Session 03
General Summary
Magma Force pulled open the door to the Lucky Monkey and Harley drove inside, pushing the
table propped in his way aside. His fellows took advantage of their moment of surprise and rushed
in alongside him. The hillfolk and city dwellers inside were clearly all drunk and took a while to
react. Before they really knew what had happened Magma Force had ripped through their numbers
leaving nearly a dozen bodies in their wake. A quick search of the bodies revealed that the city
dwellers all carried small symbols which Harley recognised as marking them as members of the
Alleybashers - a rival guild of cutthroats to the Last Laugh Crime Syndicate.
Continuing their search the party opened the door into the central courtyard, which appeared to
have avoided any serious damage. In fact, sitting in the branches of the trees in the courtyard were
a half dozen large apes which looked threatening. The party decided to avoid them and closed the
door. Moving on they found their way to the area of the kitchen. Inside they could hear the sounds
of more apes in the kitchen but decided to take a peak in to confirm. What they saw surprised and
shocked them.
There were indeed three ape like primates (baboons as it turned out) inside the kitchen. They were
sitting around on the floor doing what baboons do. Beside them was a big pile of organised coins
and general art objects, paintings, wine, sculptures and so on. Counting and appraising these was a
large humanoid creature, half-orc, half-baboon. It wore armour and had a huge falcion strapped
across its back. And next to this fearsome creature was a spike adorned with the head of Sarcem
the High Priest of St. Cuthbert!
It spotted Gotrek in the doorway and called out to its baboon companions in a beastial tongue. The
baboons though were slow to react and Magma Force, on their toes as usual, poured in through the
door. Gotrek rushed past the baboons, went into a huge fit of rage and struck the creature, whose
name was Tongueater, a huge blow with his waraxe. Morgan followed up but was less successful.
This enraged Tongueater who retaliated with his falcion, nearly cutting Gotrek down with a very
powerful blow of his sword. The others rushed in and battled the baboons as Gotrek and Morgan
struggled with Tongueater. Then Camero came into the room, flickering images of him showing
as his latest magic came into effect. He spotted Tongueater, beaten up and nearly dead and
muttered a word of magic as darts of force sprang from his fingertips to slay the evil baboon
creature.
Searching him the party found he had a magical backpack which seemed to hold as much stuff as
you cared to put into it without ever becoming full. He also carried a wierd unholy symbol made
of ebony and with the unholy symbols of Vecna, Hextor and Erythnul upon it. It looked evil but
they weren't sure what it portended.
They stuffed the piles of coins and art objects into it and Morgan put his own pack into it and then
slipped it on. There was no sign of any wands in the treasure pile. The group figured that perhaps
the High Priest had hidden them in the cellar somewhere before he was killed.
In the kitchen they also found a door leading to a staircase leading down into the cellar. They
entered in and descended to find five hillfolk and alleybashers regarding a corridor leading off,
talking in animated tones. Taking their chance the party charged in and slaughtered the bandits as
fast as possible. It was a quick fight. In the same room was the body of High Priest Sarcem, still
wearing his armour and carrying his holy mace. Morgan stripped his body of valuables, including
a ring and pendant with the symbols of St. Cuthbert on them and put them on.
They then looked down the corridor where the bandits had been looking. At the end of the corridor
was an iron bound woooden door which was warped and almost bursting at the seams. It was also
covered with frost and upon closer inspection had the bodies of three bandits.
They quickly searched the other rooms in the cellar, discovering some storage rooms. Then
Morgan approached the last door, the ice bound one, and knocked loudly on it. He announced who
he was. Unexpectedly, from the far side came a soft, timid voice, asking for more information
about who was there. It turned out this was Shensen Tesseril, the half-drow who tended the Shrine
of Farlanghan in the inn. She told them the door was covered with brown mold and that it would
be lethal to bring fire to the doorway. Fortunately there was enough light to see with torches held
far away. Shensen got back and Gotrek smashed open the door. A wave of cold hit him and almost
knocked him out so powerful was it. But he was able to get the door open. Camero braved the cold
and rushed into the room and Shensen ran out and gave him a big hug. Braken came in and healed
the drow lass up as she was badly hurt. She explained that when Sarcem was making his last stand
in the basement she realised he was about to die and she had but seconds to live. So she ran down
here, grabbed the box of brown mold they used to keep meat cool and threw it at the door, then
used the last of her magic to warp the door shut.
