The Monastery

June 13, 2026

Despite a pretty perilous journey through the woods, the party finally sees the monastery up ahead. Stone adorned with gold glimmers in the sun, but Lachlan ’s mood is visibly shaken. Kaimi offers to cast Calm Emotions on him, but he declines. The party crosses the small valley and climbs up to the gates, when someone up on the wall calls out to them. The guard notices Lachlan , but does not seem to particularly recognize him. After all, Lachlan got rid of his monk garb when he escaped. Thankfully, they are assessed as non-threats and get welcomed inside.

Once inside, the inner courtyard is bustling, surrounded by smiths, forges, dormitories and a lot of monks. A group of them is training, punching into rectangular pillars, precisely in sync. Novice monks. It is quite a sight, and the party starts to understand a little bit of Lachlan ’s upbringing. The party quickly gets approached by some lower level monks, one of which takes particular interest in Lachlan , recognizing him. Lachlan tries to deceive the fellow monk, pretending he doesn’t know him but the attempt fails. Ignoring this glaring situation for now, the monks tell the party about their difficulties with the blight. Apparently the monastery lost contact with Neverwinter for weeks because of the monsters. None of the monks who leave ever return.

Interrupting this conversation, a swole and imposing dwarf comes up to the party. He introduces himself as Targun Nunbren, the Novice Master and Lachlan ’s old teacher. He immediately inquires after Lachlan ’s recent whereabouts.

“The hells have you been, boy?” he asks. “Been getting rich man, getting the big bucks” Lachlan replies.

At the prospect of such opportunity for lore, Kaimi has many questions. Talon , immediately uninterested in the situation, goes off to attune to the local rat population and check on the foresty surroundings of the monastery. But the lava has done away with most of the forest om this part of the mountain, a fact that saddens Talon greatly.

Back to Targun, he decides to lead the party to the head of the monastery who goes by the name Peakseeker (this author had a difficult time getting the names of the monks right, apologies for inconsistencies with real life). The party follows the Novice Master to a temple like building, deeper into the monastery complex. They stumble upon meditating monks along the way until they reach the absolute back of the area. In front of a very ornate wall, sits another meditating monk that exudes elemental magic, his powers being felt across the room. He is introduced as Kalasti Amalo, the Peakseeker.

Thalia breaks the silence, joking that they brought Lachlan back to where he belongs and inquires after a reward. The joke is not really appreciated by Lachlan , who gives her a (not so) friendly punch. He truly was raised here after all…

Kaimi takes this opportunity to inquire about the party’s real reason for being here. Specifically the two fugitives they’re trying to find who might have taken refuge for the night at the monastery. The head monk is not so quick to answer, offering an information exchange that would prove beneficial to both parties. He wants to learn more about Lachlan ’s escape.

The party agrees to the deal and they get to ask their first question. According to the monk, they were the second travellers he has seen recently. There were another two travellers who first happened upon the monastery two days prior, and left the day before.

In return he asks Lachlan why he chose to leave. He returns a swift answer. “The novice man couldn’t teach me shit.”

Wasting no time, Kaimi asks about the identity of the travellers. It seems the travellers did not share names. One of them seemed rich, from the east coast, one of them seemed southern. They said they were explorers, but did not give any more details. They stayed only one night and continued with their journey. Despite not being of the faith, they did not cause any disturbances for the monks, so they did not get questioned further.

Kaimi scrutinizes the wise monk to check for any signs of deceit. She concludes that he is earnest, but his goal is to prolong this conversation as much as possible in order to learn more about Lachlan .

“Do you still hold your faith?” he inquires. “Yes, I was on a pilgrimage” Lachlan quips back.

Kaimi is back on him, wanting to know if any of the travellers appeared to be a wizard. Maybe Iarno was one of them. The monk clarifies that the answer is no, the bodyguard looking man was a fighter. He had a distinct weapon in the southern style. Suddenly he remembers another figure. Late the night before, another person was spotted outside the monastery, seemingly going the same way as the other two travellers, but this person did not stop by.

The monk spares no time in asking Lachlan if he’d like to return to them. Lachlan gives a non-committal ‘Maybe in the future’. But as a bystander to this exchange, it is clear he is only trying to be diplomatic. And the monk probably knows it too.

