The Campaign (inlcuding summaries)

General Obryn is personally thanking every squad that helped during the war. The Story begins with officer Randall Tallstag in the general's office receiving his gratitude and new orders as well.

The assignment entails the finding of a nobleman by the name of Evendur Altheas Amblecrown III. This man is apparently well liked amongst the higher-ups of Waterdeep. Very little is known of his disappearance. The only information Obryn has is the location of his residence, the Moonstar villa. Obryn reminds Tallstag the longer it takes to find this man, the less likely it is he is still alive.

Sergeant Tallstag, and his team: Morn ignacious Addlecrown, Throsarque Bannitharn, Varillion Laae and Mari set of to interview the wife, Lureene Amblecrown.

Lureene Amblercrown wasn’t of help much, she only knew that her husband had taken his horse and green cloak to meet an old friend. He told her that he’d be back in a couple of hours. It has been over two days already and he’s still missing.

After some investigation the party discovers that Evendur Amblecrown had not met up with somebody in Waterdeep, because he apparently left the city.

Getting geared up, the city guard squad starting after Evendur’s trail. Because of the weather conditions it took a while before Throsarque’s climbdog caught Amblecrown’s scent. Only to be interrupted by two undead creatures that were easily defeated. The climbdog’s nose took the party to a crevice, just a little of the path. Nearby the crevice lay a dead horse. It appeared to be Evendur’s horse.

This opening in the ground led to an underground dungeon. Inside, Sark’s climbdog continued to track the nobleman’s scent. Which led them to a large room. Quickly after the squad entered this room, obscuring mist appeared hiding anybody that could be inside. This did not deter Throsarque from entering the mist. He stumbled upon a mage that casted two rays of fire at him, knocking him out. The mage fled the room, however not before Varillion landed a hit with his magic missile.

In this room there lay a charred corpse, burned beyond recognition. There also was a prison cell, with a strong steal door and a small barred window. After the mage had gotten away, the prisoner appeared in front of this window, wanting to know what just happened.

While Morn was on the lookout, Randall and the others freed the prisoner.

The prisoner had lost his memory, however he had overheard two mages a little while ago (days, hours he couldn’t tell) about two individuals snooping around the dungeon. Apparently they recognized one of them, cause they called one a traitor. They attacked the two outside, however one managed to get away. They took the other and tortured him, probably with fire.

Randall decided that the prisoner was to be debriefed at Waterdeep. The prisoner, however, did not want to go to Waterdeep, but instead travel to Amphail village, in the opposite direction. Why, he could not tell. Mari convinced the prisoner that it be better to travel to Waterdeep where he could get a horse and a sword, which would speed up his journey to Amphail village.

Morn is the first outside again and retrieves the horses. He notices that the mage they encountered in the dungeon is fleeing the scene on a horse roughly a 100 feet away. Traveling due north east.

Returning to Waterdeep the party reported to their commanding officer, Khondar Bladebite. He would debrief the prisoner and have someone check on him because of his amnesia. Bladebite questioned the prisoner, and it appears he has really lost his memory. It would also appear that the two that were attacked are Evendur and his ‘old friend’. It is likely the one that got away had fled to Amphail village. The other, probably, being the fried corpse. It is decided that at first light next morning they party is to go to the dungeon again with a second group of city guards. The second group will investigate the corpse, to determine if it is Evendur, or somebody else. The party will continue to Amphail village.

Mari had taken care of a long sword, the former prisoner had requested.

At first light the party sets of again to the dungeon. Accompanying them are Yuiredd and Eurid. They arrive at the dungeon without being waylaid. They make their way to the room with the corpse. Right away Yuiredd notices it can’t be Evendur, because it was an elf. Throsarque’s climbdog tries to follow the trail again, however it leads to the corpse.

Yuiredd and Eurid take the corpse back to Waterdeep, to investigate it further and have someone attempt speak with dead. The rest continues the dungeon, where the direction the mage had run off to. Randall states is a waste of time and that they should hurry to Amphail village. The ex-prisoner agrees.

A couple of hours along the way the group encounters another group of adventurers. A human in breast plate carrying a sword, a halfling in a shiny chain-shirt carrying a hand crossbow and a fire genasi in fullplate carrying a spiked chain. The halfling seems ill-tempered the human tries to keep him inline. This group wants little to do with the passing city guard group.

