It is still late morning on the day after we returned to Neverwinter from our encounter with Rythnax. Tyener is still curious about the Order of the Gauntlet, so he returns to Martin to learn more. He learns that they follow lawful good gods and they strive to fight evil. They have a central council in Waterdeep with outposts in most cities and their clerics visit towns.
Tyener asks Martin about the Cult of the Dragon, and at this the dwarf looks around and motions Tyener inside, telling him “The walls have ears”. He lights a candle, whispers a blessing against prying ears.
“I’m familiar with the Cult of the Dragon. They venerate undead dragons and hope to bring them back and take over Faerûn. Like hydra, the Order of the Gauntlet has defeated them multiple times but they spring up again.”
Martin can’t give us any information about the cult, but Tyener mentions the Pools of Radiance and he looks thoughtful. He tells Tyener that Ren o’ the Blade fought dragons in his day, and extolls on his adventures. Tyranthraxus, an evil entity, inhabited one of the pools and possessed a dragon that had bathed in the pool. He used the dragon to amass an army of orcs and kobolds, but Ren defeated him. Ren buried the pool by exploding what was around it (the pool gives you access to a deeper part of the weave and no one can keep that level of access). Explosives are helpful.
Tyener explains more about what we have seen, and Martin says thoughtfully that it seems the Cult of the Dragon is trying to find one or create one.
On the Harpers, Martin laughs and says that they sometimes share info and work together, but as a Paladin and a religious order they don’t agree with methods: the Order of the Gauntlet supports the rule of law. Some paths are more circuitous than others.
To join the Order of the Gauntlet, there is a trial to prove oneself. Those who make it through will find loyal friends at the end. Tyener casts Divine Sense and cannot detect any evil but notes that the candle is consecrated, to ward off evil and prevent it from listening in. It is a secret specialty of the Order.
Meanwhile, Vistra and Kiya go looking for the very non-shady alchemist whose name was given to Kiya by Teljas at the Pond Prawn. He also gave her a note with directions to the alchemist, and a mysterious phrase at the end. Kiya nerds out over the directions and follows them to a T, much to Vistra’s bemusement. They end up in an alleyway looking at an ordinary brick wall. Kiya experimentally reads the last phrase of the note aloud: “The End is the Beginning”.
Vistra doesn’t notice any creatures lurking about— in fact, it is very quiet around us— but she does notice that the wall is strange. She notices, out of the corner of her eye, what looks like an edge in an otherwise uninterrupted wall. Kiya notices her looking and asks what she’s looking at. When Vistra explains that it looks weird, Kiya puts her hand on it.
The brick wall turns out to be an illusion hiding a door handle. Kiya turns it and goes through.
We find ourselves in an alchemical shop with a human man standing behind the counter. He is an older gentleman, in his 60’s, with long graying hair. He’s wearing some simple gray robes. His face is worn with frown lines. Kiya shows him the vial of glimmering phase spider venom and explains where it came from. He inspects the vial and offers Kiya 50g for the venom, which she accepts. He also tells us that there are other items he would be interested in and offers to send us a list of magical items to look for.
We leave the shop and Kiya casts Detect Magic. She detects an illusion spell centered on the hidden door behind the brick wall illusion. She also detects a spell that gives her a faint urge to continue walking, like she has other things to do. They buy celebratory sweet buns on the way back to the Beached Leviathan. As we arrive, we hear a meow from the shadows. It’s Bombalina! We greet her happily.
She thanks us again for our help and asks us how we are. We say we are fine, and ask her how she is. She says life is good and their alliance with the wargs is going well. The rats are continued trouble, but they are still doing okay despite it. She says she saw some cultists and thinks they are planning to meet tonight. She pauses, distracted, and licks her shoulder a few times.
“We don’t know their names, but…” and she describes their medallions on their wrists. They knew the cultists were bad when they kicked a cat. They overheard them say that they were meeting tonight at 7:00. They mentioned a code, but the cat got distracted and didn’t hear it. They said they were meeting at a secret church in the protector’s Enclave called “The Church of all Good Things.”
Kiya buys Bombalina a fish to say thank you and we go inside. We tell Tyener what happened to Kiya and Vistra and he also tells them what he learned about the Order of the Gauntlet. We decide to dress up as cult members and sneak into the meeting.
We go to the Pious Chapterhouse to see if Oleida can lend us some cultisty-looking robes and maybe some brass symbols that Kiya can apply the Cult of the Dragon symbol to using prestiphasmitation. We find her in her office. She is shocked when we mention the Church of Good things, stating that it is a house of Bahamut, a good dragon deity and Tyener’s chosen entity.
We tell Oleida our plan, and she goes away and returns with a pile of plain acolyte robes. She gives them to us along with some bronze pendants for us to fashion to our wrists. Feelin’ cute, might slay some evil l8r.
We go to the Protector’s Enclave. Approaching the bridge, we see guards posted. It is more enclosed than other parts of the city. After being questioned by a guard, we enter the Protector’s Enclave. Everything is clean here – unlike the rest of the city, people walk more purposefully and there are lots of watchful guards. There is some pageantry around Lord Neverember.
The Church of all Good Things is small but opulently decorated. Dragon motifs weave throughout and the door is nice. There is a priest standing on the steps welcoming parishioners, shaking them by the hand on their way inside. We step behind some bushes to change into our robes.
We then approach the priest. He hesitantly welcomes us and shakes Tyener’s hand, then Kiya’s and Vistra’s. We think we can feel his fingers brush against the pendants tied to our wrists.
We notice that the churchgoers who shook the priest’s hand are sitting to the side and we take a seat by them. As the churchgoers file in, we wait in anticipation.
