Adelstad!

Caravan's End and Fond Farewells

The caravan entered the great city (and Tsara managed to successfully hide her identity from the city magisters registering arrivals at the city gate) and made its way to the central market, where the caravan broke up.  The STU accepted their payment from their respective employers.  Dannar, noting that many of the caravan members had pitched in to reward the STU for their services to the caravan, presented the group with a clockwork toy resembling a nutcracker, which Dannar explained to the party had been infused with 10 charges of the shatter spell, and which Dannar called "Little Boy."

Elhedri explained to the elven prince (which had been cursed to become a golden stag whenever he left the ruins of his castle) that she would take him to the Blackstaff Tower to see if they could help him.

While the STU was saying its farewells and taking payment, and amongst the general commotion and confusion of the breakup of the caravan and the busy market, the wagons of Sammie Blackforge, Jaesor Bendragon, and Yaroslav Yaroslavovitch quickly absconded, and the STU only barely saw them before they exited the western edge of the market into the streets beyond.

Flippy's Excellent Adventure

Flippy set out to follow the three suspected cultist wagons, but along the way noticed a robbery in progress at a stationery store.  After a sleep spell failed to drop any of the four robbers, Flippy found a City Watch patrol and alerted them to the robbery.  When the City Watch intervened, two of the robbers fled in opposite directions.  Choosing one, Flippy gave chase and had caught up to the thug, but was thwarted at the last minute by a beggar who stepped into his way and an unfortunately placed banana peel, allowing the robber to escape into the maelstrom of alleyways and city residents.  

Remembering Larion's information that the cultists would head for a roadhouse on the Coast Road north of the city, he then went to the northwest city gate and asked around.  He found the warehouse headquartering the High Road Charter Company, which was in charge of the road construction taking place between Adelstad and Neverwinter. He spoke with the foreman, Ardred Briferhew, who told him that people matching the description of some of the cultists had signed on to be laborers and teamsters on the road crew heading out the next day.  Flippy also overheard some warehouse workers talking about an alleged sighting of a black half-dragon a tenday earlier.  Flippy then spoke to the girlfriend of one of them, who had been the one to allegedly see it, at the nearby butchery where she worked.  She confirmed the story, but could offer no further details. 

Flippy then met up with the rest of the STU at the Yawning Portal.

The Case of the Possessed Child

Meanwhile, the rest of the STU headed toward the Yawning Portal.  On the way, they came across a young boy in some distress and acting extremely erratically, with his equally distressed parents running after him imploring him to calm down (and begging the STU not to harm him).  Unfortunately, the child's panic seemed to increase and a cone of flame erupted from him, damaging Micah and Tsara a bit.  Micah cast a calm emotions spell, which seemed to bring the child out of his seizure.  The parents explained that the child had been possessed by some kind of spirit, but they could not afford the fee wanted by the Divine Church to lift the curse.  At that point, Micah cast remove curse on the boy, and the spirit fled his body.  The father of the boy, a simple lamplighter, said that he would spread word of this among his guild, and if there was anything the lamplighter's guild could ever do for them, they would do their best.

The Yawning Portal

The STU spent some time at the famous tavern, and met up with Carlon Amoffel to exchange notes.  Carlon promised to get their update to Leosin.  He also presented the party with one half of a pair of sending stones, which would allow the STU to remain in contact with him going forward.

Reedlocke Manor

The party then went to Tsara's home, Reedlocke Manor, and met her mother, the drow elf Bethrynna, who was ecstatic to see her daughter after so many months of separation.  Tsara eventually confessed her warlock abilities to Bethrynna, and they discussed the status of Tsara's imprisoned father, whose case had still not come to trial, due to what his lawyer believed could only be political reasons.  The party enjoyed a restful night and the use of the manor's running hot water.

Averted Assassination

The next morning, Tsara and Micah headed to Blackstaff Tower [DM's note: I forgot why they went there. Oops.]. In front of the entrance, they saw two men speaking to what appeared to be a young apprentice wizard, and seemingly keeping her engaged in a conversation.  Perceptive Micah happened to notice a glint of sunlight on metal, and saw a would-be assassin aiming a crossbow at the unsuspecting mage.  Micah and Tsara interposed themselves between the target and the assailant, and thwarted the attempt.  The two ruffians talking to the mage disappeared into the town, and the mage, none the wiser, went into the tower.  Micah used a hold person spell to incapacitate the assassin (followed by a couple of grapples after the thug finally managed to shrug off the spell).  As we left off, Tsara and Micah were about to begin trying to interrogate the person, who was still trying to escape or fight back.

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