B1E11 The Cabin

Donobis (Tiefling paladin, Bill), Mareshi (human Cleric, Tony), Draggo (Dragonborn Barbarian, Brian), Thokk (half-Orc Warlock, Duane), Knott (Firbolg Druid, Matt), Fabian (1//2 elf Bard, Goeff)

Bryn Shander: We paid to open the egg. And we paid dearly as we faced a Gibbering Mouther! Then again, what did we expect from a metal egg that came from the stars?! At least we still had the rare metal egg to perhaps make use of. So, we visited the House of the Morning Lord to ask about the gnome Copper. Instead, we faced a bear! Phew, only a gnome dressed in a winter coat and hood made from bear skin. Copper put on weird glasses as he mused at the rare metal, “Perhaps my friend Micradius could use it in his experiments up at the cabin. He found a book from the ancient city of Netheral that might hold clues on how to end this eternal winter. When I left him, he mentioned missing some key components. Perhaps this metal could suffice since it IS of interstellar origin.”

Copper drew a map to the ancient cabin (older than Ten-Towns) built by rangers ages ago as an outpost, “Follow the road past Termalaine till you come to a corpse of trees. Turn left towards the lake where you’ll find the cabin on a high ledge overlooking the lake.” So, we loaded a wagon with supplies and the Shield-Guardian construct. It was a 2-day journey, west to Targos then northeast to Termalaine, made longer as we had to sit out a blizzard.

Polar Bear Encounter: The bear charged towards us as it was pursued by 4 wildmen (Clan of the Bear). Odd, didn’t they honor the bear?! And that’s when the bear transformed into a human. We intervened and parlayed to learn he was a traitor to their tribe, “He doesn’t honor the black stone amulet worn by our leadership.” Blackstone = Chardalyn. Same evil-tainted stone that those Duegars were mining, along with the blackstone statue we encountered in Easthaven. We quickly surmised this clan was corrupted by the stone and their new chieftan who was a traveler from afar, proclaiming how the stone protected them from winter. THAT explained why they were without winter coats!

Mareshi (Clan of the Winter Wolf) was able to bluff the Bear Clan, creating an illusion of putting a blackstone amulet on the neck of the traitor. “You killing him could bring plight to your clan. Let us deal with him.” And so, we parted under peaceful terms. And the traitor Onya Manartoc offered explanation, “It began a few years ago when Duegar offered to pay us to mine the rock from an old dwarven mine where their leader Xardorok kept his pet white dragon. Once we found the blackstone, it changed us. I voiced concerns and was driven out. Chased for 4 days until I came across you.”

Black Cabin: After camp, we parted ways. We came upon the cabin raised on stilts as it overlooked the frozen lake. We walked the ramp up toward the cabin. Calls for Micradius went unanswered. The cabin was empty except for rodents that had taken residence. The inside was blanketed in snow and frost as the windows were open. Did I mention the charred body next to the central worktable? Or the black blast scorch marks waist high on the walls? On the table: a weird cylindrical device and a charred book with its pages burnt and the spine with only the letters ‘…ETHER…’ (we reasoned it Netheril) remaining. Mareshi identified the holy symbol amulet on the neck of the body as honoring the god Lathander. Knott detected its magic as ‘Transmutation’. Thokk took the amulet for himself.

The table device looked like a large chunk of coal with 2-rings (what we would recognize as a gyroscope). In a back bedroom, we found a letter from Copper that suggested “3 is better than 2”. Another bedroom had calligrapher supplies and a blueprint sketch of the device. And a small clay-man statue that Knott equated to his Chuwinga gift.

We settled for a long rest with watch order set. And we witnessed strange movements: windows closing, items moving. Fortune when everyone was in different rooms when Mareshi finally handled the device. A loud explosion preceded his smoldering death. Turned out he was transported to another plane where he found Micradius. They worked together to leave clues for the rest of us to realize what happened and for us to craft that 3^rd ring for the device. When all was ready, we activated the device: Micradius & Mareshi re-appeared. Micradius took back his clay doll and amulet and explained, “The device can control weather within a small range and short time. This is but a proof-of-concept. We’ll need a MUCH larger device to dispel this eternal winter.”

NEXT RUMOR: Micradius did some research on Netheril and learned about a spire falling from the sky.

Next Episode: https://wjrrofm.blogspot.com/2024/08/b1e12-whales-bell.html