Session 30 - Cast of Characters

Challa kri - Kalashtar Paladin
Durmindin - Wilden Shaman
Leigh - Eladrin Wizard
Tiberius Enchilada - Human Warlord

Session 30 - Scene 1 (of 6)

In the basement of the Tower of Waiting, the group begins to feel tremors as the tower begins shaking. The ceiling begins to collapse on them; Larrak, Scrag, and Silas are all hit by falling debris and knocked unconscious.

Tiberius quickly gives the order to flee the building. He grabs Larrak, Challa grabs Silas, and Durmindin grabs Scrag. As they exit the building, it collapses into a pile of rubble behind them.

Before they can catch their breath, the group notices the water around the island has a purplish glow. The bodies of the drowned dead begin to emerge from all directions, surrounding them.

They also spot Tobolar Quickfoot nearby, beginning a ritual from a scroll. To the group he yells simply, "Hold them off!"

Tiberius reacts immediately without thinking, throwing the body of Larrak at one of the zombies. It seems to take the zombie out, but leaves the unconscious Larrak sinking in the water.

Durmindin calls forth his spirit companion and attempts to strike at one of the drowned ones, but misses. Leigh has much better luck with her fireball spell, blasting away four of the dead in one shot. Challa cuts down another with a bolstering strike.

But more zombies begin to emerge from the waters. Several grab the body of Larrak and drag it down into the watery depths. He is never seen again.

The other zombies move in to attack. Tiberius manages to avoid injury, but Durmindin is hit twice and Challa and Tobolar each suffer a hit as well. They can tell the zombies may not be durable, but they strike very hard.

Tiberius tries to cut down another zombie with his viper's strike, but misses. Durmindin, however, manages to hit with his spirit companion's protecting strike, killing another zombie.

Leigh focuses her energy keeping the zombies off of Tobolar, blasting away the two on him with a scorching burst. Tobolar pays no attention, and continues performing his magic ritual.

Challa chops down another zombie as the rest move in to attack. Durmindin is again hit twice, with Tiberius and Leigh suffering hits as well. The group is dismayed to see more of them emerge from the river waters.

Tiberius responds by attacking the zombie back, cutting off its head. Durmindin elects to take a moment to catch his breath then misses with another spirit attack. Challa has no better luck with her attack, unable to penetrate the zombie's defenses.

Leigh, with the zombie directly in front of her, uses her magic missile touch to blast it away. Nearby, Tobolar continues reading the incantations on the scroll he is holding.

The zombies continue their assault, with more of them continuing to pop up out of the water in every direction. While everyone else is hit at least once, Durmindin suffers four of them beating on him, knocking him unconscious.

As Durmindin slips towards death, Tiberius lashes out and kills the two zombies on Leigh. Free to use her scorching burst spell, Leigh blasts away another three near Durmindin.

Challa and the zombie attacking her both try to attack, but neither manages to hit. The other zombies strike Tiberius twice and Tobolar and Leigh once apiece. Leigh is overcome by her injuries and falls to the ground.

Luckily for the group, however, Tobolar manages to complete the magical ritual he was performing. The water in the river turns back to normal, with no more drowned ones appearing.

But even with no more zombies emerging, Tiberius decides their only hope is to get over to Durmindin, who has all of the healing potions. He tries to move past the five zombies attacking him, but is hit three times and collapses from the injuries.

Challa, the only member of the group left standing, watching in horror as the zombies surround her. She can tell Durmindin will die very soon if unaided. She, too, elects to move away from the zombies close to her and maneuver towards Durmindin.

The paladin manages to avoid the zombie attacks and reaches Durmindin. She quickly grabs a healing potion off of his belt and pours it down his throat.

With the ritual completed, Tobolar decides to follow Challa's lead. He runs by, grabbing a healing potion from her, and pours it down Leigh's throat.

The remaining zombies shuffle towards Challa. One of them hits her with another damaging blow.

