15th of Flamerule of the year 1492
The fresh air made everyone feel better and helped to clear their thoughts. Deciding that the current clues they had gotten were pointing them to Womford. They hoped they would be able to resupply on healing potions since they had consumed all the ones they had. While packing up the camp, Dancer received a message from his “contact” that also suggested that they head to Womford. Seeing that everything pointed that direction, they headed off. As they started their trip the clouds got dark giving the feeling of a storm coming in soon. They hoped they could get to their destination before it rained on them. Going a little south of Bargewright to catch the bridge across the River Dessarin, they travelled for a few hours before getting to it.
While crossing the bridge they met a few farmers coming from the other side, a small merchant group. They trip was fairly dull which got Dancer to start staring off into the sky and at the clouds.
“As you cross the bridge at what you think is the halfway point, things are getting pretty dull. No carts have come by in ages, so it’s just you and the gang trudging along. You glance up at the darkening sky and start playing cloud-spotting to pass the time. Hey, there’s a bunny! And look, a bear claw! That one looks like a tower, and whoa, an angry dragon! Over there, a squirrel frolicking next to a… cat lord? Wait a minute, that dragon-shaped cloud seems to be getting closer. Oh. Oh no. That’s not a cloud shaped like a dragon, it’s a…”
Storm Dragon
Yeah, it was a dragon. It was somewhat intelligent, acted somewhat strategically, and besides being tough and hard to hit, everything it did caused damage from just being next to it, to the many attacks it could cause. The fly by attacks did little to help and when more than a couple were in a line, its breath weapon was deadly. Vladimir spent almost every round falling unconscious only to be healed, and then knocked down again. When they finally managed to kill it, it went away in a puff of clouds and faded away.
Picking themselves up, applying what little healing they needed, the group moved on to their next destination, Womford. It proved to be a much smaller place, they were thinking it would be the size of Bargewright, or at least a village, but it barely qualified as a hamlet as small as it was. They passed several farms on the way and as they approached a small cluster of buildings, they realized that this was in fact, Womford. The first buildings were a stone temple and what appeared to be an inn or tavern. Most of the rest of the “town” was visible. There were a few other buildings, what appeared to be a couple of shops and a smithy. The docks could be seen as well as six very large warehouse style buildings. Some grain silos to the east side finished off the place. It could be assumed that the majority of the population lived away from the center and in farms and other homes located away.
With it being early afternoon there were not many people wandering around, but they could hear a bustling sound of people working around the warehouses down by the docks. Wander around they say the names of the few businesses, the Talking Moon, the First Refuge, and the Anvil Works, and finally the Stick and Lizard Inn. The docks were fairly empty missing any larger ships and only a few small merchant vessels were moored. Of the six warehouses, all of them were thrown open with the workers moving merchandise, crates, barrels, and other unknown things around appearing to be organizing each of the buildings. Only one of them stood out. The third one to the northwest. Its doors were closed, and six heavily armed guards were standing in front. The party could hear noises of people working inside but were not able to see what was being done. As they passed this warehouse, they could also see that there were guards on each side of the building moving about in a professional and very serious manner.
With nothing happening, the group moved on to the Stick and Lizard to see f there was anyone they could talk to and procure rooms for the evening. The inside of the Inn was adorned with old arms and armor but was a nice cozy and friendly looking place. All the dining tables were communal, and the kitchen area was visible from within. A large bar filled on side with what was most likely the ugliest dwarven female any of them had ever seen. She stood on a long bench that ran the length of the bar so that she was able to see over and service the customers. She looked cranky, mean, and probably unpleasant.
Arros Cangugonn
Working the tables were a young man and woman. The man came up and greeted them as well as introducing himself and his sister. They had moved here only five years ago and had refurnished the inn and opened for business. When asked they described and explained about the other businesses in town. The Talking Moon was a rural grocery store mostly carrying the produce, from vegetables, meats, and cheeses from the local farmers as well as a small assortment of baked goods. The Last Refuge was the local general store but catered to the needs of the local rural community, and the Anvil works was a smithy run by someone who was almost as cranky as their bartender Arros. The last building Eloso spoke about was the temple. It was a Temple of Chauntea and Valkur servicing both the farmers with Chauntea and the fisherman and seaman with Valkur. The priestess was one of the most beautiful women in town and has been a great boon and asset with her friendliness and willingness to help the community and even offering healing for free upon several occasions. The priestess was the newest addition to the town having only moved to Womford within the last year when the previous priests had retired suddenly.
