(G162 22/03/2013 Fri via Roll20 - JF(GM) , AP)

22/03/2013 - Roll20

DAY 189 (17th Eleint) continued

Fenrir planned to first go to Maaril and try and convince him to return to
Waterdeep, then to Giselle to get her back and then to Kingsholm to set up
a 'forward' base for when Cavu arrived there with whoever he may bring with
him.

Remembering that he had last met Maaril on top of a tower in a forest to
the north he turned invisible and flew up over the north walls.

After twelve hours of flying he reached Kryptgarden forest and landed at
the first ruined tower he came across. He cautiously entered it but
was chased out by some strange humanoid creature that called at him to
come back inside. Fenrir sensibly did not though and flew back up into
the air.

He continued flying in what he thought was the same direction but ran
out of forest. At six o'clock it started to rain and by nine o'clock he
was soaked to the skin. He kept flying until dawn, keeping the line of
the forest to his left and as the sun rose he saw mountains ahead in
the distance.

DAY 190 (18th Eleint)

Hopelessly lost he flew as high as he could stand as the rain water
froze on his body, hoping to get sight of the sea, which he could not.

He decided to fly south again, back to Waterdeep or the Lavius Estate
where Giselle was. He actually was heading north though and tired,
wet and hungry he landed at a deserted farm building.

Here he slept until six o'clock in the evening in the best bed he
could find, then, taking some bags of dried beans he set off again.

Still thinking he was flying south and actually flying north he saw
the lights of a small settlement and landed.

It was a small walled village that let him in as long as he handed
over his weapons for safe keeping. The only inn was quiet so he
had no trouble hiring a room and getting some food and a nice bath.

He also eventually learned from the innkeeper how badly of course
he was and got written directions for Longsaddle.

DAY 191 (19th Eleint)

Having purchased some more rations, Fenrir set off following the
road by air.

Around three o'clock in the afternoon a storm blew up and he sought
shelter in a lodge house. An old woman made him a cup of tea.

When the storm blew out he continued on his way.

DAY 192 (20th Eleint)

Fenrir continued on his way, following directions to the Lavius
Estate south of Kryptgarden Forest.

DAY 193 (21th Eleint)

Fenrir arrives at the Lavius Estate in the afternoon.

=== Rollo addition ===

If I may interject for a moment here dear reader for a few notes on
the Kryptgarden Forest:

It cannot be doubted that without Corum's pragmatism and common sense or
Ozbourne's cunning and rampant paranoia Fenrir was in many ways lost.

He had a notion of finding Maaril in 'the forest to the North' but had
no understanding of the size of the task he'd set himself.

Kryptgarden Forest is a treacherous, incredibly dangerous area of the
Sword Coast. Our family estate is right up against the south side of it
but does not extend into the forest proper.

I and my brothers have hunted in it many times, but we never dared spent
the night there or stray far from our ranger guides.

So, when Fenrir decided to fly over there with no form of preparation at
all it was as good as suicide. He was incredibly lucky to survive.

It is the primary hunting ground and lair of the ancient green
dragon, Old Gnawbone and is liberally scattered with ancient dwarven
ruins.

Not only that, but the shear size of the forest would put off anyone
from searching for a ruined tower in a forest of ruined towers. I would
estimate the forest at being about 7000 square miles in size and from my
travels in the twenty or so square miles around the estate I know of
two ruins. (If you were use this as a rough guide that's a ruin every
ten square miles or 700 in the entire forest!)

And almost every ruin has some kind of monster or evil creature in it,
not to speak of the amount of undead in Kryptgarden, a notoriously
haunted forest.

Not that Fenrir realised this as he bungled about getting lost over
the top of it. The fact that he was flying, invisible and undetectable
certainly helped, but the fact that he had no map, no means of knowing
his direction and no means of sheltering himself did not.

Also, Fenrir had forgotten two important facts. Firstly, Maaril wasn't
even in Kryptgarden Forest. He was in Neverwinter Wood. This they had
learned from a captured gargoyle called Janet the night before the mummy
attack on the Thunderstaff Villa. Marril had merely met Fenrir at a half way
point the night Fenrir had been taken to talk to him.

