Recap, and next game: Friday March 3rd

As of now, we’re assuming that we’ll play Friday night. Does everyone think they can make it? If you suspect problems, let us know in comments. (The game recap follows.)

Game Recap:
We began by returning to the discussion with the Steel Dragon and his young prince. We discussed our decision to investigate the town of the portal mages; he though we’d have better things to do. We did hear some new information, including the fact that Chaos rifts were appearing back in the Dragon Coast too. In fact, he was concerned enough that he chose to leave the prince in Cormyr to negotiate a response, while he was returning that very night to coordinate defenses. (There was an amusing moment where we checked to make sure he didn’t want the Dragon’s Talons to watch his prince. He mentioned something about the danger we live in, and we all breathed a quiet sigh of relief that he wasn’t entrusting the prince to us.)

Our scaly friend was opinionated; evidently his information from spies indicated a little new information. He didn’t think that Jendra was so wonderful; he suggested that Jendra and the priests of Kelemvor might have allied. So there’s a thread to investigate there. Also, he mentioned that he thought that someone within the Necromancer’s household wasn’t just involved with death– he suggested that they were undead. [At this, we breathed a sight of relief at Kev’s absence, since we suspected that we’d shift tasks again to deal with this. Dad reassured us that he’s prepared for that eventuality, but we were happy continuing on to the portal town.]

Oh, last Dragon friend opinion; none of the contending men are worth spit. Look into the women of the lines.

So, the Talons all planned for a little excursion to the never-before completely explored ruins of the great Portal Mae empire. As we were about the leave, Saint Radem’s assistance caught Erisorn and drug him off to attend to letter coordination and such joys. The other three weren’t too worried; since Erisorn has done the scry/teleport thing, they just told him to join us whenever he gets a chance.

Since we were going to be without a cleric, there was a round of shopping– lots of healing potions were purchased. We also picked up a pair of bags of holding, since we’re now light in ability to carry mountains of copper. With that, we rode off to the north.

At the end of a light day’s ride, we got to the little hamlet. The local barkeep was a fountain of information, and his wife was a masterful cook, somehow taking uninspiring cooking supplies and making something tasty. Kogor and Ludwig practiced a bit, drawing quite a crowd. As they reached a break point, a local lad showed off his father’s sword and asked for tips. Kogor and Ludwig had a talk with him, telling him of their humble beginnings. They mentioned obligation and family, but the boy was undeterred. Kogor wrote the boy a brief introduction and gave him directions to the mercenary company. Later the boy’s parents came and harangued the warriors, but admitted that their son had always been unusually excited by war, etc. Ludwig gave them coin to help them hire help for the first season of their son’s absence.

There was a comical scene of Ludwig taking a bath and the innkeeper’s daughter peeking under the curtains.

The next morning, the Talons set off up the road to the abbey. [Sidenote: Pelor’s priests built an abbey over the old town. No one has gone to join the abbey in centuries; it’s a ruin.] Along the way they were stopped by elves. Evidently they had tasked themselves (or been tasked) with protecting the ruin from people who would steal the secrets for their own good. Ludwig spoke truthfully and persuaded them to let us pass. In an act of arrogance, Kogor and Ludwig vanished, intending to make the point that stopping for this “interview” was mere formality. Of course, that wasn’t the message received… but Draifen talked them down and we continued along.

[Sidenote: we could have taken a turnoff, through a canyon, to enter a few hundred feet below the abbey. To ensure that we wouldn’t be in the middle of a sandwich, we chose to continue up to the top.] When we reached the top of the hill, there was an exposed stair headed down and the abbey. Not wanting to allow bad guys to follow behind us, we investigated the abbey. It was tumbledown ruin; a nasty watchman harassed Ludwig, but we chased him back to his hidey hole and covered it with big stones.

From there we went down the outside stairs, into what turned out to be a crypt. Having learned our lessons about strange sarcophagi, we continued into the tunnels. The way grew narrower and the stone less finished as we ended the session. [XP earned = 1300.]