Eloso and Iowyn Falayn
The common room was empty at this time, with Eloso explaining that everyone was out working, and business would pick up in the later afternoon with the fishermen coming in first with some of their catch, followed by the dock and warehouse workers, and finally some of the farmer would sneak in away from their wives. The group mentioned that they thought that Womford would be larger, it was explained that it was more of a way point between Waterdeep and Yartar. Many merchants would store their merchandise here for other to pick up, or to move over land routes to other towns and cities. Most of the merchants preferred staying at Bargewright and therefore Womford had grown to support the local population more than the transient one. Getting some rooms for the evening, they party moved their conversation to one of the rooms to be able to discuss privately their plans.
Coming down later they could hear more people in the common area and see starting to arrive with their baskets of fish to be delivered to the cook. Settling down in a spot they listened in on the conversation around them. It was made easy because of the long communal tables they were sandwiched between warehouse workers on one side, and fisherman on the other. Both sides seemed to be friendly and willing to gossip about any going on in the area. With Ace buy a couple of rounds for the room, a sufficiently amount of lubrication had been applied where the party was forced to start singing along with songs of an unknown original and even context, but there was much merriment and few arguments.
“Ever since those new managers took over, we’re not allowed in warehouse three after sunset. Something about ‘special shipments’ that need privacy.”
“I overheard one of the guards talking about a big shipment coming in soon that ‘would change the tide for everyone.’ Sounded ominous.”
“A couple of weeks ago, one of the guards dropped a map of the local river system. It had several spots marked in red, but he snatched it back before I could take a closer look.”
“The guards? They don’t mingle with us. Stick to themselves, and some of them wear these weird pendants with a wave pattern. Never seen anything quite like it around here.”
“Heard a couple of guards joking about ‘the boss’s latest pet in the basement.’ Not sure what they meant, but they weren’t talking about any animal I know.”
“I heard that those who ask too many questions about the night shipments tend to disappear or worse, end up floating down the river by morning.”
“Old Pete, who used to fish by the docks, started talking about seeing visions in the water before he vanished. His boat was found empty, drifting downstream.”
When asked about any details of Warehouse #3, both the fisherman and warehouse workers did not have too much to share, mostly because they just did not know. They did mention that there were several frigate class ships armed with ballista’s that seem to be serviced by the warehouse. Those ships would drop off and pick up material from only that warehouse. There were a large number of guards for that single building, but how many there were? Maybe 15 or 20? It was hard to tell since they kept to themselves and had some sort of barracks in the warehouse and never mingled with the locals. They were stern, but not unfriendly, just not very open to much conversation. In fact, even the warehouse workers were a bit secretive and seemed to be afraid to talk about what might be inside the warehouse, and those that were locals, all went directly home after work. None of them mingled much since they were employed there, but they were also the highest paid workers in town. They did tell some stories about the town.
“The river was once the site of an old wooden bridge, which was later destroyed. Exactly how this happened wasn’t well known, but it seemed that a band of adventurers were assaulted by a pack of trolls charging out of the water, and emptied a wand of fireballs into their midst, incinerating the bridge in the process.”
“The later settlement of Womford, according to local legend, was to have originally been called “Ironford”. The name supposedly changed to “Wyrmford” after a dragon was defeated in the area. Due to the accent of the locals, the pronunciation of Wyrmford was altered, hence the name “Womford”.
They also praised the new priestess, even if their wives were a bit skeptical since the woman was a bit too beautiful to make them comfortable. But with all the healing and going out into the community regularly to help, even willing to go some distance to farms to help those in need had won over everyone in the area. They were proud and somewhat protective of their little priestess.
With a night of heavy carousing and drinking the party went to their rooms for the night.
