*Season 1, Module 9* -- “Breaching the Lines” (Eleint 1, 1358-arrival at Candlekeep)

[Featuring: Clamus, Fury, Kohira, & Maxolt]

 

            Azoun’s Dragons are rewarded 150gp each by the city as well as with fresh horses.  The journey to Candlekeep takes one month.  Five days before they arrive, a message comes to them from Ardrist.  Actual war has been declared on the Heartlands by the Krie’lat.  “How they plan to conquer us is unknown,” the mage reports.  “The Runts have something up their sleeves, to be sure.  I will keep you apprised as much as possible, but unstable magic continues with no end in sight.  To make matters worse, the forces of Thay are mobilizing along their borders.  None know why.  Contact me once you have any information regarding the statuette stones.”

 

            The arrival at Candlekeep is uneventful.  The group takes note of the monks here singing the prophecies of Alaundo the sage from dawn to dusk.  A man in one of the keep’s plain brown robe-uniforms tells the party that he has been expecting them and identifies himself as Vitrolus Nimhn.  The party hands over the tome given them by Vangerdahast and displays his seal to gain access to the library.  When they start researching the area south of Waterdeep to determine why the stones there are magical, they are startled to find the book with that knowledge already taken from the racks.  Next to a pile of tomes accessed in the past week is an open one, the very one they are looking for.

 

            Entitled Sword Coast Oddities: Trivia & History (a recent edition), under the heading “Waterdeep, lands surrounding” is the following entry- “Fifty years ago, the two most powerful mages of Waterdeep decided to have it out- a magical battle to the death.  After a week of talk, city officials finally convinced the magisters to battle outside the city’s borders.  An abandoned chalcedony mine south of the city was agreed upon as the site.”  A handwritten note in the margin says, “Chalcedony is used in making devices that offer protection from the undead.  Waterdeep originally mined the stone to use for its City of the Dead.  The mine was soon abandoned due to ‘unnatural accidental deaths of workers.’”

 

            The tome’s entry continues- “The mages went deep into the mines.  Disappointed spectators waited on the surface for the winner.  Sometime later, a cataclysmic explosion rocked the earth under the waiting people’s feet and neither mage ever resurfaced.  This battle site is rumored to be the birthplace of the little known discipline psionics.”

 

            A guest book near the door reveals the book’s latest puruser, one “Balanta Whiteshield, Knight of the Unicorn“ from Baldur’s Gate”.  Maxolt mentions something about a unicorn being in a recently heard Alaundo prophecy as Nimhn appears at the door to escort them to the Keeper.  The group is led into a basement where a man shuffles paper, his back to them, amidst bowing, praying monks.  Nimhn locks the door behind them all as the man shuffling papers turns to reveal his slanted eyes, saying, “Welcome, my friends.  I hope your time here has prepared you for death…First you people, then the unicorns.”

 

Nimhn apologizes, saying, “They arrived right before you did.  I had no choice.”  The monks close in and the party is led outside the keep to be murdered.  Once outside, the party defeats their overconfident Oriental captors and hears the prophecy of Alaundo mentioned by Maxolt- “Unicorns will vanish from the Gate before the saviors speed northward to the abandoned city.”  As the last Oriental is slain, a glowing white portal appears, depositing a gaunt humanoid with sharp features and ornamental bead jewelry.  The thing attacks the party and is soon killed.

 

The group sends a message of their findings to Ardrist, who responds quickly- “Message received.  Proceed to Baldur’s Gate and try to secure the aid of the Unicorns.  Your only objective now is to shut off the Krie’lat’s supply of chalcedony.  Your first briefing at Suzail mentioned a mage that escaped from this cavern.  He said that his adventuring party was captured.  If these people still live, they would no doubt make willing allies.  Lastly, a new group has entered the power struggle.  It has been confirmed that the Krie’lat are now receiving the aid of Astral Plane beings known as the githyanki.  They live for war and are, as a result, formidable foes.  Avoid all confrontation and collapse that chalcedony cave.  Good luck!”

 

The party heads north and arrives at Baldur’s gate on the sixth morning.  A prominent sign outside read, “NO ORIENTALS.  VIOLATORS WILL BE EXECUTED.”  Kohira disguises himself to enter safely.  After a number of hours, Balanta Whiteshield is found.  She appears to have gotten no sleep over the last few days and says someone is following her.  Indeed, a blind man with a gray cloth over his eyes seems to be everywhere they take her.  When the man is confronted, he attacks, revealing his true nature as a wu-jen.  When he is slain, Balanta takes them to the Unicorn’s headquarters beneath the Elfsong Tavern.

