Session 4: The Devil's Trill Sonata

General Summary

The Heroes
Emet-Selch {Vedalken Artificer}
Eralyse Sarrallon {Aasimar Paladin}
Jon Mastiff {Human Wizard}
Mala {Aarakocra Monk}
Mellow Leaf {Tabaxi Ranger}

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After witnessing the end of the salt rainstorm the group was met with a large bird. The bird landed before the group and morphed into an elf. He bowed saying
"The silvershade druids thank you for your service. Unfortunately, as I'm sure you're aware this is only a temporary measure. Whatever is behind the storm must be stopped. The forces behind it lie beyond your kingdom's borders. While what you have done is a service for good, it is not enough on it's own for everyone that it matters to. In the mean time Zewyn gave me this package to deliver you and appoligizes that she's not able to meet with you in person. She did ask that you relay to me whatever information it is that you wanted to pass on to her. "
The group thanked the elf and asked them to pass along a message to the halfling in town to let him know what happened. The elf gave his thanks and revealed that he was the halfling they met in town. The letter from Zewyn stated the following:
"I've established a new safehouse to work out of while I… deal with things. Hopefully the silvershade druids have provided you with additional insight on the weather. I have a lead on Zadkiel, that I hope will prove useful. I felt it best to provide you with the exact vision in order to minimize error via interpretation. Make sure everyone is present when you decide to witness the vision."
Enclosed with the message is a tube containing a glowing strand within it. And a scroll with the spell detect thoughts enscribed upon it.
Jon recognized that the strand was from an Encode Thoughts spell and correctly predicted spell on the scroll.
The group asked from the druid to "witness" the vision so that he could give his opinion. He agreed, though he had no idea who this Zadkiel person was.
when the detect thoughts spell was cast upon the thread the casing triggered a mindlink effect across the entire group allowing everyone to experience the memory simultaneously. The following visions flashed upon the group:

1. "You see Zadkiel inside the mirror building in Bromwhich, but it is dark with the only light being provided by a druegar holding a torch. The corpse of a creatre lies nearby. It is wearing robes identical to Zadkiel's robes and has simliar facial features, but it's skin is black, it has white hair and pointed ears. Zadkiel kneels over an open panel in front of the mirror and removes a scorched crystal from it. He shakes his head and says. 'It's a shame that it's broken, it would of been interesting to see where it went.' Zadkiel looks up at the mirror where a hill dwarf stands on the other side pounding on the glass in vain. Zadkiel smiles and says 'goodbye my friend, I'm afraid your duplicate is the more useful version'. He then smashes the crystal on the ground and the dwarf vanishes from the mirror."
2. "Next you see Zadkiel walking through a camp of some sort. He walks past a beer wagon with words written on it that say "Cascade Craft Ales of Stonehorn". He then steps into a brightly colored red and white stripped tent. Inside of it a catfolk wearing white face paint juggles a set of colored balls while a half-elf throws knives at a target. Zadkiel approaches a cage and smiles broadly at what's inside. A naked scaled woman is inside. Her bottom half is that of a snake and she hisses moves with incredible speed at him, slamming into the bars. Zadkiel whispers to her 'not yet my dear, not until I make a few more....replacements". The woman seems to relax at these words settling back down on a mound of hay inside of her cage"
3. "Suddenly the room is plunged into darkness with only Zadkiel being illuminated. He cackles as mirrors swirl around him each one revealing his image with progressively more snake like features. Until they are completely lost beneath scales. His images then begin running out of the mirrors in every direction bringing Zadkiel trinkets and gold. Soon a chair made completely out of humanoid skulls is brought up behind him. A red and gold fur lined cloak is placed upon his shoulders and a golden crown is placed upon his head as he sits down. A forked tongue flickers in and out of his mouth before he suddenly looks up directly at you and says 'It's too late my dear Zewyn, You've failed and I've won. He then throws back his head and laughs madly as a shadow looms over him and everything goes dark"

