Session 24

## Zhentarim? I Hardly Know 'Em!

17 Eleasis(Afternoon) - 28 Eleasis(Evening)

The Young Adventurers travel back to the Vault of Kings with King Bruenor and Catti Brie. Bruenor tells the party that he believes the Zhentarim faction agent knows the location of Gravenhollow and they should try to get her to support their expedition even if nobody else does. That said, he is unable to provide much support for the expedition himself so the party should feel free to come up with their own plan if they choose.

The Young Adventurers return to their rooms and question Stronerd about the various faction agents in Gauntlgrym. She fills them in but I see no need to retype it all right here. Ultimately they decide to just run with Bruenor’s plan: get the factions to support their return to the Underdark, get the Zhentarim to tell them where Gravenhollow is, go to Graven Hollow, ???, success.

At the dinner that evening the party splits up to cover ground. Nespip talks to Davra Jassur, the Zhentarim representative, but she will only negotiate in private. They arrange to meet later that evening. Sebastian again speaks to Lord Eravien Haund, the Lord’s Alliance agent. He is pretty sure the demon lord invasion is nonsense but Sebastian points out that King Bruenor believes it’s true so the Lord’s Alliance could gain favour with the king by supporting the expedition whether demon lords are loose or not. This is a surprisingly good argument from Sebastian and Haund says he will think about it. Nespip and Sebastian together approach Sir Lanniver Strayl, the Order of the Gauntlet agent. He clearly believes something is going on in the Underdark but has doubts about the Young Adventurers being any kind of solution. Ultimately he agrees to lend some forces to the expedition.

Meanwhile Ralkor talks to the Harper representative, Lord Zelraun Roaringhorn. Zelraun seems interested to talk to a hobgoblin wizard and has a number of questions, but warns Ralkor that he is travelling alone so he can offer no assistance on their journey. Ralkor expresses interest in Zelraun’s shield guardian, Roary, but Zelraun is reluctant to let his guardian go. He believes the Young Adventurers, and clearly they are a capable group, but do they have the intellect necessary to deal with the situation? Zelraun asks Ralkor to meet after the party for a game of dragon chess. Kaia talks to Morista Malkin, who both represents the Emerald Enclave and is a captain in Gauntlgrym’s scouts. She has made up her mind to support the expedition already and offers scouts and riding lizard mounts.

King Bruenor makes an announcement asking for support for the Young Adventurers’ journey and a second announcement that he will be departing Gauntlgrym and placing Sonnlinor Reddiger in charge for the interim. Lord Haund admits to Sebastian that it seems he was right about King Bruenor and offers eight men for the expedition.

After the gathering Nespip meets with Davra Jassur, who says that while she does not know how to get to Gravenhollow they do have a man at an Underdark trading post who does know. For her cooperation she demands a full share (20%) of any treasure recovered during the journey. Nespip argues her down to 15% and she agrees. She supplies 8 men to lead them to the trading post, Mantol-Derith. Ghazrim DuLoc, the Zhentarim agent at that trading post, knows how to reach Gravenhollow (according to Davra, anyway).

Ralkor meets with Zelraun (after a refresher match of dragon chess with Sebastian). Zelraun chats with Ralkor about his past and experiences in the Underdark while playing. At first he does not take Ralkor seriously as a chess opponent and falls behind early. Zelraun is able to come back and take a close win in the end, but is impressed with Ralkor’s ability (it was a best of three roll, Ralkor won only the first but the other two were pretty close). After some further discussion Zelraun commits Roary to the expedition, giving the control amulet over to Ralkor.

The Young Adventurers spend the following day organizing and equipping their suddenly huge group of henchmen, many of whom cannot see in the dark. The expedition heads out the following day, travelling east from Gauntlgrym to a cave system northeast of Longsaddle over ten days. Nero, the leader of the eight Zhenatrim thugs traveling with the party, moves to the front intending to speak with the guard posted outside the cave, but there is no guard at the post.

Kaia and the Emerald Enclave scouts enter the cave to check. Kaia hears sentries posted on a ledge over the main cave but can’t see them. She checks the cave floor and finds clear tracks belong to kuo-toa or a species with similar webbed feet. Back outside the group discusses what to do, originally planning to charge in wildly with their entire force before deciding on a more moderate Young Adventurers only approach (plus Roary). The rest of the expedition sets up camp outside. Nero offers that he can find an alternate Zhentarim entry to the Underdark but the journey to Mantol-Derith will be much longer.

The group (mostly Kaia) quickly captures the two kuo-toa sentries, apparently without alerting anyone else in the caves. Kaia intimidates one of the captives into giving some information: there are ten or so kuo-toa led by “the Unleashed,” they’ve been looking for routes to the surface, and the Zhentarim that were in the caves are all dead except maybe one who is in the prison. The Young Adventurers are pretty convinced that the Unleashed is Demogorgon so they take their kuo-toa captives and retreat to plan what to do next.

Tune in next time to find out if the Unleashed is, in fact, Demogorgon, and if so whether or not a party of four level 8 PCs with a shield guardian can kill Demogorgon.