The Black Ballad

*"Ancient beings are waking, stirred by the rend in the fabric between your world and the extraplanar. These 'new gods' are not gods in the true sense, but their power and influence rivals that of the true old gods."* - Umberlee to the party, in the coral cavern.

## Important People

Important Guildmembers: Malady, Rylik, Gary, and Kingle all left to search for Rhysand Wyrmsbane after his disappearance.

Other important people: Rhardon Khestan, Lord Inquisitor Lysander, Feyra Merriweather

## Act 1: Burning of the Gilbane's Pride

### The Shifting Forest

Malady, sleeping in the cart, entered into a strange forest where a dark forest around them appears, with trees quickly shifting between seasons, caterpillars turning quickly into butterflies and dying out, etc. This shifting forest revealed a clearing with a woman sleeping on a plinth, and a set of yellow eyes staring out from the depths of the forest. A voice spoke to them, warning them about a choice they had to make, but before they could approach the plinth, they were shaken awake by Gary.

### Burning of the Gilbane's Pride

Returning to the Guild Hall from the Soggy Duckling, the crew's preparations were interrupted by alarm bells ringing from the dock area. Quickly leaving, the part found a large crowd gathering around the burning wreckage of a ship, the Gilbane's pride, which Rhysand Wyrmsbane was supposed to be sailing on. After pushing their way through the crowd and the Knights of Stilde, most of the party went to assist with putting out the fire and healing the wounded while Rylik explored the flooding belowdecks, finding Rhysand's halberd Kraken.

Rylik quickly noticed a growing mob and dispersed it before they could head towards a local bar where it was said a bard read a "black ballad". The captain of the Knights of Stilde present said he would help secure a ship for the party as thanks for help dispersing the crowd.

Malady talked with the wounded Vernon who informed them that "They somehow knew exactly where we would be" and that the boarding party from the Brideveinese Theocracy killed Captain Gilbane and set the ship ablaze. She was not able to get much more out of him, as he did not seem to want to talk any more.

### Wrecking of the Protector

In their haste to leave the Port of Stilde, and not knowing that Rylik had secured a vessel already, Gary and Kingle attempted to steal a ship from port despite Malady's best efforts. This ship was *The Protector ,* the flagship of the Protectorate Navy. Releasing all the mooring ropes and raising the anchor before they left for the ship Rylik secured, the Protector floated out to the Bay of Stilde where it was grounded on rocks and wrecked. The guild was charged a hefty fine for this damage, but thankfully avoided legal action thanks to a favor called in by Cinder , the master of the influential mage's guild.

### Rylik and Feyra

While the rest of the party was on The Protector, Rylik entered the local bar and met Feyra Merriweather, a wood elf bard who had read the black ballad during a show in a room with a particularly tough crowd. She swore to go along and help them on their mission in any way possible in recompense for the events she felt was her fault for reading the prophetic ballad. This help includes attempting to remember sections of the ballad that were burned when her song book had been thrown in the fire by some of the stragglers of the angry crowd from the dock.

### The Wiley Weasel sets Sail

The party joined the crew of the Wiley Weasel, a vessel set to sail for the Turtle Isles with its brand-new red sails, and were informed upon arrival that the ship would take on new crew and a new persona as the Gilded Lady, and will help smuggle arms and the crew into the Brideveinese Theocracy.

Notable Crew Members of the Wiley Weasel: Captain Leandros (Human), First Mate Euphrati (Half Elf), Navigator Morathi (Dark Elf)

## Act 2: The Trap is Sprung

### Scrying on Rhysand

Before heading to rest on the beach of the turtle isles, Malady scryed on Rhysand, finding him to be in a small stone prison cell under mental assault by what appeared to be three inquisitors. She observed for a while, before a powerful figure entered the room and was able to see the scrying orb. He dispelled it but not before Rhysand warned Malady and the crew to stay away.

### Dreams on the Beach

While resting in their individual cabins, each member of the party had a strange dream. Rylik had a dream that he was the marionette puppet of some tall pale man with ice blue eyes, Kingle dreamed he was walking a path in the forest towards a waterfall and couldn't stop while talking to a white jaguar, and Gary had a dream that he was stuck in the web of a giant white spider. Malady on the other hand dreamed again of the strange twisting forest and the woman sleeping on the plinth. She approached the plinth but was awoken by the sound of a storm on the horizon.

### Battle on the Gilded Lady

The party took their place in the secret hold of the *Gilded Lady* and were resting until Feyra remembered the lines "a trap lies in wait" from the Black Ballad, but too late as a the ship is rocked by the impact of an inquisitorial hunting vessel boarding the ship. The party fought their way up to the deck of the ship, exhausted, and were nearly killed by the appearance of two inquisitors. Were it not for Gary, the party would have been lost there, as he rose to the sky and become an avatar of living lightning after praying to Umberlee for help. However, the damage suffered by the ship during the fight also pulled it below the water, with a few of the party being drug below the water.