When asked about the wands, Shensen said that the raid had been lead by a beautiful red haired
lady with facial tatooes who wore spiked platemail and wielded a wicked looking flail. She carried
an unholy symbol of Hextor. She had killed High Priest Sarcem and when Shensen was hiding she
heard her then command her cohort Tongueater to finish off the fight, kill all survivors and grab
all the loot. The woman had said she was taking the wands back to their base and had left. Herley
recognised the description of the woman and said it sounded like Triel Elderhurst, a notorious
criminal who had been a city guard ten years ago but had murdered some of her fellow guardsmen
and then fled the city. She had never been caught.
They took Shensen outside but due to the huge rains she was only able to tell that there were some
hoof prints leading away up the road towards Cauldron but she couldn't follow them for long.
Shensen told them that she had to get back to her master, head of the local cell of the Striders of
Farlanghan, who was based in the Drunken Morkoth in the city. She had to report on what had
happened here. They told her that they would be flying back at first light and then explained about
the deal that they had set up with Sharpbeak and his family. Clearly impressed, Shensen was
happy to spend the night at the inn and go back in the morning. The party barricaded themselves
in to the inn and waited out the night.
Dawn saw five giant eagles swooping out of the rain clouds and landing outside the inn.
Sharpbeak landed first and spoke to Morgan. Morgan asked if they could bring an extra person
back and Sharpbeak agreed. Morgan also asked if Sharpbeak had seen a woman riding up the
road. He described her and the eagle said that he had spotted this woman riding up the road last
night when they were bringing the companions to the inn, but he didn't know she was important
then so didn't mention her.
The party flew back to Cauldron on eagle-back and swooped in over the city walls, circling the
city in the rain. Crowds flocked onto the streets to see them come in and followed to where they
landed in front of the Church of St. Cuthbert. As the party dismounted, Sharpbeak bowed to
Morgan and told him that his father, Swiftwing, had served Morgan's grandfather before him and
that it would be a great honour if Sharpbeak could continue the tradition and serve the paladin. All
he needed do was call his name and Sharpbeak would come to his aid. Morgan was amazed and
humbled and thanked Sharpbeak hugely. The giant eagle also said that if his companions needed
to travel anywhere quickly outside of the city Morgan need only ask Sharpbeak and he would
summon his family to their aid. The party stood in stunned silence as the eagles bowed deeply and
took off into the torential rains and disappeared into the grey clouds overhead.
Morgan rushed into the Church of St. Cuthbert and the others followed quickly. They found Jenya
and told her the news about Sarcem's death. Dismayed for a moment her eyes soon steeled with
resolve. She was now no longer the acting High Priestess of St. Cuthbert. She was the real thing.
She thanked the party for their work and told them she would send some acolytes out to recover
Sarcem's body from the inn. She said their number one priority now was the wands - which would
be needed soon as the waters of the lake continued to rise each hour. She offered the party the use
of the Star of Justice and its once-a-week power of Divination. They phrased a suitable question
about how they might find the wands and Jenya asked it of the holy mace. Its answer: "Cocked
Cup cook." Figuring out that the Cocked Cup could be the Tipped Tankard Tavern, the group
decided to send Harley off to do some snooping.
They showed Jenya the unholy symbol that was found on Tongueater and she said it was a small
and very evil cult called the Ebon Triad. This cult comprised worshippers of Vecna, Hextor and
Erythnul who were determined to see their three gods merged into one supreme Overdeity of
unsurpassed evil.
Morgan, Gotrek, Camero and Braken went off and sold their art objects at Tygot's Old Things, and
got some more potions identified at Weer's Elixirs. Whilst there they discovered that the missing
wands were each worth about 20,000 gold, so they could see a very good reason for someone to
want to capture them - 160,000 gold reasons in fact. But given the nature of those involved, the
Ebon Triad by the looks of things, perhaps the reason was more than just financial?
Harley meanwhile headed off to the Tipped Tankard for a beer...
Report Date
11 Apr 2024
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