DoD Summaries

[Daos]

Chapter One:  A Fever in Dagger Falls

The four party members are on the road to Dagger Falls, having met up in Shadowdale. Eringard wishes to investigate the temple of Lathander that burned down eight years ago, so hired the others as mercenaries to protect her. However, the four were ill-prepared for the journey. Eringard and Drezden were encumbered by all of the gear they carried. While they lamented not buying a mule or pony back in Shadowdale, Gribben and Elvarian offered to help lighten the load for them.

However, before reaching the town, they came across five goblins in the road. The goblins claimed that the road belonged to them, the Big Belly tribe, and that anyone who uses it must pay them a toll of 50 gold pieces. Drezden, Elvarian and Gribben all immediately attack and chaos breaks out as it turned out the goblins had three archers hiding in trees or behind rocks. Elvarian slays a goblin, but is shot down by an archer himself. Eringard manages to save the elf's life with a healing spell. The party is quickly overwhelmed and all looks bleak, but Gribben manages to save them by blasting the leader with magic missiles, killing him. This breaks the goblins' morale, causing the rest to flee. Drezden manages to slay one more before it can escape. Afterward, Drezden discovers 800 silver pieces, a golden snake armband and a wooden scrollcase on the goblins. The silver is split up and the dwarf holds on to the armband and scroll for now.

Shortly thereafter, a group of riders approached. Gribben and Elvarian tried to hide, but the others did not. It turned out the riders were Randal Morn and his men. Morn was the true ruler of Daggerdale, but he was usurped by the Zhents and has been fighting against them ever since. He explains he had heard of a sickness that befell Dagger Falls called the 'dream fever.' He recognizes that as they have a follower of Lathander among them, the party must be trustworthy and so asks that they investigate it this for him. He cannot enter the town himself without being recognized and attacked by the Zhentarim. The party agrees, so Morn and his freedom fighters ride off.

The party reaches the edge of Dagger Falls and are stopped by a Zhentarim guard who warns them to not make any trouble while in town. They head to the only inn in town, the Teshford Arms--a rather shabby place that charges quite a bit. Drezden engages in conversation with another dwarf named Gimak Rockcrusher while Eringard takes an interest in a foreign minstrel. Elvarian is only interested in food, drink and rest, though.

Eringard starts up a conversation with a Rashemon minstrel, but then walks away when she answers. Drezden asks Gimak about what brought him to Dagger Falls and learns of Eagle's Eyrie, an old dwarven stronghold that was abandoned centuries ago. Gimak came here with a party to investigate it, but one of the members turned out to be a Zhent who betrayed them. This caused the party to split up, so Gimak has been on his own since then.

Eringard decides to go investigate the ruins of the temple of Lathander, but the only one she can convince to come with her is Gribben. Elvarian and Drezden get a room together and just go to sleep, even though it's still early afternoon. At the temple ruins, there are Zhentarim guards keeping watch over the place. They explain that the Constable has issued orders that nobody is allowed into the crypt. After they leave, Eringard wonders why nobody seems to recognize her vestments, but Gribben points out that's probably a good thing. The Zhents might turn on them otherwise.

The two return to the inn and get rooms for themselves. The following morning (Ches 9th), the party wakes up and meets back up in the common room for breakfast. Eringard inquires about the dream fever to the innkeeper. The party also discusses what to do. Drezden asks Gimak about the Eagle's Eyrie again, asking if the group could help him explore it at some point. Eringard was more concerned with investigating the illness and getting permission from the constable to explore the ruins of the temple.

They learn from the innkeeper that one of the recent victims of the illness is Roger, a local jeweler. They head to his address, and meet his daughter, who is running the shop in his stead. Drezden notes some signs of violence and immediately asks her if someone is bullying her, which puts her off. The woman, who introduces herself as Karen, demands to know what they want. Eringard mentions Lathander, and Karen claims that the god destroyed his own temple and possibly had something to do with the only cleric in town vanishing recently. Eringard denied this was true. Both she and Drezden insist they only want to help with her father's illness.

Karen agrees and explains that after her father fell ill, the shop fell on hard times (and was robbed multiple times). The Constable has agreed to give her protection, if she agrees to marry him. Unless her father's health improves, she will have no choice. She takes the group to see her father, who is lying in bed, comatose and unresponsive. Karen explains that he fell ill 3 weeks ago. After some investigating, the party concludes the illness must be magical. Gribben begins searching the room, believing that an item is causing the sickness and has been placed nearby, but finds nothing. The party questions Karen a bit more and learns from her that over 100 people have fallen ill in the last month, including some Zhentish soldiers, and a few victims have already perished.

