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2.1

The party was reunited in the ruined village of Llorkh; Viola, after nearly dying at the hands of Eegan and gradually restored to health by Ulbeth, was stunned to encounter her former companions miles and months from when she last saw them.

The rest of the party, having defeated Deothar, were shocked to discover how much time had passed since they last saw one another. Winter, known in Faerun as The Drawing Down, is beginning to fall on the Sword Coast. After sharing their separate adventures, the party agreed to travel together again—for now—back toward Waterdeep.

2.2.

The party prepared to depart Llorkh. While they did so, a Hill Giant came looking for her pet Manticore; most of the party did a good job of hiding out, but Thurmack tried to hide in plain sight. The Hill Giant tried to eat him, and the party was forced to come to his defense and kill the giant. When the giant was dead, the party set off toward Loudwater, travelling along the road following the Delimbyr River. Other than being caught in a freak thunderstorm, the journey was uneventful; on the second day, they encountered Portus Ribald, Gauntlet of the Eastern March, who offered to let them stay in his camp for only 50 gold pieces each; the party declined and moved on. That night, however, their camp was attacked by black-clad bandits, who terribly wounded Viola as they began their assault…

2.3

Viola, shanked like a prison bitch, wasn’t in good shape—and she didn’t get any better when Kildrak sent a Fireball her way. The Fireball burned her badly, but it also immolated the bandits surrounding her. However, the light of the fireball illuminated shapes hiding in the trees—a goblin raiding party which flooded into the camp, firing arrows from shortbows and swinging rusted scimitars. The remaining bandit was joined by a furious berserker, and a long battle ensued during which Violet was rendered unconcious twice and Kildrak was felled by the Goblin Chief; the party fought hard, however, rescued their friends and killed every last Goblin. The Bandit Captain, in a last-ditch effort, threatened to execute an unconscious Viola outright if the party wouldn’t give him 200 gold and allow him to escape, but Eldrich sneakily cast Heat Metal on his armor and, though Viola took another wound, the party was able to overcome the last two bandits and tie them up. After extracting information about a strong Zhentarim presence in the nearby town of Loudwater, the party hesitated briefly before deciding to leave no loose ends. Mercy cut the Berserker’s throat, and Thurmack dragged the Bandit Captain into the water and drowned him.

2.4

The party woke to a cold, crisp morning in a camp still marred by the signs of battle. They packed and set off again, arriving at Loudwater in the afternoon, where they were welcomed by a guard who gave them information on places to stay, eat, and shop. The party tried to use the Zhentarim password, Dragonspear, at various locations, where it was either quietly accepted or flat-out rejected. At the Old Owl Tavern, they met the proprietress, Ingrid, who informed them about the upcoming festival of Kalahar’s Ride and practically insisted they go see the impressive Old Bridge, which the party did; embedded into the stonework of the bridge was an enchanted gem, Stoneshoulder’s Heart, which caused fish to leap over instead of swim underneath.

The party then went to the Scarlet Shield, rented rooms, and requested a wake-up call which never came. When they awoke, the town was overrun by blackbirds, the gem in the bridge had been stolen, and a town guard was dead at the scene. The people of the town, confused, worried and angry, were immediately distrustful of strangers—Mercy was arrested the moment she pushed her way into the crimescene—neither had they any interest in being cheered up, not even by the famous Eldrich Mandelion, who did his best to lighten the mood following the arrest. The party scoured the crowd for anyone acting suspicious and followed a young man, Velvred Twohands, who seemed uninterested in the events to a fishing boat somewhat downstream. Kildrak made a deal with him that in exchange for a ride across the river, he would magically enlarge his boat so that the young man might make money from ferrying people across. The young man agreed. During the crossing, however, a large section of the bridge collapsed, sending a wave rolling downriver; although Thurmack tried to magically stop it, the wave capsized the boat. Eldrich, unprepared, sunk toward the bottom.
Mercy, meanwhile, tried to get information out of a fellow prisoner, Vara, wanting to get information; unsuccessful, she threatened Vara, who promised that one day, it would be a good fight. Mercy then tried to break out of the cell, but before she could manage it, the bailiff appeared and agreed she could post bail using her armor and sword as collateral. She agreed and exited the cells under the Master’s Mansion to find her party pulling themselves, dripping, up on the riverbank. Eldrich was still among the living, but had lost his bag of gold and the lock of hair Eustasia had given him.

