Alastor Crossclaw – blogpost 23

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In the morning, Farryn apologizes for his behavior, but also that he didn’t like what I did as well.

I tell him that I’m devastated by the loss of Mohan. “I prayed last night to Selune. How am I a worthy paladin if I can’t even help my party members?! How am I going to find my grandparents? How do I even know they’re really in Undermountain? I’m acting on a hunch right now. Selune told me: ‘This is a path filled with darkness and death. This is not the rightful path for you. You need a path filled with hope and moonlight.” I say, gutted. The party looks at me, perplexed. “I’m going upstairs. Back to real moonlight, to clear our name, to help us get rid of Shars’ chains, and to find a solution to disbanding the contract for Patience.” I tell them. 

The party accepts, but all of us need to go upstairs. Farryn got a message from the Golden Cauldron mentioning that we have to come forward for questioning. Tindall apparently declared the Disruptors as a terrorist organization. 

Before we go up, Patience takes the stage: “As we’re being honest right now… Farryn, can you tell me what happened to Enola and Valentine Yarn?” 

Farryn tells the story about Enola and Valentine: they both betrayed the party. Valentine was always very difficult, and had it out for Farryn, and Enola always tried to make up for her sisters’ mistakes, but in the end fell prey to a horrible enemy. Valentine disappeared a couple of hours later, and the party never heard from her since. 

After this story, Farryn leaves no room for questions, and immediately asks the White Mage about his relationship with Hallaster. The White Mage slowly tells his story as well. I didn’t care for all the details, but I remember that the White Mage knew Hallaster when he wasn’t the Mad Mage of this dungeon yet. At some point, they had a row, and during that row, Hallaster has transformed the White Mage into a turtle. Many many years flew by, and he could transform into a Tortle (his current form) himself. Now, he wants to confront Hallaster in a way he couldn’t do before. He first wants to stop all apprentices and then stop Hallaster and make this dungeon less murderous. “I’m still the White Mage of Hilather, but Hilather himself was killed by Hallaster when he turned mad…” he ends his story. It’s quite tragic and I keep my mouth shut to ensure I don’t say anything that might hurt his feelings, or comes across as insensitive. 

Then, the creaky voice of Patience breaks the silence. “I never met Enola and Valentine, I’d like to, though.”

“How does that work? Do all tieflings know each other?” asks Farryn. “You seem quite emotional to say the least,” he adds. 

“Enola and Valentine Yarn are my grandchildren.”

I whistle silently under my breath. Farryn has said a couple of things about those girls that he might have said differently if he had known he was talking to their grandfather…

“Where you looking for them?” asks Farryn tentatively. 

“Yes. Family is important. I wanted to meet them.”

“I could take you to the place where Enola drew her last breath, but we cannot go at the moment because of the dead beholders.”

Patience says he’d like to go there some time. He tells us that he had a falling out with his daughter many years ago, and she’d left him. Later, he came to know she was pregnant with a guy named Yarn. 

“If you’d like to get to know more about Valentine,” I say, and hand over the sword Tearulai, “she owned this sword, and it can talk.”

Patience declines and tells me: “If you leave, I leave too.”

I assure him he doesn’t need to leave, because I will transfer the contract to one of the party members if that’s okay with him. “Who would you like to be your next master?” I ask him. 

Farryn immediately takes a step back, and declines. The White Mage is interested, and doesn’t decline. It’s Patiences’ choice, and he chooses Farryn. I’d choose Farryn too, in this situation, because I’m impressed by the self-control he has at the moment. Normally, he’d take loot from a body that is still hot, but now… he really impresses me with his reaction. 

I give the contract to Farryn, and say to Patience: “Now, I’ll be your friend, Patience, not your master.”

If we obtain a wish somewhere, we have to break the third unknown contract. We know there are three: one unknown, Zariel, and now Farryn. Farryn asks Patience why he signed the contract. I already know that story, because Patience told me when we first met: he was imprisoned when he fought Zariel with his general Bell. Bell orchestrated a coup on the realm, and Patience was imprisoned and forced to sign a blood contract. 

We make some time to say goodbye to Mohan. I make stars shine around the body, as black as night, but with nice blue stars that sparkle. Farryn placed the sign of the Disruptors on his forehead.

