Shopping, Reunions, Jobs, and New Friends

Informational Note: To begin, my apologies that this recap is late. This session was two weeks ago and life got a way from me. The player who played Moira is no longer playing at my table for the time being so in this recap her character will be exited based on information the player gave me about what she wanted Moira to be doing when she broke off from the party. This session also sees the return of Silbiiah to the group and the introduction of a new party member, Jericho. Also quick shout out to a couple of my discord friends @Beez and @fritzn from The Arcane Library who contributed NPCs to the Arena.

Returning now to our story:

Standing outside the lawyer’s office, an angry Eta sputtered curses about her father not believing in her while the rest of the party tried to calm her down. As Eta shouted at the sky a voice (possibly belonging to the mysterious deity who has made her a cleric through fey magic) tells her to “Be at peace, you will figure this out.” Deciding that the best course of action was to finish the errands that they were already running, they returned to the blacksmith to pick up the silvered brass knuckles that Baltar had commissioned and then began to make their way back towards the Inn.

Meanwhile Silbiiah who had arrived back from the fey realm a bit ahead of the party was riding hard from her home town towards Silverymoon hoping that her friends had ended up there. After several days travel down the Silverymoon Pass on the horse her father had bought her, she arrived in Silverymoon. She wasn’t quite sure how she would find her friends or how to break the news to them of what she’d seen on the way but into the city she went. Finding that the nearest Inn to the gate was through the market, she headed that way thinking that maybe her friends would be staying there.

Silbiiah arrived at the south end of the crowded market square at the same time her friends were entering it from the north end on their way back to the Inn. It was Eta who spotted the familiar sapphire dragon born among the crowd. Happily reunited with her old friends, Silbiiah is introduced to Fianna who joined the party in Hawk’s Nest while she was away. Silbiiah is happy to greet this new friend, but also tells the party she has some sad news to share. On her road from New Fort to Silverymoon, just outside of Hawk’s Nest she passed a grisly scene:

A troupe of guards investigating what appeared to be a group of slaughtered orcs, but among the bodies there was one that was not an orc. Dead in the center of a ring of orcish corpses had been the body of their dwarven companion, Moira. It appeared she had given quite a fight before falling herself.

The party walked back to the Inn in relative contemplation after this news, though they did delight in showing Silbiiah the- invisible in the day time- Moon Bridge. After having to blindfold both Silbiiah and the horse to get across they arrived at the Inn where Silbiiah booked a room. While Silbiiah was booking the room and also inquiring about stabling for the horse, Eta was outside with the horse… watching causually while a couple of bandits stole it. Emerging from the Inn to stable the horse, Silibiiah was outraged to discover it gone and Eta was just so shocked she hadn’t realized someone had taken it. Slightly defeated but still happy to have found her companions Silbiiah and Eta headed back inside to have dinner in the dining room where they had dinner and a toast to Moira.

A during dinner discussion led to the party deciding to investigate one of the jobs they had pulled from the job board:

So the party headed down to Sorlar’s Smiling Satyr to see what this might be all about. Fianna having warned them that Sorlar’s reputation was not the best, they decided that not everyone would go in. So while Ycks, Mott, and Baltar headed in to the tavern, Silbiiah, Fianna, Eta decided to wait in the alley beside the place. Eta decided to “skip” rocks in the alley while they were waiting for the group while Silbiiah and Fianna kept an eye out to make sure there wasn’t any trouble. Inside the tavern, Baltar posted up beside the door and Mott and Ycks approached the bar tender who sent them to a table near the back wall where a hooded figure sat. Upon Ycks and Mott’s approach, the hooded half-orc raised her head and addressed them. Taking a seat, the pair learned that Anticka is a clock maker and her former lover is a noble named Tover Hornblade who lives in the East Wing Apartments. He had taken her favorite clock- a golden dragon clock. She just wants it back and they can take anything else they want from his apartment as payment- she even mentions that he sometimes keeps gems in his nightstand. She does warn the pair that if she hears of the apartment being broken into and the clock taken, but it is not returned to her within 2 days of hearing it she will tell the authorities what she knows of them. Mott and Ycks accept this and head out, collecting Baltar on the way.

Back in the street with dusk coming on the party decided they weren’t quite done for the day and recalling a flyer for a fighting arena on the board at the market they made their way there. The party arrived outside Valkur’s Arena to find that it was Brawl Night. The Arena was taking sign ups for those who may want to participate and there was a 1000g prize to the winner. The party found the prize to be very appealing and talked among themselves about which of them might sign up. Baltar made what sounded like an offhand joke to the party (though he was serious) that he could enter with Silbiiah and then after getting it down to him and Silbiiah he could take a dive. It was decided that Baltar and Silbiiah would enter and that Mott, Ycks, Fianna, and Eta would cheer them on from the stands.

So the observers went to take their places in the stands and the two fighters joined the other prospective champions in a holding room. With a roar of excitement from the crowd the fighters were announced. Joining our heroes Baltar and Silbiiah were: Bripione - a satyr with a pair of shortswords, Norfaren- a wood elf with a long sword, Niktu- a halfling with a great axe that doubles as a guitar, Boris- a halfling with a halberd, and Jericho- a silver dragonborn with a great axe. Baltar holding true to what had had said to the party, not in jest as they supposed, but in truth, put on quite a show while the rest of the fighters did their best to claw their way to the win. Boris was the first to fall, followed by Norfaren, then Niktu, then Bripione. Leaving the final three to battle it out Jericho, Baltar, and Silbiiah. Baltar and Silbiiah took out Jericho, leaving the two party mates facing each other. After much show manship on Baltar’s part and several hits by Silbiiah, Baltar fell leaving Silbiiah the champion of the night. The crowd cheered wildly as Silbiiah was presented with her winnings.

