Session 5: Violent Language
Activity Log - Requests Large and Small
General Summary
Four days have passed since the fish sauce plant fighting arena incident; we have not had any blowback from our involvement. Lt. Diagwen Greenleaf has been good to his word. Horick is still having nightmares about the Bent Neck Lady of the MacMurdaugh, though he tends to wave it off when mentioning his troubled slumber. We worry about his haunting. I speculate the coin taken from Dakar has thus far prevented another direct possession or worse, but that could also be due to the distance from the hotel.
Our usual ritual of having breakfast at the Egg Cart after our hospital shift finds us reading this morning’s Ghal Pelor Chronicle which details the incident involving the fish plant fire, as well as accusations against the automaton Mr. Noble’s involvement in criminal bribery, illegal gambling and violent combat sport that has wrapped up other high profile citizens of the city. In an interview with Mr. Noble, it predictably denies the news as completely false, and that two hundred employees are out of work due to the vandalization and near total destruction of his plant. Even so, they are hoping to reopen in the future. No word on the information we provided the constables or talk of the zombie plague. Something to watch in the future, considering its reach in Ghal Peloran society. Fortunately, the four of us have our fallback plans should it become dicey, though I’d prefer not to have to leave the city with my studies unfinished over this matter. Cojitron reveals a letter mailed to it directly from the Throat Wolf Jammy via the Goldheart Courier Service, requesting our aid in monster slaying. The young gnome sees our companion as a friend and trusts our abilities. The story, if true, is rather tragic; I do not understand why she would leave a loving home for the companionship of other wayward children in such a dangerous area, but at Cojitron’s urging, we decide to make time to see her at the stable. There is something to be said for taking on low paying work as mercenaries as charity harming our reputation, but this letter did not even cross Dayne’s doorstep so we can ignore such a petty concept. Helping dispatch a dangerous creature that has killed already could only be of great worth in the end. One other letter has arrived from a wizard in Union Castle named Khunmaesh Glomgrath. He resides in a wizard tower and writes with significant pomp and an air of self importance. He desires an escaped air elemental he has summoned to be found and returned to him along with the items it has absconded with of his design. They are an overcharged wand of magic missiles and a powerful halberd. The potential dangers are clearly spelled out by him should it remain at large with these weapons. When we arrive at the tower later that morning, we discover Khunmaesh is a dwarf acquainted with Horick’s grandmother. They exchange some small talk, with Horick bragging to him about our handling of the fish sauce plant that has been in the news (with it being too late for me to caution against his desire for notoriety), and I am fascinated by the very pronounced differences in their personalities. Down to business, in addition to the 300 gp reward for the completion of the job of the successful capture and return of the air elemental and his stolen weapons, he will offer us magical services such as free identification of items and discount rates on his wares. He must truly want the elemental returned for his studies as well as the items despite his tone in the letter. I also suspect that, despite our statuses as the “new” Blackhearts, our reputation (or perhaps Dayne’s?) has him desiring to keep a direct line to us should the need arrive for more discrete mercenary work. The magical services alone is a tempting carrot. Khunmaesh then informs us that the elemental is something of an invisible stalker and is quite dangerous because of this trait, hence the mana gauge he provides us with attuned to this extra-planar creature. Horick wonders aloud whether he’d accept the death of the stalker. The wizard pointedly states that that is not the preferred outcome. Although the trouble would be averted, its death means only ⅔ of the payment would be given and no free services besides. We promised to do our best. On our way to the mission, we stop by Trevor’s shop to look over his wares. We buy some manacite to replenish TK and Cojitron’s stocks as well as the mysterious coat. He then offers to introduce us to a book shop owner named Izul who may have some jobs for us and can offer us some magic services such as scroll creation. He gives us the location and we promise to visit, grateful for the tip. He mentions he knows about the fish sauce incident through his sources and is happy we are alive after the dangers involved. Again, I am personally very wary of the growing reputation our actions have gained the “Blackhearts”. I do not wish to call too much attention to ourselves. We leave to go to the dwarven district of Ketch, as the meter leads us to an old oil refinery. It is a large building, two stories tall and mostly boarded up, but the construction is dwarven in make and quite intricate and sturdy. I find a way to the second floor window, and use rope to climb up with Horick helping brace me. I break into the upper level and am assaulted by the sight of six bodies chained up and sliced