Our adventuring party has joined a trading caravan heading North out of Baldur’s Gate. The women were asked to watch – but not engage – the Cult of the Dragon to gather intel on their plans. Issa (tiefling druid) has confirmed there are three wagons at the back of the procession that belong to the cultists. After the first day of travel, the women gather around a fire to share details of their respective wagons. Pheobe (human paladin), and Thia (elf monk) are guards for Archer and his shipment of furs. Nimby (gnome ranger) is a teamster for Sam the Hoper and his vehicle full of porcelain dishes. Zelena (elf wizard) is a passenger on Nyer Veren’s wagon of silks. Issa is not bound to a merchant because she has stayed wild-shaped as a cat. As the moon rises in the sky, the women disperse back to their patrons.

The first full day of travel was pleasant and uneventful. Zelena shares her coffee with Nyer. Nimby leads Sam’s horse smoothly along the path. Issa bounces between the wagons and keeps an eye on everyone. Thia and Phoebe ask Archer about the open fields they are traversing. He tells them, “This area is called the Fields of the Dead where ancient battles were fought to control Baldur’s Gate and access to the coast. The souls of the departed still roam around at night, so it is best to keep quiet and dark at night. The spirits are attracted to light. We will have to be careful the next couple nights until we get to Troll Hills.”

As the sun lowers in the sky, the wagons again pull off the road onto the open field. Everyone eats an early dinner so all the fires and lanterns can be put out before the sun’s final descent over the horizon. Thia ensures all the wagons are dark before retiring for the evening to meditate. All is quiet for a few hours.

Around 2 am the campawakens to a piercing shriek. Thia and Phoebe jump outside to see light streaming from a lantern outside Sam the Hoper’s wagon. One of his horses is being chewed upon by a spectral wight! Nimby sleepily pokes her head out of the wagon and is blinded by the light and screams. The wight appears as dirty rags with a screaming face. It turns toward Phoebe and rushes forward with a sword appearing where a hand would be under the rags. Phoebe parries the wight’s attacks and slices off a bit of its fabric. Thia rushes to the lantern and puts out the light so the camp is once again dark. Nimby attends to the injured horse by wrapping its wounds in a clean cloth and casting a light healing spell. Meanwhile Phoebe is able to smite the wight and it’s form dissipates into the darkness.

A few of the other guards show up a moment later to inquire what happened. After a brief search, footprints are seen coming to and from the lantern. Clearly this was some type of sabotage, but after a few feet the tracks disappear into a sea of dozens of other footsteps. Nimby ensures the horse is safe and calm before returning to bed. The rest of the night is silent through morning.

The wight attack is what everyone is talking about the following morning. By the end of breakfast, the entire caravan knows a lantern was maliciously lit the previous night. One merchant decides the trip is too risky, and turns around to head back to Baldur’s Gate. Archer, the half-orc who hired Pheobe and Thia as guards, stomps over to Sam the Hoper’s wagon mid morning. He and Sam have a heated discussion about the contents of his wagon and his new teamster Nimby. Sam assures him it was an accident and reminds Nimby and everyone present to keep the lamps off for the ENTIRE night. In a huff, Archer storms away, almost tripping on Nimby’s small gnomish form. The caravan gets a late start but eventually heads further up the road deeper into the Fields of the Dead.

The terrain is much the same as the day before. The road ahead is foggy, and they pass by several sinkholes to the right of the road. Given the incident of the previous evening, no one ventures off the road. As evening settles in, the caravan comes to an early stop to eat and retire.

This time, Thia and Zelena decide to keep watch overnight. As elves, they only require 4 hours of rest. They take turns walking between the wagons all evening to ensure all lanterns remain dark. Around 2 am on Zelena’s watch, she hears footsteps around Sam the Hoper’s wagon. Cautious since this is where the wight appeared last night, she sneaks around the side of the wagon. Standing by the lantern at the front of the wagon is a man wearing a cloak. He is holding a torch and is trying to light it, but appears to be failing because of the moist foggy air. He curses quietly and pulls out another torch.

Zelena jumps out behind him and yells at him, “Hey, stop that!” Then she turns toward the wagon and yells even louder, “Sabotage!” The man jumps a foot at her sudden appearance and drops the torch on the ground. He turns to flee, but Zelena shoots a ray of frost at his feet. He stumbles and leans over but is unable to move now that his feet are frozen to the ground. Nimby stumbles out of the wagon and onto the ground. She looks around confused and groggily picks the torch off the ground just as other guards show up, responding to Zelena’s call.

Seeing his opportunity, the man with frozen feet points at Nimby and screams, “It was her! She was trying to light that torch.” The guards seize her small gnomish form and she drops the torch.