Durmindin stands himself up. He attempts to attack with a thunder bear's warning spell, but it fails to work. He then gives the last healing potion he has to Challa, feeling she is their best hope of survival.

Leigh stands herself up. Surrounded by zombies, she casts a scorching burst, blasting five of them. But in the attack is hit by two of them herself, sending her unconscious once again.

Challa drinks the final potion. She tries to assist Tobolar by attacking the zombie on him, but misses. Tobolar also misses with his staff attack.

The zombies strike back at Challa and Tobolar. The young halfling is knocked to the ground.

Using a spirit renewal strike, Durmindin is able to kill one of the zombies and heal Tiberius at the same time. Nearby, Tobolar begins to bleed out.

The zombies strike out, hitting Challa but missing Tiberius. Tiberius elects to stabilize Leigh first then attacks at one of the zombies but fails to hit.

Durmindin takes out another zombie with his protecting strike as Challa misses and Tobolar slips ever closer to death.

The two zombies strike out at Challa, knocking her unconscious. Tiberius moves over, stabilizes Tobolar, and misses with another attack at one of the zombies. Durmindin has better luck, taking out another one with his spirit strike.

The sole remaining zombie attacks at Tiberius buit misses. Tiberius strikes back with a mighty blow that decapitates the creature.

Session 30 - Scene 2 (of 6)

Tiberius immediately stabilzes the dying Challa. Afterwards, everyone sleeps for the night on the small island with their backs up against the rubble of the collapsed tower. The bodies of the zombies are used to make a fire.

The next morning, Challa, Tobolar, and Leigh have all recovered. Tobolar explains that Nimozarran contacted him once he felt the disturbance of the tower area merging with the plane of the Abyss. He gave Tobolar the scroll and sent him over to the island to close the portal between the worlds.

With no sign of Larrak, who is presumed dead, the group turn their attention to Scrag and Silas. Both appear to have suffered severe head trauma from the collapsing tower. They decide the best thing to do would be to drop them off at the sanitarium and wait for them to recover.

First, they head back to the docks and return the boat. The old man, Chester, sees how bad they all look and remarks that he is glad they managed not to damage his boat.

Silas and Scrag are dropped off at the sanitarium. While there, Leigh decides to visit Zena as well. As she does, she notices that in a nearby bed is Eric Pembridge. Apparently he is still there recovering from "nervous exhaustion".

Leigh chuckles to herself upon seeing the man, causing Tiberius to remark that she is being cruel to the "poor young man". Leigh explains that he got his just rewards, and explains the whole story about Al leading Pembridge into the cemetery once they are all back outside of the building.

Session 30 - Scene 3 (of 6)

Over breakfast, the talk turns to what to do next. The group ultimately decides to focus on following up on the note they suspect was from Salazar to Rufus that they found in the tower.

No one thinks going out and looking for information about Rufus again would do any good. Tiberius decides they should go to Lt. Gerdrand first to see what his take on the situation is.

When they arrive at Gerdrand's office, he sighs to himself again as they explain how they were behind the disturbance out at the Tower of Waiting. He is relived to hear that it was collapsed after finding out it was not only used as a hideout by Rufus, but also contained some kind of portal to the Abyss.

Tiberius also hears Gerdrand make a comment under his breath about how at least this time they didn't manage to get a whole squad of his men killed like Krolec did last week. Tiberius is curious what Gerdrand was referring to, but doesn't press the issue.

Gerdrand then reads over the note. He asks if they have who Rufus met with then explains in order to get the magistrate to sign off on an arrest warrant for Salazar, he'll need that person to corroborate the note and link Salazar with Rufus and the assassination.

The lieutenant suggests that instead of asking around about Rufus, who is greatly feared in the underworld community, they focus on seeing who Salazar has been seen with. Gerdrand explains a foreigner and aristocrat like Salazar does not command the same respect on the streets and people will be more likely to talk.

