Storch joins the party (played by Tom, Kathy’s friend).
Staying at Morley’s Inn. In the morning, 25 soldiers show up at the inn, asking for the party that fought in the street the night before.
The lieutenant of the guard hands each of us a summons to the council meeting later that afternoon where an inquiry is being held concerning the fight with the undead in the street the night before. He then asks for Morley. Morley is not at the inn at the time. The summons is addressed to
Manticore Street (where the fight with the undead occurred the night before) is blocked from both ends. Anyone wishing to travel along it is stopped by guards, asked where they are going, and are escorted to their destination.
We show up at the council meeting at 1:00 PM, which is near the center of the city. When we get to the gate, they ask for our summons, stamp our summons, and ask us to disarm ourselves. The meeting is held in a HUGE meeting hall. There are 15 of the 17 council members present, which is very rare. Usually, only seven or fewer council members are present at a hearing. All council members are in long purple robes. Except for Peregrine, all members are wearing masks. Peregrine is the head of the Phoenix Guard and the head of the watch, and is known as Peregrine the Paladin’s Son. Peregrine is very tall (6’ 6”) with blonde hair.
Morley arrives at the council chamber one minute before the appointed hour of the meeting. The meeting begins. The Ring of Truth must be worn while giving testimony. Morley is the first one to give his testimony. Morley Carmeliah Thune is his full name.
The ring is passed to all witnesses, so that they can give their testimony. At the end, the council members as questions of the witnesses. This questioning involves four questions:
1. do you know who the mage is?
2. do you know where the mage went at the end of the battle?
3. do you know anyone who would be working for the mage?
4. do you work for the mage?
When skyjack mentions that the mage said, right before he left, “Fools, no one can oppose the Silver Shadow!” Upon saying this, there is a collective gasp from the audience. At the end, the leader of the council turns to another member and asks him, “Money Lender, do you have any questions?”
The answers by Jax to the questions posed by the Money Lender (who is about 5’ 8” and very fat) are not bound by the Ring of Truth (he can remove it if he so wishes). When the Money Lender speaks, his voice comes through the mask abnormally clear and loud. He asks: “How did you come to know Mr. Thune?” Jax’s answer was: “[I couldn’t hear Kathy.]”
The next question he asks: “What did the Lady Thune tell you about the Silver Shadow?” Jax’s answer was: “[Kathy was still too far away from the microphone for me to hear her.]”
“Do you know the whereabouts of the Staff of Skulls?” Jax says slips off the Ring of Truth and says, “no.”
Questioning is now being done by a woman (with a musical voice) named Kitten. Her question to Jax, “Who was it that gave you the name of Mr. Thune as the contact?” Jax, “yes, I can.”
Next question by Kitten, “Who was it that gave you Mr. Thune as the contact?” Jax says, “Cinch.”
Last question, “were these professional services, or did Mr. Thune give his information to you freely?” Jax’s answer, “I don’t remember.”
Peacekeeper has one question. Jax may remove the ring if he so desires. “How did you find out about the Staff of Skulls?”. Jax’s answer, “By seeing the mage in the middle of the night use it to raise undead from the ground.”
The last person to ask questions is called Sword Master. He has one question for Jax, who can remove the ring if he so chooses: “What are your plans now? Specifically, are you going to stay within the city or leave it, and are you going to search for the Staff of Skulls?” Jax’s answer: “[I couldn’t hear Kathy’s answer.]”
Each one of the party members is then, in turn, questioned, with the questions being the same as those posed to Jax. However, when the Ring gets to Scar, Sword Master asks, “Are you a member of the Order of the Silver Dagger?” Scar says, “yes”. Sword Master sits down.
When the questioning is done, the bleachers clear, and the guards are dismissed, but the council asks the seven of us to stay behind. Peregrine asks Morley if he has bound us to service. Morley, “yes, I have hired them to hunt down Thighjack and bring his head to me.” Peregrine, “the council has decided to place an additional burden on the party if it is okay with Morley: that the party meets privately with the council once we find Thighjacks. In return, the council will give the party 1000 gp per person for this information.” For each of us agreeing individually to these terms, Peregrine writes up a 2-sentence contract on the slip of paper containing our summons, and asks us to sign them. To help with our quest, the council fronts the party 100 gp each.
