#12 – Kells the traitor

Safe in Leomund’s Tiny Hut

The first night is spent in the relative safety of Gus‘ Leomund’s Tiny hut. It can however only hold the people and Kells‘ mastiffs, so your horses are left outsiden, and when the wolves summoned by the vampire arrive, it it the horses that are targeted and are lost.

There is also a large group of Lizardfolk, led by a giant specimen with a grim looking falchion sword, who try to hack their way into your safety bubble – but with no luck.

The next morning when the first rays of the Sun reach over the mountain tops, you take a closer look at it all, and find that there are two alternative routes into the ruin. The main route is guarded by the Lizardfolk who lie in wait in the swamp.

The alternatives are either through the narrow sewer tunnel that emerges on the far side of the hill, but it is so narrow that Urog is only just going to be able squeez through, and who knows what awaits in the cold, damp, slimy, tunnels? The other alternative is to take a detour and approach from the North or the South and climb over the collapsed walls.
The southern route is chosen, and the heroes circle around and start to climb the South bank.

#11 – and so it begins…

Kells guides you safely through the marshes to the ruin, and as the sun starts to set, and while the last rays of the sun still protects you, you spot the top of tower of the ruin.
You make halt about half a mile from the ruin, and discuss what the best approach is?

While you are talking and drawing in the dirt, Ventric and a guy you haven’t seen before, comes riding down the same paths that you have travelled and joins you.

Aya – what are you doing here?

Together with Ventric is a half-elf with a lute strapped to his back, and he obviously knows Aya, as the first he says when he spots your group, is “Aya, what are you doing here? It is not safe out here!”

Aya looks with surprise on the newcomer, and asks with a smirk “I could ask you the same Gus, what are you doing here?”

Ventric and Gus

Back in Hluthvar Ventric had started to investigate a little deeper into what was actually going on, and who was doing what. He had made his way over to Pearl to have a closer look at Randal’s hideout, and to make sure she was safe in her shop/her home.

Soon after Ventric had arrived, a good-looking blond guy knocks, and Pearl lights up in a big smile when she sees it is Gus – one of Aya and Pearl’s good friends, who is passing through town and is heading for home in Waterdeep.

Ventric and Pearl explain the situaiton to Gus, and when he hears that Aya has gone with the others to find Randal, he looses all colour and shakes his head worrying – “she’s no adventurer”, Gus says.

Gus wants to head after Aya together with Ventric, and with an experienced Ranger and some relatively fresh tracks to follow they quickly gain on the others and almost catch up with them near the ruin.

Tired from the journey

You are all very tired after some 12 hours on horseback, and you are at a minimum ‘exhausted’ (level 1), if you fail a ‘Constitution saving throw DC 12’ you gain another level of exhaustion.

1	Disadvantage on Ability Checks
2	Speed halved
3	Disadvantage on Attack rolls and Saving Throws
4	Hit point maximum halved
5	Speed reduced to 0

#10 – fast forward – enter Bax

The pursuit of the stolen books, Randal the vampire, and thereby Hamron’s mentor, is taking a minor detour when some bandits try to scare you from following your leads and hopefully leave Hluthvar.
You were on your way to the library to clarify who had concrete knowledge of the whereabouts of the books, but on your way to the library you are ambushed by a group of thugs.

But it takes considerably more than a handful of seasoned thugs to scare a group of emerging heroes, and after an intense fight through the alleys of Hluthvar, you run them off, and you even get a captive.
The captive is a member of the thieves guild in Hluthvar, and has relatively little to tell about why they ambushed the group, but knows that they were hired by a big fellow who has connections to the Cult of the Dragon, and who probably was some sort of magic user as he had blue ink on his hands!

After the fight, and a talk to the city guard and the witnesses, you choose to put of the visit to the library until next morning. You head of to the Hammer and Forge to take a timeout to think things through and take a short rest.

#9 – recap – The stolen books

After a night, where you learned something about what Hluthvar also has to offer, you get up and head out the next morning, determined to figure out what has happened to the stolen books.

You begin with a visit to the diviner Aya Glenmiir, who had borrowed the book “The Weave: A Practical Observation of Impractical Occurrences” through her friend Cassra who is at the library.

Aya is a very beautiful and very charming elven woman, who has lived longer than any of you, but as it is with many elves it is hard to determine if she is 25 or 250 years old!

Aya Glenmiir – female elf wizard – resident of Hluthvar.

Aya is very forthcomming and open, and bids you welcome with a playful “so, have you come to interrogate me on orders from Master Opanrael?”
Master Opanrael, being the headmaster of the library.

The book she has borrowed is very, very valuable and could fetch up to 6,000 gold lions in Suzail, and there was only a handful of people who knew that she had the book – Pearl, Cassra, Opanrael, one or two clerks at the library, and then her good friend the dwarf Marten Foss, who also has had a book stolen from him!

#8 – recap – Hluthvar investigation

Last session gave the heroes an impression of what Hluthvar is, and what their immediate options are for getting some help to figure out what happened to Zenan, and find out where he is.

Srebor – town leader

Srebor the Red, elected leader of Hluthvar, could tell you that there has been not one, but two expeditions that have tried to find Randal and bring him to justice.

