KIT AND TORDEN
After days of healing, Kit and Torden began to patiently engineer their escape. Kit ran interference, charming the guards with tales suitably debauch for a bandit's tastes (without compromising his artistic integrity, of course). Torden worked the stone to eventually free rusty manacles, and Ralavaz's old skills came in handy for popping the locks.
During this time, Kit's charisma and the guards' loose tongues let slip enough information for you to piece together a picture of what has been happening in Whitesparrow.
When the time is right, you spring your trap. After discovering the guards will have their heads handed to them if the Night Lord's brother dies, Torden stages a fight with the old man, pretending to drown him in the shallow water. When the guards open the gate to intervene, Kit slaps the manacles on them and six of you beat the restrained Night Blades into submission.
Kit assumes the identity of one of the guards and leads the others down from the tower, one by one, to their demise.
OOC:
If you want to loot the bodies, each Night Blade was in possession of their standard short sword, leather armour, Night Blade⢠cloak, and 10gp. The barracks themselves have been packed up and are empty of valuables except a set of 10 six-sided bone dice.
Torden and Kit do a search of the Lonely Tower with Ralavaz as tour guide while the miners stand guard:
Gardren's private chamber (far left) comes up with the most interesting details. In the old Arkasian war room you discover some interesting things:
0. You recover all of your equipment, which has been stored here.
1. A smooth golden rod, which the miners recognize as a magical device for controlling the old mining machinery that works Deepfathom Well. Although they have seen this device in illustration, they have never before used the defunct mining machines, instead extracting Voidwater through more dangerous and labour-intensive means. It bears similar design to the circular golden gates that you discovered below ground in the infested tunnels below the Summerspring Inn.
2. Correspondence between Gardren and unidentified investors from the distant canal city of Issica, near Torden's home mountain of Kaled Del. The powerful merchant guilds of this northern trading city have found buyers for Voidwater and have supplied Gardren's operation with arms and gold to secure Deepfathom Well for the exclusive use for the guilds.
3. Gardren's own letters, which record his megalomaniac ramblings. He is obsessed with torching the town that burned him so badly 20 years ago. He writes about a voice in the well that urges him to take control over Whitesparrow Keep and rule the valley as a king. His ambitions are nothing short of becoming the tyrannical ruler of his own city state, funded by Deepfathom Well and other secrets that he doesn't articulate clearly.
OOC:
Jabes and McDunno, if you have any changes or additions you'd like to make to this, or additional actions you'd like to take - go for it.