Session 2 - Bedside Manner

General Summary

6 Desnus (May) 4725 After patching themselves up, the heroes continued to the second floor of the Green Dagger's hideout. Green Leaf narrowly avoided a collapsing stair trap but led the others safely up the stairway. Feirnar managed to stop a swarm of spiders from escaping their private quarters, and Green Leaf took a quick glance in a second room. However, Tike Myson knocked down a door that housed four members of the Green Daggers. They were all very sick and appeared to be close to death. They were frail, eyes swollen shut, and Tike surmised they had all fallen sick to Blinding Sickness. One of the Green Daggers weakly explained that they had been given a cure hours ago but weren't feeling any better. Cal took one of the vials of the cure and gave it to Green Leaf to examine. It was flavoured water. There was nothing magical or curative to it. The heroes passed through a room filled with curtained walls. Green Leaf was stabbed in the back and nearly killed by a female halfling. Tike picked him up so the halfling couldn't reach him, and Alfie Budd applied healing magic to save his life. Feirnar was then attacked by two halflings, twins, and while he impaled one with his spear, Tike finished the second. Vaz'non joined the others in carefully searching the room for any further assassins. A few twists and turns later, the heroes kicked down another door. This time, they were met with an oil-soaked floor and an elf using the mage hand spell to hold a candle over the oil. His name was Cyranthas, and he was the leader of the Green Daggers. He accused the heroes of being assassins sent from another gang. They convinced him it was not the case and asked about the key. Cyranthas explained that his men had started feeling sick weeks ago. Recently, a man claiming to be a priest of Pharasma came to him with a business proposal - steal a certain key from Theldrat, the locksmith, and he would cure the illness that was killing the Green Daggers. With so few people at his disposal, Cyranthas asked his friend Irontusk to get the key. He returned early this morning with it, and the cleric arrived shortly after. Cyranthas gave him the key, and the cleric gave him several potions with the cure. The cleric left, as did Irontusk. His men never got better, and now Cyranthas is left with nothing. The heroes left the hideout and returned to the Stone Chalice. Alfie went to the blacksmith, retrieved his horse, and returned to his family's farm outside town. The others made their way to the Church of Pharasma to find out if there was some connection between them and the key. The church was locked down while deputies checked for clues about a book's theft the night before. Father Harmanas finally came outside to speak to them. He told them that one of the acolytes had seen someone dressed as a priest of Phrasman walking through the church and heading to the back offices. He soon returned, carrying a book in his arms, and disappeared. The description of the thief was the same as the one Cyranthas had given, indicating they were probably one and the same. Father Harmanas then told them that he had been attacked a month earlier on returning to the church. His priest robe and holy symbol had been stolen. He reported it to Sheriff Wilhelm Clemence but the sheriff did not seem interested. The stolen book was a great curiosity. It was a very old, bound and locked book that defied all attempts to open it. The book had been on a shelf in the church longer than Father Harmanas, or even Father Emeron Sullus, had been in Ravengro. No one knew its origin or its contents. Before they left, Father Harmanas gave them a stone pendant that he had managed to snatch off the person who had robbed him. It was a stone pendant, a "cairn charm," made of blood-red marble shaped like a clenched fist squeezing a drop of blood. On the back of the pendant was a series of small irregular bumps. A cairn charm often hung inside the tombs in the Cairn Hills nearby to ward off evil spirits. Each of these pendants was unique to specific cairns. The trick now was to find out which cairn this charm belonged to. With pieces falling into place, the heroes returned to speak with Theldrat, the locksmith. Theldrat confessed that the stolen key had been in his family for generations, as he had said before. What he failed to mention was that the key was able to open any lock. He feared it falling into the wrong hands, which it now had. The heroes weighed their options. They could go to the Governor-Mayor, Leonard Clancy, and ask to see the records of the recorded cairns in the surrounding area. Or they could visit the mayor's brother, Alistair Clancy, mage and self-professed "smartest man in town" to see if he might now. They felt it would be the most expeditious choice to visit Alistair.

Rewards Granted

Selling the following to Thrain Stoneforge the blacksmith:

Three rapiers
Ten daggers
Two light crossbows
One masterwork rapier
One masterwork longsword

The smith normally would have purchased it for less, but because Ragnolin Dourstone left instruction to purchase decent quality weapons for his mine's security detail, the total price was 385 gp.

Campaign

Age of Worms

Protagonists