Tiberius then asks about a description on Rufus, but is met with disappointment when he learns the assassin is a master of disguise and his true appearance is not well known. The warlord then suggests they leave and start investigating at the Lucky Gnome Taphouse again.

Session 30 - Scene 4 (of 6)

Since Tiberius has been in the tavern several times before, and Durmindin is so unique, the group decides that Challa and Leigh will in to question people.

As it is late in the morning, the tavern is largely empty; most of its clientele are either off at work or have already gone home to sleep after a night of rancor. The remaining customers appear to be a fairly mangy looking bunch of shiftless layabouts and small time criminals.

Challa decides to go straight to the bartender and ask for their finest drink. The bartender explains that the finest they have is a bottle of MacCutcheon's Whiskey (made by retired naval captain Anderson MacCutcheon) and it will be 1 gold per shot. Challa takes one shot and quickly downs it; it is very smooth. She orders another.

Meanwhile, Leigh decides just to sit down at a table with one of the rough-looking customers. She entices him to buy her a drink. He orders two ales. She gives her name as "Alissa" while he gives his name as "Big Joe".

Leigh starts to explain that she is looking for someone, but Big Joe insists she already found him. He suggests they go back to his room nearby and learn why his nickname contains the word "big". Leigh dodges his clumsy attempt to get her into bed, and gives a description of Salazar to the man.

Big Joe wants to know why she is looking for the other man, insisting he has everything she needs. Leigh simply states, "Money". Joe remarks that she gets to the point quickly. He explains he has seen Salazar a few weeks back, but wonders what the guy is doing with a flophead like Karl Porter if he has money. Leigh gets the man to elaborate; apparently, when Salazar was last in here he met with a junkie named Karl Porter.

After getting all of the information, Leigh gets up to leave. The man is disappointed. She tries to mollify him with a kiss on the cheek as she leaves, but the angry mutterings of Big Joe she hears on her way out the door suggest he is less than satisfied.

Back at the bar, Challa is also discussing Salazar. The bartender explains that, coincidentally, the sorcerer was the last person to order a drink of MacCutcheon's. He also links Salazar to Porter, whom the bartender describes as a "piece of trash".

Challa inquires more about Porter. Apparently a few days after meeting Salazar he was back in the bar and met with another man, though the bartender is vague on the second man's description. Challa orders a third shot of the fine whiskey and gives a two gold tip. The bartender goes on to explain that Porter only cares about two things – opium and whores. He suggests Challa should be able to find him at the nearest flophouse.

Session 30 - Scene 5 (of 6)

Armed with the information, the group decides the next step is to go grab Porter so they can turn him over to Gerdrand.

Tiberius thinks someone should go in undercover, but laments he is too tall and in shape to be mistaken for a junkie. Likewise, Durmindin is once again too bizarre looking for any clandestine operations. Tiberius suggests to Challa it is time for her to go undercover in her prostitute disguise again.

Challa agrees and suits up appropriately. Leigh decides to join her again, though does not dress nearly as provocatively.

Heading inside, Challa steps over to the nearest junkie lying on the floor and kicks him. She continues kicking him, progressively harder, until he points out Porter.

Porter is found passed out in the middle of the floor in one of the rooms. Challa gives him a nudge to wake him up.

The two women first try to entice Porter to get up on his own and come with them. However, the man is so high he refuses to move, saying he'll buy some favors off of them later.

Challa and Leigh aren't interested in taking no for an answer. They each grab a foot and begin dragging him out.

Once they reach the doorway, Karl becomes a lot more cooperative. He stumbles his way to his feet and follows them over to a nearby area near the street to talk.

When asked about Salazar, Porter begins giggling at the name and sounding it out in various ways of lengthening the syllables. He remarks how funny the name sounds. Leigh concurs, but forces the question again.

Porter goes on to slowly give a rambling account of his dealings with Salazar. He explains that he was hired to meet with Rufus so he could show him where someone lived and hand over a "big bag of money".

