Tiny Huts

• The session opened immediately after the last, with Pliny beginning to cast Tiny Hut, Aegar exhausted and about to keel over, Fang invisible, and Zoyana a bird…
• The teamster and others were still sheltered under the wagon.
• The horse was still dead. The crates were still strewn about. The jewelry wrapped in wool still spilled out onto the road.
• Zoyana wildshaped back into her halfling form and cast Cure Wounds on Aegar, helping quite a bit.

Introductions

• Aegar approached the wagon, hands up, keeping a respectable distance, “Are you ok? May I approach?”
• Two of the guards crawled out from under the wagon, crossbows drawn, and circled looking for any more hobgoblins
• The obvious teamster and head of the group crawled out and held out his hand, “Thank you, my friends. That was close. Álvaro.”
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• The last guard, the only one wearing a cloak and hood, shuffled over to the overturned crate and started hastily, but reverently, scooping the jewelry back into the box. He muttered something under his breath.
• Aegar introduced himself and Álvaro pointed out his crew
  • Baines
    • 
  • Dorian
    • 
  • Dretris
    • 
• None of the crew looked hurt.
• Aegar, Álvaro and his crew started packing up to get the carts back on track to rejoin the caravan and the relative safety in numbers, while Zoyana started looting the bodies of the hobgoblins. She took quite the haul.
  • Hobgoblins (4):
    • 2 Tattered Longsworda (15 sp)
    • 3 Tattered Longbow (5 gp)
    • 4 Tattered Chain Mail (75 sp)
    • 1 Tattered Shield (with painted worg head) (1 gp)
    • 19 cp
    • 19 sp
    • 13 sp
    • 7 gp
    • 4 food pouches (stale bread, cheese)
  • Hobgoblin Captain (2):
    • 2 Tattered Greatsword (5 gp)
    • 5 Tattered Javelins (5 cp)
    • 1 Tattered Half Plate (75 gp)
    • 18 cp
    • 21 cp
  • Hobgoblin Warlord (1):
    • 1 Tattered Longsword (15 sp)
    • 2 Tattered Javelins (5 cp)
    • 1 Tattered Plate (150 gp)
    • 1 Tattered Shield (with painted worg head) (1 gp)
    • bandoleer pouch 27 sp, 6 gp
    • Wolf pelt (5 gp)
• Baines and Dorian kept their crossbows ready as they went searching for their errant horse. By the time they were back, the rest of the group had finished their business and had a short rest so were ready on their way.
• It was clear to Aegar (Insight 20) that the hobgoblins had waylaid the wagon by shooting one of the horses. The other horse had bolted and the commotion knocked a number of crates from the cart. The crew were smart and fast enough to pull some of the crates in for cover. The humans weren’t hurt, but they also had no means to escape, and it looked like the hobgoblins were shooting arrows at them to hold them down, and waiting until the cover of night to attack and take the cart. These hobgoblins were organized, and were likely part of a larger band of at least 50. So haste was probably wise.
  • Once she was finished with her looting, Zoyana wholeheartedly agreed.
• Aegar jumped on his horse Parthana and went to gather Timothy Dexter.
• The pair of wagons, pulled by one less horse than normal, made their slow way toward the caravan’s resting place that night.

Back with the Caravan

• Once they reached the caravan, the party split up to spread the word about their hobgoblin experience.

Incessant Rain

• The next day it began to rain. That light, incessant rain that occasionally comes down in sheets, but otherwise it’s just a consistent sprinkle, almost like fog.
• That night, it turned into pounding pounding rain with thunder booming across the sky.

Healing Potions and Cleansing Rituals

• During the day’s travel, Zoyana brewed a pair of healing potions.
  • She used the bandoleer from the hobgoblin warlord to allow Fang to wear them, ready to administer in a fight.
• Zoyana also took the time to clean and cleanse the wolf pelt, burning sage and the like.

