(G212 05/09/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), Mira)

(G212 05/09/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), Mira)


DAY 223 (20th Marpenoth)  (October)

In the morning they met up and planned the days activities. Between them they had a notion to
ask around Goldenfields and try and decern the meaning of 'MH'. What it could be and where.

Goldenfields is a large complex of farms centered around a fortified abbey. The wall around the abbey
encloses a small town of about fifty buildings including the inn they were staying in. Outside the
wall were ten farms of various sizes. Including the farmland the area of Goldenfields could be said
to be about twenty square miles.

Before the horde had arrived the outer farms were all prosperous and well populated, heavily patrolled
by mounted guards from the abbey. But when reevers from the horde of Obuld Many-Arrows had arrived the
farms had been abandoned and the farm folk relocated to the shelter of the abbey.

With the horde moving off though, the folk were drifting back to their burnt out houses and beginning
repairs.

Mathmoss said he would scout about outside the walls and leave the abbey and inside the walls to Cale.
So, they split up, saying they would meet up later that day at the Inn.

Now, what Mathmoss got up to, I do not know as he never told anyone, but I do know that Cale started
by talking to the innkeeper and then went on to the abbey. Cale decided to go straight to the top and
talk to Tolgar Anuvien, the Lord of Goldenfields.

The guards wouldn't let him into the main abbey building but a cleric by the name of Brother Maynard
came out to talk to him and offered him tea in a guard house.

Cale started talking and told of his story, of helping protect Waterdeep, meeting Mathmoss and Pensato
and seeking adventure had accepted a quest to go to Hommlett. He then told Maynard he was looking for
something called 'MH' that was not too far from Hommlett.

'Why do you not ask in Hommlett?' inquired the cleric.
'We were not made welcome there.' said Cale in rather an understated tone.

Maynard left and came back half an hour later with a dusty tome.
'Now, this text is rather out of date.', he said, 'But I think I know where your MH is. Firstly though,
if I could ask you to make a small donation to the abbey?'

Cale gave one gold, but when Maynard raised an eyebrow he made it up to ten.

'Very well. MH must mean "Moat House", this is a ruined building about half a days journey from Hommlett.
According to this historical text, it was once a forward base for a group known as the 'Cult of Elemental
Evil'. They were interested in subjugating all the lands in this area and building a Temple to their evil
god. This never happened as Waterdavian forces came and put a stop to it.
The Moat House fell into ruin and this book makes no more mention of it. I do know, from my own knowledge
though that the Cult of Elemental Evil were a splinter group linked to another evil group called the
Vanguard of Sertrous. You may or may not remember the yaun-ti incursions of two years ago? I am lead to
belief this Vanguard had something to do with it also. Does this help?'

Cale nodded and said that it did. He thanked Maynard and went back to the inn to wait for Mathmoss.

At noon he had his lunch in the main room. He noticed a cloaked and hooded female figure watching him
but did not approach her. When he went to his room, after a few minutes there was a knock on the door.

The women came in and sat at the table.
'Who are you?' asked Cale.
'My name is Reva. What business do you have in Goldenfields?'

Cale gave an evasive answer. He noticed that she fiddled with a ring and he felt a rush of magic wash
over him but he resisted it.
'You are strong.', she said, 'But look into my eyes.'
Cale looked everywhere but her eyes and resisted another urge to go against his will.

She leant in to kiss him and he grabbed her, wrestling her to the ground. She clawed at his face but
missed. She then seemed to fade and blur, but he retained his grip on her and she could not get free.

Cale pinned her and tried to grab at her sword. She cried out in some language he did not recognize.

A hooded man burst in and cast a spell that broke Cale's will.
The man said,
'Come with us, calmly and in silence.'
Cale could no nothing other than what the man suggested.

He was lead through the streets of Goldenfields to a house on the north west wall. He was lead downstairs
into a cell. He saw that is was a reasonably large chamber, with three torches on the wall providing light.
There was a woman chained to one wall and what appeared to be a sleeping heap of clothes on the other side.

Reva asked all the same questions she had asked before. Who had sent him. Why was he here. But Cale was no longer
under the power of the suggestion and remained evasive.

She warned him,
'You are better off talking to me. If the master comes down to question you, then you'll be in a bad way.'

She left him in the cell for three hours.

He looked at the chained female and saw that she was unconscious and covered in blood so he left her alone.
Now, perhaps an adventurer with more initiative might have tried to heal her wounds, or investigate the pile
of clothes, or take a torch from the wall or anything indeed to try and escape, but Cale was often prone to
bouts of passive indecision and merely calmly waited until his captors returned.

And so, later in the afternoon Reva returned and asked,
'What is your business in Goldenfields?'
She was met with silence, so tutted and turned to leave, knocking on the locked door to be let out.
Cale went in for the grapple once more and grabbed her. She slashed at him with her long nails.

Two snake headed men change into the room and one of them bit Cale in the arm. He felt poison course
through his body, but his strong constitution fended it off.

'Just let me go!', hissed Reva, 'You don't realise it, but I'm your best friend here! And also the least of a threat.'

Cale went for the dagger at her belt but couldn't quite get it. The two snake headed men tried to get a hold
of him, to drag him off Reva but he was too agile and his grip was too strong. They drew their scimitars and started
to whack him with the flats of their blades.

I should imagine their was an element of comedy in this struggle as Cale held onto the woman and dodged blows from
their swords. When a sword struck him it would clunk off his head or shoulders.

Both of the men also managed to bite him again, which was less amusing and as he weakened the woman suddenly turned
into a snake and slithered out of the door.

Cale took the opportunity to leap out after her though, and once he was free to use his fancy footwork there was
no catching him. He was straight up the stairs, shouldering doors out of the way and smashing out of a ground
floor window before the snake people could react.

The crash through the window was all his system could take though and he landed in an unconscious heap in the
street.

He awoke on a bed in a small room. There were three other beds in the room and weak autumnal light filtered
in through a single high window. Brother Maynard gave him a smile and came over.
'What happened to you?'

Cale told him everything he remembered. He gave the location of the house he was held captive in.

'Well', mused Maynard, 'It sounds like you encountered Yuan-ti. The Vanguard are here in Goldenfields then?
That is worrying. We owe you thanks then, for alerting us to their presence.'

At six o'clock Cale found that he was very weak from the poison in his system and Maynard advised him of what
his options were. Magical restoration would be expensive, but a stay in the hospital would be much cheaper.

He had is stuff sent over and organised a message being left for Mathmoss.

At nine o'clock Maynard informed him that the house had been raided, but had been empty. There was a dead
woman in one of the cells with her throat cut but other than that nothing.

At ten o'clock a guard captain came to take his statement. Cale told the whole story, including the fact
that Cavu had sent him.