The Silver Cleric

This session started with adding a new person to our group — welcome Dante! We left off with the party traveling from a small thorp near the border of Aundair called Windshire, back to their home in Fairhaven. After three days of trudging through plains and verdant forest they came across a camp of five men making merry and cooking some meat on a spit. They were clearly buzzed, and spying the party coming over a hill, invited them over to drink. Korth and Grapé stood around unsure what to do but Ethelred ran up and proclaimed, “Hey guys let's party!” only to be given a disdainful look like they hated the sight of the gnome. Korth stepped forward protectively but the drunken men were set on their goal. Three of them convulsed forward and grew heavy brown fur on their skin, revealing themselves as jackalweres (who notoriously hate the “small races” like gnomes and halflings). 

The jackalweres targeted Ethelred with their gaze attack, causing him to fall into magical unconsciousness. As Korth and Grapé slew the lycanthropes they realized that one had come out of the shadows and caused a bright flash of light… and Ethelred was gone. They pummeled the last living Jackalwere who surrendered and followed his instructions to find the temple of their god Lamashtu. Their prisoner told them they were looking for tributes to sacrifice in a ritual to strengthen their god Lamashtu, and that the temple was nearby. Following his directions, they found an old Dhakaani building that Grapé deciphered as an old dojo. Inside it was lavished with copper lanterns and rich blue rugs. A huge bronze firepit was surrounded by three jackalweres and a large Lamia – a lion with the upper torso of a human woman instead of a head. In one corner was a large bed and in the other was a much dirtier one – with Ethelred and a mysterious woman laying on it.

With the help of this mysterious woman, they slew the powerful spellcaster Lamashtu and recovered their friend Ethelred. She revealed herself as “M.C.” (how she prefers to be called, since most people have a hard time saying her real elven name) and a cleric of the Silver Flame. Ethelred knows them as a newer religion to the world scene (he was only fifty years old when they were founded) and are committed to ridding the world of evil. Upon hearing stories of the party's adventures and how they had stumbled upon a prophecy of old she decided to join them and bring her suit of divine magic and archery to the fight.

With a very satisfactory sigh the party returned home to the city of Fairhaven. Everyone was able to decompress and relax for the first time in weeks, tally their loot and do some shopping, and they returned to their favorite inn. At the Winking Wyvern is renowned for their classic dark, hoppy dwarven ale so it is the meeting place of the party and their employer Anton d’Cannith. He is a tall man in dark leather armor who is known for the wide brimmed hat (with a large purple feather in the brim) atop his bald head. He congratulates the party on all of their achievements in recovering the stolen shipment. Upon hearing of the dragon which they slew and the prophecy, Anton asks to see it. “I can help you with anything you need, as long as you keep doing work as great as this.” Upon being read the the prophecy that describes how House Cannith might be making more Warforged, he gets extremely dodgy and flighty. Eventually he just gets up and leaves, telling the party to report back in the tavern tomorrow for another assignment. Korth is worried by this but Ethelred convinces the rest of the party to simply ignore it and go shopping. 

As they get up and prepare to go to the Fairhaven market, Korth looks down the alleyway to see Anton standing against the wall, hands help up close to his mouth. Korth hears: “Listen, Kibrat, some of my mercs found something out in the wilderness. Something very implying in terms of higher management—” before spotting Korth at the mouth of the alleyway. He awkwardly rubs his neck and says that Kibrat is Anton’s boss. Korth attempts to intimidate Anton into telling him why he is so concerned, but Anton simply ignores the forceful push and tells him to keep his head down. He then turns and walks away, obviously flabbergasted by the whole situation.

Not perturbed in the slightest, Korth joins the rest of the party on a shopping spree to restock on arrows, provisions, weapons, and nets. After this they return to the Winking Wyvern where they rent a large room for them all to sleep in. Unfortunately, due to a mix up there are only four beds instead of five, so M.C. volunteers to sleep on the floor. In the middle of the night, the room lit only by the dim streetlamps outside, M.C. awoke to the sound of loud scuttling. She stood up and saw a large swarming mass coming from out underneath the door and yelled “Wake up!” As the party awoke M.C. relived her deeply held fear of centipedes and felt the need to jump out the window. Instead of crashing down on an empty street at 2:00 a.m. there were three men clad in black cloth wielding crossbows. The party began smashing the venomous bugs nipping at their heels one of the men threw a glass flask into the second story room, causing a large thirty-by-thirty-foot area to erupt in flame. Most of the party was able to jump out of the building and confront their assassins, but Grapé was burned badly by the alchemical flames. The last assassin tried to run but was brutally shut down by Korth, who slammed so hard down on his back that muscle and bone were snapped and sloughed away. On his body they found this note:

Upon acquisition of half of the agreed-upon sum of payment (500 gp total) the death of the targets will be assured. Failure to give payment before-hand will result in termination of the contract and a single mark on your record with us. Failure to give payment after the contract has been followed will result in the assassination of anyone involved with this deal. The site where acquisition of the second payment is a warehouse in the Southern District of Fairhaven. You will know it by the scarab symbol and the number 4 blazoned in red on the western-facing wall. Lateness to this meeting will result in a single mark on your record with us. The time of this meeting is 1 hour after the assigned assassination.

 At the bottom of the letter are two signatures: Harold Plazock and Kibrat D’Cannith.