The Grey Standard - Infiltrating the Cult
The group of heroes, Thia and her band of murderers, had finally gotten back to the main fort with the rest of the townsfolk. Grigori was stumbling awake, with more cuts and bruises on him than usual. The town was rushing around trying to get their lives back together, but still a somber mood around for the amount of loss that everyone suffered.
Some point into the next day Governer Nighthill came to say hi to us and thank us for what the group had done to save the town, or at least protect what was left of it. He gave Thia some coin out of their reserves to help our heroes on their way and provided a new opportunity. With the camp seemingly nearby and a large horde of cultists easily trackable, he asked the group to investigate the camp and find out more for him. He provided horses and all the equipment that was needed. Our heroes boldly agreed that they would go after a bit more rest.
First goal was to get back to the original caravan and let them know that the flour was protected and that they could go and pick it up from mill. Gold traded hands once again and the caravan was left to their nefarious deeds of smuggling whatever it was they were smuggling.
After re-equipping themselves, our heroes headed out south, where the cultists retreated to their camp. Following fairly obvious tracks along the way, the idea was to get to the cult and try to join up as followers of Tiamat. Along the road we found a group of cultists that had set up camp, Clint snuck up and the rest of the party followed then ambushed them and kept one cultist alive. A lot of information was gained from the Cultist, including a better direction as to where the camp was and some info about their organization’s structure. The people in purple cloaks were the leaders, there were the two half dragons that we knew about and they worshipped Tiamat, the dragon of chaos. He told us all of this information, but after what he did to the town of Greenest, he was murdered anyways by the team. Lanse was a bit shaken up about it but we tried to rationalize the killing as taking revenge on the townsfolk lives that were destroyed and that he would have continued to do bad things.
Continuing down the road the group encountered a strange valley between some rocks, they approached cautiously as it looked very ominous and could have been some sort of trap. Of course, it was some sort of trap and even though Lans with his keen eyes was on alert, a trap was sprung. Leaping down from above were some cultists and kobolds, with some sort of sergeant leading the ambushers. Grigori and Lans were trying to handle the onslaught of kobolds that were overrunning us while Clint and Thia climbed up to attack the sergeant. Clint quickly got surrounded by cultists and after a few dire hits, fell, badly wounded. The cultists were grouped over his body however and Thia made a risky maneuver by blasting back the cultists with a wave of force that also sent Clint’s body flying, bringing him closer to death, but she managed to down or injure the majority of the cultists. The sergeant turned to her and began attacking. Meanwhile, Grigori had a multitude of Kobolds on him and nearly was taken down if not for the supporting firebolts from Lans, who quickly turned to help Thia and Clint when he saw them go down. After withstanding some blows, Thia rushed over to Clint quickly sealing his wounds with a spell for him to come back and stab the sergeant in the back, with Lans finishing him off with a blast of fire. While Clint was focussing on the Sergeant a cultists came up behind him and cut open his leg and he once again went down. The other three finished off what was left of the cultists, helped Clint up with a healing potion and eventually carried on their way, looking bruised and beaten up.
Eventually the group made their way to the camp, they dirtied themselves up a bit (not hard after yesterday’s escapades) and walked up to the guards on duty. Thia explained that they saw the damage they had done to greenest and wanted to be on the side with power. The cultists took them in without too much questioning due to Thia’s unwavering expressions. The party pushed forward and talked to some of the leaders of the camp and were permitted to stay the night and go through initiation the next day.
While sitting around a campfire, Thia caught the attention of some of the cultists. One man, named Quinn, was very interested and she started some light flirting with him, but told him that he would have to get through Grigori if he wanted to prove that he was tough enough to chat with Thia. the man took on the challenge and Grigori fought the guy after the cultists through the first punch. Quinn’s goons (the Blue Boars) were cheering him on and Lans was in the back taking bets, while Thia played some battle music. Clint took the time to try and explore more of the camp. While exploring he ran into an old friend of his, Leosin, tied to a cross, guarded by two cultist. Clint tried his hardest to convince the guards to leave but they got suspicious of him, so while the fight distraction was going on he tried to take the two guards out, but was quickly restrained.
Meanwhile at the campfire, the fight was getting bloody but Grigori finished Quinn off and Thia ran up to hug him. This distraction brought us to the attention of one of the leaders of the camp, Langradosa, the same half-dragon that Grigori had fought the day before. Previously the group had come up with a strategy that they would say they were changing sides to the one with more power if they were caught.
Landradosa brought the group into be questioned one by one. Thia was brought in first and stuck with the lie, not much was done or said from the half-dragon and Thia was let go, on her way out however she tried to “Suggest (use the spell suggestion) that Langradosa should let her companions go, but it did not seem to have much of an effect. Clint and Lanse followed suit in their stories, but Grigori sold out the group, saying they were there to take over the camp and find out things.
The group found themselves being sent to be tied up with a variety of other prisoners, seemingly from greenest or other surrounding camps. Once they were left alone, with guards outside of their tent, Thia tried to pick the lock with the bobby pin in her hair, but dropped the bobby pin and couldn’t find it. The guards took notice and came in, Thia purposefully dropped her flower from her hair on the ground and said she was trying to pick it up. The guard squashed the flower and threw it away. This was a precious gift from her friend that she lost and was pretty devastated. After a few more attempts of getting out, Clint finally realized that he needed to break his wrist to escape the chains and did so, quietly. He then snuck up on the guards and tried to take them out, he got one and Thia with some magic got the other. The keys were there to unlock the group and everyone started to make a break for the exit. Clint went off to rescue his friend Leosin, while the rest of the party got the townsfolk on their horses then ran off. It was a very close race out of the camp, some spells being shot out behind, boxes being knocked over as they made their way. The townsfolk got out without much problem on their horses. Finally Thia, Grigori and Lans were able to outrun (or kill) the remaining cultists.
Once the group got back into town, there was no sign of Clint, so they went to the Governor and told them what had happened. The Governor was happy with the outcome and that some of their villagers had been returned, many families were overjoyed and we did our duty to the town. He had also not seen Clint, but there was another stranger that had made his way into town from that direction that was injured and was staying at the church, recovering in town. Our heroes made their way over and discovered Leosin, Clint’s friend who had been rescued during the escape. It turns out that Clint and Leosin had been climbing the cliff at the back of the camp to escape but Clint had a terrible fall due to his wrist and was likely dead. Leosin barely made it back alive but had some information for the group, that they should go north as that was where the cultists were heading. He also mentioned that the cultists had actual dragon eggs with them.
This gave the Thia, Grigori and Lans some more direction, as well as some increased vigor to pursue the cultists that killed their friend.
