Session 13 – A Good Apple
Campaign II, session 13. Previous: Session 12. Next: Session 14.
Party returns back into the dungeon the next day. They hire Lirra, the cart-driver that Kerowyn had provided them. Since Kerowyn’s deal was with Vierath, and Mireya offers her quite a sizable bonus, she’s willing to come along.
They make their way back to the vine-choked descent, and send Cresilde’s owl familiar down to scout ahead. The owl sees a disarmed but unrestrained Vierath and the bugbear making light conversation, but mostly waiting.
The party decides to wait for about an hour to see if Vierath is able to conclude whatever negotiations he might be attempting. When nothing happens, Cresilde sends the owl back down to deliver a message. The owl hoots to call attention, and Vierath comes out to speak up to them. He talks about how things are fine, but he is waiting for Belak to look into what happened to the red apple. He doesn’t need any help right now, Belak’s a great guy. It might take some time to conclude their negotiations, you don’t need to wait up.
So, the party checks their map and decides to explore one of the few 1st floor rooms they haven’t been to yet. On the way, they get ambushed by a patrol of goblins, who drop Cresilde in the first round. Vierath and Mireya make short work of most of them, and Cresilde will be fine with some magical healing and a day of rest. But the party is a bit spooked. They decide to trust that Vierath will be fine and return to Bastion for a bit of rest and to see what happens with Zydell’s trial.
After a couple more days of rest, everyone in town is gathered for this trial. The magistrate presents the charges, the guards testify that Zydell was their attacker, and Zydell gives a passionate speech about how he would never do such a thing – he only wants to protect Bastion from the invading Lhazaarans. After his testimony, the magistrate calls one additional witness – an unassuming commoner who testifies that he saw these guards taking bribes from Lhazaarans in Elf Alley. What’s more, several people in the crowd shout that they saw it too!
The magistrate is barely able to prevent a riot. The accused guards are immediately arrested, and many Lhazaaran residents are also locked up, both on suspicion and for their own protection!
As the chaos is unfolding, Vierath finds the rest of the party and lets them know he has returned. He has delivered a message to Count Leng and needs to return to Belak with news that the Count has accepted the terms of negotiation; Belak will surely provide them with the healing apple they seek.
And, after one final (for now, at least) visit to the Sunless Citadel, this proves correct. The party returns with a healing apple, retrieves a sizable reward, and begins to take some well deserved R&R…