Lost Lore 19: The Devouring of Becklinburg
General Summary
For the past three days, the Grand Order of the Lion have perpetually shifted our meeting forward due to the Downpour of peoples escaping the Rat King's furry grasp. I had been working on my next magic item to relax in the meantime and Bianca had talked Charity and I into attempting a portal test run after having worked long and hard to repair it over the long weeks and days and nights. I was uncertain of what could possibly go wrong with opening a portal to the moon, but she swore up and down that she'd done it before, I wasn't going to stand there and poo-poo her dreams now.
We discussed our plans briefly and then attempted to make our way over to The Prophet's house in a stealthy manner, considering the town discarded most of its debris and carcasses littered about the street. The tavern's doors opened and four townsfolk who must have heard us emerged and started charging directly for us. As they got closer, the one bounding out front was yelling "Back in the Cage! Back in the Cage!", I stood out front to protect the other two while Servos continue to hover above. Ospher drew his Wand of Web and caught up three of them. I advanced to stab the front 'burger, and dealt him a serious blow and his return swing with his large bone club connected with my shoulder, buying one of his companions time enough to free themself. Servos swooped in to attack that freshly freed person with it's metal claws before swooping back out. Janka's Dissonant Whispers drove the man I attacked to his knees wailing and rigid with pain. I then advanced to the webbed men and unleashed a Word of Radiance on the two of them with holy light from my body, Ospher's Ray of Frost then held the one attacked by Servos in place, quaking from the overwhelming chill, though he was able to steel himself enough to shrug off most of Janka's next Dissonant Whispers, covering his ears, though some blood started dripping from his nose. Servos then landed next to me and "exhaled" its fire breath onto the two still stuck in the webs, let out a shrill of horror as the fire and the webs that were ready to burn wet up like a tinderbox, leaving their burnt corpses where they stood.
It's ready! It's ready at least to test! We can test and see if the power source is stable and if so, then maybe we can start planning a trip.
I know where the power is, but I don't know what it is. It's the kinda box, doo-hickey thing over here.Bianca said something in the opening of discussion about the power source of the portal that got me to thinking about how a device of such magical prowress must be powered. Charity pointed me towards the power source, a nondescript box that was sealed and I didn't feel anything coming from it. We set about her tasks with reasonable gusto, me being unskilled in the things she needed done despite my general aptitude, but while I put everything where it needed to go back to, but while Bianca watched for faults, Charity spilled some of her coffee onto the controls. The portal rippled to life, instilling in me a fear I didn't realize was present from our last encounters with the device, and then a large copper skinned crustacean thing, slightly larger than a horse leapt through into the lab and snapped its claws and attempted to abjure it back to the hell world it came from, but it resisted, as if it were connected to our world. Charity's Witch Bolt went wide around the creature and struck the gate and ended up sustaining the corridor where it was about to collapse, she then set her coffee down and started mildly panicking, yelling about what to do. I was then grabbed up in its claw while it clumsily swung for Bianca, she slapped it with a wrench for it's mistakes.
Is there a way we can throw it back through the portal?Setting down her coffee, Charity then grabbed Bianca and got to working at the controls, and cleaning up the spilled coffee. The portal then reversed its flow and the creature, we later learned it was called a Chuul, was immediately pulled in while I held my ground. They then shut it all the way off while we caught our breath and made sure the loose papers in the room were undisturbed by the strong pull of air. We reasoned that the corridor did not connect to the moon, but possibly a gate or somewhere on Tairos. Bianca was adamant that this was only an accident and we shouldn't let it deter us from seeing about things on the moon.
There's a way to turn it to suction, we've used it before!
Nobody told me about the suction!
Let's not do this again without Ospher.Elsewhere, Ospher said he ran into Janka sitting with Salibar and Love Birdie playing on her viol, the three of them manipulating a mouse's skeleton to make it dance. The students scampered off, they knew they had been caught. Janka had come by in order to let us know that we had won Prelude the other night, and wanted to drop off the prize. A box with a bone white ring with decorative inlays to emulate cracks within the ring itself, as well as four tickets for box seating for one of their upcoming weekly performances at the Orchestra. Janka explained the ring was called the Phantom Caress and would function as a Ring of Telekinesis but with a spectral skeletal hand. Ospher checked in on both Anthony and Leopold, and while Anthony was on the mend Leopold was still missing, though Janka didn't seem worried about it as he's likely still fulfilling his role in the circle of dead/undead/alive.
I don't want this to have any impact on the moon research though. That was a complete accident.
We're not necromancing anything!
I've been waiting for you, acctually.
Oh ok, well just so you know, this is a safe place, so no games here.
You know, some say Charity has powers that could be described as... unethical. But not me!
Is Leopold ok? We kiiind of were a little rough on him and didn't mean to be?
I haven't seen him emerge, maybe he ran into something in the sewers somewhere.
Oh my god!
While it's nice of you to worry about the understudies, that's one of the reasons I wanted to come deliver the prize; I'm curious if you're... hireable?She told Ospher about the other, more personal, reason she was coming to the Orphanarium, her Grandmother, the only other family she has in this world, often goes into the Rylan Woods on the east side of Lake Bask, near Becklinberg hunting for wild growths of herbs, mushrooms, and what not with a couple of her friends for her herbalism store supplies. Normally, she's gone on these trips for about a day, but this time she has been missing for about three days. They share the same residence, so it isn't like she just kept missing her in the intervening time, but then a note was stuck to her door overnight last night written in shaky script, explaining that "We have Ludemil, but if you want to see her alive, bring 30 pieces of manacite to Hag's Crossing by tomorrow night," which was stamped with a frog with a crown atop its head. Ospher recognized description of this symbol from caravans as denoting Becklinburg and Hag's Crossing as the only tavern in that accursed town. She offered up 133 gold pieces as well as her magical rings, which we never actually asked about what they do.