Secondly he had forgotten the method he had last used to meet Maaril,
namely standing on the roof of the Thunderstaff Villa. It may have been
reasonable to assume that Maaril had not yet learned of Fenrir's death
and still kept a gargoyle or two watching the villa. Even if he had
known of Fenrir's demise, having a 'legion' of them at his disposal
he may well have left them there.

(One more aside, dear ever patient reader, Fenrir had also, unknown to
him, pulled off a major propaganda coup. After rescuing a number of people
from the rock blitz and releasing a song celebrating his exploits into
Waterdeep he 'dies' in battle defending the city. His stock was never higher
but unfortunately he was not around to profit from it.)

So sorry, now to continue the tale.

=== End Rollo addition ===

Fenrir met my father at the estate and was happily greeted. Giselle was
not there though he was told, but with her family in the lodge house.

As he walked down the road he was approached by a tiny halfing child
that suddenly looked up at him with glowing red eyes.
'Where are you going, Fenrir?', groaned the demon possessed mite.
'I'm buggering off.' came the reply.
The child nodded slowly and said,
'I will pass on your tasks to someone more competent, you will not hear
from me again'
Fenrir was delighted to hear it, but was still left with a nagging doubt
in the back of his mind. Would defying Bnurgstickslackskin be so easy?

At the lodge house his knocks were answered by Sten Arbutt, the first
footman. Kurl Gnesher was out but Giselle was around he was told, but
Sten would not let him see her and advised Fenrir to 'make himself
scarce' as he was considered a 'very bad egg' by Kurl.

He returned to the Estate and talked to Humber about the battle outside
Waterdeep for a while. I was around, with Lavinia, and came down to the
main room to meet him.

We talked a little. Fenrir seemed lost, hunted, gaunt and suffering from
lack of sleep. I got the impression of a man on the edge of sanity,
not knowing what direction to go in, whether to hide or to stand and
fight. I did not really understand his troubles, at that time, though
and could not advise him.

Humber told him that Kurl hated his guts. Fenrir was astounded as he
was sure his charm had always worked on Kurl and this was largely true,
but since then he had been in prison and had been killing people in
Waterdeep. Not a good choice for his daughter in Kurl's opinion.

Fenrir asked if he could stay awhile and father said this was fine
as long as he helped out around the place. Air patrol and scouting
seemed like a good thing for an invisible flyer to do and he was
given this task.

Dinner was served at six o'clock. After that Fenrir went to his room.

DAY 194 (22th Eleint)

In the morning Fenrir spent two hours flying around the estate and
saw no signs of approaching orc hordes.

At eleven o'clock he flew to the lodge house. Since it was raining
everyone was indoors and he went and knocked on Giselle's window.

She was there, reading a book and was delighted to let him in.
Fenrir told her what he had learned from Bertran regarding Teru
and the likelihood that he had arranged the killing of Fortnessle.
He admitted he had no proof though.

He then told her of his plan to head east to the Moonsea.
'Are you serious?' scoffed Giselle.
'Well, perhaps I could fly and carry you?'
Giselle rolled her eyes, 'You really are a city boy!'
She then filled him in on her knowledge of what lay between them and
the Moonsea.

The journey would be well over a thousand miles if you went directly,
but that would take you over the Anauroch, and area of desert also
known as The Great Sand Sea. This inhospitable place could be avoided
by going via Cormyr but this would add hundreds of miles onto the
journey.

In theory Fenrir could have made it in four or five days by flying
at full speed and not stopping to land, eat or sleep. Ten days if
he stopped to rest. It would potentially take months of dangerous
travel by land.

Fenrir was stuck for an answer for Giselle as another of his
plans began to unravel.

[ Here I must leave Fenrir for a while dear reader and return
to Waterdeep and check in on another bold adventurer. Veddic Carver
is a cleric of Kossuth and a third owner of the Sea Wyvern. Shifty
gave his share of the ship to Veddic before he disappeared while
we were anchored in Renkrue on the way to Farshore.]

Veddic had been a shipmate for about a hundred days and I had grown
to know him reasonably well. He was a fierce warrior and a powerful
user of divine magic. His constant foil and annoyance was Parrie,
the young cleric in his charge.

In some ways he was a stern, upright man, but in others he reminded
me of fellows I had met in my travels. Like Rah'ziel, Retzal, Mathmoss
and even Fenrir he had a sense of impish fun that would often come
out from behind his grim exterior. If he also suffered from forming
ill-considered plans had yet to be seen.

