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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nthal" data-source="post: 7616030" data-attributes="member: 6971069">Leaving Yartar - (6/6/2019)Leaving YartarGood friends are hard to find.  And what makes a good friend is dependent on what you need.  A good ear, sage advice, support when you need.But even rarer is one that will lay their life down on the line for you.  The purest form of love you could ask for, but never would.Rarer still is when a stranger does that.I was smiling to myself as I climbed the stairs.  It seemed like a great chain had been lifted from my neck, and that I could finally move on.  Of course, moving on still meant finding a way home.  I was still trapped here on Toril.  But being trapped there was far easier to handle than being trapped in a debt, and not being threatened by a horrible fate of cutters trying to the deliver the mail.  It was back to the new normal from my perspective.All of the discussion with Mordai was done in the early morning.  Our schedule was a bit messed up, so it would be a long day ahead, and Daneath and Iesa wanted to get moving as quickly as possible.  But we needed to deliver our good fortunes to our wizard.Once on the second level, I made way to the chamber that Beepu had been lent as a room.  No one had talked to him since he stormed out of our plan to sneak back into the manor.  I did have a note dropped off, but he never responded.  Not that I really expected a response.I stood in front of the door, and hesitated a moment thinking about what to say.  I then knocked on the door and waited.  Hearing nothing, I knocked again louder and called out Beepu’s name.  No one within responded.  Frowning for a moment, I considered my options, and decided to appeal to Beepu’s ‘better half.’  I drew a dagger from its sheath, I used its pommel to bang on the door and called out:“FOGGLE!  Can you wake up Beepu and get him to the door?”Instantly I started hearing repeated hoots from his mechanical familiar and within moments I could hear Beepu calling out “What? What? What?  Door?  OH!”  The door swung open in a rush, just as I sheathed my blade.“Oh, Myrai!  Yes, um…come in.” the disheveled gnome said, his eyes still bleary eyed.“Woke you at your desk?” I asked looking at him critically“No!  Why would you say that?”“Because I can see the imprint of your bookmark on your left cheek.”“Wha…oh.   Well yes.  More comfortable than the straw mattress here.  Too firm.” And he walked back into the room.  As I expected the desk had scattered bits of brass parts, sheaths of papers full of diagrams, and his spellbook propped up on the table, leaning against the wall.  The bed was unused for sleeping as far as I could tell, but clothes and other items from his pack were spread across the surface.  On a small table was a plate with some assorted dried fruits, bread, a pitcher and an empty mug on its side.  Finally, I noticed on the ground by the door, was the note I had Jarris deliver to him; still sealed.I picked up the letter and chuckled a moment.  “Well, I see you be been busy reading.”“Yes, yes, something to do while you argue about going back into the manor.  I assumed that once you came to your senses you would come find me.”I looked at Beepu and then the room and then the letter in my hand, “And so…have you even left this room?”“No.  No need.  Prestidigitation is good for cleaning anything, including chamberpots, and I do not eat or drink much anyway.”“So, you have been studying your…stuff for the last two and half days then?”“Of course I have been….what?   Two and half days?  It took you that long to finally not pursue that path of madness and go back to the manor?”“No…that was pretty quickly decided after you left.”“Oh, so you just left to study?”“Um, no.  We were busy.  In the manor.”“WHAT?  Why did you not tell me?”I threw the note at Beepu, “We did.  Somehow I assumed you would have read the letter.”  Beepu caught and regarded the note frowning.  He simply stared at it with his brows knitted together, and yet made no moves to open it.“I see.  Well then, is the…deed done?” he asked with the note of distaste as he turned to look at me.“No.  We chose…a better path.”“How so?”“We brought the fake Nestra here.  The real one basically accused her of treason, and we handed her over to Mordai.  And as such we are free to go.”“Oh.  I see.”“You sound, disappointed?”“Well…maybe.  I discovered some things I guess over…two days you said?  But I suppose, I just expected that you would not have been—”“Successful without you?”“Yes.  Yes, in fact.  Perhaps I should have gone.”“Well, what is done is done.  It would have been nice.”“So, what is next?”“Well, we are meeting downstairs to discuss that.  Assuming you can break yourself away for a moment.”“Certainly.  Especially if we can finally get on with our travels!”  and he grabbed my arm and started pulling me out to the hall.  “No more delays!  We should have been moving already!”Beepu continued to pull me along, like I was a petulant child, berating me the entire way.  