Sessions 8, 9

Expedition

The party has dinner with Hoag again, then splits up. Half the party takes a Crypt Thorn addicted Halfling to rehab, the other "scouts" the location for the ambush. Salvestro gets trapped in a room with a zombie, Kellen breaks a window, and Pyren alerts the guards. They decide to do training to work better as a team, but this gets derailed when the halfling turns up dead on the docks.

The party attends dinner with Carm Hoag to meet his son, turns out he isn't nearly as bad as his father. There is no indication that anyone in the Hoag family is involved. The party then splits up, half of them attending to the halfling that was addicted to Crypt Thorn and the other half go to scout out the location that the victims pick up the drug. Slade and Ford Brewmaster stay with the halfling, Webber Cross briefly attends but then leaves. The withdraw is not pretty.   The rest of the party, Salvestro, Kellen, and Pyren, go to scout out the place where they were supposed to meet the cleric who is dealing the drugs. Sal sends in his rat to check on the inside. The rat reports that there is something dead in there and then the dead thing tried to hit him. Sal turns into a rat and investigates. He finds a zombie, but he cannot get back out under the doors. Kell sees that he is in trouble and breaks the window to free him, awakening the zombie. Pyren gets the guards.   The next day Webber is highly upset that all plans for an ambush are ruined and proceeds to yell at everyone involved. This does not go over well. They investigate the house and find evidence of some sort of squid-cult, but not enough to determine what it may be. They discuss that the halfling is still a good back up because he knows what the cleric looks like. The party goes back to pick him up only to discover that he has been checked out by his "brother." They search for him but are unable to find any signs of him. During the investigation they find a warehouse being used by the cult. They find a coin with the same insignia that was drawn on the floor of the cleric's drug house. They also find some of the buckets that had been stolen from the fishmonger's house. Slade's god confirms that the squid-god-cult thing is what he is trying to prevent from breaking free.   Ultimately, they are unable to find the cleric and discuss among each other that they need some sort of training to improve how well they work together. They make plans to meet up and train together the next morning. Before then, some of the party investigates Vanryell's parent's house. They were worried about prowlers who seem to have stolen some nasty old netting. They investigate and find another coin from the squid-cult. Van's parents are packed up and sent to stay with Van for a few days until everything gets sorted out.   That night Slade has the best nights sleep he has had in his short life and wakes up feeling energized and refreshed. In his dream he met with his god, who was interrupted by a lightning flash and a voice booming "A life willingly given." He goes downstairs and everyone (except Sal) discuss the training plans. They go down to the docks where training is halted upon the discovery of the dead halfling. He is soaked in sea water and has a dagger plunged into his heart, his own hand clutching the handle. As they roll him over to get a better look, another cult coin falls from his mouth.   NPCs: Drug Dealer, Victoria the Gnome hooker, shady neighbors, Van's parents, City Guards Locations: Cult Warehouse, the docks