“Are there people who want to talk?” I ask. 

“Mohan, we didn’t know you that long, but we know you are an honest person with a love for books. I regret that I couldn’t finish the manuscript with your help, but you made a great start with it. I’ll finish it, and you will live forever.” says the White Mage.

“Our adventures will live on in the library of Candlekeep.” adds Farryn.

All of us set fire to Mohan. There is orange and blue fire. We see a magpie fly, followed by a little dragonfly. They rise up, and they leave us as soon as the fire dims. 

After all these revelations, we decide to go upstairs. “Come on guys, Glyster needs his money back, and we need to go to the Golden Cauldron. Let’s go.” 

We cast invisibility and move to Trollskull Manor. We open the painting from the back, and look inside our tavern. It is totally abandoned, except for ONE person sitting at the bar. It looks like a wizard. Then, I hear Farryns’ voice: “GOLDEN CAULDRON?!” 

Apparently, he walked up to the person in the hood. 

“For eternal glory.” the person responds. “Come on,” he continues, getting up from his seat. “I’ll take you to the Golden Cauldron.” He walks upstairs and gestures to us to follow him.

I take a quick look outside the window and see a lot of commoners calling to the guards in front of our Manor. They’re shouting aggressively. “Calm down. They’re not here.” the guards respond. 

Upstairs, we find a teleportation circle, and I follow the wizard – as that is the only person I can see at the moment.

We arrive at the Golden Cauldron. We first walk through a common guild area, still invisible, following the wizard. When we’re in the main hall, the wizard turns around and says: “Wait here. You’ll be asked to enter by the council. You will be questioned separately.” 

We take a seat in the far corner of the main hall, and I watch the guild members that pass by for a while. Then, in front of us, we see two characters in the middle of the hallway – not aware of us, of course. They greet like they haven’t seen each other for a while.

Gwen

“Hey Xenji!” I run up to him. He is quite a big Aasimar, and I’m small – but tall for my species. I fly a bit up with my winged boots and hug him. 

“Have you read the news?” Xenji asks. “The Deep News writes: ‘Disruption of Waterdeep: Disruptors responsible for death of priests.’”

I am utterly shocked. This cannot be; Farryn Flamel is leading that group. I read a lot about him, I read all his reports. He is a hero, a true researcher. 

“What?! That is outrageous. I just read a lot about him, and that he has seen a LOT of DRAGONS!” At first, I’m a but flustered, but my enthusiasm breaks through when I talk about the dragons I read about. 

Then, as by magic, neon lit letters appear in the sky, listing all sorts of dragons. 

When I try to find the caster, I see Farryn Flamel stand in front of me. He first shakes Xenjis’ hand, and then mine. I am almost hyperventilating, and can only squeal his name. “O my god, you’re Farryn Flamel! I’m such a fan!” 

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I can see Farryn talking to the Gnome and Aasimar, but I remain seated. A member of the Golden Cauldron first comes to get Patience and the White Mage. Patience sets up a mind link with everyone, so we know what is happening during all our questioning sessions. Patience is the first to return, within fifteen minutes. He shrugs, and says: “I just didn’t tell them very much.” 

A couple of minutes later, it’s my turn. 

I grumpily lift the invisibility, and follow the clerk that takes me to another room. 

I let myself fall into a chair, trying to look very disinterested. 

The first question is if Farryn is the leader of the group, and if I have a contract with him. I can absolutely believe Farryn told the guild he’s the leader, but officially, we didn’t make that call. I tell them ‘no’, and continue that we only have a verbal contract, and that is enough for me. 

“What is the connection to death around you?” continues the questioner. 

I am quiet for a while, because I get distracted by all the information due to the mind link. It takes longer to respond. I hear that within the guild there are ideas to get rid of the Shar-curse. I respond: “Well, we have some weird curse around us, that might come from the Shadowfell or Shar.”

“What happened with the vampires?”

“We defeated Keresta, but before we could stop them, a couple of her followers made their way up to Waterdeep. Mohan took one back, through our Mansion, believing the vampire spawn had good intentions, but a couple of villagers saw him. This was the story, because I wasn’t there for it.”

“How did Mohan die?”

