Session 6: Something is Rotten in Little Ferry Act IV Report

General Summary

Galensday the 9th of Harvestide in the year 3025 AF The Fate Bound accepted their rewards from Commander Zander and were eager to follow-up on their lead suspect Colwyn Arnbyte. Druss asked Commander Zander about the Arnbyte family and how long they had been in Little Ferry. The commander told them that the Arnbyte family had been part of Little Ferry almost from the founding of the settlement. As far as he was concerned, Colwyn Arnbyte was a wealthy merchant dealing in the distribution and shipping of a variety of goods. As the heroes were talking to Commander Zander, they were interrupted by Gerard a member of the Riverguard telling them that he had received a message from the Temple of Morwen that their friend Tenzin had final awakened and was asking for them. The Fate Bound took their leave of the commander and hurried to the Temple Square, eager to see their friend. They were greeted at the door by Lydia who looked very excited to see them. She ushered them along into the chamber where Tenzin awaited them. He looked a bit tired, but was in good spirits and pleased to see his friends. They asked how he was feeling and what he could remember. Tenzin told them that felt well rested, but a bit sore. He remembered everything that had happened on the night he used his powers to return Malcolm from the dead. They all spent the next half-hour telling Tenzin what had happened since he had been unconscious. Sister Amalia entered the chamber and interrupted their conversation. She wore freshly pressed and cleaned vestments, but she looked tired and a bit worn out. Asking Lydia to leave the room, the revered mother locked the door and turned to face the Fate Bound. She asked them if they were all aware of the symbol that was on Tenzin's chest and what it meant. As they responded in the affirmative, her expression changed and she looked each of them in the eye. She told them that Tenzin had been chosen by Morwen to be given the gifts of The Empaths. She told them that the gift was very rare, the last recorded Empath lived almost three generations ago.

