D&D Session 18

The party tries to decide what to do next

Continuing with his questioning Tremen gets Harman to confirm the orbs are magical and used for communication over long distances. Harman also informs Tremen that the orbs are required for the quest to rescue the dwarf prisoner at Gragmaw castle.

Harman continues to provide more information to Tremen about the purpose of the orbs and the location of 4 warding crystals, that some how protect /prevents entering Gragmaw castle. He elaborates that all the crystals must be destroyed at the same time to ensure entrance into the castle.

It is noticeable to those with Tremen, that Harman is a little on edge - stuttering with his words. The sounds emanating from Silanne as she slowly sharpens her knife on a whetstone, whilst perched on a rock near by appears to trouble Harman
Harman produces a letter from Dagult Neverember– Lord Proctector of Neverwinter, that he presents to Tremen who then shares it with the party.

The letter presented by Harman

The letter appears to be genuine with the seal and the names looking to be correct.

Elsewhere Fortenbrass who was accompanying Tarqual, decides to head of into the tent, Tarqual follows to check up and spots him putting coins into his hat.
Silanne moves to the tower and informs the party she will be back - just checking something out. A little later Silanne is heard from the top of the tower pointing to the south west - shouting caves. Later it is mentioned that this is the possible location of Wiventour. Tremen follows up with more questions & Harman mentions it is full of Goblins & Trolls.

Bluebell & Tharbin approach Owl Well and are overwhelmed by the foul stench of rotting flesh that assaults their senses, they cautiously make their way towards the area inside of the walls, but remain a safe distance on the western walls.

Further questioning leads the party to test out the communication orbs and Crom manages to make contact with somebody who we eventually identify as a familiar acquaintance - Carp. Instructions are given, and Carp passes the orb he found to his mother the acting mayor of Phandalin. She is given instructions to seek out one of the warding crystals – 2 foot tall cone like crystal/shard, obsidian black in colour that we suspect is located in Phandalin. Later we are informed that the crystal has been found in the red brand's caves we had searched previously.

Map of the lands around Neverwinter

Silanne heads off to scout the caves she spotted earlier and returns about an hour later to report her findings which include that there are signs of both goblins and some much larger creature. Eventually the party reassemble in Harman’s tent to rest and eat. There is some hesitance from Tremen to eat the food being provided by Harman.

Silanne instructs Tarqual to get Fortenbrass to hand over the items he found in the tent earlier. He produces some unusual looking coins, which Harman informs us that we will need to pay for passage to the banshee Agartha. Crom takes procession of the coins.

The coins

Tremen expresses his concerns about larger forces at work here & Tarqual theorises that perhaps this is somehow connected to Sister Garaele, and recounts her request for an intermediary to deliver a suitable gift – a jewelled silver comb to a banshee named Agatha, in the hope we could extract information from the her about a spell book that belonged to a legendary mage named Bowgentle & its location.