Marpenoth 1st-3rd, 1372 DR

Grim takes some time to ask around to get the layout of the city.  Stilgar feels much more at ease in Silverymoon than in other cities he has been in, thanks to the open designs and many parks and trees.  Once Grim has the lay of the place, Meriden heads for the House Invincible.  At the temple to Helm, Meriden introduces himself and is offered a cell within the place to stay while in Silverymoon. 

Grim and Stilgar take rooms at the Golden Oak Inn, and Grim sets out to Mielikki's Glade to see if he can find out about the spell casters he needs to seek out to learn some of the special skills that his master once told him about.  Grim talks to  Ladyservant Tathshandra Tyrar, who tells him that she knows of the place that he speaks of, but that he must spend the night sleeping under a sacred tree before he can be allowed to go.

Wandering through the markets and shops, Stilgar eventually ends up at the Shining Scroll, talking to the proprietress Xara Tantlor about used magic items.  Stilgar, who is quite smitten with Xara's looks, asks about items that he would be interested in, and Xara brings out some items that she has mentioned that adventurers have brought back to her.  Stilgar buys a greataxe that is charged with electrical energy.  When asked about more equipment, Xara mentions that she has some adventuring parties that should be coming back soon with more items.  When Grim comes into the shop, her psuedodragon familiar Villynik deals with him at first, and then Grim sells sells some items, including dragon parts, which upsets Villynik.

Grim asks around the area, trying to find anyone that might sell magic items that might be of aid to someone of roguish pursuits.  Eventually a gnome comes calling on him, and offers him some magic items which Grim is not particularly interested in.  He tells Grim that he will search around some more to see if he can find something more suitable.

Meriden has a private audience with Vigilant Master Baerim Coraddor, who has been marked with the sign of Helm.  Meriden presents Coraddor with his plans for his temple and how it would benefit the community, but Meriden is intimidated with Coraddor's questions about details, and presents his case badly.  While Coraddor does not dislike the young cleric of Helm, he has doubts about his ability to administer the project.

Grim spends the night under the tree in the grove, and has visions of Meilikki and Malar, and of their servants, such as the People of the Black Blood.  In the morning, Tathshandra tells Grim that Meilikki has favored him, and she can open the gate to the place where he should go for training.  Grim steps through, and ends up much further north in the Moonwood.  Grim finds himself at the Tower of Lurue, a tower built by a worshiper of the Unicorn goddess, and inhabited by worshipers of Lurue, Mystra, and Meilikki.  The place has both druids and wizards trained in stealthy skills and the use of daggers in various ways to augment their natural abilities. 

Grim is given an audience with Sanaraen Ladystrider, the mistress of the tower, and she tells him that he will have to make a donation to the tower, as well as complete a mission for them, since he will not be staying on at the tower as one of its defenders.  She tells Grim about the running fight that those of the tower have had with the people of the Black Blood in the Moonwood, and gives him the location of a Black Blood renegade that has taken up in a small cave after his pack was destroyed.  Grim agrees to search out this renegade.

Grim also discusses his book and his visions with a follower of Meilikki at the tower, and the fellow druid tells Grim that he knows of no formal agreement between Meilikki and Deneir outside of the Harpers, and that he should go to the Vault of Sages in Silverymoon to see if they could help him decipher the code in the book.  Grim wants to store the book during his trip, and Borlask Fanders, the leader of the arcane spell casters of the tower, casts a spell that opens up an extradimensional space that will only open for Grim. 

Grim returns to Silverymoon to tell his allies about his mission, and Stilgar and Meriden agree to travel with him to do this.

 

Marpenoth 4th-9th, 1372 DR

Stilgar, Meriden, and Grim set off into the Moonwood to hunt down the renegade member of the Black Blood that the Tower of Lurue has set Grim to finding.  Upon traveling for several days in the Moonwood, they come upon the site described.  From the ridge, they see a man, apparently a Northman barbarian of some sort, with a camp and a small shrine with fetishes set up.  He smells them from a distance, and calls them out.

The three adventurers carefully descend the ridge and engage the barbarian.  He tells them that they will not hurt the Child of Malar and that they are not worthy to be in his presence.  He vows that the child of his god will be protected with his last breath.  All three adventurers expect the barbarian to shift into an animal form, but instead, his teeth and nails grow, but nothing else happens.

The barbarian flies into a rage, and grabs Stilgar, savaging him with his claws and teeth while crushing the life out of him.  Meriden and Grim carefully position themselves around the Malarite barbarian, and after taking a savage rending, Stilgar manages to break free of the barabarians grasp.  Meriden heals the badly wounded Stilgar, and the barabarian manages to make a few savage unarmed attacks against the adventurers, but eventually, they bring him low.

Entering the small cave behind the camp of the barbarian, Grim leads, searching for traps.  While he finds a greataxe that is set to fly out from the wall, he manages to fall into a spiked pit trap upon walking into the cave.  Stilgar helps Grim out of the pit while Meriden, seeing what appears to be a werewolf further back in the cave, calls upon Helm to strike the creature with a pillar of flame.

Meriden heals Grim while Stilgar charges the werewolf.  Stilgar manages to harm the creature, though it ignores some of the injury done to it from the axe.  Stilgar is wounded by the creature, and the wounds feel horribly unnatural to the barbarian.  Meriden and Grim enter the fray as well, and Grim and Stilgar both incur more wounds, and those wounds also feel quite unnatural to them.

Eventually the group prevails over the werewolf, and they find a suit of leather armor that seems to shift with a shapeshifting wearer.  Grim immediately claims this wondrous magic, and upon sifting through the body and the cave, dispose of the bodies and take the fetishes and symbols of Malar and the Black Blood as proof of their success. 

Meriden cannot heal all of Grim and Stilgar's wounds, and upon pondering the reason, realizes that the beast was especially unholy, able to cause wounds that could not be healed outside of a consecrated area.  The rest of the travel back to Silverymoon is uneventful, and Meriden manages to heal them once he returns to the House Invincible.

Grim, knowing that Meriden's audience with Coraddor did not go well, donates his old magical leather armor to the church, and also gives a donation to the temple as well.  Coraddor tells Meriden that he is impressed with the quality of Meriden's associates, and that he will have another audience with Meriden about the temple.

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