June 25-26
A sorrowful party returns to town and decides what to do about the recent death of Eldred the Enchanter, their wizard.
Eldred’s funerary expenses are paid for out of his share of the treasure, and his body is taken by the monks of Lathander for washing and laying out. His few personal effects are distributed amongst the rest of the party. Notably, Trigg now carries his mentor’s spellbook. Sassaran leaves Eveningstar to seek out the elf Taravol, last seen wandering the hills outside of town and dealing with the recent deaths of his own party members in elf-fashion. As Eldred was the party’s only other speaker of Elvish and Sassaran does not know more than a word or two of Common, nobody is able to explain human customs to her and the others aren’t sure if this is a permanent departure or not.
While standing vigil over Eldred’s body at the abbey, Trigg speaks with the Abbot who tells him that the Enchanter might be returned to life if Trigg is willing to accept a dangerous quest. Deep within Starwater Gorge is an ancient tomb: once the resting place of King Rivior Blackstar (a petty warlord and robber knight who ruled here before Cormyr was unified), now infested with evil spirits, unquiet dead, and worshippers of the Ruinous Powers. They have in their keeping a set of ancient bronze vessels that carry a terrible curse. Destroy those vessels and the dark power that haunts the gorge will be crippled. The Abbot warns him that if this task is not completed within 8 days then Eldred’s spirit will pass on and nothing will be able to call him back to life.
Trigg talks it over with the other characters, who agree to take on this quest. They all feel that Eldred would have done so for them. They first seek out Sassaran and Taravol and explain the situation to them (Taravol speaks the Common Tongue). The quest requires someone capable of reading the clerical scrolls of Bless and Remove Curse that the Abbot has agreed to outfit the party with (Sassaran and Taravol are both Wood Elves, and use the cleric spell list). The elves agree, but Sassaran plans to leave Eveningstar with Taravol afterwards.
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| "I'm putting a team together" |
Next Trigg sets up a meeting with Ivy Almyr and Berrybert of Molehill, the leaders of the two other parties of adventurers in Eveningstar. Both have recently formed new parties and returned from successful expeditions to the goblin caves in Starwater Gorge. Ivy agrees immediately: she has sworn an oath to drive the evil from Starwater Gorge, so the notion of destroying evil relics that draw monsters to the region appeals to her. Furthermore, on her last adventure her party rescued some prisoners from the goblins and were richly rewarded: a merchant from Toadmarket and his wife gave them a purse of gold and a magic dagger, while their former guards (Alho Rengate and Welleran of the North) agreed to join her party. She’s feeling confident and is eager to follow up on that success.
Berrybert takes more convincing, but ultimately agrees on the condition that his party receives first pick of the treasure. Trigg agrees to the terms.
Meanwhile, Gimwort has been drinking with Flarkin of Toadmarket, a fellow dwarf and member of Ivy’s new adventuring party. Flarkin has heard that Berrybert’s recent trip to the goblin caves wasn’t as successful as he has been making it out to be: the halfling’s party fought an ogre there and were forced to retreat. The ogre was supposedly slain in the battle, however (evidently their half-elf cast some kind of fire spell from a scroll and blew up half the cavern), which means its treasure must just be lying there for the taking. Flarkin has recently been to the goblin caves himself and thinks he saw a side door… Why, they could be there and back again before anybody even notices they’re gone!
Behind the Curtain
Eldred’s death was an interesting artifact of solo gaming. While dying with only 13 XP to go before 2nd level is a heartbreaker, mechanically he’s not that useful – while his Color Spray almost certainly saved Sassaran’s life back in session 2, it’s been kind of underwhelming since then. Most of the time he just holds the lantern. If Eldred were being piloted by an actual player, they would probably give him and his 2 HP up as a lost cause and reach for the 3d6s. Narratively, however, Eldred connects a lot of the PCs. Sassaran can’t communicate with anybody without him, but he’s also become Dolf’s friend and Trigg’s mentor, and with Trigg nervous about his recent engagement I think he would take the loss pretty hard.
The quest they’ve taken on is basically to clear the Temple of Evil Chaos from Keep on the Borderlands in a little under a week (when you subtract the time they’ll need to plan, gather allies, and outfit the expedition from the 8 days Eldred can stay dead before Raise Dead from a 9th level Cleric runs out). I couldn’t find an official price for spellcasting services in OSE, but looking online it seems like some editions have listed it at 5,000 gp. The cursed vessels in B2’s temple are worth 6,000 gp, so destroying them felt like a more flavorful way of hitting that price point. Combined, the three parties have 13 characters ranging from levels 1–3, but there are over 100 HD of undead in the temple. The risks and possible complications seemed high enough, with the most likely outcome seeming like several more characters dying and the survivors being too wounded to mount another assault before the 8 days ran out.
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