Session 04
General Summary
When we last left them the party had just landed back in Cauldron, had said goodbye to Sharpbeak
and his cousins and had rushed into the Church of St. Cuthbert and told Jenya the news about
High Priest Sarcem's death. They had used the Star of Justice to divine where they might next
search for clues about the missing wands and Harley had set off to the Tipped Tankard Tavern to
see abouts talking to the cook there.
As Harley set off for the Tipped Tankard the rest of the group headed back to the Drunken
Morkoth to get out of their adventuring gear and to clean up. As they walked in a blue robed very
smart looking man approached them and gave Morgan an invitation telling him that lord
Vhalantru had invited him to the Cusp of Sunrise club that night, and that he should "dress
appropriately". Morgan decided he needed to upgrade his wardrobe and so went out into town to
buy some new clothes and appropriate trinkets to match. The rest popped to the town hall to pay
some taxes and then settled down for an afternoon and evening in the Morkoth waiting on Harley
and Morgan to return.
Morgan arrived at the Cusp of Sunrise that evening, escorted across town by Gotrek who was
playing the bodyguard role. He knocked on the door and was greeted and invited in by a man
calling himself Renjin. This man welcomed Morgan to the establishment, apologised on behalf of
Lord Vhalantru who could not make it and told him that the Lord had left a sealed letter for
Morgan on the centre table of the Grand Library.
Morgan went in and looked around. The Cusp of Sunrise was an impressive place of four wings
built in the shape of a cross around a central domed chamber - the Grand Library. There was a
stable wing, a dueling wing, an appartments wing and an offices wing. As Morgan was looking
around he was offered wine and food by a blue robed servant and then was approached by a
beautiful lady who introduced herself as Lady Ophellha, the owner of the club. She took Morgan
by the arm and politely showed him the club. It was an altogether amazing place.
Returning to the centre table Morgan found the letter which had been left for him by Lord
Vhalantru. This letter said that as a member of the famous noble family of the Tercivals it was
important that Morgan be seen in the right places and to that end he was being given a gift of the
first year's membership of the Cusp by Vhalantru. He wasn't sure how much that was worth but
figured it was probably a very valuable gift. Morgan also played a quick game of "gem snatcher"
at one of the tables in the Cusp and was pleasantly surprised to win himself over 50 gold coins.
He returned to the Drunken Morkoth feeling like he had found a very pleasant place to spend his
down time...
Meanwhile Harley arrived at the Tipped Tankard. He wrangled a quick chat to Artus, the cook
there, and found him to be an agreeable chap. Artus, it turned out, knew Harley's cousin Fenby.
Harley then set out across the city and visited his cousin. He spoke to him about Artus, and Fenby
told him that he was a reliable man who knew lots and lots of stuff that was going on in the city.
He had connections with important people and he sold information but his price was high. Harley
decided he wanted to speak to him about the missing wands so he asked Fenby to set up a
meeting.
Harley returned to the pub and later that evening a street urchin came in and found Harley and
gave him a note asking him to go to the Lakeside Pavillion at midnight and bring 500 gold for
information about the wands. The group got together, paid 100 gold each to Harley and he set off
to meet the informant.
Of course it turned out to be Artus. Harley tried to barter him down from 500 gold and in the end
Artus said that he would give the information for 400 gold if Harley then owed the people he
worked for a favour. Harley agreed on the proviso that he could buy out of this situation for 200
gold. Artus agreed "for now". He then told Harley that he had entered the outer circle of the Last
Laugh Crime Syndicate. The people he worked for were powerful and would be calling on him
sometime to fullfill his bargain. Artus then told Harley what he knew about the wands. It turned
out to be a lot.
Triel Elderarst was an ex-city guard who had apparently gone mad and slaughtered a few of her
fellow guards about ten years ago. She had escaped capture and fled into the wilds. People
believed that she had probably died of her wounds out in the jungle. But instead she had joined a
cult called the Ebon Triad. Her and her fellow cultists were responsible for the theft of the wands
and they planned to ransom them back to the city when the floods got desperate.
The cultists were encamped in an old abandoned Kopru ruins deep under the city and Artus had a
hand drawn map with an X showing where a lava tube was located which lead to this ruins. That
was where the party must go to find Triel, the Ebon Triad cell, and the missing wands of control
water.
