Chapter 8: Journey to the Free Cities
8.1 The Mission(s)
When the party had first arrived back at Darktower, it was immediately apparent that things had changed. After setting up a presence in Darktower and helping repel several Hobgoblin attacks, the Alteran military had begun abusing their position to crack down on fugitives of Alterac dwelling in Darktower. This caused friction with the local authorities, but because the recent Hobgoblin attacks had been stronger than those in the fall and early winter, it was necessary to stay on the Alterans' good side.
Jimmy and most of the thieves' guild were locked up in the town jail, under suspicion of various crimes throughout Alterac. A few members had avoided detainment, including Crane, who had gone into hiding, and Dunbar, the barkeep at the Black Boar Tavern.
One of the fugitives that the Alterans were most eager to bring to justice was Felix, the fence who had stolen a fortune in magical goods from a church of Pelor in the Heartlands and "redistributed" them to the vendors of Darktower. His two accomplices had already been captured and hanged, and Felix was currently being hidden in the basement of the Black Boar Tavern.
The party learned all this through a meet with one of Jimmy's agents in the back of the Black Boar. He also set up a time when they could talk with Jimmy unobserved by the Alterans.
Jimmy congratulated the party on accompishing their objective, and directed them to pick up their reward at the Blacktower Bank. He also tasked them with a new mission: sneak Felix out of town via the catacombs beneath the graveyard. They connect to the Deep Tunnels, a series of natural caverns with connections to the Underdark. The party was to escort Felix to another exit to the surface about 30 miles west of Darktower and then to the nearest of the Free Cities, where he could be meet up with the local theieves' guild for further transportation.
Jimmy also expressed some distrust and curiosity about his mysterious client. While they were in the neighborhood of the Free Cities, they were to travel to the island city of Arcturus, also known as the City of Sages for it's population of respected historians, loremasters, and wizards. There, they were to meet with Balthazar the Sage, a leading expert in the hsitory and lore of the region around Darktower, and find out what they could about the items they had retrieved so far for Jimmy's mysterious client.
8.2 The Catacombs
While Hork got drunk and created a distraction, the rest of the party snuck Felix out of the back of the tavern and into a crypt in the graveyard. They waited for Hork there, and several burly associates of the thieves' guild moved a large sarcophagus in the crypt to reveal a trap door. The party climbed down the 100' rope ladder below into the catacombs. Following Felix's map, lighting the way with a Continual Flame spell cast on one of Felix's daggers, they took many twists and turns. Occasionally had to climb down to another level of catacombs. Felix was not pleased with Hork's decision to get loaded drunk before such a dangerous mission, and as they traveled, he made several unhappy comments about the quality of the agents Jimmy has assigned to escort him.
As they walked, Felix told them about how Jimmy had used these caverns to smuggle goods into and out of Darktower before cementing a relationship with the local authorities. Eventually the thieves' guild had abandoned that practice, after losing a few associates to denizens of the catacombs: carrion crawlers, ghouls, and a gelatinous cube amongst others.
Sure enough, the party (literally) stumbled into a gelatinous cube not much later. Fortunately, despite both Morgrim and Hork being enveloped by the cube at different points, neither were affected by it's paralyzing digestive juices (although they were partially digested).
Several levels later, the party was attacked by a pack of ghasts. Four of them approached from behind the party, and Hork and Morgrim moved up accordingly to protect the rest of the party. Unfortunately, the crafty ghasts had split up, and another four joined the fray from the opposite direction. A quick and bloody battle ensued. Morgrim became sickened by the ghasts' stench, reducing his combat effectiveness, and after a few swings of her axe, Hork was paralyzed. Felix and Daergel were busy holding off the other four ghasts, and things looked dire. One of the ghasts took the opportunity to attempt to rip out the paralyzed Hork's jugular, but she (barely) survived the attack. Shortly afterwards, Morgrim was able to finish off the ghast. When Hork regained the ability to move, she sprinted towards the two remaining ghasts. Felix was in her way, so with a scream, she lept over him (he dropped to the ground just in time to avoid her), chopped the head off one ghast in mid-air, landed firmly on her feet (despite still being rather drunk), and followed through with the axe swing to behead the last ghast. Felix, stunned, took back his previous words about the party's abilities, concluding "You guys are awesome!" Magnus exhausted several his spells (and a good portion of his whiskey) healing the party, and they continued onward.
