Session 13: Beaufort's Rude Awakening Report

General Summary

The story begins with Beaufort, Elmo and Em returning battered and bloody to the Welcome Wench, Midnight Snow joined them shortly after gifting the spoils of her ferret hunt to a disgusted Maridosa. Vesta informs the party that Garadin has been invited by Cannoness Y'Dey to join her for a late night scripture study and will likely return the next day.   While enjoying a much needed meal Elmo begins to recount the events that led to his capture by the Hobgoblins and the disturbing reports that evil forces may be returning to the region. While they are eating Snow and Elmo notice a cloaked old woman enter the tavern and speak with Maridosa, Maridosa pointed to the group and the woman left the tavern. While definitely suspicious the party felt there was no immediate danger and after observing Maridosa for a while decided to head to bed for a well deserved rest.   Early the next morning the company was awoken by a commotion in the tavern. Vesta was terrified and explained that a group of men had broken in and abducted a guest from their room, looking around they could see that Beaufort's door was open and his bed was empty. The players investigated Beaufort's room finding his silken eye mask lying on the floor and signs of a struggle but strangely no items had been taken until Em decided to help himself to Beaufort's spell books! The party also discovered a recently penned letter from Beaufort to his father sharing an update of his travels.   Outside the Welcome Wench the party met Elmo and discovered fresh tracks from a horse and cart heading East out of Secomber. As a group our heroes tracked the cart to a farm a few miles outside Secomber, they arrived just before dawn and decided that diplomacy was the best initial approach. Elmo knocked at the door of the main farmhouse while Em and Snow stuck to the shadows and scouted out the other farm buildings. The farmhouse door was answered by an elderly woman who Elmo recognised from the Welcome Wench the previous night, she was acting rather strangely and assured Elmo there was no reason to investigate further.   In the two outbuildings closest to the farmhouse Em and Snow uncovered some disturbing developments, in the first were three young humans sitting on dirty cot beds in converted animal stalls, at the back of this room behind locked bars they found another body, malnourished, barely conscious but alive, Elmo arrived at the scene and was able to find out that the man's name was Tobias and he mumbled something about a Professor Zilston before falling unconscious again. Upon opening the door to the second outbuilding Em and Snow were hit by a wave of putrid air, inside was a horror that turned their stomachs. In the dim light they could see a large geometric pattern painted on the floor in a reddish brown substance, at the centre if this design was a strange glyph, scattered around the room were objects that Em discovered to be dismembered animal carcasses. Snow's knowledge of the Abyssal language was put to use as she recognised that the glyph was written in Abyssal albeit in a dialect she didn't recognize, she was able to spot similarities between this rune and others that represent obedience.   Em and Elmo returned to the farmhouse to interrogate the elderly woman. In the course of apprehending her Em spotted a symbol scarified into the back of her neck resembling the one they found in the outbuilding. The party began to suspect that the individuals were not acting entirely on their own volition. On further inspection only Tobias was found to be free of such markings.   The party were sure that those responsible for taking Beaufort and committing the abhorrent crimes they had uncovered would be found in the large barn they had not yet searched. After Elmo scouted the outside of the barn and spotted two creatures approaching in the distance Em bravely opened the door enough to see inside. In the barn he could see four figures standing around a font in the centre of the room, the sound of weeping alerted him that Beaufort was indeed here. Observing for a few minutes the players realised that Beaufort was being held by a hooded figure while the other two were interrogating him on the whereabouts and research of a Professor Zilston. Rushing to Beaufort's aid the party attacked and were confronted by two Yuan-Ti Malisons, one with the head of a snake atop a human body the other with a human head and torso with a snakes tail instead of legs, and a Yuan-Ti Pureblood holding Beaufort. Their surprise attack caught the Yuan-Ti off guard and the players had great success initially, quickly dispatching the snake head malison and allowing Beaufort to break free of his captor. However Elmo timed his charge on the second Yuan-Ti poorly and was grappled by the beast's powerful tail. It was at this moment that the two figures they had seen approaching arrived, hastened by the sounds of battle, the Pureblood reinforcements made straight for their leader but a flurry of precise rapier strikes laid the Malison low and broke the moral of the remaining Purebloods. As their foes fled the party gave chase picking them off one by one. Upon inflicting a fatal wound on the final enemy Elmo pressed the fallen Pureblood to reveal his purpose, "Our quest will be completed, Oth will rise once more", were the final words he spoke before succumbing to his injuries.   Puzzled by this answer the players turned their attention to the contents of the barn, Em searched the bodies and found a ritual dagger with a curved blade carved with strange symbols, while he could detect no magic on this weapon it was certainly a rare item worth a high price to the right buyer. Elmo investigated the strange font in the centre of the barn, it was made of a smooth black stone with a basin in the top holding water, the object had no tool markings and appeared to be fused to the floor, Elmo knew this to be created by powerful magic and found small runes on the rim confirming this hypothesis. Snow searched the barn for discarded items and discovered a bag containing several items: A book written in an illegible code of various languages with "Property of Sinwor Zilston" on the inside cover, a short staff with the image of a snake with its mouth open wide, carved on the head, and a leather pouch containing 50 gold pieces. Meanwhile Beaufort had stopped cowering in a corner, dressed in just his nightgown he approached the party and thanked them for coming to his rescue.   On leaving the barn the group checked in on Marion, the elderly farm owner, and found her still in the farmhouse, confused and disoriented. When questioned by the party she explained that her last memory was of a group of travellers knocking on her door asking to take shelter in her outbuildings. She was mortified to learn that that event was at least two weeks prior and to hear the gruesome details that had happened since. Seeing Tobias laying on the floor she asked who he was and Beaufort explained that he remembered him as a fellow pupil at the Order of Mages and Protectionists in Waterdeep where they were both tutored by Professor Zilston, an academic with a keen mind for history, languages and runes. The Yuan-Ti had been searching for him and abducted Tobias and Beaufort to extract information on his travels and research. Hearing this Marion offered to care for Tobias until he regained his health, Elmo assured her that he would return two days hence and check in on them. The group then returned to the Welcome Wench hoping for a less eventful time than they had encountered recently.

Rewards Granted

670 XP for each PC