The Life and Times of a Dead Man - Episode 7 - My name is Charlie

Audrey Rose casts identify on the robe and potion found in the last session and reveals a Robe of Bones and  Oil of Reduce Object

Having previously contracted Filth Fever, Hendra goes to House Jorasco where they cure her disease and cast lesser restoration. Sabrina also visits to remove the curse on her hand. They rub bacon grease on her hand and then cast remove curse. The gem disappears in a cloud of green smoke. 

The estate has had its assets frozen because Lady Araluna was complicit in the Sharn Slicer killing spree. However, since Ceseli was one of the victims, the party decides to submit paperwork refuting the bank’s stance and countering that as a victim she should not be held accountable. Sabrina inquires with the city watch about whether there is a reward for taking out the necromancer and for returning the Sharn Slicer’s body. After talking to them, she is certain that there will be compensation.

A few days later...

Each party member receives an invitation. They gather information about the area and scout ahead. The house is in a neighborhood called Dava Gate (Sharn: City of Towers 44) in Middle Central Plateau (Sharn: City of Towers 43). The district is middle class; small businesses cluster in towers surrounded by residential areas, and look little different than the homes around them. This quiet neighborhood is in an area in a roundabout between two towers with all of the residences looking like the same brownstones. Sabrina knows that this house has been unoccupied for a little over twenty years. The houses in this community sell quickly, so it’s very odd that it’s been unoccupied for so long.

There are kids playing outside the house. They tell Sabrina that she shouldn’t go into the house because it’s haunted. The children describe one of their friends "hearing voices" when they entered previously. After talking to the heroes, the leader of the children dons a goblin pirate mask and leads the rest of the kids away. 

Despite the warning, Sabrina knocks on the door. The door soundlessly opens; there is no one there. Tweetie-Bear starts to growl and complains, “I don’t like this place.” Dol detects magic and doesn’t detect anything out of the ordinary. Sabrina goes inside the building. There are no lights on, so Hendra pulls out her continual flame rock. The house is two stories and built in a gallery style. There are wooden stairs going up to the balconied second floor. There is a mechanical lift opposite the stairs. Sabrina decides they should check out the basement, when they all hear a voice in theirs head that tells them that it’s not necessary. The voice tells us that it haunts this place. We can refer to the voice as the Dead Man. Sabrina convinces him to go by the name Charlie. Sabrina asks about pay, and Charlie tells her that patience and persistence will pay off. Sabrina responds, “I don’t like fortune cookies; they give me gas.” 

Charlie has need of eyes and ears because right now he is limited to this house. He asks them about the grub they found in Sawfish Brothers (1). He asks that if they find another one, to bring it intact as he wishes to find more to study. Charlie wishes to be both their patron and client.  He reveals that the heroes growing fame brought them to his attention. Charlie offers the house as new headquarters. 

At that moment, someone knocks on the door. Sabrina opens the door and finds a man and woman dressed in storekeeper clothes. She welcomes them and tells them, “We’re the Townsend Agency.”

The mother tells the party, “We need your help finding our boy.” The boy's name is 'Cord'. He’s been missing not quite a week. The parents last saw him when he was going to spend a day with friends, but he never made it home. Cord’s friends were found dead inside a shop. Unfortunately, the Shar Watch was so busy with the dead bodies that they didn’t have time with the missing person’s case. Cord is an apprentice with House Cannith,(2) 

The party tracks down one of Cord's friends, Nelt Morris for more information. His father is in the Tradefair district (Sharn: City of Towers 47) and runs Morris Paper and Paper Goods. They also discovers that Warem Wrestin and Nori Ebenor are the deceased friends. Morris also runs the Silver Smith store where the bodies were found. The Faldrens give the party their address in the Tradefair district. The heroes gather information on the four kids. The kids aren’t well known in the neighborhood as much as their families are known. The Faldrens own a provision and grocers. The Wrestins work in construction for House Cannith. The Ebenor’s work for House Kundarak as bankers.

Morris, the widowers, own Morris Paper Goods and a few other properties that he rents out. There’s nothing remarkable about any of them. Sabrina gets the impression from people that Morris is very much into the Church of the Silver Flame.

