Chapter 4 - River Tour on the Chionthar

Hello and Welcome!

While everyone went to rest off the exertion of the day, having successfully passed Ontharr's Gauntlet, Torsion still spent some time to analyse and attune to the new War Hammer that had been bestowed upon him. Once he finished the mediation, he felt the surge of holy power and he was certain that this new weapon would be very beneficial for their quest ahead. 

The following morning they all met up for breakfast and discussed what had been talked about the previous evening. Torsion very proudly showed off his new weapon and Pipp could just about see that he too was nearly beaming with Pride, very apt for Elturel. Chard joked that hopefully now he'll have a better chance to land a killing blow against the next monster, which brought the usual harumph from Torsion.

In the early evening, one by one, the rest of the Party returned to The Black Antlers. First it was Chard. He slumped down in the chair by Dafnae and tossed his book of The Nine Hells next to Dafnae's book, joking that he bets his book was more interesting than hers. He mentioned that he had learned much but would wait for everyone to arrive before describing it.

Pipp was next to arrive who was smiling from ear to ear and happily described where she had performed and shared the 12gp that she earned. Chard joked that she would have earned more had she spent the day singing Hymnals which caused Pipp to laugh out loud merrily and Dafnae to show a half smirk.

Torsion was last to arrive. He greeted his friends and mention to Dafnae and Chard that the two initiates were healing well from their injuries and that they were eager to have a rematch later. Chard cracked his knuckles and smiled and said that he would be ready any time. 

Chard then described what he learned from his book which everyone listened to intently, with Torsion stroking his beard and furrowing his eyebrows. He was gravely concerned regarding what these deep intricacies of these Fiends meant for how the Cult of the Dragon was working. 

As they finished the evening meal, Ontharr's squire came by and asked them to come visit Ontharr and Leosin to discuss the future plan.  

They met up and had a discussion. Ontharr and Leosin described the need to continue te investigation and to follow where the hoard was going. Follow the money, follow the Cult. Each Adventurer in turn agreed that they would continue the journey and the next step then would be to make their way to Baldur's Gate. Based on the recovered map and the marked route up north, and with the estimated size of the traveling wagon group, if they left on the morrow, they would hopefully intercept the arrival of the caravan in the city. 

They agreed it would be best to change their appearance to hopefully blend in some more and avoid detection by any Cultists that may still recognise them (Chard mockingly reminded Torsion what happened in the Bandit Camp). Pipp was new so she needn't change anything. Dafnae cut her hair short and changed her cloak. Chard cut off one his horns (it would regrow after all, and he thought that he could use the horn for something else later) and he put on his Flaming First uniform (it would be handy in Baldur's Gate). Torsion removed all the sigils of the Order of the Gauntlet from his uniform and he changed his cloak and he died his white beard black. Before retiring for the evening, it was agreed that they would leave early in the morning and travel by sail boat, captained by Gromagar, and travel down the Chionthar. The journey should take 3 days to reach Baldur's Gate.

They were told to meet Ackyn Selebon once in Baldur's Gate. He would help them with the next steps and he could be found at the area known as Black Gate.

That evening Chard had another Nightmare. It was the same as previous evenings but this time in continued a little more. This time the end continued where he was standing by a large metal gate. And while the lightening crashed, the voice in his head said that the gates of Avernus shall open soon and he will need to decide which side he will be on - on the outside or the inside. And this is where he woke again in a fit, drenched in his own sweat. Sweating was strange for him he thought, Tieflings never sweat. He was relieved to hear Torsion continue to snore - he had not been roused from his slumber. As Chard tried to go back to sleep, he thought upon this dream as well as what he had read earlier that day. He would be coming to some crossroads soon on this journey and he would need to make some tough decisions. He knew he didn't want the world to burn to ash - there would be nothing to enjoy if it did. But he felt that he would need to embrace his Infernal heritage. But at what cost? He'll have to find out later.

The next morning they met up and set sail.

Gromagar was at the helm and the other four were manning the oars. 

The first day sailing was smooth and easy, Fair weather, calm rapids, and light traffic meant that the journey was swift and calm. At the end of the first day, they moored up at a typical spot and spent the evening resting.

In the morning they made preparations early and resumed their journey.

The river snaked through the countryside. The travellers were a little cautious when the countryside gave way to various low cliffs which would be perfect hiding spots for raiders. 

And as expected, while the team was trying to carefully row around the narrow riverbends, a small band of Goblins surprised them with a volley of arrows. A few arrows hit their mark, causing some damage, but many made a loud wooden *thunk* as they hit the side of the boat.

Initiative was rolled and the Heroes had to drop the oars and grab their weapons to volley back. The party however realised that they were lacking in medium and long ranged weapons to reach the Goblins high on the cliffs so they had to resort to Cantrips and Spells.

They managed to dodge most of the arrows with more of them hitting the hull of the ship. Gromagar was still navigating the ship slowly down the river so he could not participate in returning fire but after 2 rounds of combat they were able to fell 2 of the Goblins before they retreated. 

The boat continued on, this time the Heroes more prepared to spot the next bit of danger as often a small Goblin Raiding Party is just the prelude to a larger encounter. And as the boat came around the next bend, they heard the sound of a loud horn blaring and then they saw the next threat - a band of Hobgoblins, lead by a Captain!

