Session #18

Another very interesting session last night in the Waterdeep Campaign.  We started a little bit later than normal.  So as the session kicked off, there was only one player-- Æoth the paladin.  At the player's request, "Aoth" is now spelled Æoth because apparently this character is descended from Elon Musk.

Anyways, with only one player to start, I asked him what he wanted to do, and what he was thinking the party would do this session (because I had no idea what the party was planning this evening).  I feel the inclusion of downtime, and real-time campaign tracking has given my players so much freedom that I usually am not able to predict what they will do in a given session.  It took Æoth a while to think about it also.  He ended up deciding to check in with his contacts for information about the Stone of Golor (a recurring plot-thread the players have been chasing down for several weeks now--after neglecting it for several months) to deal with other threats.  He specifically asked for information about two noble families who he knew were looking for the stone at one point or another--the Cassalanters and the Gralhunds.  According to the information from his contacts, both families are apparently trying to track down the Stone of Golor.  The party has been trying to figure out who has the Stone for a while, and I think it has felt like a shell game to them a little bit--because everytime they get close to nabbing it so far, the danged thing has slipped through their grasp.  This is definitely a side-effect of the timekeeping rules for this campaign.  Because the players really have gotten very close to locating the stone a few times, but then because of the end of the session, its like the deck will get reshuffled a bit during the next week.

I think Æoth suspected that either the Cassalanters or the Galhunds had located the stone, and was planning a heist session to break into one of their mansions and try to abscond with the elusive stone in tow.  But with the information from his contacts, he decided that the Cassalanters and the Gralhunds didn't have the stone.  So instead he turned his attention towards another plothook--the Dawn Age Pervert.  Last session, Padre Brendon told the party that DAP had stolen a bunch of dinosaurs and was allegedly setting himself up a lair in the Field Ward.  So Æoth--now with Fradd the Rogue in tow--headed up to the Field Ward in the hopes of locating and confronting DAP.

As they travelled, the party was attacked by a strange swarm of centipedes that burst out of the sewer grates.  After dispatching the bugs, the paladin loudly announced his presence in the Field Ward, and demanded that the nearest looking low-life "take me to your leader."  Sometime later the Paladin was led into the back office of Bada Bing--a disreputable establishment which is the main "front" for the Xanathar Guild operations in the district.  Neither of the party had yet realized that they weren't dealing with DAP at this point, and some confusion ensued--as the Paladin demanded to speak with Dawn Age Pervert.  Shifty Pete, the boss for the Xanathar Guild in the Field Ward, took his cigar out of his mouth, squinted at him and said "What the hell you come here for then?"

Shifty Pete informed the party that DAP was in another neighborhood at the far east end of the Field Ward--and told them to get lost.  The Paladin realizing his mistake, was able to salvage the situation without getting ganged up on by a large crowd of enforcers.  He apologized for his mistake, and Shifty Pete decided to talk with the party a little bit more before kicking them out.  The Paladin fortuately made a good impression on Shifty Pete--who told him "You know Father, I was raised in the old religion myself.  I think all youse priests are mostly fags, but you seem mostly alright to me."  The Paladin then asked if Shifty Pete knew anything about the Stone of Golor.  Shifty sent his men out of the room, and told Æoth that he would tell him what he knew about the Stone for 400 gold.  Æoth agreed, and Shifty Pete told him that Xanathar was looking for the Stone and had been looking for a guy named "Wayne" who they suspected had the stone.  The party knew that Wayne was working with a group called "Team Wolf"--a rival NPC adventuring guild.

At this point, Gwydion the bard joined up with the party, and the group went to the Yawning Portal--where Wayne and Team Wolf last been seen.  The party broke into Team Wolf's rooms at the Inn, and took the Team Wolf journal they found there.  They then went off to find a mage to try to scry on Team Wolf--but their first attempt failed.  So they went back to the Yawning Portal and searched for one of Wayne's hairs to use for an improved scrying attempt.  After finding a hair, the succeeded in viewing Wayne--now a prisoner in the secret lair of the Xanathar, and apparently being held as a future combatant in a gladiatorial arena.

At this point, Fradd called it an evening.  The Paladin and Bard decided to go back into the sewers, and relocate a Xanathar guild hideout they had entered several months ago.  They managed to move through the lair, room by room--taking out a handful of goblins as they did so.  They then came into a large room where they were confronted by an Mind Flayer, holding an intellect devourer, with one goblin as a back up.  The Mind Flayer immediately saw them, and recognized them from several months earlier when the party's efforts had unintentionally foiled the Xanathar's Guild's attempt to procure the Stone of Golor.  The Mind Flayer told them that they were "too late to stop us this time," and promised to kill them for daring to return.  In the combat that ensued the party kept making their saving throws--so they were unfazed by the Mind Flayer's psychic attacks.  The Paladin cast a moonbeam spell--and managed to cut the Mind Flayer down to about half-health.  The Bard then cast sleep--and managed to put the Mind Flayer to sleep--before he was reawakened by the Paladin's ongoing spell.  The Mind Flayer then chose the better part of valor and cast Planeshift to get away.  The paladin and bard interrogated the goblin who was left behind, and learned that the Mind Flayer had a key that could be used to open a gate to Xanathar's lair.  The goblin didn't know anything about Wayne, or the Stone of Golor.

The session ended at this point.  For the first time in months, the party has a pretty clear idea about where the Stone of Golor is located.  If they choose to follow up on that lead, the biggest challenge will be locating Xanathar's lair.