After a few times repeating things, Porter eventually gets across that he showed Rufus where Lord Barret lived. He also explains that he got a cut of the money, and used his pay to buy a "big bag of opium". He invites the group back to his place to smoke some.

Challa accepts, but suggests they go to her place instead.

Session 30 - Scene 6 (of 6)

By the time the group gets to Lt. Gerdrand's office, Porter is quite confused. Gerdrand has him thrown in a cell to sober up a bit before giving testimony. The lieutenant, however, assures the group they will now have enough evidence to get the arrest warrant.

Some time later, Porter clears up enough to give out a full account to Gerdrand's scribe. It takes another hour for Gerdrand to see Magistrate Damakos and get the warrant signed off on.

When he returns, he invites the group along to help affect the arrest. They agree, though Leigh decides to hang back and avoid being directly associated with the arrest in order to keep her profile lower.

Lieutant Gerdrand and the others arrive at Groddic Manor shortly after. Groddic's butler shows them in and goes to fetch his master.

It doesn't take long before Groddic and Salazar both show up, with Groddic demanding to know what is going on. Gerdrand serves the warrant to Salazar and has his men move in to arrest the man.

Salazar immediately lets loose a blast of flame, incinerating the soldiers. He then turns to Groddic and casts a spell of a spectral snake that attacks the lord, all while the sorcerer screams that Groddic has betrayed him.

Durmindin immediately reacts by blasting Salazar with his wrath of winter. Salazar then casts another spell, summoning forth a giant efreet flameblade.

Tiberius stays focused on Salazar. He moves up to the sorcerer and creates a bastion of defense. He then activates his armor and tries to follow up with a stand the fallen maneuver, but failes.

Challa and Gerdrand are also focused on Salazar, and both move up to attack him. Challa summons forth her divine strength and strikes into him with her on pain of death prayer. Gerdrand, however, is unable to get past Salazar's defenses.

Outside, Leigh stands across the street of the manor. She senses the use of the summoning spell. Knowing the group is probably in trouble, she begins heading towards the door.

Back inside, the efreet attempts to strike down Challa with his massive sword, but she dodges out of the way. Durmindin maneuvers himself behind the others then calls forth a thunder bear's warning on Salazar.

Salazar responds by transforming into a giant snake. He wraps himself around Tiberius then bites down on him with his large fangs.

Tiberius forces the snake off of him then cuts into the snake. Challa assists by making an ardent vow then calling forth a hallowed circle.

Just then, Leigh bursts through the door. Instinctively, she casts a fireball spell, blasting both the efreet and Salazar. The efreet, however, does not appear to be affected by the fire. Leigh follows it up with a shock sphere, but the efreet manages to avoid the blast so she injures only Salazar again.

Everyone wonders how the sorcerer is managing to stay standing. Gerdrand tries to take him out with his sword, but misses again.

The efreet then hurls its scimitar, striking into Tiberius and Gerdrand. As the sword returns to its hand, Gerdrand falls to the ground unconscious.

Durmindin tries to help out with a spirit renewal strike on the sorcerer, but fails. He also fails with his spell of the spirit of the healing flood.

Salazar lashes out at Tiberius again, but this time the warlord avoids him. Durmindin's spirit companion uses the wrath of the destroyer to strike Salazar in response, dazing him.

Tiberius inspires himself to recover then attempts to attack the sorcerer with furious war cry, but the snake avoids the attack. Challa has better luck, hitting the creature with her virtuous strike.

From across the room, Leigh decides to forgo her usual preference for fire-based spells and instead use some acid ones. She casts an acid mire in the middle of the room, hitting both the efreet and Salazar. Salazar melts into the acid, screaming as he dies a horrific death.

Unfortunately, the efreet does not disappear. Instead, it flies over to Leigh and strikes her down with a tremendous attack.

Durmindin moves over and casts his healing spirit on Leigh to prevent her from dying. He tries to follow it up with an attack on the efreet, but his spirit of the hawk's wind spell fails to affect the monster.

