantern detaches from the stone and he falls to the ground. He decides to take the stairs instead.

Therudak follows Dex up the stairs, and in between them falls a piece of the ceiling. Dak doesn't react fast enough and a wall of fire erupts between the two, causing Dak to have to find a different route.

A couple of people are running around, trying to douse the flames. Most of these buildings should be outfitted with a Create Water spell, but nothing seems to be triggering. Beric uses Detect Magic, looking for a cause. The magic for the spell isn't visible, but sees some residual magic from whatever caused the explosion.

Some screams are heard from behind closed doors with rubble blocking them. As Dex comes in, Beric points to the door behind him. Dex touches the doorknob, being taught proper fire safety, and tries to open it. It doesn't budge; there's something blocking it from the inside. He turns into an orc and uses it's mass to his advantage, slamming into the door. The door flies open. Unfortunately, the woman behind the door didn't know his plan, and is now unconscious on the floor. He cusses and gently shakes her, but she's out cold. He takes her out of the office and Beric waves at him to bring her over so he can cast a healing spell on her.

On the floor below, Therudak sees an elevator and goes to it. When he presses the buttons nothing happens, and he sees about six feet away an odd looking black disc with a purple light pulsing from the center. He hesitates, but presses the center with his axe. The light brightens and then shuts off, and water starts falling from the ceiling and the door opens.

Beric casts Cure Wounds from his amulet on the woman, and she looks up at him, confused. He tells her to stay put and checks from the hole in the wall if there are members of the City Watch around. He spots some and tries getting their attention, but they can't hear so Dex helps him out. They're told people are going to start jumping out and to use their Feather Fall wands on them, and they nod and draw their wands. The woman Beric healed jumps out first and lands safely on the ground. After she lands, everyone else who's able starts jumping out.

Therudak exits the elevator and sees people jumping and being thrown out of windows, but Beric quickly explains the Feather Fall and points to some doors behind Dak which still have people who need saving. Therudak goes over and clears the rubble with his battleaxe, freeing a man inside one of the rooms.

The fire being doused and the civilians safely on the ground, Beric, with *Detect Magic* still active, starts checking around for the source of the explosion. Behind a desk near the hole in the wall is the residual magic from materials used to create some kind of bomb, but that's all he sees.

From below, a few people in the crowd start a cheer for the Swords of Liberty. The City Watch quickly turns their attention towards the noise and start looking for whoever started the chant.

*"Down with the monarch! Swords of Liberty!"*
### The Citadel

Therudak is satisfied that there's nothing left to be done and heads back to the inn, where he's still supposed to be working. As soon as his back is turned Dex changes back into Lyle and starts snooping around for anything that "got lost;" maybe some valuables or magic items. He digs up four wands that have the *Light* spell in them, each with five charges.

Dex and Beric leave the building and Crast approaches them on the walkway. He gestures towards the explosion and wants to know what happened, and Dex tells him they saved a lot of people after the Swords blew a building up. Crast gets visibly angry at the thought of the Swords so close, but they have a meeting at the Citadel that they need to get to.

Back at the Horned Eagle Inn, Therudak arrives, looks at the time, realizes he needs to be at that same meeting in about three minutes, and books it.

As Crast, Beric, and Dex are making their way to the Citadel, Dak flies past them, and Dex realizes he's seen him even before that day. He gets Beric's attention and they slowly fall back and start talking in Elven. Dex tells him that the half-orc used to be in the Brelish army. While there's no reason to distrust him, he might have a reason to distrust Dex, and Dex isn't sure who he was at that point, though there's a good chance it was Lyle.

A halfling man greets them when they enter the Citadel. When he hears the name "Rowan," he nods and writes something down, causing Beric some concern. Crast leads them to an office. Inside is Therudak, and standing behind a desk is a tall elven woman with severe features, a kind of gaunt look to her. She had stark white hair tucked into a tight bun. She greets them all by name and introduces herself as Commander Bala. She thanks them for their assistance with the building and the murders, and tells them that sometimes Crast let's his obsession with the Swords cloud his judgment. Crast looks embarrassed but doesn't say anything. She gestures towards the door and he pulls some locks into place, making Dex somewhat uneasy. Bala notices and explains that it will keep prying ears out.

