4: All Roads Lead to Chaos

We woke at the break of dawn. Tufts of grey smoke wandered through the air as a faint reminder of where we were. The last remnants of the Ravens' encampment were now a hovel of soot and ash. I stood, stretched and took in the surroundings as the others began to stir. Bhodi was already awake and in a small patch of grass just past the trees, twisting and whirling his hands and feet in some kind of rhythmic movement unfamiliar to me. He appeared to be deep in though, an aura of serenity encapsulating him.

By the time the sun began to touch the dew-covered field of grass, everyone was up and stowing their belongings. The silence was both serene and unnerving. Not that it was silent, mind you. There was a fair amount of rustling, banging and clanging. But nobody was talking. Nobody was really even looking at each other.

I finally cleared my throat and spoke up.

"We need to get these heads back to Atros. They're getting a little gamey."
"Back the way we came then?" Bhodi asked as he sauntered back to the group.
"Yeah, we need to go get our money," said Miresta.
"Agreed. Time to get paid," Carric followed.
Norah book-ended the conversation. "We should get going."
Damaia stared at us all, without a word.

The trek back to Nashkel Keep was fairly uneventful. We made our way back through the smaller encampment and down to the river, crossed it, and wandered through the trees back to the trade road. We made good time. It was late morning as we strolled through the keep's main gate.

Our first stop, Atros...

We passed through the commons of the keep and into the training yard where we again found Atros and his Sergeant drilling the troops for the day. As we entered, a large smile stretched across his face. He stood up straight, tugged his shirt downward and headed briskly toward us.

"So you made it back!" he said. "I trust this is good news."

As he approached, I pulled the two heads out of my bag and dropped them on the ground at his feet. He stopped for a moment, looked down and then back up at us with a tacit grin. "Good news, indeed."

Miresta and Carric stepped up and laid out the entire scene for Atros: the undead, the cleric, the rod that seemed to control the undead. Atros looked bewildered as he intently took in all the information.

"This is all news to me," he said. "I have seen nor heard anything about this cleric or any undead. Though, you might find information about that rod from the priest in the Lathander Chapel. I'd run in past him."

We nodded in acceptance and stared awkwardly in silence at him for a moment. He finally broke in with a nod.

"OK. Payment then." He pulled out a small parchment book and began to scribble in it. "Take this to Maravek, the Castellan's assistant. He will make sure you get paid," he said as he finished scribbling, tore out the parchment and handed it to us. We graciously accepted and turned to leave.

"One other thing," he stretched out his hand to stop us as he spoke. "What are your thoughts on Maravek?"

"Don't rightly know," I said. "Haven't had dealings with him yet. I take it you have issue with him?"

"You could say that," he said as he folded his hands. "I'd like to discuss something with you. Can you meet me for lunch at the Screeching Goat?"

"Not something you want to discuss now?" I asked.
"I'm on duty. Not the time or place," he said.
"I think we can make that work," Carric interjected.

With a wave, we all turned and left the training yard.

We headed over to Marvek's office to collect our coin. We walked in to the entrance area which had a door to the left and a set of stair straight ahead of us. A page greeted us and inquired as to what our business was. We told him that we were there to see Maravek. He pointed us to the door on the left.

As we began to file in, I lagged back in an attempt to get a closer look at the stairs. The page almost immediately noticed my wandering eye and shooed me away. "That is to the Castellan's office and since you have no business with him, you've no need to be concerned with the stairs." I took the hint, a bit perturbed by it, and followed the rest of the group into Maravek's office.

As we were entering the office, a tall Elven woman came barreling out, shoving us to the side as she went. Her features were hard to make out in the blur but her clothing was dark and Miresta caught glimpse of a broach she wore with some sort of emblem on it. As she rushed past, we heard a thin crackly voice spill from the office. The sounds were of some language I didn't understand. I was later told by Miresta that it was elvish and loosely translated to "Be gone, you idiot."

In the office, we were greeted by an ordinary middle-aged looking elf with blond hair and green eyes. He was standing behind a well made desk and the room boasted of high end statuettes, knick-knacks and an assortment of books.

"State your business," he said in a cold, calm manner.

Without a word, Carric handed him the receipt for payment.

