Sanguine Sunrise #24: Hunting for Blood
General Summary
After leaving the temple of Oghma, the group begin planning what to do next. They find a vendor of a member of the Crimson Jewels. A strange scene ensues there where a person wearing many pieces of jewelry but otherwise covered in rags attempted to buy another piece and had to leave for more money. Then, a simple exchange occurs, and a diamond necessary for ressurection is acquired.
They returned to the temple and magically coerced Ogmar into ressurecting Sandy, and she headed off on her own. The party then left and readied for an investigation the following day.
After warning the proprietor of the Broken Candle of the threat caused by the letter, she tells them that the courier was a dwarf with a limp. They then found refuge at a inn called the archer's House by a halfling woman named Pervia who demonstrates the reality of nominative determinism due to her rather lewd sense of humor.
Immediately after awaking, the group venture to the House of Inspired Hands to follow up on a lead Luthrin has. In travelling through here, they see some inventions abound and become the audience to the progresses and failures of many experiments as they stay here. Valetta, one of the head priests of the temple meet them and reassure them that Nim is being watched much closer, but he has been given his tools back. Luthrin, still following up on his suspicions, heads with Valetta up to the upper parts of this temple of Gond to see Nim.
Reaching this upper area, they see Nim and a half-elf hand watching him, and a questioning begins with Valetta translating for the mute robot. This investigation leads to the fact that the timeline with the first attack didn't work, Nim seemed genuinely sorry for the first construct he created who hurt people to a couple of the party members, and his being observed made it very unlikely he could have orchestrated these scenes of murder.
Continuing the investigation, the group question one of the inventors in the temple upon learning she has a pet mechanical spider. She tries to subvert the questions, but she eventually gives in and tells the people speaking to her that a bald halfling with a limp paid her with the spider to buy mechanical scrap for him from the temple. They attempt to find Grinda to ask her about the situation, but it turns out that she was imprisoned for aiding terrorists before disappearing from her cell.
Learning that this halfling has been implicated in two parts of this arachnid death trap, the group head to the Yawning Portal to speak to Yagra. While here, Luthrin learns that a bald halfling dubbed, The Spider had his back broken by Grimace in fights a while back. In the meantime, Gratorr buys some strong alcoholic mixture and most of the group get very drunk before sleeping.
The group spend a full day investigating the arena to no avail. However, on their way to the arena, they hear a preaching from Martyn, an actor and musician who claims that the Crimson Jewels guild allowed him to find a better life. However, he was interrupted by a dwarf saying that members of the Jewels had just died in a small town, Martyn retorted by saying the root problem and the tensity with the dwarves would be hastily fixed, and then some guards took the dwarf away as he claimed that the jewels would kill people in Secomber.
Luckily, Gratorr is experienced in tracking people in an urban environment as he's spent some time tracking Azada for the past while, so he recommends they go to a print shop to learn where it was printed. This printshop has a large man in a trenchcoat wearing a fedora, black sunglasses, and a mask over his face, and for 20 gp and the bottle of alcohol the adventurers just bought, which they claimed was water, the totally normal single humanoid creature reached his small, scaley hand out and took the stuff he needed while telling them this was printed at Allira's.
After making their way to this shop, the group intimidate a worker into talking about the man who printed it, and she is even able to give directions that he told her incase anyone replied to the message. Heading here, it turned out The Spider was waiting in an alleyway to speak to the party, but Luthrin simply killed him after he gained the satisfaction of being known as the one who hurt them like they destroyed his life.
With Sandy's altered death avenged, the group leave to Secomber as Azada claims she has something to do there herself. On the seventh day of travel, they see the foggy town of Secomber due to the multitudinous guides who stand outside of it with their lanterns in the foggy place off the High Moor. The group immediately decide to take the tiefling with charcoal black skin wearing jewelry and patches of many symbols upon his clothes.
Coren, as they learn his name is, leads them through the town, pointing out some tribesmen and tribeswomen who have stopped to trade here and a recent arrival in the town. Then, he leads them to the mines, ready to face whatever boogie man is out there.
As they head into the woods, a tree branch falls on their way. This spooks the group, but they still move through how they already had been. Heading into the mine, one of the miners tells them that the boogie man isn't real, and even if he is, he isn't going to be a bother. Another dwarf however, recounts the story his cousin told him of how he saw the creature like a tiger standing on two legs, and he ran for his life.
The group, unsatisfied with the answer of there being no boogie man, head deeper into the woods with Coren, looking for this creature. Azada gets hit by a rock while travelling, but looking around, all they see is a branch of a tree bobbing up and down. They hear a voice call out, and when they reach where it came from, the same is occuring there. This proceeds for a while, before the woman from the town reveals herself as Arborea Wylde, sister of Guy Wylde and enemy of the order of crimson. After asking a few questions of Azada, she says they must prepare if a ritual of infliction occurs, and she asks her to come and stay at least until nightfall.
Missions/Quests Completed
Killed the Mechanic/The Spider
Character(s) interacted with
Ogmar, the Minotaur of Oghma
Valetta, the Hand of Gond
Nim, the Silent Construct
Yagra, Friend from the Family
Martyn, the Crimson Recruiter
Uzzer, the goblin, kobold, and giant squirrel in a trench coat
The Spider, a Winner in Death
Coren, the symbolic guide
Arborea Wylde, "The Crimson Hunter"
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