Hammer 9, 1489
Dre'zel my love,
After searching the Drow assassins for clues, we turned our attention to Oris and interrogated him about any connection he might have with them. I was very suspicious of his claim of waiting outside the mine and not seeing any Drow enter.
Oris insisted that he was afraid of the dark and had fallen asleep by his campfire.
We were going to return to town when Saritu was eager to return to Zhennu Resk'afar to investigate something that was calling to her. Steve, Jojo, and I accompanied her.
Together, we traveled down three levels to the lowest level of the mine, where two makeshift wooden walkways were connected by a taut rope that could be traversed over the fifteen feet by a hanging bucket. A faint glow illuminated a narrow alcove across the far walkway.
Saritu tried to cross in the bucket, but an updraft tipped it over. Fortunately, Soupmeister Steve had insisted on securing Saritu with his rope, and the half-elf was soon hauled back to the wooden walkway.
I suggested Saritu try the assassin’s Slippers of Spider Climbing, which she used to easily walk across the vertical walls to the other side.
I tried to cross the rope to join her, but the rope was slimy, and I would have fallen to my death had I not also been secured by Steve’s rope.
When Saritu returned, she showed us a large pink crystal that she pulled from the fossilized skull of a mind flayer!
After returning to the others, we cut off the assassin’s head to question later and left the mine, returning to town.
As we approached, we could see smoke rising from Termalaine. We ran in and found half of The Eastside Inn had completely burned down. There were two dead Drow and over a dozen dead soldiers. August was holding Boy’s dead body. He said the dog’s barking alerted them to the attack and saved many lives.
Jojo began accusing August of being in league with the Zhentarim and soon found himself surrounded by guards.
While they were arguing, I asked Marta where she had stashed her gold. I accompanied her to her residence, which reeked of smoke but was otherwise still in decent condition. Fortunately, she found her gold.
Meanwhile, down in the courtyard, the argument continued, and August demanded a vote to elect a new speaker. Watching Jojo, August, and Oris argue about who would be the best Speaker was…awkward. Marta was clearly fed up with all of them, and I asked her about running for Speaker.
After pondering the idea for a moment, she threw open the shutters and delivered a magnificent speech announcing her candidacy. Soon, the election was underway, starting with Shaelen Masthew, the previous speaker and Oris’ mother, declaring her support for Marta.
Despite some disappointment, August and Oris fell in line, supporting Marta’s victory. Marta then helped us secure a very generous reward from the town coffers, which we split with her.
We departed Termalaine, and after a few hours we could see the walls of Targos. I pointed out a flying snake that had flown into Targos ahead of us.
As we approached the city gates, we found Captain Skath hanging two dead Duergar from the walls.
While Jojo, Talyth, and I visited Keegan to inform him of Garret’s and Boy’s demise, Skath brought the others to Speaker Naerth, who paid us for killing Sephek and warning the other speakers.
Talyth gave Keegan the stone we had found on Garret, and we told him that he had been killed valiantly defending his companions from a yeti and that we had buried him at Kelvin’s Cairn. We also told him how Boy had saved many lives, and Jojo shared how much Boy had cared for Garret and Keegan.
Explaining that his grandmother was a seer, Keegan paid us with finely worked scrimshaw figurines, custom-made for each of us. Mine was a coin with a beautiful woman on one side and a child on the other, bearing a striking resemblance to Dre’Zel and Fri'zel, which I will treasure.
We reunited at Ma’s, where we ate well and slept well. When I woke Talyth after my trance, I gave her my ring of warmth and put on the one Marta had given me.
In the morning, we found that Saritu had fit the pink mind flayer-brain-crystal into her eye socket. She insisted she felt fine, calling it a psi crystal. I warned her that it could make her vulnerable to mind flayer influence, but she didn’t seem worried. I found her nonchalance uncharacteristic and suspicious.
Later that morning, I disguised myself as Bra-tac while Talyth used her scroll to let me speak with the decapitated head of Lestro.
“Lestro, this is Bra'tac,” I began in Undercommon. “Zapophis is sending me to the surface to retrieve Talyth and Frizzt. What contacts have you made on the surface that can aid him?”
The head animated and its voice croaked, “Capable ones.”
Adjusting my cadence and mannerisms to match those of Master Bra-tac, I continued, "What are their names and where can they be found?"
“Half-orc,” it responded, “…don’t remember name…Termalaine…, Duergar…Durth…frozen ferry…, Supposed to enlist a pair of twins…wanderers…mercenaries…idiots…from Bryn Shander.”
I continued, “What forces on the surface have you identified or encountered that might stand in the way of the mission?”
“Ten Towns are nothing…” the skull croaked. “Duergar curious…have a fire in them…should retreat before they begin conquest… Four wizards…always curious…rarely interested… Black Swords…fortified…serve master’s rival...”
“What is the current status and location of Xadriia, the co-conspirator?” I asked.
“Your…prisoner?!” it responded before regarding me with sudden suspicion. Its eyes widened and rolled upward, and then the head became still.
I glanced pensively at Talyth, putting a hand on her shoulder.
After the interrogation, we gathered our things, and I led my companions over the tundra to Bremen. The fishermen seemed to be striking due to the dangers of the frozen Maer Dualdon.
Taimen was eager to find the lake monster she was told to kill. When we reached the docks, we were mistaken for fishermen by a dwarf named Grynsk Berylbore, who offered us five copper coins for each trout we could catch. He had two boats we could use, one of which had clearly had an encounter with this lake monster.
We were then approached by Tali, a half-elf researcher, who accused Grynsk of sending us to our deaths and warned us about the monster. When he heard we were intent on finding the creature, he asked us to note anything we learned about it.
We split up, with Jojo, Taimen, and me in one boat and everyone else in the other. We spent many hours dragging the boats across the frozen lake until we reached water and then rowing them even farther, through perilous ice flows. Fortunately, Soupmeister Steve was able to mend all the damage to the boats, making them as good as new.
It was very dark when we finally encountered the lake monster, who spoke to us in a cordial manner. It turns out the creature is a plesiosaurus that was awakened by the druid, Ravisin, and commanded to attack boats from Bremen. Learning that it feared losing its newfound intellect, the others tried to convince it that the druid had no power over it and could not take that gift away. The creature was unconvinced and insisted on attacking us and our boats.
Before I could hit it, Jojo fell into the water, and I had to help him climb back into the boat. He was freezing until Talyth used her divine powers to dry him. Meanwhile, Talyth had leaped into the freezing water and slashed at the creature until its head was cut off.
On our way back to Bremen, we did some fishing. I caught two knuckleheads, and Talyth caught four! Instead of selling them to Grynsk, we decided we would bring these to the Buried Treasures Inn and prepare a feast for the locals.
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