I don't want her to get killed, I know what I said about death, but she's a good woman and she makes me eggs in the morning.
I can sympathize.
Why us, specifically?Because no one really knows you, and you don't seem like someone who would talk to other circles about private business, or someone's personal matters, and you seem to really value keeping things alive, where I don't know many people that do.
That is a little bit sad.
I like having her alive instead of dead. She's funny.
Ok. That's good. I also love my grandmother.
Grandmother wasn't around this morning. Is there, maybe, anyone making anything to eat?Ospher led her to the kitchen at her request and prepared her some lunch prior to coming to speak with us in the lab. He saw the disrepair and claw marks and asked what happened, and we explained what happened in broad strokes. He then told us what Janka was doing here and we debated the pros and cons of assisting someone who actively hurt and hunted people for fun while interacting with the vampire coven. We resolved to discuss more of the circumstances with Janka and make sure she was on the level, so we headed over to the mess, where she was once again animating something dead with her magics while playing her viol. She was vaguely hostile with me to start but was willing to answer questions about the circumstances and details of the events, but overall she seemed genuine, but there was some aspect of it she wasn't sharing yet. We discussed privately what we would do and while Charity was reticent to offer her help here, I figured it wouldn't hurt for us to use this to check out Becklinburg's prisons for Crisnos and we could also ingratiate ourselves with her and see if she had any connections for additional teachers at the school.
What happened in here??
Nothing that stymies progress!
We summoned a monster. But we put it back.
How did she get in? How do people keep getting in the building?!
I ber her grandmother is a shitty necromancer.
I'm not a good negotiator, this is literally everything I have, two rings and 133 gold.
I'm not asking you to pay the ransom. I just thought you could, you know, go in there and "do the right thing" until she's free.
Based on the way she talked, the Ebon Orchestra is a bunch of fatalistic weirdoes.
I don't trust her and I don't trust why she wouldn't go to the rest of her circle though.
Right but Ludemil isn't part of their circle, according to her.
Right but if I had someone that was missing you would help me get them back.
If your Grandfather was still here, we might be described as some kind of strange circle, but we're not. We're together because we want to be, not because some we're some weird coalition of weird-dagger weilding wizards.
That said, I would be ok with beign considered a weird-dagger weilding wizard. Is that something we lean into?
We need to leave someone in charge while we're out. There's Bianca? That's not a lot but that's something.We discussed whom should remain behind to keep a semblance of order within the school, Tadlo and Lorgan were taking some personal time elsewhere and asked to not be disturbed and Ser explained he was taking up bounty hunting, and was out of city limits on the case of an escaped criminal called "Gutrot Wren", an anarchist who was locked up for poisoning members of the Kreastos in relation to something that happened at a dwarven fortress outside of Frial. We knew Nicholas was swamped with the Downpour persons, so Charity volunteered to remain behind with the Eye of Basul to check in with us on occasion, because she really didn't care for Janka, didn't trust her story and we resolved to set out that evening. I popped back into the lab to talk with Bianca about the old manacite from the abbey, the battery, and the portal's power supply. She explained that the design is likely ancient Skyriran design for traveling and for overcharging spells in the old necromantic empire. The battery she sold us was originally a piece with a bunch of other parts that she couldn't make heads or tails of but was able to wire it to get the power out.
She'll be too distracted by the gate though. Like what if she summons another Chuul or worse.
Yeah that would have gone a lot worse if it was just her.
I'll use it to check on you and bunch and make sure you're not dead.
Very kind of you.
I meant that in a nice way...
I did too!
We're all real bitter and snarky so it's hard to tell sometimes.
The irony is that I've actually been sleeping really well the last couple nights.
If she backstabs you, I'm going to murder my way through that entire order.
How did you make this?We stopped in to check back with the Gold Crest scouts before heading to Becklinburg, to get more information from them on what to expect and went to meet them in City Center, near a building they were formerly staying in that had burned to the ground called The Brave Bear. Captain Sauer explained that there's a lot of strange stuff around there and aside the peculiar residents, there's strange smells, and sounds. The cages they spotted with the runic markings and full of people were near the tavern, as disgusting as that implication is. He mentioned also some catacombs/caves that were rumored to be below the town as well, and the town was built atop the hollows, and according to the Westbound Star caravan that had come through before, the catacombs is where whatever weird frog thing they pray to was located.
The battery? I sorta cobbled it together with old parts my grandfather left behind. He left a lot of things behind and always said that if you tinker with something enough, you either make something that's usable orrrrr you blow up. And I haven't blown up yet, so here we are.
Seeing isn't the only thing you do around Becklinburg, you hear a lot, and smell a lot more. These noises in the town, sorta reverberation, rattlings. They're loud and it comes and goes. It's guttural. And the whole place smells like a, I dunno, like a herd of cattle that died in the middle of the bog.