Meanwhile....

A vigilante visits the crime scene. Behind the clerk’s counter there are empty cheap bottles of wine. The floor is dusty; there are signs of recent movement in it. There are impressions on the dust in the ground where humanoid forms were laying. There are urine stains on both spots. The pot-bellied stove was used in the last week. She pulls out burnt twine and butcher paper from the stove. There is the usual smell of ashes and burnt wood but also something sweet like cinnamon. Someone used the privy within the last week. There’s a lose floorboard under the bed; there is a tin box inside. There are several empty vials, and one filled with silvery looking liquid.

Dol and Bosley go visit Morris Paper Goods. He observes Tars Morris to try and figure out how to disguise himself as him. Nelt shows up at some point and helps Tars around the shop.

Audrey Rose, Zita and Sabrina show up at Morris Paper Goods. The party asks to speak privately with Nelt. They find out that sometimes the kids hang out on Morris properties and drink wine. Cord sometimes brings Shiver. Shiver is a narcotic that gives you lucid dreams. While Shiver is generally legal, it isn’t entirely legal nor socially acceptable. There are houses where it can be legally distributed and taken. They watch you when you use it to ensure you are safe. House Jorasco legally oversees this. Having Shiver outside of Shiver dens is really iffy. There are some places that cut it with other things.

The day Nelt last saw Cord, he said he found something extra special. They all met up at the shop and it was coconut covered macaroons. After he ate his, Cord said he had to go back. Cord demanded Nelt’s macaroon; Nelt threw it in the stove. Both of the other kids convulsed and died. Cord ran.

Nelt has searched various Morris properties, but he hasn’t checked Cliffside (Sharn: City of Towers 50) yet. Cliffside is the western and southern borders of Sharn; it’s a docks district. Sabrina intimidates the hell out of the poor kid.

The party all meets up afterwards to catch up on what we found. After comparing notes, they head to Cliffside. Nelt’s directions take the party to Greyflood (Sharn: City of Towers 50). Most of the traffic here consists of sailors in search of entertainment. Bars, flophouses and small shops - many of which don't bother to advertise the nature of their business - line the street which winds precariously a long the edge of a steep cliff overlooking the river. Sabrina gathers information on where she can find macaroons. She doesn’t get straight answers from many people. Dol disguises themself as a young boy and asks around about drugs. They get told to get lost a lot. Hendra disguises herself as Molly Malone. She also attempts to track down the drugs with no luck.

Zita and Audrey Rose go around in search of Cord. Zita tells everyone she is searching for her missing brother. Two sailors tell the party about a commotion at Little Bowl of Boldrei. The people who run it are outside Warehouse 17.

The heroes find their way to warehouse 17. Outside there are a pair of halflings.  Zita approaches one and asks about her brother. The halfling approaches her brother and does a strange twist with her leg. Zita notices right before the halfling tells us, “We did see a boy named Cord here. We owe him a beating.”

1. Audrey Rose did an autopsy of the Sharn Slicer during the two days off. There are no signs that the worm ever inhabited the Sharn Slicer. There are runes etched into his skin by a tiny blade or needle.

2. As of late there has been a schism within House Cannith regarding which direction they should take. Cannith was responsible for the creation of the warforged and not all citizens are happy they were liberated and made citizens as well.

The Sharn Inquisitive - highlights, vol. 2

 THE SHARN INQUISITIVE - Still only 3gp/year! -  Now printed twice weekly! - Wir, Olarune 11, 1000 YK

SHARN SLICER SLEUTHS SUCCEED!

Stinks of Sawfish Siblings!

 

SHARN, Outskirts -  Early Zol morning, the public funeral procession of the notorious Sharn Slicer was interrupted by a gang of body snatchers, who managed to sneak the Slicer's corpse away in the week's rainstorm.   Thanks to intrepid local heroes - the same ones that brought down the Slicer, no less - the remains were recovered post haste.

