The team
Cai: female wood elf ranger
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Feyra Archeron: female fairy barbarian
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Lyriana: female wood elf bard
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Marigold Oakbarrel: female halfling cleric
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Campaign summary
Arc 1
Marigold Oakbarrel arrived in Greypeak Settlement and disembarked at the Ironeater Canal, intending to speak with Marian Daggerford about establishing a temple to her deity, Lathander. After speaking with the Daggerford Quartermaster Zelos Winterfield, Marigold was directed to the Sunderguard Keep, where the Sunderguard guild master Maximus Pentacle has been recruiting adventurers to the guild's cause of protecting the Forgotten Realms against another Sundering after the recent Shadowpulse event.
Lyriana and her traveling companion Feyra Archeron had arrived previously and elected to stay at the Goldleaf Tavern, the first inn set up in the Greypeak Settlement, run by the dwarf Penny Goldleaf. Lyriana and Feyra happened upon Marigold near the entrance of the Sunderguard Keep and the three of them decided to investigate the guild together.
The trio encountered a human wizard named Lewis, whose thin goatee and seemingly snide demeanor did not leave a favorable first impression. Lewis led them to an ararakocra paladin named Zikel-Or-Sha-Lee. Zeek, as she prefers to be called, assumed responsibility for the initiation of the three adventurers and paired them up with Cai, another initiate of the guild who was familiar with the bard and barbian duo from the Goldleaf Tavern.
The newly assembled team was tested against some unintimidating animated armor and proved themselves capable enough to be considered shield-pledges in the Sunderguard, earning themselves a room in the guild chapter house and access to some equipment and powerful jewels being crafted by the guild.
When the team split up for the night, Feyra and Lyriana returned to the Goldleaf Tavern for a performance and meal before the settlement was attacked by shadowy creatures causing chaos throughout Greypeak. Cai, Marigold, and other members of the Sunderguard were quick to help, and no one appeared to have been seriously injured, but Lewis noted that this was the largest simultaneous appearance of these newly encountered shadow monsters that he had yet seen. During the night as the team rested and recovered, Cai received a warning note, representing the team's first encounter with a messenger from a mysterious organization they would come to know as the Sightless Eye.
Tentative plans had been made for a trip to the Ironeater Mines to the east, but after the attack during the night (which was not isolated to the Greypeak Settlement) Lewis and Maximus spoke via sending stones, and the guild master made plans for several teams to be dispatched on missions in the area in response. The team agreed to work with the priestess Yasuko to develop a means of protecting the settlement against further Shadow incursions. Yasuko's long term plans involve skillfully crafted glass orbs and religious statues, enchanted and placed around the borders of the settlement to form a barrier against the Shadows. However, a temporary paling could be made with the materials they already have if some religious icons could be recovered, and the team agreed to search for these icons.
The local enchanter Elgrim provided the team with their first Sunderguard jewels to enhance their combat abilities before heading out, and the team spoke with a pair of hunters who provided a crude map to the northern gnoll cave where stolen supplies were believed to be located.
The group set off to the north, defeating a number of gnolls and gathering treasures, including missing religious icons. The team discovered a small halfling girl named Enid, who had been captured on her way to Greypeak Settlement. Exploring further, they found a blood soaked necromancer's lair, with records indicating that he had been practicing some sort of domination spell on the gnolls and halfling, before he mysteriously disappeared. As the team exited the caves, they encountered a shadow of the necromancer, pulsing necrotic damage throughout the cavern, which they overcame with a steady barrage of damage.
The team traveled south to Greypeak Settlement, bringing the young Enid to Yasuko, who brought her to Enid's sister Gwyn Cloverleaf. As the team split up for the night to rest, Cai ventured southeast to the wooded area of the settlement to meditate among the trees, where she caught Vernal Ashmon, a clumsy messenger for the Sightless Eye, who explained that the organization had some interest in Cai, although he didn't know their ultimate designs. Marigold, Feyra, and Lyriana capped off their night at the Goldleaf Tavern with a meal and a drinking contest.
The following day, Marigold worked with Yasuko to place several of the religious icons at roughly made shrines around town, creating a ward against the Shadow creatures. Meanwhile, Cai, Lyriana, and Feyra explored the settlement looking for others with information about the Sightless Eye. They encountered a guardsman named Boris, who wore the symbol of the Sightless Eye on his shoulder piece, but he claimed that he didn't know what the symbol meant. The three also questioned Zelos, who was curious about the presence of the Sightless Eye, but had no actionable intel to share.
Marigold, having communicated only vaguely with several of the deities whose icons now formed part of the paling around Greypeak, acquired several blessings from the gods and felt impressed that their next course of action should take them south to recover more religious icons. The rest of the team, having found no other leads on the Sightless Eye, found Vernal once more and pressed him for information, but only discovered that he knew "something" was happening in the woods to the south. With the primary goal of reinforcing the paling, the team set out to the south to see what they could find.
In the woods to the south, the team discovered an encampment of bandits in combat with a swarm of spiders. The team tried to intervene, saving a few of the bandits and killing the spiders, but quickly becoming fed up with Berty, the self-proclaimed "world renowned thief". As Berty fled into the caverns from which the spiders seemed to emerge, the team chose to follow, recovering several more treasures and icons before finding Berty and his "number one apprentice" Bart trapped in the webs of a giant spider. After defeating the spider, Berty and Bart turned on the team, unleashing a series of explosives that collapsed much of the caverns and roused more giant spiders. The team left Berty and Bart to their fate as they chose to escape, emerging above ground once again in the midst of a terrible storm to find one of the giant spiders ahead of them. Upon defeating this spider, the team took shelter for the night as the caverns below filled with rain.
After a brief return to the flooded caverns beneath the formerly bandit and spider infested woods, the team uncovered some more information regarding an imminent meeting among members of the Sightless Eye to the east near Starfall Outpost at the time of the new moon. Intent on discovering this group's true purpose, the team set off to the east in hopes of interrupting the meeting.
At Starfall Outpost, the team met up once again with Zeek, who had been escorting some injured civilians back to Greypeak Settlement. The Outpost commander, Blan Longpike of the Daggerford estate, was offering them temporary shelter. Zeek provided Marigold with an enchanted stone, useful for healing the injured and drawing out what appeared to be a shadowy poison from some of them. The team brought this to Zeek's attention and suggested she return to Yasuko to make sure the guild knew about the potentially dangerous illness that might be affecting other victims of the Shadow monster attacks.
Exploring the outpost, the team also encountered Bole Kordahg, a human guard wearing an insignia for the Sightless Eye as an amulet. Lyriana surreptitiously revealed through a performance for the camp some of the information the team had learned about the Sightless Eye, but Bole did not admit to knowing anything more when confronted.
One of the recovering travelers, a dwarf named Krumnum Blackeyes, spoke to the team about a storied oak tree to the east that supposedly sang to people in tune with nature and ears to hear. Thuldar Kindstorm, one of the dwarven artisans at the outpost, provided the team with a map which indicated the direction they should go. With no clearer information from Bole, the team decided to travel with Krumnum to the east and lie in wait to see what might happen.
Upon arriving at the mystical tree, the team realized they were being followed. It turned out to be a deaf human traveler, Culter Greenear, who had seen them speaking with Bole and became worried when they left the outpost. Krumnum, Culter, and the team all hid near an opening to ruins at the base of the tree, waiting for anyone from the Sightless Eye to arrive. In the night, they noticed strangers descending down another hidden entrance to the ruins below, and the team chose to follow.