What happened here? I don't normally here of building burning down in Frial.Speaking with Janka before leaving Frial, I asked about her comment about shadows propelling her, she admitted it was intimidation only. I loaded her up behind me on the Broom of Flying, and Ospher rode Servos to Becklingburg to cut down on the nine hour trip to two hours. Becklinburg from above was also wrong, the smell of the smoke from the houses and buildings had a stench unlike any I've known before to it. There wasn't a lot of light to the town either, so most times we caught a glimpse of someone, they appeared to be furtive in their movement. It's pretty far off the main roads and the small paths that wind into the town are little more than game trails in appearance. None of us were quite familiar with the town, so we scouted around the town high above it, noticed that there wasn't much in the way of livestock either, and then landed in the outskirts, near a site where they'd conducted logging operations and adjacent to where we could spot the 4-5 filthy iron cages. There were a few shapes in each of them and their proximity to a larger building made us presume that was Hag's Crossing. The smaller buildings just about everywhere else from the tavern showed signs of recent rebuilding, thus the logging operations, likely due to the traces of a very hot fire that must have consumed the town some time before we even arrived in Frial. None of us noticed any kind of regular patrol, but even though it was closer to midnight, there were a fair amount of people up and about their business. Ospher was the best suited to sneaking of us, so we cast Guidance and False Life on him and I surreptitiously granted him Nisaba's Blessing before sending him off into the night to scout out the cages behind Hag's Crossing. He later reported via Encode Thoughts that the people he spotted in the cages looked off, mismatched eye sizes, webbed fingers, large teeth, some sort of product of inbreeding or mixed with some sort of monstrous descent I would have guessed, and Ospher mentioned stuff like this happens frequently with diversity-lacking livestock. There were 6-10 of the human "stock" in the cages, and there was a backdoor connected to a kitchen with four chefs with heavy amounts of frying going on and Ospher noted that the oil was "very foul". Slightly separate from the crowded cage, there was a cage containing just one person off to the side. The solo person in the cage was an elf dressed in Melanthran military gear, and he had been vivisected for people to eat parts of him, missing an eye, the skin off of his palms, a number of finger and a large sewn scar down his torso towards his gut. Ospher unlocked the cage, just as two people, one large and rotund, without a neck, the second weasely and with a raspy voice unlocked the back door and began to make their way towards him while Ospher crept off elsewhere. The cooks chopped off some of the malnourished elf's toes, while he begged them to kill him, and left him with nothing on the foot and then stirred the toes directly into a bowl they carried and went back indoors.
Whole commotion, right before the whole downpour of people that started popping up. Burnt down. It was one of our favorite spots. A wolf or a bear flew out of the top, rumor of wizards, or arsonists or the work of Gutrot Wren, somebody did it!
I've never resuced anyone before.He then reopened the cage and spoke briefly with the drugged man and then made to move him stealthily from the cage back towards us. Off in the bushes, Janka and I awaited either more word from Ospher or his return, while we waited in (slightly) awkward silence. As Ospher went to haul the person back to us, we heard some noise from behind us, and as we whipped around in surprise we saw three misshapen persons from town, armed with logging equipment and cord wood come through the brush. They charged us immediately after seeing us and getting over their surprise, though Janka threw a Blindness spell into the lead townie's face, causing him to drop his saw as he clutched at his eyes. Neither of the other two could find a way around my shield, and to make sure that persisted, I used the Skyriran Boomerang's Shield of Faith on myself and then assaulted the two with a Word of Radiance, burning their flesh with holy light.
Same.
We kinda have.
It wasn't successful.
Well the three of them are fine now.
Ok yeah, fair.
I'm here to help.
Kill me.
Fresh meat, get it!Janka drew her sickle and cut one of them as they attempted to rush past us for town, and the other one of the ones next to me tried to make it to town, guiding the blinded man, but I struck him down while he was carelessly running away from me. The blinded man then tried calling for help from the town, but we were pretty far off yet and though Ospher later mentioned he could vaguely hear it off in the distance, but I took him from afar with Sacred Flame and then turned to the remaining man. He nearly hit me, but for the Shield and then turned Divine Demolisher around and broke all the rest of his teeth out of his mouth as sent his limp body back a pace as he crumpled to the ground. We covered up the signs of our battle and dragged the corpses into the woods and bound the man I knocked out to ask him questions. He initially assumed we were with the Melanthran Guard, but I quickly convinced him to help us since we were looking for other people and that I was going to kill him, nor let Janka do it. He offered up quickly that Ludemil and Crisnos were down below "with the god" and had been there for a couple of days.
That was very good.
That was good of you as well, yes. Let's interrogate this man while he's here.
Should we get the burned one? I'll go get the burned one.
Strong, cast spells, what can't you do?
Apparently hide, in the dark, from three mutant woodcutters.
You can't judge from the outside. It's whats on the inside that counts. A skeleton.
What about the ugly one? Is she gonna kill me?Explaining reverentially that no one could get down to the catacombs without assistance from The Prophet, and after pointing out the Prophert's cottage, we bound him to a tree towards the logging site so he would be discovered eventually. Janka hadn't had a lot exposure to Becklinburg's oddities and was surprised by mention of a "God", and that they were cannibals, though I explained we had run across them some months ago on our original trip here. Ospher, Servos, and the terribly maimed man arrived to our position at this point and we explained to him what we had learned about Crisnos and Ludemil. The Guard seemed as if he would survive the night at the least, we gave him a healing potion, which seemed to give him some lucidity for a brief bit and he told Ospher, as he only spoke Elven, the others were below and they take pieces from them one at a time and that they're building something. We then stole a small cart from a seemingly abandoned barn on the outskirts and brought it off into the woods where we stashed the Guard, Dalyn, to recuperate in peace for a change and then after reassuring him that we would be back with more people, we set back off towards town to see the Prophet's house.
I would presume no? As long as we get the information we need, non?
