Waterdeep. The City of Splendours. Again.

The adventurers had returned from Oviggaton with one thing missing: no Draakhorn. Where was it? Unfortunately, it seemed that it was already in the hands of the Cult of the Dragon. Maccath the Crimson had described how men dressed in ornate robes had taken the horn from Arauthator, and the descriptions of the men sounded very much like those of the many cultists the adventurers had faced. This wasn’t good. They’d retrieved the knowledge of the Arcane Brotherhood along with Maccath, but without the Draakhorn, the trip could not be counted as a success.

As the adventurers moved towards the city from the docks, they were approached by a patrol of the city watch. The patrol greeted the adventurers, and said they’d been sent by Leosin; there had been trouble at the palace, and Leosin needed to see them urgently – the patrol would take them to the Harper by a secret route. The group, realising the urgency of the request, complied and were swiftly escorted to the Noble Quarter. Maccath stayed behind, planning to catch up with her contacts in the Arcane Brotherhood, but promising to stay in touch and give aid where she could. The group were joined by two new adventurers as they made their way through the streets – Flint, a paladin, and Enialias, a ranger/rogue – who had also been summoned by Leosin, having been fighting against the cult as well.

The watch led the group to a deserted villa near the palace, explaining that there was a tunnel in the cellar to the palace. The group was suspicious too late, and walked right into the trap – the cellar instead held a number of cultists, and the watch were revealed as cultists in disguise. Flint and Mordakai took the brunt of the initial attack, and soon the group found themselves in a very dangerous battle against a group of ten cultists – six Dragonwings, three Dragonfangs and a half-blue dragon Gladiator. The battle took five rounds to end, and the adventurers were very glad when the last of the cultists were defeated.

They were also very disappointed to find there was no secret passage in the cellar!

The adventurers were then able to meet up with Leosin – for real, this time – where he expressed his concern at the subterfuge and the Cult’s possession of the Draakhorn. News came of a watch patrol having been slain and stripped of their uniforms, and life in the great city became just a little more dangerous. The adventurers decided to go after Varram and the lost Dragonmask and left for Boareskyr Bridge on the morrow.

The trip there was uneventful, and asking around the group discovered that Varram and his henchmen had been in the area, pausing only to slay a serpent-man that had been causing trouble, which had quite impressed the locals.

From there, there was nothing to it but to track Varram by the trail he had left as he and his retainers had moved into the Serpent Hills. Enialias was able to guide them along the path without trouble, but he couldn’t do much to avoid a pair of hill giants who were eating a goat and were not pleased to find their meal disturbed.

This combat took three rounds, with the giants throwing quite a number of rocks at Music, who had been foolish enough to advance past the rest of the group. (Ow, ow, ow!) However, the ranged attacks and spells of the party were equally potent, especially once Ice got involved, and soon the giants were defeated. Enialias tracked them back to their lair, and the group managed to get a fair amount of money, as well as a few consumable magic items.

The group felt they were getting close to Varram. Perhaps they would find him on the morrow?

As normal, this was about a 2-hour session, as we continue in the Encounters-inspired format. Our two new players have been playing on another table, but absolutely everyone turned up for that table this week, which put them at the not-quite-easy-to-run total of nine players! So, I took them instead.

The current roster of regular characters is:

Kai – Warlock 8; Darius – Monk 8; Music – Bard 7; Flint – Paladin 4; Enialias – Ranger 4/Rogue 1; Mordakai – Fighter 8; Ice – Sorcerer 8.