Thursday, May 19, 2011

Sharn - The Cauldron - Episode 10

Bah Mole and Talyn Nichec need to take care of some errands and do not participate in this episode’s events.

The party visits Councilman Hruit. Before Hruit enters the room, Perry casts sift to see if there is anything out of the ordinary in the room. He concludes that Hruit is a druid of some type who is respected by the businessmen in The Bazaar. Hruit asks about the nature of the mission Linech Cran sent them on. He is suprised about the reason for the party being hired, but pays the party the remaining 150 gold for finding out what his enemy was up to. After speaking with him, it becomes clear that Hruit is hiding something.

The party returns to Coldflame Keep and speaks with Flamebearer Mazin Tana. Mazin agrees to provide Perry with a room in the keep. Mazin advises the party that he has heard rumours of violent crime in Lower Tavick’s Landing and advises them to check it out.

On the way down, they stop for lunch in Middle Tavick’s Landing and ask the waitress for information. She tells them that there are grusome murders occurring, no one wants to go out at night, vagrants are targeted, Ratmen are about, and the murders started in the past week. The party thanks her and give her a handsome tip. Perry purchases a bottle of cheap wine.

Iyana ir'Talan

The party visits the Black Arch district to speak to the garrison Commander Iyana ir’Talan. Kal’ Torak shows the seal of Hruit from the paperwork they’d previously been given to bluff the way in. Iyana is helpful when she finds out that they want to deal with the murders. She provides the party with the following information (with the help of sketches of crime scenes):

  1. Murders started about week ago.
  2. The modus operandi is that people are hung upsidedown and there throats are slashed.
  3. Two city guards have been killed.
  4. The majority of the crimes have occurred in the High Walls refugee district.
  5. If people stay in small groups they tend to not be targeted.
  6. There have been many “Ratmen” sightings.
  7. There has been an increase in graffitti in the area.
The party examines the sketches and Kal notes two interesting details:
  1. The slit throats are familiar somehow – with unusual tearing on one side followed by the expected slash
  2. The grafitti “Agotha is dead! Long live Agotha!”

Agotha Broska

He stops and thinks (making a very difficult INT check) and remembers…
    Agotha Broska is an Elven Vampire. She brutally murdered a vagrant near the Lantern Way Orphanage and used a similar method to try to cover her tracks. However, many details are missing as these events occurred during the time of his memory loss.
Perry suggests that he use the bottle of wine that he purchased to masquerade as a drunkard and become a target.

The party sets out and discovers Ratmen in the middle of another attack. They attack the Ratmen and manage to take all three prisoner.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Sharn - The Cauldron - Episodes 8 and 9

Kal and Talyn hire a boat to go out to the center of the harbour to check out the wreck of the Arrowhead. Seanus agrees to stay in the boat while they drink the potions of waterbreathing and swim down. They quickly find the wreck and must deal with two Sahuagin that attack.

After they have done that, they investigate the wreck to discover it’s been ransacked. They swim underwater and follow the trail of detrius and flotsom to an underwater cave. In the cave they fight a giant crab and uncover a bandolier of potions which Kal determines are healing potions. They continue down the cavern and the water becomes shallower.

Bah Mole finds them and follows them to investigate the cavern. Using Speak with Animals, he talks to a fish and a bat and discovers that there are other entrances into the cavern and that groups of humanoids have been carrying things into the cavern.

They notice some dim torchlight and proceed. Talyn casts predigitation on Bah Mole’s spear causing it to be very reflective and shiney allowing him to use it as a mirror and see inside the cavern.

Meanwhile, Nysra Iradi awakes. She realizes she has been bound with someone behind her. She is unaware of where she is or how she got there. Looking around, she realizes she is in an underground cavern. Nysra wakes up the person behind her who turns out to be an elf named Perry.

Bah Mole sees these two in the reflection but cannot clearly see that they are bound. He steps around the corner and casts entangle on the area. The spell manages to also capture two humans and a Sahuagin on the far end of the cavern. They disarm the humans and Sauhagin. Upon dismissing the entangle, the Sahaugin attempts to escape. Talyn casts daze and stops the Sahaugin. Behind the two humans is a bag with Nysra and Perry’s weapons along with two greatcoats.

The party also notices that the crystal coffin IS there but it is empty.

The humans reveal the following information:

  1. Their names are Carleynn and Aravyre
  2. They were purchasing the salvage from the Sahuagin
  3. Their boss, “Castar” told them to “Dispose” of Nysra and Perry because he thought they were “snooping around”.
The Sahuagin regains his senses and starts panicking and worrying about the “Demon girl”. He reveals that he saw her rise out of the coffin holding something in her hand.

The party leaves them tied up, but leaves them means to escape if they promise to say that Nysra and Perry were “drowned”. The two captives tell the party that the stairs lead up into the Mud Caves district.

They track steps from the crystal coffin to another side cave where they find a half-orc (about 3/4 human) named “Linele” who claims to be Linech’s daughter. She has no memory of how she got there but has a vague recollection of flames. Her skin is extremely pale and Bah Mole smells “death” around her.

They discuss how to “safely lead her out”. She asks for some food as she is very hungry but everything they offer her, she spits out in disgust. Talyn and Nysra decide to go ahead and get Linech while the rest of the party leads Linele out.

Taylen explains to Linech what happened to Linele. Linech demands that they show her to him.

The rest of the party gets to the outer parts of the Mud Caves shanty town and realize that due to the sunlight, Linele cannot proceed out. Bah Mole fakes and injury to buy time.

Talyn , Nysra, Linech , and Abbercombe return to the mud caves. Linech is horrified, and reveals that his daughter had been killed by his enemies. Linele “vamps out” and attacks him. The party fights and Talyn and Nysra entangle Linele and tie the other end to Linech’s cab. Linech runs to the cab. Talyn , Nysra , and Linech order the cab to leave – pulling Linele into the sunlight. She burns up immediately.

Before leaving, Abbercombe points out a gold fob watch that Linele dropped.

The party realizes that the watch is incredibly magical and very evil. They bring the watch to the Cathedral of the Cleansing Flame for Archierophant Y’Thana Morr to deal with. Perry realizes that she is the clergy he is to report to. She advises him to return the next day for his “briefing”.

The party visits Linech and he rewards them with the remaining gold he owed them. They tell him about the fob watch they found.

The party then decides to report back to Hruit so that he is aware of the situation.