The Bookie Takes A Boat And The Cult

After the group made a bet with the bookie, they went to the fight to cheer on their friend, Grallack, who fought his way through all the challengers to become the winner. They immediately made a beeline back to the bookie to collect their prize. They had put down 11,000 gold in the fight and were expected to make over 100,000 gp.

Alas, the bookie’s door was locked, and no one answered the pounding door. So the group went through the door and found the office empty of everything, and the small room upstairs, which looked like a bedroom, was also empty.

Garm the Bookie had split sometime after the group had handed him their savings. And they weren’t the only ones. Garm worked as a go-between for various groups, taking bets, giving payouts, and making collections. He could have had a fortune in his office before the fights started.

The group begins navigating around the area, looking for clues about where Garm fled.

The locals admit that they saw Garm heading for the city's southern gate. Had paid his guards to load up all his possessions. The guards took the coin and split up, going East and West.

Rather than search for minions, the group heads to the southern gate at high speed, only to find disappointment. Garm has several hours' lead on the group. The Southern Gate guards recognize the cloaks and are happy to tell the group that the closest town to the south is Redhill, 2(ish) hours away. The group heads South…

They arrive at the small town of Redhill. 2ish hours later. Redhill boasts a smithy, a small inn and tavern, and a few houses. The half-elf blacksmith greets the group, naming himself Rennard. He seems very good at forging horseshoes and shoeing horses. He has not seen anyone passing through in a few days, except the poor bastard who had his horse throw a shoe and took a fall. The traveler is inside the tavern, nursing his bruises.

The group heads to the tavern, where a stout human woman named Rose is pouring drinks for a man with a bandage on his head.  His name is Rory Hetminson, a skinny human bearing a pouch of messages south to Waterdeep. Neither of these folk has seen anyone on the road. Rose confirms that she hasn’t seen anyone in days. The party is cheesed. Where did Garm go? They head back to the southern gate of Neverwinter. Pickle sends his minion south to try and catch the devious bookie, thinking he avoided the town and the prying eyes that live here.

Even after 4 hours, the line outside the gate barely moved. An enterprising gnome interested in a bit of coin reveals that Garm followed the wall north in his wagon, toward the docks. He is paid well.

Realizing that Garm was heading for a ship all along, the party makes it to the docks. They find the Harbormaster, Wilhelm Teller, who tells them that Garm boarded a ship traveling south to Waterdeep three or four hours ago. The vessel is a fast one, called the Gefilte Fish, captained by a shrewd elf, Falin the Friendless. Falin is a trader who travels and trades regularly between Neverwinter and Waterdeep. However, just as the group begins to make plans to commandeer a vessel, a woman screams outside.

Kevori Fearnehart is holding a man and wailing. She has a Guards cloak on and identifies herself as a member of a special investigative unit that infiltrates groups under cover to find out if they mean harm to Neverwinter. The dead half-elf, Delvin Fearnehart, was in the middle of investigating a possible cult. Kevori collects herself and begs the group to find out who did this and to hunt them down. Her brother had been secretly messaging her with cryptic messages and was worried about his safety and the city in his messages. She wants to take her brother back to the guard house and needs to report her brother's death to her superior, Captain Drenner. She is obviously in shock and can barely hold a rational thought beyond taking care of he brother’s body.

The party searches the area for any signs or clues from the attack, questions any people who were close as it happened, and is granted permission by Kevori to search her brother’s body for any clues.

They find a desiccated eyeball in one of Kevori’s pockets, an odd thing to carry around. They head to their local wizard, Glug, who can cast detect magic, and senses divination magic surrounding the eye. But that is all he can figure out. So they see Granny, knowing she can help them figure out what this eye does. The group enjoys piping hot pie while they wait.

Granny examines the eye and determines that it is a compass of sorts. The activation phrase is “Hail the Undying”. She also mentions that this reminds her of Vecna’s eye. The group remembers that Lex gave them a warning about Vecna. They decide to stock up on holy water. They thank her. And she stops them, mentioning that such an object could lead to facing dangerous undead. She hands the group 7 potions and tells them they will hide them from the undead for a short time. They thank her and head outside.

Before leaving, Pickle mentions that he would like some help finding information on a group known as the Silver Spoon. Granny agrees to start looking for information.

Pickle, curious if the pie served to the group is magical, collects crumbs in a handkerchief. Moving away from the shop, Glug casts detect magic on the crumbs, but there is no magic in the food; it's just damn good.