The party leaves and discusses their next move. They decide to head to the Red Rock Tavern, as Drezden believes Randal Morn is waiting for them there (he misunderstood; Randal told him that if they solved the crisis with the dream fever, he would send a man there to pay them. He never said he would be there himself). Once there, Drezen asks the bartender, a half-elven woman, if the 'true leader of Daggerdale' was present. She explains that Morn is not here and couldn't be here at all, not without being captured on sight. Drezden realizes he misheard Morn. While they are there, Eringard questions the barkeep about the Cyricist cleric that disappeared recently. The party also learns of the 'night dwarves.' Rumors are strange looking dwarves have appeared in or around town, but only at night.

The party decides to wait for nightfall and stake out a few areas to see if they can find these night dwarves. Gribben decides to stake out the area near the ruined temple. Elvarian and Eringard choose a farm outside of town. Drezden recruits Gimak to stake out the area outside the Eagles Eyrie.

Drezden and Gimak head to the base of the hill on which the Eyrie stands, but their infravision is limited and they can't see the top. They try to walk the path leading up to it, but find it has partially collapsed. While they discuss it, they hear someone approaching--not from the Eyrie, but toward it. They aren't sure if they should hide or not. While they are discussing it, they are discovered by a patrol of Zhent soldiers. The captain questions them, wanting to know who they are and why they are here. It turns out some of the constable's men are looking for the party, because the constable wants an audience with them for some reason. The Zhents then search the dwarves' belongings ('routine inspection') and then 'confiscates' the gold armband they took from the goblins.

Elvarian and Eringard stake out a spot on the farm, hoping they don't get caught trespassing. Elvarian detects some movement in the cornstalks, so climbs up on the chicken coop to get a better view. He spots three wolves moving toward their position. He helps Eringard up the coop and the two wait out the wolves, who eventually grow bored and leave.

Gribben heads into town and finds an alley he can slip into that will provide cover and allow him to watch over the temple ruins. He hears a dog barking nearby, then it suddenly cries out and goes silent, followed by a sinister giggle. Sneaking forward, he spots two creatures that resemble dwarves but are covered in thorns. They are butchering a dog. He decides to watch them.

Drezden and Gimak head back to the inn, where they encounter Elvarian and Eringard. Both groups reveal they hadn't seen Gribben. They head into town, near the temple, hoping to find him. They do, discovering that he was tailing two 'night dwarves.' Reuniting with him, they watch as the creatures break into a house and throw a net over a little boy, stealing his energy. Drezden recognizes the creatures as wood woses or nightshades. Elvarian suggests that the net is what causes the dream fever. Gimak wants to kill the creatures now, but the others talk him out of it, wanting to follow them and see where they go, regardless of how many victims they might take along the way. They continue to follow the woses, who head to a big oak tree in the town square. They touch it and cast a spell, then vanish. Nobody is clear on what happened, so they head back to the inn.

Meanwhile, back at the inn, Maria Fireheart arrives alone, seeking shelter for the night. Although only 9 years old, she is an accomplished invoker but on the run from some bad people. The innkeeper rents her a room, surprised to find she has any gold. While the innkeeper is getting Maria's food, an orc wearing the Zhent sigil steps in. He demands the innkeeper turn over some coin, and she gets upset he's doing it in front of customers. After he leaves, Maria questions the innkeeper on why she allows him to coerce her. The innkeeper explains that the Zhents run the town and that's just the way things are.

The party returns to the inn and sits down to discuss what they all saw. Maria asks the innkeeper about them, and she explains they are strangers who are investigating the dream fever. Gribben quickly excuses himself and heads up to his room, so the others discuss their various stakeouts. They reveal they didn't see much, so the party asks Drezden about what he knows about wood woses. Overhearing all of this, Maria remembers something from an old lesson from her mother about the Net of Dreams. She approaches the party to tell them about this, suggesting that the net the wood woses used was the Net of Dreams. They ask how she knows this, and she admits that despite her very young age, she is a mage. She also asks to accompany them on their meeting with the constable. The party heads up to bed.

The following morning when they descend from their rooms, they find an 'honor guard' from the constable to escort them to the tower. Not having much choice, they went to see Constable Tren. They explained about the wood woses and their desire to stake out the oak tree, but Tren wasn't interested in capturing or even killing one or two. He wanted the whole nest wiped out. He was certain the nest must be in Eagle's Eyrie, as the creatures resemble dwarves. Maria interjected about the net of dreams, and Tren asked who she was. She just said she was a mage, and Tren commented that a Red Wizard was here recently asking about a child mage. Drezden distracted him, though, and the topic was dropped.