According to our heroes, Vander Anderhoff, owner of Sawfish Brothers Meats, was harboring a necromancer interested in transforming the Slicer's remains into a horrid new form of undead.  The necromancer, identified as Eladra Lilybrook of Karrnath, allegedly hired a gang of toughs to attack the procession and race away with a mannequin to mislead the City Watch, while she absconded with the Slicer's body via magical means.  Anderhoff and his brothers, Kinto, Parne, and Torkan, allowed Lilybrook to use their place of business as a hideout for an undisclosed reward.  Torkan remains at large and is wanted for questioning.

"Whatever they were promised, it must have been substantial," says Bosley, a hobgoblin mercenary among the heroes responsible for bringing down the Sharn Slicer.  "Between all the guard dogs and zombies we found, quite a bit of gold must have been put into the Brothers' hands."  The Sharn City Watch have closed off the Sawfish Brothers' slaughterhouse pending further investigation and health inspection.

LIGHT SHOW DELIGHTS; PUZZLES 

House Lyrandar investigates

SHARN - House Lyrandar agents questioned several residents of the Mithral Tower district on Mol after mysterious lights approached airships departing from Lyrandar Tower.  A cluster of the translucent, glowing lights approached the Virtue's Price from Mithral Tower and floated around the hull before streaking back to the towers of Sharn. Mol's encounter marks the third time this year that an airship crew has reported seeing the strange lights. Most eyewitnesses say the lights are spherical or ovoid, but some say they take a bipedal form when they cluster together.

"I didn't really see features, but it looked a bit like a glowing woman with arms outstretched," said Tinar Blugostra, a passenger that disembarked from the Virtue's Price just before it departed Sharn.

Blugostra said she watched the glowing lights flit across the deck and hull of the rising Virtue's Price. It floated near the observation dome on the lowest deck of the airship, she said -- "almost like it was peering through the windows at the passengers."

House Lyrandar spokesman Korvik d'Lyrandar emphasized that passengers and cargo were unharmed by the light display. Most found it amusing, he said.  "What we're seeing is probably a natural magical phenomenon or the activity of a few arcane pranksters," he said. "Airship travel remains the safest, most luxurious way to travel across Khorvaire. All that happened is that our passengers got a free light show as they departed Sharn."

Beggar Dane says:

"Sorrow shared is sorrow lessened.  Joy shared is joy multiplied.  Madness shared is clockwork flounder pants."

An Invitation arrives for the heroes

(Each of the characters receives an invitation the following Far, two days after the events at the Slaughterhouse)

Dear (appropriate name here),

You are cordially invited to a gathering that should be of significant interest to your future investigations, your weary heads, and your pockets.

Dress is causal.  Come with open minds and inquisitive souls.  Failing that, curiosity and greed will suffice.

7PM local time

355 Macanudo Street

Dava Gate

Middle Central Plateau

Sharn, Breland  

(The invitation is unsigned)

Editor's note

Days of the week in Eberron: Sul, Mol, Zol, Wir, Zor, Far, Sar

The Life and Times of a Dead Man - Episode 6 - What do you expect? It's a Living room!

The party continues exploring Sawfish Brothers looking for the body of the Sharn Slicer and to hopefully figure out why it was taken in the first place.

The party heads downstairs and hears the rain still pouring outside. There are iron hooks hanging from above for holding sides of meat. Hendra notices faint footprints indicating that there have been people through here recently.

As the party turns a corner, there is a large man with a big hammer.

Hendra says, "If you stand down we don't need to fight me in my many friends back here" 

The guy has a menacing grin on his face until he sees the party and mutters, "I'm not getting paid enough for this. You'll find that crazy witch out past the waste disposal." He leaves.

The party continues and finds the killing floor. They approach one of the doors and inside find a waste disposal area that incinerate animal remains.

After looking for a bit, zombies appear and are shambling toward the heroes. 

Battle ensues. 

The doors open and another large man with a hammer moves in to attack.

During the battle, Sabrina encounters a service lift!

The party defeats the zombies and the hammering human.

The party continues exploring and find a room of taxidermy animals - poorly done.

Eventually, the party finds their way into a room with a shrine that the party can't identify (metagame: Blood of Vol).

