Session 26: Trouble in Ardev

General Summary

Departing the Airship

• With the combined effort and expertise of the Lyrandan and Crypt Crew, the Eye of the Storm was returned to a sufficiently operational state, and the rest of the journey was uneventful. The next day, the airship arrived in the small, simple town of Ardev, Breland.
• The party said their goodbyes to Tannoch and co, and met up with Bran, the town crier. He introduced them to the town, and told them about the problem they'd been having: the Lord's daughter, Alane, has been missing for five days.
• Bran escorted them through the town, describing each noteworthy place as they passed. They eventually made it to the Lord's Home, a slightly larger building than the rest of the town's humble homes. The Lord, Cadman Turi, was an older-looking man, with tired eyes, wrinkled gray skin, and leaned heavily on a cane.
• He was intrigued by N'nchyk, which was much different than the disgusted reaction he would usually get outside of Sharn. He admitted he himself was a hobbyist mycologist, as he needed a way to pass the time.
• He went right down to business, however, as he filled them in on the problem. His daughter, Alane, had been missing for the good part of the week, since she attended nightly mass, and wasn't seen afterwards. Lord Turi told the that if they helped, he could provide them with important information about traveling westward through the wilderness.

Learning Clues

• So, each of the party went right to work, learning what they could.
• Viribus went to the local tavern, the Running Toad, to learn what he could. He spoke with the smitten bartender, Corkitron Nimblefingers, and learned that a deadly sickness with symptoms akin to mad monkey fever had been spreading through the town, though this information was not exactly commonly known just yet. In addition, there had been unusual tremors throughout the town, ones that hadn't been felt before. Corkitron was seemingly very taken with Viribus, who spoke of his heroic exploits back in Sharn.
• N'nchyk, Verin, and Maleakos went to the town guard's outpost. Only one man was there: a tall, broad-shouldered man, with a multi-tool instead of his hand. He was not particularly taken to the visitors. According to him, Ardev was a town that had no need for guards, but seemed reluctant to tell them anything.
• Dooturr went shopping for a hand crossbow and cartographer's tools.
• Ashpin went to the local church. The people of Ardev worshipped Boldrei, the Sovereign of Hall and Hearth. There, he spoke with the pious Friar Douglas. He told Ashpin that Alane was the only one to attend his sermon the night she disappeared, along with the blacksmith. Additionally, he said that something felt amiss in the town. It wasn't something he could explain, but through his senses, something felt...unholy. Ashpin told him such a thing didn't sound strange, as he was a practitioner of divine magic himself, making his hands glow golden. The Friar was astonished, as he had never seen such magic before, if at all.
• The party then met back up to speak with the blacksmith, Merla Hogcollar. She was unhappy with the arrival of the Crew, and was immediately in denial that she knew or saw anything. But, with a very effective usage of good cop/fiend cop, she was frightened into telling them what she saw: a man, with missing flesh and no eyes, dragging Alane towards the river.

Falling Into the Tunnel

• The party went to inspect the river, with Dooturr finding a younger girl's shoe embedded in the side of the riverbank. He began to dig, and it was discovered that the riverbank on which they stood was rather unstable: it gave way, with Verin and N'nchyk falling several feet. There, they found a fresh, but large, tunnel, at least 15 feet in length.
• The group began to investigate, immediately finding piles of what looked like ash, but N'nchyk recognized it to be from some sort of flesh. The piles of ash were regularly placed in increments throughout the tunnel. They came across a piece of parchment, which seemed to be a contract of some kind. It was largely written in broken and messy Common, but they managed to decipher the following: "The members of the Sixth Platoon will engage in a formal brawl to the final death until only enough remain to claim enough of the prize."
• Traveling around the winding path, the Crypt Crew finally started to hear voices, accompanied by the crackling of a fire. After eavesdropping on a very important conversation, Dooturr wasn't quite quiet enough, and found himself in the mud, looking at several individuals, quite a few of which matched Merla's description.
• A fight broke out, with Ashpin, Balthaus, and Viribus quickly assuming the front lines, with Dooturr quickly darting to safety. Maleakos and Verin launched in damage and support from a safe distance, and Philip made sure everyone was kept alive. N'nchyk, as per usual, did pretty much all of the above. With each hero performing their best job, the fight was handled quickly, efficiently, and relatively painlessly.
• Their combatants were four zombies, but ones that carried a sentience in a manner quite like Dooturr. Additionally, there was a gray, lumpy ghoul, along with a warhorse's skeleton and a glowing blue incorporeal creature that fought with a fury. One of the zombies was kept alive, though he was rather stubborn, saying he would not sabotage his comrades' chance at life by giving them any information.
• The Crypt Crew saw no way through the collapsed tunnel ahead of them, but Dooturr did find a stone that had a smiley face embedded in it. So, they returned to the Lord's home, and updated Cadman.
• When they spoke with him, they noticed that he seemed to be affected by the black chain around his neck, whichw as connected to a solid black pendant. N'nchyk discovered using Detect Magic that it was extremely powerful magic, and Ashpin could register that it was some sort of evil magic. Lord Turi told them he'd remove it if he could, but that he could not; it was adhered to his skin.
• Though he was ashamed of it, Lord Turi revealed that it was some sort of family curse. Neither he nor anyone in his family could eat, drink, or sleep, though they felt the need to. The exhausted looking man, who looked older than Philip, was in fact only 43, which was long for a Turi. He said that he himself did not know the source or reason for this curse, but that there were rumors that his great-great-grandfather Peter had learned the information, but the information was quite literally buried with him.
• With this new information, the Crypt Crew set off for Boldrei's Hearth.

Date begun:
10 Olarune, 998 YK
Date ended:
11 Olarune, 998 YK
Party level:
6

Report Date

08 Jul 2021

Primary Location

Ardev, Breland