The Courting of Fire

## Meeting with the Lord Sage

   Doomguide Glandon led the party through tunnels to the City of Phlan, coming through a secret passageway into the office of the Lord Sage of Phlan. The Lord Sage was old but shows signs of vigour as a Half-Elf and when introduced to the party was pre-occupied by missing scrolls and tomes in the Mantor's Library, though when he finally noticed the group of adventurers - my, did he take a shine to Anguish.
The group tell the Lord Sage of the Cult of the Dragon's plans to find the Pool of Radiance, though missed out the parts where the pool may lie within the walls of the city. Creswinda and Hirsch fnd themselves mistrusting the Lord Sage slightly, though whether this was natural mistrust of everyone, or mistrust of the person himself was not ascertained fully. The Lord Sage offered a gold reward for assistance in helping track down the remaining thief of the missing tomes from the library - as well informing the party that the tomes and the thief himself may help them in tracking down those who are looking for the Pool - he offers the help of the Scribe Master, Cassra Brandywine.

   After placating the Lord Sage's advances on Anguish, the party rush to find Cassra who fills in the party on the details that the insomniac Sage has been unable to give them:

* The scribes started at the library four months before, but were caught sneaking into the Lord Sages office 2 days prior which instigated an investigation into them.
* Two rare tomes had been found in their possession and when they were returned to the archives, incredible forgeries were already on the shelves with sections missing on the Circle of the Scale and the location of their long forgotten temple
* Tibeem and Spernik (the scribes) had tried to escape but Tibeem was captured after killing a guardsmen.

Cassra Brandywine was useful in giving this information but seems much more interested in the books that were still missing rather than the missing people - and will offer extra gold for the return of books to the library. Throughout the exchange the party had with Cassra, she only really spoke with Mardred and it took her a while to realise that there were other people there - probably due to the height difference. Cassra was a halfling and due to spending the majority of her time (voluntarily) surrounded by books rather than people, her social skills had become spotty at best. In the scribes' room the group find robes emblazoned with the livery of a low ranking member of the Cult of the Dragon.

## Into Phlan

### Stojanow Gate

On the advice of both the Lord Sage and Cassra, the Party head to Phlan proper to speak to the Black Fist and the City Guard to see what became of Tibeem after his attempted escape. When they arrived at Stojanow Gate, they soon found that wouldn't be getting many answers from the scribe himself as he was hanging from the gate itself. They spoke to Knight Leuitenant Cron Bolver who divulged that Tibeem didn't give up any of his secrets but they did spot Spernik heading towards the Dragonspine Mountains - though thats out of the Guards jurisdiction at that point. They received what seemed to be a shopping list that was found on Tibeem's body and told to stop by if they "found" Spernik - as there was a spot for him on the gate next to his friend.

### Shopping Session

The party had a brief shopping session in Phlan, visiting Cockburn's General store and buying a Folding Loom (Mardred), general supplies and soaps as gifts for one another. They also checked the shopping list with Tad Staslep - the store owner - who couldn't make head nor tail of the list but had provided everything on there to a shifty looking fellow who's friend was now hanging on the gate. The party assumed he was talking about Spernik, and Tad then offered that Spernik had left his journal at the shop a day or two ago and if it was helpful there were hand-drawn maps in there which might show where he was planning on going.

They also visited Mateo's Marvellous Weaponry where Creswinda bought Cassyt her first set of armour and they ordered some upgraded weapons for the morning after. Mateo's extreme and over the top personality felt off to the party but he seemed otherwise trustworthy and it was put down to being a sales tactic and nothing more - what else could he be hiding?

### The Laughing Goblin

The Party visited the tavern nearing the end of the day, first speaking to Imizael behind the bar about Tibeem and Spernik and finding out that they kept mostly to themselves but also met with another young scribe names Ellison from time to time. Her main gripe with the three of them seemed to be that they had not yet paid off their tab before they had run off and she wasn't hopeful that this Ellison fellow would be likely to be coming back now he was linked with criminals. She left the adventurers to be looked after by Fat Mar, the tavern server, before going on her way serving other customers.

Fat Mar, or Markoth Hasselpond for those who cared to ask, was a bright portly older man with wine marked nose and cheeks and a warm disposition. He took the adventurers to a table and told them all about the best ways to get to the Dragonspine mountains and the best breakfasts to get in town - he grows fond of the party and asks that they stay at the tavern overnight before going off on their quest in the morning. The group do stay and Cassyt has her first taste of alchol while a local troupe of bards play on into the night - Anguish begins the tradition of Cassyt wearing booty shorts by cutting her leather armour trousers down to basically crotch level.

## The Trip to Dragonspine

The morning after the night before - the party were worse for wear, but collected their ordered gear from the merchants across town and set off following the map in Ellison's journal.

### Crocodile Attack..?

Whilst in camp during the first night of the journey,