to ribbons; the victims appear to be mostly hobos and gang members from this area. TK and Cojitron climb up, with Horick last, but they’re clumsy and make a lot of noise. We hear something as we all scramble into the room. I quickly look over the bodies and discover they have been vacuumed of their blood in brutal style. The thing alerted to our presence comes in, and true to Khunmaesh’s warning, is indeed largely unseen. It abruptly attacks, but Tea Kettle, thinking quickly, knocks over an oil can over the specter so it is visible for us to attack. It waves the stolen wand but fortunately the magic missile barrage is shielded by TK’s magic. I flank and stab it while Horick attacks with Balls out Mauls out; its special properties drains the air elemental’s essence as it hungers for it. Horick, to his credit, resists landing fatal wounds on the stalker in spite of him loudly questioning if we really wanted to take it alive. We as one answer yes. It eventually whirls around to throw off the oil and becomes invisible. Unseen, the halberd it wields stabs in my direction and impales me; mercifully, unconsciousness is swift and blood runs down the weapon to ironically once again make the thing visible even as it steadily drains my life essence. Horick in a rage is able to knock it out with his next swing, once again resisting the weapon’s call for elemental energy. We collect the stolen weapons from it and carry it back to the tower after my wounds are treated. The wizard is quite pleased and pays us the 300 gold, promising to render his identification services; TK takes this opportunity to ask him about the coat bought at Trevor’s. As it turns out, the coat does indeed have some additional protective properties that can be unlocked under certain duress. We stop by the stable near the MacMurdaugh and visit Jammy and let her know we’ll look into her letter’s request. The monster she wants us to fight is in Beldon, so we decide to head in that direction after some rest. It occurred to us that Bad Bill also desires the slaying of a monster as his task to return back to the city proper, but the displacer beast would have to wait. Before that, however, Teal wants us to kill Rudivik and the boathouse gang if we were not going to provide the 100 gp he asked last time. We decide to try talking to them, much to his disappointment. Teal got his wish anyway, to my irritation; as we walk across the street in an attempt to parlay with Rudivik (the thought of scaring them off as “constables” having crossed my mind), they see us from the boathouse across the street and charge out, shooting at us with bolts but narrowly missing us. There are four crossbowmen, six thugs with assorted melee weapons, and a dog that is able to sniff out my hiding spot after I loosed several arrows into their ranks. I had not been bitten by a dog before; it was unpleasant, though it was marginally preferable to a wolf. In the back, a formidable woman whom we take to be Rudivik fires at us with her hand crossbow. After I dispatch the dog and free myself, I knock one of their crossbowmen out and she starts dragging him back; I wish her concern for her gang extended to the desire to speak to us first, but too late as Cojitron’s prismatic sphere spell catches her with lightning damage and nearly kills her. She lets go of her comrade and fires back frantically while retreating. Horick as usual wades in and dispatches the attackers one by one in a rage while TK’s bird sentinel harries them and also repairs Cojitron when it’s knocked down by return fire from the gang. TK casts frostbite and steadily flanks the gang himself. Eventually the remainders attempt to flee after we whittle their numbers away but we’re able to knock them all out. The carnage is unfortunate and disturbing; Lakeview Watch’s vicious reputation is well earned. I pen and send a letter via courier to the constabulary addressed to Lt. Freeleaf to tell him that the boathouse gang in Lakeview near the hotel have been dispatched; we might as well remind him that we could be trusted, at least nominally, to do our work to their benefit. We retire for the rest of the day, exhausted from the battles we’ve endured. This is more combat than I cared to participate in, and we were hopeful Jammy’s monster hunt would be a far simpler endeavor. Certainly, I’d feel much more at ease putting her back in the company of her adoptive parent.
The End for now,
~Bayour S.
Rewards Granted
- For capturing the Invisible Stalker and reutrning it and the stolen weapons for Khunmaesh Glomgrath, 300 gp
- A discount on Khunmaesh's wares and free identification of items
- Teal's "promise" to return home after the defeat of Rudivik's boathouse gang
Missions/Quests Completed
- Completion of Khunmaesh Glomgrath's job request
- Rudivik's gang removed from the boathouse near the MacMurdaugh Hotel
Character(s) interacted with
- Khunmaesh Glomgrath, dwarven wizard and merchant
- Teal and the Throat Wolves
- Rudivik and her gang of toughs
- Trevor DeWitt
Related Reports
Notes
- The violence and suspicious nature of the gangs in the Lakewatch area has been more or less confirmed; Rudivik and her gang have been rooted out. Perhaps the Throat Wolves can start to see to leaving the dangerous area
- The danger of extraplanar creatures cannot be understated; how often do the likes of Khunmaesh let their experiments get out of hand? Several are dead due to this mishap
