Adventure 2: Sessions 9, 10 and 11

[steve]

Day 2 cont

The party conferred and eventually decided upon the following course of action. Rather than escort the Thondarians to the local prison, Avona requested that a messenger from the church of the Divine Essence went to the Knights HQ to get a squad of knights to escort the prisoners back to jail, and take the bodies to the morgue. Whilst Avona waited for the guards, Rhaakor, Amber, Riley and Jenson went off to visit the Horns.

Nina met Rhaakor, Amber, Riley and Jenson at the Horns HQ and invited them in. Jenson didn't seem pleased to see Nina again. They were taken to meet the leader of the Horns: a Gnome Barbarian called Sekaila. The Horns are a band of (generally) law abiding non-humans.

Rhaakor mentioned how he was shot in the back yesterday. Sekaila was aware of the attack and expressed his sympathy to Rhaakor. Unfortunately, the Horns have no idea who is behind the attacks. Given the amount of hostility in the city towards non-humans, the Horns are more concerned with keeping the heads down then they are about investigating who is behind the attacks on non-humans.

Sekaila then asked to test Jenson, as he recognised her as being a fellow Barbarian. Sekaila and Jenson spared together, and Jenson was humbled. After the bout, Sekaila invited Jenson to return sometime for some more training.

Sekaila then got down to business regarding Tel and Vern. Another merchant had approached the Horns requesting aid in investigating Tel and Vern. This merchant had entered into a business deal with Tel and Vern, and they had swindled him. The merchant believes there are documents within their manor which will incriminate them. The mission is to infiltrate Tel and Vern's manor, find the evidence, and get out again without being seen. The leader of the mission was a Horns member named Galniis, a Teifling stealth expert who was skilled at getting small raid groups in and out of places unseen. The meeting ended with the decision that the raid group would consist of no more than six people: Galniis, Nina, Rhaakor, Jenson, Riley, and Amber.

Avona spoke to Father Timothy, who was bed-bound but in high spirits. Father Timothy mentioned some disturbing stories coming from the Crypt's undertaker, Harma. According to Harma, there have been strange occurrences at night – in the form of strange noises, and weird lights. Harma was too scared to investigate himself, and came to Father Timothy for aid. Father Timothy, was too unwell to help Harma personally, but thought that the party should know about what was happening in the crypts. Father Timothy told Avona that Harma was a 'kind soul,' and expressed hope that the party would find it in their hearts to help Harma.

Avona left the church and went to Tel and Vern's manor in the northern part of the Upper class district. Vern answered the door. Avona greeted him and requested to speak to Tel and Vern together. Vern smirked a bit at Avona, closing the door in her face before returning with Tel. They wanted to speak on the doorstep, but Avona insisted on speaking inside, which they eventually accepted and let Avona into the hall. After a brief, heated discussion, Avona challenged them to a duel to defend their honour. They accepted and named their champion, Mathis, a huge muscle bound man with very little brains.

On exiting the manor, there was a large explosion, a large pillar of flame burst out of the sky and struck somewhere in the east of the city, centred around where the Knights HQ was located.. This pillar of flame looked to be a much larger version of the pillars of flames the Thondarians had called down upon the party earlier. Avona hustled off in that direction and was joined by the rest of the party. When they arrived at the Knights HQ, they discovered that whilst the HQ itself was intact, the prison-house was completely destroyed. No survivors (either guards or prisoners) could be found among the rubble, and there was nothing the party could do so Avona returned to the Knights HQ to practice jousting before the dual with Mathis the following day.

Meanwhile Amber decided to visit old man Blackwood to find out more about Ol' Frostfur. Blackwood gave Amber the drugged meat, and told her that the meat would be good for about 36 hours. He also told her the wolf's last known location.

