Roads Not Taken

Lorkhan was investigating a cult of Necromancers to find out as much as he could about revivifying magic. In a warehouse, he witnessed a ritual of summoning a portal to Mechanus. As he was about to interrupt the ritual, Sigar Westmere interrupted him and told him to wait for the loot to appear. The circle of necromancers finished the portal, and it opened to a Marut stepping out of it. The Marut immediately did a spin attack with its blades and cut all fifteen or so necromancers in half. Sigar was flabbergasted, but Lorkhan immediately opened a dimension door, escaping the grasp of the Marut. Lorkhan and Sigar then ran through the streets of Oeble and escaped into an illusionary wall: a thieves' den, Sigar is a memebr of. A colorful group of characters surrounded Lorkhan, all having a coin attached around their necks. Through the masses, a tall figure stepped out: Manasa, saying to the crowd: "Hold it, he is with me."

Gambino attacks the party, expecting from them to hand over the Medallion of Records. Kilijan was about to hand it over, but Weneon interfered, and a fight broke out. Gambino summoned meteors falling from the sky, while the party mercilessly pounded on him. They soon figured out, however, that the Gambino they were fighting was not what he seemed to be. They were, however, not sure whether it was an illusion or not. The fight ends and the party continues their travel, only to be interrupted by another figure: a male elf by the name of Serge.

Serge introduces himself as a mechanic from Graviheer, a town famous for their excellent shipbuilding. He chats with the party, revealing to them that there is probably benefits them and his crew led by General Taylor could get out of mutual assistance. The Uninvited refuse, but take him up on his offer to rest with him in this now-safe part of the road to Derlusk. During a conversation with Lorkhan, Kilijan learns about the Circle of Flames ring Lorkhan is wearing. The same kind of ring Kilijan saw earlier in Oeble. When asked about it, Lorkhan explains it as being nothing more than a memento of a ritual he tried to sabotage during the downtime in Oeble. Lorkhan then remembers what the golden table on the Marut was saying. By memory, he writes the glyphs down he saw. Manasa manages to decipher them as: "... until the new paladin of Mechanus sees the light of the sun..." In the morning, they travel towards Derlusk. Serge once more asked them to visit Graviheer with him, but they decline. Mycha sees in the distance the remains of Blacksaddle Keep, where the asylum Brahms was stationed, in which his sister was kept. Serge informs him that the Toothfairy got rid of Brahms after she took over the facility. At the crossroads of Derlusk and Felshroun, Serge bids the party farewell as they continue their journey towards Derlusk.

Arriving in Splondar, the party learns from a routine guard-check that they are wanted men in Thur, but not in Shandolph's Reach. The guard shows them their posters with a 5000 gp bounty for each of them. They then continue to travel to Derlusk, arriving the next day at noon at the Derlusk city gates. During the check into the city, a blind passenger, a woman named Zendekay, joins them. The party plays along so she can enter the city with them. However, before having the ability to ask her any questions, she takes off and disappears in the crowded city of Derlusk. The party settles for a coffee in the busy streets. They choose a café named Giffé and are patroned by Trombo, a dim-witted Giff with a lisp. Lorkhan decides to seek out their ship in the harbor. He manages to do so and is told that they will be setting sail in three hours. A man by the name of Tristan jokingly tells him that the ship they booked is not going to make it in the Sea of Swords. Meanwhile, the rest of the party drinks their coffee and is approached by an elderly man who introduces himself as John. The party immediately notices that the man has a lot of knowledge about them. He explains it away as being well-informed about them, since they made quite a name for themselves over the past few months. A half-orc approaches the table and starts taunting the party about their plans to sail the Sea of Swords. John handles him by telling him that everything will be fine. The half-orc provocateur calms down after noticing John, and he returns to his seat. Mycha is about to ask John how he managed to calm him down so easily, but before John could answer, Tristan joins them and whispers something into John's ear, referring to him as General Taylor. John excuses himself from the party and leaves with Tristan.

As the party is finishing up their coffee, guards approach them with a handcuffed Zendekay. They ask the party if she is with them, to which some say yes and some say no. Lorkhan agrees to pay a fine of 200 gp, and the guards release her to them. They learn from Zendekay that she wanted to smuggle onto a ship to leave the Border Kingdoms, leaving out most of her motivations to do so. The party agrees to take her with them, and they leave for the harbor. As they approach their ship on bay 8, the captain, a male vedalken, greets them. When he sees Kilijan, however, his eyes freeze, as Kilijan recognizes him as Aran Mecha, his father.

The party unlocked Poem #2 from the Medallion of Records, revealing a vision. The New Leaves traveled to Baldur's Gate to find clues about Elminster's whereabouts. Neverember had told them Elminster knew Malcer's father and could be persuaded to help find Gambino. While traveling through Waterdeep, the New Leaves learned about Xanathar, the beholder, and the two psion kids, Lena and Janus. They discovered that Gambino had enslaved himself to Janus and betrayed the New Leaves. The New Leaves then investigated Xanathar's old hideout and discovered maps to the location of the beholder's secret lair in the Greypeak Mountains, east of Waterdeep. The party then made their way to the Greypeak Mountains. On their journey, they met nomad mountain dwarfs who were intoxicated by a substance named delirium. They helped the mountain dwarfs clan take back their village in the mountains, which an elder dragon had taken. The dragon retreated further into the mountains after the fight. The New Leaves then found Xanathar's secret hideout. While investigating the dungeon deep inside the mountain, they fought dream projections of Xanathar's imagination. When they finally found him, they saw a weakened beholder grasping for life, as the projections he had cast had drained him. He surrendered quickly. Xanathar told them how he had wanted to use Lena to make Neverwinter forget its ruler, in order to establish himself as the lord of the city. However, the spell took a wrong turn, and Neverwinter was cast from the planet and from the memories of most people. Xanathar then explained that Lena fell ill after casting the spell, and he retreated with her to this secret location. He cared for her as best as he could, but after a few months, her brother Janus and Gambino found them. Janus banished Xanathar to this location and took Lena with him. Xanathar concluded that they wanted to find Mordenkainen to help heal her in Everska, a mountain south of the Greypeak Mountains, at the border of the Anauroch desert. Xanathar died, and the New Leaves made their way down the mountain. On their descent, the elder dragon returned and attacked them, seeking revenge. As they fought, a roaring sound was heard of a giant construct approaching. A massive explosion opened up the mountainside, and two kenku riding an infernal machine jumped out of the hole. One of the kenkus threw some weird dimensional shackles to Arahna, telling her: "A gift from Bambara." Arahna approached the elder dragon with the shackles, and they multiplied in size as she caught the dragon. The shackles read: "Property of Bambara." Arahna felt an extremely strong banishment spell being cast from out of her and chose to banish the dragon to where Neverwinter was. To their surprise, after using a locate creature spell on the dragon, the New Leaves sensed that it was on the same plane of existence, somewhere in the far south.