2.5

Telbor Zazrek, the Master of Loudwater, instructed the party to recover Stoneshoulder’s Heart before Yeskarra and her orc detachment arrived for the the festival of Kalahar’s Ride or be charged with its theft. The party split up to investigate as many leads as possible. Eldrich visited the Old Owl, where he spoke with Harazos Thelbrim, Loudwater’s oldest man, who was a close friend of the fabled Kalahar. Harazos admitted to conspiring to bring the blackbirds to town in order to frighten the Zhentarim away, but was adamant he did not steal Stoneshoulder’s Heart.

Kildrack tried to investigate the crimescene at the bridge, and was eventually able to do so with Thurmack’s help, while Viola went to the Merry Mer-She and haggled with its proprieter, Stubs the Tubs, for information and theories about Loudwater’s troubles; Mercy broke back into jail with the help of a cat in order to get information about the Zhentarim from Vara, who agreed to tell her anything she wanted to know if Mercy would meet her at the Night’s Hunt, an inn outside of Loudwater. Luna also ended up at the Old Owl, after accepting Velvred Twohands’ offer of a midafternoon drink. The party soon reconvened near the bridge, where they agreed that Velvred was likely the culprit of the theft, and went to investigate his house; inside they found clues which placed Velvred at the scene of the crime as well as a hatch to an secret underground passage, and Velvred himself, who had used a potion to become invisible; the party tied him up and descended into the passage in search of Stoneshoulder’s Heart.

2.6

The party, having captured Velvred Twohands for the theft of Stoneshoulder’s Heart, descended into a warren of ancient corridors buried beneath the town of Loudwater. Maneuvering through the dark, narrow passageways, they passed through rooms whose walls depicted, in elaborate carvings and glyphs, the history of the Eladrin Kingdom of Aryvendaar; in one room, they were taken by surprise when two treasure chests sprang to life and tried to devour them, a distraction Velvred used to slip his bonds and escape.
In the next room, the Silver Eye of Enoreth, Elven god of time, looked upon them, radiating strong magic as the party fought off two hellish, terrifying creatures—amorphous, towering, hungry beings of liquid flesh advancing upon them from out of the shadows, bristling with blinking eyes and gibbering madnesses from a dozen mouths.

The party was victorious, and wounded and weary from deadly traps and battles, they advanced deeper into the ancient Eladrin ruin. They came to a collapsed bridge spanning a ten-foot chasm, above which hung what appeared to be an imposing stalagtite, but discovered that the stalagtite was actually something much worse: a huge, ravenous creature which snatched them in its tentacles and began to drag them up into its razor-toothed maw, looking down on them with a hideous, unblinking eye. Mercy tried to leap across the chasm but lost her footing and plunged into the darkness, while Thurmak, trying to free himself of the creature’s grip, fell also. Suddenly, Viola became ethereal, and with a confused expression and her mouth moving wordlessly, faded and vanished, leaving the rest of the party in mortal danger…

2.7

The rest of the party continued deep into the ruins after surviving the attack from the terrifying creature. Viola was nowhere to be found. They found an infernal dagger, a dwarven courtship necklace, and a semi-unsafe wand of Fireballs. Deep in the ruin, they found a hovering Stoneshoulder’s Heart–trapped in the center of a gelatinous cube. Overcoming it, they returned to the surface. In the dead of night, they brought the gem to the The Old Bridge; the Gem magically reconstituted the bridge and its own place within it, and the fish began to leap over it once again.

