#nylef

After our little group intro in Nightstone, we are whisked North into Icewind Dale by help of friendly giant just in time to assist Brynshander fight off a giant attack. It's at this point we meet Sir Baric Nylef, knight in The Order of the Gauntlet (The sword coasts most good and typical knight order), whose chasing the remnants of a failed job. Him and a group of knights took out a nasty criminal gang but the leader escaped, and he's trying to track him down in order to really call his job good and done. He hasn't had any luck gathering intel, and rumor was this criminal, known as The Weevil, was in Brynshander. It just so happens that one of Halthwyns group mates, Via, is WAY more connected to the criminal underworld and found out right away the rumors were a misdirection and the Weevil was still in Mirabar. So, since he helped with the fighting, we trade info and also decide to help him on his mission. Our group didn't have a lot of direction, and with the other thread we received pointing us to Watersdeep (with two PCs avoiding the city for backstory reasons), Nylef became our main plot. He pretty quickly reveals to us that the Weevil has a large bounty, and while he DOES want to hunt him for the first job, the more pressing thing on his mind is that the Order of the Gauntlet is sort of consuming itself and becoming this other, reactive, and racist cult hellbent on rooting out evil. The Gilded Eye is an offshoot, though rapidly growing, which has set up in the fortress cathedral to Helm, and he wants to use the money to put a stop to it. Halthwyn agrees to help immediately, since 'rooting out evil' is in fact just persecuting Tieflings and anyone else they disagree with. The rest of the party agrees as well, and so with the actual goal agreed on we head to Mirabar.

The travel to Mirabar is a lot of small convos as the whole group gets used to one and other. The two martials hit it off over both having horses and liking horses. Halthwyn whittles and gives Nylef a nicely carved replica of his old warhorse Henry. It now hangs attached to Henrys saddlebags. It's hard to pin down exacts but they're both probably crushing on each other by the time we reach the dwarven city.

In Mirabar we learn that the Weevil is alleged to be fighting in the grand tourney under a mask, claiming that if anyone can beat him the mask will come off. Winning the tourney grants the title of Champion of Winter, along with a bunch of like, relic giant hunting gear and prestige with the dwarves. It's the talk of the town that this might be the Weevil and how if he wins it'll be a farce. So only one thing to do, all the PCs and Nylef enter the tourney to try and bring the Weevil down. Nylef, our beautiful knight, our beautiful man, throws away his shot at advancing past round one to instead beat the ever loving shit out of a member of the Gilded Eye, who apparently was shit talking Halthwyn.

Via our Rogue and Thorne our warlock also get knocked out of their qualifier, but Halthwyn advances through hers after rather unceremoniously knocking Blackheart our cleric into the arena water feature. The only PC to do advance. So now all our hopes rest on her. Nylef after beating the Gilded Eye fighter bloody gets incredibly bloodied himself, and ends up in the infirmary for Halthwyns qualifier. So she gets to to break the good news to a man who is incredibly injured and fairly sure his quest is over.

Nylef is an NPC so I have no insight into how long he's been pining but I know for a fact this is Halths moment. Throwing away a shot at completing a 2 year long hunt to defend honor Halthwyn thinks she doesn't have any more? It was OVER, your gal was hooked. Halthwyn will go on to win the tourney, claiming the title, the giant slaying axe and the cassowary armor (Which you can don or doff as an action - termed the sex armor for instant removal), AND learn the identity of the Masked Dwarf is in fact, not the Weevil. It's a local older brewery owner, one who's very well respected. She doesn't unmask him publicly, and he's appreciative of that fact. Turns out the Weevil is his son is law, and the death of his daughter sent him back down to some dark roots. He's been sheltering the man, hiding him in some frontier town, but he knows he needs to be brought to justice and gives us the info we need to track him down.

Nylef for the first time since we met him actual cuts loose and we all have a drink to celebrate our success. But the job isn't done yet, and so we all have a few days peace in Mirabar and then begin south to find and capture the Weevil, which after a brief run in with a giant and some Zhentarim, goes smoothly. In order to hand him over we need to get to a Lords Alliance outpost, which takes us toward Triboar. The whole time we're traveling with the Weevil Nylef gets to think on the next steps. He's been trapped for years in the 'find the weevil' part of his journey, now finally moving past that is a bit daunting. There's a lot of writing down names, taking note of who he thinks will still be allies, who might be enemies, the success is bittersweet. Meanwhile Halthwyn is struggling with the fact that if she does pursue anything with Nylef it's just going to make his life harder. His genuine quest to right things and stop the cult will inevitably be twisted with her involvement, if they're involved... she's going through it a different way and Via, girlboss party rogue, tries to talk some sense into her. The handoff at Triboar goes about as smooth as it could for our group (Read: Blackheart gave the Weevil a lockpick but the guy swallowed it - good luck king I guess), and we all opt to stay a night in the fancy inn run by a Watersdeep Noble whose trying to be the big man in little Triboar. We all get to dress up, be fancy, have a good time and not worry about the road or quest or life for a few hours.

These two end up dancing, having some drinks, just enjoying a night together. Though neither makes moves to take it out of the public spaces, and they retire separately. Halthwyn spends the next week they're in Triboar for other quests trying to figure out if Nylef danced with her out of genuine want or just pity. Finally after wallowing for a few days she asks and he's like "what no of course I wanted to"

However nothing comes of it. Halthwyn technically is supposed to be unattached, the Merc company wants their members working for as long as possible and getting entangled with others is not how you do that. Big lone wolf energy. So Halthwyn is torn up by duty and doubt and worries that since Nylef is so bound up in his work he might think less of her if she breaks her oath... It's a big mess. Via, blessed girlboss, isn't having any of it.