### Birth of the Stormborn

All the members of the party awoke within a coral cavern, where they found themselves face to face with a giant octopus. Through it, they talked to Umberlee who offered them help, as well as a warning that waking the 'new gods' might not be worth saving their friend Rhysand. They accepted the help and were returned to the surface, on the southern beach of the Theocracy.

Gary however was left behind, as he found himself face-to-face with Umberlee herself, a massive sea turtle with coral reefs on her back. Here, she told him of how in times of great turmoil, the old gods select champions. She offered Gary the option to become a Stormborn, and he accepted.

## Act 3: Awakening a God

### The Chrysalis

The party found their way north from the beach to the town of Brinemondsi. Realizing something was wrong when they entered the town, they were quickly pulled aside by Sahvarik Zirnaris, the owner of the tavern The Chrysalis. Here, they learned about the Theocracy's dislike of foreigners and learned how to access the Temple of Nyllos.

### The Shrine of Change

The party then left for the shrine of change to attempt to convince the priestess Elhomil to allow them access to the temple. Prior to entering, Kingle took a swim in the sacred waters of the fountain, but with the quick thinking of Rylik they avoided a disaster and entered the temple. Rylik offered the priestess some bread to offer to those who would receive the biggest change, and this got them access to a one-on-one meeting with the priestess. Here, Malady revealed she was a changeling, a being considered a sacred child of the goddess Nyllos, and this gained them access to the Temple.

### The Temple of Nyllos

After a initial tour of the area, the party found themselves ambushed by the same inquisitors from the *Gilded Lady* and some of the monks. While the fight was tough, the new abilities Gary received from becoming a Stormborn helped the party win this encounter, slaying both inquisitors. From here they shattered the wardstone as they were instructed, waking Nyllos and sending Malady into a comatose state where she discussed with Nyllos about what needed to be done next, and eventually swearing themselves to Nyllos's service in exchange for rewriting Rhysand's fate of death.

## Act 4: The Pillar

### Sneaking in

Realizing that such a large facility must have separate entrances for servants and the like, the party decided to follow a side trail with white robed individuals and people pushing carts of quills and paper. Gary was disguised through Feyra's magic to appear human, and turned her own cloak white to match the scribes walking the path, while Malady shape changed into a half-elf. Stealing their own cart from the dock area, the party snuck to the base of The Pillar, and thanks to the sneakiness of Rylik and Kingle's Pass without a trace spell, the party managed to pass through the guard's inspection and into the archive entrance of the pillar.

### The Archives

Getting separated into two groups (Feyra and Gary who were dressed in scribes robes, and the rest of the group who were not), the party separately tried to determine where Rhysand was being held.

Gary purposefully broke his ink quill to have an excuse to leave the scribes room to look for extra robes, and Feyra followed suit. Rylik split from the main group to sneak into the room labelled the archives. Malady, overhearing the name Gawain mentioned (Which Nyllos had instructed her to kill), borrowed Feyras cloak and followed a group of scribes and Gawain into the archives. Kingle grabbed a feather duster and told everyone who would listen that he was here to clean the orbs, which unknown to the rest of the party was actually brilliant as the pillar is cleaned almost exclusively by a halfling janitorial staff.

Rylik found the archives to be a confusing place, for instead of books the room contained only shelves and shelves of Professor Orbs, magical items that are the expert in four specific topics, each named something different. It wasn't until the group Malady was following behind used a central orb to navigate the room that Rylik was able to locate the professor orb Jakob, which had information on the layout of the pillar.

Meanwhile Malady, learning that Gawain was not in fact a person but a professor orb that was an expert on Rhysand, the guild, and Stilde, stole the orb. Gary and the rest of the crew finally joining the party in the archives promptly knocked over an entire row of shelves, shattering thousands of orbs and causing alarm to be raised.

### The Vaults

Quickly sneaking from the archives, the party (except for Gary and Feyra) found their way to the mysterious room labelled the Vaults, either through a creepy echoing voice instructing him to head that way in Rylik's case, pure coincidence in Malady's case, or following a snail in Kingle's case.

Inside this room, those three members found themselves drawn to different crates in this storage room. Malady was drawn to a box of bloody amulets of Nyllos. Kingle was led by a snail to a strange snail statue, where he had a vision and spoke with the snail god Luhadrin, swearing to become his champion. Rylik was drawn to a black sword named Soulrender.