Riley and Amber went out into the night and after a six hour journey, tracked the wolf to it's cave. Amber left Riley watching the cave and went off to lay the meat near one of the wolf's paths around the cave. Amber then hid herself and a short time later, lured by the meat, Ol' Frostfur came out and ate the bait. After the wolf had finished eating, Amber watched as it walked back to the entrance of the cave, before collapsing as the effects of the drugs kicked in.

At that time Amber realised that she had a problem. Ol' Frostfur was as big as a horse, and there was no way Riley and herself could carry the body back to Mirrordine unaided. So Amber sent Riley back to Mirrordine to get Avona and Rhaakor to come and help carry Ol' Frostfur back to Blackwood's farmhouse. By the time Riley returned to Mirrordine it was late, Rhaakor was drunk, Avona was 'trancing', and neither was impressed with the idea about tramping around the woods late at night whilst lugging around a sleeping wolf.

Day 3

By the time the party returned to Blackwood's farm with the sleeping wolf in tow, it was mid-morning. Avona, Riley and Rhaakor left Amber at Blackwood's farm with the wolf, whilst they rescheduled the duel with Mathis for later that afternoon, so Avona could get some sleep, errr 'trance time' first. Avona, Riley and Rhaakor, met up with Lord Darius, who informed them that another murder had taken place, this time the victim was a human, a human farmer on the outskirts of town.

Meanwhile, back at Blackwood's farm, Amber discovered that Blackwood was missing, and that his farmhouse was in shambles. Upon conducting a search of the farm, Amber discovered tracks of non-humans, (Teiflings, etc.) along with some limestone dust.

Amber tracked down Tomas, the original farmer who had mentioned Ol' Frostfur to her initially. Tomas hadn't heard any disturbance and was very upset to hear that Blackwood was missing. Tomas assisted Amber in restraining Ol' Frostfur with the restraints Blackwood had prepared for the wolf earlier. Amber left Tomas to watch over the wolf, whilst she went to docks to find the offices of the Fairwinds Trading Alliance – the merchant's guild that Blackwood had arranged to transport the wolf.

Amber found the guild's offices, and spoke with Dayla, Riley's old flame from the wagon caravan. Amber made the final arrangements for transporting the wolf offshore with Dayla before returning to the city to report the old man missing. Amber was shocked to learn that Blackwood had been murdered. After questioning Lord Darius, Amber learnt that shards of coloured glass had been discovered at the scene of the crime, which suggested that Blackwood's murder was related to all the other murders that had been occurring within the city. Lord Darius gave Amber a parcel that they had recovered with the old man's body that had Amber's name on it. Upon opening it, Amber found a short note of thanks from Blackwood for Amber's assistance with Ol Frostfur, and finely woven Elven Cloak that Blackwood wanted Amber to have. Amber returned to the inn where the rest of the party was staying and joined them in sleeping until late that afternoon.

Once they were refreshed Avona jousted against Mathis, and after a very close struggle, eventually won the duel. Avona then confronted Tel and Vern and forced them to sign the old woman's contract as being null and void, discharging her from her debt to them. Avona was rather disappointed to note that none of her companions turned up to cheer her on.

Whilst Avona was occupied with the joust which also acted as a distraction for Tal and Vern, Rhaakor, Amber, Riley, Jenson, Nina and Galniis raided Tel and Vern's manor. Upon entering, Nina found traps on the doors, and Riley disarmed them. Believing that the guards would be in the central room the party tried to avoid them by exploring the edges of the manor house. Making their way upstairs, the party explored a few rooms and found nothing except for the trap which they set off, alerting the guards below to their presence. The party quickly concluded their search of the remaining rooms in the upstairs area before escaping by jumping out of the windows. During their escape, Nina grabbed a bag which turned out to a be a bag of holding that contained the incriminating documents the party was sent to recover. Riley also managed to grab an amulet from one of the upstairs rooms, but no one else noticed that.

The raid group returned to the Horns HQ, and passed up an opportunity along the way to enter a tavern to see Zog a mutant who was very upset about inadvertently killing his best friend – a cow. Zog was creating a scene, but by the sounds of things, all he wanted to do was to be left alone, and the raid group decided to do just that, and instead proceeded to the Horns HQ and returned the documents to Sekaila.

