Session Three: A Bargain with the Nightblades

We headed back to the iron tower. Lorenz and Mitharion stayed in the woods while Cain and Brockopher went up. More Nightblades were coming back in, so the two elves started singing. It actually worked. Some of the mercenaries relaxed enough to talk. Mitharion walked out and joined them, followed by Lorenz a few minutes later. Their leadership came out and said we had to give up our weapons if we wanted inside. Mitharion refused at first, but Cain talked him down, and he finally agreed. We put our weapons down and went in.

Inside, we met Gardrin, who seemed to be in charge, or at least was doing the talking. That big bat was still hanging around above the tower, and the Nightblades made it pretty clear they had more people than we did. Mitharion brought up Rosethorn and the Brownleaves. He’d already been investigating them, and their attacks on the trade road fit what we were supposed to be dealing with. Gardrin agreed to hire us to kill Rosethorn, but wanted us to leave immediately and start hunting. We all had reasons to return to town first. Out of character, we knew we’d level up when we got back, and nobody wanted to pursue Rosethorn and his crew at our current level. Cain and Brockopher kept negotiating until Gardrin agreed to let us return to Goldmeadow with Ashe accompanying us. The elves think we undercharged, but they got us the chance to rest and prepare. The whole session passed without a fight.

They also showed us something in the basement: a man they called their “brother.” He was in bad shape. It looked like they’d been torturing him, and possibly something else was happening to him. A mutation or transformation, perhaps. It was ugly, and we didn’t get a clear enough look to understand what we were seeing. Mitharion has been quiet about it since. He thinks we might have cut a deal with something worse than we realized.

We left the tower unharmed, thank the Immortals.

We walked back to Goldmeadow with Ashe, and began a long rest. Now we have the contract, Ashe is with us, and we get to level up before going after the Brownleaves.