The party entered Hillsfar late in the afternoon and went to see Auron. They had to wait for him to return home, but when he did, he invited them to dine with him. He apologized for the mercenaries that turned on them, and informed the party that he had expelled the entire mercenary company from Hillsfar. Being a small organization they booked passage on several ships and sailed into the Moonsea to an unknown location. Auron continued by apologizing for getting the party involved in the politics. His plan was for them to deliver the smuggled weapons and armor and leave. He asked the group if they were still willing to work for him. They said that they needed to get some sleep and discuss it amongst themselves. They agreed to continue the conversation over lunch the next day.
When the party discussed their future dealings with Auron. Kaldric did not want to be involved in politics and was not eager to confront the Zhents at all if that was possible. Aria agreed with Kaldric’s position. Kai was more willing to get involved, but eventually assented to not confront the Zhents. When they reconvened with Auron, they stated their position, and asked what sort of work he had for them. He mentioned that he had a couple of jobs for them if they were interested. First, there was an object he was interested in located in an abandoned Dwarfhold, second there was an object in the Anauroch Desert, and finally, there was another object he desired located far to the South. The party inquired more about the jobs, and Auron told them that he had to keep some information secret to ensure it was not just taken and sold to a rival of his. The party decided to inquire more about the Dwarfhold, and what Auron was looking for there. He stated that the Dwarfhold of Tethyamar produced some of the finest weapons during their peak. They used a very large, flawless emerald to channel their magic into the weapons. Auron was unsure if the emerald itself was magical, or if it was used as a focus for the Dwarves magic. He wants to use it to help better arm the Red Plumes to fight the Zhentarim. The Dwarfhold is located in the Desertmouth Mountains which separates the Dalelands in the East from the great desert Anauroch to the West. To get there the party would need to travel almost back to Voonlar then take the other road North at the fork in the road all the way to the town of Teshwave. They would then head West following the River Tesh to the town of Daggar Falls. They would then have a couple of more days travel to the mountains by following the River Tesh. It is known that the Dwarves used the River Tesh to send their weapons down to the Moonsea region. The party should be able to find an entrance to the Dwarfhold there. He provided a map to the mountains to Aria. He did tell the party that the Dwarves were overrun by Orcs, with the help of an archmage. There has not been much activity in the area so Auron believes that most of that horde has moved on. He did warn that they party could run into Orcs, bandits, and potentially some Dwarves. The descendants of the Dwarves still have the desire to reignite the forges once again.
Kai asked what the payment would be for this job. Auron tossed a leather case to Kai at the question. She opened it to find 4 stacks of of 25 platinum coins. He said that based on the previous job, he wanted to maintain a distance from the party so that hopefully no one would know he was involved. That is why there was so much extra money, the party would be responsible for purchasing all of their own supplies. The party did ask about another healing potion, and Auron said he would see what he could do. They also asked about horses, and he had 3 horses sent to the Tipsy Elf for them. Kai has a while gelding with 1 black freckle on his face named Mr. Freckles. Kaldric has a gray gelding named Lil Sebastien. Aria has a dark brown gelding named Nutmeg. Upon arriving back at their rooms, the party found a package that contained 1 healing potion for their use. The party loaded up on supplies and left the next morning. The trip was uneventful all the way up to the fork in the road.
The first night on the way North Kai was visited during her watch by the man in black again. He greeted her and once again asked if she needed anything from him. They had a conversation about recent events, and Kai tried to figure out his motivations, but he evaded her questions, not revealing more than he wanted to reveal. Kai asked about the Goblins and if he could do anything about them, but he stated that he was not concerned about the Goblins, and they were also serving his purposes, just as Kai was. She asked if there was anything he could do about the Orcs, and he said that he preferred to not directly intervene in that manner. He did say that the party would not have trouble finding the emerald. He also states that there is more of interest in the Dwarfhold to others if they chose to continue to search around. He then stepped back into the darkness and was gone. Kai told her companions of the conversation the next day. Shortly the party arrived in Teshwave.
DM Recap
This session felt like it drug on for a while. That was because the party needed to make a decision about how to proceed and that conversation took a long time as they did not initially agree. While these conversations are good and necessary they can tend to take a long time, and there was nothing I could do to speed up the process. I also need to change the way that I do the conversations between Kai and the man in black. Since she has been telling Kaldric and Aria about the conversations I plan to stop pulling her aside. That way things I word in very specific ways are not lost in translation and the other players continue to be engaged in the game.
Loot and XP
There was no XP earned or loot gained in this session.