Ugly??
Would you like some beef jerky?
What kind? Halfling?
Beef.
Huh?
Beef beef.
Huh??
We discussed our plans briefly and then attempted to make our way over to The Prophet's house in a stealthy manner, considering the town discarded most of its debris and carcasses littered about the street. The tavern's doors opened and four townsfolk who must have heard us emerged and started charging directly for us. As they got closer, the one bounding out front was yelling "Back in the Cage! Back in the Cage!", I stood out front to protect the other two while Servos continue to hover above. Ospher drew his Wand of Web and caught up three of them. I advanced to stab the front 'burger, and dealt him a serious blow and his return swing with his large bone club connected with my shoulder, buying one of his companions time enough to free themself. Servos swooped in to attack that freshly freed person with it's metal claws before swooping back out. Janka's Dissonant Whispers drove the man I attacked to his knees wailing and rigid with pain. I then advanced to the webbed men and unleashed a Word of Radiance on the two of them with holy light from my body, Ospher's Ray of Frost then held the one attacked by Servos in place, quaking from the overwhelming chill, though he was able to steel himself enough to shrug off most of Janka's next Dissonant Whispers, covering his ears, though some blood started dripping from his nose. Servos then landed next to me and "exhaled" its fire breath onto the two still stuck in the webs, let out a shrill of horror as the fire and the webs that were ready to burn wet up like a tinderbox, leaving their burnt corpses where they stood.
So, we check out The Prophet's house, next?
Seems like that's the only thing to do. Or we just go hog wild on this whole place?
Maybe that's step one and step two.
This is probably the kind of mission where we scream and kill a bunch of people noisily.The last man attempted to strike me from behind, and caught me between the shoulders before then trying to run past me, leaving himself open to being eviscerated by the Divine Demolisher. Ospher pointed out that the fight must have attracted some attention with the citizens still in their houses and the tavern. I grabbed up the last person, and we dragged him to the elder's house quickly before people could determine where we had gone. I threatened him into to telling us how to get into the catacombs and he, Sayfer, explained that without the proper chants and hand signs, we wouldn't get past the door into the house, much less underground, without being lit aflame. I wasn't sure if this was just bluffing from the Prophet himself or genuine, so I dragged him with to the house itself. It was one of the buildings in town that survived a recent fire and had been patched up, but still pretty dilapidated, there were a few candles we could spot through closed shutters and whatnot, but we didn't see any signs of life within the two story cottage otherwise.
That fight must have drawn some attention we need to make ourselves scare.
Well, I dind't cast a cone of flame in the quiet street.
What my familiar does is his decision. Which is a lie.
We need access to the underground.
That's a sacred place! Sacred place.
Well it will soon be not so sacred. You have taken hold of people dear to us.
The meat?
I did not stutter. How do we get underground?
The elder's house. The door is guarded by magic and only the elder can open it.
Are you gonna let me go?Approaching the door, it was locked and Ospher decided he would try to pick it rather than breaking it down with his magical prowess. He no sooner crouched down to peer into the lock and adressed the mechanism with his tools when he said a strange symbol appeared in front of the door and a strong pain grabbed hold of his head and twisted and burned into his mind, giving him a pounding headache. We didn't see anything beside him crouch down in front of it, and then staggered back, swearing. Sayber decided to laugh it up and gloat at which point I decided to show him exactly why we dragged him over, I threw him into the door, splintering it partway open and breaking his fool neck as the symbol stole what little stamina he had left after our fight. The break in the door also let loose a small trickle of water and a strong smell of decay from within the house, the water was very clearly fetid. The sundering of the door seemed to have eroded the magical protection on the door, so Osper broke it down with his ring's power and then we went in and observed that everything in the building was eroding due to the water, the walls were sloughing, the roof looked as if it was ready to collapse in some places and all the furniture was rotten, the exterior seemed to have just been reinforced to keep this vile mess in.
Nope. I'm going to need a demonstration.
My faith in your god is not as great as yours.Inside, I noticed that the ankle-deep water would likely carry disease if ingested while Ospher observed that the things left to rot here looked purposeful, as if left for religious purposes. He pointed to a closed door where some of the water was flowing towards and we cautiously made our way in. There wasn't any sinkholes in the path towards the back door he pointed out, though there was a collapsed staircase that would have once led upstairs, and we noticed as we got closer to a couple of the candles that they were likely tallow, and given everything else we knew about the place, likely people fat candles. Resolving to break the door down quickly this time, Ospher's Phantom Caress dealt it a very wild blow, cratering parts of it, but around him was an eruption of Green Flame, bubbling up from the water. It hurt him significantly, manifesting on him as sores that opened from inside his skin, while Janka and I helped him up from the putrid water and made sure none of it get into his now open wounds. We thought about how to open the door without needlessly wasting large volumes of manacite, I decided to light up a Candle of Invocation and then three castings of Cure Wounds on Ospher as I felt the impurities get pushed out of him as his boils left his skin. I then broke the rest of the door apart with a Guided Bolt, and saw the symbol that he mentioned before as it fired its Green Flame Hellish Rebuke at me and I moved out of most of it, since I knew it was coming. Ospher recognized the symbol as something imbued with faith, and blessed by the attuned candle, I then knew it to be a symbol associated to Krutilix, The Plagued, as if it had somehow attached these crooked people's worship of a Frog to itself in order to grant blessings. I then extinguished the candle, having consumed a minute of it's power. The door no longer existing, a large volume of the water at our feet than began to rush down the stairs.
