Session 166 - "Feast of Blood"

General Summary

An insidious plot against the townspeople of Illmarsh is revealed and the Fellowship confronts a horrifying new foe.  

 

Starday, Gozran 30, 4711 AR

Soddentimbers Swamp

9.22p

The men arrive at the site of the massacre of the militiamen and continues to the south towards town and hopefully Kyrrn. After reacquiring her bearings, Kyrrn begins to hear a gurgling sound in the distance towards the northwest. She crouches down behind a tree and hears the sound again, this time closer, followed by a small splash of water. The sound grows closer and one of the militia members stumbles from the shadows. He is drenched in blood and holds one hand to his neck as he stumbles to the ground. Kyrrn gives him a healing potion, which appears to rouse him. He grabs at her and says "Grumph" before passing out. His pallid appearance doesn't go away. Examining the wounds they appear to have been caused by a blade, probably a sword. The outside of his right arm also bears a cut. The skin near the wounds appear to be dry and withered, resembling what was seen on the other corpses. Kyrrn recalls that Grumph and the sheriff both had scimitars and are fully capable of causing these type of attack.  

9.32p

Neferu, the Unworthy Soul, Kelath and Velexander emerge onto the scene. Kyrrn quickly calls over to Neferu, who moves to the militiaman and begins to treat his wounds.   Neferu sees that there is a tear through his clothes on his back that reveals a slimy, mucus-like substance. There is an angry ulcerous wound that shows what appears to be some kind of puncture. His skin in general appears more leathery than it should. Consulting his knowledge, Neferu believes that some kind of fauna is actually buried inside him like some sort of parasite, the withering appearance caused by the feeding of the man's blood. Kelath sudden remembers X squashing a large slug back at the shack.   Neferu drags the man's body over to a drier spot and removes his healers kit. He begins slicing into the man, tracing the wound path to the spine and then moving up towards his head. "I have a bad idea," Kyrrn replies and explains how an electric arc might kill the parasite within. Neferu begins to intensely palpate the man's back, trying to find where the slug could be, finally locating it near the back of his head. Saving her the pain, Neferu uses the spell himself. Suddenly a foot long worm burst from his skin, burning and smoking. However, the man gives one last gasp before expiring himself.   Looking over the creature, it appears almost like any swamp slug, however something still seems off about it. Kyrrn wonders if could have been corrupted by the presence Black Goat. Kelath stresses they should make their way back to Illmarsh. Kyrrn goes to get the grub and finds that the body is already in her backpack. Slightly puzzled, she shakes her head and follows after the men.  

Town Hall

9.52p

The Fellowship quickly makes its way toward the Illmarsh, honing in on the glow of the Laterngeist festival ahead. They emerge into the town square with the party still going on in full swing. With some dismay, they notice that everyone is wearing a mask, making it impossible to know if undersheriff Grumph is present or not. They push their way through the crowd, rebuffing offers of food and dance. They spy Mayor Gredal stationed at a kissing booth. Seeing them, he makes his way to Neferu who asks to speak with him in private. Neferu asks if he has seen the undersheriff, who says he has not, and begins to fill the official in on what they've seen. Shocked because Grumph is local and loyal, the mayor nevertheless believes them and asks if they could try searching for him.   During the conversation, Kyrrn has removed the grub and begun examining it more closely. She finds that it still holds a quantity of the victim's blood within its body. Remember the mention of blood in Dreely's journal, Kyrrn offers that Grumph could be using the parasites to collect blood to complete the ritual of the Black Goat.  

10.02p

The Fellowship exits the town hall. X and Kyrrn don their masks and begin mingling with the crowd. Neferu, the Soul, and Kelath follow the mayor towards the undersheriff's home. X begins busking as a fire-eater as Kyrrn watches the crowd. The mayor makes his way to one small home and knocks on the door. Finding it open, he calls out to Grumph, but it appears dark and quiet. They quickly search the house finding it very tidy but otherwise unoccupied.  