And all I could was shake my head and smile.A quick journey downstairs, and Beepu stood in front of the dining hall, and he with all the majesty he could muster in his three-foot frame, threw open the doors and strode in.Daneath and Iesa were the only occupants in the room and they both turned at the ‘grand’ entrance.“Alright then.  Finally.  Flint Rock!”  Beepu declared, challenging the pair to disagree with him.“No.  Portstown,” said Daneath and he bit into a hunk of cheese in front of him.  Across from him Iesa nodded and fed Mo a piece of fruit from a small pile he had finished slicing.Beepu was stunned a second.  But he didn’t speak first; I did.“Portstown?  What in sodding Baator are you talking about?  And what kind of name is ‘Portstown’?  Call yourself after the local industry?  What’s next?  ‘Smithstown.’?   ‘Fishtown’?  ‘Whoreto—‘?”“Because I have a lead that will help us get to Flint Rock there,” Daneath said glancing at us both.“Lead?  From where?” Beepu finally interjected.“Leoras,” Daneath said and again bit into the cheese wedge.“When did you talk to Leoras?” I asked.Daneath leaned back in his seat. “Well, while we were investigating the manor, I saw him enter a room sneakily.  I thought he might lead me somewhere interesting.  Turns out, he baited me, and I found myself with a sword at my neck in a dark room.  So, we had a…chat.”“I’m sure that wasn’t awkward or anything,” I said crossing my arms.  “So, what exactly did you talk about?”“Well, the short version was, he knew Vicam was trouble, which is why he wasn’t going to interfere with us doing, anything.  He knew that Nestra stopped trusting him and kept sending him out digging in graves.  But more importantly, he knew something about me.”“What exactly?” I asked curiously.“This,” Daneath pulled his left sleeve up to his elbow and revealed a tattoo.  The design was well done, but simple.  A snake tied into a double loop.  “I have this tattoo, as does my master.   He also told me something else.  He was traveling with a ‘tinker’; a gnome.’Beepu’s jaw dropped open, “Wait, together?   Your Master and my father?  That sounds suspicious.  Why would my father follow your master?  I have never seen that tattoo.  Are your sure that Leoras did not pull a fast one.”Iesa chimed in as he continued to feed Mo, “I thought about it as well, but think about it.  We have talked about Flint Rock, but we haven’t talked much about why we are going since we met in Triboar.  So how would Leoras know?  Plus, why?  He was the one with the sword.  He knew something about what the tattoo meant and said that a half-orc smith in Portstown could shed some light on it.  Even better though, it’s on the way.”“I’m not one to believe in coincidence,” I said slowly.  “But, this sounds like we should make the attempt and find out what’s going on.  Otherwise we’re in the blinds here.”They all looked at me for a moment with a questioning expression, before I remember, “Right, in the dark..um not in the know?”  to which they all nodded.Iesa then spoke up uncomfortably, “And well I…may…know how to get to Flint Rock.”Daneath’s head twisted suddenly to look at Iesa.  “Wait, what?”Iesa reach into a satchel and pulled out a folded piece of parchment.  He unfolded it and it was a crude map.  Scattered on the surface were strange words in a common alphabet that I didn’t recognize.“So, you have a map? How does this—” Daneath started, when Iesa pointed to symbol of a mountain on the top edge of the map.  Next to the mark was a second one.A snake set into a double loop.“How did you get this?” Daneath looked at Iesa with surprise.“Mo found it…I thought.  But I’m beginning to think that wasn’t an accident.”“What?” I said.  “that he was given it?  To give to you?”Iesa nodded.  “I mean after I got this, I was thrown in jail, Beepu gets me out, and then I met Daneath.”“Beepu, how did you know to find Iesa in the jail?”  I asked.Beepu thought a moment.  “Well, I knew that I needed to get to Flint Rock, because of my father’s notes.  I remember remarking this to a man in Triboar marketplace, and he mentioned that a man who was just arrested could help with that.”  Beepu’s eyes scrunched in thought.  “I don’t remember anything about the person though.”“It’s no coincidence.  It can’t be,” Daneath said.  “But how does it tie together?”“That’s the dark of it,” I said.  “Sounds like I’m the only one here that doesn’t have an interest in Flint Rock.  I don’t have a master, I doubt my father is involved, and I don’t have a tattoo like that.”“You have a tattoo?” Iesa asked with sudden interest.“What?…no!   That’s not important!  What is, this that this is all tied together, and none of understand how or why.  So, while I don’t have a vested interest beyond seeing if Beepu’s father can get me home, it sounds like we need learn a bit more.”Everyone nodded.“So, to Portstown?” Daneath asked the group.To which we all nodded quietly.“Get your things, say your goodbyes.  