Maravek read the receipt and nodded to relay that everything was in order. He then leaned over behind his desk, opened a floor safe and retrieved our payment from within it. He stood up and handed the gold to Carric with smooth efficiency.

"I would like to thank you for handling that rabble," he said. "They were becoming quite a nuisance."

"So, do you have any jobs that need doing?" I asked.

He immediately leered at me and responded by holding his hand out and telling me that he wasn't talking to me. I stepped back into silence, though I began to simmer at his dismissal.

Miresta then went on to inquire about the cleric we'd run across and the rod we'd found. He claimed he had no knowledge of any such thing. It was at this point that I turned and walked out of his office and waited in the hall way for the rest of the group to finish conducting their business. I'd figured it would be better to leave his office, than to smash his face in with my hammer.

When the group finally came out of Maravek's office, they explained to me that the person that was leaving in a hurry had been sent to take care of the other job that he'd needed completed. Apparently there was an item in a dungeon somewhere that needed retrieval and he'd dispatched said person to take care of it.

He'd explained to them that there had been reports of a new power that seemed to have claimed control of the Caves of Chaos. He couldn't be sure of it's nature but was definitely sure about the fact that creatures in the surrounding area were being organized and quickly becoming a disruption for Nashkel. Rumors were floating around that it might be a Minotaur.

Norah confirmed with Maravek that nobody had actually seen this Minotaur. That it, in fact was speculation at this point. Nonetheless, he offered us 2000 gold, as payment-in-kind to dispatch of this new force and restore order.

We stood in the hallway and discussed our options. Some of us, not trusting Maravek, felt we may be better served to follow the trail of his associate and see about obtaining this item that he seemed so eager to have on his person. Others felt that the Caves of Chaos should be dealt with immediately and that job had value, both monetarily and philosophically. Finally, after much debate, we decided to accept Maravek's offer and clear the Caves of Chaos.

We left, headed towards the markets in search of Lhodis to offload some precious gems we'd acquired through our recent adventures. However, we were surprised to find that he and his wagon had left. They were nowhere to be found.

Disappointed, I grabbed Damaia and we headed to the apartment to start brewing a batch of the healing potion that she had created.

Later I learned that the group made their way to the Chapel Lathander and spoke to the priest, Xyneg. Bhodi gave him a complete background of what we had seen and then they showed him the rod and asked if he had any information about the cleric that we'd run across. Xyneg had no information on either topic but was able to discern from the descriptions that this cleric may be a follower of Orcas, Lord of the Undead. In the end, they gleaned little more than the vial of holy water that Norah purchased from him.

As lunch time quickly approached, the group came back and got me and Damaia. We made our way to the screeching goat to meet with Atros. He was already waiting for us when we walked in.

"Dern, my good man!," I shouted to the bartender. "A round for me and my compatriots please."

He nodded with a smile and set to filling mugs. Atros smiled and nodded in satisfaction.

As we all settled in, Atros inquired about the associate we had seen leaving Maravek's office. We offered what little information we had: that she was set to tasked by Maravek to retrieve an item from some dungeon of which the whereabouts were unknown to us. Atros knew little more than we did, stating that he had seen her about but had no personal dealings with her. There was a slight pause and then the conversation shifted.

When asked about Maravek, Atros wove together a detailed description of his time at Nashkel. He'd been there for some time, first serving under the Castellan Sir Roderick Hasting, to whom he was close. About a month earlier, the Castellan had left for a diplomatic meeting in Berdusk. According to eye-witnesses, the Castellan and his entourage had last been seen passing through the Greenfields on their way back to Nashkel Keep. But Atros said they had never arrived.

In that time, Atros had requested and been denied, by Maravek, any resources to conduct a proper investigation into the disappearance of the Castellan. Almost immediately, a new castellan was installed: Eichold Garay, who had been brought in by Maravek, who seemed to know the region quite well.

It turned out, he was familiar with the area because he had been there for some time, originally in service of two heroes that had thwarted an invasion from the Amnish army at the border. He'd later offered his knowledge and talents to Nashkel, a burgeoning outpost meant to keep the Amnish from any further advancement.