### Sneaking through the Pillar

Thanks to a combination of the inquisitors being in a meeting and the party being incredibly stealthy thanks to Kingle's pass without a trace enchantment, the group managed to sneak up to the Aeyrie Prison, of which the Jakob orb suggested was where the most dangerous prisoners were kept. Using a dispel magic spell, Malady was able to remove a strong alarm spell on the door, preventing an alarm from calling reinforcements to the prison when Rylik picked the lock.

### The Prison

Thanks to the removal of the alarm spell, the party was able to fairly handily beat the Inquisitor known as the Master Poisoner who was in the prison area since he did not receive any reinforcement, but not before Gary was nearly knocked unconscious twice and Rylik contracted the Mummy Rot curse. Splitting up, the party searched the prison cells and Kingle was the first to find Rhysand who was chained to the wall mostly unconcious and seemingly unaware of his surroundings, sickly black veins stretching up his right arm and chest. Hearing the sound of inquisitors and soldiers heading up the stairs, Gary hefted Rhysand on his shoulder, and they ran up the stairs further knowing its the only real way out.

### The Aeyrie Escape

*"You're not strong enough to face the gods.... not yet."* Nyllos to the party

Escaping onto the top of the tower, known as the Aeyrie, the wind whipped around the stone columns, and most of the party found themselves trapped in place by a spell as a pale man stepped out from behind the pillars, who in reality is Phenos the god of fate. Intervening, Nyllos appeared and freed the party from the trapping spell, telling them to jump. Between various spells and flying abilites, the party leapt from the aeyrie and escaped to the bottom, the roaring and cracking sounds of gods fighting sounding from above them.

Arriving at the docks, the party found Rhardon who had captured a small inquistioral sloop for the party. They took the ship and escaped east down Rhomos' Vein, the large river that bisected the islandm, toward the capital city of the Theocracy.

### Malady's Choice

Once aboard the ship, Malady found herself trapped in yet another vision in the twisting forest. Something was different this time however, the changes that the forest was rapidly making before was slow and lethargic, and a bloody path lead to the plinth in the center of the clearing. Here Malady found Nyllos slashed and dying, presumably from the fight with her brother.

Here Malady found a choice presented to her, let Nyllos die and free herself from the goddess's clutches, or save her with her magic and allow her to live. Malady, as kind as ever, chose the latter and saved the goddess who apologized in a roundabout way for her behavior telling Malady she had to develop a tough skin and mannerism to convince her father she was worth protecting from her much larger siblings.

## Act V: The Bard Revealed

### Lysander's Speech

Lysander, unknown to the party, spoke to the members of the inquisition at the top of the tower. Here he said that the guild had declared war on the inquisition and the theocracy, and now they should do whatever it takes to destroy them.

### The Seven Strings

Told to head here by Rhardon while he delivered the Jakob orb and its invaluable information to the inquisition, the party found their way along the colorful and diverse set of shops that is the docks of the Brideveinese capital Edmonsi. Here they met Tarful, a large jolly firebolg who worked as a supplier for the resistance. He crafted fake day passes for the party so that they could enter into the city proper and find their way to the temples.

### The False Bard

Finding their way to 'The Campus', a collection of the seven main temples and the government building for the Theocracy, the party found their way to the temple of Phenos after being turned away from the temple of Nyllos for supposed construction. Here they were called by a strange halfling, telling them that the bard was expecting them they were late, and led them towards an office where a man wearing a fancy black doublet was writing poetry, and invited them to take a seat. All but Gary did, and the door was shut behind them as the room was revealed to be a mimic colony trap. Each member but Gary was stuck to their chair as it started to munch on them, and Gary flew forward in a rage and killed the bard by throwing him out the window. Fighting their way through living desks, chests, chairs, and books, the party survived the trap.

### The Temple Below

After grabbing the little halfling that led them to the trap room and convincing him to tell them where to find the true bard, realizing that this all seemed a little too easy, the party found their way to a large rotund room with various statues of bards in different positions, a large brass orb on a plinth in the center, and glass frogs with ruby eyes on pedestals. Touching one, Malady activated the frog trap, and they began bouncing around the room shooting beams that ricocheted between them. One put Rylik to sleep, one made Gary scared of them, and one started turning Rhardon to stone. With quick thinking from Kingle, he realized he could turn the plinth in the center and rotated it so the symbols of bardic instruments appeared over the statue that appeared to be playing one. This opened a wide pit in the center of the room and turned off the frogs.

Flying down with Rylik, Gary found the bottom of the pit to be rows of spikes, but a door off to the side with a platform as well that he was able to drop Rylik off and collect the rest of the group. The door had the carving of a child on it, and the walls were rough hewn out of old brick and stone. Each hallway at the end had a pedestal with glass prism sitting on a velvet pillow.