Tiberius charges at the efreet, but misses with a viper's strike attack. Challa likewise misses with her valorous smite.

Now conscious, Leigh casts her jump spell to propel her out of danger, and then blasts the efreet with an acid arrow.

The efreet whirls in a circle with his firey sword, striking into Tiberius and Challa but missing Durmindin. The shaman responds by his spirit companion making a protecting strike on the creature.

Tiberius can see that Challa is in a better position than he is. He guides her into making a pair of virtuous strike attacks. She then uses a healing word to allow Gerdrand to recover.

Finally, Leigh finishes off the efreet with a magic missile from across the room.

With Groddic and Salazar dead, Gerdrand declares the investigation over. Lord Groddic's son, Anthony, takes over as head of their house. He assures the group he blames Salazar for everything and pledges to stay out of the affairs of the city. Durmindin can sense he is telling the truth.

Session 30 - Session Notes

This was our smallest group ever for a D&D session, as we continue to have issues with who can come when.  I'm hoping that stabilizes for a session or two.  As I said last time, the Larrak player is gone, the Scrag player may be gone (waiting to see how that plays out), and the Silas player can still only seem to commit to every other session at most while the Krolec player had a host of personal issues lately.  On the plus side, the Challa player's husband backed off wanting to play so maybe I can keep the group down to a manageable size.

I had envisioned the never-ending zombie battle for a while (I was thinking of the Harry Potter scene with those zombie things in the last movie).  It was all minions, but there were a lot of them and they just kept coming.  I did up the minion damage a bit (as I believe BTB to be far too low to be threatening).  I nearly had a TPK situation.

Tobolar was half-NPC / half-PC.  I let the Leigh player handle his rolls and his decisions once the magic ritual was done.  It took a burden off of me plus allowed her to stay in the game more.

Larrak's death was kind of dumb, but I didn't fight it since the player isn't expected to be back any time soon.  Silas and Scrag were given a reason to be out for a while, plus the sanitarium made for comic relief with Pembridge.

Then the game headed back into investigation mode for the third session in a row.  I let this one move quickly because they had good ideas and I didn't want to get too repetitive.  I thought Challa using her undercover identity again was a nice touch.

MacCutcheon's whiskey is another Lost reference.  No significance in the game, its just an homage.

I envisioned the opium den as being a lot like the scene in the film, From Hell, where they go to get the inspector.  Again, I'm not sure why I always picture buildings in D&D to be Victorian.

The comment from Lt. Gerdrand about Krolec was funny, because no one had known about Krolec's side adventure until that point.  I love stuff like that because it really makes the game universe seem more real.

The "big bag of opium" is an in-joke just for me; its a reference to a friend in college whose father spent his retirement money on a (stolen) stereo and a big bag of weed.

The end battle with Salazar was planned for a while.  I always liked the idea of him summoning a big efreet since I previously established he was a shi'ar sorcerer.  Once again, I had the Leigh player using Lt. Gerdrand as a hireling type character to keep her in the game.

No one paid the slightest attention to Salazar's comment about Groddic betraying him (or what he meant by it).  Nor did anyone question why Salazar would so openly hire a known addict for such an important mission or send a letter discussing an assassination with his seal on it.  That may change once some other facts come out in the future...

Session 31 - Cast of Characters

Krolec Jar'bin - Elven Ranger
Leigh - Eladrin Wizard
Tiberius Enchilada - Human Warlord
Silas Ballard - Human Avenger
Challa kri - Kalashtar Paladin
Durmindin - Wilden Shaman

Session 31 - Scene 1 (of 10)

everal days after the death of Salazar, the group finally has a chance to get back together for the first time in a while. Krolec finally feels comfortable leaving Jantor at home with his parents while Silas recovers enough to leave the sanitarium.

Scrag, however, remains comatose and no signs of life are seen. The group speculates he may not be coming back any time soon.

Over breakfast, Krolec and the rest of the group exchange information about what they've been up to the last couple of weeks. Krolec isn't thrilled to hear about Vanka's crime spree, nor does he overly like Challa's undercover work at the docks.

