So I had to edit the ending of last week's journal since we continued with the party. Presented here are the rest of the events of that crazy night. I hope I didn't butcher anything too badly. Even though this entry isn't very long, there was a LOT going on!
Chapter 43: Loose
Ends
As we milled around in the aftermath of the party, there
were still a number of questions hanging over the air. Why did Stormguard Intelligence try to abduct
Tal? Why did the Fasa’s brothers attack
him? Who were the samurai who defended
the Lord Knight? Why was that noble
dead? We needed answers and the Lord
Knight wasn’t letting anyone go until those answers were discovered.
The dead intelligence officer was first. Rish checked over the body and then cast a
Speak with Dead spell. He was sent by
the King of Revelous because a Diviner in Rengar had delivered a prophecy
regarding the Lightning Cannons that Tal and I were working on. In the next great war, the ultimate victor
would be whichever kingdom had the most of those weapons, so the idiots decided
the best way to ensure their victory would be to kidnap the creator. Tal and I have been discussing plans for the
device and had planned to make a deal with the Lord Knight for purchasing the
weapons and making more, an exclusive contract! The Lord Knight was almost as furious as we
were.
Seeing nothing further to be gained, Rish released the spell
and we examined another dead body, that of a Ja’held Allovar, minor baron who
sat on the Council of Lords. She
confirmed that the man’s wine had been poisoned and he died of heart failure. Earlier, he had been seen talking with Count
Riely Vorhst and we learned two were arguing over water rights. The dead lord was trying to repeal a law that
made it illegal to catch and use rainwater in the kingdom. We can’t make any accusations since we have
no proof, but Vorhst owns a large area of land near Qualm, including Sky
Lake. (Hmm, he DID look a little pale to
me…) But he also owns the water rights
to most of the area along the river north of Stormguard. This may also be related to what’s going on
in Bennic, where the people were building a lot of boats. That is something that is going to need to be
investigated, likely by the Lord Knight, but I will make inquiries as well.
Mak spoke with the samurai and learned that they had nothing
to do with any of the attacks and were surprised as everyone when the assassin
revealed himself as one of their group.
They gave Mak an enchanted belt pouch as a way of apology. Seeing nothing else there, we examined the
bodies of the Monks that attacked Fasa.
One of the men had been Fasa’s friend.
They had trained together so it made no sense that they would have
attacked; especially since they were there as added security for the
party. When I examined them, I found a
faint but lingering transmutation spell on the bodies, a berserk spell.
Shocked that a spell like that would work on trained Monks,
we did some more investigating. Their
cups showed some strange residue and when we went to the kitchen we found that
the water that they were being served to them was laced with the same
substance. The effect of the drug was
that the water was highly alcoholic, making the monks highly susceptible to
enchantments. The guards were also
drinking the water and many of them were quite drunk which explains their
lackluster performance in protecting the party guests. We found that the drug got into the water
through the ice, which was delivered to the party from a business called the
“Frost House” located by the docks. The
Lord Knight will be sending investigators there immediately.
During our investigation, Will watched from his post in the
rafters and when we finished he called out some of the suspicious things he
found. First was the disappearance of an
extremely lovely gnome from the party guests.
At first I looked to Tal and Erra, but the missing woman had been
dressed in a lavish gown and her name was Belladonna, like the herb that can be
potentially lethal when consumed. I
immediately had a theory that she was the one who either poisoned the baron or
cast the Berserk enchantment on the monks, or both. We will have to watch out for her.
Next, Will called out to two men in the back of the room who
were acting suspicious. Money and a
small pouch had stealthily changed hands.
The Lord Knight called them forward and man doing the purchasing was
revealed to be a minor noble named Bramsby.
He had purchased an illegal recreational drug known as “sapphire
dream”. The two men were sentenced to 20
lashes and Mak took them to another room to carry out the punishment.
After they had gone, we looked in a young girl who was
looking flushed and unsteady on her feet.
Patrice deejay was here for her first party after coming of age. She had been drinking wine but swore
(convincingly) that she hadn’t had very much.
Unfortunately, she had been watering down her drink which only increased
the alcohol content. She was worried
about her Aunt Hecuba, who was missing.
A speedy search of the house followed and the woman was
found in a closet upstairs, bound and gagged.
She had been looking for her niece when she was attacked by two mystery
assailants. Will checked around the area
and in the thick carpets, he found distinct prints of two men in boots similar
to what a Ranger would wear. Heading
back down to the party, we found the men.
They immediately addressed Will as an escaped slave, making tensions
rise even further. Fortunately, the
whole story came out soon after.
Lord Vincent Garrous had led the young woman upstairs to
take advantage her. He paid the two
slave hunters to “occupy” Hecuba so she wouldn’t interfere. The Lord Knight was very uneasy about
confronting Lord Garrous because the man supplied the majority of weapons and
armor used by the city guard and militia.
