Editing The White Thorns

This is a 5e Game run by Sam I Am

Sunless Citadel

Links: 
[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/5e-the-white-roses-sunless-citadel.888760/ IC Thread] |
[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/5e-the-white-roses-sunless-citadel.888120/ OOC Thread] |
[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/closed-recruitment-5e-sunless-citadel.887957/ Recruitment Thread]


==Player Characters==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Character Name
! Race
! Background
! Class
! Gender
! Level
! Played by
|-
| [[Jessamine Quill]] 
| Half-elf
| Acolyte
| Cleric (Life, Ilmater)
| Female
| <center>2</center>
| Mr Adventurer
|-
| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fmneOLyyFwBTH7uw3-9CnLBXD2UiHmlHNCit8WBiqFg/edit?usp=sharing Snok]
| Kobold
| Outlander
| Wizard who wants to become a dragon 
| Male
| <center>2</center>
| SirMoogle
|-
| [[Tem Marshborn]]
| Human Hexblood 
| Folk Hero
| Fighter -> Eldritch Knight
| Male
| <center>2</center>
| Unka Josh
|-
| [[Valdaris Shadowborn]]
| Tiefling 
| Bounty Hunter
| Hexblade Warlock (Raven Queen)
| Male
| <center>2</center>
| Xhaosdemon
|-
| [[Eriel Alflinn]]
| Elf 
| Minstrel 
| Swashbuckling Rogue
| Male
| <center>2</center>
| RoadScholar
|-
| [[Lee Ravenwood]]
| Elf 
| Acolyte
| Monk
| Female
| <center>2</center>
| [[User:Jmucchiello|jmucchiello]]
|-
!colspan=7|Retired
|-
| Name
| Race
| B
| C
| Gender
| <center>1</center>
| Player
|}

==Marching Order and Notes==

FRONT - Tem | Jessamine | Snok | Valdaris | Eriel

:FRONT
:Tem | Jessamine
:Snok | Valdaris
:Eriel

:Leaf is with, in area 3
:200GP of gear with Leaf

As a standard set up, if there's no time constraints, Eriel will
* 1. Examine a door by sight, then touch. [trap checks]
* 2. Listen at the door, then look through and listen at keyhole, if such exists. [perception checks]
* 3. Check the door as quietly as possible to see if it is locked. [common sense check]
* 4. Examine lock and attempt to quietly unlock the door. [trap check w'tools then lock-pick].

==NPCs, Movers and Shakers==
* '''Balsag (d.)''' - Big hairy brute of a hunter who lived beneath the goblins and was killed by the party.
* '''Belmir''' - Paladin of Ilmater who went missing some decades ago while in the company of Hesterien
* '''Belak the Outcast''' - was seen in Oakhurst years ago. Lives beneath the goblins in the Sunless Citadel. They described him as the tree man (he has the tree with the magic apple).
* '''Braford (Sir)''' - Holy warrior who ventured into the Sunless Citadel with the Hucrele children. Had a magic sword called Shatterspike and was intent on slayng evil goblins.
* '''Brother Clement''' - Priest of Ilmater in Neverwinter who charged the group to find Belmir
* '''Calcryx''' - White dragon wyrmling recovered by the party and returned to the Smokey Snout kobolds.
* '''Cusk''' - elven ragamuffin boy who followed the group to the Sunless Citadel and is looking after Leaf, the donkey.
* '''Dem Nackle''' - Gnome priestess in Oakhurst
* '''Durnn (d.)''' - Hobgoblin chief of the goblins, killed in single combat by Tem.
* '''Flimflam''' - Goblin who befriended the party. Daughter of the clan shaman.
* '''Hesterien''' - Elf from the north with whom Belmir associated. Was researching dragon cults.
* '''Hucrele, Kerowyn''' - Merchant in Oakhurst who offered a reward to find her (adult) children who  went missing in the Sunless Citadel.
* '''Karakas (d.)''' - Wilds ranger who ventured into the Sunless Citadel with the Hucrele children. Corpse found (i.e. a ring with his name on a corpse) in the Sunless Citadel.
* '''Meepo''' - Kobold who lost the wyrmling Calcryx.
* '''Raven Queen''' - A mysterious being who rules the Shadowfell from a palace of ice deep within that dread realm. The Raven Queen watches over the world, anticipating each creature’s death and ensuring that it meets its end at the proscribed time and place. As the ruler of the Shadowfell, she dwells in a decayed, dark reflection of the world. Her ability to reach into the world is limited. Thus, she turns to mortal warlocks to serve her will. Warlocks sworn to the Raven Queen receive visions and whispers from her in their dreams, sending them on quests and warning them of impending dangers. | The Raven Queen’s followers are expected to serve her will in the world. She concerns herself with ensuring that those fated to die pass from the world as expected, and bids her agents to defeat those who seek to cheat death through undeath or other imitations of immortality. She hates intelligent undead and expects her followers to strike them down, whereas mindless undead such as skeletons and zombies are little more than stumbling automatons in her eyes. (Source: Unearthed Arcana)
* '''Wordwranglers''' - Snok the kobold´s clan. Aside from swiping things no one will miss, the clan has amassed a library of sorts. Out of the books gathered, only 5% are legible to the kobolds. The rest look nice with the illustrations.
* '''Yusdrayl (Queen)''' - Queen of the Smokey Snout kobolds.