And let’s get out of Yartar.”It didn’t take long to get our gear together, and somehow word got around that we were learning.  As we made our way to the gate of the compound we ran into Arryn, Jarris, Berevan and Veceri.   I exchanged a quick goodbye with Arryn and Jarris, while Daneath and Iesa spoke at length to him.  I was occupied with the two warriors that had joined us beneath Yartar.“Goodbye Myrai,” Berevan said.  “And thanks for well…keeping us alive I suppose.”“And you were right,” Veceri spoke up.  “If we didn’t hold the door, based on the pounding, we might never have left.”“Well,” I replied, “To be able to tell the tale later, is pretty important.  We can’t learn from others that came before us unless we survive and share it.  Kelemvor wants us to have a full life, so we can pass on the best of our knowledge and works onwards.  So …take what you learn and pass it on.”Both Berevan and Veceri nodded.  “We will,” Berevan said, “And perhaps there is more we can learn from a god of death.”I nodded, and so we departed the Iron Blades’ compound and made our way towards the eastern gate and the docks.  While we struck a blow against Vicam, we weren’t sure if we were being hunted.  So, we followed Iesa through the alleys, avoiding guards and giving The Lusty Bard a wide berth.  The eastern gate was busy with traffic as always, and the guards either weren’t particularly observant, or we were simply paranoid about having a target on our back.  We made our way to the docks and wandered up the river, seeking barge or other water transport that could take us north to Portstown.It wasn’t long before we found a large cargo barge that appeared to be heading north based on the young crier calling out for passengers.  Finally, we could put Yartar, and its politics and machinations behind.  Ahead the road forward to Flint Rock and eventually home.  But I was chatting with Iesa as we made our way to the pier, when things became...problematic. “So, you’ve never been on a boat before?” He asked with some surprise.  Mo was on his shoulder and looked bored as Iesa and I talked.I shook my head “No.  The only ‘river’ in Sigil is what we call ‘The Ditch’ and no one plys a boat on it.  In fact, the only boat I know of is part of a bar called the Black Sail Tavern in the Lower Wards.  In fact, no one remembers how a boat even got there to start with.”“So, did you ever learn to swim?”“Well, normally the Ditch is just a smelly, grimy and horrible river of muck full of trash and…corpses.  But every so often a gate to Oceanus would open and flush it clean.  When that happened, all the orphans would run there to play in the water.  So, I did learn.  I’m not good at it though.”Iesa shook his head, “I can’t imagine that.  Waterdeep has its charm in the poorer sections, but I can’t tell if I am in awe in what you describe as commonplace or disgusted on how it seems one of the worst cities for crime and filth.”“You never ask about the nice parts!”“You mean there are nice parts?”“Well…sure.  The Lady’s Ward of course, and the Guild Ward and Market Ward have nice parts.  I just…didn’t spend time there.”“What?  Couldn’t fit in?”“No…not enough jink,” I said rubbing my thumb and forefinger together.  “You can’t tell me that Waterdeep is any different?”“No…No I can’t.  Maybe you should visit just to compare.”“I’d like that actually.  It’s got to be better than Yar—”“You there, stop!” a voice spoke behind us.  And as I turned I saw that a guard, wearing the livery of the Waterbaroness had grasped Iesa on the shoulder.  I was about to tell of the sod when Iesa spoke with surprise.“Kingsley!?!” and Iesa started looking around nervously.  Slightly ahead of us, Beepu and Daneath had heard Iesa’s exclamation and had turned to see what the fuss was about.“My…my friend.  What have you done?   Do you know that Vicam’s men are scouring the docks and bridges looking for you?  What happened?  You are in danger!”  Kingsley was stumbling on his words, clearly surprised to have found us, and his voice was warm and genuinely concerned.  And scared.“Umm…that’s a long story and we don’t ha—” Iesa started to speak when blood erupted from Kingsley’s chest, spattering Iesa, Mo and me.  Mo gave a screech and bolted to the buildings near-by, as we stared at Kingsley in horror.  All the blood came from a gaping wound, caused by a javelin that was now lodged through Kingsley’s torso.  Looking behind him, we saw the source.Arakhan retracted his arm and drew his sword.  His heavily scaled face was sneering at us.  He drew his sword and strode forward, leading a small group of guards towards us.“That’sss what we do to traitorsss.   And the ssssame fate awaitsss you. My jaw hung open in surprise.  Not at the violence directed towards Kingsley and his betrayal.  I was surprised that Kingsley was warning us at all.  In Sigil, no one ever seemed to stick their neck out to help someone.  The Harmonium didn’t have the reputation of being compassionate.  They were the ‘Hardheads’; there to enforce order that they defined.   