There was some debris in the hallway leading off from the bar area, but we didn't stop to look at it. It looked like it led to an unfinished chamber, and there had been a collapse at some point that would have taken us half a day to clear. Instead we took a finished hall that led away from the bar which ran parallel to the largest room we'd seen so far.
There were several doors leading off this hallway. Zinovia listened at the first door and the second. At the third door she heard the sound of footsteps as though someone within was pacing. She decided to open the door.
Inside was a young woman, who introduced herself as Jana 'Gold' Gildersleeves. Zinovia recognized her because she'd been at the inn and had been carrying the broken sword we suspected was the Sword of Wrath. She didn't move to attack us or raise an alarm, so we went into the room to talk with her.
Gold explained that she'd been the leader of the Horned Fangs as a labor group and they had been using the space beneath the inn as their headquarters with the innkeeper's knowledge, until the sinspawn appeared through a portal. One of the sinspawn named Mozamer or Marzimor - she never said his name the same way twice - was intelligent and had begun trying to recruit the Horned Fang members. Mozamer had taken the sword from Gold and demoted her. She hadn't left because she thought of this place as her home. Mozamer had ordered the other Horned Fangs to attack everyone but Gold on sight.
Lonn asked Gold if she'd draw a map of the entire subterranean area or describe it for us and she described it so he could make a rough diagram. On the other side of the big room, she explained that there was a prison for anyone who crossed Mozamer. Those who were sent there never returned but she didn't know why. There were also other rooms closer to the entrance, and tunnels that led to water that were presumably connected to the river. She told us that Mozamer had taken over the largest private chamber which had once been hers.
We persuaded Gold to help us find our way around and get rid of Morzamer, although she was a bit reluctant. Lonn was especially convincing. I admit I was a bit surprised she'd managed to organize the Horned Fangs, as she doesn't seem particularly clever.
We decided to check the other rooms first to make sure no more Horned Fangs would come up behind us before going after Mozamer. First of all we went to see if anyone was in the prison, as Gold said that someone had been sent there a few days earlier though she didn't know who it was. Zinovia heard the sound of chewing through the door. Hunter went down that passageway to a chamber at the end where he found a section of wall that was emitting a golden glow. This we presumed was the portal that the sinspawn had come through, but it seemed to be a one-way portal - they could enter the underground area, but not go back to whatever place they had come from.
Lonn opened the door of the prison room. As soon as he looked inside he saw a swarm of fleshdregs gnawing some bones and slammed the door shut again. Zinovia had looked inside as well and reported that, to our horror, the body the fleshdregs had been consuming appeared to be that of Kynae's father Kolton! He was a weak man, but no one deserved to die that way.
Zinovia started swinging her big sword at the sinspawn, and Lonn drew the Sword of Pride and stabbed at the sinspawn but his strike didn't appear to do any injury. Then the sinspawn did something and all of us took hurt from it except Zinovia. I think he was channeling like a cleric but it wasn't positive energy. Fox cast a spell on him to weaken him. Zinovia was enraged. She chopped him three times as though she was trying to cut down a tree with her sword and the sinspawn went down.
There was a curtained alcove in a corner of the room that proved to be a large bed but held nothing else. I found that the sinspawn was carrying several enchanted items, which we removed. One of the items was another pearl, which I was excited to see. I kept that. There wasn't much else of use in the room; there had been some papers in the desk but unfortunately the fire had destroyed them.
After that we stopped to ask Gold about the sword she'd had, which the sinspawn had taken from her. She told us she'd taken it from Roderic's Wreck. Although the space in the case we'd found there had apparently been made for the sword Lonn now carried, the sword that had been in it had been the Sword of Wrath. While we were talking she mentioned that the sinspawn had said he'd come from Hollow Mountain. I remembered learning that Hollow Mountain was where the Runelords had made or stored their creatures, like sinspawn and fleshdregs. But the way the sinspawn had spoken, at least according to Gold, made it sound like Alaznist still lives? Or perhaps he was simply carrying out his mission and had no idea whether his master was active or in stasis or dead.
