Dusken Glade Timeline

1491 DR (Year of the Scarlet Witch)

Tarsakh

Tarsakh 14th

Session One: March 8th, 2019

It is the month of Tarsakh, called by the sages "the Claw of Storms." And so far, Waterdeep has done its part to make sure the month has lived up to its name. The tenday-long festival of Waukeentide, held at the beginning of Tarsakh, was celebrated first in the clutches of the last blizzard of the year, and then through a driving rainstorm that turned all the snow to slush for a few days before melting it away. Though it hasn't quite been warm enough yet to drive away all of the winter goddess Auril's presence, winter's sole fingerhold is in patches of filthy ice, tucked away under porches and in alleys that never see the wan spring sunlight.

The past few days have been rainy and gusty, chill winds driving tiny, icy needles of rain into anyone who is out in the middle of it. But today is the first day it is somewhat warm. Of course, in true Waterdhavian fashion, that means that the streets of the city are, even so close to highsun, a murky labyrinth of fog-shrouded cobbles. Folk pass by one another, rising up out of the mists like wraiths, only to vanish again as they continue on their way.

In the Palace of the Open Lord, the highest tower rings, the great Gondish clockwork timekeeper known as Timehands tolling out the hour of the day. Ten times he tolls, for ten bells in the morning. Where is your character this time of day?

• Each member of the cell is tending to their daily lives:
  • Orion at a late breakfast with his family, celebrating a successful release of his mother's new perfume "Glow";
  • Heinrich helping his Aunt Mayphelia remove the winter storm shutters from her small Trades Ward house, she worried about his injuries from the Griffins Gather fight he lost the night before;
  • Psalm waking late abed with Tharmuth Majarra, and gossiping worriedly about the new boy Roalon has fallen for;
  • Sylyra sitting down for tea with Zirisstra, who gifts her with a lovely gray-green cloak with silver stitching, for when she goes into the Ardeep;
  • Clarc sitting down for elsun tea with his mother Denabria, who asks him about his training with Master Dumak;
  • Frick wakened by Mishaelle, who begs him to help her offload a delivery to the house, excited over the prospect of working with some of the famous silverclay that comes out of the River Rauvin near Silverymoon.
• The PCs are summoned by Denabria (through pin or sending) to the Dusken Glade. She tells them that she needs them to go to the Cliffwatch Inn to pick up a package from a Harper agent named Fendus Bern.
• The agents arrive at the inn, and wait around for a bit, mingling with the locals, but he never shows.
• They return to the Dusken Glade, and Denabria sends them to investigate his last known location: Undercliff Village.
• They get down to the village, and find it has no inn. At its sole tavern, the Cracked Cask, they find that not only was Fendus there last night, but he also told the tavernkeep, Reya Athren that he was a Harper.
  • She is apparently in need of some help: her sister, Fiirna, is an apprentice to the wizard Martuin in the tower just north of the Amendsfarm. She hasn't heard from her in days, and when she went to check, she found the doors sealed and no one answered her hails.
  • Reya also tells them that Fendus was offered a place to sleep in the cratehouse of the Milmyvyn orchard, just down the road.
• The group decides to head down the road to the orchard while Clarc flies out to the tower to see what is going on with the wizard and his apprentice.

Session Two: March 15th, 2019

Previously, the Dusken Glade Harpers were given a mission: to find the Harper courier named Fendus Bern, who was reportedly arriving in Waterdeep bearing a magical gem for Denabria, who was charged with passing it on to her superiors. But when he failed to show up at the Cliffwatch Inn, she sent her agents down into the Undercliff to try and find him.

While there, they encountered Reya, a young tavernkeep at the Cracked Cask, in Undercliff Village, who told them that he'd taken space for the night at the Milmyvyn Orchard. But she also asked them, as Harpers, to please investigate another problem: her sister, apprentice to the wizard Martuin, hasn't been heard from in almost a tenday. She is worried for her sister, and desperate for help, but no one will go up to bother the cantankerous old wizard.

It is mid-afternoon when the group departs from the Cracked Cask, most of them bound for the Milmyvyn Orchard, but Clarc winging northward to take a look around Martuin's tower.

