D&D continued
Played another short D&D session last night -- it was truncated due to me having to fix the air conditioning and the party having to finish leveling up and crafting magic items. Save for the briefest scuffle with a 2HD mook there was no combat at all, which was a pretty significant deviation from how the first part of this adventure went.


The main concern on the minds of the players were finding a way to not die ("be consumed from within") by their new aberrant dragonmarks. The spontaneous, group generation of dragonmarks has only been recorded once -- in another group of adventurers in Q'barra some 1,500 years ago. While not explicitly described, it is reasonable to assume that these adventurers may have been inflicted with the marks after a visit to the same temple that the players just finished exploring. All of them were dead within a year, save their leader Jheamast who apparently lived a relatively full life before finally being interred somewhere in the Lhazaar Principalities.

The party's patron, Sur'kil, has kept them on his payroll while they search for a cure because they will also be following the trail of the so called "Dragon's Eye", an ancient relic that the Emerald Claw are also competing to find. Sur'kil thinks it likely that Jheamast's group may have taken the relic when they visited the temple centuries ago.

And so, will all that in their quest log, the players climbed aboard an elemental galleon and sailed east to the Lhazaar principalities. After a few stops (and some failed Gather Information checks), they were finally able to make a useful, but potentially dangerous, contact in Port Verge. A gnome scion of a dragonmarked house, Volus d'Sivis, met with the party (or, as he put it, "Astreia d'Deneith and her entourage"). The powerful information broker dropped a few hints to make it explicitly clear that he was quite aware of who the party was and where they'd been, and tried to extract as much information from the players as possible about their mission and their employer. Due to some indelicate phrasing (and a blown follow-up Bluff check), it's possible that Volus has guessed that the part has developed aberrant dragonmarks.

Nonetheless, the gnome offers to aid the Astreia "so as to help build a relationship between our two noble houses". Later, while speaking to some house Deneith swordblades, they express concern about exactly when and how Volus will expect this favor to be repaid.

Two days later, the party receives word that Volus has found some information regarding Jheamast, and he invites Astreia to join him for dinner at a posh restaurant to discuss it. Volus eventually divulges the information that the party needs (around the dessert course). As he does so, Khaled, who was hiding outside, notices a figure by the restaurant's window who was eavesdropping. The rogue gives chase to the agent of the Emerald Claw but by the time he has caught up, the fanatic had already relayed the information to someone else with a sending stone. The cultist proves too devoted to succumb to intimidation, but it is clear that the Emerald Claw have not relented on their quest and now may have a head start on finding the Dragon's Eye.

Volus' information was that Jheamast is indeed interred within the Lhazaar Principalities, on a certain haunted island. Unfortunately, his information doesn't indicate exactly where on the large island the tomb is. However, he has discovered that two years ago an explorer discovered the tomb. While the whereabouts of the explorer are currently unknown, his journal was recently purchased by a Karnnathi expatriate named Vorgaard, who lives in the Principalities.

So now, the players are racing with the Emerald Claw to reach Vorgaard's mansion to secure the journal.

(Some hints get dropped by Volus that show that he was not only aware of the eavesdropper, but that he may have in fact arranged for him to be there are the right time. He sees the upcoming race as an entertaining competition to follow and so made sure that everyone started on even footing.)