16th of Flamerule of the year 1492
Except Dancer of course. His cat-like ways seemed to require some extra patrolling and carousing. Having Yllanys apply an invisibility spell first, Dancer headed out the suspected Warehouse #3. Sneaking to the rear he was able to make it to the ladder leading up to the roof without alerting any of the guards. There did seem to be slightly fewer guards during the night than the day, but only a few less. They seemed to have a very strict regimen and were disciplined, as if they were all soldier trained. These were more than just normal guards in a nowhere little hamlet. Getting to the top, it was only through Dancer’s masterful perception that he could see the little indications that the roof was a treacherous and perilous place. Hidden among the slats were trip wires leading somewhere, assumably some form of alarm, and some of the slates seem to be odd, and when looking closer, Dancer could see that they hid spikes and triggers for crossbow shots. The entire roof was alarmed with tripwires and traps. Getting to one of the hatches would be nearly impossible unless they had great skill, agility, and luck.
Hoping that the other warehouses were somewhat built the same, Dancer climbed down stealthily and moved to the adjacent warehouse and climbed up. While the warehouses were only 60 feet apart, the different was evident. This one did not have any guards and was not as well maintained. All six of the warehouses were made of stone to last longer while adjacent to the River Dessarin, but this one was just not quite as maintained. The roof had moss growing on it and looked like no one had been up there in a fairly long period of time. Making his way to one of the hatches, he opened it and looked down. It was just a huge open building without very many additional structures inside. It was filled with barrels, crates, and piles of something hidden under cloth and tarps. Having seen all the guards of Warehouse #3 come in and out of a door in the side, it was clear that #3 was different from all the rest. Watching the guards he had an idea of their schedule which seemed somewhat regular with only slight adjustments during a shift change and the guards themselves seem to have slightly different ways of completing their shift.
Not really seeing or finding anything else to get his attention, he headed back to the inn and rested for the rest of the morning. From the fight with the dragon the previous day, drinking heavily, and the partying from the previous evening, everyone slept in more than they expected. In the morning, they spent a fair amount of time talking about what had been found and what actions they might take. Only Vladimir was a big disgruntled not having gotten a restful sleep that night. It seemed he had been wrestling with nightmare the entire night. Once breakfast was completed, the group broke up into four groups. Ace stayed at the inn and joined the other musicians playing music quietly in the corner of the common room, while Fwoosh went into the closest wood to track down a small woodland animal for possible despicable acts later, Vladimir and Yllanys went to the Talking Moon, and ISAC, Angelica, and Dancer headed off to the temple.
Those that went to the temple were very impressed. It was a somewhat grand building for being in the middle of nowhere. There were two sides of the temple to represent each aspect of the gods being worshiped within. One showed the bounty of the earth for Chauntea and the roughness and danger of the sea for Valkur. Within were several acolytes cleaning and doing general chores. There were not any worshipers within the temple at this time, but there was one woman that stood out. She approached the group to see what they needed. This was the head priestess of the temple, Whisper Autumn.
Whisper Autumn
She was open and friendly to the group. She answered what questions they had and seemed to be happy to sell them almost all the different healing potions that she had on hand. On the way out, Dancer attempted some thieves’ finger talk which gave him a surprise reply about coming back after midnight.
Back at the Talking Moon, they met the proprietor Pippin Bramblefoot and hobbit. Vladimir confused with which store he had gone to first, realized that this was all food stuff. To help make Dancer happy, he did purchase a half dozen sticky buns.
Pippin Bramblefoot
Walking across the street to the First Refuge, they could see that this was much more of a general store, but still it was lacking in comparison to the sundries store back in Red Larch. While filled with useful merchandise, it did not have anything that Vladimir or Yllanys needed. The owner Eldric Wavewalker was friendly, although he did keep his right hand hidden the entire time they were within the store.
Eldric Wavewalker
Fwoosh had managed to catch a small woodland creature, a cute little bunny whose neck was quickly wrung. Bringing his prey to Warehouse #3, Fwoosh made himself invisible, climbed the metal ladder, and finding some of the traps started disabling them creating a path to the neatest hatch. Not having set off any alarms or the traps but had almost consumed all of this hour of being invisible decided to head back to the inn and meet the rest of the party there. Meeting in one of the rooms they once again discussed their plans for several hours on how they should breach the warehouse and whether or not a frontal assault would make sense or just be too dangerous.
And this is where the session ended.