It was the Wolfmantale estate that sponsored the second expedition in close cooperation with the Helm church. The warrior priest Kerson participated in the planning second expedition and can tell you more about it.

Srebor also tells you that the guy who tracked Randal the first time around still lives in to. His name is Kells and he operates a dog kennel just North of town [#9] where he breeds bloodhounds, dogs for hunting, and large war dogs – Mastiffs.

#7 – cutscene – Session preview

End of the day – time to close up the shop and head over to the old folks for the weekly dinner.

Pearl locks up the Scarlett Letter and heads out into the streets in the early evening to have her weekly dinner with her parents in the southern part of Hluthvar.

She keeps looking over her shoulder to see if she is followed. Too many questions being asked and too many demands being made over the last days and weeks. Demands, and threats if she does not do as she is told. Threats to her and her family’s lives. She doesn’t want to end up like Randal – that dark creature of the night with his twisted ideas of love. The darkness has consumed him, and there is little left of the generous man she knew.

In the depths of a mind insane, fantasy and reality are the same.

Maybe the nosy adventurers who came to the shop today can help her find a way out of her predicament? She doesn’t dare talk to the clerics at the Helm temple – Randal seems to have his eyes and ears everywhere she goes. They seemed like good people at heart, even if their appearances were a little rough and they smelled of violence waiting to be unleashed, but if they help Cassra then maybe they can be trusted and she can let them in on her secrets, and then maybe she can be free again.

Pearl had good reason to look over her shoulder – she was most definitely being watched.

Aya Glenmiir Aya Glenmir Bax Becky Carandini Cassra Chainspire Cult of the Dragon Cutscene Dark hold Ellison Beringer Esmeralda falchion Far hills fast forward goblins Hamron Hluthvar investigation Kells Kessler Lizardfolk lizardfolk berserker Long Hall Inn Marshes of twiligt Mirtul Pearl Peder Haussner Randal Randal Greycastle Rat Recap Red Mist Resume Srebor the Red The Carlett Letter The Harpers Tiamat Urog Ventric Will Dracohorn Wolfmantle Zenan Ghentilara Zhengyi Zhentarim

#6 – recap – Randal the vampire

Season 2 of the “Dungeon Crawl Campaign” starts in Hluthvar.
It is spring, the year is 1490 DR, the month is Mirtul, and it is the 4th day of the month.
There are people from far and away, there are merchants with exciting and exotic goods, farmers who sell their produce, beggars, Helm priests, city guards, and all this with a mixture of both humans, elves, halflings, and dwarves.

Hluthvar is growing out of it’s old definition as a small, closed, and fortified town, and it is growing into an important trading, and stopping point for travellers from North, South, East and West who are traveling to or from the Sword Coast.

#5 – fast forward – Hluthvar

Chainspire dungeons

Last time we saw our heroes you were below the Chainspire Prison looking for missing workers and a missing search party!

Chainspire prison is under reconstruction, and some workers had gone missing. You discovered that it was a tribe of Goblins, with some mean Goblin Sorceror leaders, who had infiltrated the place, and after a couple of days of hard work, much blood, some sweat, and some tears, you resurface and make your way to the concentration camp to report that the threat has been dealt with.

Exploring the depths you found that the original elvish owners had built the keep to support an effort to block an entrance to the Underdark down below, and a shrine to the elvish god Sehanin was placed close to the entrance.

#4 – cutscene – Carandini

Through the streaming rain, and into the dark autumn night Carandini made his exit from the coaching inn. In his possession the tomes that he had ordered Meltar to retrieve for him from the Tymora church in Arabel to pay his debt to Carandini.

Carandini – Necromancer – Known agent of the Zhentarim.

The scripture of Zhengyi was missing – nowhere to be found, but Carandini was sure that it would appear again at some point – it always did, and with the hand of L’kah he could divine where it was and pick his time to recover it if necessary. He had a feeling that the young female arcane trickster would be the key to his reunion with Zhengyi’s scripture and then with Man Thul – his key to Zhentil Keep.

#3 – recap – Chainspire prison

Last episode…

The heroes are on their way to Arabel, recruited by a senior Lather priest called Peder Haussner, who has a reputation as being a hardcore fanatic, and a very efficient undead hunter.
Haussner has ordered Hamron’s adventurers to handle a “minor problem”. In exchange for their services he will perform a minor miracle and raise their friend Haverly from an untimely death.

It turns out that Haussner is part of the leadership of a small concentration camp, where a number of powerful (both political and magical) Netheril nobles and influencers are held captured until their more permanent prison is ready for them to move in to.

The problem is that the restoration of the Chainspire Prison has ground to a halt after some workers went missing, and the search team that went to find them is now also missing.
Haussner of course suspects foul play and undeads, and this leads to the obvious idea of letting someone from his church solve the problem and save the day.

The head of the concentration camp is a Purple Dragon Captain – Ivan “the Bull” of Suzail. He represents both the army and the judicial system. The political is represented by Will Dracohorn, who is you noble who has personally sponsored a part of the endeavor, and has supplied a number of the troops that guard the camp. The troops are mercenaries from Sembia!