After agreeing to the job, the party was escorted back outside. There, Maria admitted to the party that she is being hunted by the Red Wizards of Thay, who want her because she is such a prodigy. The party promised to protect her should it come to that.

[Daos]

Chapter Two:  The Eagle's Eyrie

The party wakes up on the 11th day of Ches and gets some breakfast in the common room while discussing their trip to Eagle's Eyrie. However, Maria is certain there are more clues to be found in regards to the dream fever that they may have missed. She speaks with the innkeeper on who became infected last night, but is told nobody did. But someone did disappear. It turns out there have been a few disappearances since the sickness began. The most recent one was a woman that lives on one of the outlying farms. The party decides to go and investigate.

They speak with the farmer that lives there, and he explains that his sister went missing the night before. He claims his sister saw some night dwarves a few nights ago, but they disappeared after touching a nearby oak tree. The party deduces the night dwarves took her. Maria finds some thistles and thorns near the window that seem to confirm it. But for now, they are at a dead end. They decide to head to the Eyrie after all.

They are quickly stymied, however, when they reach the gorge that Drezden and Gimak encountered previously. Nobody had remembered to buy a grappling hook. Elvarian ties a rope to himself, climbs down the gorge, crosses it, then climbs up the other side. Gribben does the same thing. The others aren't really clear on how that's useful to them. Maria decides to try the same thing, tying some rope around her and climbing down. But she slips and falls. Luckily, Drezden catches her at the last second and hauls her back up.

Gimak brings up the idea of just climbing alongside the hill wall, which has plenty of hand and footholds. He does so, and Drezden, Maria and Eringard follow. Once they are all across, they set a marching order with Elvarian scouting ahead, and climb to the top of the hill. Once they are near the ruins of an old watch tower, they hear voices speaking in dwarven coming from the ruins. They sound afraid. Two beastmen emerge from the tower, along with a pair of eagles. They attack the party. Gimak fights the beastmen alone while the others focus on the eagles or ranged attacks on the beastmen. Gimak nearly fell, but eventually the party was victorious.

Some dwarven voices called out from the ruins asking for help while Eringard healed Gimak. Drezden kept asking them questions back and forth, before finally going inside and finding nine hogtied dwarves. After freeing them, the only one who can speak Common, a woman named Narta, explains that they are descended directly from the dwarves who lived in the Eyrie. They had come to reclaim their ancestral homeland, but were ambushed by the beastmen and captured. Although they were wounded and obviously weren't very good warriors to have been captured by two beastmen, the party was eager to recruit them. Narta agreed to help clear the Eyrie, bringing the party's numbers from six to fifteen.

Drezden offers his lantern to Eringard while Gribben takes the beastmens' spears. They then head into the cave, but find their progress hindered by a brown bear. Rather than fight it, Drezden manages to calm it and let the others pass. They come across a dead end, but Narta insists there must be a hidden entrance. Looking around, Eringard finds two unnaturally carved holes. She and Gimak both stick weapons inside, which triggers a crossbow trap, shooting them both. Gimak's armor protects him, but Eringard is not so lucky.

After she patches herself up, Narta finds the entrance and the group heads inside. They first come to a large chamber which has several possible pathways branching from it. The party decides to split up--Narta and her dwarves head south, while the party heads northwest. They reach the end of the tunnel and find a lookout point that has been hidden well, so the old dwarves who lived here could spy on the land below without being seen themselves.

The next room they explore looks to be an old forge. There's a dust covered altar and Drezden suggests lighting candles, but nobody has any. There is also an anvil with a hammer on it. The hammer has runes carved on it, but they vanish when Drezden touches it. Curious, he decides to take it with him.

They search the next room to find it is another look out room, identical to the last one. Then they head into the south room, where Narta and her men last went. They find a large room that contains two dead dwarves and an altar. Narta is holding a sword. The party reports to her what they found, then asks about the bodies.

Narta explains the history of the Eyrie. Long ago, Colderan Morn (ancestor to Randal Morn) ruled Daggerdale. His wife, Belesaria, wanted to buy jewelry from the Brightblades at a discount, but the dwarves wouldn't budge on their price. So she ran to Coledran and claimed they insulted her. Furious, the mage attacked the Eyrie. The chieftain and high priest stayed behind to forge a mage killing blade, while the rest of the dwarves evacuated. In the end, the chieftain and high priest were killed before they could use the sword, which Narta now held. The blade was said to deal damage to any mage it touched. Eringard found it disgusting, as it could be used to harm good mages, too. Drezden left the hammer he found with Narta, then the group headed to the last room--the one who doors.