Continuing towards Amphail village the party encounters several zombies. They would’ve been easily avoided, weren’t it for Throsarque, who decided he wanted to stay behind and slay them. They weren’t particularly strong. Throsarque easily took care of them.

The journey to Amphail village is a three day ride, so the end of the day the group sets up camp. Sark has first watch. During second watch, Mari notices a Ghast. Which was easily slain.

The next two days were pretty uneventful as the party reached Amphail village. Besides passing the previous group of adventurers again who seem to have continued travelling through the night.

The route from Waterdeep to Amphail didn’t have a great scenery. It was mostly plains and rocks. Here and there are a few bushes. Especially this time of the year it was quite grim and depressing. A couple of hours before Amphail village the first plots of trees appear. Nothing spectacular, no bright green woods or forests. When nearing Amphail village farms start to appear and more trees start to show.

As soon as you’ve passed through the village the trees and farms disappear quickly, leaving again grim, bleak and depressing plains and rocks and a muddy road.
Arriving in Amphail at the end of the day, the city guard group starts gathering information about a man with the description of Evendur. It isn’t a large town, some people know of a injured traveler, a couple of days ago, that had stayed in the inn for a couple of days. He disappeared one night, nobody has seen him leave. He wasn’t very talkative, so nobody knew where he was headed.

The prisoner that was in a hurry to get to this town does not know what to do next. He looks around trying to remember something, however he doesn’t.

Randall decides that they should meet with the leader of this town, lord warder Briiathor Alougarr. He is happy to see a city guard squad from Waterdeep. He explains that since the war, little patrols from Waterdeep have travelled to Amphail village. The lingering undead have been passing and destroying nearby farms. Amphail doesn’t have its own militia, so they are not really capable of defending themselves. The strongest man they have right now is a chultan lumberjack named Selu. He lives at the edge of town with his 12 year old daughter Sana.

The lord warder asks the city guard for their help to defend the town against the still remaining undead. He tells them to talk to Selu about this.

Arriving at his home, the party meets a 7’9” tall merry man (speaking in strong chultan accent), who challenges everybody to a fist fight. If you’re able to knock him down, you’ll earn one of his prized wooden figurines. Sark tries. Sark fails. Randall tries. Randall fails. Morn tries to scare him. Morn fails. Selu invites everybody for drinks and spend the night.

During the night, when everybody is asleep, the ex-prisoner gets up and leaves the cabin. Varillion, who had not been drinking, notices and decides to follow him. The man leaves Amphail village and wonders off the path and enters small cave about 30 minutes from the village. After he entered this cave, Varillion searches the vicinity for any evidence there are or have been other people here. He waits near the cave for the former prisoner to leave for about 15 minutes. Nothing happens, causing Varillion to turn back and report the others.

After about another 30 minutes, Varillion arrives back at Selu’s place, wakes the others and informs them of what had happened. The group decides to investigate the cave. This time by horse, the party arrives in about 15 minutes. They enter the cave and nothing except a longsword and a piece of cloth, which has an imprint that tells that something straight and long had been wrapped inside of it.

No other clues were left behind, so the group turns back to Selu’s place, who’s still sound asleep. Next morning everybody is treated to breakfast and coffee. While recovering from a long night. After an hour the lord warder, Briiathor Alougarr, and some other villagers arrive telling that the village is suffering from an undead attack at two sides. Nearby farms are being attacked.

Tallstag advices the Lord Alougarr to have someone round up the villagers and bring them here. While the Waterdhavian squad will take of the group of undead that posses the strongest threat. Meanwhile Selu will take care of the other side.

Arriving at the farm that is under attack the party notices three large skeletons. One of the skeleton enters a large stable and starts killing horses. The skeleton closest to the party is engaged in combat, which after landing a fierce blow to Varillion is tripped by Throsarque. The third skeleton, just exiting a small shack, notices the group as well and charges party.

Being overwhelmed by two large skeletons the group falls apart and lost two squad members, including the squad captain, who bravely fought for his party members. Even after one of the large skeletons was downed, the damage was done and the only thing left to do was run.