The group largely takes Krolec's information about the Man in the Purple Cloak in stride, though Tiberius is adamant about going after the wight stopped in the catacombs. Challa suggests they wait until winter comes, as the first snow will be coming any day now, and they will be unable to travel outside the city until spring once winter hits.

After finishing his hearty meal at Lucky Larry's, Krolec announces his intentions to go see Lt. Gerdrand. He wants to fill the lieutenant in on what ended up happening underground. The rest of the group decides to join him.

Session 31 - Scene 2 (of 10)

When they arrive at the lieutenant's post, everyone is shocked to find the usually-wary lieutenant appear happy to see them for once. He mentions he's been looking for them. First, however, Krolec gives his story about what he found under the city.

The lieutenant informs Krolec they only lost a squad or two of the city guard in the attempt to flush out the creatures. Krolec goes on to explain about the man in the purple cloak, who Gerdrand remembers as being the victim of the drow attack when he first met Krolec and Leigh. At the end of Krolec's story of how dangerous the underground is, the lieutenant reminds Krolec he told him as much during their first meeting; and that is why he never goes down there.

Krolec then discusses the alchemy work, and Albertus' death. Gerdrand explains the body was found and buried next to Al in the cemetery. He also explains Leng's shop is closed and the entrance to the sewers (from that shop) is closed off now.

The ranger goes on to mention he will be bringing Albertus' notes over to another alchemist who helped him. Gerdrand asks for the name, and when Krolec gives it as Harlan Fogarty, both Gerdrand and Leigh recognize it.

The lieutenant explains that Fogarty provided the alchemical fire they used to try and drive out the creatures from the sewers. Krolec surmises this is what the alchemist was working on when he got the silver powder. Tiberius, meanwhile, is excited to hear about a source for fire.

Leigh also mentions knowing Fogarty. She describes him as a good man and a friend of the family.

Krolec then reminds Gerdrand to keep the statue in a safe place as it is still extremely dangerous. Gerdrand says simply that Krolec needn't worry; it is being looked after by "top men".

Gerdrand then has a chance to explain why he was looking for the group – Lord Markelhay wishes to see them this evening. Tiberius inquires if it is a dinner invitation, and Gerdrand says that can be arranged.

After the arrangements are made, Lt. Gerdrand tells them that the new Lord Groddic was also looking for them. They decide to head there next.

Session 31 - Scene 3 (of 10)

At Groddic's manor house, the group arrives to find the main hall still under repairs after their fight. Krolec wonders if Leigh shouldn't use more restraint when using her spells, but says nothing.

When young Lord Groddic arrives, he greets the group in a pleasant, if somewhat hurried, manner. He explains that while cleaning out Salazar's room, his servants found something that he wants to give to the group; he mentions he doesn't want it falling into the wrong hands.

Everyone tenses up as one of the attendants brings out a small box. They ask what is in the box, and Groddic has the servant open it. Inside is an amulet.

Fearing it might be evil or cursed, Leigh immediately goes over to examine it. She determines it is simply an enchanted safewing amulet, and not a threat to them. They agree to take it from Lord Groddic.

A bit relieved, Groddic makes a comment about being glad to be rid of Salazar and his things. He explains he's particularly happy they can finally refill the buttery, as Salazar's strong religious beliefs prevented having any kind of liquor around – he didn't want to be anywhere near it; apparently, they haven't even had wine in the house years.

Leigh makes sure there is nothing else suspect in Salazar's things that are being thrown out, while Challa offers their assistance in any future matters. The lord responds he needs nothing; there is just a lot of work to do rebuilding the family treasury. Apparently, Salazar was responsible for a great deal of misappropriated finances.

Being polite, Krolec inquires about funeral services for the elder Groddic, to which the young lord responds that the body is still in repose for another day.

