Bloodlines and Secrets

General Summary

Oh... such a brave, bold warrior you pretend to be. Let's find out what hidden fears pry at your mind in the dead of night, shall we?
— Scourge to Aelfric

Morning sunlight peeks through the cloud cover that's been hanging overhead for the last several days. Becklinberg is dead. The smell of burning buildings extinguished by the evening's rain lingers heavy in the morning air. The town square is host to the already liquifying remains of the defeated Frog God; its ruddy bile-colored runoff trickles through the old streets and pools between the cobblestone fragments. Beorna stands vigil during the night and into the early morning hours while her compatriots get their needed rest.

Cordelia and McKenna are returning from their excursion in the outskirts of Becklinberg where they both completed their pact with Tryxanna, becoming her warlocks. It's on this early morning walk that McKenna reveals her ancestry to Cord, that she and Heinreich Klamp know each other and that her father is Temax Moondall. Temax, Lutin Laplin and Klamp all used to adventure together and McKenna along with her brother traveled with them. Once they arrive back with the others McKenna asks them if they're willing to come with her and retrieve her brother Riken from the hay wagon she left him in so he could sleep off his booze. She explains that Riken used to be something of an alchemist and used Manacite elixirs to grant him access to arcane abilities. He's even the one who designed the manacite injections that Klamp used. However, he began mixing manacite into his alcohol and quickly descended into a drunk. A very well trained brawler with unnatural abilities thanks to his constant infusions of manacite, but a drunk none the less. They agree and begin off together to where she left him.

When they arrive at the location where the hay wagon was all they find are wheel tracks in the mud. The wagon is gone. They begin off in the direction the wagon went hoping to find McKenna's brother. While following these tracks though Caellana finds a set of footprints that seems to be following the wagon. These large cloven hoofed tracks match with those belonging to the beast that the Frostmerites fought before arriving in Becklinberg, the Catoblepas. These prints look larger though and suggest another of those creatures is near by and perhaps hunting them. Aelfric, Caellana and half a dozen Frostmerites break off to track down the Catoblepas while the others continue following the wagon.

Meanwhile, Riken Moondall wakes from his stupor to find himself deep in a pile of warm hay and his chest covered in the sweet, stickey, and seed-filled orange drool of McKenna's Jack-o-Lantern pet, Wretch. The little plant creature is asleep next to him, bubbling out pumpkin filled vomit from its mouth as it sleeps beside Riken. Before he has a chance to wipe it away he hears voices outside the wagon and smells a savory meal as well as a camp fire. Poking his head out he can see the last of the Frog God's cult frantically trying to plan their next move while one of them cooks a stew over the campfire. They have several wagons, including the one he fell asleep in. Most are filled with supplies and valuables hastily scavenged from Becklinberg as they fled and Riken's wagon carrying feed for their horses.

Riken hops out of the wagon and introduces himself and also asks for a helping of the stew. The remaining cultists are quickly startled and immediately draw their weapons, demanding to know who he is and that he surrender to them. Wretch wakes up as well and crawls on top of the wagon ledge to announce itself with its trademark series of gurgling gibbers. The cultists panic and rush toward both Riken and Wretch trying to subdue them. Riken's drunken style of fighting deflects their attacks long enough for him and Wretch to jump onto to wagon and make a getaway. However, Riken soon realizes he's going the wrong way and turns the wagon back toward their camp so he could head in the direction of Becklinberg but his erratic maneuvering of the wagon causes it to tip over and break apart in the campfire. He tumbles out and into the middle of the confused cultists ready to fight, again.

Aelfric and company follow the tracks which eventually lead to a waist-deep slurry of mud, flood waters and tangled growth. It's there that they spot a Catoblepas calfling. Even as a youth this creature is still as large as a horse. Caellana carefully approaches it while the others hold back. She uses her connection with nature to speak with the calf and finds out that it's here with its father and that they're looking for the strange animals that killed his mother and invaded their territory a little over a day ago. Caellana matches up what the calf is saying to Aelfric's encounter with a Catoblepas before arriving in Becklinberg. While reasoning with it she also notices a massive bulge in the muck rising up and moving toward Aelfric's position. All of the Frostmerites are unware of the oncoming danger, too transfixed by the potential battle to come with the calf and their hatred for these creatures.

The mud erupts throwing all of them to their backs and the male Catoblepas attacks with terrible fury. This creature, easily the size of a northern mammoth tramples and gores while swinging with its club-like tail. One Frostmerite is battered nearly to death while another falls victim to the mindshattering gaze of the beast. Berenger is next to fall victim, his mind nearly breaking under the weight of the creature's stare while another Frostmerite perishes to it as well. Caellana rushes to halt the battle and seems to speak with the creature, something Aelfric is hesitatant to trust. She tells the male Catoblepas that all of this was a mistake and that the death of its mate is a tragedy but this course of action will only result in more deaths, possibly even his calf's. Begrudgingly the male and his calf retreat and Aelfric decides to trust in Caellana's course of action.

