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Dramatis Personae
Player Characters
- Taiyo – a forest nymph bard, who was implored by the voice of the forest to seek a replacement sun and save the world, and thus joined this mission
- Wilkins – former raven familiar to a now-dead master; an illusionist and informant to Princess Claire
- "The Druid" – A female human druid with no name
- Lieutenant Paragon Douglas – a human fighter, officer in the royal navy, and professional investigator
- Rosemary – A female human ranger
Non-Player Characters
- Lady Gavit Vesnool – A female zorakith, a powerful telepath and psion of the ruling "Mesmer" class. Middle aged with a slender build. She has long brown hair in intricate braids and wears light colored elegant gowns
- Lord Berdek Nostrod – Male zorakith and Mesmer. Middle aged, large and somewhat overweight. Dark hair pulled back into a topknot. Always smoking a pipe, to which he is addicted. Not above sending armed thugs to intimidate or rough-up his enemies. Has a spindlefolk woman as a consort, which is considered scandalous.
- Lord Gonren Nostrod – Young male zorakith and Lord Berdek's nephew. A talented telepath and died-in-the-wool cynic. Haughty and amoral.
Summary
Following the lead from the zorakith thugs who they conscripted, the heroes went to Lord Berdek’s manor. Through Wilkin’s ability to sense magic, they inferred that the dragon eggs were being kept in a stone outbuilding, which turned out to be the stables.
Wilkins, and the Druid, in eagle form, staked out the building until a party of glasswings arrived. Wilkins and the Druid saw that the glasswings were there to take possession of the dragon eggs, and shortly after they arrived, Lord Berdek arrived as well. They conducted their transaction, and the glasswings left with the eggs in tow.
As soon as the glasswings left, the heroes attacked them, killing two, maiming another, and incapacitating two others. They took the survivors hostage and interrogated them, learning that they were hired to purchase the eggs on behalf of an anonymous third party. They were told to take the eggs to a land consisting of a clump of rocks with a large stone tower, where they would deliver them to their mysterious client.
The heroes handed the eggs and the prisoners over to the Council of Mesmers, who praised them for their discrete handling of the situation. Lady Vesnool thanked them with a phire coin (1000 coin value) and also asked them to keep the affair a secret.
It turned out that Lord Berdek had taken a spindlefolk woman as a consort, which is scandalous in zorakith society in and of itself. He stole the eggs to try and pay off her considerable gambling debt, as her family were in Casarbon looking for her at the same time as the players.
The following morning, the players met with the telepath, Lord Gonren Nostrod, who was in fact Lord Berdek’s nephew, who was assigned to the task of helping the players commune with a Sol. Lord Gonren assured them that disputes like these were fairly common among the noble houses of Casarbon, and that he had no hard feelings against them.
After some debate as to where to go next, the players consulted the chart and found that Trinellonde’s Lantern was drawing near, which is a land of powerful magicians who imprisoned their Sol in a cage. Reasoning that they could provide valuable intel, and that it was closer than there other two leads of Argus or Sollifex Aether, they set a course for Trinellonde’s Lantern.
TL;DR
The heroes staked out Lord Berdek's mansion and saw him sell the eggs to a group of glasswings. They jumped the party of glasswings, got back the eggs, and learned that the glasswings were being paid to smuggle the eggs to a mysterious third party.
Lady Gavit thanked them for handling it discretely and paid them a bonus. She also assigned Lord Berdek's nephew, Lord Gonren Nostrod, to accompany the players on their quest. And thus they set out for Trinellonde's Lantern.
Concluding Thoughts
I left a couple of different hooks for them in this quest, but they didn't seem interested in following up on either of them. The spindlefolk looking for their wayward sister-turned-Lord Berdek's consort was a way of tying events to the overarching pirate thread, and the theft of the dragon eggs was tied to ooleum plot thread. Nevertheless, they decided to continue following the main quest of "find a new sun" by going to a place where they might learn more about Sols. On the one hand, I was glad I got to use the prep I made for Trinellonde's Lantern, but on the other hand, I'm a little perplexed on how best to raise danger and hint at looming threats when they're just going from place to place and ignoring threats on the side.
May not be an issue since they're all having fun, but it hints at a blind spot in my prep.
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