The peril was much the same. Needing to rely on Magic since they were too far out of ranged for their ranged attacks. Some good casting of Sacred Flame, Chill Touch, Fire Bolt, & Dissonant Whispers helped take out a few of the Hobgoblins but their Longbows were striking true and causing reasonable damage to all of the occupants of the ship. But Gromagar kept the rudder true and continued to guide the boat down the winding river.

Several more rounds of volleys occurred as the ship continued. And as the boat moved down river the Hobgoblins changed positions to get better aim on the occupants. 

And when they were close, they saw the Hobgoblin Captain advance to the Cliff edge and when the boat was at its closest, he launched his Javelin, striking Dafnae before he made a running leap to land on the ship to engage the team in Melee combat.

The focus of the battle switched to take out the Captain who was landing heavy blows with his Greatsword, while still being supported by the remaining Hobgoblins on the Cliffside. 

The Hobgoblin Captain focused his attacks on Dafnae. Elves and Hobgoblins were sworn enemies and Dafnae could feel the hatred coming from him. But, flanked and outnumbered and thanks to good Attack Rolls, he soon became quite injured. And it was Dafnae's Hand Crossbow that made the killing shot as the bolt pierced through his lower jaw and into his skull, causing the dead Hobgoblin Captain to crumple into a heap. 

But the final two Hobgoblins on the Cliff refused to flee despite their leader having fallen - these Hobgoblins were not at all like the cowardly Goblins. But standing side by side made them a perfect target for Pipp's Cloud of Daggers spell which torn the final two to ribbons, thus ending combat. They did a quick look through the Dead Captain's body, finding only a pouch containing one small gold ring and three small silver rings before dumping his body overboard into the river with a small Elvish curse from Dafnae as his body floated away and sunk, weighted down by his half-plate armour.

Battered and bruised, the party used Hit Dice to recover lost Hit Points, supplemented by Healing Spells by Pipp and Torsion. Combat resources dwindling, they were happy to make camp the next evening to try to have a Long Rest. Luckily there were no further encounters and so they healed up fully.

They also agreed they would need to invest in some better ranged weaponry when they get to Baldur's Gate!

The next morning they made their final push to reach Baldur's gate, which they did by mid day.

As they entered the city, Dafnae and Chard felt a small sense of relief to temporarily be at home. Before looking for Ackyn, they agreed to make base at the Splurging Sturgeon and Chard and Dafnae would try to learn some information by reading their contacts which may be helpful.

Chard, dressed in his Flaming Fist uniform, made his way about town to see if he could meet up with some of his old mates. He quickly found some recently off duty guards in a tavern and he joined them, buying them all a round of drinks. They greeted him and asked what he was doing back. He said he decided to take a trip back home to see this sorry lot of mates as he was on a brief leave  from his previous station and he tried to pry any recent gossip out of them while he plied them with more and more drinks.

They didn't have much to offer in the way of information other than news about The Guild becoming stronger and causing a big headache for them with their crime syndicate running around, causing trouble in the city. He was tight lipped about where he had been and his former mates only briefly mentioned hearing about some trouble out in countryside near Greenest but it was too far removed to really cause any reason for concern in this great city. He had a good catch-up with the crew despite not learning much. Plus, the drink was low price and tasted good.

Dafnae used her connections and Thieves' Cant to find her old connections and ask about what has been going on. They were a little dubious about her sudden return, but thanks to a reasonable Deception Roll, they accepted the fact that she told them she was looking for her friend in the East, even if they felt it was not the entire truth. They relayed to her information about The Guild and how it was bad for business as they were getting involved in more and more and that hopefully the Flaming Fist would sort them out so that they could get back to running their criminal business as usual, which was much more subtly done.

She paid a visit to her old Fence to see if he had any additional information. She asked him to shift the 4 rings they got off the Hobgoblin Captain and in turn tried to learn more about The Guild. He added more that no one knew about who the Leader of The Guild was but that maybe someone high up and very politically connected was involved. It would need sorting. She asked him to let her know if any people were trying to move large amounts of goods as she would be interested in skimming a bit off the top. During the boat ride to Baldur's Gate, she thought that with the rules in place, the Cult of the Dragon would not be able to move the Caravan through the city and instead would need to unload and move the stuff manually through the city and then resume the trip outside. This would be their shot at trying to infiltrate the group somehow.

Before returning to the others at the Splurging Sturgeon, she thought she would pay a visit to Talis' parents' home. She snuck through the gates with a high Stealth Roll - she always thought it was wrong to pay taxes when moving from the poorer side of the city to the richer side - so she tried to avoid paying it out of principle. 

There she watched and waited for a little bit but saw no strange movement. When she saw one of the serving girls come out of the house, she made her way to accidentally bump into her in order to strike up a conversation.

Successfully achieving that, she asked if Talis had been in. The serving girl said no and that she had not been heard of for many months. This bothered Dafnae and she asked her to leave a note with her Mistress that she had tried to call upon Talis and learn about her whereabouts, When they serving girl asked Dafnae for her name, due to being slightly flustered by emotion of seeing her friend's old home and not knowing what was coming of her, she stuttered and stumbled upon her words and said to just tell them she was Arwen (she had a very poor Deception Roll).

She made her way back to the Tavern where her friends were just in time to hear Chard describe what he learned about The Guild. She added her information as well.

They agreed to then make their way to find this Ackyn Selebon and see what he knew next.