The Blackbirds left Loudwater, the party gained Telbor Zazrek’s respect, and took part in the fesitval of Kalahar’s Ride, during which they won the horse race, lost at gambling and danced the Willows in the Rushes.

2.8

Thurmack reappeared at nightfall after the end of the festival, battered and bloodied. walking with a limp. He seemed different somehow.
Ulbeth had been in bad spirits since learning of Viola’s vanishing; he refused to leave Loudwater without her, and even dug through a trunk in the cart to get his old cloak and staff out, saying, “You lost my apprentice…my friend…in that horrible underground place, and you can’t even explain what happened. Some fell magic–pah. This is exactly what I tried to warn you about. Does anyone listen? No. You gamble and dance and race my horse without my permission. ” He went into the ruins underneath Loudwater himself to search for her, waving off any assistance; the party had no choice but to wait at the Old Owl where the party beheld the two dwarveswho glued Kildrak’s hands to his face back in Waterdeep all those months ago. To everyone’s surprise, Kildrak recognized them as his cousins, Dunflik and Kiltfir. The three retreated to a corner table, where they drank and talked the hours away; then, sometime in the wee hours, retreated to a private room to discuss goings-on back home; from what the party could see, Kildrak looked troubled.
Ulbeth returned just before sunrise, even more sullen than before, and angrily packed the cart; a dirty bandage had been wrapped around his leg, but he seemed otherwise unharmed. Neither Kildrack nor his cousins reappeared. Sunlight striking the heavy morning fog made Loudwater glow in the dawn light; the diffused sound of the water under the bridge carried eerily in the mist, and figures moved through the bright fog like shadows. The party were tacking Nutmeg up when one of the figures emerged from the mist before their eyes: Viola. Whether a trick of the light and fog, she seemed to be materializing in the middle of the square, walking in an almost dazed way toward the party and appearing to become more corporeal with each step. She came to a stop only feet away. From her hand hung her lance; she stared at the party, but for a moment, didn’t seem to see them; then, blinking, she registered their presence even as her knees faltered underneath her…

2.9

When last we saw our adventurers, they were in Loudwater. Thurmack had returned, battered, broken, and goddessless, abandoned by Umberlee for his many failures; he found himself unable to cast magic entirely.

Viola emerged, reconstituting out of the morning fog, terrified, having witnessed—or believed she witnessed—the violent deaths of the whole party and the town itself. The party comforted her, and while they did so, she thought she saw Eegan,the terrible creature who imprisoned her under Waterdeep, in the fog, but the image was disrupted by Bingley, the Mandelion Family Messenger, who had come to inform Eldrich that alas, his grandfather, Endrich, had passed away. But it wasn’t all bad news, because Eldrich inherited his grandfather’s cool, mysterious puzzlebox, a large cube with an outer shell of amethyst around another, darker, cube within.
Ulbeth left Loudwater, telling Viola that she was always welcome at his home in Waterdeep. The party hired a bargeman, Filbert, to take them downriver, to Secomber, riding among crates of Mist Cheese.

At the abandoned village of Zelbross, another passenger boarded: the travelling potionado, Rizzo, who offered to sell, create, or mix potions in exchange for money or—even better—collectable spoons from different locales in Faerun.