Searching for Armorers Tools

• Aegar spent the downtime of the day chatting with the other guards, both to try to find the means to maintain or repair his armor (shine, polish, or the like), and to get a feeling for the guards to sus out any who might be working for the Cult of the Dragon.
• Aegar’s friendly demeanor ran up against the log slot and cold, incessant rain (Persuasion 12 after Channel Divinity), but he did manage to confirm that the few wagons that came from the Foxtraveler Outfitters in Baldur’s Gate tended to keep themselves together and apart from the rest of the caravan. (While most of the other wagons had taken on passengers in the slog, each of those rebuffed any requests)
• Aegar did manage to crack a conversation with one of the teamsters leading one of the presumed Cultist’s wagons: Samardag the Hoper.
  • 
  • As Aegar introduced himself and Samardag replied with his name, the other guards, in unison, completed his name with “…the Hoper”
  • Samardag was in great spirits, considering this trip, like every trip, as “the best trip ever”.
  • Aegar: “My day is going well. It is a little difficult to traverse the rain, but it is a welcome relief.”
  • Samardag: “The rain brings life. It washes away the mess. So tomorrow will be a great day.”
  • Aegar inquired about steel polish or leatherworking tools, anything to help repair and keep his armor in good shape.
  • Samardag: “I’m afraid not. We’re traveling a little… fragile on this trip. We got… got a load of porcelain. We don’t want to don’t touch anything. But you know, this being such a fine road, it’ll be fine. But nope, we’re not traveling a blacksmith this trip.”
• Samardag then pointed Aegar to another one of the wagons out of the Foxtraveler Outfitters and it’s teamster, Enom Tobun:
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• Enom looked Aegar up and down as he approached, and waited.
  • Aegar made the same inquiry for blacksmith’s tools and sundries to keep his armor from disrepair.
  • Enom reached over to a fine-looking toolbox, that he opened up to show an assortment of serviceable tools: “These I got from the dwarven mines. These were a special gift. They’ll do you proud.”. And he started telling a story of how he went into the underdark one time and helped out some dwarven miners. And they gave him this great gift of these tools.
    • Aegar felt a sudden sense of comraderie with the other guards in the cart (Insight 15): Enom was full of shit.
  • While Enom continued his glowing tale of being there to see fantastical happenings, Aegar glanced around to see that the wagon was filled with nondescript boxes, not unlike the ones in the wagon attacked by the hobgoblins.
    • Something in the similarity and the fact that this cart was from the Foxtraveler Outfitters clicked in Aegar’s mind, and suddenly the jewels that had spilled out onto the road led to the realization that jewels and treasure were stolen from Greenest, and that is what a dragon would want if it were holed up somewhere.
    • Instead of sharing his insights out loud, Aegar prompted more tales, “It sounds like you are quite the adventure, sir.”
    • Enom: “Well, another day I’ll tell you about you know my time with the giants…”
    • Aegar: “The giants? I do not believe I have ever met a giant. I heard they were really myth.”
    • Enom looked aghast, “Are you… touched in the head, sir? 50 feet tall they are. When they walk, the ground shakes. And make the finest mead a man can swim in. Well, a halfling.”
    • Aegar: “That is quite a tale. I hope to never cross one I suppose.”
    • Enom: “I won a game of dice against a frost giant once. And then I got to swim. He set his teacup down, filled it with mead. I went swimming. It was quite grand.”
  • Aegar then inquired about the toolbox. They haggled, and settled on 160 gold pieces for the toolbox that was definitely worth at least 5 sp.

Other Merchants

• Aegar ended talking to Lai Angesstun, a male Gold Dwarf Merchant, and a few other merchants from the caravan, who were generally surviving the weather and the travel.
  • 

Rumors

• Pliny spent a good part of that night spreading rumors around the camp about finding the signet ring, that he had seen someone lurking in the shadows with an animal right before.
• Pliny strategically placed himself and then asked the crowd, “Does anyone recognize this ring I found? It has a Griffon on it.”
• Ordate Hudward had his back to Pliny, and turned when he heard mention of the griffon, “Hey! That’s mine!”, and he tried to snatch it out of Pliny’s hand.
• Pliny returned it quickly and without trouble, “Oh sorry, I found it. When we were journeying, I saw something unusual, and when I got over there, I saw it. But here you go, I hope you enjoy.”
• Ordate: “Unusual?”
• Pliny: “Nothing friend. Your secret’s safe with me.” And then he walked off.
• Ordate turned to others in the crowd, “What secret is he talking about?”