Are you suggesting these Becklinburgers have been decieved into worshiping this frog god as if it were this Krutilix?We descended into the darkness, handing over a pair of Goggle of Night to Janka to conserve lantern oil, and with Servos bringing up the back in about two and a half feet deep of water in this underground tunnel that is seven feet tall. He wasn't meant to be submerged in water so he started taking in water and slowing down in the back of us, but we kept on in the rancid darkness. The water was thick was sludge and dirt and detritus, we came across a few corpses of people and vermin bobbing in the water decaying and of those a few of those had people fat candles again mounted to them, though none down here were lit. The smell was went from terrible to worse somehow, and Janka was gagging from it and Ospher, up to his neck in the water was borderline having a panic attack from the assault as well. I was able to sense the reverence to this corridor, and it felt to me as if it was all meant to embody a spiritual journey, the mouths of some of the corpses were filled to the brim with writhing maggots (which I attempted to surreptitiously overturned into the water).
Either that, or it has somehow had its power drawn by this Frog Demon thing that's getting worshipped. As I understand it even minor demons can manage this sort of pact.
Is this how elves see?We finally heard something that Diedrich had mentioned, a strange semi-rhythmic breathing from somewhere ahead, and from within a couple of corpses, faint ribbiting. The tunnel yawned onward for at least twenty minutes, in the western direction towards Lake Bask, opening up partially out of the water into some stonework, lit by braziers showing some 4 pathways among colonnades, excavated stones and defaced stonework. I couldn't date the time of the defacing but it appeared to be ancient dwarven script. The tunnels had strange markings above them and two paths stood out to my divine senses, one on the right wall had very old bloody handprints above the archway and the one on the left wall had a crude drawing of a wide open mouth.
I'm not an elf, so I don't know.
As a half-elf, I can tell you that I believe that is correct.
This is amazing! Put one on and see if it helps your elf eyes see even better!
Let's not call them "elf eyes" and go.
You're really good at this.
She's had some experience.
Where do your spells come from, are you a good spellcaster?
You're both very good at it.
You're, without a doubt better at it than us.
Would you two maybe ever want to... be understudies?
Well let's talk about that later, but would you ever want to work at a school?
What would I do there?
Teach children!
I am no stranger to the principles of presentation, but there is the issue of having to feed 80 plus people three times a day.
I'm sure my talents would not go to waste in a number of different departments.
Is the school ok with its employees hanging out in the graveyard a lot?We resolved to go down the passage noted by the bloody handprints, as that was likeliest to have the prisoners in it and, leaving Servos back here to watch our backs from additional cultist arrivals, we crept down the tunnel. The tunnel jogged straight ahead for a bit and the walls had a number of chains mounted to them with butcher's hooks in them and then eventually turned a corner. We continued on past old ancient rotting bits of flesh and now hearing some moans, screams, and chopping noises from ahead while the tunnel continued upwards leaving behind most of the rest of the standing water into a larger room with more broken stonework littered about and a number of cages with a dozen or so moderately healthy people in them. At a distance it didn't appear as if they had been subjected to the same levels of depravity as Dalyn, but that was only a matter of time. There were six frog cultists in the room as well, going about the cages, poking people with sharp implements, and we crouched behind a crate filled with gristle, and noticed that the cultists were slick with some sort of oil, and they were undergoing some sort of change, very long limbs, completely webbed hands. The seventh cultist, that was definitely in charge here was much further along in the transformation, very frog like, around nine feet tall and carrying around a long chain with a number of butcher hooks on it, and he spotted us immediately.
You're next for the maw!
Come IN to the Butcher's larder! You do that willingly!He darkly joked about letting us take a look among their captives to see if the person we wanted was here, though Janka did immediately spot her grandmother, Ludemil, among some of the living people. I used the Skyririan Boomerang's Banishment ability on this Butcher, opening a portal behind him and imprisoning for the next minute. Ospher brandished the Wand of Fear and caught three cultists in its grip, though two of them immediately broke its grasp on their faculties. Three cultists charged me then, though none of them were skilled enough to land a direct blow on me past my Scale Mail, Shield, or skilled evasion. There was a 4th cultist, who initially resisted the wand's effect, that then uttered a croaking incantation and a ghostly looking tongue lashed out at me, trying to ensorcel me, but I'm well versed in breaking effects that control the body. Janka summoned an undead spirit, bringing to unlife a skeletal spirit that channeled necrotic energy at a cultist next to me, I followed up with a Word of Radiance, searing the flesh of all three of the ones on me.
Indeed we do.
We must protect the stock for the maw!Ospher's subsequent Sleep spell put the cultist struck by the Grave Bolt to sleep. The cultists then attacked me again, with one of them landing a blow on my thigh while I turned the other two blows aside, and the spell casting one behind them lashed me with a burning tongue singeing me before he attempted to scamper away from my reach, where I struck him with Divine Demolisher across his rubbery flesh. Janka's next Dissonant Whispers caused that spell-wielding caster who ran to issue blood from his eyes and mouth as he clutched at his very small ears, and my Word of Radiance further scorched the three able cultists in my proximity.
That one can use spells!The three cultists awake near me swung in concert at me again, dealing another solid blow to my arm as I blocked the others' attacks, the frog devotee attempted that Tongue Lash spell again, failing to bind my movement. The cultist with an oversized hand laid it on Janka and channeled a spell into her that opened a large amount of boils all over her body like Ospher had done to him in The Prophet's house. Her Dissonant Whispers then reduced the casting cultist by me to a mumbling ruin splayed out on the floor. Ospher used the Haste spell on me, allowing me to Word of Radiance on the three standing by me as the holy light hurt them once again, dropping one and then with the increased speed, I sunk the spear into another's neck and tore the blade clean through the other side and kicked the body away from the sleeping cultist.