The whole party thought that Rizzo was a totally hip dude. Upon arriving in Secomber and lodging at the Seven-Stringed Harp, the party met Dolf, a sage with much insight and knowledge about Gods, religions, and prophesies; he told Mercy she had a dead god within her, Thurmack that his Goddess had abandoned him, and Viola that many divine eyes were upon her. During this time, Cedric, outside with Luna, suddenly bolted into the night; she gave chase but she could not keep up. Returning broken-hearted, Luna discovered the party receiving shocking news from a handsome-looking warrior—their comrade, Kildrak Battleheart, had sent a heartfelt missive that he had temporarily taken leave to return to Zanhoriloch, his home, after his cousins brought him word of a dire threat. This warrior, Daario Dundragon, would fight in his place in the meantime, if the party would accept him; they did, declaring immediately that he was a lot more handsome and noble than Kildrak ever was. In the morning, the party set off in the direction Cedric had gone: toward the High Forest. When they reached its border, they were surrounded by a dozen members of the Tree Ghost barbarian tribe; their commander, Uru, welcomed the party but demanded they fight six of his warriors to prove their worth to enter the High Forest. The party bested them, and Uru approached Mercy; her sword, Orcsbane, he said, belonged to his Chieftain; he offered to trade his own weapon for it, a flamberge with a red reflection in the steel; she accepted. The party went into the forest with the Tree Ghosts’ blessing and a Rune of Passage to protect them against the remnants of the Eldreth Veluthraa, a fractured but nevertheless dangerous cabal of elves controlling many of the forests of the Sword Coast and Savage Frontier. After a long journey into the wood, they came upon a lone, preternaturally large elk who appeared to be waiting for them; they followed it to a clearing, where they found Cedric, and as the party approached, the Elk knelt to allow a rider.

Five more Elk appeared at the edge of the clearing—one for each member of the party. On their new steeds, Cedric led them bounding back into the darkness of the forest, with the elk following at what could only be magically-enhanced speeds. Racing through hundreds of miles of forest in only a night, the party arrived at the gigantic Grandfather Tree in the darkest hours before dawn. Under a starlit sky, an ancient, antlered old man emerged from a hollow between two of the tree’s roots and welcomed the party, saying that he had been expecting them for quite some time.

2.10

Thurmak, troubled by his lack of magic and by being abandoned by his goddess, Umberlee, departed for Waterdeep, to visit her temple there.
The antlered old man, known only as the Forgotten One, appeared to be an ancient druid and said he was keeper of the Grandfather Tree; he informed the party that at sunrise, the “gate would open” and they would go to meet “the prophetess”.

While they waited, he told Mercy that the black dagger she found in the ruins under Loudwater was one of the six blades of Moloch, and that it had great power—it would grow in strength for every life it took. However, that power would inevitably come at a terrible price, the details of which he could not foresee. Eldrich investigated his puzzlebox and managed to find a seam, but could not yet deduce the first step to opening it. Dawn arrived, and the party traveled through an underground gate carved in the giant taproot of the Grandfather Tree itself and entered the Feywild, a pearlescently-lit echo of Faerun populated by satyrs, dryads, Eladrin, and other mystical creatures. An indigo Faerie Dragon toyed with the party, blocking their path with an illusory full-sized green dragon; later, it polymorphed Viola into a deer, then led the whole party into a swamp where giant topaz constrictor snakes and an enormous ebony crocodile attacked—an encounter which Daario, sadly, did not survive.
Eventually, the party escaped the swamp and followed the path to the top of a hill ringed in giant white birch trees, between which stood a series of gates. The Prophetess, Valiea Elhromain Ulustra Elohalia, waited at its edge. This was the same figure Luna had seen raise her hand in greeting when she “fell” into another place after the incident in the Waterdeep Sewers.
The Prophetess, an elegant autumn Eladrin whose hair, eyes, and even raiment reflected the umbers, yellows, golds, and burning reds of that season, welcomed the party—but said that it was Luna, especially, she awaited, for she believed that Luna was the prophesied Moon Daughter and destined to be guardian of this planar nexus. She told of the prophesy of the Moon Daughter, and instructed Luna and company to search Faerun for the other four Daughter’s Doors; to find them, she said, use the stars. The prophetess warned that the Daughter would be hunted by the Shadowed One, who intends to devour her heart and control the doors itself.
The prophetess then used the Moon Pool to open a portal which the party travelled through, emerging, dripping wet, from a pond in a park in Waterdeep’s Sea Ward, a phalanx of griffon-mounted armored soldiers flying overhead and into the dawn.

Click here to continue to CHAPTER 3: COLD