*"Agent Wott, Mr. Rowan. Lyle."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm not much of one for formalities, but if it's a thing to you, you can call me Mr. Noceros I guess, but Lyle's fine."
—Bala and Dex*
### Dark Lanterns

Crast had introduced himself as a King's Sword, but he and Therudak are actually part of the king's Dark Lanterns, a secret organization that operates in Sharn as intelligence gatherers. They enact the king's will when they don't want their allies to know it's the king's will. Bala asks for their assistance. Beric has been on a shortlist for employment, and this could be a way in for him. Only Brelish citizens can become Dark Lanterns so Dex doesn't have that option, but she offers him freelance work.

Based on their dealings in Mistmarsh, Bala thinks they might want to hear what's going on there. At work one day, Dak overheard two men discussing some strange sightings of shadows fighting druids just outside of Xandrar near the Towering Woods, on the border with the Eldeen Reaches.

With the common interest of shadows making problems and the Swords in the area, Bala thinks it makes sense for them to investigate on the Dark Lantern's behalf. Xandrar is where the Swords operate out of, and part of their job would be to find hard evidence that would implicate the Swords in the bombing. Therudak and Crast will go with them, reporting back to Bala. House Lyrander has agreed to lend them a small airship to drop them off during the night with Feather Fall packs. Their cover story is that they're scouts for House Cannith looking to set up shop in Xandrar, which will give them a plausible reason for asking about buildings and locations in town. They're given Sending Stone communicators and two healing potions each.

### The Roving Badger

A small ship, the Roving Badger, floats high above the city of Sharn. A very attractive blond half-elf is onboard, and when he sees them he waves with a smile and welcomes them aboard. Dex gets a childish glee and runs all over the ship, completely in his element and treating the ship like his playground. The captain is named Gerald Hightower, a member of House Lyrander with a Mark of Storm to operate the airship.

After about 45 minutes Gerald announces the drop zone is coming up and they head to the cargo hold in preparation for their jump. Feather Fall packs in hand, Gerald instructs them through the Speaking Stones.

*"Okay, who's used a Feather Fall pack before?"
[Silence]
"Awesome."
—Gerald*
There are buttons on the center that they'll have to press to active the Feather Fall once their within 300 meters of the ground. When he hears this Dex *slooowly* shifts his button to the front. There's a glowing amber light on the button, if it's not amber it's not activated. Beric notices his has turned back and exchanges his pack for a new one. Beric and Dak jump out, and Dex waits near the edge for a second before jumping out, backflips all the way down.

*"Dex stands for one second, and says,* "Y'all, watch this!" *And just backflip that's gonna last until he hits that button. Just nothing but backflips. Just over, and over, and over…* and over.*"
"You are going to be so,* so *ill when you hit the ground."
"Nah dog, I can handle it. Swashbuckle."
—Jeff and Philip*
All of them in free fall, there are no lights or anything to see by, until some small lamps begin to appear a little ahead. At precisely 300 meters Dex hits his button. Therudak and Beric fly right past him, and he calls to them to hit their buttons. Dak hits his a little too late and lands right outside of the city. Beric starts hearing noises from the city and realizes he should be hitting his, and does so just in time to not get hurt but splashes into the river on the border. Dex lands right on the shore, facing Beric, in the Karate Kid Crane position. After a moment they hear noises of battle coming from the city. Confused city watchmen wearing armor, strange blue helmets in the shapes of birds, fighting against a force of literal shadows.

End of episode.

## Locations

* Sharn, Breland
	+ Horned Eagle Inn
	+ The Citadel
* Xandrar, Breland

## Spells

* **Beric**
	+ Cure Wounds
	+ Detect Magic
	+ Misty Step

## Quotes

"…Agent Therudak, who I believe you met during the rescue."
"Yes, that is when I met him.
" *'Yes, that is when I met him, and never before.'*
*—Bala, Dex, and Philip*

"In a drop like this you don't want to be seen when you're too high up so you're gonna wanna wait, let's say, 300 meters above the ground hit the feather fall pack."
"I mean, do we have any demonstrable way of knowing when we're 300 meters above the ground besides just looking at the ground?"
"No you do not. It's a guessing game."
"You'll still be above the trees."
"Thank you. If you hit the tree you've gone too far."
"There you go. If you hit the ground, you don't need to worry about it anymore."
*—Gerald, Dex, and Beric*