I got it, I got it, I got it!
Ospher, the empty cage! Swing it at them!Their shock at this gruesome death gave me another opening to slice the blade end through the rib cage of the final one by me, spilling his gore across the slick stone at his feet as I ran over to the cultist threatening Janka and knocked it to the ground. The final conscious cultist ran over to swing at me and missed wildly due to my speed. The caster on the ground was quick enough to take advantage of my distraction avoiding the club to grab my leg and channel another copy of that same spell he just used on Janka and the accumulation of wounds was too great at this point, knocking me unconscious. Ospher said he used my cage idea, with the Phantom Caress to drop it on the cultist, pinning it and removing it from the fight, while he ran over and poured a potion into my mouth. I woke with a start to see Janka's skeletal spirit injured the pinned cultist. Janka then used her Vicious Mockery on the last cultist, but it immediately turned away her insult.
You look like your mother was a frog who had sex with another, uglier, frog!
Did not!
Damn!
I will die for the maw!Ospher shot a Ray of Frost at the final cultist who was standing above me, and it hopped the beam. The skeletal spirit's Grave Bolt and Janka's Vicious Mockery dealt it another strong blow, giving me cover to stand up next to them and swung the spear twice through his body, killing him. Aware that the Butcher would be returning soon, I cast my Aura of Vitality to start healing myself and Janka, while she ran over to check on Ludemil and Ospher used the cage to imprison the sleeping cultist and the one that was pinned, tossing the cage a good distance away. The dozen prisoners, upon closer inspection, were in various states of illness and mistreatment, with Ludemil looking the healthiest among them. Janka and her had some private conversation out of our earshot, and Ospher went about unlocking the cages before I got their attention to get ready for The Butcher's return.
Then go ahead and die!
Set me free! We can show you the glory of the darkness inside The Maw!
Save it for your frog god!
He waits! He waits and he hungers!
How much were you able to get, was it worth it?I stood behind where he was due to return, Invoked my Duplicity adjacent to me and focused on maintaining the spell in case I needed more desperate healing after he caught me with his huge chain. With a weird ripple in reality he appeared back in the room, mid-swing with his chain and then he realized that all his cultists had been killed. I got stab into his back as he returned, his hide was no thicker than his cultists, drawing a large amount of thick syrupy blood followed by Janka unleashing a strong cast of Dissonant Whispers practically putting him to his knees as the whispers bounded his skulls but he pulled through with a few screams and then was about ready to turn and face me, but thanks to Haste I swung twice at the beastly-former man drawing more blood from his legs as he swung the horrible chain at me, getting lucky on a second swipe to wrench me with the chain, though I did dodge the hooks themselves and attempted to grab hold of it, but his size was still significantly stronger than my magically enhanced strength. A Ray of Frost from Ospher spread a sheathe of ice across The Butcher, and then used the distraction to enact the Dagger of Venom's poison and threw it directly into his chest where it penetrated his heart and brought him to his kneed where he then toppled forward.
I couldn't get my hands on any of it. It's still over in that chamber.
Defiled this place?! You let the meat walk free!?
That's the kind of flair that should be in your kitchen.Breathing a sigh of relief, we made sure the remaining cultists were very securely locked up and began to speak with the newly freed persons. They explained, in response to my questions, that they had been there for well over a week and their caravan had been attacked on the way to Frial and the elf, Dalyn, was their guard. They said they were still missing four people of their group. Ludemil confirmed that Crisnos had been in The Maw room a day or so prior, but wouldn't elaborate before I could convince Janka that we needed her help as well. After explaining that our friend went missing in this area as well, which was a portion of the reason I agreed to come help, she explained they hoped to steal manacite from the Becklinburgers and fence it in Frial where they would likely make a killing due to the high demand. Ludemil didn't know exactly what was in that room besides some captives, cultists, a pit and some strange indescribable things, though was disappointed that her skills weren't enough to have evaded detection here. After we spoke with the caravaners we explained our setup outside of the town with the wagon we stole and our plans to take it back to Frial. Ospher grabbed the strange large "morningstar" of hooks that he planned on throwing at people in the future.
Ughhh.
This Maw, I assume is a pit and they only take you to it once?
The Maw, I've seen it. It's not a pit, its something. In one of the far chambers, that's where they caught me.
They caught you what? Here?? At the maw?
You're not gonna get mad, and you're not gonna tell any of the other circles, right?
As long as it has nothing to do with our school.
No no no. You know how all the manacite peddlers, I mean, most of them died recently? I thought it would be a good side business, and grandma is always over here gathering herbs and breakign and entering into places she shouldn't, and she happened to mention that Becklingburg has a lot of manacite that she's seen come and go.
I just wasn't sure you would help, that's why I left that part out.
Are you beholden to them? Do you owe them something?
Well, they're the ones who provide my manacite and the magic items I have. They cover a lot of my bills and have access to all the spells.
