Follow the bloody footprints
General Summary
Despite whatever argument the McAllister brothers were in the middle of, it didn’t take long for them to solve it and focus back on us. Lili showed one of the green knives to Colonel McAllister. He took the knife and moved it about, trying it in different holds, and weaving it about. After a few minutes, he handed it back to Lili.
“Decent enough knife, but not well balanced, what do you want us to do?” he asked.
“If you could prepare the militia, and warn everyone to get ready. We aren’t sure if we will be able to stop her on our own,” I answered. The Colonel nodded, and we thanked them and started heading back to the cathedral.
As we headed back, Lili and I had quite the shock when we turned the corner of one street and saw Abu Real….. along with Anias and Achni. It took me a second to recover, but before I could quite decide what I wanted to do about that, Achni saw us and whispered to Abu.
“Ahhhh, I’m sure you’re here about your wages,” he said, gesturing us into the room. I glanced over at Lili, but she just stares at Achni and opens and closes her mouth. She is not going to be much help right now.
“Well, actually,” I start to say.
“Yes, yes, you were gone about 12 days, and it was a bit more dangerous than any of us were expecting, so how about a 12 gold bonus for that bit of difficulty, and we’ll call it an even 60?” he raised his eyebrows at me.
“There was a bit of difficulty I’d guess, including your unfortunate death,” as I spoke over at Achni, and nod my head. I was studiously ignored.
“Yes, yes, yes, but as you can see he got better, so all’s well that ends well,” he nodded at me, “And the good news is we can get the mine back into production now.”
“Well there is that small manner of the monster we’re hunting that came from your mines,” I say.
“So 60 gold each, here you are and off you go,” he presses the bag of gold into my hands and hastily turns away. I guess he doesn’t want news getting around that a giant man-eating monster came from his mines. I’m also wondering if he realizes the amazing treasure trove down in his mines, what did Achni tell him?
Lili and I are most of the way back to the cathedral, and are passing by the same gatehouse we used to get into the sewers when I notice two men talking in front of us, and as I watch one of their coin pouches raises off their belt and disappears into a young urchin’s waiting hand. Then the boy runs down into the gatehouse.
I guess someone else figures out how to unlock it also. Be that as it may, I’m quite sure we need to get down into the sewers before we have a whole mob of urchins enthralled to the squog queen.
DOWN INTO THE SEWERS
Lili and I finally make it all the way back to the cathedral, and Milli is up and about, though feeling much weaker than usual. I tell them what we saw, give everyone their money, and we head down into the sewers. Which are much wetter than I remembered, which makes total sense after all of the rain we’ve had for the past month or so. After a bit of searching, I find some tracks that look like my urchin. “It looks like there used to be several people bedding down here, but they feel abandoned,” Devan commented looking into several niches we passed. I point up to a niche further up, “The footsteps stop here,” I say. Which leads to a long discussion of how we should announce ourselves to the sneak thief. “You know, you’re not as quiet as you think you are,” a voice calls from the niche. “Well, we weren’t really trying to be quiet, so you could know we were here. It doesn’t pay to sneak up on a rogue. It’s bad for your health,” Devan retorted. “What do you want?” the voice asked. “We want information, and we’re willing to pay for it,” Devan said holding out one of the green knives. “It’s sharp, doesn’t need sharpening, and it’s made out of an uncommon metal, you’ve probably never seen it before.” “Are you sure you want to give away one of these knives?” I ask. “We’re still not 100% sure it’s not the knives that are causing the mutations.” “It’s fine, I’m sure it won’t be a problem to give him the knife,” Devan waves off my concerns. Meanwhile, I’m having visions of more people who have changed into those strange creatures we saw back at the mining camp. The knife disappears from Devan’s hand, and the voice called back, “What do you want to know?” “We just want to know where the people who have been disappearing have gone,” Devan said. “Oh, I’ll show you, but I’m not going anywhere near there,” the voice answered quickly, “I don’t want to be changed like they were. It took the gangs, and now they serve it.” “So, you’re not affiliated with anyone?” “No, you can’t trust anyone but yourself. This just goes to prove it all.” “Well, we’ll follow you to the place, and once we’re there you can disappear where you want,” Devan said. “Done, follow me.” Do you have any clue how hard it is to follow someone you can’t see? He kept calling back to us like we were the slowest creatures on earth, but that blasted boy hides like nobody’s business. After a while we heard his voice, “And our deal is concluded, it’s just down that hall.” I really hope he doesn't stab anyone with that knife.THE CAVERN OF MANY TERRIBLE THINGS