Back at the cultists' camp Riken swats away the attacks of several of them, even managing to snatch arrows out of the air and hurl them back with deadly accuracy. Just as he and Wretch are surrounded by the remaining cultists Cordelia, McKenna and Grigor arrive on scene. Cordelia uses some of her newly gifted warlock talents to convince the cult that their former oracle, Klamp, is nearby and that he wants them to surrender and be on their way. When Cord arrives on scene she explains that's Klamp's servant and that they should be on their way. The cultists surrender, confused but obedient, and head off into the woods. They do tell Cord that they reached out to some of their contacts in the Black Thorn Society hoping to sell to them the valuables they took and that they're on their way. Cord suggests leaving right away but the others want to find the horses that ran off during the fight and hitch them to the treasure wagons so they can take the loot for themselves. Aelfric and his team eventually show up as well and he cracks open the barrels of Ackley Ale that are among the treasures and celebrates with his men. He, Grigor and the Frostmerites quickly go through four barrels while the others go looking for the horses. Cord begins searching out the Black Thorn contacts while Berenger rests in the hay wagon. McKenna catches up with Riken and is rather eager to tell him about the pact she made with a demon last night.

"That doesn't seem great. "
"Hey! You know what else doesn't seem great? Your brother passing out in a wagon and needing to get rescued. "
— [Riken to his sister McKenna)

While the Frostmerites drink, celebrating their fallen friends, the victory over the Frog God and the journey yet to come they're interuppted by the sound of feint rattle. They all silence themselves and look toward the woods as a beggar in heavy coat and wide-brimed hat emerges. The shadows cast by the trees and his coverings make it impossible to identify. He jingles a small tin cup with a few coppers in it and quietly whispers for their charity. Aelfric, the most sober of the bunch, hops from the wagon and approaches cautiously asking for the man to identify himself.

Caellana, Beorna, McKenna and Riken seek out the horses and soon find them at the edge of a muddy bog. Caellana speaks to the simple creatures and though they have little in the way of intelligence they're able to convey the oppressive levels of dread that clog their minds and hearts. While Beorna goes to gather the horses a wet, warm, drip strikes her face from high above. In the trees are the cultists, their bodies gutted and impaled into the branches, the flesh on their backs flayed out like crimson bird wings and pinned to the wood. Each of them stares down at the ground with a mangled face and hollow eye sockets. They take the horses and rush back to camp as quickly as they can.

Aelfric peers through the darkness of the shadows around the beggar and beneath the brim of his hat he seems something... monstrous. A burlap face with tattered gashes for eyes and a wicked grin. These deep empty pits ignight with flickering green fire while the beggar's body straightens to full height. Its arms unfurel into a set of four deadly limbs holding two lengths of chain, each ending in a sickly, bloodstained hook. A nightmarish scarecrow now stands before them. Aelfric swings at the thing quickly but it catches his blow with one of its many limps and breathes greenish fumes into the Frostmerite's face. His heart begins to race, sweat beats down his brow. The world around him quivers as an abominable anxiety takes hold of him. Every part of Aelfric's mind is mired in fear toward this thing. From the trees above other figures begin to fall, scarecrow things as well. Smaller, covered in rags and with heads made of the skulls of tengu much like the tengu mask Cordelia wears. From her position in the woods Cordelia can see Scourge carving his way through her allies demanding Klamp and Moondall. It says it can smell Moondall close by and that it heard Klamp's voice. She realizes it must be smelling Temax Moondall's children and that it mistook her mimicking magic for actually being Klamp earlier.

Cordelia emerges from her hiding spot and tried to reason with Scourge. She seems to know it and remind the construct of some kind of bargain they had. Scourge reveals that Klamp escaped the spot Cord tied him too and that the other wizard, Temax Moondall, was close by as well. She tells him that's simply not true, that Moondall is dead and she's just as disappointed to hear about Klamp getting away. But, she has his spell book and offers it to Scourge. During their conversation the others hear that she was involved in the disappearance of Lutin Laplin and knew he was murdered by this creature. Scourge takes the book before dashing into the forest with the rest of his scarecrows. The party is left to wonder what it is that Cordelia bargained with while the Moondalls request to travel with the party at least as far as @Frial now that they know something dreadful is picking up on their scent.

Rewards Granted

one suit of Scale Mail, suit of Padded Leather, shield, box of javelins (6), Sling, Glaive, silvered Maul, 4 throwing daggers, vial of acid, bag of caltrops, four barrels of Ackley Ale's New Empire Beer, Diplomat's pack, Cloak of the Manta Ray, Drift Globe, Moontouched Longsword+1, 5 oils of slipperiness, 1 potion of growth, 1 potion of greater healing 4D4+4, 1 restorative ointment, Scroll of Counterspell, Scroll of Speak with Dead, Scroll of Banishment, Scroll of Legend Lore, 2 candles of the deep, Glassblowers tools, Holy Symbol to the goddess Jedha, 3 cards with 3 rolls, 60 gold, 90 silver, 445 copper, 4 pieces of azurite worth 10GP each, Sardonyx piece worth 50, Piece of Jet worth 100GP, 3 pieces of manacite,