Rise of the Runelords - Xen'drik - Episode 3 - Journal of SOS

The Journal of the Warforged known as "SOS":

Day 4: Afternoon -

Notes on Events. Location: Sand Point
Interrogation/Conversation with primary searcher/reptile expert for Sandpoint: Female(? Has chest bumps) Human Ranger.

Discussion Points: No nearby regions known to harbor the recent attackers. Vegetation removal by fire is not considered a viable search option. Sleestack tribes tend to utilize might-makes-right leadership decisions and have limited cooperation without outside direction. Primary expertise is on 'Dark Elves',not Sleestack.

Decisions Made: Ranger will investigate likely sites in order of proximity and likelihood of harboring groups larger than 50. Pink leader is likely humanoid of significant stature or power. After searching for max 3 days, will reconnect with communications here in town.

Day 4: Evening -

Location: Inn / Feathered Serpent

Biological refueling was boring. Used time to investigate knowledge from local magic expert on
necromancy. Acquired useful first-person journal written by young woman who charmed a 'Sparkle'
vampire in the past. (First data on these vampires, but obvious in full daylight due to shimmer of sparkling dust in near vicinity. Must keep watch for unusual dandruff on all haired beings.) Sadly, no information on actual arcane empowerment or resuscitation data for this field of magic was found.

Location : Non-Defunct Temple (Hasn't sunk or burned yet!)
Companions found reason to re-examine past relationships of deceased. Surviving acquaintance
(Designate: High Priest Zandros) gave additional data on history in addition to re-appearance of
female(?) human ranger. Past history indicates activity as troubleshooter and auxiliary guardian against threats in region and acquisition of significant prestige and ability from the dead figure. Apparently nobody else is interested in trying to repair him for continued function in this regard. Some taboo of some sort seems to be involved.

Day 5: Morning -

Location: Inn

Feathers acquired new data source from local informant. Letter indicating possible traitor to town is male half-elf sibling to missing female located in missing female's room. Acquired task to search local glass manufactory for clues.

Location : Glassworks

Successfully located possible invasion point for Sleestack minions.

Sub-Leader: Suto (half elf) located and subdued after difficult fight. This unit was knocked out during battle, but later review of facts established expert in unarmed and deception skills using combat maneuvers. Uncommunicative, but had journal in foreign language with useful clues. (Note: Acquire expertise in this language soon. Appears to be quite common)

Sleestack Minions: No high-caliber opponents encountered

Resources Gained: Funding (platinum, gold/silver dust) , ornamentation, potion(??), MW procurement tools, and magic ring(+1 Prot) acquired. Split of loot left ring in this unit's possession.
Information Gained: Insane female human of mixed human/demonic ancestry took body and utilized it in ritual to remove undesirable human influences. Should be considered highly dangerous, but also likely to possess useful information on arcane topics. Sleestack numbers should be considered at least 1 order magnitude greater than previous enocunters would suggest. (100-500?) Coordinated plan of attack using bridges and underground smuggling route found in Suto journal. No time frame given, but local
constabulary will be making expedited trip to Storm Reach to pull in additional fighters and repair staff.

New Goals: Shut down invasion route 1 (Glasswork's tunnels). Prepare for invasion on Routes 2 and 3 (Bridges across river)

With luck, this synopsis will be useful to local combat planners if we fail to return from the Glasswork tunnels. Leaving this with innkeeper with instructions to share with returning fighters if we fail.

Rise of the Runelords - Xen'drik - Episode 3 - Journal of Hrana

From the Journal of Hrana:

            The tengu, SOS and I finished talking to the ranger about the various sleestak tribes in the area. After that it's about dinner time so we go back to the Rusty Dragon Inn to have dinner. The tengu eats quickly and then goes to talk to Amiko about the previous priest of the Sovereign Host. I stay at the inn and enjoy my meal while SOS goes to have a chat about necromancy with the owner of the Feathered Serpent. The shopkeeper gives him a book that is supposedly a journal written by a girl about her experiences with vampires.  When the tengu returns, he suggests we may want to speak with Father Zantos, seeking more information about the early life of Father Azakian, the previous priest (whose body was stolen from his tomb under the temple.) So we all go to the temple.

            Father Zantos is pretty forthcoming about the life of Father Azakian, as least as much as he knows of it. Aside from serving during the wars, the Father also was for a time an adventurer, and after retiring from that life he used his money and influence to help found the temple in Sandpoint and to give back to the community as much as possible. Father Azakian was killed when the temple mysteriously burned down, which was assumed to be some weird accident since no one could figure out how the fire started. The temple mostly used continual light spells not candles or lanterns for lighting. So we think his death is certainly suspicious. We also asked about his former adventuring group friends and discovered that the ranger was one of them. The ranger arrived at the temple about this time, having found out that Azakian's body was stolen during the raid on Sandpoint. She confirmed what Father Zantos said about Azakian's adventuring days. She also suggested a couple of places nearby where we could look for the missing sleestak tribesmen and the “pinkskin” who may be in charge.