But how does he fit into this long winding saga I hear you ask?
Well, to answer that we must first go back to ...

DAY 189

Since landing in Waterdeep Veddic had spent most of his time in
the refugee camp healing the sick and injured and preaching to
the poor.

The poor and discontented are perfect soil for the seed of
Kossuth and Veddic soon had a large following had recruited
over a hundred to his church.

Now it so happened that there was no temple to Kossuth in
Waterdeep but a portion of the noble family of Hiilgauntlet
were worshippers and their villa was used as a base of operations
for the church.

Veddic had previously made contact with Deverreck Hiilgauntlet
the Waterdeep Eternal Flame, inviting him out to the refugee camp,
but his offer had been declined.

Today Deverreck requested Veddic to come to the Hiilgauntlet Villa
as soon as he could.

Veddic went as soon as he could and met with him. Deverreck short and very
intelligent with a deep voice and this is what he had to say:

''
'Well, Flammable Monkey Carver, just to get you up to speed with what is our
main concern is at the moment. This comes straight from the top. Are you familiar
with the term "The Blood War"? Of course you are, the eternal struggle between
the demons and the devils. Well, there used to be a sort of balance here in
Waterdeep, but just recently the devil cultists have kicked out all the demons
cultists and are in ascendancy.
Maaril the Dragonmage was the most powerful and the first to go. The last was a
young warlock called Fenrir Thunderstaff, who died just a few days ago at the
Battle of The Turnip Fields.
With the demons gone, or almost totally gone, this leaves what you might call
a power vacuum. As clerics of Kossuth, a fire god, we are perhaps considered
a little too much like infernalists to be considered entirely safe. It would
be a wonderful thing to a) benefit from the destruction of the demon cultists
and b) strike a blow against the devil cultists to show the city and more
importantly the inquisition that we have nothing to do with demons and devils
but are a separate entity entirely.

So, a) is being taken care of, it is b) that I would like you to deal with.
The leader of the devil faction is a man called Gilliard De Rosan who was
hiding out in the Undermountain until recently and perhaps is still there.

Through divine revelation I have learned of a way of defeating him. I can't
reveal to you everything about how we plan to do this, but to start with
I would like you to find a certain individual and get him on our side.

I have been told that we must first get him to become a member of the
church of Kossuth. His name is Ellis Adarbrent of the noble house of
Adarbrent. He is a cartographer at Horizon's Sails, working for a powerful
wizard called Winter Zulth.

Now, he most likely will not want to convert, so we must use all the powers
of persuasion at our disposal. I will leave it in your capable hands.

If you need to enlist help from any of the clerics here then don't
hesitate to do so. Once we have Ellis on side we will move onto phase
two of the plan."

Veddic sighed, it was the usual story. Eternal Flame's had a habit of
setting near impossible tasks for those under them and liked to pick
on Burning Braziers (missionaries) most of all.

But unlike Fenrir (who had also been set the task of finding and bringing
Ellis Adarbrent on side!) he got onto the job straight away.

He went to Horizon's Sails and talked to Ellis, even going so far as
to order a magical map from him for 500 gold.

He spent some time trying to convince Ellis of what a great idea it
would be to join the church of Kossuth but with no success.

He gave up and walked back to the refugee camp. Clerics could come
and go as they pleased but the guards stopped everyone else.

From noon onwards he helped at the hospital curing people of the
blue death then in the evening he returned to the 'Warm Beds' inn
where the Sea Wyvern crew were lodged. They had rented out the
whole of the top floor.

The talk was mainly of the rock blitz and the Luskan pirates and
whether it was safer in the city or not. They also talked of
Fenrir's death in battle and rumours of a trip to the
Undermountain being arranged at the OJB.

After chatting for a while Veddic went to bed.

DAY 190

After breakfast Veddic went to the camp, then at lunch returned
to the map shop. He lurked around the place for two hours with
the pretence of browsing the merchandise but then started working
on Ellis again.

He stared by offering 200 gold as a simple bribe but Ellis, a good
and lawful man said that he did not lack for money and had everything
he needed. Besides, it would feel wrong to make that sort of spiritual
commitment for purely financial gain.

Veddic started to think that magic might be the answer.