We discuss for a few minutes how to best see what’s going on, and finally, I say, “I’ll sneak in and check it out as a mouse, they’re not gonna notice a mouse among all the others in the sewers.” They all nod, and I head in. It takes a bit because things are much farther when you’re only a few inches long, but after a while, I come to a cavern that gives the impression of many people. I scurry in and see a chanting glowing woman in the middle of six figures kneeling around her with makeshift weapons. “Make your way, get to the center, don’t be caught. I will join you in the center soon.” I get the impression she is guiding them to something. I sneak in a little further, I say sneak, but with the noise, she was making they weren’t going to notice me, and I notice they’re in the bottom of a large well, and as I look up it looks like there might be surface access. We sneak in following behind Devan, who went ahead, and then Cap’n has his light. Our plan is for me to go in first and cast fairy fire on the group making it easier for us to take them down. I slowly move forward trying to be as quiet as possible, when I look down and see my left heel is glowing. Why is my left heel glowing? Then I hear from behind me, “Thar ya be girly, now you can see just fine.” Oh, Cap’n helped me out. I really would have preferred it not be on my boot. Sigh. I head over and cast fairy fire, and successfully catch three of them, and she rabbits. But a few seconds later Devan cries out as she reappears and bites him. Then he turns to her and says, “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, and I would love to help you.” That is not good. Milli turns to shoot the squog queen, and hits her once, but hits Devan. He is quite put out with this and turns to do something horrid to her (I’m sure it was going to be horrid), but before he gets the chance Lili appears out of nowhere, grabs Devan by the ear, and shouts, “Get out of him creature!” Which quite nicely solved that problem. I try to throw fire at the creature and she dodges. Devan does successfully throw Greek fire on her, and Cap’n casts spirit guardians. Her poor minions don’t stay up long after that. She turns to Milli and charms her, telling her to kill Cap’n. Thankfully Lili is able to remove the curse from her as well, though it wasn’t anywhere near as dramatic. Cap’n flourishes the sign of the Creator at the squog queen, and he later said he got the feeling of something unholy, and she hissed at him, “When I find the Andremani Vault I will come back and destroy you,” then she took off flying up the well shaft. “That’s right fly away, you cowardly weasel. When I find you, I will throw you back into the depths of whatever hell you crawled your way out of, and not even the foul creatures there will recognize you when I am through with you,” but she continues to fly away. I try desperately to cast hold person on her, but it has no effect, and she flies up the well shaft. “Give me rope,” I say glancing up, “I’ll climb up and lower it down and we can follow her.” Cap’n passes me his 200 feet of rope, and I shapeshift into a gecko and climb up the well shaft. I look around and realize we are right next to the cathedral and she has flown towards the monastery. STORMING THE CATHEDRAL? After everyone climbs up we charge into the cathedral with Cap’n yelling, “Clear the church, thar be a beastie comin’ that will try to possess you!” The confused choir members look around, and after one more shout they all runoff. Only then do we realize there is no one else for us to talk to, so I lead us to where the Abbott met with Cap’n and I this morning. Only the door is locked. Devan moves forward and picks the lock and just he announces it’s unlocked Cap’n comes up and kicks the door in. It seems a bit over the top, but it seemed to help calm him down a bit. And we enter to find a completely calm and empty room. Oh, and a doorway that again Devan picks the lock and we a bit more calmly open this door. Only to see a dead monk in the hallway. We follow the bloody footprints down the hallways and hear sounds of fighting. There are two monks surrounded by a whole crowd of dead and dying gang members. Cap’n rushes in and stabilizes them while I thunderwave the remaining scoundrels. Ahead is a locked and sealed door that Devan picks and we carefully open. Only to see a courtyard with the remains of three trees covered in thick spiny vines. A slim lady with ebony skin is standing ot the side. She watches us coyly as a figure of bone covered in vines fights with the squog queen. She turns and says, “You brought some friends too,” in Elvish. As I glance around I see a large crystalline box surrounded by brambles. As we look up to the two creatures fighting, the sky tears open and the squog queen is pulled through into a place of darkness and fire. The woman smiles and turns to us, “Do you want to play as well?” As we look around Devan notices the bones of a humanoid holding a staff made of metal. “Are the trees important?” I ask her. “It seems worrisome they are dying.” “They are not important, what is yet thrives.” “Why are you here?” “I serve my Lady, the Witch Lady,” she said invitingly. I glance over at the crystal coffin, “Who is in the coffin?” “Someone of no importance, my Lady wishes her guarded as per the agreement with the Andremani, so I guard. You can see her if you wish it,” and she waves her arm and a path opens between the briars. I glance over at my companions, Devan is busy retrieving the staff, and I decide to see who is in the coffin. She’s a young elven girl. Maybe eight years old, she has pale skin and hair, and there’s a faint hint of her breathing. “She may yet have a normal life if you release her from her imprisonment if you wish it?” the Ebony Lady says. “I would not dare. I do not know why she was placed in here. This crystal enclosure may be all that keeps her alive from a dangerous disease, or she could be imprisoned for reasons I know not. I dare not open it,” and I turn away from the young beauty leaving the coffin behind me. “Ah well, if that is your wish. I think our conversation is at an end,” and the path closed behind me as I left the coffin. As I talked with her, Cap’n healed the two monks so they can get up, and they panicked seeing us in the hidden garden. I’ve never seen monks move quite so fast as they did. Or be so pushy. They really didn’t want us in there. Just as we got the door closed again and Devan somehow got it locked again, the Abbott rushed up with six monks beside him. “What is going on here?” he demanded in a loud stern voice. Exactly the voice I remember my parish priest using when I’d been caught sneaking a nap in church. I don’t know how this will go
Report Date
21 Dec 2021
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