Storm King’s Thunder: Session 24. The Return to Triboar

10^th-11^th Alturiak 1458DR

And so the Gilded Griffons found themselves in front of the Lord Protector’s tower in the main square of Triboar, which they had left 2 and a half tendays ago after leading the townsfolk in a desperate defence of the town from an army of orcs and Fire giants. It became immediately apparent that a lot had happened since they had left as to the south west of the square was a busy camp of tents and carts. Sad and dishevelled people shuffled around listlessly. Around the town a hastily constructed wooden palisade had been constructed as well as some additional houses (surprisngly quickly).

To find their bearings they went to their home of the Applegate Manor and met with their dwarven servant Kazrik, who they found tending their new garden. He was pleased to see them, showed them the garden they had commissioned (and enchanted) and the numerous fruits, vegetables and herbs. He said he would set out their rooms for them, food and debrief them as to recent happenings. He also informed them there was a visitor waiting for them. Heading inside they found a female dragonborn sitting at the dining table. She had rose-gold scales and a vibrantly coloured dress and appeared to be writing a song with a lute. She introduced herself as Talyra Swiftscale: performer and songstress who had come to find out more about their story so she could spread the tales of their deeds far and wide.

They shared some of the details of their journey so far:

• Amadeous and his “friends” left on a journey to find the one true path

• Darius was very brave and had a lot of backbone

• Korrak was looking for no-strings-attached fun

• Maganose was dying

• Carlan spoke to plants and goatmen, including the Lord of the Fey Hyrsam

• Fenris was their agent and wanted to vet any publications before release

Equipped with these details she said goodbye was determined that the world would learn more about the heroes behind the Gilded Griffons. Kazrik served food and informed them that so far, the trading he was conducting on their behalf had resulted in a profit of 150gp, with the garden producing 50 portions of travelling rations and he had managed to distil 2 healing potions from the medicinal herb garden. They had also recieved a letter with a purse of gold. The letter was from Marra “Goldfeather” Thann, the proprietor of the Gilded Griffon Emporium in Waterdeep. She was excited to inform them that she had seen a surge in business since the start of their sponsorship and had sent 500GP as further support: to be used as they wished. When asked about the recent changes in Triboar, Kazrik explained that refugees from the surrounding villages and hamlets had flooded in since the giants had attacked, seeking shelter in the town. Darathra had ordered the construction of a rough palisade to try and protect the town from further attack.

After lunch they head to the Lord Protector’s tower and found Darathra Shendrel standing over a map of the town and planning siting of new wells with two workmen. She was pleased to see them and explained the recent flood of refugees from the nearby countryside and they had problems with food and water. If they wanted to help there was a problem with a giant occupying a tower on the Evermoor way: travellers and merchants were being scared away by the creature. There were also two of their “colleagues” who had arrived a ten-day ago who wanted to speak to them. They were in the Triboar arms. Darius offered the 50 rations to Triboar for the refugees and that several of them would board refugees in their rooms in the Applegate Manor. Darius, Carlan, and Fenris offered, with Amadeous agreeing under the terms of his room having the sign “HOUSE OF LILITH”). She was very grateful and he assured her that they would sort out the giant and meet with the Harpers.

Heading first to the Triboar Arms, they found the taproom busy and saw two people sitting in a corner that they didn’t recognise: a tired-looking woman wearing long blue robes picking through her food and a greasy looking man dressed in leather smoking a cigar and drinking whisky. Fenris and the others went over and introduced themselves, identifying themselves as Harpers with a handsign. She said her name was Yue Ling and her colleague was Rikard Blacklake and asked for a brief of their adventures since Everlund.They told her about the plan to head to the Eye of the All-Father and Rikard balked, frustrated at not understanding why the Harpers needed them. He made several wild boasts of his heroism in the Harpers They retorted that they were on their way to sort out a giant right now and he could come with them if he needed to see how how a real hero acts. Yue Ling informed them that she had been instructed to add Triboar to the Harper teleportation network and had began the year-long process of repeatedly casting Teleportation Circle here that would lead to a permanent circle but it was usable now. In the mean time she had also been helping the townsfolk with construction, which explained how some new houses had already been built.

