Sanguine Sunrise #2: The Ritual

General Summary

After destroying the clockwork machinations, the group continues to move on utilizing Kiwi as and their remaining horse to ride on. Eventually, the group comes upon a group of merry makers in a small area off of the road drinking and laughing. As they approach them, the party realizes that the group has red makeup on that shifts their mouth into a smile. This isn't exactly an unnerving sight, but it is odd, and the fading of the makeup makes it look even more peculiar. Eventually Skek heads into the group, where he sees a dwarven figure who offers him a drink. Instead, Skek mentions something about, "you people killed them" before punching her in the face. Tension rises between the two groups at this point, but eventually, level heads prevail and the party continues their journey.
Eventually, the group arrives on the outskirts of waterdeep where they can see the crowds of people, lined up to enter the city. Again they feel the presence of the staring statues, a sentry of the city, but when they look at the statue of the sentry, they see figures upon it, and once again, they see the red paint of a smile. However, this time, the smile is placed upon the statue, a symbol of what is to come for the city. As they ask others what the smile means, they hear that the lady has fallen and the prince has risen in the city, and the smile is some form of coronation or celebration for him.
As the group skirts the outskirts of the city, they come across a figure in the middle of the road. Alex recognizes the figure as Azlar the Axe, a person who saved them from death in the city. Azlar privately discusses with Alex of his hunt for the chain bound. He asks for Alex's aid in hunting down his target, but all of this time, Kiwigap'awa listens. The two come back, and Azlar gestures to the farm house saying if the party needs to rest, they can take time in the house. After this, Azlar and Alex walk away.
The group wanders into the house, and they begin looking through the slightly jostled home that has noone inside it. However, as Luthrin explores the house, he becomes hyper apparent to the blood running through his veins and becomes distracted. The rest explore the house and find that there seems to be three people living there, but none are there. Luthrin leaves the house to search for a drumming sound.
As Luthrin explores, he finds the barn emanates with a drumming and a beating. a large splatter of blood slices across the entrance to the barn. Luthrin holds back his growing anger and uneasiness to tell Grimace to grab the others. However, before the others get back, the blood on the door begins moving and enters the barn. Luthrin blasts the door down revealing a group of cultists surrounding an amalgamation of blood. The rest of the group rushes up and sees this and a fight ensues. They manage to kill the creature and many of the cultists, including the priest who attempted to run away and died near the road.
The party uses Skek to speak to this cultist and learn some things in the morning. However, as they are doing so, a pair of destguards approach the farm house. As the group opens the door, Luthrin casts a spell on the guards, so they focus on him and don't notice the blood trail from the body they dragged away. They ask questions about the patch of blood outside near the road and Luthrin gives a convincing lie about a horse, however, the guards manage to look away from Luthrin for a second and hastily decide to end their investigation. They quickly rush back to the city while the party mounts their horses and dash away.

Report Date

01 Feb 2020