After several more miles of tunnels, the party came upon a shaft leading down into the darkness over 100'. Hork began climbing down first, bracing her legs against the side, and using a rope attached at the top. Around 70' down the shaft, she was suddenly attacked by two chokers. The small, but incredibly strong creatures wrapped claw-covered tentacles around her limbs and neck, attempting to pull her clear of the rope. While Magnus sent a spirtual staff to attack one of the chokers, and while Felix and Daergel began the climb down to assist, Hork braced her feet against opposite sides of the shaft and began strangling one of the chokers and smashing it against the rock wall. Magnus's staff finished off one choker, but unfortunately, as the other choker continued its attack, Hork lost her footing and fell the remaining 50' down the shaft into a pile of rubble below. She took the remaining choker with her, however, and it did not survive the fall.
The rest of the party climbed down, Magnus and Morgrim exhausted the remainder of their healing spells, and they found somewhere relatively safe to rest for the night.
As they rested, Hork captured a large spider, named it Bork, put it in her invisible strongbox, and made it fight other creepy-crawly creatures she found in the catacombs. Hork became quite attached to her new pet.
8.3 The Deep Tunnels
Once rested, the party continued on. After several more miles of catacombs, the arrived at the deep tunnels. After several hours of wandering, the party emerged into a large cavern and Daergel heard something large moving in the darkness beyond the range of Felix's light source.
Before the party had much time to react, a high-pitched noise filled the cavern. The vibrations of the sound ripped apart flesh and bone, leaving the entire group dazed and bleeding. The party advanced quickly, and when Felix threw his glowing dagger into the cavern ahead, the light revealed a destrachan. It continued attacking with sonic cones, first rending the party's flesh again, then shattering their wooden weapons and goods, then shattering their metal belongings (including potion vials). It retreated the whole while, giving it more time to attack before the party could reach it. When they did, the destrachan didn't last long, falling quickly under the onslaught of Hork's axe, Morgrim's hammer, and Felix's daggers.
Bloody and battered and now missing much of their gear, the party continued onwards.
They encountered their next challenge several miles later. The stumbled into a large room full of giant, faintly glowing mushrooms. Hork began eating one and was soon horribly sick and vomiting on the floor. Soon thereafter, the party heard a hissing noise behind them, and spun around to find themselves facing a huge spider, around 10' tall. The attacked but soon discovered the spider was an illusion; a distraction while the real threat blasted them with lightning bolts. It took a while to spot the source of the bolts, which turned out to be a drider hanging from the ceiling of the cavern around 100' away. By the time anyone had spotted the drider, the party was covered in spiderwebs and being swarmed by hundreds of tarantula-sized spiders. With most of their ranged weapons shattered by the destrachan, things looked grim until the drider accidentally burned away the webs keeping Hork in place. With the help of a Bull's Strength spell from Magnus, Hork sprinted across the cavern, leapt 15' into the air, and ripped the drider from the ceiling. They landed with a crash in a patch of deadly mold. Both survived the fall and the mold spores, but Felix quickly finished off the drider with thrown daggers. The party looted the drider, collected the (apparently magical) moss, and continued. They found a secluded spot to camp and rested for the night.
The next day the party finally arrived at the end of the caverns. Unfortunately the tunnel the were following opened into the lair of some hill giants. While the rest of the party plotted their strategy, Hork charged out of the tunnel at the Hill Giants. The ensuing battle was bloody, but the party survived. Hork beheaded one hill giant after it was brought down by Morgrim's hammer and Daergel's deadly sneak attacks, but the other hill giant escaped and started yelling for help. The party quickly discovered that there were 6 hill giants who lived in the cave, and decided to make a run for it before they all came back.
Hork picked up Morgrim, Felix, and Daergel, and ran at tremendous speed as fast as she could away from the cave. Magnus flew along with them. Eventually they arrived at a mountain pass hidden from the valley containing the hill giants' lair, and Hork fell to the ground in excruciating pain. She had a severe heart attack, and it became clear it was best to camp for the night and let her recover.
8.4 The Demonwolf Clan
The next morning Magnus healed everyone and the party continued down through the mountains towards Kharanos, the nearest of the Free Cities. Just after midday, they rounded a bend and came face to face with a war party of orcs from the Demonwolf Clan (the clan that Hork had spent her childhood in), led by an armored Ogre who demanded 1000 gold in payment in order to let the party pass. He politely waited while the party discussed the predicament amongst themselves. Of course the party decided to fight, and made quick work of the war party, although they used up a stoneskin potion and all of Magnus's remaining spells in doing so. Hork fell off a ciff to the rocky ground 60' below near the end of the battle, while attempting to chase down the ogre, who had fled as the last of his underlings were chopped down. Fortunately, Magnus brought down the ogre with his Spiritual Weapon as it tried to escape. The party looted the corpses, Hork applied some of the demonwolf facepaint, and they continued on.