The next morning the party collected together and prepared to set out for the lava tube which lead
to the Kopru Ruins. But before they did so Camero visited Skie's treasury and bought himself a
little trinket - a bag from which he could conjure certain animals to do his bidding. Returning to
the inn he found Shensen waiting there for him. She said she had a present for the group from her
master in the Striders of Farlanghan and produced a pair of magical boots. These she said would
make the wearer fleet of foot. The group thanked her and Harley took the boots as they were
deemed most useful to him in combat.
Camero asked her if she would like to come to dinner with him sometime in the near future at the
Cusp of Sunrise and she said that she would love to but simply didn't have anything suitable to
wear at such a place. So Camero gave her 200 gold coins and told her to treat herself. She was
clearly impressed.
The group were now ready to set off to the lava tubes when suddenly in the middle of the common
room Harley fell over, apparently having a fit. The party quickly gathered their stuff, slung the
fitting Harley over Gotrek's shoulder and rushed off towards the Church of St. Cuthbert but before
they got there Harley's fit was over and he'd come around. He told them that he had seen a vision
of some sort, like an outer body experience. It was very strange. They took him to the Church and
to High Priest Jenya but she coudn't find anything wrong with him so they decided to worry about
it later and carried on heading out of the city and on to the lava tubes.
With Artus' map and a bit of searching around they were soon able to find the lava tube marked on
the map. It was 6 feet in diameter and headed into the mountain back towards Cauldron but down
at a fairly steep angle. The group set off down into it in single file, their way lit by a sunrod tucked
into Morgan's belt.
Ten minutes or so later the lava tube opened into a huge chamber lit with a glow from a massive
lake one hundred feet below which was covered with glowing green algae. On the far side was a
beach and a small building was built there. Beyond the beach was a series of structures, some with
doors entering them, which seemed to be built looking out onto the beach - except there were no
windows to be seen. Gotrek estimated they were somewhere about five hundred feet below the
west gate of the city by now.
Crossing this chasm was a pair of ropes, suspended from which was a rickety cage. A winch
system seemed to be set up from a building built into the wall up on the ledge where they were,
and the other building down on the beach on the far side of the cavern floor. Gotrek opened the
door to the building they were next to and two hillfolk guards jumped up from their table where
they were playing cards and drew swords as Magma Force piled in. Harley's new boots worked
wonders and within seconds he was in amoung them with his rapier. The two guards had little
more time than to draw swords when Harley had killed them both.
There was a winch mechanism in the guard room and it was clear that this controlled the cage and
let it be wound down to the building on the beach below. Therre was some concern over how
many people could safely fit into the cage before the strain on the ropes and the cage itself were
too much but the party decided that four would go in the cage and Gotrek would wind them down.
Then he would climb down the ropes to the beach after the rest. The four got in, Gotrek started
winding and immediately the ropes holding the cage snapped, plunging the cage and its four
inhabitants nearly 100 feet into the algaed waters!
Fortunately the algae was very thick and appeared to cushion the fall to a degree but also provided
a strange amount of helpful bouyancy. Unfortunately as the four landed in the water, Braken
spotted a lizard like creature laying on a beach across the lake from them. He recognised it as a
skulvyn, a demon from the depths of the abyss and worse than that the party's fall into the lake had
obviously woken it up! It slithered into the lake and disappeared under the slime out of slight. But
it was definitely heading in their direction.
The four in the water tried to grab bits of wreckage and the snapped ropes whilst Gotrek decided
the best thing he could do now was to start stripping off his armour. Within seconds the demon
was upon the swimmers, staying under the water and attacking the paladin using his 4 long razor
spiked tails to thrash him. It seemed to have singled out the paladin for a rough time.
Harley swam to the shore and grabbed the rope which Morgan was clinging on to whilst the
paladin simply tried to defend himself from the demon. Braken concentrated on healing the
paladin whilst Camero bided his time, waiting for the demon to rise from the depths to strike.
Each time it did he launched a volley of magic from his findgertips. Fortunately for the
companions Braken's healing, Morgan's resilience and Camero's magical might were enough to
make the demon think better of his choice and it soon turned and fled back to its beach. But
Camero's reach was long and he blasted the demon with more magic as it crawled out onto its
beach far away and the demon fell, dead.
By this stage Gotrek had lept off the cliff into the water as well and the five adventurers pulled
themselves up onto the beach and temporary safety. But who knows if their antics had alerted the
cultists?
Report Date
11 Apr 2024
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