Opening the doors, they discover an emptied out armory, and four fire beetles. A fight breaks out immediately, and both Gribben and Gimak nearly die. But luckily the party finishes them off by working together, before there are any casualties. Afterward, Elvarian harvests the light gland organs from one of the beetles.

The party reports back to Narta, but are disappointed they didn't find any leads on the dream fever or the wood woses. But Maria remembers reading once that Coledran once owned a net of dreams, and when he died, he was allegedly buried in his lab by his apprentices. That lab was underneath what is now the ruins of the temple of Lathander. Now knowing their next move, the party says their farewells to the Brightblades and head back to the inn to rest up.

[Daos]

Chapter Three:  The Mage-Lord's Crypt

When the party wakes up on the morning of Ches 12th, 1367 DR, they discover a commotion in the hallway. Gimak explains that Maria and Eringard have gone missing. He suspects the wood woses kidnapped them, much like the farmer's sister they investigated before. Realizing their best chance of rescuing them was to explore the ruin under the temple, the party went to the Constable's Tower to report to Tren. The party tries to convince him that the Eyrie was a dead end and that they needed to explore the temple ruins. Tren was reluctant, as the party couldn't provide any reasoning behind their logic. But eventually gave up as he had no other leads to follow, so agreed.

Before heading there, though, the party decided they needed help. They went back to the Teshford to recruit a healer. Elvarian started speaking with a woman in orange robes feeding a cat, while Drezden talked up a minstrel. There is quite a bit of winking involved. Elvarian learns the orange clad woman is not a healer, but a summoner. Despite this, he tries to recruit her anyway. Meanwhile, after speaking with the minstrel, Drezden learns that there is a druid nearby, so he goes to speak with her.

Elvarian manages to recruit the summoner, a human named Margarita Baldovinetti, by promising her a fair share of the treasure found. However, Drezden is unable to convince the druid, Rosea, to join them. He does get her to tell him more about wood woses, though, including their strengths and weaknesses.

The party then heads to the Red Rock Tavern. Drezden starts talking with a half-orc and Elvarian approaches a woman in chain mail. Gribben, meanwhile, heads off to buy a sling and some bullets. Drezden learns the half-orc is a cleric of Tymora, Goddess of Luck. He convinces Zedd to join the party by playing a game of dice. This brought the party up to 6 members (half of which were NPCs), so the warrior woman Elvarian was speaking to declined to join up.

The group of six then headed to the temple ruins and were allowed to enter the cellar by the guards there. The wine cellar was illuminated by an eerie, magical glow. There are several large holes in the northeast and a portcullis to the west. Elvarian goes to investigate the holes and finds something alive inside one, hissing at him. Rather than fight it, the party decides to avoid it and just quickly move into the next room, closing the portcullis behind them.

They find themselves in a crypt of some kind. Margarita considers searching them for loot, but the others convince her stealing from the dead on holy ground is probably a bad idea. There is a locked door to the north and a tunnel to the west. Elvarian tries to pick the lock with his dagger (having forgotten to bring lockpicks), but to no avail. The party seems convinced that there is something on the other side that will attack them, so try to find a way to block the door, but have no means to do so. Eventually they move on.

Entering the tunnel, they find a couple of dead Zhent guards and some kind of insectoid creature's corpse. Nobody can identify it. Moving on, they then encounter a living version of the creature. Elvarian attempts to sneak around it, but it sees him and attacks. The party manages to defeat it. They are ready to move on, but at this point, it has become so dark that Margarita can no longer see. So Elvarian gives her one of the glowing glands he took from the fire beetle he fought before.

Moving forward, the party comes across a large circular chamber with many mushrooms growing in the middle. Drezden, Elvarian and Gribben go to investigate another nearby cavern with a still pool of water in it. However, they then hear the sound of battle coming from the mushroom cave. When they return, they find Gimak, Margarita and Zedd fighting off three nightshades.

Joining in, the party defeats the nightshades. They then search the mushrooms, finding a couple of potions, some amber gemstones, and a small nursery of infant nightshades. After some discussion on the ethics of the matter, Drezden killed the nightshades.

