Chapter 13: Ne Plus Ultra
The two party-parts met up in Targos at a dive bar called The Trip and Shuffle, Gumri and Tru fresh from wrecking havoc at Shivergrim Peak, and Dusty and Chizzich fresh from the wreck of the Id Ascendant. Chizzich noted immediately that Gumri possessed the Psi Crystal that the Illithid device was tracking. Invited first by the thief Dally, a comrade of Tru's, and then by the wizard Vellyne Harpell, who Chizzich met in the Sunblight Fortress prison, they went upstairs to find a gathering of Arcane Brotherhood wizards and their merc recruits. Avarice of the Black Swords was there, and Gumri fell in love immediately while Tru, as a spider, camped in her braid.
The purpose of the meeting was to plan a heist. Vellyne Harpell revealed that years ago an adventuring party found a way under the glacier and into the lost Netherese city of Ythryn. This party included the druid Iraser Flameroot (Tru's bio dad), the rogue Jarlaxle (famous drow merc), the wizard Idrisial Ilbaros (currently in Lonelywood researching chwingas) and Kar Darch, a reghedman who reportedly went off to fight the white dragon Arveiaturace, who lairs in a shipwreck off the coast northwest of Bremen. They brought back a treasure from Ythryn, something to unlock the city's power, which they entombed in a vault under Flameroot Manor, and sealed with a lock that requires six keys. They scattered the keys for safety and the Arcane Brotherhood is currently seeking those keys, to retrieve the treasure. One key Vellyne already had, from Sunblight. One was with the Zhentarim. Two were inherited by the Flameroot sons, Erdor and Nerdor, one potentially belonged to Kar Darch, and one other was unknown.
Also in the room were Dzaan, a wizard of the Arcane Brotherhood, accompanied by his wight bodyguard Krintass, several drow mercs of the Bregan D'Arthe, a gnome called Ernie Flowerdew that Avarice sent to Easthaven to investigate the Zhents there, an elf called Aerith Sarynor who is headed to Lonelywood to investigate the Zhents there (Tru tipped her off about Jinxer Dune, and in return she shared her suspicion that the local noble Starrister was "not a man" and "here for the long night"), and an older gnome. Vellyne also referred to Ness Lantomir, the fourth Arcane Brotherhood comrade, who stole her research.
Dusty played up to the drow called Valryn, Darkness on Wings. Ziusudra al Anzu arrived, hunting Dzaan, from an adventure in a broken and half-buried spire of Ythryn, where he assisted a simulacrum of Dzaan in becoming real, using Netherese magic, and acquired the control amulet of a shield guardian. Steuwardt Pooit arrived, brother of Avarice, and now her Black Swords ally and fellow warlock of Levistus. Gumri got banished to Avarice's time-out plane, where he met Fred. The party, having taken on the task of retrieving keys from the Flameroot brothers, then shared lunch and backstories at the Yondalla convent, Harvest Home, where the nuns nursed Tru's dying mother, Elme Frostblossom.
After lunch and plotting, Gumri went to visit Sister Arbene in the chapel, where he met Amy Brown and learned of a shrine to Auril called "Winter's Breath," about 2 miles west of town on the way to Bremen. An arch with four big stones around it, where people leave offerings. He also learned the second name of ice: Andur, the mind of ice (he knows Hleid is the heart of ice). Chizzich and Ziusudra helped the nuns dispatch two Blackcoats who had been bothering Sister Mildredora. Tru and Stew and Avarice collided in the goat shed, where Avarice and Stew hugged it out. Tru gave Avarice a finger bone of Ravisin and also info on Auril's association with the Queen of Air and Darkness. In return, she learned that the bull symbol used by Dusty's captors was associated with Geryon the Usurper. Tru met Amy Brown in the chapel, and learned that her bosses, the Manclens, were trying to get passage on a ship leaving from Revel's End, a Lords Alliance prison.
Stew and Gumri went to the Luskan Arms and met Captain Skath (speaker's right hand), Giandro Holfast (master shipwright, former speaker) and the Flameroot boys, where Erdor (ring name: "Ne Plus Ultra") was carbing up for the night's fight with Hin bruhs Ceorl Dinks, Jan Henroost, and Carrel Button, a reedy little hanger-on. Gumri-as-owlface suggested Auril is displeased with Speaker Naerth Maxildannarr. Stew offered his sword services to Holfast and Skath, who told him there's a white dragon about, and there might be need for an escort to Revel's End, if they can get another day of sun. Gumri-without-owlface pressured Berti Mellons to set up a meeting for him with Ne Plus Ultra before the fight. Berti reveals that since Graendl disappeared, Tap-Tap has been running the Gauntlet, and the "no magic" rules have relaxed somewhat.
In the House of the Triad, Tru, Chizzich, and Ziusudra met three young priests who were plotting to summon a planetar to join the rebellion against Auril, and kill her roc. Their names were Micah, Caritas, and Simon, serving Tyr, Ilmator, and Torm. Ziusudra remembered a planetar servant of Tyr named Resounding Justice, who might be easier to summon than others, through the Rime. The young priests need the party's help with the spell, and after an awkward meeting with Mishonn and his enlarged duergar bodyguards in which they invited him to a ritual at the shrine, they agreed to a plan to combine the summoning magic with the elimination of Mishonn.
In the Wolf's Pelt, Dusty taught April Toribou some rudimentary magic, and met Dirk Breeze, the foreign challenger for tonight's fight, along with his ring girls and merch sellers. Dusty offers the idea that Dirk should remove a magic key from his opponent's neck and toss it away.
Back at the goat shed, Gumri and Stew set about fixing the roof, when they noticed one of the speaker's flying snakes, an ice wyrm paired to the one the party had killed in Easthaven. During the ensuing fight, Sorry's mother Hilde emerged from hiding to heal her child, revealing that she was a cleric, and also infected with the icy enchantment that makes Coldlight Walkers in Auril's service. After they shattered the ice wyrm, Gumri's chwinga reanimated it with a message for the speaker: Giandro Holfast is a traitor. Chizzich joined them.
Tru, Dusty, and Ziusudra went up the hill to the Flameroot Manor, where Dusty knocked on the front door, Tru entered by the kitchen, and Ziusudra scouted around the back.
Post # | Summary
1-33 | Meeting at The Trip and Shuffle (on RPGX)
1-27 | Meeting aftermath at The Trip and Shuffle
28-43 | Lunch at Harvest Home
44-74 | Business in the Harvest Home Goat shed, Chapel, and Basement; Dusty at the Wolf's Pelt
75-115 | Luskan Arms, House of the Triad (meeting with rebels), Wolf's Pelt
116-152 | Goat shed, House of the Triad (meeting with Mishonn), Wolf's Pelt
153-166 | Goat shed, Flameroot Manor