• Clarc flew to Martuin's Tower, and looked around some. He sees a raven, which startles and flies off. Landing on the crennelated roof of the gatehouse, he tries to descend a set of stairs, but triggers a glyph of warding that explodes in thunderous sound, knocking him back and badly injuring him. Deciding he's a little overmatched, he departs to find his companions again.
• The others arrive at the orchard and meet the family. The father, Vogundun Milmyvyn, tells them that he met Fendus and invited him to stay in the family's cratehouse. Fendus accepted, and they settled him in for the night after a dinner. When they got up the next morning, he was gone, the bed made, and a gold coin on the pillow.
  • Their thirteen-year-old, Vaelee seems to have something more to say but doesn't want to do so around her father. As Vogundun takes most of them to see the cratehouse, Sylyra stays behind to chat with her, offering her one of her woodcarvings to get her talking. She tells Sylyra:
    • She went to outhouse after bed, and was on her way back to the house when she heard him playing his harp. So she hid nearby to listen to him.
    • Some men came sneaking out of the orchard, and she hid in the kitchen. She watched them attack him, and they left with him, dragging him through the orchard.
• While the group is investigating the cratehouse looking for any clues, Orion spots a tiny beholder, which attacks him. Heinrich rounds the corner, surprising the wee beholder, and puts a quarrel through its central eye; it disappears.
  • Vogundun shouts a warning as six men begin to attack them with crossbows from hiding in the orchard.
• The fight continues until some man in robes bursts through the door of the house (having gotten in while invisible and the Harpers were distracted with battle), holding Vogundun's wife Benyth hostage, threatening to kill her if they did not throw down their arms.
  • Heinrich sneaks through the house, while an invisible Sylyra sneaks closer to the porch where he stands.
  • Heinrich attacks him from stealth, bulls-rushing him and knocking him off the porch, freeing Benyth, and Sylyra steps between the villain and the downed goodwife.
• The group attacks the wizard and he nearly kills Heinrich with a phantasmal killer spell, and then magic missiles. He is difficult to hit due to a displacement illusion, but Sylyra strips it from him with a magic missile of her own. Orion – in the form of a bear – attacks and downs him shortly thereafter.
  • The last of the crossbowmen surrenders, and the Harpers elect to take them prisoner to ask questions.
• Meanwhile Sylyra begins to drag bodies off to burn them in the field outside the orchard(!)

Session Three: March 22nd, 2019

Previously, the Dusken Glade Harpers were given a mission: to find the Harper courier named Fendus Bern, who was reportedly arriving in Waterdeep bearing a magical gem for Denabria, who was charged with passing it on to her superiors. But when he failed to show up at the Cliffwatch Inn, she sent her agents down into the Undercliff to try and find him.

Your investigation has taken you to the Undercliff, where Fendus was last seen. Reya, the tavernkeep at the Cracked Cask in Undercliff Village not only directed you to the Milmyvyn Orchard where he spent the night, but also asked you to investigate her missing sister, an apprentice at a wizard's tower, which Clarc investigated and found quite tightly sealed up.

At the orchard, you found the family there wary but willing to help, with one of their daughters describing to Sylyra and Clarc how he was attacked and taken in the night by strange men. As the others investigated the cratehouse where he disappeared from, however, they were attacked by six crossbowmen and a wizard. After a tense hostage situation involving the wife of the farmstead, you defeated the attackers, taking the badly hurt wizard and one of the crossbowmen prisoner to interrogate.

It is getting late into the afternoon when the group sits down to ask some pointed questions of their prisoners. Only Sylyra is missing, having hauled away the bodies of the attackers to burn in a field nearby…

• Sylyra (with Frick nearby) is preparing to immolate the corpses of the crossbowmen who attacked the Milmyvyn Orchard, in accordance with the dictates of her faith, when a troop of the Guard shows up, having been fetched by Maele Milmyvyn. After one soldier mistakes her for an "ogre mage", Armar Budold Flulviir (the lieutenant in charge) explains that she can't simply burn corpses wherever she pleases, no matter her religion. Sylyra cedes them the corpses, and she and Frick accompany them back to the orchardhouse.
• In the meantime, Heinrich, Psalm, Orion, and Clarc conduct an interrogation of the wizard Ert Tilleth and the last crossbowman Alkus Vanhurn. With the wizard gagged, but his thoughts secretly monitored by Psalm via detect thoughts spell, they primarily interrogate the crossbowman, who tells him that he was a bandit whose captain was recruited by Banite priests. They pick up a number of bits of info through conversation and psychic eavesdropping, including the name of the Banite's leader (Dreadmaster Maeskyr Zelmaskos), the fact that they were after the stone (which is called the Tyrantstone), and the fact that the group is based out of some place called "Highsteed House." They also learn that another group of Banites are out at an old house at the base of the cliffs, waiting for them to return. Vogundun identifies the house as the Old Lalstyn House, which hasn't been lived in for thirty or forty years.
  • Shortly after Sylyra and Frick arrive with the Guard, another shows up: the smol goat who introduces herself in perfect Common as Nibbles. She commends Frick for not mutilating the wizard just to keep him from casting spells, and then suggests they strap him into some armor to keep him from casting spells. Vogundun happily volunteers his father's old suit of studded leather for the purpose, and the Guard takes away the two Banites while the Milmyvyn family packs up to go stay with some friendly neighbors until this is all tended to.
  • The Harpers find the Tyrantstone tucked between the inner and outer walls of the structure, up near the rafters, securing it. They then decide to head out to the Old Lalstyn House to rescue Fendus Bern.
• Arriving there, they attempt to sneak up on the house but some of them are seen by sentries. As Orion turns into a mouse and hides in Heinrich's purse, and Heinrich sneaks around the house to scout it, they find two bandits near the outhouse, burying a cloth-covered corpse. Around front, a cleric of Bane comes outside and calls out to the Harpers.
  • Combat ensues, with Clarc entering from the upper windows and attacking the sentries there, Heinrich and Orion entering the house via its back windows, and Frick and Sylyra moving in to attack. They find not just the cleric and six bandits, but also a trained hellhound.
  • In the end, the Harpers are victorious, the priest of Bane and other enemies slain, and Fendus Bern's corpse recovered and taken back to Waterdeep before Gateclose.

