DavesGaming

I had really mixed feelings about returning to Candlekeep. Until three months ago it was my only home, the only *place* I’d ever known. Now, I don’t think it would ever be home without Gorion. Handing over the cost of admission, the book given us by Duke Eltan, sort of put an exclamation point on the whole thing. Its not home if they charge me to enter.
Much of my unease settled as soon as we entered.

I didn’t say much more than it was good to see her again, and she seemed to remember all at once how long I’d been gone. And that Gorion would not be returning. And she was crying worse than I.

The Candlekeep Inn alone made the whole visit a good thing. Winthrop treated us to quite a feast, he was thrilled to meet our new friends. It was a long trek back to Candlekeep, the Inn felt like we’d come home. For tonight we were all laughing and having a grand time.

In the morning, we set out for the keep itself. The library. It started on an interesting note.

Up a couple of floors we found some of what we came for.

He was here with several of his leaders, plus those of uh, some other trade group. They all seemed ready to just attack us on sight. But I’m not sure how that would serve our interest? So we exchanged unpleasentries, and didn’t seem to get anywhere. We still have no proof of the Iron Throne being up to anything.
I’m thinking we should ask around more and see what might be going on here. One frightening tidbit, we’ve encountered and slain a couple of dopplegangers here. And a man named Koveras, unknown to me, was very eager to chat about nothing. He detected as evil. I mean, so do a lot of people. That doesn’t mean he’s dangerous. But its a little odd just now to encounter an apparently psychotic scholar using the library.

It occured to me, while we were here it might be interesting to learn anything about our dramatic flight a few months back. We chatted with a few monks and librarians I’d known.
A dear old friend, Piato, said Gorion had left some things behind for me. Well that was unexpected. What would he have left that he chose not to take along that fateful afternoon? Going into Gorion’s simple room was haunting. There were some minor baubles, some gemstones and some spare change. I suppose those were all mine now. Then I found the scroll. It was addressed to me. Gorion had really never said much about my actual parents, apart from mentioning he’d known my mom. I wish I’d never found that scroll.

As I came back to my senses…

I tried to get a conversation going.
“So what does this actually change?”
Apparently nothing for the six of us.
“What have we learned so far?”
Rieltar is a jerk, but we still can’t pin anything on him. Some, few dopplegangers are here at Candlekeep.
The only “plan” I could come up with right off, was to talk to Tethtoril. He’s the head monk, the leader of Candlekeep. He was a friend to Gorion and always kind to me. Maybe he will know something, or know who does?

Well it turned out, during the time of my dramatic discovery, someone had slain the Iron Throne leaders in their conference room.
Guess who was blamed?

Candlekeep’s chief librarian, Ulraunt stopped by. He was never a friend to me. More than once I’d heard him and my father exchange words about my “disruptive influence” among the monks. He is convinced this was inevitable given my heritage. Swell. I’ve known my heritage for barely an hour, and apparently some have hated me my whole life for it. He did say that “Koveras” had seen me fleeing the scene of the crime. I’ve got five witnesses that I was in my father’s old room crying my eyes out at the time, but nevermind…
Shortly after Ulraunt left, Tethtoril stopped by to see us. Tethtoril would be Ulraunt’s boss, and he IS a good friend to me and my father. That is my REAL father Gorion, not my sire. But I’ve always known Gorion was not that. Tethtoril apologized for the bars. I asked him if he knew the name “Koveras”. He said no, but it was Sarevok in reverse. He’d studied here before.
That was alarming, we’d heard that name before. When we visited the Iron Throne headquarters in Baldur’s Gate we had heard he was trying to take over the organization.
Tethtoril observed that was an unlikely coinicidence. Officially, we were to be held until Flaming Fists could arrive to transport me back to the city for trial. But he mentioned there were catecombs beneath this building. He could teleport us there, and we could make our way out.
“Do be careful Brad. You have some powerful enemies. But there are many who love you too, you will be in our prayers.”

The catecombs were not an easy way out. And we quickly learned this was where the dopplegangers had infiltrated.

There were no dopplegangers left when we finished. But there was a mercenary group guarding the exit.

That worked. Spellcasters tend to be more fragile sorts, and both of them were already wounded. So I gambled we were all still more whole than they were. There are multiple meanings for “friendly fire!”

We were all pretty quiet as we walked back to the Friendly Arm Inn.

We all talked about where things now stood. Sarevok had framed us for killing his own bosses (actually we learned Rieltar was his father, so add “patricide” to his crimes). We would be wanted criminals in Baldur’s Gate. Saravok was now in charge of the Iron Throne, and apparently was soon to be a new Duke of Baldur’s Gate.
At some point we would need to address that. But we all agreed, for now things were just too hot. We had something we could do, that would keep us away from the city, possibly for quite some time. An old dwarf wanted us to find a missing dagger at the ruin of Durlag’s Tower.

We’ll head out in the morning.

*****

An emotionally charged chapter for much of the party, especially hard on Gorion’s Ward. But its a short one in terms of elapsed time and combat. So only two levels were gained, Jaheira hit 8th level Druid almost first thing. And then Jaheira again, hit 7th level Fighter in that last big battle.

I made a funny, stupid mistake when I started doing renders this time. I must have accidently selected the “Nano Banana Pro” renderer instead of my prefered “GPT Image 1.5”. I was soon pulling my hair out in frustration. Everything was looking overly bright and vivid, images were poorly composed, and many looked more like paintings than photos. Its funny it took me so long to figure it out! Seriously, Nano Banana Pro *costs* almost twice as much as GPT Image. And it is simply NOT a good choice for photographic style. Honestly it looks childish to me, but perhaps it works well for something I’m NOT doing?
For your viewing pleasure, the first two images in this post are from that first half hour or so. They are noticably brighter than what I prefer, but otherwise looked okay. Maybe suitable for the brighter early mood of this chapter.