Sekaila was very pleased with the outcome of the mission and rewarded Rhaakor with a pair of magical boots. Riley, Amber, and Rhaakor then rejoined Avona at the Knights HQ to discuss what do next. The party decided to take the following courses of action;
Speak to the mage (the only mage in the city) about the magic symbols on the bolt and request that the mage translates the strange note.
Speak to the Glass-blower about the shards of coloured glass found at the crime scenes.
Speak with Calis, the innkeeper of the Inn of the Golden Stream) about his dealings with the Beggar King.
Speak with Mad Wee Willy (also at the Inn of the Golden Stream) about the mutant rats he claims are roaming the sewers beneath the city.
Speak with Timothy to check that the disease the party has been infected with is still in check.

First off, the party went to speak with the wizard who was living on the premises of the Mirrordine Muse, a local newspaper and messenger guild whom the mage had assisted by creating a device that allowed them to magically produce their newspapers. When the party arrived at the guild house, they were informed that the head of the Guild, Madam Mischelle was unavailable to take visitors as she was dining with the Duke. When the party stated that they didn't want to visit the guild, but instead wanted to see the wizard on City business, they were allowed in and were taken to the wizard's living quarters.

The wizard, a rather doddery old man by the name of Garath, was delighted to have visitors and didn't mind answering the party's questions to the best of his ability. The party showed him the note, and he informed them that the note was very old indeed, and spoke of the Lost One's legend of the Crown of Many Colours.

According to legend, this crown was worn by an Empress, who ruled over the known world in ages past. Embedded around the circumference of the crown is a series of eight gems, a sapphire, a emerald, a amber, a diamond, a amethyst, a ruby, a onyx and a moonstone. These gems supposedly contain the life-force of her consorts, who ruled in her name over different sections of her empire.

When asked what happened to the Empress and her consorts, the wizard told the party that there is no known evidence that such an empire ever existed and this is why the story is considered to be a legend rather than a historical fact.

The party also showed Garath the crossbow bolt they had recovered from Rhaakor's back. After carefully examining the symbols, Garath told the party that the middle set of symbols were a mixture of arcane and religious runes. According to Garath's interpretation of the symbol's, the runes are designed to give the weapon they are engraved on the ability to draw out the life-force of any living entity struck by that weapon, and transform that person into the living dead.

Seeing the crossbow bolt reminded Garath about a journal he had read that spoke of a legend of an army of the dead that was led by a great general, whose name in the ancient tongue of the Lost Ones was Darnasar (which means storm of darkness). Garath told the party that in the common tongue Darnasar is translated as Darnasher (which means ravaging darkness). According to the journal, the living dead forces of Darnasher's army were contagious. Anyone who fought them and survived the battle, were infected with a disease and died shortly afterwards, only to rise again as the living dead to lay waste to villages and countryside around them. According to the legend, a great hero arose up against Darnasher, and managed to defeat him. The legend concludes by saying that when Darnasher was defeated, his army of the living dead crumbled to dust, and troubled the world no more.

At this point, Rhaakor became quite concerned about the disease the party was infected with and wanted to speak with Father Timothy immediately to reassure himself that the disease was still contained. Unfortunately, when the party arrived at the church of the Divine Essence, they were sadly informed that Father Timothy had died shortly after Avona's visit. Rhaakor and Riley spoke with the brothers to make sure that they were feeling well, and learnt that Father Timothy's body had been entombed in the Crypts. The party decided to go to the Crypts.

Harma met the party at the entrance to the Crypts. Harma, a dirty, cross-eyed old man, who spoke with a bad stutter, was put at ease when the party mentioned Father Timothy's name. Harma told the party about strange lights and noises that were coming from the western side of the Crypts. He also pointed out strange lights to the east. However, Avona couldn't see them.