As the party continued down the hallway, a shrieker fungus would cry out, causing a beam to shoot down from a perpendicular hallway, hit the prism, and blast the party or various traps (including gelatinous cubes dropping from the ceiling, or a slanting floor towards deadly grinding wheels). Following paths in all directions (including straight up and down) following the markings of an aging human, the party found their way to a treasure room and past that a library where 8 scribes seemed to be taking notes and praying with a leader walking around the room and praying to Phenos.

### The True Bard Revealed

Gary shot forward and grabbed the main scribe by the throat, lifting him off the ground his anger apparent. From above him, Gary heard a voice say "Of course he's not the bard... I am" and turned to look up directly into the eyes of a beholder.

## ACT VI: Death of the Bard

### Battle in the Library

The party fought their way through the Bard's central library, a 150 ft tall circular room with four distinct floors, loaded with creatures and traps that were activated as they continued upward. For example, a menagerie of creatures was released on the bottom floor, and Rylik found himself over a fiery pit on the opposite side of a rotating bookshelf. The fight was hard, and after they finally reached the upper floors and the bard locked himself in a tunnel above the library, the party required serious healing from Malady.

### Death of the Rhardon

After healing up, the party headed up into the Bard's upper lair. Here they found the cornered angry beholder, who in a last act of defiance attempted to blast Rylik with everything he had. Rhardon, knowing that this might happen, stepped in front of Rylik and took the disengration beam that would have killed him. After a few words, Rhardon fell to dust.

### Death of the Bard

Afraid, the beholder offered a bargain to each party member to write their destinies so that they could achieve whatever they wanted. Feigning interest, Rylik stepped close before burying his sword in the Bard's eye, blinding him. Using the sword as a lightning rod, Gary the Stormborn finished him off with a crackling lightning bolt, cooking the creature from the inside.

### Escape from the Theocracy

After leaving the Bard's lair, the party headed up through the grates above them, finding themselves back in the main courtyard of 'The Campus'. Here they found themselves face to face with none other than Lysander, who had followed them here from The Pillar. Knowing that they were wounded and stood little to no chance to fight him, the party instead chose to run, dodging and ducking magic blasts from Lysander.

Teleporting in front of the party, Lysander began to charge a spell to kill Malady, before Rhardon's blade was buried in his shoulder after being thrown from Rylik on a nearby rooftop. This gave the party the chance to escape towards the docks, where they found Feyra, Tarful, and a revived Rhysand fighting off inquisitorial troops. Working together, the party managed to steal a small military sloop and escape, but not before Tarful fell dead to a finger of death spell intended for Gary.

On the sea, a tearful and happy reunion between Rhysand and the rest of the party took place, and for a while, all seemed right in the world again.

"I'm glad that, if there is any silver lining, that I still have one brother left." Rhysand to Rylik after learning of Rhardon's death.

## The Words of the Black Ballad

A man stands alone on the deck

Across the bow he stares

Redeemed he sails back for home

Friends and allies left unawares

Yet hear me now and weep my friends

For upon that northern freezing tide

The hero’s past shall find him there

And so will burn the captain’s pride

Back home allies find themselves a fowl

Bartender and Patron will fight and split

Rushing back home to find at port

A massive crowd, a burning ship

Sail north they will on red sails

As the lord of prophecy stirs

Searching for the prophetic poet

Upon who the lords power transfers

Amidst the shells of the isles

Gilded false ship sets sail

But a trap lies in wait

And its mission will fail

Blood will splatter the deck

Till the roles become reversed

The questioner becomes the questioned

And in storm submersed

Only one being can change this path

In hidden wood inside themself

A choice must be made soon

In deep dark forest by false elf

The end of the tale draws ever near

Until hero takes their last breath.

The lesson learnt here, is sadly too clear

That the incurable Malady is death.

## Important Quotes

*"Ancient beings are waking, stirred by the rend in the fabric between your world and the extraplanar. These 'new gods' are not gods in the true sense, but their power and influence rivals that of the true old gods."* - Umberlee to the party, in the coral cavern.

*“The Adventurer’s Guild and Stilde have declared war on the Protectorate and the Inquisition. From now on we will devote a significant portion of our resources to putting an end to them and their meddling. Leverage our Mages Guild contacts if you have to.”* - Lysander to the Inqusition

"*You like to spin words Bard but I will show you what it's like to serve a TRUE god"* - Gary the Stormborn to the Black Bard/

"*All of this talk about Fate, and destined failure. Well I reject this. You may seem to believe that we're fated to lose, but know this filth. Even the waves of Fate shall break upon the shore of our will" -* Gary the Stormborn to the Black Bard before killing him with the power of Umberlee.