Session VIII - 21.05.2020
General Summary
After the fight in the Vanthampur estate, the group realizes that Mert got killed. Soran runs off: The death of a child apparently triggered something in him.
Athanatos feels a glowing sensation coming from Mert's necklace and he retrieves this (it is made from the same material as Athanatos' blade).
The group searches Thurstwell's room (Thurstwell being gagged). They find some necromancy books and a large chest which contains clothes, but more importantly a magical cube that is also made from the same material as Athanatos' blades (it appears to be a puzzle - Thurstwell claims that his mother gave it to him for "training". She got it from a visitor, maybe referring to Thavius Kreeg) as well as book called "Apocalypto" and a Potion.
Now the group interrogates Thurstwell who blames his mother for all of the events concerning the cult. He mentions that Thalamra is currently in an underground complex. Barakas probes Thurstwell's mind and finds that there are two prisoners being kept in the high tower of the estate as well as a passage going from the kitchen to the mentioned underground complex.
The group decides to first rescue the two prisoners. They find a hung-over dwarven shapeshifting druid called Darrak as well as Darius, a Scourge Aasimar Divine Soul of The Morninglord Lathander. While freeing the prisoners, two gargoyles awaken (which guarded the ladder going upstairs to the tower). The group fights the gargoyles and manages to destroy them. Darrak and Darius join the group after the loss of Mert and Soran.
The group now investigates Thalamra's room. They find cosmetics, some alcohol (which Darrak takes), and two health potions. There is also a massive locked chest which the group manages to open (thereby almost incinerating the whole room). They find quite some money (22 platinum pieces, 85 gold pieces), calligrapher's supplies (Barakas takes those) and bagpipes. Barakas investigates those and finds out that they are magical and can be used to summon a swarm of rats. However, noone in the group is proficient with these types of instruments, so for now the group stores those in their bagpacks. Also in the room, the group finds a ledger which contains text written in Infernal. Barakas reads those briefly and finds that the notes mostly describe business transactions made by Thalamra. However, one important note concerns "Reinforcements that will be brought in by an ancient dwarven portal which is currently being refurbished by rock gnomes". This operation is supervised by someone called Gurthog.
While discussing what to do next the group sees that several groups of Flamings Fist guards are outside of the estate. However, they seem to fear entering the estate. Nevertheless, this means that the group cannot exit the estate via the way they entered it.
Suddenly, they hear noises come from downstairs. They see two cultists of some sort (humans, wearing devilish masks that were at that moment not covering their face). They apparently signal a third cultist that he should tell "the lady". The group manages to intimidate the two cultists and they run away, leaving their masks behind. The group follows the putative third cultist and manages to capture him right before the entrance to the underground complex. Before the group can fully interrogate the cultist (name Marcus), he bites on some sort of poison tooth and dies a horrible death. Nevertheless, the group learns that the underground complex is holding around ten cultists and some "beasts" (devils?) which attack everyone who is not wearing a cultist mask (the group decides to use the three masks that they now retrieved from the cultists to cover themselves). "The Lady" (apparently Thalamra) currently resides in the complex and there is a vault where only Thalamra can gain access to. Lastly, there was a new person joining the cult ("short guy", maybe Thavius?) some weeks ago.
The group now must decide if they want to enter to underground complex or how to resolve the situation in the Vanthampur estate.
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