Crusty asks the council if they might have some suggestions on where to start looking for Thighjacks. They suggest that if he is in the city still, he is most likely either at hiding at the docks, or in the City of the Dead. At the end, after the council session breaks, Peregrine pulls the party aside, along with another member named Black Staff, and says that he will personally pay the 7000 gp even for party members that do not return. Black Staff will double the reward if we actually come back with the Silver Medallion. Peregrine says that the reward given by the council is not legally binding.
Order of the Silver Shadow: an order of necromancers under the control of Morthain. They had about 10,000 members. There were ten captains, one of which was Thighjacks, who was killed at the end of the Silver Shadow, so they’re pretty confident that this person calling himself Thighjack is not the real Thighjack. Each of the ten captains of the order had a spellbook, known as the Books of Power. They contained all the spells known concerning necromancy. Eight were destroyed; two were given to the Mistress of Deceit for safe-keeping. It would have taken several mages of considerable skill to make copies of those book within the year after the war with the Silver Shadow, before they were destroyed.
Storch casts Detect Evil. Nine of the council members showed as being evil. None of the members who questioned us are among those nine.
The party stays in Onyx for two days while we wait for silver boots to be made for one of our members, then we head out across the continent to go to the monestary that is home to the Sisters of the Swan, a druidic order that worships Ardenia exclusively. They were key in the downfall of the Order of the Silver Shadow.
We all buy riding horses for the trip. The second day on the road, we meet up with Solara and her cadre of 20 men. She says that Tunnelly came down from Bree to visit and said that he is heading to the village of Comb. But, he vanished. Solara went to Comb and they say that he never arrived. We let Solara know that the town council of Onyx is VERY interested in finding the Staff of Skulls.
About 10 miles from Rudd (5 miles from Comb), we find the remains of a wagon off the road (we think it’s Tunnelly’s) where someone had bedded down for the night. We see footprints of 8 to 20 heavily booted men converging onto the camp, then we see signs of someone(thing) being dragged off from the camp. Storch tracks the men to the south, up into the hills. He finds at least 16 sets of footprints. We lose the tracks up in the hills, where it is rocky and barren. Several party members scramble up an escarpment, where signs of a litter being dragged are found. They follow the litter tracks. The rest of the party (and Solara and her men) stay at the base and follow those up on the escarpment who are following the tracks. The trail heads northeast, back toward Onyx. We get about 15 miles back toward Onyx when we run out of daylight and make camp for the night. Half the party camps up on top of the ridge; the other half down below. As soon as the sun goes down, we see what looks like a steady light on the escarpment, about 6 miles ahead. There is a group of flickering lights moving away from the steady light, heading our way, but the lights go out far from us. Later on in the evening, the part of the party that is up on the escarpment is surprised by a group of gnolls (Swifty flubbed guard duty).
The gnolls are dispatched; one gnoll is rendered unconscious, three run away, and the rest are killed by the party. In the morning, we wake the captured gnoll and interrogate him as to whether they have captured anyone on the road within the past two days. The gnoll doesn’t seem sure. We find out from him that they take captives off to the mountain fortress six miles away. After their leader, Scar, is done with them, he gives them to “the thing upstairs”. We’re guessing it might be a demon. Given that we’re pretty sure that the three escaped gnolls are heading back to the fortress to bring reinforcements, we decide to head out immediately, and attempt to take the fortress. We find out from our captive that there are three entrances to it, one being a secret entrance.
Solara comes along with the party; she her five men back. We track the gnolls back to a cave near the fortress, down near a river. There is a narrow ridge about five feet above the river that leads to the cave entrance. Our captured gnoll says there’s one way in and one way out of the cave. In the back of the cave is a door with a guard room beyond it. He tells us the secret knock to give at the door so that they will open the door. There are no gnolls guarding the cave entrance. The cave is about 300 yards deep, but narrow. Scar picks the lock on the door at the back of the cave; it starts swinging open toward us. We kill the two gnolls just inside the door, and spend several rounds disabling a pit trap in the floor, and finding a secret door that leads deeper into the fortress. We come across a 30 foot diameter room with a well in the middle. Stairs leading up from here lets out into another round room with a bucket and hole in the floor for pulling water. There are four stairways leading out of this room, and another five doors leading out as well.
