Session #4
General Summary
Session 4 Recap
The party found themselves waking up in the opulent Tawil Vineyard. Having been given clothes, food and a warm bed for the night, this ramshackle party sat down for breakfast with the Tawil Patriarch, Darshan.
Darshan would question the party’s intention as to when they would be headed to the vineyard to investigate the blight infecting their crops. Learning the party was also given another mission to investigate the attack at the dock, he told them to prioritize the investigation. After all, if the King learns that it was solved by someone from his extended household, favour would surely be sent his way.
After breakfast was had and pleasantries exchanged, Nadeem, an Order of the Candle guard who was to assist them with their investigation, collected the party to head to the docks. The city of Sentinel was quiet, with very few people on the streets.
On arriving at the docks, the party found total destruction. One of the piers had been totally blown apart, while the trade ship they had sailed to the coast was lying on the bottom of the sea bed. Havem would swim out and navigate through the debris to investigate the blast site. Lying on the bottom of the ocean, a few metallic shards would catch his eye. After some careful investigative work, the party would discern that the blast came from an explosive device placed underneath the pier, with the shards making up a portion of its container. Nadeem would advise the party to speak with Araina the Dunmer Alchemist who runs the stall Panacea at the Bazaar.
A couple of the other guards would discover a tattered cloak at the wreckage with an unfamiliar symbol stitched into its embroidery. Aethrondil’s studies in the summerset isles would prove useful as a single name would enter his mind. Darkin. Nadeem would recommend the party also search the Sentinese library for knowledge about this particular name.
The party would then find themselves splitting to save time. Steve, Lord Copernicus III and Havem would head to the market while Cleetus and Aethrondil would head to the Library.
At the Market, Steve would chat briefly with Madame Maven, a travelling mage/enchantress who sells magical items and wares. He also would commission the creation of an enchanted tunic from Edvard and his stall Stiches and Silks. Lastly, they would chat with Araina the Dunmer. Araina would immediately recognize the type of object brought before her. It is a standard type of container used to contain incredibly unstable regents like petrol in its formulas. There are very few alchemists that are skilled enough to perform such a feat. She would not even know how to source components like petrol for the formulas. She offers a friendly warning to be careful as whomever created this device does not operate in the open and therefore must be incredibly dangerous.
At the Library, Aethrondil and Cleetus would be greeted by a friendly scribe. On learning their educational quarry, she would lead them to meet Master Archivist Sarana, a boisterous Redguard woman who tends to the library along with her staff. Master Archivist Sarana would explain to Aethrondil that the Darkin, or Darkin Blade, is old Yokundan god and laughed at the suggestion he would be involved in the docks, sending them to speak with the Historian Glaorinil, an altmer scholar.
Glaorinil would prove most helpful, explaining that the Darkin can be associated with two different things: the Yokundan war god, as well as the Darkin Spectres, an organization based in the province of Hammerfell. The Spectres have existed for sometime and not much is known about them besides there veneration of the Darkin. All that is really known is they do not shy away from taking on contracts such as extortion, bribery, assassination and even regicide. Another tale came in the form of the scribblings of a Redguard villager, claiming a near extermination of Mages, alchemists and apothecaries in his village. The belief is that they harbour anger and hatred towards all magical users. Glaorinil would also let them know that there is a Shrine to the Darkin about two days journey from Sentinel, deep in the canyons of the Alikr Desert.
Cleetus would request a book on magical blights from the library’s resident Zoologist, Sevistes. The book he procured, Chronicle of the Red Diamond, apparently briefly touched on a magical blight that occurred during the war near the fortress of solitude, giving the book to Aethrondil after receiving it to read on his own.
The party would then decide to head to Tawil Vineyard in order to investigate the blight before returning to the Bazaar in the evening to spy on Araina.
Approaching the vineyard, they could see many of the trees infected with a terrible curse. Black rot and an gooey white discharge would excrete from the various fruits as they dissected them to investigate.
Jeahlean Tawil and her daughter, the Lady Sheia Kurt, would greet them with open arms. They would be instructed to speak briefly with Bopi the Tawil foreman to learn more about the infection. Bopi raved to the party that the affliction was the result of a deadly ‘Lamia’ a creature with Daedric origins that can only be pulled from Oblivion by someone powerful in conjuration magic. Bopi would claim that the Lamia lives and operates in the Outskirts, Sentinels slums, where she terrorizes and victimizes the poor and downtrodden. Interrupted by the beautiful Camila Tawil, Camila dismisses the ravings of Bopi as superstition and suggested the party go and investigate. Camila also decided that she would like to come along but requested the party not let Jeahleen know out of fear of provoking her motherly wrath.
Working their way through the derelict slums of Sentinel, the party would notice a few things. First, the King had requested the slums be cleaned up and cleared out in anticipation of the Empress’ arrival in 9 days. They would also help an elderly merchant woman fix her cart after she was found being harassed by guards of the order of the candle.
As they continued through the slum, they would come upon a few young boys huddled around a fire and hiding from the Guards. After some cheeky banter, one of the boys would offer to show Steve to “the King.” It would not take long before a squeal could be heard from Death Blade, as one of the boys unsuccessful attempted to lift his coin purse. Another one of the boys would kick Aethrondil straight in the manhood before they all darted away in different directions. Steve, taking quick inventory of his purse, noticed a portion of his coin mission. Giving chase to a couple of the boys, he managed to catch up to two of them and start clobbering one. Unsuccessful in his aim to subdue the young street kids, the boys would break free of his grasp and drop a few bags of caltrops on the ground to block Steve from chasing them.
That is when things took a turn for the worse.
An ancient and primordial power began to stir within Steve. He felt the power of the gods and dragons flow through him, as he drew upon the very energy and magicaka of the world within, speaking a single and devastating word that would change him forever.
Fus.
With a single word, the power of the voice would course through Steve’s body and manifest in a wave of unrelenting force, tearing a hole through two buildings beside him, and lifting the caltrops from the ground and blasting them at the two children running in front of him. The caltrops powered by the Unrelenting Force of the Thuum would cut the children to ribbons, killing them instantly.
In shock at what had just transpired, Steve would urge the party to keep moving and get the hell out of the slums. Camila would convince the party to keep searching for the Lamia, they were already down here after all. Sprinting through the winding streets and after climbing atop a building to traverse even deeper, they would come upon a square with residents lined up outside of a building, afflicted with all sorts of various injuries and diseases.
Entering into the abode, they would come face to face with a beautiful Nord woman, elbow deep in the torso of a man, with golden magic tracing her fingertips as she worked. They had met Ingrid.
Report Date
11 Jan 2022
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