August 15, 2009 - The party creates/invests in a new business enterprise and are hired to find Zenith Splintershield.
After realizing Cram was missing after the Demonskar Ball, the Stormhammers go searching for clues and manages to track him down to an old abandoned barn. They blow in and fight agents of the Last Laugh, who had captured Cram and tortured/interrogated him for information on the party.
Afterward Cram tells them that Thazienne, the young woman who sat with them at the Ball, was actually a last laugh member in disguise who had a real hatred for the party named Jil. A dirty yellow-haired halfling named Finch tortured Cram for a few days, asking him to spill everything he knew about the Stormhammers. Then, the beholder teleported in and told Cram that the Stormhammers were doomed thanks to the info he had given them. It then told Jil that all the new recruits to the Last Laugh could test their skills on Cram for a week, at which point the beholder would return to add Cram to its collection. However the rest of the Stormhammers arrived a few days later and rescued him.
After saving Cram, the rest of the Stormhammers meet with Alahind to officially register the new members with the city. Alahind also provides the new members with orphan rings, and the rewards from the Ball (+2 diplomacy with Cauldron residents, 10% discount from local businesses, and a magic badge which gives +1 initiative.) A bugbear archer wielding an enormous bow crafted from some hideous monster's spine named Gramps join, as does a sickly-looking warforged paladin named (no name yet).
The next day, the party heads over to the blacksmith to pick up a length of chain Gramps had ordered. On the way there they spot a ramshackle food cart in an alley named Meat on a Stick, and everyone immediately runs over and buys some. The owner, a scroungy goblin named Gary, runs the stand and cooks the meat. After some quick discussion, the party decides to buy the business from Gary for 100g, and hire him to work the cart and push it around the city, selling Meat on a Stick and establishing the brand name. When Huron tries to identify the meat in his Meat on a Stick, he recognizes rat and hare meat mixed together. After going over their new business model with the very surprised Gary, they tell him Thunderbomb would come help push the rather large cart, and to deliver the money to them at the Tipped Tankard.
Proud of their latest financial investment, the Stormhammers then wander over to a puppet shop. Yggdrasil begins having a deep conversation with a hand puppet being used by a man behind the counter, asking who had created it, and a few questions about its creator. After a few minutes of this Huron takes the puppet off the man's hand, which caused Yggdrasil great traumatic stress. Yggdrasil then buys the hand puppet.
Gramps and Huron notice a low rumbling coming from beneath the street. They draw their weapons and begin looking around just as an umber hulk bursts of the street in a shower of stone and dirt, taking out an entire corner of a large warehouse as it surfaces. It then turns to the warehouse and starts smashing into it with its massive claws, ripping out wooden boards and planks and causing a great deal of destruction. It also blasts nearby townsfolk with a dizzying, stunning gaze attack which makes them confused and causes them to stagger around aimlessly.
Gramps and Huron rush over and begin attacking the umber hulk, and soon so does the rest of the party. However, almost everyone ends up getting caught in the hulk's next gaze attack and end up scattered all about the street. Before being hit by the gaze, Vico shouts at all the civilians nearby and wakes them from their traces, and they begin rushing off down the street. Gramps nails the hulk with a double arrow shot that drives it back through the (weakened) wall of the warehouse, which then collapses and crumbles down on top of it. On the other side, Gary gives out a shriek and throws all the Meat on a Stick supplies and money into a huge sack and runs away, just before the stand is crushed by the collapsing warehouse.
The party gathers and readies attacks to hit the hulk when it emerges. Meanwhile, civilians continue to flee, including one elderly dwarf named Beppo pushing a cart full of apples. Jamie says that the old dwarf is HIS employee...for "Fruit on a Stick"...which sadly does coincide with his plan on opening an orchard and repeatedly casting Bloom to make fruit grow.
As the townsfolk scatter down the street, the umber hulk surprises everyone by smashing up through the street away from the collapsed warehouse. As it burrows up, it smashes through another warehouse and sends a handful of civilians flying away unconscious. The party rushes over and attacks the hulk again. Huron is grabbed by the monster's giant claws and it starts sawing away at him with its mandibles, but Huron crushes it in the face with some powerful strikes. Yggdrasil blasts the monster with holy light, which bursts out of the hand puppet in a frightening display.
Battered, the hulk releases Huron and burrows out of sight again. Huron fumbles a swing as it lets him go, and his mordenkrad ends up hooked on the hulk's mandibles and dragged into the ground. Huron goes to follow but is buried underneath the weakened building as it collapses on him. It also knocks down and injures some dazed civilians, but Yggdrasil stops to case a mass healing spell that stabilizes everyone around him.
