Session 7: A Cult Discovered

General Summary

After a productive night of investigation, a new day dawns on the Bumbling Bee tavern in Honeyport. Vexna and Jenny were the first to wake up, along with Thylius. Both started their morning by spending some time preparing for the day. Thylius also notices that the Jötun Jorg is gone. Varinel is the first of the party to come down for breakfast. Tiredly he gets his breakfast and sits down with Wilfrick. Then Vexna and Jenny come down and sits down along with them, shortly followed by Thylius who asks them if they have seen Jorg. Vexna replies by asking the tiefling how he managed to lose a giant-man. Yujin runs past them to feed the horses, not acknowledging any of them. He later comes back in and sits down with the rest of the party. Madame Jeanne, who apparently had been waiting in the corner of the tavern, also join the party's table. The party then engage in a long discussion, sharing what they had found out during the night. About the symbol of Abraxas in Argus' wardrobe and the book written in abyssal and undercommon. About Simeon's letters and the man in his bed. They talked about confronting the rest of the councilmembers. They eventually decided to attempt at getting the book to Thylius who could be able to read its contents. The plan was for Varinel and Vexna to distract Argus while Yujin would sneak in from the back window and get the book to Thylius who would wait outside the back window. He would then give it back to Yujin who would get it back into Argus' wardrobe. The plan was executed flawlessly, with Vexna and Varinel confronting Argus about the weirdness surrounding the witchhunts in the town. Varinel managed to sense some unease as the fat half-elf tried to explain away the strange occurrences. Meanwhile, Thylius read the book Argus had hidden in his wardrobe which contained praises to the demon lord Abraxas and instructions on how to summon his followers. In the meantime, Madame Jeanne disguised herself as an ordinary citizen and headed down to the docks to confront the merchant Frickard. She eventually found the catfolk merchant who was in the midst of unloading one of his ships. Jeanne managed to trick the merchant into helping her by telling him that she was working for the Green Dragon of the king's council. In a stressed and fearful manner, he tells her about a warehouse he is renting to the mysterious Johnny. Jeanne then takes her leave. The rest of the party is joined by the town guards that aided Vexna, Borin and Delric, before heading down towards the docks as well. On the way the encounter Wilfrick whom Vexna had asked to gather all those who had tipped her off the weirdness of the witchhunts. He happily and eagerly asked them how their investigation was going. They hushed him down before telling them what they had found out. When asked bout his mission he waved it off as being completed. He then hurried off to the tavern. The party continued. When they reached the docks Jeanne caught sight of them and decided to stay close as they headed towards Frickard. The catfolk merchant upon being asked about the witch-hunt again so soon waved them away and said that he already told them all he could. The party left and instead walked towards the baker Roberto Summerstride, whilst Jeanne went to the tavern. Upon meeting and confronting the baker, he told them that he had met the town guard captain and talked about the current investigation of the missing tailor. Vexna managed to catch him in his lie and accuses him of being a part of the demonic conspiracy. Affronted by these accusations the baker decides to go see the mayor in order to get things sorted out. The party chooses to follow, thinking that they may have just arrested the first of the conspirators. Yujin ran into the tavern in order to get Jeanne, but wasn't able to find her. Instead he found a man in the service of the Red Dragon on the king's council named Marcus, which was actually Jeanne in disguise. She followed him to the mayor's office. He also had his wolf grab a reluctant Wilfrick who had approached him to ask how their search was going. Upon meeting the mayor again and Roberto claiming to have been falsely accused, Johnathan demands an explanation. Vexna explains that she caught him lying about what Simeon has managed to find in his investigation. During the discussions, Varinel secretly leaves to investigate the baker's house further. Afterwhich Marcus (Jeanne) and Yujin enter. Vexna recognizes the disguised Jeanne, but says nothing. They also let the unwilling Wilfrick go back to the tavern as he had nothing to add. Whilst discussing the issue it is revealed that Roberto did lie, but only because he had confronted Simeon on the matter of him sleeping with his