Session 7 - The Journey Begins

In which the party attempts to discover where exactly the Cult of the Dragon is shipping their stolen treasure and what they plan to do with that treasure.

Our plucky heroes are heading north amidst a small caravan led by an experienced dwarven wagon driver. That is, the caravan boss is a dwarf, not a guy with experience driving wagons of dwarven manufacture.  Yolo the fighter and Grim the archer signed on as guardsmen working for the ale merchant Beyd Sechepol.  The cleric Aramis, Gilgamesh the death mage, and the half dragon paladin Karren bought a merchant's wagon of their own along with a selection of spices in an effort to travel in disguise so as not to tip off the cultists who are also travelling in disguise.

The 40-day trek north to Waterdeep started off uneventfully, but the early days out of Baldur's Gate mean a trip through a massive haunted plain called the Fields of the Dead! Three days into the trek, the caravan stumbled across a band of Ushanti Hobgoblins ambushing a lone merchant's wagon. As fate would have it, the two party wagons - that is the wagons manned by the party, not wagons built for parties - were the lead wagons of the caravan and hence were the first to respond.  Alas, despite dispatching the hobgoblin raiders, the party was too late to save the ambushed merchants.

During the hobgoblin attack, the fight was visited by an ancient grieving elvish ghost, seeking her long lost husband...to no avail.  She ignored most of the party and hobgoblins unless attacked - she sucked the soul out of the one hobgoblin that tried - focusing on the elf, Yolo.  She begged him for aid in finding her husband and escaping her manipulative father.  No one could help, so she wandered off into the plains.

After the fight, one of the cultists caught Karren alone and muttered that he knew who the half-dragon was and that the cult was watching him.  How did he know?  Probably the powerful magic spear that Karren wielded in the fight - it perfectly matched a spear taken from the blue dragonborn leader, Cyanwraith.  Should have kept that weapon under wraps.

In the morning, the camp was visited by an epic "Golden Stag" of yore. Not able to pass up a chance of capturing such a legendary beast, a few members of the group tracked and followed the great stag deep into the forrest only to find the stag transformed into an ancient elvish druid with some rather dire "warnings" of what may come to pass...  Realizing the aged elf was the previous nights specters' long lost husband, the group re-united the two, thereby earning a valuable reward - a rare wand of Detect Magic.