Morn, Throsarque and the unconscious Varillion reached Amphail village. Throsarque, the second in command and new team leader, asks for someone to take care of Varillion and tend for his wounds. Shorty after Selu returns from the other side of town, having defeated the undead threat there. He learns of what had happened and continues straight to the skeletons and retrieve his fallen friends. Morn and throsarque go with him. Selu takes care of the undead, not without getting badly hurt himself. (Later Selu reveals that the skeletons he had faced were much weaker.) The bodies of Randall Tallstag and Mari had been retrieved.
Back in the village Throsarque ask for someone to hurry to Waterdeep. Take the fastest horse they have and get backup. Meanwhile Throsarque, Morn and Varillion will use the passing days to recover.

Two and a half days later the runner arrives in Waterdeep and heads and reports straight to Khondar Bladebite. Shocked at first he quickly arranges some men he could spare. The brothers Bor and Sel Shemov have been informed and are ready to head to Amphail village.

Bladebite also has some new information about the mission. The charred corpse that had taken from the underground dungeon had been communicated with, using the spell speak with dead. Using this they have learned the dead elf was named Teaghen Calaudra. He met with Evendur Amblecrown several times in the Inn of the Dripping Dagger.

Investigation had further led to a man who recollected meetings between Teaghen and Evendur, or at least fitting the description of those men. He revealed, for the several generous donations, that they met several times. The last time had been a couple of days before the war began.

Meanwhile the adventures the party had encountered several days ago have reached Amphail village. The human, Halfling and fire genasi mostly stay at the inn and pretty much ignore everybody else.

Three days later the brothers Shemov arrive in Amphail village. Only being waylayed by a small group of skeletons. They catched up with the other party members and informed them about the information Bladebite had told them in Waterdeep.
Bor and Sel also met Selu and indulged him with a fist fight. Both lost, but did better the anyone expected.

Just an hour after they’ve arrived in Amphail village a man panicked, beaten and robbed man enters the village and calls for help. After he’s calmed down he explains he and his family came from ‘Golden fields’ and had been attacked just outside Amphail village. When he came to, his wife was missing. His son was injured to his legs, making it unable for him to walk. The man, Helm Buckman, knew he was close to Amphail village and decided he neede to get help quickly. He hid his son out of sight and hurried as fast as he could to the village. Which took him about an hour.

The newly formed party hurried to aid this man. After 30 min on horse, they reached the place Buckman family was attacked. Helm took his son and left for town, while the others searched for a sign of his wife and the bandits.

It didn’t take long before the crying of a woman revealed the location of the bandits. Taken a little by surprise the bandits were defeated. The last one panicked and tried his best to get away, but eventually surrendered after all hope of getting away was lost.

Among the defeated bandits, there was another survivor. The woman, Miri Buckman , had torn clothes and was covered in bruises. Sel helped this woman and healed her wounds. After the bandit loot and their belongings were gathered the group headed back to Amphail village.

Arriving at Amphail village, around noon, the party was greeted applause by many gathered villagers. The villagers were grateful for their brave actions risking their lives to help. The Lord warder Alougarr announced a feast for this small town’s recent heroes. Which went on till straight into the night.

Next morning decided to head back to Waterdeep, thinking they have little chance of finding Evendur out here. More clues about Evendur Altheas Amblecrown III or Teaghen Calaudra might still be found in the ‘Inn of the dripping dagger’.

Before the party heads back to Waterdeep, they share a sum of the bandit loot with Amphail village, that had lost many horses and farms in recent undead creature attacks.

Hardly a couple of minutes outside of Amphail village a strange sound was heard. Curious Bor Shemov got of his horse and went to investigate. A skeletal monkey suddenly jumped out of the crops and attacked him. Several more skeletal monkey’s followed. After a little while they had all been defeated and the party could move on to Waterdeep.

Before they could get on their horses, however, a Amphail villager came running to the Amphail village heroes and told something terrible had happened to Selu. He had been attacked, three bolts were sticking out of his back.

The party of cityguards hurries back and investigates. Selu appeared to have been struck with three relatively small bolts. Immediately the party suspects the Halfling of the adventuring group that is still staying in this town. That had poisoned Selu, who went knock-out. Someone notices that Sana is missing as well.
The groups heads back to the towns Inn, where the human and genasi are staying. They’re outside and seem to be wondering what the commotion is all about. The party asks where the Halfling is. They don’t know, and tell them they hadn’t seen him since last night.

Throsarque gathers up some villagers for a search party. Several minutes later they find someone who heard some notices from a nearby farm.

