From post #6 in this thread, itself containing forty adventuring company names, I present to you The Scions of the Talking Door.
NOTE: The entry that follows has become part of the content for
Current Clack: Neverwinter.
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The Scions of the Talking Door
At the Inn of the Dripping Dagger, Trades Ward, Waterdeep, one may encounter visitors who have every intention of staying for longer than a few drinks. Alongside the regular guests of the Inn and its staff, such visitors pass the time in the main room in silence while waiting for the door to the Inn to utter a cryptic phrase. Hushed whispers and the patter of coins on tables ride over the silence, the later paying for drinks that allow visitors to keep from being ushered through a back exit so others waiting in line can take their place.
Jacks and lasses sit either side of the door day and night. They strain to hear every word when the Talking Door speaks, and then report what was heard to Systarra Lohthuntle, master of the Inn. Regular customers know these servants to be loyal to Systarra; they cannot be bribed. The heads of the Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors know this too, because all but one of the door minders was placed at the Inn by the Order.
On the night that the Door spoke, "Five in a room shall find great wealth in a place where a dragon sits the throne," nine souls were to be found in the main room: four servants, and five who'd rented rooms (the Inn is closed to non-renters after sunset).
None of the five were acquainted before that night, but they'd already made fast friends of each other by the time the sun tried in vain to warm Waterdeep's cold streets the next morning. Confident that the Door was describing them, and equally confident that it spoke of far off Cormyr, they settled their accounts and left the Inn of the Dripping Dagger for The Forest Kingdom.
Waterdeep had barely receded over the horizon when the five travelers were set upon by cutthroats sent to acquire whatever knowledge the travelers possessed of the Talking Door, then slay them. By the time the quintet arrived in Cormyr, they'd repelled three more attacks--in each case surviving with little more than their lives.
Today the Scions wear the looks of the constantly hunted, always wary warrior who sees death lurking in every shadowy corner. They are ignorant of Cormyr's customs and laws and so have no adventuring charter. They have no clue where their riches are to be found, and have succeeded only in coming up with a name for their would-be adventuring band.
The Scions chose Arabel over Suzail as their home base, assuming it to be more like Waterdeep and perhaps more hospitable to their tastes. They have convinced themselves the attacks will stop now that they have arrived at their destination.
And they are wrong. Now that the Scions have been judged capable of fending off the minions of adversaries too impatient to wait and see what destiny has in store for the five travelers, more patient enemies that lurk in the shadows have chosen to afford the Scions a measure of their wise attention.
Should the adventurers find their riches, they won't keep it for long.
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The Scions are:
- Kleannsur Hortothul, Just Hand of Torm. Cleric 7
- Jessalythe Sparrantar, independent adventurer-wizard. Wizard 7
- Blacksunder the Rogue (and murderer for hire back in Waterdeep). Fighter 3, Rogue 3
- Awntrus "The Black Glove" Malaver, former unguilded investigator. Fighter 1, Rogue 5
- Alathea Gryphonsar. Sorcerer 4, Rogue 2
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This entry was inspired by the article "The Talking Door", by Ed Greenwood, in Dragon #410.