Grave Robbings

Written by Chrundle_the_Great

General Summary

Spurred on by the Knight-Captain and strengthened by the Beacon, four debtors chart a perilous course to a mysterious shipwreck within the city of Redgaard. When treasures were lost, allies were found. But when treasures were found, allies were lost. The bloodied group sit exhausted on the banks of the Drann River, their time quickly running out.

Session Notes

• While Sarlen confronts his past, the group stocks up in Emberwood Village
• They buy sealskin boots and general supplies at Marlow's Provisions
1. Erlen will buy mutant skins, like beaver mutts
2. Also, he will offer reasonable prices and store rebates for delerium
• While avoiding the Consort's hunting grounds, the group quietly approaches adventurers killed in a ratling ambush
1. The mutants hoist a bag of delerium shards from one of the corpses
2. Also, one of the bodies, an ogre, still breathes raggedly
• The group attacks, but two mutants escape into a secret tunnel with the loot
• Thorak the Lungless, ogre warrior with a ruptured lung
1. With Tim's magic and Kragan's health potion, Thorak is slightly healed
2. He spits on the nearby corpses, Queen's Men who owned his debt
3. He sought to free his brother from the Ironspikes' slave mines
4. Grateful, he agrees to accompany the group if they move quickly
• The group rests briefly and passes by the Verdant Hollow Farmstead
• Sir Benito, Silver Order knight accompanied by his warhorse, Justice
1. The Candle Colony sent him to investigate irradiated crops in the area
2. Impressed by the group's connections to his two leaders, he requests their aid with clearing out and investigating the farm
3. Peter negotiates for ten gold pieces a person, which the knight accepts
4. He suspects "cultists" or "maleficents" are the cause
• As the group approaches, an alarm rings, alerting the feral dregs in the fields
• With the mutants dead, a cloaked figure flies away on a giant moth's back
• Most of the group are disoriented by hallucinogenic spores in the fields
• Benito searches the abandoned house, while the others search the barn
1. The group battles stone hens, mutant chickens with petrifying bites
2. They find barrels of caustic chemicals and a hidden trap door
• Underneath, a small creature burns an extensive arcane laboratory
• Tootsie, one-eyed homunculus of the mage Ellara Thorne
1. He was ordered to destroy all traces of the delerium experiments
2. Meanwhile, Ellara would seek refuge at Reed Manor
3. Luckily, Peter finds and escapes with the most relevant notes
• The group reunites with Benito, who killed Ellara's apprentices
1. "Oscar Yoren sells potions to the Hooded Lanterns, so they refuse to lend aid in sieging the well-fortified Reed Manor."
2. He is impressed with the group and will consider recommending them to hunt down other maleficents
3. Also, he trusts Peter enough to let him study the recovered notes
4. Thorak elects to stay in the Haze, instead of leaving with the knight
• As they approach the shipwreck, the group hears a woman's warnings
• Sofia Schantz, ashen-haired acolyte of the Falling Fire
1. "All are welcome to all the Sacred Flame offers. Perhaps the holy stones remove an illusion, the time before the Sacrament being veiled."
2. She encourages the group to undertake the Sacrament and points out delerium in the Celestial Observatory
3. Also, she mentions Champion's Gate as the pilgrims' meeting place
• The group finds the partially-wrecked ship, half-hidden by the purple mist
• Thorak volunteers to keep watch and hunt for beaver mutts and their skins
• The ghost captain and skeletal crew attack, but Tim turns the unholy
• The group investigates the battered abovedeck, aware of hiding undead
1. The shipwreck is recent, as the blood is less than five days old
2. Beak-marks and blunted strikes score the mastless galleon
• The group finds a whispering allip in the navigator's room
1. "I have learned a name. Let me tell it to you."
2. Eldemir fells the creature, but it whispers "Ilthu-Rath" to him
3. The paladin envisions an eldritch being, and he weeps gray oozey tears
4. A woman's voice tersely rebukes the being and ends the vision, but Eldemir feels fish scales where the gray liquid touched his skin
• The group finds a blood altar guarded by four barnacle-encrusted dregs
• Krell the Unholy, maddened kraken priest who doomed the ship's crew
1. The Emperor of the Waves was a Caspian pirate ship that often smuggled delerium out of the city
2. He summoned a young kraken, and the galleon ran aground
3. The ghost captain and the group throw the priest belowdecks, where the mutated crew devours him
• Grateful, the captain mentions the shipment is in the half-flooded cargo hold
1. Meant for Aubric of the Queen's Men, it is a hefty metal treasure chest
• As the group finally secures the chest, contaminated water sloshing around, the young kraken returns and batters the ship wildly
1. The hull buckles and breaks as the group is hit by flying debris
2. Tim resists contamination, even after being dunked into the river
3. The bloodied group escapes to the docks, while the kraken constricts the ship and finally pulls it below
• They find Thorak's weapon on the ground and a half-skinned beaver mutt
1. In the distance, the Horror drags him away, wrapped in chains
2. At this point, he is about six hours away from a full day in the Haze

Character(s) interacted with

Erlen Marlow
Thorak the Lungless
Sir Benito
Sofia Schantz
Ilthu-Rath
Krell the Unholy
The Horror

Report Date

20 Apr 2024

Primary Location

Drann River

Related Characters

• Eldemir Barling
• Kragan Blacktusk
• Peter von Drakken
• Tim Ward