Thotham's Journal Entry #5

We were left to the aftermath of our battle. The mage healed our party; we bound the dragon cultist that remained alive; and the crow returned to his master (despite me offering my shoulder and thanking him for his assistance). To say the mage we saved was grateful would be an understatement! He wanted to make sure that each and every one of us was gifted with a magical item (of lesser value in his words -- he was "overstocked"). 

Fefifo was gifted a mask of disguise, allowing him to cast disguise self and change his appearance. Zex was gifted a magical timepiece that grew into a shield that deflects magic missiles. Lefty was allowed to keep his amulet, which was revealed to be an amulet of health. Inyah was gifted a wand of cure wounds. Shadow had his cursed ring . . . of course. As for me, I scored a nice set of thievery gloves that I believe will make my pickpocketing skills somewhat legendary! In addition, we each received 200 gold, and the party gained a potion of clarity. The loot overflowed for our job well done!

The mage revealed his name to be Seegis. We talked at length about the key that was stolen from him, and he simply had no idea how it came to him, other than his tower brought him to the location and "gifted" it to him. 

As for the cultist, it was left to us to deal with him. He was obstinate and wanted a blood oath before coughing up any information, but I had a better idea. Placing the immovable rod against his throat, I put him in a choke hold he couldn't escape and offered him a simple deal, five questions in exchange for his freedom . . . and his life. Then Fefifo upped the ante and produced some extremely smelly cheese and put it right into his nose. Ingenious! Who knew the power of smell could be used so well for interrogation?

Unfortunately, we didn't get much information, but we did get another piece of the puzzle. The dragon cultist was sent to the tower by his superior, who had advanced knowledge of where the key would be. The superior is most likely a seer who wears a half mask and resides in Neverwinter. I had to part with 10 gold for the latter piece of information, but we were true to our deal and let him go free. (Besides, I knew we'd be able to track him as he retreated anyway.)

We said our farewells to Seegis (still fuming a bit after Zex busted his panel) and followed the cultist's tracks. Zex was excellent at using their survival skills and tracked him right to the edge of some tall grass. Zex even discovered where he had leaped into the grass and waited. Zex even tracked him to a clearing where you could see he had been on his knees and taken away on horseback. After that, the horse tracks were easy to follow back to the main road leading to Neverwinter. We pursued.

As we traveled the road, we questioned the merchants heading south, away from Neverwinter, if they had seen a group on horseback with a prisoner. They had! As it turns out, it was a contingency of the Lord's Alliance that had captured him, much to our luck.

We continued on to Neverwinter, presented our paperwork at the gate, made a quick stop at the garrison, and then on to the commandment of the Lord's Alliance to speak with our financer . . . who made us fill out the most awful paperwork about our experience. That said, we were offered another job to hunt the necromantic Thay plaguing Phandalin for a sum of 400 gold each.

Before we leave town again, the group discussed how it might be beneficial to speak with the archmage of Neverwinter to see if they might know who this half-masked seer could be. For now, we're keeping our book a secret and keeping it on the move. It is dangerous to keep with us, and we have no idea if the seer knows its location . . . they are a seer, however . . . best watch our backs.