The heroes are invited to Wroat, the capital of Breland, where they receive honors and royal boons from King Boranel. During their visit, they receive a mysterious letter signed with the name of a gnome spy, asking for help to escape from a House Cannith facility and offering her services as a codebreaker in return.
Player Characters: Balkris, Reckoner, Sitticus, Timber
Balkris and members of his adventuring company (nicknamed “The Rabble” by Balkris’ disapproving father) were invited to the royal court in the Brelish capital city of Wroat to honor them for their recent heroic efforts in rescuing a Brelish agent. The nobleman and his warforged friend Reckoner were joined by two bodyguards hired by House Vadalis: Sitticus, a half-elf rogue and former soldier from Karrnath, and Timber, a shifter druid and ex-criminal who had served as a conscript and scout in the peasant legions of Thrane.
Traveling to Wroat by lightning rail, the party received a royal welcome from King Boranel and his court. They were offered the king’s favor, granting a boon to each person present. Timber humbly abstained, admitting that he had done nothing to merit the honor, and his humility impressed the king. Sitticus asked for a favor not for himself but for impoverished veterans of the Last War. The king answered by proclaiming a state sponsored aid program, much to the chagrin of his courtiers. Reckoner asked for help in finding a man named Raylan Givens, his former commanding officer from the Order of Rekkenmark in Karrnath, and the King agreed to offer what help he could. Balkris stated his concerns regarding the Lord of Blades who was behind the attack on the Brelish agent but discreetly (and telepathically) asked for help decoding the encrypted House Orien letter, to which the king assented with the caveat that it may take some time.
The following morning, the party received a letter from a young halfling messenger. It was a message from a gnome agent of House Sivis named Alicia Lund who had infiltrated a House Cannith research facility. She claimed to have knowledge of the party’s letter and offered to decrypt it in exchange for safe extraction from her undercover operation.
The party snuck into the House Cannith facility, captured numerous researchers (killing one in the process) including the head artificer, Garavantus d’Cannith, and threw them into the sewers. They found Alicia Lund in the upper level, but she was startled to see them and had no knowledge of the letter. Someone else had written the letter and set up the adventurers and Alicia Lund.
Realizing that they had been duped, the party and Alicia resolved to escape first and find the culprit behind the deception. They snuck out of the facility and arrived outside only to be ambushed by halfling members of the Boromar Clan. Their leader, a young female bard carrying a magical ukelele, boasted that she was the one who send them the letter. As her thugs confronted the party, she sang about her brilliant plan to recover the letter from The Rabble and capture the House Sivis agent who could decode it.