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.

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!”

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.