Session 31 - Scene 4 (of 10)

After leaving Groddic Manor, the group decides to head to Fogarty's workshop for their next errand. Fogarty answers the door and exclaims his happiness to get a visit from "Anna" and her friends. He invites them inside.

One section of the converted barn has been made into a drawing room. Everyone has a seat as Fogarty offers them tea. Everyone but Tiberius graciously accepts; unknown to the others, the warlord is suspicious of drinking any liquids prepared by an alchemist. As he prepares the tea, Leigh explains, very briefly, that Anna is a nickname Fogarty has for her, but doesn't elaborate.

Over tea, Krolec thanks Harlan for his help and hands him over the notes from Eli Leng and Albertus Magnus. Fogarty looks them over quickly, remarking they will provide for fascinating study, despite not usually being his area of expertise.

Krolec then asks about healing potions, but Fogarty explains that such items are outside his range of skills; he likes to leave the healing to the healers.

Tiberius, however, is interested in one of his specialties – alchemical fire. As a fried of Anna's, he offers Tiberius a discounted rate of 40 gold per vial. They agree on a purchase of five vials, with Tiberius putting half the money down. Harlan explains the potions will be ready in a week.

Krolec remarks on the good quality of the tea. Fogarty explains he is happy to have people over, as he rarely gets the chance to break out his fancy Royal Doulton tea set. Leigh remarks how she remembers him first buying it at a shop called the "Silver Tree".

Harlan then asks about Leigh's family, which she responds are fine. He then talks about how happy his parents are with Leigh and her group's actions in cleaning up the city, remarking how fond they always were of her. Leigh responds that the group is on a good path, if a bit slow.

Fogarty then notes he needs to get back to his work, and the group decides they need to get going as well. He invites them to come back any time, and reminds Tiberius to be back in one week.

Session 31 - Scene 5 (of 10)

With a few hours left before dinner, everyone splits up to attend to personal matters. Krolec resupplies his arrows then heads back home to check on Jantor. Tiberius and Challa stop by Teldorath's shop to have their armor fixed up. Durmindin focuses on nurturing some of the plants in the gardens around the city.

After dropping off his armor, Tiberius decides to head off with Silas to visit the Temple of Erathis. While Silas checks in with the main temple, Tiberius visits the shrine to Moradin there.

High Priestess Dirina Moonbrow talks for Silas for a moment, expressing her happiness he has returned to the temple. When he asks about healing potions, she mentions Father Goffman is currently finishing up a new batch. Silas makes a deal with her to get four potions for the price of three every week as part of a standing order.

Session 31 - Scene 6 (of 10)

That evening, everyone meets back up at Moonstone Keep. Everyone but Leigh decides to leave their armor and weapons at home as it would be inappropriate for the dinner.

Each member of the group is announced as they enter into the hall and are seated at a large table where a roast pig sits in the center of the table.

After a moment, Lord Markelhay himself is announced. He enters along with Sgt. Munley, who stays close by as his personal guard.

Markelhay bids everyone welcome, and says it is nice to see Leigh and Krolec again. They introduce him to the rest of their group, explaining the group is experiencing a problem with "high turnover".

After more pleasantries are exchanged, the lord explains that he is pleased with how they've been cleaning up the area from the dangerous threats that the town guard has been unable to handle. To that end, he tells them he wishes to honor them as knights of the realm.

Everyone is happy with the idea, though the enthusiasm is dampened somewhat when Markelhay explains that it will not be without some responsibilities. As one example, he points out with the town guard forces currently decimated after the recent activities, and so they may be called on to defend the city against dangerous threats to its security.

Of course, as Markelhay points out, this lines up more or less with what the group was already doing, so it shouldn't be any real imposition. Krolec agrees, more or less, but is concerned their new station might require them to pay more taxes. Markelhay attempts to address that fear, pointing out that none of their treasure found has been taxed to date.

Once everyone agrees to accept the honor, Markelhay explains there will be a knighting ceremony the next day. He also hints at a special surprise they will appreciate, but says no more.