They left Triboar and head east down the Evermoor Way. After 5 miles of walking they saw a stone tower in the distance: an ancient crumbling roofless structure. When they got close they saw the only entrance at ground level had been blocked with an enormous boulder and they heard a terrible droning dirge emerging from the tower: a low groaning noise that sounded like it came from something huge and awful. Carlan sent her imp in to scout out the tower and inside she saw the ground floor was covered in rubble and detritis: stones, pots, pans and a few old coins. On the first floor was a huge filthy sack filled with some unknown items. On the ruin of the second floor she was taken aback by the sight of a huge female hill giant that seemed to be crying and singing to herself. Carlan briefed the rest of the party on what she had seen and Amadeous took it upon himself to scale the walls with his Slippers of Spider Climbing and sneak inside. The giant seemed quite absorbed in her sad song so he rifled through the sack and found food and various trinkets. He then called out to her in Jotun, introduced himself as “Darius” and asked why she was so sad. She was taken aback but he managed to calm her down and convince her that he came as a friend. She said her name was Moog and she was sad because she had been made to leave her home of Grudd Haug to the south after she didn’t want to marry Chief Guh as she was already married and her husband was too scared to stand up against the chief. Now she was hungry and away from home with no friends. Amadeous said he was a friend and she should come with him and he would look after her. He suggested to the rest of the party that they take her back to Triboar to help defend it but the others felt it wasn’t wise as they were already short of food and Hill giants were incredibly unpredictable. They convinced Moog that there were more friends and food to be found further east down the road. They waved to her as they watched her lumber down the road while Maganose decided to pick through the rubble in the tower for anything salvageable. He was lucky and found a small chest under a floor tile holding 300 silver pieces and a small Figurine of Wondrous Power of a Silver Raven, By now it was late and they decided to head back to Triboar, realising during the walk that they had sent Moog in the direction of Yartar...

They went back to the Applegate Manor and slept, although many of them not in their rooms as they were already occupied by refugees. In the morning they took breakfast over the (now very crowded) dining table and head back to the Lord Protectors Tower, planning to leave via the teleportation circle to Waterdeep. Before they left they reported to Darathra that they had solved the problem of the giant in the tower, which she was grateful for. Darius then blurted out that he had a crush on her and couldn’t stop thinking about her. She was a little taken aback but then said that despite Darius’ delivery needing a bit of work she was actually very flattered and would give it some thought. They head into the cellar and stepped through the teleportation circle, aiming towards Waterdeep.

The world shifted and turned white. They found themselves in a cramped stone space and quickly remembered that the circle here lay in a crypt. Saying the password “Myrna” they heard scraping and saw light enter the room as the Shield Guardian outside opened the doorway. Stepping outside they repeated the password and the door was closed. They were back in the City of the Dead in the eastern region of the city. Walking through the many gardens they head to the Castle District to find the Gilded Griffon Emporium. It seemed very busy and they were eager to offload some of their unwanted equipment and take advantage of their discount. Marra was very pleased to see them and Fenris convinced her to give an additional 5% discount today if they did more publicity work instore. Realising the exextraordinary value of the Potion of Supreme Healing, they sold it and bought themselves additional equipment, including Cloaks of Protection, magical weapons, Flying Sandals for Maganose and an Amulet of Health for Darius.

After many hours of signing customer’s equipment and other publicity work, the hour grew late and they decided to seek out Harshnag. Darius knew that Harshnag was known to live in a cave on the seaward-facing side of Mount Waterdeep. They walked west through castle district and the cobbled streets soon lead to a rough path up the side of the mountain. They scaled the rough side of the mountain in the dim light and eventually found a large cave with huge footprints outside and could the flame of a huge cooking fire in the cave. Fenris called out in Jotun and Harshnag stepped out. He was pleased to see them and invited them in. They explained that they had found the location of the Eye of the All-Father but needed a giant to open the door. He said he would be happy to come with them but asked how they would get there. They explained the teleportation network and the plan to travel to Mirabar, from where they would cross the Spine of the World mountains to get to the temple. He was concerned: he may not fit in wherever the teleportation circle lead to and Mirabar was a fortress-city. He would be attacked on sight by angry dwarves and while he was never afraid to fight he didn’t see the sense in dying needlessly. They settled on the plan of Maganose using Polymorph to change Harshnag into an eagle, teleporting to Mirabar and then Harshnag could fly out of the city and meet them outside.

The plan was set and they planned to leave in the morning.