Stealing silks

• Pliny, using his invisible Mage Hand, stole a handful of silks from Nyerhite Verther’s wagon (Stealth 25, Slight of Hand 21).
  • The swatch he pulled away was included a small cluster of grubs.
• As he walked back to their wagon, Pliny examined his handful. They definitely didn’t look like what he expected silkworms to look like.
• Once back at the wagon, Pliny shared his hijinks with Ordate, Aegar shared his insights about the jewelry and the wagon, and Pliny shared his silken prize.
• Aegar, with his worldly experience, recognized immediately that the grubs were not the spider-like bugs that made silk, and were instead moth larvae that had a habit of eating fabrics and clothes.
• They had a long conversation about why Timothy Dexter might have thought them silkworms and what they might do about it.

Drinking and business building

• Pliny took Timothy Dexter for a walk to Beyd Sechepol’s Sag Wagon.
  
• Beyd Sechepol was a half-elf that rather than taking trade between the cities, made his money along the route.
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  • At each stop, he opened his cart to reveal a number of taps for ale and mead, as well as several traveling tables and seats.
• Over a series of drinks and shots of Elven Battle Spirit, Pliny divined that Timothy Dexter really believed that the grubs were silkworms and that he was not a member of the Cult of the Dragon, and then got Timothy excited about the prospect of wrapping their cheese in silk.

Planning

• The party discussed, in vague terms, what to do next: follow the wagons, find Rezmir, report back to Leosin and Ontharr Frume
• Just to be sure, Zoyana tried to Locate Object on a nearby dragon egg, but found nothing.
• Aegar pulled an oilcloth, and spent his downtime polishing the shit out of his armor to keep it from rusting. By the end, he was sure that his armor would be safe for the next few days at least.
• Pliny’s Unseen Servant spent the day looking around the caravan for anything weird.
• The daylight hours passed uneventfully.

Silks and cheese

• At camp, Timothy Dexter got up from dinner, nodded to Pliny, and walked away.
  • Aegar and Pliny followed at a distance all the way to Nyerhite Verther’s wagon.
• Losvius Longnose spotted Aegar as he got closer, “You guys kill any new hobgoblins today?”
  • In between questions from Losvius, Aegar and Pliny overheard some of the conversation:
    • Nyerhite: “What kind of deal did you have in mind?”
    • Timothy: “What are you asking?”
    • Losvius: “Well, what about tomorrow, do you think we’re going to find anything cool? We’re only a couple days from the Troll Claws. Do you think we’ll see any trolls? I hope not to. Well, I hope we see some like far away, because it’d be cool to see some trolls. You look big, you could take a troll, couldn’t you?”
    • “…”
    • Nyerhite: “I got a good deal for them in Baldur’s Gate. 25 would make me whole.”
    • Timothy grumbled a bit. He pulled out a purse that jingled with coins, and handed it over. And then pulled out a second purse that the party just barely caught a glimpse of it containing gems.
    • Nyerhite opened the purse and his eyes got wide, and then he nodded, “We can do that…”
• Timothy Dexter turned to leave and saw the party, “Woah, hello there.”
  • Aegar: “Good evening Senator.”
    • Every time Timothy Dexter is addressed as “Senator”, he perked up a little bit.
  • Timothy: “Good evening Aegar. How goes your evening?”
  • Aegar: “Well, thank you. And yours?”
  • Timothy: “Quite well. Your friend Pliny is quite the businessman. I really can see his entrepreneurial spirit.”
  • Aegar: “I knew that he was a man of many talents. I was not aware that business was one of them.”
  • Timothy: “On his suggestion, I just doubled our load. Silks. Some of them for Pliny’s cheese idea.”
  • Zoyana: “Another cart for us to protect?”
  • Timothy: “Yes. I mean, it has a couple guards coming with it and a teamster driver. I don’t know what Nyerhite’s going to do. I didn’t ask him that. Maybe I’ll charge him rent.”
  • Pliny: “Senator, do you think that we might charge some rent?”
  • Timothy: “Well, if you can protect me. And protect the cart. And you have extra time. Then I’m all right with that”
  • Pliny: “We opened this cheese business, sir.”
  • Timothy: “That’s fair. Which reminds me, we need to split up the profits from those hobgoblins. What was it that we took?” And let’s say 5% for you on the silk. So that is 1,250 gold if you could. And you get your 5%."
  • Pliny: “I think we’ll call it even, sir, thank you.”
  • Timothy: “I thought we were in this together.”
  • Pliny: “I thought we were too, but I didn’t you in the battle, so we’ll talk about it tomorrow. Let me, let me think if I think that’s a fair deal to you.”
  • Timothy: “Tomorrow. With new light, we’ll inspect our silk and make a plan.”
  • Aegar: “You bought the Silk without inspecting it?”
  • Timothy: “Well, I saw it the other day. It’s silk. We can always find a use for silk.”

