Sessions 68 to 72 (20 February - 17 April 2019)

Note to readers: This is a session re-cap of an ongoing D&D 5th edition campaign set in a loosely adapted version of N. Robin Crossby's Hârn. A journal of sessions 1 through 54, beginning in February 2015, can be found here.

In-world dates: 10–14 Ilvin 720 TR [second week of winter]
Daylight hours: 9
Moon: waxing crescent (full moon on 15 Ilvin)

10 Ilvin

In the royal castle at Tashal, your audience with King Miginath is brief; though polite, he seems distracted and uninterested in what you have to say. He perks up when he spots Cade's fire beetle companion, however, mistaking it for a strange looking dog.

Countess Curo

Later, in a private meeting with Countess Curo, the king's principal adviser, you get down to brass tacks. The kingdom of Kaldor is paralyzed politically by the scheming of the great noble houses, each of which is jockeying to place their own candidate on the throne once Miginath dies. The current frontrunner, Earl Caldeth, holds the fief of Minarsis on the eastern border. Rumours of the destruction of Thay have arrived in Kaldor, but no certain news comes from the east controlled by Caldeth, who publicly dismisses the idea of a rampaging army of Giants as a fearmongering tactic of his rivals. Until Caldeth's influence over the nobles can be diminished, Miginath cannot act openly to support Melderyn.

Earl Caldeth

Your arrival is fortuitous, however; on the morrow, a royal tournament is to be held. Caldeth and his followers are expected to win many of the events, thus cementing their political influence among the nobles and popularity with the commoners. Curo suggests that if outsiders like yourselves, unassociated with the king directly, were to tarnish Caldeth's reputation, it would go a long way to freeing the king's hands. You decide to take part in the tournament. You take rooms at the Merry Faerie Inn, where you settle in for the night after handling yourselves admirably in a tavern brawl with a half-dozen brash young nobles, supporters of Caldeth, who were bold (or drunk) enough to attempt to intimidate you.

11 Ilvin

Trumpet blasts announce the beginning of the jousting. Dracul beats Caldeth by 1 point; Gil'Doren loses narrowly to Sir Morcair; and Maslorius, tiny gnome though he is, beats Sir Steinbjorn. (It probably helped that his charger was in fact a shapechanged Cade!) All in all, not the glorious showing that Caldeth anticipated for his faction. Shaking his fist at you, he vows to get even in the mêlée.

12 Ilvin

Caldeth himself does not appear in the mêlée, but many of his supporters do. It's a mass combat, on foot, with blunted weapons. Magic is strictly prohibited, and there are several Shek Pvar in attendance to make sure that rule is observed. Dracul and Gil'Doren take part, while Cade, in bug form, does his best to distract opponents once the fighting begins. Maslorius, unattended, hits the bottle while observing from the stands.

From the outset, things go awry. The knights on your side seem slow, hesitant, confused, while the opposition attacks aggressively, ganging up on Dracul and Gil'Doren. Your worries only grow when you realize that when your enemies go down, they don't stay there! Somehow, only seconds later they return to the fray with frenzied energy. Whatever the reason for this alarming resurgence, it is thankfully brief: after a few rounds, each revived warrior collapses into unconsciousness.  Meanwhile, the performance of your own allies only worsens, as several faint or fall to vomiting.

Suspecting foul play, Gil'Doren makes a flashy display of magic and calls on the judges to end the charade. The event ends in chaos and confusion as accusations fly back and forth. Caldeth, affecting to be affronted by Gil'Doren's claims, challenges the elf to a duel. Gil'Doren accepts.

During the debacle, Maslorius sneaks away to investigate the pavilions of Caldeth and his faction. Inside the main tent, he finds a chest containing two vials of a black, sludge-like liquid. He takes these back to the inn, later giving one to Countess Curo's aide who makes a clandestine visit that night.

Meanwhile, at the archery butts, Galindo handily emerges as the winner, beating Caldeth's representative Astraia the Byrian Amazon. She glowers but concedes defeat in a fair contest.

13 Ilvin

The duel between Gil'Doren and Caldeth, again without magic, is hard fought and punctuated with appeals to the audience by both adversaries; it is as much a contest to win the hearts and minds of the attendees as it is a test of weapon skill. In the end, Gil'Doren emerges victorious, and magnanimously offers to heal Caldeth afterward. Scowling, Caldeth announces that he will be returning to his castle at Minarsis forthwith.

Meanwhile, Maslorius, having set out to explore the town, becomes the target of thugs. They club him unconscious, but not before he manages to activate a magical alarm. Cade sets out to find the hapless gnome, and does so quickly with the help of further magic. Dispatching the would-be robbers, Cade returns to the Merry Faerie with Maslorius and one of his attackers, a wounded young woman named Mada. An urchin with matted hair, dirty face, ragged clothes, and resentful attitude, Mada inspires Pygmalion-like fantasies in Cade and Gil'Doren, who aspire to remake her into a loyal henchperson. Dracul expresses his doubtfulness at the wisdom of such an endeavour, an opinion that seems confirmed by Mada's initial effort to escape rather than submit.

Countess Curo herself visits that night in disguise. The upshot of the tournament: Caldeth's reputation has lost some of its lustre, but he still holds considerable support. The black liquid turned out to be a performance-enhancing drug and was probably what Caldeth's knights consumed before the mêlée. Such tactics are frowned upon by the nobility, even though they are not infrequent. Moreover, nothing can be definitely linked to Caldeth himself. She suggests that more evidence of perfidy can be found in Caldeth's castle.

14 Ilvin

Caldeth and his retinue leave Tashal after dawn on horseback. It will take them three days to reach his castle at Minarsis. You leave as well, using Wind Walk to arrive at the same destination in hours.  Noting the absence of birds within a 100-yard radius of the castle, you decide to approach on foot. Cade scouts ahead in bug form and then in human disguise, learning from many of the castle-dwellers (guards, servants, etc.) and regular visitors (traders, artisans, etc.) in the outer bailey that strange things have been afoot lately. Caldeth's family -- wife Philisia and infant son Quilian -- have not been seen in some time, and no one goes in or out of the keep where they reside save for the seneschal Constantius and Philisia's lady-in-waiting, Lady Alekta.

Credit: Matheus Graef

Invisible and/or shapechanged, you make your way inside the keep and split up to begin exploring its various rooms. The only creature you spot is unexpected: a floating one-eyed sphere with toothy maw and eight eye-stalks patrols the halls. When it finds a door left ajar, it bellows: "Intruders! Reveal yourselves or face my wrath!" and begins scouring the keep, scanning everywhere with its central eye. From your various hiding places, you telepathically plot a coordinated attack on the strange monstrosity.