==Places==
* '''Evermeet''' - Island realm of the Feywild that appears to have returned to Faerun, at least partially.
* '''Gauntlgrym''' - Dwarven city long thought lost but now recovered and recolonised, north of Mount Hotenow.
* '''Helm's Hold''' - Settlement inland and southeast of Neverwinter that houses the cathedral of Helm
* '''High Road''' - Main route North-South along Sword Coast North.
* '''Luskan''' - City to the northwest of Neverwinter along the Sword Coast, a dangerous place.
* '''Oakhurst''' - Village on the Old Road in the foothills south of Mount Hotenow. It avoided the worst of its eruption due to being in the lee of some crags.
* '''Old Road''' - Road between Neverwinter and Gauntlegrym, little used.
* '''Neverwinter''' - Jewel of the Sword Coast North. 
* '''Neverwinter Forest''' - 
* '''Mount Hotenow''' - Mountain that erupted, so it did. Its activity is said to warm the waters of Neverwinter River and so the whole region.
* '''Thundertree''' - Town in Neverwinter Forest completely destroyed by Mount Hotenow´s eruption.
* '''Waterdeep''' - City southeast of Neverwinter.

==Open Questions==
* Was Valdaris´ father killed at the wrong time? Is that how the Raven Queen appealed to him? What about his father's killer? And... did the Raven Queen know that his mother would die? 
** Xhaosdemon says: I would say being able to take away his pain and sorrow around the murder of his father is what drew him to her. The other questions are deeply philosophical....is murder somehow cheating the correct time and place of death or is it part of the weave of life and death? Maybe the death of his father's killer proved to her that he can serve her needs, to do what needs to be done sometimes regardless of moral or legal questions. Did she know about the death of his mother and withhold it? I think I will leave that one up to you....gods and goddesses have their own plans and reasons they don't share with their mortal servants.

==Loot==
* 4 jade dragon figurines (15 gp each, total 60 gp) ([https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/5e-the-white-roses-sunless-citadel.888760/post-24150116 source])
* Half-eaten corpse in room: ([https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/5e-the-white-roses-sunless-citadel.888120/post-24189042 source])
** 312 sp, 68 gp, and 3 garnets (worth 25 gp each)
** Sudded leather armour
** 5 daggers
** Longbow
** Quiver
** Water skin
** 1 day's rations
** Bedroll
** Tinderbox
** Three torches
** Potion of healing
** Pouch with 17 gp
** A gold ring (worth 10 gp) engraved Karakas (claimed by Snok)
* Cell loot: ([https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/5e-the-white-roses-sunless-citadel.888760/post-24198326 source])
** 11×5 gp gems (total 55 gp)
** Coins (19 gp, 23 sp)
* Reward from Kobold Queen for returning Calcryx:
** Quaal's feather token (tree)
** 3 three spell scrolls (mage armor, spider climb, and knock)
** A small flask that contains three doses of elixir of health.

==Story So Far==
''1495 Neverwinter''

It is 1495 and Neverwinter is rebuilding itself. The temple to Ilmater receives refugees and helps them find their feet. Brother Clement in particular is an almost saintly figure so it is hard for the party to refuse when he asks them to seek a long-lost paladin of Ilmater named Belmir.

Belmir was last seen several decades ago in a village called Oakhurst, a day's travel inland, in the company of an elf named Hesterien. This fellow was investigating draconic cults, something of which Brother Clement evidently disproves.

It is almost midsummer and the group travel inland for half a day to Oakhurst. There, they install themselves in the local temple, hosted by the gnome Dem Nackle.

''Oakhurst''

They learn from Dem Nackle that she did indeed see Belmir all those years ago, but so far as she knows he was alone. He travelled to a place nearby called the Sunless Citadel.

They also learn also that the goblins that live in the Sunless Citadel sell apples in Oakhurst every summer solstice.

There is a small group of armed men from Helm also staying at the temple. 

They meet a local merchant named Kerowyn Hucrele whose (adult) children went missing recently in the Sunless Citadel. She offers a reward to find them.

They also learn of a human named Belak who passed by some 13 years ago, with a very large pet frog!

The next morning the group travels to the Sunless Citadel (on the Old Road that goes to the dwarven city of Gauntlgrym), arriving around midday.

''Sunless Citadel''

The group descends a rope down a ravine. They then go down some stairs and find the citadel that has fallen almost intact down the ravine.

Within are dead goblins and giant rats.

They meet a crying kobold, Meepo, who has lost his charge, a young dragon named Calcryx.

He takes them to Queen Yusdrayl, chief of the kobolds, who offers them a reward if they can recover the wyrmling that the goblins took in a raid.

Meepo leads them towards the goblins. They are attacked by some giant rats. They find a human corpse, bearing a ring with the name Karakas, the ranger who accompanied the Hucrele children.

In a stand-off, they meet the goblin Flimflam. 

Pressing on, they meet the hobgblin chief, Durnn. Tem kills him in single combat and the shaman (Flimflam's mother) takes charge of the clan.

They then go after the wyrmling next door. She doesn't like Meepo that much but Jessamine manages to win the creature over. They take her back to the kobold queen.

After resting for the night, the group presses on. By now, they are accompanied by a boy named Cusk, who they had met in Oakhurst, who followed them with a warning about the men from Helm.

Past the goblins, they descend a hole into a cavern. There they meet Balsag, a bugbear hunter who is determined to cook them. After he hurts one of the group quite badly, they manage to kill him swiftly and drive off his pet rats.

Delving further into the complex, they meet some goblins in a mashing tun. Petrified, these creatures point the way east towards Belak. East lies a strange garden, the central part lit by fungi and with overworld plants, but there is a chamber with underworld plants in it.