            After this meeting was over, we all went back to the inn to rest for the night. SOS decided to study the book he got at the Feathered Serpent while the rest of us were sleeping. In the morning, while the tengu and I were eating, he discussed some of what he inferred from the book and suggested that maybe vampires would be attracted to the girls' school in town. The tengu and I have doubts as to the accuracy of the tome he received from the shopkeeper and suggest he may want to get a second source material for further study.

            While we are finishing up our meal, a member of the inn's staff comes over to the tengu and asks him for help. Amiko seems to have left rather suddenly in the night and left behind a note in her language. The tengu reads it, and he seems alarmed. We quickly go upstairs to Amiko's room and try to find out what happened. Her bed was not slept in and her pack is gone. The tengu says, according to the note she left, she went to meet her half-brother at her father's glassworks because he said their father was behind or involved in the sleestak attack and the theft of the priest's body. After assuring the halfling woman that we will find Amiko we take off to the glassworks.

            When we get to the glassworks, it is closed and the doors are locked. While we are trying to get in, a young local girl comes up and starts asking a lot of questions. I divert the girl and keep her occupied while the tengu climbs up to the roof and enters the showroom through one of the skylights. I get back about the time he unbars the door to let us in. We check the front room for snything suspicious but everything looks OK, so the tengu listens at the two doors. He doesn't hear anything unusual so he opens them to have a look. There are two hallways, one short and one long. We take the long one find evidence that things are not OK at the glassworks. There's blood on the wall and seems like some critters have been about because there's poop on the floor as well. And it doesn't smell very good either.

            First door we get to, SOS decides to go through. Good thing it's really loud in here (the furnaces for the glass blowers are still running), because we find a group of sleestak and they don't notice us come in. There's also an elf or half-elf here, farther back in the room.

            First, SOS casts an illusion on the far wall to make the door look like it's in a place it isn't. Then the tengu creates water in one of the furnaces, causing a big cloud of steam to fill part of the room. I run up to the closest sleestak and attack it. The tengu comes up too and we manage to kill it. SOS casts a sleep spell into the cloud of steam to try to put some of the sleestak out of the fight.

            The rest of them now know there's something going on in the far end of the room and one of them steps out of the cloud to see whats going on. He yells before we can get to him. Then the cloud dissipates and we can see that SOS managed to put 2 of the sleestak to sleep but the rest are still up. The tengu runs toward the closest ones and starts attacking. SOS casts a magic missile at the elf and does a little damage, but also unfortunately gets his attention. I'm too slow to get there before he yells, then LEAPS across the room at SOS and starts attacking him. He stuns SOS before anyone can get over there to help. The tengu has his hands full with about 3 of the sleestak, so I kill the one closest to me and turn back around to help. 4 more lizards come through the door at the far end of the room. The elf hits SOS so fast and hard, he's unconscious before I can get there, but I do manage to do some damage on the guy when I can. The tengu casts some kind of weird stoneskin spell and comes over to help deal with the elf, since it's pretty obvious now he's the one in charge. He is really insulting to the tengu, but together we do enough damage to render him unconscious and then mop up the rest of the minions. Some of them get away, but it was funny watching them run into a wall where they thought the door was!

            After the fight, the tengu gets SOS healed up, and I search the bodies, and disarm the elf. Got a ring and a potion off of him, in addition to a flute, a book, a bow and arrows, a set of thieve's tools (MW) and some pouches of gold dust and silver dust and 10 platinum coins! After the prisoner was secured, in a humiliating posture (according to the tengu), we explored the glassworks further. There was a recently built wall at the far end of the furnace room, so we broke it down and went down the stairs that were revealed. There's a lot of tunnels down here, but we're looking for Amiko so we don't search the long hallways. Instead we find a place that used to be bricked up on both ends, and she's in one of the rooms in that section. She's pretty beat up, tied and gagged, and unconscious, but we get her healed and awake and after speaking with her for a short time about what happened, took her back to the inn so she could rest. She said her half-brother, Suto, lured her there to try to convince her to join him, and she doesn't know where her father is. She's horrified by the fact her brother is involved in the attack and is working with the sleestak.

            We took Suto to the sheriff's office and had him locked away, with a warning to the sheriff to be extra careful with guarding him because of his skill. Then we went to report to the priest. The book we got off Suto had some very interesting information in it, including plans of another upcoming attack, that there is a succubus involved (Suto's her lover) and she is also apparently the daughter of the former priest, Azakian. The sheriff is going to try to get to Stormreach quickly enough to bring in some reinforcements to protect the town. We're staying to try to make some plans to hinder the attack.