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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jayoungr" data-source="post: 6879101" data-attributes="member: 6702445">A Plan of ActionLater that day, the group met once again with Ontharr and Leosin on the upper floor of A Pair of Black Antlers. Atex was astoundingly chipper after all the ale he'd had the previous day.  He and Ariana were also newly minted Harpers, having told Leosin in the morning that they had decided to join the organization.Ontharr spread out a map of the area on the table, noting the locations of Elturel, Greenest, and the cultists' camp.  If the treasure was going next to Baldur's Gate, where would it go after that?  And would it be going by land or by sea?  Leosin suggested that if the PCs traveled by boat down the River Chionthar, they would reach Baldur's Gate before the cult's wagons, which would be going overland.Aric asked if they knew of a "golden river" anywhere in the area, but neither Ontharr nor Leosin had heard of a river by that name.  When Landin asked Aric why he wanted to know, Aric just replied, "Never you mind."Ontharr gave the group a letter of introduction to a friend of the Order of the Gauntlet in Baldur's Gate and said he would talk to a merchant friend with a boat who had come to Elturel for the harvest festival. He asked the group to be ready to leave first thing the next morning. As the meeting was breaking up, he asked Landin to stay behind for a moment.Looking a bit sad and tired, Ontharr said that although he had had hopes for Landin, he had never meant to push him into something he didn't want to do.  He said he didn't understand why Landin had such a low opinion of his own abilities; Landin said it was merely honest.  Ontharr sighed and said that if Landin wished it, he would speak to the headmaster of the training academy and see that Landin's name was quietly withdrawn.  Landin said that would probably be best.  However, Ontharr continued, it wouldn't be difficult to see that Landin remained in the Order of the Gauntlet, given the present crisis.  "We will be proud to have one of our own helping out in this endeavour," he said."Well, you've got Aric," said Landin.  "Although he's a little ... odd.""True, I think he will be a credit to the order.  But I think you can be too, if you will just let yourself.""All I can do is try, I suppose.""That's all we can ask.  And meanwhile, I'll feel better knowing that you have the resources of the order at your disposal on this journey."  Ontharr clapped a hand on Landin's shoulder.  "May Torm be with you."Meanwhile, Ariana settled down in a quiet place and started flipping through her book.  A few words were beginning to take shape; she saw the word dragon several times, and in a few other places, she was pretty sure she saw the word Purple, capitalized.Aric visited the Order of the Gauntlet's archives and spent the afternoon looking for any information on rivers of gold or castles in the sky.  The only clue he found was a traveler's tale of visiting the floating castle of a cloud giant.  He also found a reference to "surprise lizards" being called ambush drakes, but he simply snorted in derision at how wrong the book was.  He came away from his errand thinking that the "river of gold" might be just a metaphor for the treasure.After leaving Ontharr, Landin strolled through Elturel looking at the shops.  He stopped in a jewelry store and bought a jade and tiger eye necklace as a gift for Ariana.  It cost more than he'd originally meant to spend, but none of the cheaper options were pretty enough.  He presented it to her that evening.  She was surprised, pleased, and a little flustered at the gift, telling him that it was lovely, but he surely had better things to spend his money on.  Landin merely smiled and said it was all right.Down the RiverNext morning, the group met up with Beyd Sechepol, a half-elf merchant who transported goods up and down the river between Scornubel and Baldur's Gate.  Leosin and Ontharr were there to see them off.The first day passed uneventfully.  Atex studied his spellbook.  Aric immediately declared himself seasick and went to lie down.  Ariana stopped teasing Landin and sat by herself at one end of the barge, trying to puzzle out some more of the writing in her book.  Confused by the change in her manner, Landin sat at the other end of the barge looking gloomy.  Beyd tried to cheer him up by chatting with him.  Meanwhile, Beyd's dog ran from person to person, looking for attention.On the second day, they encountered another barge which had run aground on a sandbank.  Four people were on the shore trying to pull it free with ropes.  As they strained to move the barge, one of the men threw his back out and fell to the ground in pain (rolled a 1).  The woman who seemed to be in charge waved her arms and called for assistance.  The PCs came ashore to help, but it quickly turned into a fight when Landin recognized the leader as one of the raiders from Greenest!  He immediately charged at the leader and tackled her to the ground before she could jump out of the way.  The other PCs looked on in confusion as Landin proceeded to sit on the woman and she shouted for the two healthy men to pull him off her.  "They're dragon cultists!" Landin explained.Belatedly, the others sprang into action. Atex cast hold person on one of the cultists.  The second one charged Landin in an attempt to free his leader, but his scimitar bounced off Landin's armor.  A second later, Ariana skewered the cultist with both her blades, and he fell dead.  The distraction allowed the leader to wriggle free; she attempted to run, but Aric cast hold person on her as well.The cultist with the sore back was still writhing on the ground in pain.  "I surrender!" he shouted.  "I'm in no condition to fight!  Tiamat will be revenged on you all when she returns!"They quickly disarmed the cultists and tied them up before the hold person spells wore off.  Aric searched their barge and found that its only cargo was three or four crates full of treasure.  He curled up on top of them happily while the others looked through the cultists' belongings.  In the leader's backpack, they found a letter signed by "Wyrmspeaker Rezmir" directing them to go to Baldur's Gate and speak to Aravax Foxtraveler.After some discussion with Beyd Sechepol, they decided to tow the cultists' barge behind their own to Baldur's Gate and turn the captives over to the authorities there.DM Notes:  I wasn't expecting to need a name for the barge owner in a hurry, so I had to cannibalize the list of NPCs for the caravan!</blockquote>

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