The two families were at odds over iron production in the area and
Garrous was trying to disgrace the family to secure his holdings. Rish examined both the lord and the girl and
as we found out later, she slipped him an herb that would make it impossible to
“perform” for a couple of weeks at least - serves the piece of dirt right.
The last encounter we dealt with involved another
suspicious-looking individual that Will spotted. He described the man and “too calm” and when
we confronted him, I could see what he meant.
Nothing about the events of the evening rattled him in the
slightest. His name was Thomas Gular
everything I had heard about the man was unflattering to put it mildly. Though he was technically a “Sir” by
inheritance, most people referred to him as “The Prick”.
The Lord Knight finally released everyone to go. Tired and drained from the evening we all
left to get some rest. Tal offered to let me stay at her place. After the attempted abduction, I decided that
would be a good idea, so I escorted Tal back to her workshop while the others
headed back to the Midtown apartment.
Clarrens went with them so he could return to the stables.
It’s now the following morning and as I write this, I’m
drinking the last of my coffee while Tal is still asleep in bed. Last night ended in a wonderfully unexpected way. I won’t go into details but the plans I had
for making an item to let me change size won’t be necessary. My girlfriend is quite adventurous and…
athletic. Calling her that is still a
new experience. I don’t know that the
future holds, but I am certain that I want her to be a part of it.
The next day, we began to look into Lilly’s newly acquired
assets. The Lord Knight would be
dismantling any of her father’s illegal operations, but we decided it would be
best to look things over ourselves. The
first thing we examined was her father’s ship.
Her first order of business was to disband the crew and fire the
captain. Our timing couldn’t have been
better as a letter arrived for the man, via magical means… Hmmmm, that gives me an idea. But never mind that now.
We went through the ship and found a number of things of
interest. We freed his traveling harem
and I believe they will find working at the Silver Dragon to be much more …
satisfying. We also found a set of
sheets made from the beards of dwarven ladies, truly a revolting concept. The invoice said it was to be delivered to
the “Empress of Lust” via her envoy on the docks. He shouldn’t be too difficult to track down –
the document says that he is a half-ogre and I’ve only ever seen one man that
fits that description. I believe this
“Empress” may be the woman behind the enchantment attacks on Lilly and Will at
the Feldor heir apartment.
Lilly went through the rest of the ship and found some
records of her father’s dealings with the various pirate organizations, in all
parts of the world. We even found maps
of the shipping lanes he uses to avoid the pirates. If we want to cause further problems for the
man, turning those maps over to said pirates could make things very
difficult. Along with the information,
we found a few items: a spear, shortsword and couple of potions. One of the potions and the sword were highly
useful to bards, so Lilly gave them to me.
In the hold, we found crate of rare truffles and a live dire lobster,
which gave me an idea.
To celebrate surviving the Lord Knight’s party, we went out
for a special dinner. I invited Tal
along with Erra and her adventuring group and we met at the Hobbit House for
dinner. The
chefs were amazed at the food we brought and they turned it into an amazing
meal. Mak helped out in the kitchen as
well. Erra’s group was a fun bunch of little folks. The tallest of the party was the dwarf
fighter. The rest of the group consisted
of two more Gnomes and the three Halflings.
After dinner, we went to their favorite tavern, a place near the docks
called the Broken Branch. Though it was
crafted from the remains of a giant tree by druids, the place was roomy and
lively. We were enjoying the atmosphere
until a scream pierced the revelry. One
of the waitresses stood at the door to the cellar, blood streaming down her face
from wicked claw marks.
Our party, now double in size, moved down into the dark cellar
and encountered another wraith of the same type that we had fought twice
before. This time, however, as we
attacked the creature, a dozen more appeared, rising up out of the floor. A fierce battle took place, but to make
matters worse, a shadowy figure dropped down from the ceiling and attacked
Rish. He slashed at her with a wakazashi
and I immediately remembered the stories of the set of swords that she
carried. He told her to hand over one of
her blades and he would withdraw.
Unfortunately for him, the last of the wraiths were being
dispatched and we all attacked the man and cut him to ribbons. Rish took up the last blade of the
prayer-killer set and an odd look flashed in her eyes, similar to the
expression when she spoke with her god.
She nodded and assured us she had it under control and with the last of
the wraiths taken out, we decided it was best to call it a night.
The presence of the wraiths a third time cannot be a
coincidence. The most likely cause would
be a rift in the Negative Energy Plane and the fact that there were so many
wraiths this time could mean that the rift is getting larger. Rish mentioned encountering something “dark”
in the city’s immense graveyard known as the Necropolis. We need to go there to investigate, but we
should do research first and enlist the assistance of some clerics, maybe at
Rish’s temple. (Since she seems to be
the Hierarch now!?! When did THAT
happen???)
Another terrible thought has occurred to me as well. We encountered another powerful undead being recently:
Lilly’s fiancé, the spell-wrapped mummy.
He could be the one behind the rift and the attacks: even more reason to
be careful…
No comments:
Post a Comment