Sigil of the Empaths on Tenzin's Chest Sister Amalia also warned them that the power could be used with either good or evil intent. She told them of Empaths that realized that they could use their powers to take life and make themselves essentially immortal. Still others had been manipulated or coerced by others to use their powers contrary to the will of Morwen. She asked all of the Fate Bound to swear to her that they would keep Tenzin's power secret and also help their friend to find the true path. A brief moment of silence passed as they all considered the words of the revered mother. Then they all vowed to keep Tenzin's power secret and to stand by him when needed. Tenzin then asked Sister Amalia if there was any book or tome here in the temple that he could study about how to control the powers of The Empaths. She told him that they would need to travel to the Cathedral of Morwen in Garrison. There they could speak to the Grand Cleric who would be able to help. Tenzin also asked if the weakness he felt after using the power could be overcome. Sister Amalia told him that she believed so, but she did not know how to do so once again directing them to seek the Grand Cleric for more answers. As they moved out into the main temple, a man strode toward them. He was tall with broad shoulders and had a regal bearing. His left arm was conspicuously missing as the sleeve of his rich tunic was pinned up to his chest. He introduced himself as Gregori Erwin a Knight of the Shining Circle. His daughter Marlene is one of the missing children. He wanted to know how the search was going and if he could help in any way. The Fate Bound told him that they were doing all they could. Gregori also told them that he had served together with the Jacoby's when they lived in Garrison and he was sad to hear that their son Quinn was also missing. Before he left he stopped to talk to Leonardo having seen the symbol on his chest. The veteran placed a firm hand on his heart and told him to embrace his destiny and trust what he felt inside. He then turned and strode out of the temple. Arveer then gave Sister Amalia a 15 gold piece donation and asked if she would say a special sermon to honor his brother Balthazar who had died in the service of Morwen. She happily agreed and blessed them in the name of the Mother, her shoulders slumping almost imperceptibly as they left. The Temple Square was starting to fill up as the opening evening of the Harvest Festival was underway. Street vendors hawked their wares and performers entertained the crowd with juggling, singing and dancing. The Fate Bound made their way through the crowd toward Dockside as Druss wanted to ask the Dockmaster some questions about Arnbyte Shipping. The heroes arrived just in time as the Dockmaster, Jonathan Barnes was locking up for the night. It took some convincing to get him to reopen his office, but in the end he let them in. Druss asked him about the Whiskey Gold that he had seen in the unmarked warehouse. The Dockmaster knew without even looking through his records that the liquor had been delivered recently to one of the warehouses owned by Colwyn Arnbyte as he is the exclusive distributor of Whiskey Gold. The Fate Bound then escorted the Dockmaster to Fort Highwater with his log book so that they could make sure the evidence was safe in the hands of the Riverguard. After delivering the logbook to Commander Zander, the heroes decided that it was time for them to pay a visit to Arnbyte Manor and confront Colwyn Arnbyte about the warehouse and the lies he told them about the disappearance of Quinn Jacoby. The streets of Cliffside were empty as most of the townsfolk had gone to the Temple Square for the start of the Harvest Festival. The manor was dark and all of the curtains were drawn. A knock on the door produced no answer and so Shayne deftly picked the lock. As he did so the heroes saw a purplish glow fill the night. Remembering what had happened in the Druthain Wood they looked skyward and saw the "comet" once again. It appeared to be hovering over the Temple Square and shouts from that direction confirmed that indeed it had arrived. The Fate bound quickly decided that their priority was to rescue the children and to do that they needed to find out what was going on inside Arnbyte Manor. They had to choice but to trust that the Riverguard would protect the people of Little Ferry in the Temple Square. The door opened into a quiet and dark house. Shayne snapped his fingers and summoned Faerie Fire to provide some light. They remembered the layout of the place from the day before and decided to head down the hallway through the center of the manor. About halfway down they noticed an open door leading to the basement. They raced down the stairs to find themselves in a wine cellar. Druss and Arveer lit torches and held them with their shield arms. The light revealed broken bottles and an overturned table in one corner. A quick search of the room revealed some scratch marks on the floor. Druss looked in the wine racks and saw a clean bottle of Whiskey Gold that stood out from the other items. He pulled the bottle and that section of the wine rack slid open revealing a natural stone passage beyond. The passage was damp and dark and sloped slowly down into the gloom. They walked for what seemed like hours until they could see the glow up ahead of some torches. As they neared the light they saw a short staircase leading up to a door flanked by torches in wall sconces. A closer look at the door revealed a relief in the now familiar swirling vortex shaped symbol of Thydos. Gilligan tried to place the medallion that he took from Malcolm in a depression in the center of the vortex, but nothing happened. While doing so he noticed that there was a brownish, red substance in the center. Reasoning that it was blood, Shayne cut himself and put a drop of his blood in the depression and the door ground open slowly revealing a staircase leading down into a room. A flickering light somewhere out of sight within the room beyond danced among the shadows on a flagstone floor. With their senses on alert they were easily able to detect that someone was hiding on either side of the entrance to the room. Ready for battle they pushed down the stairs into the room to find a burial chamber with three sarcophagi evenly spaced in the middle of the room. On either side of the stairs two cultist lunged forward while a third stood near a glowing white flame along the center of the wall to their left. To their right was a closed stone door. To their horror, the lid of the middle sarcophagus slid open and they saw a mail clad wight emerge with pale mummified flesh covering a twisted skeleton. It's hands ended in deadly claws and it bared sharp teeth jagged like needles as it rose from the grave and moved toward the heroes brandishing a broadsword.