But we don't really know what's in that room, do we?As we got back to the main chamber with the prisoners, we observed Servos finishing off the last of 3 cultists that had come from... somewhere? He was partially damaged and I cast Mending on him to fix him up a little bit before we sneaked down the path to The Maw. As we got closer the rhythmic breathing more steadily and some faint chanting that grew louder as we came upon a very large and wide room and all of the ancient stonework had been stripped from the floors, leaving naught but slick earth and mud. In the center of the room, there was a large hole, about twenty feet across with some suspended tubes and cloth bladders of fluids that are dangling partway into the hole, and as they undulated, it seemed to be in time with the beating noise that was now very loud. Off to the side, there were a dozen more citizens of the town, nude save for the mud smearing their bodies and they were standing at some tables with harnesses and restraints where a few people were being actively harvested of their flesh or fluids with great care and reverence but still caked in the filth of the room. And then above the mud atop a rock some thirty feet from the pit, there was a taller, totally intact, almost regal looking older human, eye sockets completely empty of eyes and holding aloft a staff topped with the frog's symbol we saw earlier in the magical protections. He was directing the cultists about their activities, and we also noticed that two of the cultists working at the tables seemed to have some manacite sewn into their backs, sort of like warts on a frog, as well as a bucket on the other side of the work benches full of manacite's glow and the preserving jelly that the flayed flesh was being dipped into before being placed on the cart seemed to glow with the light.
There's a pit and a lot of people worshipping a pit. There's a noise in the pit, I dunno.
This is a VERY serious saving a friend. I just want you to know that. I'm still in, but its slightly more in my favor in terms of evenness.The people strapped to the tables were mostly unknown to us, likely members of the caravan, but the last table had Crisnos atop it, though his eyes were open he appeared to be in a pretty drugged out state. We discussed a couple of plans briefly before settling for a healthy amount of distraction combined with stealthy assault of the equipment in the cave before we would leave our hiding spot to get Crisnos. I drew upon the divine powers Nisaba, The Lady Midnight to Invoke Duplicity on the far side of the pit from us and then cast a Guiding Bolt, shredding a good deal of the faux machinery, pouring forth a transparent syrupy substance, and when the room's attention was drawn, the reaction was very overwrought, cultists sinking to their knees in despair, shouting and wailing but then galvanizing the others to rush across the room after "me". I think cast a Spiritual Weapon from my duplicate, manifesting a curvy dagger in the air to continue rending more of the machinery, and "she" was then joined by Janka's skeletal spirit as well. Servos took flight across the room to prepare to breathe fire on the mass of cultists, Janka's Dissonant Whispers injured one of the cultist working by the tables, still methodically flaying away at the captives, making us think that they were mentally compromised in some way. One of the cultist was able to hit "me", ending the illusion and sending another group of them towards the skeleton, though they then attempted to attack my manifested weapon which would not work, bless their foolish hearts. Ospher cast Catapult with the hook morningstar at The Prophet, dealing him a horrible injury as a lot of the chains and hooks bit into his flesh and catching him in spot, bound up in the metal mess on the ground.
I killed it! I killed the interloper! We have to kill that knife!I then directed my Spiritual Dagger to attack a cultist, swinging wide while I Dashed across the room, hunkering down behind the tables, though I was spotted by the two working manacite infused cultists, they took no action beyond their work at hand. Ospher followed me over to hiding behind the tables as well, while the cultists continued to pile up by my Dagger and Janka's Spirit. Shortly after the last bit of fluid dripped from the machinery, there was a large noise from the pit, a loud gurgling rumble that echoed about the chamber. The Prophet couldn't extricate himself from the wild hooked implement to do anything, and Janka caught up with us behind the tables. From the cover of the tables, Ospher's Fireball engulfed 10 of the cultists across the room, killing two of them and breaking the morale of the rest of them as they sought water, screamed for help or dropped and rolled. Ospher freed one of the strapped people and saw that the human man's back flesh had been mostly shorn from him. Servos then took this opportunity to swoop in and caught 4 of the burning cultists with his firebreath, killing two of them, leaving five of them on the far side.
Could you guys not leave me behind??The rumbling from the pit then expanded to fill our heads with a deep croaking that vibrating the room. A massive dark green limb appeared from the pit, pulling itself out, one horrible tentacle at a time. A huge behemoth of froglike horror, patches of its skin were missing and replaced with human flesh that had been harvest here. The tubes from above I had destroyed were intravenously connected here and there on its body and it casually reached down to pick up one of the cultists and devoured it whole, with room in its Maw to spare for a second body at the same time. Janka then Dissonant Whispered a flayer working on Crisnos, dealing a mental blow, and then casually turned around and then started gliding towards her. We saw then that its feet were now sort of pseudopods instead explaining the gliding, and I then stabbed that worker, grievously injured now, but really showing any signs of feeling pain or emotions at all, it was uncanny. I then sliced at Crisnos' straps, assisting him off the table, and handing him a piece of manacite and the bronze Corellon holy symbol we found. The scalpel armed workers tried to then injure me for intergering but they lacked a distinct amount of coordination.
We didn't leave you behind.
Well I didn't know I was "holding the position" back there!
He is RISEN!
