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.

The King's Games

The King's Games were the annual celebration of Hargram's founding. As usual, they began with a royal tour throughout the city, followed by a full day of festivities and contests. The adventurers, still exulting in their victory at the Old Grinder, gleefully took part. Ilara won a strength and endurance contest known as the Merfolk Lumberjack, even beating one contestant who the crowd booed as a cheater on account of being an actual merfolk. The mood was dampened a bit late in the day when, during a cliff-diving competition, a halfling crashed into the rocks and died, but the tragedy was soon forgotten as the day concluded with the Battle of the Champions, a combat tournament in which each contestant wagered a magic item to their opponent. The grand prize ws a private audience with the king, but since the king himself competed and was skilled enough to emerge victorious nearly every year, it had become a popular joke among the populace about a "royal audience of one."

Ilara and Leon both elected to take part in the contest. Apart from the king, the other competitors were the paladin Gratus Ultio of the Knights of the Crown, the dwarven blacksmith Kagrian Ironsinew (who was using the tournament as an opportunity to show of his wares), a traveling monk named Vragi, a half-dragon sorcerer named Cay Tali Valberg, and a mysterious figure known as the Raven Knight. Isabelle caught Cay Tali cheating by surreptitiously accepting magical aid from the spectators, disqualifying her, while Kagrian was defeated by the king. Meanwhile, Ilara defeated Vragi and won his quarterstaff, and Leon defeated Gratus and won his sword.

The next fight, between the king and the Raven Knight, proved a surprisingly even match, with both fighters wielding their magical arms with great skill and neither yielding any ground. Finally, the Raven Knight stabbed the king in the leg, causing him to fall. With his opponent's blade at his throat, the king raised his hands in surrender. Praising his opponent's skills, he urged her to remove her helmet and receive the cheers of the crowd. Releasing a catch on her armor, a pair of black feathered wings unfurled from beneath her cape as she removed her helmet to reveal the face of Queen Elyssa, the king's late wife. She denounced him as a kinslayer and a traitor, declaring that she would claim his punishment and they would meet again in Hell. Then she plunged her sword through his heart before vanishing in a vortex of fire. Though the clerics and paladins rushed to his aid, there was nothing they could do. King Waldrann Azennar was dead.

Funeral of the King

The king's funeral was held a week later, following a national period of mourning. Lord Mondar invited the adventurers to attend, given their recent deeds. The funeral procession moved into the royal mausoleum, past the statues and sarcophagi of Hargram's past rulers, until they arrived at the space that had long been prepared for King Waldrann, including a glorious stone statue. Flanking it where the statues and sarcophagi of his first wife, Queen Elyssa, and their son, Prince Krasnar. As the king's body was lowered into the sarcophagus, a mournful wail filled the air as the crypt doors slammed shut. A ghostly voice whispered, "Murderer! Your line will end here and your deeds will be avenged!" From the statue of Krasnar, holdings the prince's signature glaive, a spectral version of his weapon appeared and began lashing out at the assembled people. As the Knights of the Crown moved to protect Queen Lyrencia and Princess Aphinah, and the other guests attempted in vain to pry open the doors, the adventurers attempted to attack the spectral glaive but found their attacks ineffective. Eventually Leon hit upon the idea of attacking the iron glaive held by Krasnar's statue, and when he and Ilara managed to break it, the spectral weapon vanished and the doors opened once more.

Later that night, Lord Mondar met with the adventurers once more at his manor. Clerics had inspected every inch of the crypt and found nothing to explain what had happened; the king had subsequently been buried in a smaller ceremony attended only by his family. Lord Mondar was concerned, however, by the events. The Raven Knight was almost certainly the winged devil summoned by the cultists, which pointed to a greater conspiracy. He and his knights were also troubled by Aphinah's impending ascension to the throne; she was known to be cruel and sadistic, and some of the paladins had begun to debate whether their oath was to the crown, the monarch, or the kingdom. A rumor had even spread that Aphinah intended to disband their order. Above all, Mondar was worried that they just didn't know enough about what was going on. He asked the adventurers to help him uncover the truth beind the king's murder, promising a suitable reward afterwards. For now, though, he wished them to join him for the coronation the next day. He hoped the ceremony would be uneventful, but wanted them in the room just in case something happened.