“What! No, I just woke up. Hey, put me down.” She yelped as she was lifted off the ground.

Zelena waves her arms in the air, “No, it wasn’t Nimby; it was that cultist!” She points at the man. At this point his feet have melted, and he starts to slink away into the darkness. “Stop him!” Zelena screams. The guards turn and grab him as well. “I saw him trying to light the torch.” Other merchants and teamsters start gathering around the wagon to hear what is happening. News spreads that Nimby is a cultist and was trying to light the torches with this man. The merchants want both of them to be thrown out of the caravan completely. Several people from the cultist wagons show up and start yelling that the man is innocent and it was all the gnome. Zelena and Nimby try to explain that she was just responding to the Zelena’s cry for help.

Phoebe pushes through the throng to the front and sees the chaos. She looks around and then speaks loudly to the mob. “I am new to this caravan, but is there a leader? Can we not have the merchants vote on who should be exiled from our midst?”

The concerned mob murmurs together. One merchant with a long nose and glasses steps forward and speaks, “We can do as you ask. Tomorrow we will form a council of three esteemed merchants to hear your case. We will hear each side and decide whether to throw one or both of you out.” The merchants behind him nod and look around in agreement. “Until then, both need to remain under watch. I will lend one of my guards, to watch the gnome. Can we have another?” A hand shoots up from the crowd. “Ah you, elf guard, please detain and watch this man until the morning.” Thia steps up to the front to take her post by the man. She ties a loose rope around Nimby’s arms with an apologetic look in her eyes, then she ensures the man is tied up tighter than before. The crowd slowly disperses back to their respective wagons.

The next morning, a council is formed to judge the case. Beyrd Schepol, a merchant who sells alcohols, Noor Serelim, a trader of wood carvings, and Wanda Toro, a teamster who has been up and down the coast hundreds of times; three individuals who are well known and travel this road often. They set up a table in the center of the caravan and asked the accused to be brought forth. First, the cultist man is untied and led to the front. He says he was going for a night walk when he stumbled across the little gnome girl lighting a torch. Then he was attacked by the gnome’s wizard friend. The council nods and jots down a few notes. Then Nimby is brought forth. She says she was asleep in her wagon until she heard a cry outside. She went to investigate and found the torch on the ground and Zelena shouting for help in stopping the man. The council nods and jots down a few notes. They then ask Zelena to speak about her experience. She corroborates Nimby’s story that she found the man lighting a torch and cried out for help. The council nods and jots down a few notes. They then ask if the man has any other witnesses. He says yes, and a half-elf woman walks up to the front. She is dressed like a wagon guard with a brown cloak draped over her shoulders. She speaks, “Yes, I was also on an evening stroll last night. I saw the gnome with the torch and the elf attack this man.” They ask if she saw what happened before the elf attacked the man. She says, “Yes, the man was just stargazing and minding his own business.” At this witness, Zelena protests that this woman was not at the scene at all. The council nods and jots down a few notes. Thia also protests to not having seen anyone else wandering around during her own nightly watch. 

After some time for deliberation, the vote was two-to-one to keep Nimby and exile the cultist man from the caravan. He is asked to leave and never again show his face on this road. He protests at his sentence, but the guards of the other wagons pick him up and carry him to the edge of the camp. The half-elf woman is no where to be seen. Issa beast-shapes into a cat and follows the man for an hour. He circles around and is picked up by one of the cultist wagons. She hears a stern voice, “How could you get caught like that! Amateur! Stay inside with the produce and don’t let even your nose out of the wagon until we get to Waterdeep.” He slinks inside and out of sight.

With this mess taken care of, the wagons at the front begin to move north. It is only midday so they are able to make some progress along the road. By the time the sun sets, the caravan reaches the edge of the Fields of the Dead. The collective group sighs in relief to be past the nightly terrors of those ancient battlefields.

Since it is safe again to be outside at night, Beyrd Shepol opens his tavern wagon for business. He has a string of lights around his bar and carries a handful of ales and wines. Nimby, Zelena, Pheobe, Thia, and Issa head here for a drink. Though the prices are outrageous, the barkeep is a friendly man who helped them out by voting for Nimby to stay. He shares his knowledge with them that the next leg of this trip will be through the Troll Hills. It is best to stay together as a group here. Trolls are known to pick out individual stragglers.

-Sorry for the delay in posting. I’ve been busy and this episode was difficult to write. I don’t remember the details of the council.

-Zelena assisted in the editing of this episode.

-As a DM, you learn to expect the unexpected. I did not have a “council” prepared at all, though it was a great idea by the party. I had to pause the game for a “bathroom break” so I could come up with some judging rules real quick. They each had to make a persuasion check vs the cultists to convince the judges who was telling the truth.