Dad-napped

Quest Giver

 * Blink & Wink and the village of Denall
 * Doskor

Task

 * Rescue Tenlos from the Nothic in the mines
 * Retrieve Doskor's family heirloom if Vondor did not survive

Quest Events
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As everyone arose, the trio from the third watch told everyone about the noise and trail they found not far from the barn. The group decided to go talk to Tenlos to see if he had any information about what it could have been. When they group arrived at the front of Tenlos' house they found the gnome shopkeep, Bonsley, inspecting the open door. Elseth took the lead at first, speaking to Bonsley in praxtongue to get information about what was happening. Bonsley informed him and then the group that Blink and Wink awoke to find the door open and their father gone. He told the group he was put in charge for now, but was not a very good detective but was the best the town had. The group feeling that they owed a debt to Tenlos offered to gather more information.

Elseth inspected the door and found no signs of a forced break in while Kelkairi looked around the house, finding similar prints and mud trails to that the trio from third watch had described. With this information the group decided to follow the trail in the forest for a bit longer. They walked for about forty minutes before the creature's trail began to follow a built trail heading North of town. At this point the group headed back to the barn to meet with Bonsley, who told the group that the pathway led to the Duke's Land or the mines. After some discussion, the group decided it was best to focus on the mines for now, and following Bonsley's advice went to talk to Doskor to get more information about the mines.

Doskor was a bit brusk with the group at first, but once he grasped the levity of the situation began to give the group more information about the mines. He informed the group that his cousin, Vondor, was one of the leaders of the mining expedition and Vondor and four friends had been working at the mine for a few weeks. Vondor had recently told Doskor that the air currents in the mine seemed to show that the group were close to uncovering a new chamber in the mine, and they had been working on breaking into that recently. Doskor informed the group that Vondor's letters seemed to show there were two paths into the new chamber; one to the left that would likely have some tougher wildlife, and one to the right that was full of Noxian gas. The group also learned that the noxian gas would require them to hold their breathes and not use open flames, the latter of which concerned Johann. Before the group left, Doskor asked them if Vondor did not make it out to retrieve his breastplate, which was a family heirloom.

After talking to Doskor, Calla requested that the group check in with Blink and Wink, who were being watched by the two wood elves at the market. Elseth talked to them and told the girls that the group was going to try to find their father for them and that the group was heading to the mines for a bit. Before the group left, Blink told Elseth that Wink had something to say. After some prodding by Blink, Wink closed one eye and pointed to the other, seemingly saying that the creature only had one eye. With this information Kelkairi was able to determine that the creature was likely a Nothic. She informed the group that a Nothic matched all the information that they had found so far with the trail, and even the lack of a break in as Nothic's are a more intelligent creature. It was likely that the Nothic knocked on the door to draw Tenlos out and then kidnapped him. She also informed the group that Nothic's had some mental capabilities the group would have to be careful for.

With this information the group began to leave for the mines, but were stopped as Montag announced she was leaving the group and heading to Bovannh. The group bid their farewells and split with Montag, saying they would find her if they ever ended up in Bovannh.

After the farewell, the group began their trek to the mine. The first 45 minutes were mostly the path they had previously traveled when tracking the nothic's path. Eventually the group hit a sign at a fork in the road; one sign pointed to the left and stated it was the path to the hallowed Duke's land, and the other pointed to the right and simply stated mines in praxtongue. It was clear that the mine sign had been recently put up and was of a lower quality in comparison to the official sign that was embossed with the herald of the Kingdom of Prax. The group curved with the path to the mines and trekked for another 45 minutes before they ran into an issue with the path. The storms during the night had caused several small rockslides on the path that the group would have to work around. Aratak did some scouting and learned that the group could get a bit further down the mountain and eventually join back up on the path after the rockslides. The group decided to do this, and were fairly successful at it, except for Calla who fell on her face getting down the cliff side.

Eventually the group encountered a river they would need to cross, and after some debate it was decided that Elseth would shoot an arrow and rope across the river to help the strongest swimmer across and then the rest of the group. Since the river was rather fast the group decided that Calla as the strongest swimmer should go across first. Luckily the plans went off with out a hitch and the group was able to cross, and they also decided they would leave the ropes behind in case they needed to cross again on the way back. With this final obstacle passed, the group decided to travel for a few more hours before resting for the night.

During the night nothing much occurred bar a few normal noises that would occur during the night, except for one incident. During the second watch Zoomus was zoning out until she saw something, an eye, out in the tree line. She froze up and Guy noticed. He proceeded to ask about it, but Zoomus convinced him nothing was wrong, that they should just tell the next watch to know there were some concerning rustlings nearby. While the third group was watching out for this, nothing much else occurred and the morning and the next step of the quest arrived.

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After a bit more trekking the group finally reached the cave entrance and made their way in. Tia and Johann provided lights down the small tunnels of the cave: the group had not accounted for the mines being made for smaller races. Eventually the group reached the fork they were told about by Doskor. With the information about what each way entailed, the group decided to go to the left because they did not believe Johann would enjoy the gas in the right path. While it was probably a decent choice, the left side did lead to an encounter with several swarms of bats and a couple spiders. The group was able to easily dispatch of these creatures and continue through the mine, though they did have a detour with Guy requesting someone push him in a minecart.

The next thing the group encountered was a chimney they needed to make their way down. The makeshift elevator was not operable from the top, so the group decided to have Elseth go down the other route first to see if he could get the elevator up to everyone. He made it down decently until the final few planks when he slipped. Elseth then realized he probably could not operate the elevator very well and had Calla come down to join him, and she also slipped on the final few planks. With the two of them operating the elevator the group was able to reconvene at the bottom and proceed down the shaft. After a bit more writing the shaft began to expand a bit into another naturally occurring cave and the group could hear the slight sound of whimpering that was pleading for someone to help.

As the group entered the cavern they could see on one end of there was a tall creature facing the wall and Tenlos trapped in a web. Immediately some were able to see a couple swarms of spiders in the cavern, and the fight to save Tenlos commenced. What the group did not notice though were two giant spiders lurking in the shadows of the cavern. When the Nothic turned around it seemed to be specifically looking for Zoomus, and growled out a word that no one could understand. With a numbers advantage the group was able to take down the spiders and Nothic fairly easily while sustaining almost no damage themselves. While a few of the group helped Tenlos down and took care of him, others inspected the creatures and the cavern. Kelkairi took a tooth from the Nothic as a trophy, and Elseth found the bodies of the miners who had been working in the cavern. Elseth took the breastplate from Vondor's corpse to return to Doskor. As they were asking Tenlos what happened he said that the Nothic saw things it should not have seen as he discussed the mental capabilities of the creature. But now with the Nothic defeated and Tenlos safe, the group decided it was time to leave the caverns and return to Denall.

The group began its trek back to the village of Denall, deciding to take the same path that they had used to get to the cavern. They set up for camp upon reaching the river bank. The night went by with no problems, though Tenlos stirred through the night likely the victim of continuing nightmares from his encounter with the Nothic.

Reward

 * Tenlos' gratitude and a permanent invitation to stay at the barn and get turnip soup
 * In return for the family heirloom breastplate, Doskor improved Kelkairi's rapier with a high quality iron

Aftermath

 * With a reunited family and some new friends, the group began to make their way to Pasalav with only a few ideas of what to do on their minds