Inside the room is also, a BUNCH of summoned spiders, a couple of zombies, and a woman casting a spell from a scroll.

Battle ensues.

As it starts, the witch summons a snake.

*edit*

After the desperate battle, the party succeeds in defeating the various summoned creatures, the zombies, and, with a crossbow bolt at the end, the witch.

The party continues looking and finds a room with an unusual sight.  In the middle of the floor there is some sort of glowing magic circle with a variety of runes dancing around it. Hovering over the circle, there is a jagged green crystal spinning slowly in the air. Below the crystal is the body of the Sharn Slicer. Light is coming out of it and it is focused on a jar in the middle of the room. Light is going through the jar and bathing a man manacled to the wall. The jar is radiating evil and makes anyone approaching it uneasy. The party determines it is some sort of necromantic ritual and is focusing energy of some type into the man in hopes of attuning the energy.

Sabrina insists on taking the obviously evil magic items and selling them. When Sabrina attempts to take the gem, it sticks to her hand.

The man chained to the wall awakes. His name is Clory and says he's been there a few days. He begs the heroes to free him and get him out of there. He has no idea what was going on. The heroes let him follow them for his safety.

The jar is holding a small, bright green, grub of some type. Bosley concludes that it is actually what is radiating evil. They shatter the jar and crush the grub. They take the body of the Sharn Slicer. 

They head back upstairs via the elevator and into the smoke filled room. The room sounds of boiling liquid. 

Fun Quotes!

I'm not a murder hobo, I'm a murder resident!

I'm not going into any undead-cow room!

See? They're not zombie cows, they are REGULAR zombies!

It's Chekov's Meat Hook

The Life and Times of a Dead Man - Episode 5 - Guest note taker time

Disclaimer - not really guest note taker as there are 2 of us. I just didn't add anything to her notes before posting like I usually do....

 We are at the front entrance of Sawfish Brothers. The rain does not hide the smell. Hendra and Zita are not feeling well but they continue forward. Sabrina and Hendra enter the establishment, the rest follow. We hear a snarling sound coming from up ahead. Sabrina moves forward to investigate. She opens the second door she comes to and runs into a man and his guard dog. The dog charges and mauls Sabrina. She goes down.  A pack of dogs appear down the hallway. One bites Zita, another trips Bosley, and a third barely misses Audrey Rose. Despite being down, Bosley attacks the dog. Audrey Rose throws a bomb and burns the three dogs. Tweetie-Bear and Dol take out the main guard dog. Then Dol pours a potion down Sabrina’s throat. The dogs attack again, and Zita goes down. Hendra takes out a dog, and Audrey Rose takes out another.

Dol looks into the room to see what the guy is doing. The guy points a heavy crossbow at Dol and shoots at him. The crossbolt embeds in the wall behind him. Tweetie-Bear runs in, knocks over the chair, and pounces on the guy. The remaining dog goes after Hendra but misses. Hendra sinks her longsword into the dog’s neck.

The guy in the office drops his heavy crossbow and draws two heavy axes. He attempts to attack Tweetie-Bear but misses. Bosley pours a healing potion down Zita’s throat. Audrey Rose is unable to throw a bomb due to the close proximity of her allies, so she pulls out her parasol and leaps into battle badly missing the bad guy. He attempts to retaliate against Hendra but buries his axe into the wall instead. Bosely’s spell missed the mark. The bad guy manages to fend off Zita’s dagger attacks. Suddenly Hendra leaps in and slashes the bad guy across the gut. Zita’s rainbow potion awakens Sabrina. We search the room. The office is tidy. There are cattle purchases from different farms and sales to local butchers. Masterwork heavy crossbolt. Audrey Rose finds a hidden compartment in the cabinet. There is a red ledger book inside. It is written in code. We find two cure light potions, masterwork studded leather, two masterwork axes, 17 gold, and 30 silver.

We go back to the first room and unlock the door. The room is messy. Audrey Rose finds a loose floorboard. There is a hollow space with a ragdoll, wooden dentures, and a pouch filled with 60 gold and 188 silver. Zita carefully dissects the ragdoll and finds nothing inside.

