Fleeing Waterdeep, they teleported into Mirabar to the stable of their good friend Gaspar and then went on the Long Road south in Solid's conjured cart pulled by Stella.[2]
They were quite impressed with the fortified village of Xantharl's Keep, even though they acted like tourists, hence drawing all the attention to themselves. At least the innkeeper stepped out of her fine establishment[3] to greet them, and it was the first time ever we saw a half-ogre. We were all quite impressed.
Since the party had a good tip that the Weevil is in this village, they went to work immediately by questioning the innkeeper (who had no idea whatsoever), then looking at the patrons in the inn. I gave them a rough-cut half-orc barbarian, who Ireth tried to romance[4] by looking suitably impressed at his wood cutting, orc slaying, bandit killing, deer hunting stories. Unfortunately, there were no recent leads on the Weevil, and Ireth was not willing to take it further. Okos was then contemplating on romancing the innkeeper... I sighed, and the next encounter began.
The horns of battle sounded, and the soldiers in the inn hurried outside. The adventurers followed them to the west gates, where they stood atop the battlements and watched a host of goblinoids and ogres, led by a Frost Giant, approach and lay siege to the settlement. Well, that's a bit strongly worded. The ogres launched goblins wearing spiky helmets from catapult-like contraptions on their backs, killing a few soldiers here and there; while the defenders returned fire with longbows, dropping goblins by the dozen. The attackers soon ran out of goblins, and the Frost Giant sounded the retreat.
In the meantime, the adventurers failed their Insight check, and it took some time for them to work out by themselves that the attack is just a ruse. Okos rose into the air, looking over the village, only to find a pack of humanoids running towards the east gates, carrying a huge sack. He teleported the party ahead of them...
Our first battle on roll20.net[5]
... right unto the palisades, in front of the Bugbears. Battle was joined, and the goblinoids fell to lightning and psionic attacks.
Overpowering the creatures, the adventurers knocked two of them out for later questioning (one surrendered), and untied the sack to reveal a beaten and bruised dwarf.[6] He proved to be a cunning one under questioning, even with Zone of Truth cast. Unlike the bugbears, who immediately ratted him out as being the Weevil. Apparently, the Frost Giant wanted to collect the reward for himself, and recruited the goblinoids for the job.
At this point, some town guardsmen arrived. They took custody of the bugbears, looking forward for some impalement as the night's entertainment. As they questioned the moving sack, Okos teleported them all away... there were no questions to be answered here.
And so they went into Mirabar, first intent on taking the reward from the authorities. However, Ireth was kind enough to let them know that the Zhentarim were also on the lookout for the Weevil.[7] And so the Black Network performed a hostile acquisition of the Weevil's assets... and the adventurers walked away well paid.
[1] See
here
and... I can't find the other reference, basically they made a huge fuss about
finding the guy when first going to Luskan.
[2] The conjured warhorse, for anyone not following.
[3] The Falling Orc
[4] -1 Charisma
[5] I had them send me avatars for their characters, which they failed to do
except Solid, and so I cropped photos of them I found here and there.
[6] One more AoE spell and there would have been a dead dwarf. It's hard to
save for Dexterity when you're tied up.
[7] The only non-Zhentarim character present.
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