Episode 12: Aquisitions

When we last left this crew they had returned to the city of Waterdeep to have Talon properly buried and to restock, for none of them had realized how complex it was down there. This cast consists of:

Melchizedor, the dwarven Cleric of Heironious

Talon, the Aarakocra (bird-man who can fly) Fighter

Unit 2408, the Warforged (humanoid living construct) Barbarian

Luthis, the Kenku (raven-man who can not fly) Blood Hunter

Evangeline, the Tiefling Paladin of Tyr

After returning to the surface and leaving Talon's remains to be properly interred by the priests at the temple of Heironious, most of the party went to find an inn to rest. Melchizedor decided to stay at his temple for the night. We found a nearby inn, clean and decent but not high end, had a quick meal and went to bed. We were able to get away with a room with two beds, since Unit 2408 doesn't sleep per se. He just ... turns off?

In the pre dawn hours Evangeline, feeling quite off about how this adventure has started, quietly leaves the room to find a temple to Tyr. With her unusual appearance, she always makes sure she has her holy symbol prominently displayed. Also keeps town guards less suspicious. But she found the temple and got to spend a good hour in quiet contemplation and prayer. Then she felt her pack get heavier. Leaving the temple, for business is not done in temple, she investigates to find the diplomat's pouch that Talon was carrying was now in her posession and there's a letter in there. Opening it there's a note from Rubis asking for a check in. She quickly writes out a summary of what is going on and sent it back, then started heading back to the Inn. Almost immediately another note arrived, asking what in as Rubis had much information to share. So she sent him the name of the Inn.

On her way back she notices a lot of thunderclouds in the distance, unnaturally so.

Upon her return to the Inn, Unit 2408 and Luthis were at a table, and it appears Unit 2408 is trying to teach him some "useful" phrases. This should be interesting. While having breakfast and talking about what's next, a bald and robed figure arrives. He quickly spots us, it's not like we blend in, and comes over with a message from Melchizedor. He's been summoned away by his order to help with the undead mess in Waterdeep, but we are to reach out to him as needed. We thank the young man and he scurries away.

Returning to our discussions and food, a tall human walks over to our table. He's clad in armor and carrying a mace, with the holy symbol of Ilmater. He introduces himself as Elniss, and states he believes he can help us in our quest. So we invite him to sit with us for now and start talking.

A short time later Rubis arrives. He spots us quickly, and hurries over to sit with us while summoning a tankard of ale. After downing part of the ale he proceeds to tell us the latest from Waterdeep. Calls have gone out far and wide for assistance, and many of the cleric sorts from the temples in town have stepped up to beat back the undead hordes. Some arcane magic is now functional again, though not everywhere. And there's now a lich in residence. Evangeline was ready to pounce on that one, but Rubis pointed out that perhaps we weren't quite powerful enough for that. We in turn updated him on what we've seen so far, and that we had lost Talon and Melchizedor. We plan on returning to the mess below after restocking supplies and regaining some team mates.

He then asked for a full update from us regularly, so Evangeline gave her word she'd do so. He nods, downs the rest of his ale, and hurries off. "Damn Wizards" was muttered after he left.

So the party heads out to refill cross bow bolts, rations, and water skins. We've seen a lot of tunnels and halls and useless rooms, but not a lot of food and water to be had as yet. While pondering where to go to look for new team mates, Unit 2408 suggests the Yawning Portal, as anyone who is wanting to go into the dungeon has to go through there. We agree that's a good idea and head there.

Arriving at the Yawning Portal, we find it's open but pretty quiet right now. It's too early for most to be hitting the tavern. The owner comes over and asks us of our journey below, so we oblige and entertain him for a bit while having an ale. It's going decently well when we hear the door open and a hush go over the room. That's surprising, as a humanoid construct and a "devil" entering doesn't cause that much of a stir. So we look. And there's a sheep. A blue sheep. Standing in the doorway looking around.

The blue sheep spots Unit 2408, trots over and stares at him expectantly. Unit 2408 just stares back, he doesn't have any facial expression. So the sheep tap dances, stares at Unit 2408, looks over at the well, and back at Unit 2408. He shrugs and says "I guess they ordered take out". That caused much laughter. So Unit 2408 goes to the well to get the bucket ready, and the sheep hops up on the rim of the well, then makes the leap to the bucket.

Only to completely and totally miss the bucket, falling to the ground many feet below. Elniss points out we should go see if he's hurt, and Evangeline is like no he's just mutton now. About then we hear a muffled "oooowwww".

So Evangeline pulls out her hammer and shield and asks Unit 2408 to lower her down. She figured if the sheep landed on someone she'd kill or heal them depending on if they were friend or foe. When she got to the bottom much to her surprise there's no dead blue sheep. There's a pale blue-white Tabaxi there, groaning in pain. He introduces himself as Dancing Wind, a wizard.

And that's where we left off today! Some out of story explanation: One of the new characters was created by the gentleman who played Talon, as a replacement. The gentleman who plays Melchizedor was running into too many things going on at work problems, so he went ahead and bowed out of the game. The other new character was made by a new gentleman at work, been with us a whole 3 or 4 weeks I think and we're already getting him to game. :)