The umber hulk emerges farther down the street and semi-collapses another building, smashing Beppo's cart and knocking the old dwarf to the ground (he survives though). Some city guards arrive and rush up and attack, but are quickly knocked away. Also, on the balcony of a inn overlooking the street, a woman holding a baby emerges and starts screaming at the scene beneath her. She is caught in the hulk's next gaze attack and twitches, sets her baby down on the balcony sill, and walks stiffly back inside the inn. Some mages dressed in city colors appear and start helping civilians evacuate, shouting that they are the MTA.
PALADIN runs up to the umber hulk, dropping his mordenkrad and snatching up Huron's as he runs by it, and lays into it. Up above, the baby frees itself of its blankets and starts crawling on the balcony. It wobbles unsteadily, but Vico sprints up the street and teleports to the balcony and catches the baby just as it teeters off the edge. Down below, the party finally finishes off the hulk, which collapses in a bloody, chitinous heap on the rubble-strewn street.
The MTA and city guard ask the party a number of questions about what exactly happened. As they talk, a number of civilians thank Yggdrasil as they leave for saving their lives. The woman with the baby also profusely thanks Vico. Gramps activates his ratform armor and turns into a rat and runs down one of the burrow holes to see where it emerges. Meanwhile, PALADIN and some MTA agents poke around in the ruins of the first destroyed warehouse and find the remnants of a rune circle. A few arcana checks reveal that it was used in a summoning ritual. Gramps runs through the tunnel and find it just comes up inside the warehouse.
The Stormhammers ask the MTA about the owner of the warehouse, who tell them it is owned by a wealthy trade merchant named Maavu. They don't know much else about him, except that recently he has been very vocal in protesting the recent tax increases. They tell the party that if there is anything else they need to know they will contact them (at the Tipped Tankard.)
The Stormhammers pick up Gramps' length of chain and head back to the Tipped Tankard. They bring the umber hulk corpse to serve as the first delicacy meal of Meat on a Stick. Thog, Gary and Thunderbomb prepare a meal that is dubious at best. Meanwhile, as they are eating Artem comes in and comments on a buzz on the streets. A rumor is flying around town that Maavu was seen leaving the city with great haste, riding a black horse with clouds where its hooves should be. The party decides to investigate Maavu fully tomorrow.
The Next Day
The next morning Celeste comes to the Tipped Tankard and hands them a folded white card. She tells them that word of their heroics the previous day have spread, and the client she represents wants to hire them for a mission. She explains that the card is an invitation to the nobles lounge called the Cusp of Sunrise, where she and her client will meet with the party that evening. She tells them to dress appropriately.
The party debates what to do for a while, not sure if they should see what this mission is, or head out of town to try to chase down Maavu. They decide to ask around town first. They check out Maavu's various business holdings and warehouses, but they are locked up and under guard - seems the town guard has also heard the rumors and are looking for Maavu as well. They also discover that the rumors Artem heard last night are fuzzy at best...everyone seems to have heard it from a friend of a friend or a neighbor, etc. A little skeptical on the Maavu thing, they decide to meet Celeste's client and see what the mission is.
Remembering Celeste's comment of dressing appropriately, Yggdrasil buys a suit and hat, Vico buys a crushed velvet noble's outfit, and Paladin gets a tux. Huron dresses normally, and Gramps dresses normally but also wears the dead umber hulk's claws as clacker-hands. They go to the Cusp of Sunrise and the doorman greets them but seeing how they are dressed, stalls them in the lobby. He comments on how nicely Vico and PALADIN are dressed, and after some convincing, allows Yggdrasil's outfit to also pass muster. Gramps and Vico step outside for a moment, and Gramps uses his ratform armor to turn into a rat and hide in Vico's clothes. Huron glares at the man and refuses to change his outfit. He eventually ends up waiting in the lobby. Since weapons aren't allowed in the lounge, he also watches the party's weapons while glaring at the doorman. He does order a drink, though - a Rocky Mountain Troll Fucker.
Inside, they are informed that word will be sent to Celeste, and they are free to entertain themselves in the entire lounge except the East Wing. Gramps immediately scampers off in that direction to check things out in rat form. The others talk to some nobles and hawk Meat on a Stick. Yggdrasil and Vico chat up a rich looking dwarf merchant named Adrick, telling him that Meat on a Stick is nutritious and inexpensive, the perfect meal for his workers. At the same time, PALADIN spots Taskerhill talking with some other nobles and heads over and talk to him. Taskerhill distantly thanks him for their recent city service, and hands him a small bag of gold (10gp) as "compliments". Paladin recognizes this as a brushoff and turns it back on him, saying that his order for Meat on a Stick will be delivered to his estate. He leaves before Taskerhill can respond. Adrick also agrees that Meat on a Stick sounds like a good business venture and agrees to a deal.
