Session 36: The Escape From Bryn Shander

[T-Bone]

Cassius had been poisoned.

The Champions of the Last Hope, minus Alexi, stood at the Speaker of Bryn Shander's bedside, along with Cassius and Orrick the Grey after the maid led them there. The speaker, not a young man by any strech of the imagination, but not nearly as old as Harben or Reichart either, lay still. Gringa tried to remove the poison using a blessing of Berronar Truesilver, but the venom withstood the divine power. She was only able to stabilize him and buy him some time, though how long was impossible to say.

Xabian had heard of such a poison - brewed from a very specific breed of mushroom found only in the Underdark. It was resistant to all forms of magic, even the divine healing power of the Gods themselves, and the only known cure was an extremely rare panacea - a cure-all root native to the far off jungles of Chult. This revelation, while drawing many puzzled stares from his colleagues, certainly ruled out any possibility that Cassius's poisoning was accidental.

Ferrug, meanwhile, had been searching the room when he uncovered something - a crystal goblet had rolled under the bed, and a small amount of wine remained on the floor as well. The rest, it seemed, had been wiped up. No sooner had The Owl discovered this and shared it with the others than General Kemp stormed into the room with armed soldiers, demanding that the crime scene be cleared immediately and that all return to their rooms for questioning when the maid spoke up informing the general that all those present had been in the library and accounted for when Cassius was discovered.

Obviously upset that he could not blame this assassination attempt on the Champions of Last Hope, Kemp growled.. until the realization hit him that not all the heroes were accounted for. No one could vouch for Alexi's whereabouts when Cassius was poisoned and the soldiers were sent at once into the city streets to find the elf. After Kemp had left, Jensin, too, ran out into the night, seeking Alexi, instructing the other heroes to remain at Cassius's house, as Kemp's agents would no doubt be keeping a sharp eye on them regardless of their guilt or lack thereof, and they might inadvertantly lead Kemp to Alexi.

Shortly after they returned to Firestar's room to discuss all that had happened, they were interrupted by a soft scratching at the door. Ferrug opened it to find a small, white cat which upon further examination had a small note under it's collar that read "Come to the Cellar in two hours time - O."

At the appointed time, the Champions of the Last Hope crept through the dimly-lit halls of Cassius's estate and made their way down into the basement where Orrick the Grey, Elytharra, Jensin Brent and Garmond awaited them. Jensin's attempt to find Alexi first had failed and Firestar's love had been taken and arrested for questioning by Kemp's men. Furthermore, as Elytharra shared, Bryn Shander law dictated that in the event that the Speaker was unable to fulfill his duties for any reason, his seat was automatically filled by the commander of the Bryn Shander militia - General Kemp. Martial Law had been instituted on the city almost immediately after Kemp had assumed Cassius's seat, giving him the tie-breaking vote.

Orrick spoke up. With the city being locked down, the only way to get the Champions of the Last Hope out of the city would be to sneak them out of the city. But first, they would have to decide where they were going. Jensin Brent, who's rock-solid alibi cleared him of any suspicion in Cassius's poisoning, and his position as speaker would allow him a little more free reign to move about the city than the others would have. He would leave the city with the runners bound for Redwaters to find the Earth Stone Fragment at Dougan's Hole and return to Bryn Shander once he had it, leaving the other two fragments to be found by the heroes.

After some deliberation, the heroes decided to go to the Dragon's Eye volcano, thinking that to be the resting place of the Fire Fragment of Vaarnor's stone. Elytharra and Garmond, meanwhile, would have to remain in Bryn Shander to endure Kemp's questioning while Orrick would work on uncovering the identity of the real assassin while keeping Alexi, who had been imprisoned by Kemp, safe.

Jensin, who had been at Bryn Shander during the battle against Akar Kessel's forces, laid out the escape plan. He informed them that during that battle, the dwarves of Clan Battlehammer had dug many sturdy tunnels throughout the area that they used to burst out of the ground, taking Kessel's hordes by surprise. One such tunnel remained and had been hidden beneath the graveyard, under an empty sarcophagus in a small mauseleum. To get there without being spotted, however, meant that the Champions would have to navigate the city's dark sewers.

Garmond informed them that once clear of the tunnel, they would find themselves on The Fastway - the recently completed road running from Bryn Shander to Easthaven, his town. There they could gather whatever supplies would be available before crossing Lac Dinneshere and entering the Spine of the World. He suggested that they seek directions to the Dragon's Eye while in Easthaven, as likely someone there could point them in the best direction to avoid the recent Orc activity.

With all plans laid, the heroes snuck out of Cassius's Manor and made their way to the nearby block of houses and the sewer entrance behind them. The sewers were dark and old and filled with spiders of frightful size, ranging from the size of a man's head to huge spiders the size of many men standing head to foot. After battling through dozens and dozens of the eight-legged denizens, they emerged near Redwaters Gate, just south of the cemetary.

They found the small, unremarkable mauseleum easily enough, and once inside, Xabian and Kebur pushed aside the empty sarcophagus, revealing a stone trap door beneath. One by one, they slid down into the darkness.

Once in the narrow, short, twisting tunnel, they discovered that over the years it had sat unused, it had become home to a quartet of large, hungry Bulettes. After a brief but bloody battle against the hulking land-sharks, the Champions of the Last Hope felt the cool breeze of the outside world blowing toward them, as the light of dawn shone through the exit of the dwarven tunnel.

GM NOTES:
I think I remembered everything... everything of import, anyway. Mareth certainly makes a nice addition to the group and they'll need him with the departure of Alexi and (soon) Sami. Off to Easthaven we go!