“He took off on his own. I didn’t see much, because – again – I wasn’t there, I only saw him when he was already dead, in the arms of the White Mage.” I say, matter-of-factly. “I couldn’t save him.” I add. 

“Okay. Thank you mister Crossclaw, you may go.”

I push the chair to the back, and walk back to the main hall. 

Gwen

After getting to know the whole Disruptor-party, a new figure enters the room. 

“That is Glyster, a dragon.” whispers Xenji in my ear. I am in awe with this person/dragon already. 

Glyster obtains his items and two bags of holding from Farryn. “I want to donate this to all the churches that had losses from the attacks the past few days.” Glyster says.

Xenji is already going with Glyster, but I want to join too. I jump a bit up and down trying to interrupt their conversation, and ask: “Can I come with?”

“She just loves dragons…” Xenji says in draconic – like I cannot understand. 

“Yeah, indeed.” I respond, looking defiantly at him.

Xenji laughs, and approaches his horse Ikarus. I say goodbye to the Disruptors, and fly up to Ikarus and have a seat. Together with Glyster, we ride for the churches in Waterdeep.

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The White Mage is not back yet, but Farryn is being called by the full council. I know all our questionings are taken into account during his hearing, so I’m surprised he isn’t back yet.

Farryn tells us many things via his mind link, but there are a lot of guild members present during his hearing. His mentor is there as well, as one person who doesn’t like him at all. After many questions, the guild master’s verdict is as follows: “Adventurers need to do what adventurers do. It might not be written down anywhere, but there is already enough documented.” 

The majority of guild members voted in agreement with this statement, so Farryn is free of charges about not documenting contracts with the party, and what we’ve all obtained. 

A couple of scribes read back a conversation about Shar’s influences: “Are we going to oppose a god? Waterdeep is not a safe place, stay away. But for that there was a search for runestone. Just let them go, with all the consequences” The guild master proceeds to tell him that there are Runestones on the next level (19), a cleric can help the party to lift Shars’ curse with help of those stones. 

As for improving the image of the Disruptors and the Golden Cauldron is as follows: the Deep News will write that the Golden Cauldron supports the Disruptors unconditionally. This will show everyone that a guild supports its adventurers. Moreover, the Deep News will also report that the vampire spawns were a minor incident: it could’ve been way worse. The guild master dismisses Farryn and tells him to go back to Undermountain, and not to worry about the image of the Disruptors; the Golden Cauldron will take care of that for him. 

This whole trial took over almost an hour. As Farryn returns, the White Mage is still not done with his questioning. When White Mage finally rejoins the party, he is in a very bad mood. He was trying to be detailed enough to let the Golden Cauldron make an informed decision, but eventually he found out that the trial was already done. He just wants to file a complaint about his clerk. 

I stand in the middle of the party. I look everyone in the eye, and say my goodbyes. I just need some time to think, rest, and pray in the temple of the Moon Goddess. I hand over my portal-key to the White Mage, turn around, and make way for someone in the guild to escort me to the temple. 

Gwen

When we get back, I see the Leonin Cross leave the building. Xenji and I walk back in, together with Glyster. 

The Disruptors are in the middle of the main hall, talking to each other. Farryn has a happy expression on his face. As soon as we come nearer, I overhear that the Disruptors are cleared of all charges. That is very nice to hear. I really hope I can join this party to find adventure – but mostly dragons. I cannot wait to actually see one in the flesh. I only read about them, but I really want to befriend one, or even get my own egg! While I’m thinking about all this, Xenji is accepted into the party. Apparently, Cross left, and they’re recruiting! 

“And what can you do, Gwen?” asks Farryn. 

“Well, I’m quite good with a bow, and I can hide myself very well.” I respond, trying to sound like a professional. “I also really want to see and find dragons!”

“What will you do if you have to attack some of them?” asks someone else.

“I know not all of them are nice, and I can also observe them. I don’t shy away from defending myself, but I also don’t want to kill them.” I say. 

The party votes, but I suspect they are more in favor of me because I’m a member of the guild. Luckily, I’m accepted into the party, and I can call myself a Disruptor now!

“So, let’s go ahead and avenge Mohan – go for the black ooze!” exclaims Farryn. 

We make way for the teleportation circle to go to Trollskull Manor and from there, head into Undermountain.