And here was Kingsley, slumping the to the ground.  His blood was rapidly pooling on the cobblestone.  I turned and looked for Daneath and Beepu screaming “Help.”  I was not going to let this man die!Beepu, Iesa and I were dumbfounded and were slow to react to the threat of Arakhan and the four guardsmen with him.  Daneath’s reflexes kicked in however and he was truly the man of action.And his first action was to  bolt swiftly straight to the barge.  Only after he reached it did he turn and realize that we were engaged with various guardsmen, and that Kingsley lay motionless on the ground.  I saw him turn to look at a crew member and shout at him, throwing a coin purse at the sailor.  Then he drew his sword and started to make his way back.Meanwhile, Iesa rolled to his left towards some nearly warehouse buildings and pulled his new bow from his back, and quickly fired an arrow at one of the guards heading towards us.  The arrow sank deep into the chest of the guard, but he still charged forward in pain, but unable to close with the swift Knight of the Post.Beepu quickly recovered from his shock, and pulled a vial from his pouch, while Foggle flew straight up from his shoulder.  After a moment he flicked the open vial and a solid bolt of ice shot forth, striking another guard.  The bolt exploded into sharp icy shards, lacerating several of the guards, and one fell down to his knees.Two of the guards looked at me, standing over Kingsley’s body and started forward, swords drawn.  I was angry; I expected friends to perhaps take a blow for me.  I didn’t expect a stranger to do so.  And while we ‘knew’ Kingsley, he really didn’t know us at all.  I was not going to let him die saving my skin.  It wasn’t right and It wasn’t close to fair.Staring at the two guards I reached within and pulled at the darkness, and skeletal hands grasped at the throats of the approaching men.  Their eyes had the look of fear at first, and then they glazed over as the fell, slumping down onto the ground.Arakhan was unconcerned and strode forward toward myself and Beepu who was only slightly behind me.  The ice and cold didn’t seem to bother him at all, and he wasn’t even bleeding.  I swallowed in fear, not particularly prepared to take a beating from the longsword the Dragonborn held.(See!  I can tell Lizardthings apart!)Arakhan swung at me, but the blade went wide.  I sidestepped to the right, hoping to expose his back to the Knight of the Post’s new toy.  But Daneath arrived first, swinging his blade.  But his strikes were deftly deflected by Arakhan’s shield.Iesa took another shot at the remaining guardsman, sinking an arrow in his throat.  The guard gurgled for a moment, and fall forward onto his knees, and then flat on the earth.  Daneath with renewed energy swung again and landed a solid blow again the captain.  He continued to circle him, when suddenly the sneer was replaced with a smile.  Arakhan puffed up his chest and blew icy frost on Daneath, Beepu and myself.  Daneath took the full force of the icy gale, which shielded Beepu and I from the worst of it.  But he too slumped down to the ground.Seeing Daneath sink to the ground, I prayed to Kelemvor.  Kingsley was hurt, but Daneath was in bad shape now.  I wanted desperately to save both them, but with Arakhan so close to me, I was equally concerned with living.  So, I tried a different tactic.  I pulled in measures of light and dark from myself and focused the energy on Arakahn.  To force him to stop his assault.At first it seemed to work; his posture softened, and he pulled up in surprise.  But just as quickly he shook his head, and focused his hatred towards us.  Arakhan looked ready to bear down on the two of us when I heard Iesa shout at the captain.  “Hey lizardboy, you look like you hatched from a rotten egg!”  .  But he followed up his verbal volley with an arrow, which solidly connected with the captains’ shield.  The Dragonborn turned to face Iesa.  He bellowed at this new torment, and charged.  Iesa smiled and shot at him again, all the while running for his life as the Dragonborn bore down upon him.  As the captain moved towards Iesa and the warehouses, I knelt down quickly and touched Daneath on the brow and focused some light into his fallen form.  I could see the marks of where the frost had froze his skin, return to a warm pink.“Get up!  Get Kingsley!  And get to the barge!” I said quickly, trying to recover my energy to save Kingsley.  Arakhan was busy chasing Iesa through the streets, and I could hear the occasional twang of an arrow, followed by it striking the shield.Daneath looked at me confused, “Wha…why?” he stammered climbing to his feet.“Because he tried to save our lives, grab him and go!” I shouted at Daneath.  He shook his head and turned towards Kingley’s limp form.  With a heavy boot he snapped the javelin into two, leaving only a stump in his back and the point out his chest, and he carefully picked up the fallen guard, and made his way to the barge.“Yes!  Yes!  Yes!  