Tarsakh 15

Session Four: March 29th, 2019

The Dusken Glade Cell returned to Waterdeep with the remains of poor Fendus Bern, Harper courier murdered by fanatics of Bane. They also return with the Tyrantstone, having successfully kept it out of the hands of those fanatic. After a quick night's rest, the Cell regroups at the Dusken Glade with the intention of seeking out the strange silence at Martuin's Tower, in the Undercliffs below Waterdeep. Clarc's initial (and somewhat painful) exploration has revealed that the tower is defended by glyphs of warding, and possibly other magical protections.

• The Harpers head immediately out to the hill on which Martuin's Tower stands. They find the front doors are warded by a glyph of warding and some other abjurative magics. Clarc takes one end of Frick's rope, and ties it off on the crenellations above, and the Harpers enter by way of the rooftop.
  • The glyph the injured Clarc the day before is no longer there, and they descend the staircase.
  • On a landing halfway down, Sylyra sees a glyph and guides the others in slipping past it without triggering it...only to trigger it herself.
  • The glyph summons a chasme demon, which attacks them on the stairs, though they finally defeat it.
• They continue down to the first floor of the gatehouse, a dining hall that has't seen much use in recent months, it seems.
  • They investigate, finding a butlery and a garden room.
• Orion and Sylyra investigate the garden, finding mostly a winter garden being dug up for spring; Orion determines that the owner of the garden is definitely an alchemist.
  • In the middle of the garden, they find a strange vining plant with hand-sized, five-fingered leaves, green on top and silvery on the bottom. Both can tell that some of its root filaments extend into the Weave: the thing feeds partially on magic.
  • Using her ability to commune with plants, Sylyra determines the plant hasn't been watered in several days, and she rectifies that with create water.
• Continuing on into the tower, they come into a hallway that opens into a staircase in the center of the tower, with a set of double-doors on one side, two single doors on the other, and a statue of an elven sorceress holding an orb that is revealed to be a driftglobe.
  • One door is revealed to be a jakes, while the other is a study chamber for up to three apprentices, although only one table and space appears to have been being used. It is buried in books (including a salacious bit of reading probably inappropriate to a teenager), and notes of spell research.
  • Departing the room, Frick rushes ahead to the base of the stairs before Sylyra can warn him, and he triggers a glyph of warding - this time, one that explodes in a gout of thunderous noise, throwing Frick back and injuring him badly.
  • With that triggered glyph, the statue of the elven sorceress animates, and advances on them.

Session Five: April 5th, 2019

Within one of Martuin's Tower, the Harpers have just accidentally triggered a defensive mechanism, in the form of an animated stone statue!