Bubba says, “Hail the Undying”, and the eye spins around in his palm, stopping toward the new district. They travel through the city, stopping occasionally to verify their direction and find themselves in a ruined area at the western edge of the new district.

The group is led to an alley strewn with rubble. Rats scurry between chunks of old stone and dusty crates. At the back of the alley is a set of moldering wooden boards, propped up just enough to block a dark tunnel leading below the surface.

The group removes the boards easily and heads into a sloping tunnel.

At the bottom of the slope, the chamber is half flooded. The group can see that the chamber extends onward, so they pile onto the magic carpet, wade through, fly above the water, and are assaulted by a Water Weird. They defeat the beast and move on into a rotundra where a faceless ghost begs them for help, rediscovering her identity. The ghost remembers nothing about Delvin, the cult, or the catacombs.

They head south to another large chamber and find eight zombies shuffling around. The zombies sense the group and attack. After killing these poor souls all over again, the group sees that this place used to be a shrine to Ohgma, God of knowledge and patron to bards and wizards. They clean the shrine, and Pickle uses his magical energy to rededicate it. The party receives +1 to saving throws until their next long rest.

They move south again and follow the tunnel to an ancient double door. The doors are locked, and there are no visible keyholes. Facing the double door is a large carving of a grinning skull; one eye socket bears a wide eyeball with a jeweled iris, while the other is an empty divot. The group finally comes up with the idea of placing the eye into the empty divot of the skull, and the doors open. Before going down the visible stairs deeper in the catacombs, they follow the tunnel east. They find another flooded chamber and are attacked by three burbling masses that are awakened piles of undead sludge. They defeat the monsters and head back to look at the unexplored area. They come upon a knight's tomb and remember hearing about the knight, Chanelle Hallwinter.. In gratitude for their help, she gives the party her magic shield +1. They head back to the stairs that lead deeper into the catacombs.

They head down the stairs and arrive in a high, vaulted sanctuary. On an altar at the back of the room is a statue of a hand holding an eyeball. This place has been dedicated to Vecna.

Suddenly, the party, not bothering to conceal themselves, is attacked from a nearby hallway. The crossbow bolts do some damage, but the party scythes through the seven cultists and begins to ransack the room, finding two gray cultist robes and three gaudy jeweled rings worth 10 gp each and a  Hat of Disguise tucked beneath one of the unused cots.

They enter the Eldritch Library and find notes detailing the cult leader, Zalryr, experimenting with ways to siphon the secrets from an individual’s soul. Early experiments turned to sludge, which were disposed of in the sewer.

This group is one sect of many that have infiltrated Neverwinter. The other sects are in different locations throughout the city; their exact locations are unknown. The group finds two potions of greater healing in a lockbox. In the southernmost chamber, the cult leader, Zalryr, stands. He is experimenting on the two cultists standing inside the ritual circle. As the party watches, something floats free of the cultist's bodies, forming two shadowy entities. Upon noticing the party, he orders the entities to attack, and fires spells off. The party kills the leader and the entities.

The runic circle suddenly hisses and flashes with lurid light. As if being extinguished, the glow of the runes dims as shadowy smoke rises from the carvings. The smoke gathers in the center of the chamber, coalescing into an apparition of an emaciated skull with one glowing green eye.

The apparition speaks in a hissing baritone. “Good news, Zalryr. Though your efforts have been disappointing, you have brought me new... points of interest.” The apparition swivels to look at each of you in turn. “Yes, there is great potential here. May we meet again—but until then, I have my eye on you.” The apparition then explodes into streaks of shadow, passing through each of you with a whispered scream before vanishing.

Each player receives one of these charms from Vecna:

Charm of the Creeping Hand

Supernatural Gift (Charm)

Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an attack roll using a weapon or an unarmed strike, you can infuse your strike with life-stealing energy. Your attack then deals an extra 1d10 necrotic damage, and you gain 5 temporary hit points. Once used five times, the charm vanishes.

Charm of the Eldritch Eye

Supernatural Gift (Charm)

You can cast Clairvoyance as an action, without using a spell slot and requiring no material components. Once used three times, the charm vanishes.

These Charms can be added to a character sheet by picking the correct charm from the homebrewed wonderous items I have created on D&D Beyond.

Charm of the Creeping Hand – Bubba, Grallaack, Lex, Abel

Charm of the Eldritch Eye – Pickle, Caine, Glug