The questioning game continues, with Kaimi inquiring after the travellers’ route. It appeared that they went north, trekking deeper into the thralls of the corruption that overtook this mountain.

The old man is solely focused on Lachlan though. He urges him to show what he has learnt on his journey so far. What is left unsaid is that this demonstration implies a friendly spar with the monk. Lachlan hesitates by citing a lack of sleep, which is true. The forest blight left the entire party wanting for some peaceful rest. For the time being the monk is left with the promise of tomorrow for his request.

In true Kaimi fashion, she is always craving more knowledge. And that deep craving makes her ask the old man for everything he knows… a loaded request. As answer she is invited to join the monastery, so she resigns to only asking about the corruption and its effects on this place. Kalasti walks away, with the party following immediately in his footsteps. Soon in front of everyone a large and long building appears…The Archives. Inside, there is a cute halfling going by the name of Marana who can entertain the party with more answers. Before being disturbed, she was hunched at her desk, working with full focus. Kaimi , as curious as ever, takes a peek at her work. It appears to be just the monastery census, not something too interesting.

But she takes a break and starts a story of the blight. After the eruption of the volcano, the Neverwinter woods started growing, and growing, and growing. Every year the corrupted creatures travel further, creeping closer and closer to the inhabited lands. As such, there are spikes in undead activity where the growth of corruption accelerates. The spikes are not regular however, sometimes there are years in between, sometimes crescents, keeping the monastery on edge. The losses were great. Many monks were sent on expeditions never to return again. There has been only one survivor who spoke of these creatures, escaping the epicenter of this blight. In their records, this is now the sixth spike. In the past, it was manageable. After a little while the corruption went away on its own, but this is no longer the case. They don’t really know what could have caused this, but there are theories. When the eruption occurred, something spread, some sort of ash perhaps. Thankfully the monastery stays protected, but the situation is worrying nonetheless. To combat this, they are organising an expedition into the city, to warn the others. They are preparing a holy artifact, and the expedition party has been given Thadorh’s protection for getting help with this problem.

This is all useful information, however the party has a more pressing goal. Finding Iarno and the egg he stole. Unfortunately, Marana says that they don’t know him. She might be able to help more, but she has to finish reading the census record first. Kaimi boasts about her 180 beats per minute reading prowess and offers to help. Thalia is used to reading lengthy books thanks to her wizardy training. And she would never say no to helping a pretty female…ulterior motives included. Marana leaves the party with one final piece of knowledge. Five years prior, a group of suspicious people were spotted around the monastery wearing clothes reminiscent of Iarno. They were also going north.

With this conversation over, Sillidious goes to investigate the godly artefacts of the monastery, perusing all the statues. Talon decides he has no qualms with the monastery after all. All this time he has been attuning to the rat population and notices he has acquired quite a following. Interested in what the rats might have to say he casts Speak with Animals. The rats are not very useful for information, but they express their loyalty for Talon , calling him the King of the Rats. Interesting development. Talon fully leans into it, swapping his sometimes primitive vocabulary for an eloquent speech. The symbiosis between him and rats is truly a wonder to behold. But alas, no one understands him… As a gift to his new subjects, he gives them a little dirt that he was carrying around. A most benevolent king. If the party was to stay here longer they might even get to witness a rat revolution.

Outside in the courtyard, Lachlan and Kalasti are finally going to fulfill their sparring match. Lachlan attunes and gives the old monk a real challenge. Satisfied by the outcome, Lachlan gets an official pardon and release to continue his mission outside the monastery. The monk urges Lachlan to follow him. They walk through a tunnel cut into the stone to reach another temple. Inside they find a shrine with a mural depicting a monk dwarf in combat. Someone important for certain. Kalasti reveals the character as one of Targun’s ancestors who left the grounds in search for a bigger purpose too, protecting other distant lands. And he left a gift for the next worthy candidate. On the stone plinth above the shrine there are two long ribbons covered in runes with a metal emblem depicting a hammer and a mountain peak. Religious people would recognize this as the symbol of Thadorh, the protector of the monastery. The monk wraps the ribbons around Lachlan ’s hands and attunement is immediate. He is now the worthy owner of the Wraps of Stone Splitting.