Date: Sunday, November 4th, 2012
Players: Andrew, Craig, David, Henk, Hertzog, Peet
Level: 10+

Lockenport is a city under pressure. With a population already swollen with well-to-do neighbors from Esten Town, it is facing a further influx of refugees from the mainland. Estimates are that the population has grown by a fifth in the last two months, placing massive strain on Lockenport's resources.

The briefing for this mission does not take place at the Irregulars Guild. Instead, Sevian Delmar, the haughty half-elven woman in charge of “Intelligence and Investigations: Mainland” accompanies the group to the Town Hall, where a meeting of the Congress of Guild Leaders is in progress. Karaden Greshtik is giving a fiery speech in favor of passing emergency regulations to commandeer resources from some merchants who are hoarding food supplies. When the Congress stops for a brief recess, Sevian waves to get Guildmistress Tarn's attention and the Irregulars are joined in a side room by Tarn and Greshtik.

Greshtik tells the group of a bold plan to take the battle to Vedroth and attack the Citadel of the Dead, which is the seat of the lich-lord's power. To do this, Lockenport will need help, and the goal of this mission is to seek out powerful allies and persuade them to join this cause. Greshtik asks the Irregulars to start out by seeking out and explaining the plan to the following people: the rogue dragon named Arikalos; the shadow dragon Yriskelzan who resides beneath Lorrigun's Ruins in the Shadowfell, and Lady Illadria Elismay of the Court of the Whispering Winds.

Case number: 210/02/038

Irregulars participating: Clunk, Eckhardt, Petru, Zulak, Lark, Zimmijon

Leader: Petru

Summary: The group was successful in securing the allegiance of all three sets of allies. In addition, during their time with Queen Elismay, they learned more about Vedroth's motivations and the reason why Lockenport is so important to his plans. She spoke of the great war at the beginning of time between the primordials and the gods. Although the gods won that war, they paid the price of being prevented from walking the “quiet world”. The primordials, however, can still enter the world, and intend to do so, reigniting the war they once lost. In a desperate gamble to stop them, the gods intend to release the Chained God – the one god who still walks the world. To do this, they plan to destroy Lockenport, releasing the god who was long ago sealed beneath the city.

Fatalities: None. But if Queen Elismay is telling the truth, we're all doomed! Doomed!

Notes:

• In Dunsey, the group had to rescue Arikalos from a group of those nasty brain-sucking tentacle creatures.
• During the battle with these creatures, Zimmijon nearly lost control of that horrible, spooky ghost-thing he keeps around. I keep telling Tavius that that guy is a disaster waiting to happen!
• When they went through the Shadowfell portal they were apparently ambushed by vampires. A whole bloomin' pack of vampires. And they mentioned this as an after-thought! I can still remember when some of these guys were reporting back on their difficulties with a bunch of stirges. My, how professional they've become!
• They also reporting cheering up an ogre. Named Hilda. Okay, so they aren't always complete professionals.
• To get Yriskelzan's support, they had to agree to give him something. They were a bit vague about what exactly, and I'm sure Eckhardt kicked Zulak under the table during that part of the debriefing. It might have been Petru though.
• In the Feywild, Zulak apparently made yet another agreement, this time with a hag named Tissella. (Why does that name sound so familiar? I should cross-reference it in the files.) This was something to do with planting trees. Or not planting trees. Zulak mentioned something about Len, the barkeep at the Webbed Foot in Old Town, but then there was some more under-the-table kicking and he trailed off.
• The Court of the Whispering Winds has left its previous location, which has been absorbed into the Frost Prince's demesne. The group eventually caught up with the traveling court and Queen Elismay shared with them some rather chilling information. (Not related to the Frost Prince, despite being chilling.)
• On the way back, they sliced up a couple of remorhazes. Apparently these ones posed more a challenge than the one in mission 210/02/012A.

Declarations: The only thing they declared was a bell, given to them by Queen Elismay. Her instructions were to ring the bell when help was most needed, and the Court of the Whispering Winds would send it. This was handed to Tarn for safe-keeping.

Commendations: Guildmistress Tarn asked me to add a group commendation for this mission, given its success despite the unusual challenges this group faced.

Leadership: Petru apparently had some trouble with some particularly aggressive snow. Snow! Ha ha ha!

Further investigations:

• This group was gone for a worryingly long time, so a second group of Irregulars was dispatched to approach additional allies (see mission 210/02/038B).
• Apparently the plan to release the Chained God involves a falling star hitting the city. This definitely warrants further investigation. Possibly from a healthy distance.

Accounting notes:

• 4000 gp award per person [source: Congress of Guild Leaders]

/===========================================================\
| XP notes                                                  |
|-----------------------------------------------------------|
| M'ssisk's, Mind Flayer Overseer               =  2,000 XP |
| Mind Flayer Thrall Masters (2 x 2000)         =  4,000 XP |
| Shadow Stalker Vampires (6 x 800)             =  4,800 XP |
| White Pudding                                 =  1,400 XP |
| Fey Remorhaz                                  =  1,600 XP |
| Quest: Gain Arikalos as an Ally               =  1,000 XP |
| Quest: Brighten Hilda the Ogre's Day          =    500 XP |
| Quest: Gain Yriskelzan as an Ally             =  1,000 XP |
| Quest: Make a deal with Tissella the Hag      =  1,000 XP |
| Quest: Gain Queen Elismay as an Ally          =  1,000 XP |
|-----------------------------------------------------------|
| Total                                         = 18,300 XP |
| Per person                                ÷ 6 =  3,050 XP |
\===========================================================/