What the hell is that thing?!The Prophet gave up on trying to free himself, he instead turned towards us and his eye sockets and cast Black Tentacles which Ospher and I easily dodged, but they caught up and started grasping Janka. The Frog God then jumped across the room on the opposite side of the tables from us with a muddy splash as it tore all of the tubes from itself and readied to devour the cultists/flayers/us it spotted by us. Janka's told us she was on her last Dissonant Whispers and used it on The Prophet. The remaining cultists then went to free The Prophet from the Butcher's hooks, while one of the flayers that was near me started to pick itself uncautiously giving me an opening to stab it to death. The other flayer used it's glowing hand to open a constellation of fresh sores across Ospher's body, as he fought to break the grip of the creature, and then used the Phantom Caress to fling it directly into the Frog God's Maw. Servos then landed by the Prophet and attempted to rend him, but he was still evasive enough to avoid his claws, but my Spiritual Weapon landed a blow on him. I then ran over grabbed the bucket, and cast Pass Without Trace on the three of us and the people we freed from the table and discretely directed everyone to go but not far from me as the shadows engulfed us to protect and conceal us. The Frog God was still unfazed by the chanting to calm it so to sate its hunger it devoured yet another cultist and started ignoring us under the blessing of the spell. Servos used The Prophet's distraction from the floating dagger to successfully rake his arms and we started extricating ourselves as the dagger was able to catch his throat, quenching his voice from calming the Frog God. It then devoured the last two cultists standing by the now dead Prophet and then it scanned the room for us, missing us thanks to Nisaba's blessing and as we got to the exit, it started burrowing into the ceiling as we helped the four people get back through the winding passage, up past the floating corpses and running water on the stairs and out of the Elder's house door on the surface. Up there, I was still maintaining the spell and saw that the Hag's Crossing was being besieged by the Frog God, it had ripped the roof off of the building and was using it's tongue to devour people while other citizens moaned and clutched at their heads outside, unsure of what to do or if they should fight their god.
I don't want to stay around to ask!
Carry me! Carry me!We made a hasty retreat for the cart, gave Janka 7 pieces of Manacite from the bucket that contained 31(!?!) pieces and between the broom and Ospher's ring, we began our trek back to Frial, with 16 people having been saved from the Becklinburger's clutches, including Ludemil and Crisnos. The strange threat of Becklinburg has been reduced or enhanced, depending on one's point of view on the matter. I think it's likely a large threat to the local area, but Rylan is significantly closer than Frial. Considering we live in the district closest to the woods, Bellhaven, we'll at least be the first ones killed if the Frog God comes to Frial. To my great mirth, when Servos caught back up to us on the surface, Ospher revealed that he had directed the familiar to retrieve the morningstar of hooks for him to throw at more people to come. What a comedic horror it is. I did cut Woolery free before we left town, since it seemed overtly cruel to leave him tied to a tree with the rampaging frog. Some of these people will need the healing of the Ring of Regeneration, but it will be difficult to trust them with the object for the week needed to restore them. Crisnos told us on the way to Frial that he had focused more on being a Champion despite his Ranger training, and explained how he had been hunting fae that came through the time anomaly.
Can you not move?
Just don't leave me!
Rewards Granted
Divine Demolisher
I donned the vestments of Sandor The Guardian of Tairos
Headband of intellect progress 17/40
Unmarked vials of fluids from The Butcher
I donned the vestments of Sandor The Guardian of Tairos
Headband of intellect progress 17/40
Unmarked vials of fluids from The Butcher
Character(s) interacted with
Bianca Loame - She is very singled minded in not letting anything get in the way of getting to the moon. Frankly, I'm not sure what her specific motivation for it is, but I would doubt her Great Grandfather is still alive up there if he did in fact get there. Oddly, her curiosity isn't piqued by some other mysteries that are in front of her as well, like the mana can and what is powering the portal.
Janka - She's alright on the whole, I don't understand why she's ok with what the Orchestra does in general, but distracting the vampires seems to be a good goal. I don't have their mindset of life and death's whims regarding undeath.
Crisnos Qinbi - Thankfully we saved him and we'll soon learn the extent of his anger against general fae kind. We shall see if this will be our last time together.
Dalyn - Alive but only just barely. He will need a long time to recover what has been lost and even then, we'll need an oath from him to no tell anyone what we can do for him.
Ludemil - Evidently once a renowned thief of no small skill. Perhaps Lorgan and Tadlo would be interested in meeting her if they come back.
The Prophet (Hermes) - We learned his name later from Diedrich. He is quite dead from my dagger and somehow was able to channel the power of Krutilix The Plagued. The difference between people who know of living gods and those who think they are dead is a matter of awareness and the openness to possibility.
Janka - She's alright on the whole, I don't understand why she's ok with what the Orchestra does in general, but distracting the vampires seems to be a good goal. I don't have their mindset of life and death's whims regarding undeath.
Crisnos Qinbi - Thankfully we saved him and we'll soon learn the extent of his anger against general fae kind. We shall see if this will be our last time together.
Dalyn - Alive but only just barely. He will need a long time to recover what has been lost and even then, we'll need an oath from him to no tell anyone what we can do for him.
Ludemil - Evidently once a renowned thief of no small skill. Perhaps Lorgan and Tadlo would be interested in meeting her if they come back.
The Prophet (Hermes) - We learned his name later from Diedrich. He is quite dead from my dagger and somehow was able to channel the power of Krutilix The Plagued. The difference between people who know of living gods and those who think they are dead is a matter of awareness and the openness to possibility.
How much manacite did you bring here with you? Leave on the ground and walk outside! What are you gonna do about it, two of us can cast Dispel Magic, so you've got nothing!
Oh can Charity cast it too?
I was bluffing. I need you to back me up better on that next time.
Well good luck with that cause I just gave it away!
Note that this report is for two game sessions
Adjenna Affreux
Level 6
Lamiah
Neutral Cleric
(Charlatan)
(Charlatan)
39 / 39 HP
Ospher Spurshoe
Level 7
Stout Halfling
Neutral Good Wizard (Transmutation)
(Cloistered Scholar)
(Cloistered Scholar)
/ 44 HP
Report Date
06 Mar 2021
Primary Location
Secondary Location