Wight Arveer battled the cultists flanking the entrance while Tenzin called upon the power of Morwen to force the wight to flee. The cultist near the glowing flame cast a spell and a bloody sword appeared and attacked the heroes. Iados Mahari cast Magic Missile and mistakenly hit the wight releasing him from the power of Morwen. Druss entered the room slaying a cultist after jumping up on one of the sarcophagi. Gilligan entered the room and attempted to use Viscous Mockery to no effect. Leonardo used a holy smite to send one cultist to his death. Now the remaining cultist used a Command spell to get Druss to drop his weapon. This only delayed his demise, however; as the Fate Bound working together were able to dispatch the wight and then put an end to the cultist. Taking some time to look around the room, they moved first to the stone door. It was not locked and opened with a scraping noise of stone on stone. This revealed a passage beyond that was filled with cobwebs leading to a blank wall at the far end. Since they were looking for the children they deduced that they had not come this way and so turned their attention to the room. Helms were scattered on the floor near the glowing flame. They noticed that the flame did not radiate any heat. Leonardo picked up one of the helmets and placed it over the flame. As soon as he did so a section of the wall opposite the stairs opened revealing a passage beyond. The Fate Bound moved through the secret door and after rounding a corner to their left they found a long hallway leading to a heavy wooden door. On their guard, they searched the area very carefully and found a pressure plate about twenty feet down the corridor. Shayne knelt down and examined the trigger and using his tools was able to very carefully disarmed the trap so that they could travel down the corridor safely. The door at the other end of the hallway was not locked so they opened it and found the hallway continued forward to a door while there was also a passage leading off to their left to another door. They approached the door directly in front of them and noticed that a wooden placard with writing on it was hung on the handle by an iron chain. It read, "Don't be greedy! Certain death lies within." Although tempted to enter the room, they remembered that it was a race against time to find the children so they moved on. At the end of the other passage they opened the door and entered a dank chamber with three alcoves along the left and right walls. It looked to be a burial crypt that had been converted into a barracks as many crude sleeping bags were strewn about the floor. Niches along all the walls held the bones of those long dead although many of the bones had been moved into the last two alcoves on either side furthest away from where they came in. There were no other doors in the room. The Fate Bound set about searching the room and it was clear that this is where the cultist slept, but there was no sign of them now. The bones looked to be haphazardly piled into the far alcoves with old weapons and armor mixed in. As they searched the back wall they discovered a secret door. When the opened it the bones in each of the alcoves animated as three armored skeletons rose to attack them within each alcove. The battle was a quick one for our heroes as they made short work of the skeletons. Shayne distinguished himself in the battle at one point leaping over Arveer and driving his rapier through a skeleton destroying it instantly. The secret door opened up into a natural cavern that was not part of the crypt. As they moved into the darkness they began to here a gurgling, slurping sound coming from a passage in front of them. Moving forward slowly they came to an intersection with winding passages leading to their left and right. The noise, louder now, was coming from the left passage and so they headed in that direction. It lead to a large cavern with the terrible smell of rotten flesh emanating from it. In the recessed of the room were two horrific looking creatures that looked like amorphous blobs with hundreds of small mouths scattered all over their bulbous bodies. A closer look revealed bones and tattered pieces of flesh that were scattered throughout the room. The creatures did not move to attack them and so the Fate Bound moved toward the other passage, the safety of the children foremost in their minds.