Investigating the silks

• Pliny (Investigation nat 20) checked out the silk that night. It was definitely being eaten by worms, though it was obviously not a complete loss.

Cinterpetals

• Along the road, Zoyana (Survival 25) finally found what she had been searching for: Cinterpetals to help the development of her amulet.
  • Where everything else was sagging in the wet, the cinterpetal was the kind of sturdy plant that sat there and let the water flow off it, showing it’s open flower to the rainy sky.

Inspecting the crates

• The next day, Timothy Dexter went to inspect his crates. And realized what has happened. He stayed in a surprisingly good mood as he headed back to the party.
  • Timothy to the group: “Do any of you know how to handle a bit of an infestation? It looks like we have some some bugs in one of our shipments, and should probably take care of that.”
  • Aegar: “In which cheese shipment?”
  • Timothy: “In the silks. The silks, Aegar. Our silks are turning to moths. I would rather have them stay silks. Anybody have any solutions for that? Pliny? Are there any songs that would make bugs go away?”
  • Pliny tried to renegotiate the deal, but Timothy Dexter seemed pretty confident in his investment. He stood firm at 1,200 gold for 5%.
  • Zoyana stepped up and cast Conjure Animals, bringing forth a family of meerkats (Spell check 24). The meerkats swarmed the cart, dodging over, under, and in the bolts of silk, munching away.
    • 
    • By the time the spell faded, the moths were probably not all gone, but the ongoing damage was stopped. Zoyana knew she would probably need to cast that again at some point, but the spread and damage was stopped the spread of the things.
  • Timothy Dexter was very happy. He reached into his pouch and tossed Zoyana a diamond (100 gp), “Keep it up, and there’s more where that came from.”

Day 12: Cinterpetal poltice

• As with the previous days, it misted during the day, and then each night the boom of thunder and sheets of heavy rain along with strange whistling sounds on the wind, before letting up in the morning.
• Zoyana spent the day processing her Cinterpetals, drying and then burning them them with Produce Flame into an incense that she then mixed into the poultice around her amulet. This strengthened and accelerated the enchantment of her amulet.

Day 13: Fungus Humongous and Magical Crafting

Day 14: Dragon Sighting

• As the caravan moved closer to the Trollclaws, the party found themselves at the front of the caravan with Álvaro’s wagon. The road was entering rolling hills that turned into mountains up ahead.
• Looking out across the hills, the whole party’s attention was drawn to movement, and atop an outcrop climbed a red dragon.
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• It stretched its wings, reached up, and took flight. They were= too far to actually hear the beating of its wings, but they could swear they could hear the woosh, woosh, woosh as it climbed into the air.
• Dretris, one of the guards, looked out with rapt attention. Zoyana and Pliny heard him and a couple of the others whisper under their breaths, “Blas Iwan”, and reached out their hands, arms outstretched, fingers wiggling.
• The session ended as the dragon banked and headed to the North and the Trollclaws.