Our Heroes left Dougan’s Hole behind and set off for Good Mead where they could enjoy a hard earned respite from combat and insanity. The Mead hall was buzzing with activity – and not just from the hard working bees. Refugees from Easthaven had taken up residence to wait out a week long blizzard ravaging their town.
A lone fellow was noticed at his own table carrying a pendant sword made of black crystal. When approached he said his name was Edwin and that he’d survived a harrowing experience in the wilderness. Lost, cold and alone he was ready to give up when he noticed the pendant glowing nearby in the snow. When he picked it up he seemed to be led back to civilization. He wasn’t sure at the time what his next move was, but was friendly enough.
Yrso and Lynaea determined that the pendant was both desecrated and imbued with a fading protective magic.
Our heroes also learned that Good Mead’s speaker had been slain by a giant. The speaker had formed a posse after a wagon of mead was stolen from town. Adventurers followed the giant and waited for him to drink to oblivion, then slew him in his drunken stupor.
A proprietor of the Mead Hall mentioned a pirate ship named the Dark Duchess, rumored to be skuttled in the ice floes in the Sea of Moving Ice. He asked our heroes to form an expedition to retrieve what would surely be limitless barrels of grog and rum. Our Heroes however wanted to see what Edwin was up to. Believing him to be connected somehow to the missing son of an innkeeper in Bremen.
It turned out that two tieflings, with similar pendants had already come and taken Edwin away. The three companions left GoodMead, and were tracked to Easthaven.
When our heroes reached Easthaven they saw the guard captain Imdra had been sacrificed outside of town. He had been dead perhaps a day.
In Easthaven, the three companions were tracked to the White Lady Inn, where Rinaldo the Medium interupted things to try and get Largo to participate in another seance. Largo agreed (but it was a lie!)
Eventually the companions left, and were followed completely in the open all the way to Caer Dineval. The three approached the gates of the Caer itself, where a brief exchange with more members of their cult took place. Our heroes were unwelcome in the Caer, and encouraged to find shelter at The Uphill Climb within the town itself.