Gibbering Mouther As they moved down the other passage they notice a greenish glow flickering in the chamber. Turning the corner they saw a natural cavern with recesses on both sides. At the far side of the room was a swirling, green wall of energy blocking off the exit from the chamber. Looking around they noticed dirty straw had been spread on the floor of each of the recesses and they quickly deduced that this is where the missing children had been kept. They approached the swirling field of green energy and heard chanting coming from beyond it. They were getting close. An idea sprang into Gilligan's head as he looked at the barrier. He quickly pulled out the trinket they had taken from the assassin Malcolm that had the same swirling shape to it. As he did so, the barrier dropped and the chanting became louder. The Fate Bound raced into the passage toward the sound of the chanting. The Fate Bound burst into a large natural chamber that glowed with a purplish light. Rows of chanting cultist stood in front of them facing an altar that was raised on a platform at the other end of room. Behind the altar was a cultist in flowing black robes with a serrated dagger in one hand. He was flanked by two large statues of Thydos that held flaming braziers on iron chains and another cultist who looked to be preparing a spell. The cultist in the black robes was swaying back and forth and motioning with his other hand toward a pentagram in front of the altar. The pentagram was glowing with energy and was flanked by two bonfires. Standing on the pentagram were four children. They appeared to be locked in place and showed no signs of movement. At the base of the platform was a rift in the floor. It looked as is something had burst through from below and noxious vapors seeped up through the crack hovering over the opening menacingly. Prowling around the altar was a Comet Spawn who upon seeing the heroes opened his maw and emitted it's hideous screech that chilled the heroes to the bone. Leonardo and Druss charged into the left flank hacking at the cultists who turned to face them. Arveer stood his ground as waves of cultist broke against him and fell to his devastating ripostes. The Comet Spawn bounded forward and stood at the edge of the rift in the floor emitting it's blood-curdling scream. The Fate Bound having faced the creature before were not effected. Shayne ran forward and boldly leaped over the rift, the fumes seeming to reach out and grab him as he flipped up onto the platform next to the children. He continued up onto the altar and there he looked upon the face of Colwyn Arnbyte. Their suspicions had been confirmed, Colwyn was the leader of the cultists. Tenzin called upon the power of Morwen and blessed his friends to help them in the coming fight. Iados moved forward to cast a spell and stopped short. He heard a deep voice emanating from the rift in the floor. It said, "My son, you have denied your heritage for too long. Embrace your power and I will help you. Call out to me and I will free the children and your friends will come to no harm." Iados ignored the voice and cast his spell as flames burst from his outstretched fingers into the nearest cultists. Gilligan moved around Arveer and raced toward the Comet Spawn. In a risky move, he kicked the creature in the side with all his might. Teetering on the edge of the rift for a moment, the Comet Spawn let out a low howl as it fell backwards, its claws scrambling for purchase on the edge of the abyss. Then it slid out of sight a long "screeeech" echoing throughout the chamber as it plummeted toward certain death. As the battle with the cultists raged in front of the rift, Shayne leapt at Colwyn stabbing him with his rapier. In response, Colwyn slashed the knife across his palm spraying the altar and Shayne with his crimson blood. As he did so the energy around the children intensified, wisps of energy now flowing from the children up toward the roof of the chamber. Leonardo and Druss continued to battle through the cultist on the left flank, pushing toward the altar. Arveer finished off the cultist on the right flank and filled with anger at the plight of the children he ran forward and leapt up on the platform only to be pushed back by a magical barrier that now surrounded the helpless children. As he looked into the eyes of the children and saw the pained expression on their faces he raised his sword high and stabbed it down into the barrier. The point of the sword flashed and sparked with arcane energy, but Arveer stood firm, beads of sweat forming on his brow. Colwyn raised his hand and pointed his fingers at the heroes sending out scorching rays which blasted into Shayne and Gilligan knocking out the halfing who luckily fell just short of the rift. Iados leapt across the rift and up onto the platform casting a shatter spell on the altar and Colwyn filling the chamber with a thunderous sound. The cultist fell back against the wall as the altar broke apart. Even though the altar had been destroyed Arveer still continued to struggle mightily to break through the barrier. He could feel some of his own lifeforce being drawn into the barrier. Shayne came to his aid putting his hand on the dragonborn's shoulder trying to do whatever he could to help him. Tenzin called upon the power of Morwen to heal his friend Gilligan and then ran to aid Arveer in his struggle to break through the barrier. Druss and Leonardo had now reached the altar and cut down the priest next to Colwyn and together they looked to finish off the cult leader. As the battle reached it's climax, Iados once again heard the voice of his father emanating from the depths of the rift. "My son, your friend is suffering. Call out to me and I will free the children and make sure no harm comes to your friend." Unfazed by the voice, Iados ignored him instead focusing on using his magical powers to aid his friends. Arveer realized that no matter how hard he tried, his bodily strength and that of his friends was not enough to break through the barrier. To free the children he needed to sacrifice of himself, give part of his bodily strength to rescue them. He struggled with the decision only briefly and then having decided he released the energy from his body and a powerful surge of energy erupted along the length of his sword and slammed against the barrier breaking the magical spell and freeing the children. At that moment, Colwyn was slain by a mighty blow from Leonardo. As the cultist's body hit the ground, the heroes were surprised to see that ten feet away near one of the statues a strange creature appeared. It looked to be a brain with four legs! None of them had ever seen a thing like that before. Druss made short work of the hideous creature slicing it in two with his sword.

The Thing that Left Colwyn's body The battle was over, the children were saved and now the Fate Bound needed to piece together exactly what had happened. Here ends session 6.

Missions/Quests Completed

The Fate Bound put an end to the cultists of Thydos that had operated secretly in Little Ferry under the direction of their leader Colwyn Arnbyte. Four of the missing children were rescued from the clutches of the cultists of Thydos.

Character(s) interacted with

Commander Zander who was asked about the reputation and family history of Colwyn Arnbyte the lead suspect in the kidnappings. Lydia and Sister Amalia clerics of Morwen as they came to see their friend Tenzin who had regained consciousness under the clerics care. Gregori Erwin a Knight of the Shining Circle who talked to the Fate Bound about his missing daughter Marlene. Jonathan Barnes the Dockmaster of Little Ferry to discuss shipments of Whiskey Gold. Colwyn Arnbyte finally revealed as the head of the Cult of Thydos in Little Ferry. When he was slain, a strange creature looking like a brain with legs appeared next to the body.

Campaign

Into the Maelstrom

Protagonists