Episode 9 - A Tale of Two Caers part I

With the arrival of morning so came the arrival at the Easthaven town hall of Speaker Waylan and his staff to be greated by the broken front door and a pile of dead bodies. Aldrick and Shayde were first to respond to the calls from above and quickly set about informing Speaker Waylan of the past nights events. "There's never a dull moment in this town is there" remarked Aldrick recounting all that had happened in their brief time here. Upon learning the news that his Secretary Prudence had in fact been a Zhenterrim Spy caused the speaker to become visibly shocked and angry as Aldrick jokingly stated it was kind of to be expected when you considered the town's code of pick pocketing and petty theivery! 

Eager to put these recent events in the past Speaker Waylan produced a leather pouch containing the promised gems and handed them to Aldrick who in turn tossed them to Grom for inspection now that the he and Tor had joined the party upstairs. In Typical Dwarven fashion Grom went about checking each one and gave a grunt of satisfaction before handing them back to Aldrick.

Tor placed the cauldron of plenty down and proceeded to give a quick demonstration to the speaker and the gathered congregation showing that you only need pour in water and stir for a minute before the cauldron then magically produced a hearty stew in return. With business concluded in Easthaven the party gathered their belongings and made their way to the stables/kennels in preparation for the journey to Caer Dineval. Shayde stopped by the market to acquire a disguise kit and so our heroes took to their sleds once more out into the icy cold of the Dale.

The journey to Caer Dineval was uneventful and the group arrived shortly before lunch. Travelling all the while in the dim twilight of the Ice Maiden's Never Ending Rime. Making straight for the Caer they were greeted by Speaker Crannoc and his house staff. The Stable boy tended to the dogs and sleds and our heroes began to enquire as to whether there had been any unexplained goings on in town, thefts, vandalism, strange noises or unseen events. Aldrick imparted news of their encounter with a faction of invisible Duergar in Easthaven and that they suspected that further groups could be hiding out in town here. With not much evidence the team told speaker Crannoc they would make a search of the town starting near the docks and the ruined watch tower.

Hastily the party set off into town wanting to make use of what little light remained. Heading to the docks they found quite the busy scene with fishers hauling in their catch and the comings and going of labourers in the storehouses. Aldrick sent lookout to investigate the ruined watch tower circling around from on high to look for tracks in the deep snow or possible trap doors amongst the rubble, but nothing was visible. Lastly the group made their way towards the boarded up abandoned Tavern known as Dinev's Rest. A quick scout around back meant the front door was the only visible point of entry. A jumble of indiscernible foot prints and compacted snow meant it was hard to distinguish if they were in fact Duergar but the loose hanging boards meant this could be the likely hideout, so the team carefully entered. 

The darkness of the interior made it difficult to see much beyond 20ft from the open front door so Tor cast darkvision on herself and entered cautiously with Grom and Shayde, all three of them sticking to walls around the edge of the room. They were able to make out pieces of discarded furniture but little else in what would be the Tavern common room. Aldrick not wanting to give away what little cover his companions had from the shadows instead sent lookout inside to perch in the rafters and entered through his familiar's keen senses. 

Grom slowly made his way right towards the kitchen area while Tor and Shayde took the left wall towards the accomodation end of the building. Shayde picked up on the sound of creaking floorboards but unable to discern if it was just Grom or indeed an unseen creature. Tor opened a door and entered a room furnished like a small office where she found some notes on the desk (written in a language she couldn't decipher) along with a sack on the floor.

Initiative was rolled and the attack was made. Grom and Tor were surprised but Shayde due to her Alert feat meant she wasn't but with no line of sight to the attacker carried on moving into the tavern and choosing to listen against the closed door that lead to the accomodation. 

In front of Grom a launched Javelin suddenly appeared flying towards him as the invisible Duergar suddenly appeared from out of the darkness. The front door also suddenly slammed shut barring Aldrick's entry to the tavern and preventing his ability to join his comrades. 

Shayde took position by the closed door and readied her action to swing her short swords should the door open and something moved passed her. Two of the Duergar used their actions to enlarge. Grom swung his great axe. Aldrick cast misty step to teleport into the Tavern. Blows where traded. Grom's axe sunk deep. The enlarged Duergar swung it's pick. Grom was able to use his giant killer ability to attack again against the now enlarged Duergar. Lookout swooped in to district one of the Duergar giving Shayde advantage and sneak attack. Blows were traded and 2 Duergar fell in quick succession. 

One of the enlarged Duergar threw a table at lookout who upon being struck vanished back into another realm. Blades swung, picks slammed, magically imbued quaterstaffs bludgeoned as more blows were traded from both sides. Aldrick unleashed a torrent of fire and then used his misty step to teleport out of melee. Shayde moved to help Tor and Grom brought his axe to slash into another Duergar and one by the one they succumbed to our heroes determined onslaught!. 

Having defeated the Duergar our heroes collected the notes they'd found and the satchel of black ice and returned to Caer Dineval for a good feast and a hot bath. Aldrick spent some time looking into Dzaan's poetry book casting detect magic revealing it to be shrouded with illusion magic.

In the morning the party would head north towards Caer Konnig..................