We go down the hall to the next door. There is a Sharn City Watch uniform in the corner of the room. We go to the last door in this hallway. There is the odor of moldy food. There are filthy clothes, dirty dishes, and unmade beds. Sabrina finds a leather wrap under one of the beds. The wrap is filled with knives and bone saws. Two of the masterwork daggers have a hawk pommel.

We go down a different hallway. Tweetie-Bear warns us that he doesn’t like the feel of the upcoming room. The room is completely buried in bones. Down the hall there is another door. This one has a pin. Dol unlatches and opens the cold door. There is a pale lump hanging in the room. Zita buries a crossbolt into it.

“Beware! Something is here,” Tweetie-Bear warns. Shuffling around in the back of the room are two scaly figures lurching toward us. They are undead kobolds. Audrey Rose flings a bomb at them. Dol swings himself up on the meat hook and slides down. Tweetie-Bear claws one of them and kills it. The other goes after Tweetie-Bear. Bosley stabs the undead creature with his rapier right through its eye socket. Tweetie-Bear neatly bisects the remaining undead. 

We retrace our steps and check out a different hallway. We enter a room with a large collection of knives, meat cleavers, and bone saws. Suddenly two haggard women waving clubs pounce on Tweetie-Bear. A third opponent pops up, flanks Tweetie-Bear and skewers him with a rapier. Audrey Rose flings alchemy fire at them. Hendra slashes one of them and eviscerates her. Sabrina casts Hideous Laughter on the guy, and he falls over laughing. Bosley casts Ray of Frost on the haggard woman and takes her out. Audrey Rose hits the laughing man with alchemy fire. Zita strolls into the room and stabs the prone man twice. Sabrina neatly stabs him in the throat ending his life.

We find a masterwork rapier, four daggers, a potion of cure moderate wounds, and an unknown potion. The women are wearing two wooden amulets that we’ll identify with knowledge religion later.

We enter a room full of cows. The next room is covered in smoke. We back out of it and try the next room which turns out to be another office. It’s full of dust and appears unused. Next door is a neat, handsomely decorated bedroom. There’s a bear hide rug on the floor (150g). There are three paintings (35g each). The bedsheets are silk (15g). We find a chest with 119 gold, 257 silver, and 455 copper. There is a potion of Eagle Splendor.

In the following room we find another wooden chest. Inside we find 84 gold, 51 silver, and 3 pearls (100g each). There’s another cure light wounds potion.

We open the door to air out the smoky room and head downstairs. The smell coming from room makes Audrey Rose think it’s a rendering room. There’s the smell of tallow.

The Life and Times of a Dead Man - Episode 4 - The Chase!

Ceseli is choosing not to make any public appearances. Futhermore, she has decided to remain living in this house. She does not wish to make any public appearances. Zita carefully approaches her about upcoming bills and still doesn’t hit on her. Ceseli knows nothing about the house’s finances. While Zita assist with the dishes, Barnsworth indicates that he doesn’t know anything either. Zita asks Audrey Rose if she knows where the noble houses bank; Audrey Rose assumes they have a bank account with House Kundarak. She sends a summons to the local branch of Kundarak requesting a representative to come visit Ceseli to keep it “private”.

Ceseli knows that the group is owed money; she gives Zita a wooden shield with the family crest carved onto it. The shield once belonged to her father (A masterwork densewood buckler worth 330 gold). An argument breaks out between Zita and Sabrina about where to live in the meantime where Sabrina wants to leave and Zita is trying to encourage long-term patronage.

Zita receives a 1000 gold reward from House Phiarlan for saving Vivi Knotts. Cole ir’Chartsheim’s family provides another 1000 gold reward for saving him. Furthermore, House Cannith in conjunction with the manufacturer’s guild. provides 800 gold pieces in credit for Cole’s rescue as well. The City of Sharn gives a 1500 gold reward for capturing the Sharn Slicer. The party members each receive 638 gold. Sabrina is sizing up the fine silver and the quality of the wooden furniture as she is concerned about being paid by the ir'Dromdal estate. She catalogs items in the house that are worth selling.