The Waterdhavian guards hurry to the location. They arrive at a barn. At the door they can hear some voices, including a sobbing girl. The groups storms in and attacks the Halfling, who had tried to rape the twelve year old Sana. First the halfing tries to defend himself by shooting his hand crossbow, however when he missed and noticed there was a large group after him he tried to escape. He was unsuccessful.

The two party members of the Halfling had arrived in the meantime. The human was aiming a Longbow at the party, the Fire Genasi was whirling his spiked chain. The human fighter wanted to know what was going on and what they were doing to the halfing. After the citygaurds explained what the Halfling had done, the human rolled his eyes and told the men from Waterdeep that they could with the Halfling as the pleased, that they were through with him.

The two turned around and were ready to leave. The genasi asked the human: “How long must we wait? It’s been two days already..”, to which the figher replied to the genasi, he named Ehput-ki; “Trust me, I know Evendur, he will be here…”

The party realized that they were useful to their mission and wanted to talk with them. The two thought different and told them to back off. The Waterdhavian city guards were going nowhere fast. Neither of the groups wanted to fight one another, however Throsarque couldn’t stop himself from engaging them in combat. Which resulted in a tough battle that nearly ended the life of Bor Shemov.

The human fighter and fire genasi cleric were indeed strong opponents, but with strength in numbers and no small amount of luck they were eventually defeated.

After recuperating a little from this battle they gathered the body’s and the unconscious Halfling and headed back to town. Sana could then be reunited with her still unconscious father.

Just after returning to Amphail village a man covered in blood comes running/stumbling into town. He is out of breath. His appearance matches that of the description the party has of Evendur Amblecrown.

The man entered the town looking around for something. Sel rushed toward him to aid him. The man ask for the whereabouts of an adventuring group that would be staying in the village. Sel explains that they’re dead. He seemed shocked and told the gathered city guard that ‘they’re coming, you must stop them’. The man looked worried, he told that it was undead that were headed this way. When asked for his name, he answered with: ‘Evendur Amblecrown’.

Shortly after several skeletal monkeys appeared and started running towards Amphail village. The group of City Guards quickly step in to take care of them. The monkeys notably did not attack the first target in sight. The fight didn’t last very long. During this fight Morn had managed to take control two of the monkey’s.

When most of the monkey’s had turned to dust, two other monsters appeared, identified as Ogre Zombies. They were quite tough to deal with, especially because the party had not been able to recover since the last fight. Throsarque got hit and knocked out with one blow. However, Sel quickly healed his wounds. Meanwhile Bor, who had been enlarged by Sel just as Throsarque was, charged the other Zombie and started grappling him. Which it did not escape from during the remainder of the fight. After this point the Waterdhavian party had everything under control. When Morn managed to panic the other Zombie, victory was as good as ensured.

After the fight was over the party asked Evendur if this was what he knew was coming. He explained there were more of them and they could be here at any moment. He remembered two undead creatures that stood out and a man in a dark cloak. Morn and Varillion noted that the cloak could be similar to one worn by the mage that the party encountered in the underground dungeon.

The enemy, however, did not appear after the monkey’s and ogre attack. Throsarque ordered some precautions. Like fire’s near all exits and entrances of the town and posted runners at these positions to inform the party in case something did happen. Meanwhile the party headed towards Selu’s to recover. Selu, was still unconscious when the party arrived. While resting Throsarque, occasionally made a round through the village to see everything was in order or something had happened.

After about eight hours - early in the evening, the sun about to go down, nothing had happened thus far in Amphail village. Selu had somewhat recovered form the poison. Throsarque decided to ask some questions to Evendur. Like how he was able to escape those undead with only some cuts and bruises, while he was knocked out with one blow from one of the ogres. He replied that it all happened really fast and that he was probably just lucky.

Throsarque figured that the captured Halfling might know more and maybe the time has come to question him.

Throsarque and Morn continue to question the Halfling. He is very pissed and doesn’t reveal much. He does, however, reveal that he and his team had been hired to wait in Amphail village to wait for Evendur there.