• The group battles the statue (much to Psalm's horror, recognizing the work of the renowned sculptor Hanyn Djue), eventually overcoming it.
  • As soon as it is defeated, a magic mouth appears on the rubble, speaking a command word. This causes the stairwell to fill with a green, poisonous mist, which poisons Psalm, hiding in the stairwell when it is activated.
  • The group rests for a bit afterward.
  • Afterward, they do some more exploring of the first floor, with Sylyra, Orion, and Clarc exploring the garden and drying room, Heinrich breaking into the Master's Study to explore it (and nick a book titled Fallen Legacies: Archaeological & Historical Analysis of the Mere of Dead Men, by Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun (History + Nature tome, worth 65gp), and Psalm using identify on some of the weird vine found in the garden.
• A bored Frick heads upstairs, encountering an antechamber with the remains of another shattered statue, this one in the form of an Uthgardt barbarian or something similar. There is also the smell of something dead and rotting. Frick calls the others up.
  • The door to a laboratory lies open. It has been ransacked, and there is a body of an old man, in robes, who has been stabbed multiple times.
  • Signs of magical battle lie all around the lab.
  • The old man's body has been ransacked - rings and jewelry missing, and the shape of a wand left in his blood pool, but no longer there. Orion and Sylyra examine him, and find that despite the many stab and slash wounds, it was not blood-loss that killed him: it was poison. This poison choked him as it took effect, causing him to lose his ability to speak and thus cast spells.
  • A second lab is ransacked, but less thoroughly. It has a great deal of the dried vine, which was being refined in some way here, but all of that is destroyed. Final supplies of the elixir were clearly stolen as well. The group looks through the ruins, and a few of them find some small magic items of use in an alchemist's lab.
• The Harpers continue upward, slipping past a glyph - except for Psalm, who sets it off and is blown backwards, nearly into Sylyra's arms. She heals him, and they move on.
  • They come to an antechamber with a rug and a table against one wall, and the statue of an owlbear with spectacles. One of the doors has been bashed in with an axe, leading into a ransacked library. They find evidence, in the form of blood, that whoever did this triggered a glyph by opening a cabinet, and whatever fought them injured some of them, leaving hastily-wiped up blood behind.
  • They find access to the other library as well, and again find some minor magic items, of the sort that would be useful in a library.
• On the fourth floor, they find a bloody carpet, with a cloud of flies that rise from it. Whoever lost such blood surely didn't make it out again. There is a statue of a Mulhorandi god by the name of Thoth here.
  • The door to one chamber is slightly ajar, with a weird scintillating light within. They find a strange field of magical energy - an active portal of some kind - bisected by a table. Sylyra's detect magic reveals that the magical effect is eroding, in the way spells erode as their durations come to an end. They ascertain that the table was dragged across the room and deliberately set through the portal; an Arcana check suggests they did so to prevent it from being used.
  • The raven that has been hounding their progress through the tower alights on the sill of an arrow slit; they talk to him, and he affirms that he is Fiirna's familiar. They shove aside the table, and after a moment Fiirna comes dashing out, launching magic missiles with a wand!
  • They quickly calm her by invoking her sister Reya's name.
• Fiirna is grief-stricken to learn of Martuin's death, but is grateful for the rescue. She introduces the raven as Ink, her familiar. She tells of the night of the attack, almost a tenday ago.
  • Martuin was showing Fiirna the successful casting of Martuin's hermitage in Ritual Room 2 when their guests arrived, ringing the bell at the front door.
  • When the guests arrived, he insisted that she sit and work at copying spells from his spellbook into hers, and keep an eye on the hermitage portal for her. This was odd, and she asked if she might not use the library instead, or the study, but he was very insistent, so she of course acceded.
  • He ventured down to the door and allowed the strangers in. Curious, Fiirna went into the stairwell and spied down on them as best she could. There were quite a few of them: maybe a half-dozen or so.
  • As they passed up the stairs, one of them talked with Martuin. He was imperious, and rude. He was dressed richly, like a noble, and had a sword at his side. She couldn't help but notice it, because it had a black hilt, but a dark red garnet at the hilt, and she loves garnets. She heard Martuin call him Scoldin.
  • Walking next to him was a small person – possibly a gnome or halfling. She noticed that he had a shock of white hair in the front of his hair, and he didn't say a word.
  • There were another six men with them, and they looked like they were wearing uniforms of some kind. She saw a flash of green from them.
  • She heard Martuin tell the Scoldin, to have his men wait in the antechamber, and then they got off the stairs at the laboratory level.
  • A while later, Martuin sent her a desperate message saying: "I am attacked. Take my spellbook and flee into the hermitage," and she did. (The spell portal was an experiemental spell of Martuin's called Martuin's hermitage, which created a long-term extraplanar retreat.)
• The Harpers fetch Reya, Fiirna's sister, and the two are reunited.
  • In gratitude, Fiirna gives the Harpers 150gp each, and three vials of the elixir called Azuth's boon, an alchemical elixir that returns to a spellcaster one spell slot of the highest level they can cast and are missing. If it is used again before a long rest is completed, it has no effect other than to inflict the Poisoned condition until a long rest is completed.

Tarsakh 16-29

Downtime: 14 days

• Sylyra speaks with some of her contacts at the House of Wonder about Fiirna's situation, and they help by appointing one of the Azuthan clergy as a legal advocate and seeing that the tower property remains in Fiirna's possession.
  • She also takes the Build Harper Connections downtime action, starting work as a Harpwright for Lady Remallia.
• Orion begins teaching Fiirna the arts of alchemy.
• Heinrich takes the Pit Fighting downtime action, doing extremely well, and winning 200gp.

Tarsakh 30th

Session Six: April 12th, 2019

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