Meanwhile, Gramps sneaks into the Eastern Wing and discovers the kitchen area and a large wing of closed-off, private rooms. He rejoins the party as they discover a few gambling tables. Vico and PALADIN sit down to gamble at a dice game against four other people. Paladin ends up winning, and collects over 1,000 gp. Celeste arrives, with a retinue of dwarves led by an ancient, sickly looking elder dwarf male. They go up into one of the private rooms.
Celeste introduces her client - Davked Splintershield, head of his clan. He comes straight to the point and says that he wants to hire the heroes of the city to track down and rescue his long-lost son Zenith. The party recognizes the name as the dwarf who went into the Underdark a decade ago and has been missing since. He explains that in his younger days, he was a bad father and pushes his three sons away. When his wife died, she cursed him for this with her dying breath and the curse has taken its toll, ravaging his health and bringing him to the point of death. He has to find and make up with his sons, and he has done so with his other two sons, but Zenith has so far eluded him. Despite enlisting powerful wizards and clerics to use magic to track where Zenith is, all he's learned is a single word - "Bhal-Hama." The only person who has shown even slight recognition to the word during his men's travels was a loopy old man named Crazy Jared, who lives in solitude a week away from Cauldron.
Jamie: We want one hundred times this much in payment! *tosses Taskerhill's bag of gold onto the table.* Davked: ...that's it? Party: JAMIE!! Jamie: Fine we don't want one hundred times this much, we want this much BUT IN DIAMONDS! Davked: ......that's it? Party: :O JAMIE STOP!!
Davked offers them a flat 4,000 gp reward for the safe rescue and recovery of his son. The party agrees and after getting directions to where Crazy Jared lives, they set off.
As they approach the hill where Crazy Jared makes his home, they spot plumes of smoke rising up in the air. They rush forward to see an old man screaming and running around in panic from a red dragon who is flying overheard, yelling at him. The old man's thatch hut and ramshackle fence are in flames. As the party runs up, the dragon roars at the old man "TELL ME WHERE HIS LAIR IS!!!"
The party leaps to the assault, and the red dragon responds by flying up and stunning everyone with its fearful presence. It then breathes fire on most of the party and continues flying overhead, taunting and snarling at the party. The old man, Crazy Jared, shouts in triumph when he sees the party, calling them "his knights of Anduria" and threatens the red dragon. Gramps pegs it with repeated double shots, and it flies over to deal with him, but Gramps dodges aside. It then flies over to land and deal with Vico, who separated from the rest of the group, but that quickly became its downfall as it was hit by numerous slowing / pacifying attacks which batter it around. It tries to escape and fly away and almost does so but Gramps rushes forward and hits it with some heavy bowshots which knock it to the ground. Before it can get up and escape, Yggdrasil blasts it in the face with a searing light spell and kills it.
They turn to Crazy Jared to question him and discover he is totally batshit insane. He speaks to them as if he were King of some nation called Anduria, and makes little sense in the conversation. When Vico asks him if he recognizes the name Bhal-Hama, he recognizes the word as being Kuo-Toan in origin. He translates it into meaning either the "lucky black" or "black fish". When questioned further, he says that he does indeed know of a Bhal-Hama, and in fact just last week sent a retinue of knights to the entrance to guard it, a pit called the Pit of Jaws. He cheerfully sketches them a map to the pit. He also tells them that the red dragon's name was Gottrod, and he was interrogating Jared about the whereabouts of Gottrod's rival "Dhorlot."
The party eyes up the dragon corpse and decides to bring it back to Cauldron so they can a) cut off its head and have it stuffed and mounted, and b) get the corpse examined to see what they can have made out of it. The cut down some logs and carry the dragon back to town.
Once back, they cut off its head and bring it to the local...whatever...to have them inspect it. In the meantime, Yggdrasil decides to perform a Speak With Dead ritual to question the dead dragon as to where its lair (and treasure) are. Much taunting of the dead dragon ensues.
DM: Okay, from your roll, you can ask the corpse...two questions. Justin: Okay. My first question is...NOT SO TOUGH NOW, ARE YOU???
Yggdrasil ends up having to cast the ritual twice, but they do manage to track down the general area of the dragon's lair, which is located on their map of the area nearby the "Haunted Village".
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