Afterwards Evendur is questioned again, and it is revealed that the Waterdhavian guards were send to find Evendur and bring him back. When asked what had happened, Evendur explains that he’d met up with an old friend he hadn’t seen for a long time outside of Waterdeep. His name was Teaghen Calaudra. Teaghen was late, so Evendur continued along the path. Shortly after they met, they were attacked. Teaghen did not survive this attack. Evendur fled to Amphail village. After he recuperated from the attack, he hurried to Golden Fields, saying that Teaghen had family there, and he wanted to inform his family. In Golden Fields he contacted Aeron, and his group to meet him in Amphail village an escort him back to Waterdeep, fearing the mage that had attacked Teaghen and him might still be there.

When asked why Evendur didn’t worn the villagers of Amphail there was a mage wondering about, he replied that he might’ve been in shock and he wanted to hurry and inform Teaghen’s family.

Night had fallen. The group had recovered Evendur and agreed to return to Waterdeep straight away. Even though Evendur had claimed there were more undead and a spell caster controlling them coming, which naturally did happen the moment the group got ready to leave.

Villagers on the watch sounded the alarm. Followed by a group of skeleton warriors strolling into town. Followed by two small, Halfling sized skeletons and a mage. The group of human skeletons quickly fell. Sark bull-rushed the spell caster, knocking him down. The two smaller skeletons , now flanking Sark, attacked the Elf. Morn managed to control of one of the Halfling skeletons, releasing one of the skeletal monkey’s from his command. Shortly after the mage and the other Halfling skeleton were defeated.

After the combat the party attempted to leave the town again. This time successfully. It was still late in the evening, so Sark decided to travel through the night. Next day the party rested and continued onward to Waterdeep. Halfway into the day, the group encountered a large wolverine. Which started to circle the group. Bor attempted to scare it away, after being enlarged by his brother. However he just made it more angry. Bor, not giving up, became louder and approached closer and closer. Until he was too close to the Wolverine and attacked Bor. Bor grappled it and dealt some damage. Making it more angry. The wolverine started to resist by clawing and biting, however, eventually the enlarged Bor’s strength proved greater than that of the large beast. The group continued to Waterdeep.

When the city of Waterdeep was in sight, Morn ordered his skeletons to start digging and buried his skeletons there. The group continued to Waterdeep.

At the North gate, the group arrived. A city guard confirmed that they were Tallstag’s group. The group was ordered to wait there and he left. After a couple of minutes he returned and told them to hurry to Castle Waterdeep. Their belongings would be watched over here. Two guards accompanied them to the Castle.

At the castle several Gray Hand enforcers were present and continued to escort the group and Evendur to a large chamber inside the castle. Some Gray Hand enforcers were already inside this room. Khondar Bladebite was there as well. After the group had entered the room, another man entered. He looked a man of high stature and dressed in expensive clothes.

He introduced himself as: Salazar Marivaldi. He claims that he directly works under Lord Piergeiron the Paladinson. There was no small talk. He told the group that the mission with Evendur and anything about him is over. If anything is revealed about this mission the person will be locked up indefinitely. Khondar, jumps up, and demands an explanation, saying that his men fought hard and bravely to return Evendur to Waterdeep. Two fine men were lost in the process!

Salazar orders him to be silent. Evendur walks up to Salazar and tells him that the group hardly knows anything. Salazar then agrees to let them go if everyone, individually, agrees not to mention anything of this mission ever again. Everyone agrees, however, Throsarque mentioned that there might be situations when they could be forced to talk. Salazar tells him he wants his word, otherwise he will not like the outcome. Salazar also mentions that they will be watched. The party is allowed to leave. Evendur stays behind. After leaving the room, Khondar comments that this whole thing stinks. He then tells the party that they can get there pay tomorrow morning with a little bonus. Also they can have next week off, because of the time spend on this mission.

The party continues to the North gate, where they had left their stuff. After lunch. Sorting out the loot and buying an Artificers Monocle to help identify the magical items. It has to be created, which will take about two days. After two days the remainder of the loot can be divided and sold.

In their free time Bor starts doing some sparring training, accompanied by his brother Sel. Morn goes home. Sark, interested in the practice of casting spells, accompanies Varillion to a house of knowledge where he can teach him some things.

As Varillion and Throsarque walk through the streets, they notice a bar brawl that had escalated outside. A large group of people were fighting. All of a sudden a man noticed Varillion and called out: “Hey! Little brother! I Knew you were here!”, and hits another brawler in the face as he rushed at Varillion’s brother. Meanwhile two city watchmen hurry to the location..

End of Arc 1.

To be continued.