Session 2 - The Balderbrook Mines

## Synopsis

The party awoke to their first morning in Ramshaw, being treated to a warm and hearty breakfast by Tisha as they prepared to investigate the cause of the farming village's minimal harvests. After eating, they were met once more by Wes and Miriel Skorva before being led to the couple's modest farm. After a brief time investigating their dry fields, Ateia was able to surmise that leylines from the plane of water were tangled amidst the fields and drawing whatever energy they could towards the east. Not knowing what was there, the party began to ask around town for possible answers.

They came across a smithy called "Hammered Horn Smithy & Repairs" where they met a tiefling man by the name of Arjan Lazal. Upon being questioned, Arjan revealed that the Balderbrook Mines were only a few hours outside of the town to the east, and he frequented them often to get supplies. He did not, however, know what might have been causing the leylines to tangle. After acquiring a key from the tiefling man, the party left him with a promise to return with some iron from the mines as they journeyed there in an attempt to discover what was going wrong.

The party arrived at the Balderbrook Mines a few hours later and began to explore the mines. While they did not discover anything amiss in the most frequented portion of the mine, things changed as they cleared and pushed past a rock slide that had cut off the rest of the caverns many years earlier. Upon entering a dark, web-filled portion of the mines, the party was set upon by giant spiders. Quickly disposing of them, they proceeded with much more caution, unsure of what they might find. After a particularly stressful encounter with an animated treasure chest, the party found a portion of the mine that seemed to have been blocked intentionally, unlike the rockslide they had cleared earlier. Clearing the stone, they drew the attention of a group of Sahuagin and their Merrow leader.

Attempting diplomacy, the party convinced the aquatic creatures to not attack them while they decided what to do. Eventually realizing that these creatures could pose a serious threat to the people of Ramshaw, they attacked the Sahuagin and their leader. After a fierce battle, the threat was quelled...But the source of the leyline disturbance was not found in their part of the caves. Detecting magic, Micaiah realized that they had passed another entrance that had been sealed away, and they eventually came to a room filled with lukewarm, fresh water. After a moment of searching around, the party discovered that a juvenile water elemental had been living in the cavern, and draining all of the surrounding water in an attempt to make itself stronger. Promising to transfer the elemental to a safer area, the party hid its core in a canteen before making their way from the Balderbrook Mines and back to Ramshaw.

After delivering Arjan's iron, they returned to the Gilded Mare for the evening and encountered two of Nadant's guard, the Hand. The masked figures were a rare sight, and Tisha clearly wasn't a fan...But they did not bother the party while they prepared to rest for the evening. It had been decided that the next morning, they would set out for the town of Malorem three days to the south.

## New NPCs Encountered

* Arjan Lazal
* The Hand

## Recurring NPCs

* Tisha Bemond
* Morkal Lokai
* Wes Skorva
* Miriel Skorva

## Party Makeup

At the end of this session, the party was **Level 4.**

* Ateia
* Lydia
* Lythrana
* Micaiah
* Tyr