The druid was not able to provide much insight into the vision. Aside from being able to give directions to the nearby town of Stonehorn. Mellow Leaf, after throughly considering the visions, was convinced that the visions are in chronological order with the 1st one relating to the past, the second one to the present and the third one to the future. Acting on this informatoin the group headed out toward Stonehorn. The druid bid them farewell and stepped into a tree.
As the group was following the road to Stonehorn a very large bear wandered into the road ahead. It turned and looked at the group, with a half human face half bear face. It screamed in rage and charged at the group. The bear was a fierce combatant, nearly killing several people before being wounded enough that Emet was able to scare it away. Before it ran though Mala was able to snatch an extremely valuable earring off of the bearman thing.
The goup found a safe place to rest before heading on to the town of Stonehorn. The farming town seemed to have a somber mood. A small board was set up near the enterance to the town. On it were several papers asking if anyone has seen various missing persons. All of the posters looked recent. A guard standing nearby shook his head as he noticed the group looking at it.
"It's that damn grey devil, everyone knows it, just no one is brave enough to confront it"
Asking around the group found that everyone abucted was taken while foraging in the nearby forest. The grey devil is a creature of local folklore. According to those they talked to It stands 9 feet tall, has a pair of curved horns and is covered in grey fur. It's known to normally steal the occasional live stock but now thanks to the supernatural rain its begun taking people.
The group confirmed that a circus had passed through the town recently and that one of it's exibits was a very large dancing bear. None of them recalled seeing someone matching Zadkiel's descripton. The local brewery had a delivery that was late in returning.
The group decided that wether or not the grey devil was responsible for the kidnappings locating the creature would be beneficial. After searching in the woods they found the Grey Devil's puppet, which matched the description given to them by the villagers. The true grey devil was an even larger grey furred creature that controlled the puppet. The group talked with the creature and convinced it that they only wanted to help the villagers and that they had no hostile intent towards it if it was not responsible for the kidnappings. The grey furred creature raised its hands in submission and then spoke in common.
"I'm sorry I did not trust you. The small folk often blame me for their troubles. I have seen the little snakes take people from the village. I can show you the place they lay in ambush. I know not where they take them, as I could not follow them without drawing their attention. But perhaps you could do so. I can provide you with one of my puppets to use as bait. Though the magic that animates it will fade in 24 hours."
The creature also allowed each person to claim an item from his collection which consisted of magical weapons and armor of various designs. The group told the grey devil about the mutant bear running around and where it had last been seen so that he could remove the threat to the village. After each character claimed an item from the collection as well as a life sized magically animated female tabaxi puppet, the group was lead to the location where people were being kidnapped.
They came to a small clearing as indicated by the Grey Devil. In the clearing was a woman dressed in simple clothing calmly sitting on the ground with her foot caught in a bear trap. The grey devil pointed out positions in the trees where 5 snake like creatures were hiding. The group decided to use the puppet as bait and allow it to get "kidnapped" by the snake people and then follow them back to where ever they were taking people. The group moved like shadows and went completely undetected by the snake people.
The group found the camp that the creatures were brining their captives to. They saw a low circular building, surrounded by wooden cages. Several townsfolk sat in the cages. While snake like creatures patrolled the area. The group determined they could either mount a frontal assualt or they could try to sneak into the building. The group opted to sneak inside and after some tense moments.
Inside of the building the group saw a low wooden pool that has two cages suspended above it. One cage contained a viper nest with about a dozen or so of the creatures. The other cage was a narrow gibbon large enough to hold only a single medium sized creature. A wench on either end of the pool allowed for the raising and lowering of the cages into the pool which contained a strange blue liquid. Between the gropu and the pool stood a massive snakeman it screamed in rage and the walls begin to writhe as snakes seemed to slither out of seemingly no where.

Rewards Granted

• An extremely valuable earring
• 5x +1 Magical Weapon / Armor
• 1 very lifelike Tabaxi "puppet"
• The Grey Devil's Friendship

Missions/Quests Completed

The Wild Dance

• Meet the Dancing Bear
• Convince it to stop Dancing

The Stonehorn Kidnappings

• Learn about the kidnappings
• Determine the identy of the kidnapper
• Discover the fate of the kidnapped villagers

The Grey Terror

• Find the Grey Devil's Lair
• Neogotiate with / kill the Grey Devil
• Claim the Devil's tools for yourself
• "Rescue" the tabaxi captive

Character(s) interacted with

• 1 Bear doing the Unsafety Dance
• 1 insightful investigative government worker
• Many concerned farmers / business operators
• The Grey Devil himself
• 1 distressed damsel and her 5 concerned compatriots
• Many fork tongued guardsmen and their fork tongued "dog"
• I very large upset craftsman and his pets

Notes

The Devil's Trill Sonata

Report Date

14 Oct 2021