The Third Eye

The Third Eye was an adventuring company formed around the time of King Waldrann Azennar's death in Hargram.

Membership

Current Members

• Ilara - Female shifter barbarian, seeking a pack and a place to accept her.
• Ililen Wuntohiin - Male firbolg monk, seeking his friend's killer.
• Isabelle Darrington - Female orc wizard, and member of the Arcane Tower.
• Leon - Male human druid, searching for answers about when the Queen tried to have him killed.
• Sylas Asidia - Male eladrin warlock, working to investigate a mysterious murder.

History

The Couatl Feather

The beginnings of the Third Eye occurred in 3002 when Leon and Ilara, both on the road to Hargrave, met. Leon was going to meet with an investigator he had hired to learn why someone had tried to kill him years ago. Ilara, meanwhile, was simply searching for a place to belong, and had heard Hargrave was welcoming of all races. The pair soon met with Ililen Wuntohiin, a firbolg monk also on the road to Hargrave to purchase medicinal herbs and other supplies. In Hargrave, they met the investigator, Sylas Asidia, who told Leon that his investigations pointed to Queen Lyrencia herself having given the order to have Leon killed. The group then went to the Lucky Leap tavern to have a drink and absorb this information, where they met the orc wizard Isabelle Darrington of the Arcane Tower.

While getting to know each other, they saw Crownwarden Cyne Mondar at a nearby table engaged in a business transaction to purchase a rare couatl feather from a halfling for a large sum. After Mondar departed, a bugbear entered and threatened the halfling over gambling debts, in the course of which he knocked over a lantern and burned up the couatl feather. The distraught halfling then appealed to the obvious party of adventurers with a deal: if they helped him buy a second couatl feather from his grandmother, and then escorted him to sell it to Mondar, they could keep the difference after the halfling's debts were paid. Seeing the opportunity for easy money, they agreed. They accompanied the halfling to his grandmother's house, where after chiding him for his gambling she finally agreed to sell him the feather, with the adventurers' money. As they headed towards Lord Mondar's manor, however, the halfling suddenly tried to escape into the crowd but was quickly grabbed by Ilara. The commotion attracted the attention of a guard, at which point the halfling transformed into a doppelganger and surrendered himself to the authorities.

Summons at the Old Grinder

The party continued to Mondar's home to try and complete the sell themselves, only to learn that not only had Mondar never made any such deal, but the feather wasn't even real; the entire transaction had been a scam from start to finish. Lord Mondar sympathized, and told them that he had a need for adventurers with a task that he did not necessarily want to involve the Knights of the Crown in. Mondar's friend, Lord Rumlyn, had heard rumors of suspicious gatherings and dark rituals near the old windmills. Cyne Mondar asked him to look into it and report back any further details; Rumlyn's report was that the clues seemed to implicate Countess Maritayl, owner of the Royal Stud Farm. Mondar didn't want to move against a respected noble with an important position in court without further proof and asked Rumlyn to dig deeper, but he hadn't reported back in. Mondar was getting worried, but didn't want to sent his knights in case his fears were unfounded, so asked the party to check on him under the pretense of retrieving Lord Mondar's horse, which he would need for the upcoming King's Games festival.

They arrived at Lord Rumlyn's manor, some ways out of the city, to find it on fire. Ilara barely managed to pull Lord Mondar's horse from the stable, while her companions found Lord Rumlyn's cook hiding in a barrel. He said that Countess Maritayl had arrived a short time ago with cloaked figures, murdered the guards, kidnapped Lord Rumlyn and his family, and set everything ablaze. The cook heard them saying something about a sacrifice at the Old Grinder, an abandoned mill several miles distant. After sending the cook back to Hargrave with Lord Mondar's horse, the group gave chase and, after several hours, arrived at the Old Grinder. They entered to find it guarded by hooded cultists and mercenaries, and after dispatching them descended to the basement to find a summoning circle with two dead bodies lying in it, and a bound and gagged woman and child nearby. A bearded devil had a wicked-looking knife pressed to the child's throat, while more cultists stood nearby. Ililen was unable to prevent the devil from slashing the child's throat, though Leon managed to heal the wound before he died. Once all of the foes had been defeated, the two captives confirmed that one of the cultists was Countess Maritayl, while the dead bodies belonged to Lord Rumlyn and his father. Lord Mondar arrived soon after, having heard the news from Lord Rumlyn's cook, and escorted his late friend's family back to Hargrave.

The next day they met with King waldrann Azennar, who was grateful to them for stopping an infernal cult from summoning more devils. Unfortunately, from what the two survivors were able to recall, a second devil had also been summoned. While they didn't see it, being blindfolded at the time, they described hearing the beating of wings. The king told them that the annual King's Games were in two days; if the Royal Swords were unable to find the devil themselves, then afterwards he intended to lead the hunt himself and invited the adventurers to join him. He also promised front row seats at the Battle of Champions, for those not intending to participate in the tournament. Sylas spent the two days researching devils, though found a wide variety possessed of wings. The others, meanwhile, simply rested and waited for the games.