At dusk they spotted the lights of Kharanos again in the distance, and forged ahead. A few ankles were sprained, and Magnus fell down a 30' cliff, and around midnight they finally stumbled into the town.
8.5 Kharanos
After a brief run-in with town guards that mistook Hork for a Demonwolf Clan orc, the party settled down in a nice inn and finally relaxed for a while. Felix departed, and Daergel spent a week training with the local thieves' guild. The party replaced some of their lost/broken gear, repaired their armor, and drank a lot.
Towards the end of the week Daergel spotted the three bounty hunters that had once held uncle Kiro hostage walking down the street away from the docks and out of town.
8.6 Arcturus
Finally, the party was ready to take the ferry from Kharanos (on the southern shore of Windmere Lake) to Arcturus (on an island in the middle of Windmere Lake). As they crossed the water, they got their first good look at Arcturus. The small walled city sits atop the 400' tall cliffs that jutt out of Windmere Lake. A small village known as the lower city lies on the only flat land near the water's surface. Transport from the lower city to the upper city occurs via a giant, levitating platform which rises and lowers every half hour or so.
Upon arriving at the lower city, the party was in for a rude welcome. They were brusquely escorted from the ferry to a large warehouse-looking facility with armored guards posted left and right. They soon learned that security is taken very seriously in Arcturus. They had to relinquish all their weapons and most of their magic items. Any items they insisted on bringing into the upper city (including their cursed rings of warmth) had to be registered with the city (for a small fee). After being "processed", they were all allowed to continue to the levitating platform. It slowly drifted upward, finally arriving at the gates of the city.
A hundred feet down the main thoroughfare within the city, the party stumbled into a bazaar full of pushy vendors trying to convince them to buy every manner of magical trinket. All the colorful things and shiny do-dads made Hork happy, but the others were impatient to go visit Balthazar.
When they arrived at Balthazar's tower, Morgrim banged on the door until his knuckles started bleeding, but no one answered. They asked around the city about Balthazar, and found out that he had at one point had a romantic relationship with another well-known sage, Mystara. She turned out to be a hunched, frail, cantankerous old hag who kept bringing up the fact that the party smelled bad. Nonetheless, she agreed to help after realizing that if Balthazar had died of old age in his tower, she'd have first dibs on his library. She dispelled the magical locks and traps on Balthazar's doorway and led the party inside. After poking around on the lower three floors (and after Morgrim blew himself up and singed the rest of his beard off), they discovered Balthazar's body, splattered in blood and missing its head, on the upper floor. The chipped and burnt remains of a skull were in the fireplace.
Hork wandered back to the market as Morgrim, Daergel, and Magnus brought the news of Balthazar's murder to the authorities. Although they were initially under suspicion, eventually they were cleared, and free to go. Their interrogator even recommended a few good taverns to them. The party caught up with Hork and found a good inn/tavern to stay at for the night. They also discovered a delicious magical drink that tasted like something different to everyone who drank it. Later on, Magnus purchased a small keg of the stuff for the road.
The interrogator from earlier eventually found the party here, and explained the current situation to them. The officials of Arcanus wanted to raise Balthazar from the dead in order to question him about his murder, but no one was willing to sacrifice a year of their life as required by a Resurrection spell. They asked one of the adventurers to volunteer, since they too would benefit from speaking to Balthazar. Daergel, to everyone's surprise, quickly volunteered. The party was brought to a grand temple of Boccob and the ceremony was undertaken. While he and Balthazar recovered from the after-effects of the spell, Morgrim had his beard magically regrown and Hork had her hair magically styled and colored every color of the rainbow.
Finally, the party was informed that Balthazar was ready to see them. He described his murderers: the half-orc and human male of the bounty hunter trio. The party was surprised to learn Balthazar had not been expecting them, and had never gotten a message that they were coming. When they explained the purpose of their trip (to find out more about the various things they had been retrieving for Jimmy's mysterious client), he grumpily explained that most of his books on the subject of Oglibyet and the history of the Darktower region had been stolen by an apprentice of his several years prior. When asked to describe the apprentice, Balthazar gave a description matching none other than Crane, the wizard-in-residence of Darktower's thieves' guild. He ended his description of his old apprentice with the words "He goes by the name of Daedalus Crane.", removing all doubt about who Jimmy's mysterious client is.