 

The basement meeting place is unusually vacant and pools of liquid coat the floor.  One PC is dripped on and when they look up, see bodies hanging in fishing nets.  One man lives long enough to warn the group of danger, “Get out…get…out…”

 

A glow heralds the entrance of githyanki (such as they encountered outside Candlekeep earlier).  Balanta takes a mortal blow that was intended for one of the PC’s and falls with the cry, “Resist the invaders!  Resist!”  The party defeats the outer planes humanoids and run outside to find the city in shambles.  The area, once bustling with business, now bustles with war.  Githyanki charge through the streets, slaying all in their path.  A mortally wounded woman huddles her doomed child next to her breast as she lies outside the tavern.  Suddenly, a huge shadow passes directly above the party and swings toward the city’s center- it is a red dragon!

 

“By the gods,” Maxolt exclaims.  “This city’s had it…Githyanki have some sort of pact with red dragons on this plane. There’s nothing we can do here.”  He suggests that the harbor might provide the best means of escape.  Some boats are found still floating in the harbor.  These are small, one mast-and-sail vessels.  The group takes one without a crew and pushes off.  Unfortunately, the githyanki are wise to this escape route and many boats are being strafed by passing dragons.  Two githyanki planeshift onto the boat but are quickly slain.

 

The party’s ship as well as three others make it ¾ out of the harbor before a dragon swoops onto the farthest ship, causing it to submerge, knocking crew and supplies into the water.  A coil of flame envelops the nearest ship and some of the flame leap onto theirs.  The dragon responsible flies past and begins turning to strike the party’s vessel next.

 

“That’s it,” says Maxolt, “I swore I’d never do this but too many have died already.”  He turns to the party and says, “We’re getting out of here!”  The warrior closes his eyes and ceases to be Maxolt.  His body expands rapidly, legs getting plumper, shoes turning into clawed feet, shoulders expanding into wings and face stretching until he is now the form of a gold dragon.  The boat is near tipping from the increased weight and “Max” swings his head down to yell, “Get on!” to the party.

 

The PC’s are surprised but board and take off just as their boat explodes into flame and wood fragments.  Gaining altitude, they are followed by a smaller red dragon and a githyanki rider.  The gith launches a lightning bolt at the group but he is soon slain by the party.  Max gains enough altitude and soon leaves the red behind.  After a few hours of flight, Maxolt lands and the party sees he has a grievous wound on his great belly.  He explains that he was hit badly when their ship exploded.  He then tells the real tale of his draconic nature:

 

“I’m actually a 50 year old gold dragon.  My real name is Furnokaletchinobilus, but you human types call me Furnok.  The man you know as Maxolt died 7 years ago while rescuing me from the Red Wizards of Thay.  I don’t know if you know this, but they capture powerful creatures of goodness and try to magically create evil warped versions for their own dark purposes.  They’ve already done it with unicorns and I was next on their list but Max and his band rescued me.  Because he died in the process, I vowed to further his name for a hundred years out of gratitude.  This is why I haven’t revealed myself before; the knowledge of a masquerading dragon would undoubtedly overshadow anything Maxolt himself had done in life.  But I am still devoted to this mission, now more than ever.  I will take you as far as I can but I will be in worse shape when we arrive.  My help may be negligible.  You must seek out these captured adventurers.  They sound like your only possible allies in a nest of vipers.”

 

Furnok/Maxolt continues to ferry the PC’s up the coast and they arrive 15 miles south of the City of Splendors in 5½ days.  Maxolt’s wound has festered and his breathing has worsened.  As they prepare to make the rest of the journey on foot, two red dragons with githyanki riders approach from the north and capture the weary group.  The party is taken to Waterdeep’s South Gate along with three other prisoners who look as though they’ve not seen the light of day in months.  All the prisoners bear arms, one a human and the others elves.  Whatever happens, the PC’s hope that they don’t end up looking like these poor devils.

 

DM’s Note: A lot of discovery here as the statuette stones are identified, Max’s identity is revealed, and the old party members from “Intrusions” are met at the end; all this besides an actual war in progress!  Now the core members of the future Protectorate are in place- Elron, Kaliban, Fury, Kohira, & Napftor.  It should be noted that earlier in the season, there was a particular room (with a handprint mold in it) of the Brokengulf villa that the PC’s could not, by any means, enter.  This room will soon be revealed and play a major role in future modules.

 

For now, things were proceeding almost too well.  War is good, but I like sticking to more small, one-shot modules.  So, the war would come to an end soon enough.  Besides, it would be a pain converting all the supplements to my own war-torn Realms.  As action-packed as this module was, it would not let up heading into the season finale.  Will the Krie’lat rule a racially-torn Realms or can the party, together with the original PC’s defeat the Oriental threat?  Let’s find out…

Module Rating:  ***1/2