Shopping occurs.

A few days later - the group is in the rain participating in a funeral procession. The corpse of the Sharn Slicer is going to be paraded through the neighborhood to prove that he’s dead. The group is given a place of honor in the procession. They are standing outside the exit of Lattice Ave. They are thanked and congratulated by numerous strangers. Zita uses the opportunity to network.

Audrey Rose swears she heard the carriage stop, but it hasn’t started up again. She turns and points this out to Zita. The group decides to go investigate and find the carriage is overturned. They discover a group of figures carrying a sack that suspiciously looks like it has the halfling in it. They run off and the party gives chase.

Bosley sprints after the scoundrels. He comes across a road closure and becomes entangled in it. Dol and Sabrina tumble ahead. Hendra flips past the road closure and sprints full speed ahead. Zita trips over Bosley and falls on top of him. Audrey Rose gracefully jumps the hurdle and sprints behind Hendra.

Two of the scoundrels stop to slow the party while the rest continue. One of them pulls out a sword and attacks Audrey Rose; the other threatens Hendra but misses.

Meanwhile, Dol comes across a set of stairs and nimbly makes his way across the outer rail. Sabrina shows up and casts Hideous Laughter on one of the scoundrels while Hendra attacks the other. Tweetie-Bear shows up and slaughters the bad guy. Sabrina and Zita fly down the stairs, leap the balcony, and enter the house.

Hendra runs into the house and trips over her own feet. Audrey Rose follows Hendra and recognizes the family that lives there. She waves hello as she sprints by, closely on the heels of the bad guys. Dol and Tweetie-Bear fly by as well.

Meanwhile, Sabrina continues casting Hideous Laughter. Audrey Rose throws a bomb into the cluster of bad guys. It bounces off of one and splashes damage onto the others. Tweetie-Bear shows up and starts biting the bad guys. Dol attempts to trip the bad guy and instead is hit by a sword.

For some reason Hendra is still yelling at the owners of the house. Zita shows up to the main group and stabs some of the bad guys. Audrey Rose attempts to throw a bomb into the cluster of bad guys but misses them. The bomb bounces and does splash damage to the bad guys and patrol men alike.

Bosley shows up and is stopped by the guards. They demand to know why he is chasing the others. As they argue Sabrina runs past them chasing the body snatchers. Suddenly a vegetable cart stops their progress. Dol and Tweetie-Bear show up at the cabbage cart. Tweetie gets his claw stuck in a head of cabbage, and Dol greases the ground by the cart.

Hendra continues screaming at the family to let her go. The man carrying the halfling drops the sack and pulls out a battle axe. “That’s enough,” he growls. He swings at Zita and cracks his axe into her armor. The other body snatcher attempts to slash her with his sword but also misses. Tweetie-Bear charges into the battle axe guy and bites his head. Sabrina follows up with her sword cane and intense stare and takes out the other guy. Zita stabs him with her dagger, and Audrey Rose lobs a magenta bomb into the face of the bad guy throwing him back. Sabrina starts searching through the bodies of the people at her feet. She pockets the vials, thieves’ tools, and 25 gold in assorted change. She gets a master work great axe, four javelin, a masterwork breast plate, a couple of vials, a bag of change 124 g, and a gold necklace. There is a note with a map on the body for Sawfish Brothers. The Anderhauf brothers own the Sawfish Brothers.

The guard show up. Audrey Rose explains the situation, but when they go to remove the halfling from the bag they find a child size mannequin. (The party now has a child size dummy.) Audrey Rose identifies two vials of acid, and Sabrina recognizes a cure light wound potion, a potion of bull strength, and a potion of cure moderate wounds. (Each gets 24 gold.)

Zita examines the mannequin. Sabrina leads the group to the Sawfish Brothers.

1. Viktor Saint-Demain is a private inquisitive behind the capture of quite a few criminals. 
1. He’s highly regarded by the watch.
2. It is believed that that criminal in question was brought in by the Heroes of the Star.
2. Bosley does not, in fact, have a bone through his nose.