The party heads west, and comes across another dead hook horror, and hear the sound of rushing water. They decide to turn back and go east instead. They come across a large wall of thorns. While it's possible to cut through it, the thorns grow back shortly after, and anyone who passes is going to take damage. So they return again to the rushing water tunnel, and find it comes to what is basically a dead end--as it runs into the River Tesh, which is far too deep and fast to cross (and none of the party can swim anyway).

The party discusses their options, which include returning to town to buy (or steal) lockpicks so Elvarian can try and get into that locked room they encountered earlier. Instead, they decide to have Margarita slather the wall of thorns with a grease spell, then ignite them. Although this destroys the thorns (and kills a nightshade that was lurking on the other side), it creates a thick cloud of smoke. When the party crosses it, several of them accidentally breathe some in and take damage. Luckily, Zedd is able to heal them afterward.

The party arrives at an intersection. First they try the branch, and find a pit with a purple slime at the bottom. There's also something gold down there, but they decide not to risk trying to claim it. Then return to the main tunnel and open some doors to discover a very angry and hungry looking watchdog. Using his animal empathy, Drezden manages to calm it down with some food and make it friendly. Beyond this is a locked door. Elvarian attempts to pick it with his dagger, but to no avail.

So the party just sits and waits. Eventually, a nightshade on the other side unlocks it to bring the dog food, and that is when the party attacks and quickly kills it. Moving on, they enter a crypt of some sort guarded by four skeletons. Zedd manages to turn them, making it an easy fight as they flee to the south. The party then encounters another intersection. To the west, they find a long passage and hear the sound of rushing water.

They then try the east. They find some kind of spawning grounds for future nightshades. It's full of gardening implements and fertilizer and seed. Something knocks over some seed as they enter, but Drezden ignores it in favor of the Net of Dreams hanging on a hook. He quickly grabs it and, ignoring the door to the east, returns to the intersection.

The party then heads north, into some kind of crypt. But rather than undead, they now face a male human flanked by two nightshades. The man claims to be the Magelord of Daggerdale, Colderan Morn, the resurrected great-grandfather of Randal Morn. Colderan explains that he intends to take back his city from the Zhents. Drezden suggests that the party could help him do so, if he only targets Zhents with his dream fever instead of the citizens. Colderan explains the nightshades cannot distinguish one person from another, so the sleepers they take are random.

However, neither Gimak or Zedd (both of Good alignment) can agree to that, so Drezden attacks Colderan instead, claiming it was all just a ruse that was now ruined.

A large fight breaks out and starts to go south early on. Colderan's homonculous, Puck, puts Margarita and then Gribben to sleep. Colderan enfeebles Drezden, and summons Jermlaine and a rat swarm to assist him in battle. Gimak notices that when Puck takes damage, it seems to hurt Colderan, too. When Drezden throws off his pack (due to encumbrance), the Net of Dreams spills out. When Puck flies to grab it, Gimak kills it. The psychic backlash finishes off Colderan, ending the battle shortly after.

Once Margarita and Gribben come to, the party returns to the plant room and picks up the potions they missed before. They also check out the nearby room that they missed, which contains all of the kidnapped sleepers (including Maria and Eringard). Each one sleeps on a stone altar, with a strange, glowing lamp above them. While Drezden investigates (and wonders if destroying the Net of Dreams will restore the sleepers), Gribben accidentally finds a secret room leading to a private library. Margarita goes to work, finding Colderan's traveling spellbook and several other books (mostly that he himself wrote).

The party learns the souls of the sleepers were largely kept inside the nightshades themselves, and now that they are all dead, they should be waking up. Margarita deduces that the souls of the sleepers in the nearby room are being stored somewhere nearby. The party realizes they are in the lanterns, and once they start breaking them, the sleepers awaken. The party, reunited with Maria and Eringard, escort the group back up to the surface. The Zhent guards are surprised to see them, and suggest the party reports right away to Tren. Maria and Eringard remain behind to make sure the victims get home safely.

Once at the constable's tower, Drezden explains what happened, but omits anything about the magical items involved, including the Net of Dreams. Tren rewards the party 100 gold pieces, which is barely anything at all, considering the massive risks they took (only 20 GP each).

Afterward, the party splits again. Drezden and Gribben go and visit Karen and her father, Roger the Jeweler, while the others head for the inn. Upon arriving, they find that Roger is awake again, and both he and Karen promise to give the party a big discount if they ever need their services.

Finally, they returned to the Teshford Arms to warn Rosea that there may be more nightshades out there, but also to celebrate with a drink.