Original game date: February 24, 2018
The game resumes in the ruins of Greenest, an expansive city in the middle of the Greenfields. The party and many villagers have taken shelter in a large keep in the center of the city, where they lick their wounds.
Taking Stock
Pavel Mazmanian is missing, and Dawnstalker is assumed dead. Henrik Rivers and Hallmund are the top remaining caravan members.
Confirmed dead: Hambert Clearfield, Roark Kincaid, Erevan Moonbrook, Kulik Crazparov, Lemmy, Rufus Wainwright, and Ol’ Ebenezer.
Missing: Pavel Mazmanian, Zora Fell, Sylla Belfal, Other Hamling.
Loch recovers and immediately rides north along with Birch Willowstep toward Southhaven, an outpost of Elturel to get help from soldiers of the Order of the Gauntlet.
A New Mission
Governor Nighthill of Greenest offers 100gp each to investigate the enemy camp and scout it out. He offers them 4 Dragon Cult masks that were recovered which might prove useful disguises.
Meeting Coyote
Tracking the cult across more arid rocky terrain, Saul feels a sense of affinity. Hears voices on the wind, greeting him as Spirit Talker. He is approached by a “celestial” Coyote and told that a great evil has cast a shadow across his life and that Saul must be wary (he knows intuitively that he refers to the Gulthias vampire). When Saul returns to human form he finds himself holding a live python, casting it down it turns into a staff. He is gifted a Staff of the Python.
Referring to the camp, Coyote says that they are fools who seek to release an ancient evil. But time remains to stop them. Follow my little children, they will show you the way.
Prairie Dogs show him the lay of the land. Saul learns of rearguard, and scopes out the camp.
Forewarned, the party is able to stealth and bluff their way past the rearguard and approach the main cultist camp.
The Raiders’ Camp
Approaching the camp, they spot Zora Fel sneaking her way in by joining into a party of stragglers. The party is likewise able to blend in with stragglers and enter the poorly defended camp. Everyone is in a festive and self-satisfied mood after the recent raid, their largest one yet.
Within the camp, there is a conversation between Zora and Aesar; she demands to know why he has Roark’s walking stick and is shocked and saddened to learn of his death. She identifies the drow gunslinger as Vosz Draken. However she is very reluctant to discuss private matters with someone she hardly knows, perhaps in the future. She has snuck into the camp seeking to rescue the Harper Emissary, the elf monk Leosin Erlanthar.
Pavel, Jasper, Other Hamling and Dawnstalker are also held captive, most are in a cage with other prisoners, but Leosin has been strapped to a rack and Dawnstalker is clamped down and heavily chained to a flat bed cart, with bands holding his wrists, ankles, knees, elbows, chest and neck. Zora willing to work with them to rescue some of the prisoners.
Sylla makes contact with Vorai. She has infiltated the camp and knows they are moving out at first light tomorrow and plans to journey with them and see where they head.
Valentin Cormarose Snubbed
Everyone witnesses an exchange between Valentin Cormarose and Frulam Mondath, with an intervention by Rezmir. There is also a Red Wizard present in the background. They clearly reject whatever entreaty he is making. He is forcefully cast back by Rezmir and it seems that a fight will take place but then Valentin teleports away. Sylla – he should have taken my deal.
Prisoner Rescue
The prisoners are not particularly well guarded, but in the charge of an ogre named Krudt; he is attended by 6 kobolds who fan him with fronds to keep bugs away. Leosin is apart and tied to a rack; the caravan members are with 10 others from Greenest in a shared cage (approximately 80 total, spread across four cages).
The party is able to free all the prisoners except Dawnstalker, though Saul is able to heal the badly damaged Goliath before they flee the scene.