10.12p

Kelath continues investigating and is immediately is struck by the lack of signs of involvement with the nefarious business: no altar, no tomes, no cult paraphernalia. The mayor continues voicing his disbelief of the undersheriff's actions. Kelath tells him of a plan to have the mayor address the townspeople and have them unmask themselves in order to find Grumph, but Gredal is weary of the idea. Kelath asks if there are any significance to the masks and if he could be identified that way. With dawning understanding, the mayor says that the masks are traditionally passed down within a family, and the Grumph family mask is the visage of a horned stag.   Meanwhile, X has drawn quite a crowd, all the while searching for signs of the undersheriff. Near the apple bob, Kyrrn suddenly spies one of the parasites flopping into the water tub. She quickly uses a gravitational pull to draw everyone away from the new threat, and X casts illusionary object to put a heavy lid upon it. The initial cheers at the show is quickly followed by booing as the crowd departs from the area. Almost immediately there is a blood-curdling. The figure of cloaked and masked man within the crowd raises an heavy executioner's axe begins to behead a pinned victim. X tries throwing a rock, but the man follows through anyway. But it becomes quickly apparently that this is some performance and the "head" falls away from the mannequin. The "axeman" points to someone else and moves towards a new victim.  

Town Square

10.22p

Mayor and company return to the town square as Kyrrn unplugs the tub, draining the water. The Soul climbs the statue and keeps an eye out. Knowing the full weight of the threat facing them, Gredal decides to address the revelers.  

10.32p

The mayor finally makes his way through the crowd and tries to get everyone's attention. Kyrrn begins disarming the musicians of their instruments. A sudden scream comes from the south end of the square. The Soul sees a male figure wearing a horned stag mask with a wielding a bloody blade. He removes his mask, revealing Undersheriff Grumph with a mad gleam in his eyes. He sheaves his scimitar and makes his way towards a large stone building, the Church of Gozreh, home to the Recondite Order of the Indomitable Sea. Kyrrn jumps ahead of the fleeing crowd with a warp step, and Neferu tells the mayor to keep people away from the temple as they fight their way upstream of people.  

Church of Gozreh

The Fellowship catches up to Grumph before he can ascend the temple's steps. Kelath gives a battle cry, but Grumph appears unimpressed. The undersheriff removes a hatchet from his belt and begins charging at Kyrrn, hurling it at her, just missing. Neferu boosts the Soul, who moves to go around Grumph. Kyrrn flings the axe back at the undersheriff, deeply embedding into his chest. X charges him and scores a hit as well before flourishing and readying for an attack. Kelath strikes a particularly impressive marshal stance and moves to envelope X in its effect.   Still enraged, Grumph begins to draw his scimitar, an action with which X punishes him for. Once the coal black scimitar is free, the light around him appears to dim. Striking at X, he finds his attacks parried aside. The Soul moves to flank the undersherrif and rips into him with a claw. Nyrrk comes forth and pulls the axe free and plunges it back, following up with a psi-burst. Maintaining his stance, X viciously slashes Grumph, cutting him down. Almost instantaneously, the man's head suddenly explodes in a fury of bloody tentacles. Kelath strides forth towards this new horror and strikes at with his dragon winged sword.   The aberration's sudden appearance startles X and the Soul who then attempts to lash X with its tentacles, but X counters and rips into them instead. Neferu steps forward calls down a flame strike. Nyrrk tries the axe once again, but misses this time. X once again skewers the creature, severing more tentacles for his trouble. Kelath cuts in with a slash of his own followed by another palpable hit.   The creature swings towards Kelath and lashes with its tentacles, wrapping him up. Neferu raises his hands and a orb of energy begins to build in his hands as an inner radiance torrent beams toward the creature. Nyrrk uses the axe once last time before departing. X continues to lay into the tentacled horror and Kelath scores a hit as well. He attempts to escape the creature's grasp, but is unable to free himself.   The aberration turns its attention to X, but it is unable to land an attack. Neferu continues his torrent of magical energy, the beam bursting through its body, causing tentacled horror to explode in a shower of gore.   The mayor approaches in absolute shock and wonders why the Grumph thing was approaching the temple, saying something about recent disappearances in the town. He seems convinced the priests of Gozreh are also involved with the entire affair, adamant that they somehow transformed the undersheriff. Kyrrn looks over the creature's body. The mayor says that Father Voltiaro cares nothing for the town and must be involved, imploring the Fellowship to seek justice against him.   The party also quickly looks over Grumph's belongings, finding that he was equipped with a Gloom Blade and a +1 Striking Composite Longbow.