In the stands during all of this Fianna, Eta, Ycks, and Mott cheered and booed the fighters along with the crowd (though the loudest boos for Baltar were definitely heard coming from Fianna). Mid fight Mott spotted some bookies in the stands and he placed a bet on Baltar to win, while Ycks and Eta both bet on Silbiiah. At the end seeing their friend win, Ycks and Eta collected their winnings and the four watchers headed to wait outside the fighters’ door for their friends to emerge.

Inside the medical room where healers were working on all those who took on the arena, the white dragonborn, Jericho, approached Silbiiah and Baltar to congratulate them on the fight. It didn’t take much for the three to see they got on well and Jericho asked them if they’d like to go somewhere and have a drink, because she knew a great place. They agreed and said that they would need to collect the rest of their party.

Emerging from the fighters’ door into a crowd of adoring fans and being asked for autographs… and various things… Jeri assists Baltar and Sibliiah with navigating the throng and finding their friends. Remembering just before leaving that Baltar should go see Martha in the ticket office to collect the second place prize.

Having done that, Jeri leads the party to The Lark - a combination tavern, inn, theatre, and bard school- that is owned and operated by a retired adventurer and Silverymoon noble, Yara Larken. Yara herself is working the room this night while a band called the Magical Menagerie from Waterdeep takes the stage. Yara greets Jeri warmly and shows the party to a somewhat private table in the back of the room so that they can talk privately - though at the late hour there is not a huge crowd here.

Mott, having been spotted by the band on the stage- a band who he knows from his days in Waterdeep is invited up to play with them. Having seen Yara take an interest in his party, they were hoping to embarass him, as Mott is more a story telling bard than a musical performer, but he gives a wonderful performance and they are disappointed. Rejoining his party at the table they all begin to get to know Jeri.

Finding out that Jeri is venturing out into the world to learn new things and seems to be fun, Ycks and Mott fill her in on their mission from Anticka and feel out if Jeri would like to join The Dragon Hand Adventuring Company. Jeri asks Yara what she thinks as Yara delivers Fire Ale to the table. After asking a few questions of the party and figuring out that she knows Silbiiah’s father for his wonderful ales, Yara says that perhaps these are exactly the people that Jeri needed to meet and if she thinks it’s right she should join them. Once Yara walked away, Jeri said she thought she would like to join them. The party drank some more and welcomed Jeri to their ranks. As the night wore on Baltar asked Silbiiah about a share of the winnings since he threw the fight- slightly drunk, Silbiiah was completely shocked by this. She didn’t understand what Baltar meant. Baltar explained that he had said it up front that he would throw the fight so the party could win the prize. He asked Mott to back him up and Mott said he hadn’t realized Baltar was serious and had in fact lost money in the arena by betting on Baltar. Silbiiah too agreed that she hadn’t realized Baltar was serious. Ycks jumped in trying calm things and intervene for Baltar while Eta was too drunk to realize what was going on and Fianna half dozed over her ale. Jeri was shocked to hear that Baltar had thrown the fight, but after learning from Baltar that he’d grown up as a staged arena fighter, Jeri forgave him his indiscretion (as it was from her point of view) and understood where he was coming from. Silibiiah still would yield no ground in this argument and feeling like his party wasn’t standing up for him, Baltar moved to a table a bit away from the rest as they continued there revelry. Silbiiah distributed some of her gold to each party member except Baltar since Baltar had gotten his own winnings.

Baltar kept an ear on the table as they discussed how to move forward with this possible heist as Jeri, who’d been in Silverymoon longer than the party gave them some information: The East Wing Apartments are part of the Palace complex, which has gardens open to the public during the day. Tover Hornblade is the son of the High Mage of Silverymoon: Taern Hornblade. The group decided the best thing to do would be to do some reconnaissance tomorrow and see where to go, especially because at this time in edition to Eta being drunk and Fianna nodding off, Silbiiah just passed out at the table.

Jeri offered to let Silbiiah crash with her since she had a room here at The Lark and it would be easier than everyone else having to carry her back to The Bridge Inn. While tispy herself, Eta, taking advantage of Silbiiah being unconscious, reached into the bag of holding and retrieved the Decanter of Endless Water- much coveted by our resident fire bug. The party agreed and decided they’d meet up the next morning at The Bridge Inn and go from there.

Leaving Silbiiah with Jeri, the rest of the party returned to The Bridge Inn. Before heading up to his room, Baltar dropped his winnings off at Mott’s room to help with the heist.

The next morning Silbiiah woke to find herself sleeping on the floor of an unfamiliar room, but after Jeri explained what happened the two of them headed over to meet with the rest of the group. On the way there a hung over Silbiiah reached in to the bag of holding to try to retrieve a certain decanter… And found it gone. Jericho did let her know that Eta had removed the item from the bag. They all met up in the dining room of the Inn, except Baltar who hadn’t come down yet. Deciding that they would split up for the morning and then meet back up in the market place around noon to scope out the Palace Mott and Eta set off for the Vault of Sages, Fianna went to buy some art supplies, and Silbiiah, Ycks, and Jeri were going to wait for Baltar and then head down to the docks to see if they could find Sunny.

Mott and Eta both met with Professor Liadon at the Vault of Sages- each privately with Mott covering the research fees for both of them. Mott showed the professor his Scissors of Shadow Snipping and told her of them being sentient. He asked if she could see about finding some information regarding them as well as four other items he’d been searching for from his research. She told him she would need a couple of days and she would send word to him of what she found. Eta asked if Professor Liadon could tell her anything more of her father or her family history. The Professor told Eta she would get back to her in a couple of days. With their requests for research logged the two headed out to make their way to meet up with the party at the Market.

And this is where we leave our adventurers for now. What happens next? Stay Tuned…