Chapter 12 - The Road Ahead

Leaving the Abbey, the party realizes that much time has passed since they first arrived – a fact they attribute to the mindflayer’s influence. By the fey member’s reckoning it is now well into Sunsebb, or winter, and the road back to Fallcrest is covered with light snow.

Without much patience for the guards at the King’s Gate, the party intimidates their way into the town without toll. They head for Nimozaran’s tower, and report back their findings to the wizard’s stony visage. Nimozaran takes great interest in the illithid’s activity, while consoling the party on the loss of the young girl. He thanks the party for their investigative assistance and rewards them with a collection of healing potions.

The party then takes up search of the swindling merchant, Fidor. Eventually led to the Lucky Gnome, the party finds Farrell bruised from his latest berating at the hands of the tavern owner Kelson. Digging for more information, the party learns that Farrell had originally owned the Lucky Gnome – the Goodbarley family business passed down through several generations. Farrell, seeking to expand the enterprise, borrowed money from a band of crooked financiers and ended up losing ownership. Now, Farrell continues working for meager pay because he can’t stand the thought of his family’s long-held tavern going to rot.

Kelson emerges from the cellar to find the party engaged with Farrell, and recognizing the party, flees back down the stairs. The party takes chase and after interrogating Kelson discovers hidden rooms beneath the tavern and a secret entrance to the sewers below Fallcrest – a base of operations for Kelson’s shady dealings. The party also finds an invisible chest, containing secret documents of the Shroud of Tiamat – a criminal organization operating between Fallcrest and Winterhaven. Among the documents is a listing of ill-begotten properties owned by the brotherhood (including the Lucky Gnome), documents depicting various slave-trading and blackmail operations, and a register of the brotherhood’s membership, which includes Kelson and Fidor, the merchant.

As the party prepares to leave the hidden lair, the secret door to the sewer network opens and in creeps Fidor. Seeing the party, and the restrained Kelson, Fidor flees back through the door, but not before Davlyn puts an arrow into his leg. Fidor pleads for his life, offering money (if the party will follow him), but each time he speaks of the brotherhood … he begins to smoke as though burned from within. Looking more closely, Kilgorin recognizes the effects of a truthburn curse, a deadly vow that keeps its members from revealing certain secrets. The party search Fidor, and find a letter marked with the initials V.F. and describing a slave-trading opportunity. Fidor panics, but says nothing and Zantus, frustrated by this lack of progress (and to the surprise and dismay of his party), crushes Fidor’s skull, leaving his quivering body to join the filth beneath the town.

The party takes up exploration of the vast network of sewers, noting the various entrances and exits to streets throughout Fallcrest. Climbing a short incline into the sewers below Hightown, the party spots a creature standing guard at one of the sewage tunnels. The creature immediately disappears into an apparent dead end, which Kilgorin discerns is a magically concealed door. Opening the door, the party climbs a staircase and discovers the creature waiting in a large, affluently-decorated study. Also in the room, seated behind a large mahogany desk sits a finely dressed tiefling; beside him, a tall, thin creature wearing a silver mask.

Unsurprised, but perturbed at these unwelcomed and impertinent guests, the tiefling attempts to negotiate their departure. The party, suspecting this tiefling may be the head of the Shroud, insists on purchasing majority ownership of the Lucky Gnome tavern. A look of anger flashes between the tiefling and Kelson, who immediately bursts into flames and falls dead to the floor. Acknowledging that the Lucky Gnome no longer has an owner, the tiefling attempts to negotiate an exchange of gold and nefarious deeds from the adventurers. The party insists on a straight payout of the debt owed, suggesting the information they have in the Shroud of Tiamat’s secret documents might be of interest to the local authorities.

The tiefling accepts the party’s offer (and the secret documents), and they are sent on their way back through the sewers to the Lucky Gnome.

Farrell is pleased to hear the tavern has changed ownership, and equally pleased that his family’s enterprise will no longer serve as a den of thieves. In exchange for room and board, and use of the rooms beneath the tavern, the party offers Farrell full control of the tavern business. Farrell, overcome with emotion, would give anything to stay on as the tavern’s brewmaster, and promises through his tears that by this time next year he will have returned the Lucky Gnome to prosperity. He motions to the table by the fire, “Sit, sit my friends. It has been years since true Goodbarley ale crossed these walnut counters. I have a batch secreted away in the cellar downstairs and you shall be the first to taste!”

Farrell turns with a wink and descends into the cellar, singing softly to himself:

Deep in the Downs where the Foefern grows, You’ll dream of a brew that tickles your nose.

It warms your belly and drowns your woes,

At the Lucky Gnome where the Goodbarley flows