The party investigated the strange lights to the west, and as they got closer, they could hear voices and laughter. It turned out to be a group of young men with torches telling ghost stories. Amber and Riley crept up and made strange noises to scare them. Spooked, they ran past where Rhaakor and Avona were, and Rhaakor grabbed one of the youths to question him. It turns out that this was this youth's first night at the graveyard, and that it was unlikely that either he or his friends would be returning.

Riley then noticed a strange green light flickering on and off to the west. Amber and Riley went to investigate and could see a shadowy figure in the darkness hold a lantern. We could feel a sense of evil coming from the tomb the figure was guarding. Riley and Amber reported back and the party quickly worked out a battle plan.

According to the battle plan, Riley and Amber would flank the shadowy figure, whilst Rhaakor and Avona approached it with a light source. Unfortunately, the figure discerned Riley and Amber sneaking towards it, and fled into the crypts. The party followed, and discovered a group of robed cultists engaging in a ritual. The arrival of the party disrupted the ritual and combat ensued, and the party emerged victorious. Upon searching the bodies of the cultists, the party found the following items of interest;
flecks of iron
The cultists robes were inscribed with the a flame symbol.
A note

The note read, “You have passed through air and fire, but earth and water remains before you reach enlightenment. Report to Brother Varganis at the crypts for the next stage of your journey. I look forward to welcoming you as part of the brethren once your journey is complete, and you are reborn into our family.”

The note was signed, “D”.

The party dragged the bodies of the cultist up to the surface and left them for Harma to bury. Avona requested that Harma send her a message if there were any more disturbances within the Crypts.

Day 4

It was about midnight, but the party wasn't feeling tired so they went off the Inn of the Golden Stream, in the slums' district of the city, to speak with Calis regarding his suspected association with the Beggar King. The party also decided to speak with Mad Wee Willy, who 'resides' at the inn.

Rhaakor mingled with the crowd to find out more about Calis. It seems that Calis runs a competition each night where people fight each other and Calis's champions. If someone manages to defeat all of Calis's champions (four of them), and then manages to defeat Calis himself, then they win the deed to the Inn of the Golden Stream. Challengers can enter the competition either solo or as part of a group. Calis uses the competition to train his guards, and matches the challengers with an equal number of guards to fight them. Apparently, the fights are real, but people don't often die in them, and no one has managed to get to fight Calis yet. Calis, a young, red haired, athletic and very well groomed man, only visits the inn occasionally, preferring to leave the day to day running of the inn to his barkeeper, Garius. Anyone wanting to enter the competition must first sign up with Garius. The party agreed that the best way to speak with Calis was to win his competition.

The party then decided to speak with mad wee Willy. Riley sat down talked with Willy, including buying him a beer (or three). Willy spoke with pride about being the cities official rat catcher. He also spoke about the traps he had set throughout the sewers and how he'd managed to kill one of the 'Demonic Rat's' but was unable to carry the body to Zeb the tanner, but he did manage to take some skin scraps to Zeb, who paid him for them. Willy said he'd seen fifty or sixty of the Demonic Rats, human sized rats that walk on their hind legs. Willy was keen to have some who finally believed him, and was happy to take the party down into the sewers. The party agreed and entered the sewers from the street.

Shortly after entering the sewers, the party spotted the first trap, and managed to set it off. Fortunately Jenson dodged the knives that shot out of the walls, and the party continued onwards through the sewers. Heading north, where Willy last spotted the Ratmen, Amber spotted four slimes coming down the waterway. The party attacked and defeated the slimes. However, Willy ran off during the fight. It seemed bravery wasn't one of his strong points.

Proceeding onwards without Willy, the party soon spotted a Ratman, with three rat swarms around him. Amber managed to ambush the Ratman, shooting him with her bow before the Ratman knew what was happening. The Ratman and his rat swarms engaged in combat with the party, but when it became clear that the party was winning, the Ratman turned into a rat and disappeared down a waterway to the west.

To be continued....