Heroes of Silvermoon, Chapter 9: Far from Home

Contents:

1. The Cultist
2. Arena Games
3. Phoenix Sorcery
4. The Half-Moon Crucible
5. Castle Mistamere
6. Bringing Back the Dead
7. The Curse of House Lightwalker
8. Captured
9. Far from Home
10. Through the Underdark
11. A New Port of Kings

The Tale of the Heroes of Silvermoon

Chapter 9: Far from Home

The heroes returned to Silvermoon and rested, with Cristoff gaining permanent membership in the Crown Guard and everyone else settling in to their jobs and new lives. Olwyn went on his way, saying that his lot in life was to wander, and Gorthuk returned to Waterbrink to attempt to teach his clan the art of ale brewing and make honest workers out of them. One day, a messenger page encountered the heroes when they were in Julian's restaurant. He introduced himself as Bradley Bean, and informed the heroes that their reputation had reached the city in the far north called Port of Kings. A banquet was to be held in their honor and they were invited to come.

Port of Kings was a long way away—around a twelve-day journey—so Xilmar arranged to meet with his friend at the Silvermoon lycaeum to arrange teleportation at a discounted price. They soon left, along with a strange half-orc leather belt salesman named Zaxby, who wanted to do business in Port of Kings. Having nearly two weeks to spare before the banquet, they spent some time in Port of Kings while Bradley traveled to Waterbrink to invite Gorthuk. Cristoff decided to stay behind, as his duties had begun to pile up, and Julian was now a full-fledged noble presence in Silvermoon, so he remained as well.

Port of Kings was a thriving town, but one with extremely strict laws, which greatly weighed on Xilmar. Ari also chafed at the rules and longed to break them by doing jobs for the local thieves' guild. There was also a very rigid restrictive system on magic items... all magic items belonged to the king unless officially lent out, and the group's magic items had to be inspected upon arrival.

The leader of Port of Kings, King Verdon Bane, welcomed the heroes and introduced them to General Richard Strongborn. He also assigned them a strange bard named Lore to help them inspect and sabotage the nearby amassing gnoll forces. The group did a few similar jobs for the king in return for gold, and he graciously allowed them to live in a house in the noble district during their stay.

Despite the apparent hospitality, Xilmar and Ari tired of the strict rules in the town, and attempted to help the thieves guild smuggle a boat of contraband to another port town as a way to wind down. Unfortunately, a violent storm prevented them from making it out to sea. The banquet also did not go well when the officials caught Xilmar trying to cheat in a friendly game of dice and patronized him for it, which infuriated him and made him resolve to leave.

After the banquet, the king entrusted the group with secret information regarding special missions he needed trusted people from outside the city to help with. Xilmar, disgusted with the rainy city that stifled the freedom he held so dear, tried to return back to Silvermoon, but was detained and fined by King Bane. Furious with the king's lack of diplomatic immunity and the pushiness of his secrecy that he didn't even care about, Xilmar stormed out of the city, vowing to get his revenge.

In his place, the king offered one of his highly ranked military officers, Sir Dhirktelonis Rhogar the silver dragonborn, to aid the adventurers in their following missions. They helped expose a plot of missing villagers led by an evil oni, and explored some suspicious caverns at the base of the cliffs near the sea. In it, they found signs of a cult taken over by a colony of mind flayers. They also found that General Strongborn had betrayed the city. Gorthuk tortured the general, much to Rhogar's disgust, who still valued him as his former leader, and eventually they threw the general into the dungeons. The group also noticed a strange shape hovering several thousand feet above the city during the day.