We must make haste!” Beepu said, running ahead of Daneath and jumping aboard, with myself close behind.“Captain?  Captain?  Captain?” Beepu shouted looking around for someone in charge.  “We need to depart immediately once our friend arrives, but no sooner.”A stocky dwarf regarded the gnome a moment, and then looked at Daneath.  “You know, that gold was to hold the boat for you.  And right now, I’m lookin to move on to spend it.  Cast off boys!” he barked.“No wait.  I will double the gold if you hold us here a bit longer!” he said, and the captain raised a hand and said.“Cast of boys.  Slow like.” and the sailors continued to remove the last of the lines securing the barge from the pier, but with far less haste than before.  They finally removed the last of the mooring lines and slowly the barge broke away, as the oarsmen below, pushed the barge away into the river.During this exchange, I poured a bit of light into Kingsley.  He would not pass into the Fugue today, but I needed time to heal him further.  A pair of sailors, had picked up his fallen form and moved him to what appeared to be a tent on the deck.  No longer concerned with Kingsley, I turned to look for Iesa.The delay was just enough, as Iesa came skidding around a corner running for all his worth.  He looked panicked and wild-eyed, and Mo was now ahead of him on the rooftops.  While Daneath had quick reflexes, Iesa had him beat in swiftness on the ground.  He saw the barge was slipping away and focused his efforts to gain speed for a leap across the water.Close behind running like a lizard possessed was Arakhan.  Even the heavy armor was not enough to slow him down, and he looked to make the same leap that Iesa was about to try.Beepu and I glanced at each other.  “I do not think I can penetrate that armor at all,” Beepu said as he flung a bolt of fire at Arakhan to watch it strike its chest with no seeming effect.“Let’s try something else,” I said and reached within.  This time I looked not to the darkness, but to the light instead.  And I grabbed at it desperately, pulling its energy down towards the Dragonborn.From above, a dazzling white beam of energy appeared  and struck down from above,  squarely hitting the Dragonborn.  He howled in pain as the energy coursed through him.  The strike stopped him cold, and he turned and moved towards some crates on the side, looking for cover from the assault from the heavens.I was going to have none of it, so while Beepu tried to strike again with a bolt of fire, the cover of the crates where more than enough to deflect the attempt.  No such succor existed from the radiance I was calling and  again I called it down to strike my target.  Arakhan howled in pain, and realizing the futility of hiding, started to move again towards the barge.By this time, Mo had jumped and easily cleared the distance across the water to the barge.  Iesa, with some amount of grace also easily cleared the distance, landing on the deck with room to spare.But Arakhan was dressed in much heavier armor.  So, while he strode forward towards us, it became clear that he would not be able to make the jump.  Instead he bellowed, powerless to stop our escape.  I continued to pull light down upon him and the Dragonborn yelled in pain.  Finally, he gave up and  moved farther away from the dock and the torment I provided. We stood there, breathing heavily watching Arakhan depart; denied his quarry.  We heard the oars start to pull against the weak current of the river, and we began our journey north to Portstown.I wasn’t going to miss this Blexburgh.   Not one bit.Session notes:The fight at the end caused no amount of retconning during the session.  The first problem was understanding the simple language of Maxilian’s Earthen Grasp and the phrase “On the Ground.’    Was the dock a ground?  During the session the DM said no, which bummed Beepu’s player out as he felt then that he wasted his spell book choice.  Later on, after much pursing, this interpretation was deemed to be an error.A second problem arose with my attempt at casting Charm Person.  This actually succeeded at first, and we started to have a dialog, when the DM (correctly) remember that during combat he was have advantage on the saving throw, which he then made.  Then he backtracked and reasoned that I should have known that and asked if I wanted to do something else.Because we couldn’t hit the AC he had (something in the high 17 or 18, and dice were not working for us) I tried again…which also failed.  High risk, high reward.  I mean how good of a wisdom save could he have?  ( 17 and 20 on the dices, so good enough)Fortunately, his Dex was terrible.  Which gets to a point about Myrai.  I had a lot of cantrips at that point. About eight.  This allowed me to have quite a bit of utility, as only three were damaging attack spells.  Eventually I would end up with twelve.  I for one loved the flexibility it gave me, pulling out something to turn events in our favor.   More on that type of stuff later.2,123</blockquote>

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