For Atros, dealing with Maravek  on certain issues had been commonplace but with the installation of this new Castellan, there had been quite a change. He had been used to dealing directly with the Castellan on most day-to-day concerns, but now was primarily at the mercy of Maravek. Nobody had really even seen the new Castellan since he'd been there. As it stood, Atros felt that the Garay was unfit to rule as Castellan and that Maravek was ruling in his stead, with an iron fist.

Atros finally asked if we would be willing to look into the disappearance ourselves. He'd pay us 1000 gold to take this on, he said.  We agreed. Unanimously.

With that he told us to find Gendrick, the Hunter. He was the only witness and the last to see Sir Roderick's caravan. He told us he could likely be found at the local supply store, the Shattered Maul.

As lunch closed, I grabbed Damaia, turned to the group and said, "We are going back to our brew. We will be at the apartments when you get done at the Shattered Maul." And off we went.

The rest of the party walked over the Shattered Maul and spoke to a burly man, with a scarred face, brown hair and brown eyes. He called himself Kaled.  Bhodi asked him about Gendrick to which he initially replied in an untrusting manner. Bhodi explained the situation and asked if he could help find Gendrick. To which, Kaled revealed that Gendrick was hunting somewhere north of the river and east of the trade road. It had been about a week since he'd been in to the Shattered Maul.

Damaia and I were just finishing our batch of potions when the rest of the group arrived back at the apartments. They filled us in on what they had learned and decided it would be better to rest and get a fresh start in the morning. I agreed as we had just spent the last 8 hours brewing and were thoroughly exhausted from the day's work.

So we slept...And headed out early the next morning.

We trekked up the trade road and deep into the forest where Miresta used her skills to track Gendrick's path. As we swiftly moved through the brush, like a bloodhound, she saw some movement and caught his scent. We quickly closed the gap between us and him, finally coming upon him.

Though, for him, our arrival was at an inopportune time. In our lack of stealth, we'd managed to scare off his quarry, a buck he'd been tracking for a couple of days. I offered him a gold piece for the inconvenience, which seemed to sate his irritation.

We pressed him for details on what he saw related to the disappearance of the Castellan's caravan. He explained that he'd been out hunting cougars for the pelts and had seen some people on the trade road a mile or so from where it turned south. He went on to say that he'd seen the caravan pass Durlag's tower and, once they had hit the bend in the road, the people waiting their stopped them and led the caravan off the road.

The area was too dangerous to hunt, he said. There had been bugbears sighted in that area and he didn't have the equipment to follow once he lost sight of the caravan. Once he'd gotten back to Nashkel Keep, he went immediately to Atros and reported what he'd seen.

We thanked him for the information and then went to back to the trade road, making our way to the bend in the road he'd spoken of. We looked for tracks and signs that the caravan had been there. None existed. So we went into the treeline and followed it through the most clear part where it seemed a bunch of wagons would pass.

At the north end of the treeline we came to a break in the trees. From there, we were on a high hillside, just above the Caves of Chaos. We could see 50ft down in front of us an entrance and another entrance 100ft to the west. Bhodi then caught a 3rd entrance on the far east side. We chose to go into that one.

We made our way down the hillside to the far entrance and as we came upon it, two bugbears jumped out at us. They pulled out their javelins and began a barrage in our directions. We were able to deflect some and land some hearty blows of our own. One fell and his friend fled, scared that his life was the next to be lost. He didn't make it. Miresta used her pin-point accurate archery skills to plant the killing arrow in its back.

We checked their persons to find a bag of javelins. I knew they'd come in handy for myself so I took them and added them to my collection. We then headed to the entrance and made our way into the Caves of Chaos.

Once inside, we found a small entrance hallway that led into another hall. Damaia and I carefully moved up to the edge to find a large group of skeletons waiting in a room at the end of the hall. Bhodi moved up behind us and crosses the hall to the far wall. He wasn't able to move swiftly enough as the  skeletons notice him and begin moving forward to attack.

We move into action, hacking and slashing our way through the bone horde. Splinters of ivory fragment rained down on us and the horde collapsed under our crushing blows. Finally, the last bone walker was inanimate, giving us opportunity to take a breather.  It was short-lived...