son and not the investigations. He then promised to aid the group in their ongoing investigation. Meanwhile, Varinel had walked over to the bakery and summoned Stefan in his incorporeal form. Stefan passed into the house and searched it, room by room. In the room belonging to Roberto's son, he found a book under the bed. A book that reminded him of the one in Argus' wardrobe. Despite the fear of being discovered by one of Roberto's daughters who were present in the other rooms, he manifested himself in a physical form to take a closer look at the book. It seemed to be just like the one in Argus' wardrobe as far as Stefan could tell. Stefan then heard as one the small girls in the other rooms started to walk towards him, having heard him move around. Not wanting to be discovered Stefan climbed out the window, but he wasn't fast enough as the girl caught him stepping over the windowsill. She, of course, was dumbfounded at the sight of the spectral blue knight. He gave a friendly wave before dropping down and running around the corner where he disappeared. Varinel then walked up towards the mayor's office, and on the town square, he met Vexna, Yujin, Thylius and the rest. After the rest of the group left, Jeanne disguised as Marcus convinces the Mayor to follow him and gather some town guards to arrest and expose Argus. A plan that went against what the party had decided to do previously. The two went to the barracks where they noticed that Simeon had noticed the missing letters that Varinel had taken hand the entire building was now in lockdown. They still managed to gather five guards who followed them as they marched towards the Content Townsman. They marched over the town square where they were spotted by the rest of the party who watched in discontent. As the guards banged on the door, no one seemed to be home. They entered the general store and found that Argus was nowhere to be found. In is wardrobe, the book was now gone and the symbol had been painted over. Johnathan respectfully scolded what he thought was a royal intelligence agent that he couldn't send his troops into any home without proof or evidence. After they had left Jeanne dropped the disguise and rejoined the party, who had watched this trainwreck of a sting operation. As evening approached the town, the group decides to look for the illustrious Johnny who had become more suspicious the more they heard of him. They left for the warehouse that Frickard had pointed out. All except Thylius who instead went to check with Thomas. In the warehouse they just found boxes crates, nothing seemed apparently suspicious. Varinel stood guard outside. Yujin eventually ran out of patience and left for the baker's house instead to look for the book that Varinel had told them about. After some searching Vexna and Jeanne, however, managed to find a secret underground pathway. The two left Borin and Delric to guard Jenny, whilst they entered the tunnel, with Jeanne sneaking ahead. She eventually happened upon a large underground room where four cloaked figures were performing a ritual whilst Wilfrick hung from the wall along with Jordan Gwenstock, the missing tailor. The two went back to fetch the rest of the party and plan their next move. The party gathers again, with Varinel fetching Yujin who had managed to find out that the book under the baker's son's bed was missing, and Jeanne ran to get Thylius who hadn't found anything new. Jeanne also grabbed her musket from the tavern. Vexna also sent Delric to fetch the town guard whilst Borin watched Jenny at the path's entrance. Once they had gathered the party ventured into the underground path. Jeanne ventured ahead of the rest as they walked towards the room. When they saw the weird ritual, Vexna charged into the cultists and a battle ensued. As they were fighting they noticed that in the middle of this ritual was a Gibbering Mouther. A beast consisting of a fluid-like body filled with eyes and mouths. One of the cultists fell back and began to cast spells from scrolls at the party. When he realized that he was losing, this figure who they realized to be the illustrious Johnny, he yelled at the party whilst also transforming into Wilfrick:

You have ruined everything! When my master hears of this, you are all going to die.

The now Wilfrick-looking figure then cast another spell from a scroll and turned into mist, that seeped into the wall behind him. The battle was won as the last cultist fell and the gibbering creature turned into a pile on the floor. Only one of the cultist was dead. When they unmasked him it turned out to be Argus. The other two who still lived turned out to be Simeon and Roberto's son. The party stood victoriously as the session ended.

Campaign

Stories from Scaelor

Protagonists