One of the other rooms down the hall from Gold's room contained more of the Horned Fang thugs we'd run into when we first found the hideout. We prepared ourselves to fight them by closing the door into the curtained room Hunter had checked previously, then Hunter opened the door to the room where the thugs were. Hunter did something I didn't recognize, Fox sent his fire into the room, and Zinovia charged in and cut one of them in two. It made Fox spew, but evidently Hunter found it quite exciting, because he shut himself and Zinovia in the room for a few moments.
When they were done with whatever they'd been doing in the blood-spattered room, Lonn and Fox used their magic to clean off the blood and then we went on to search all the other rooms. None of the other rooms contained anything interesting or useful. We crossed the large chamber and discovered there was a toilet and a bathhouse. Then we found a bunkroom with four Horned Fangs in it, who of course attacked us on sight as they had been told to do. I could only use my frost cantrip to aid the others as I had no other magic left but for a few scrolls that I'd bought in town earlier. One of the Horned Fangs tried to get past Zinovia and died on her blade, and another felt Lonn's blade before Zinovia brought him down. It was unfortunate that we had to kill them. We don't even know if they were townsfolk or outsiders who had been recruited by the sinspawn.
When the thugs were dealt with we discussed whether we ought to slay the fleshdregs in the prison room, or wait and return on the following day when we'd all recovered and had our full compliment of spells prepared. We were also concerned that more sinspawn could come through the portal, though none of us had the power to close it. Lonn wanted to be rid of the fleshdregs as they had afflicted him with sinscent. We continued our exploration, coming to the water that Gold had told us of.
The walls had partly collapsed in that area, but Gold told us her people had been engaged in clearing it. The water appeared to be flowing in from the east. Hunter and Zinovia waded in first, as there was no way to go further without getting wet. Both of them discovered some tattered rags in the water, which was odd. Then Zinovia fished out an entire pack, of very fine quality despite being sodden, which had signs of minor damage. There was no sign of its owner. The water got cleaner as we went on. Another passageway led off to the southwest and the water level was higher there.
Suddenly a creature emerged from the deeper water. It had two long tentacle-like tongues, one wielding a trident and the other grasping a sword! Everyone else began to attack it, while I observed for a moment and recognized it as a hydraggon. I warned my friends that it wasn't native to this plane, and that could resist some types of energy and was immune to others. Lonn was able to recall even more about it. Everyone but me attacked it, but as usual it was Zinovia who dealt it the death blow. Afterward we discovered that the weapons it had held with its tongues were of very good make. The pack Zinovia found also turned out to have some very good things in it, included a substantial sum of coin. All we could guess was that the hydraggon had pulled someone into its lair from the river.
As we were all wet and tired and depleted of spells, we went back upstairs to the inn. Lonn and Fox helped to dry everyone out with magic. Gold went with us and we conversed with her more while we ate and drank. She revealed that there should be a fifth sinspawn about besides the four we had slain. The leader had been very interested in someone in the town who knew something that the sinspawn apparently didn't want them to know. Gold's description of what it had said made us wonder if perhaps the person it was interested in was Audrahni.
As it happend, Audrahni was at the inn herself at that time, sitting with a woman we didn't know. Fox had become suspicious after we ecncountered the sinspawn diguised as Lady Corstela and the cambion disguised as Adan, and he tried to find out if the other woman was disguised by illusion magic. Hunter then approached Audrahni and asked if we could meet with her later. She invited us to dine with her that evening at her home. While he spoke with Audrahni he observed that though her companion was an older woman, she had the poise of an experienced warrior or soldier.
After that meeting was set we returned to our conversation with Gold. She told us that her mother had indeed slain Sir Roderic, a crime of which Gold felt ashamed. This had forced her to leave Roderic's Cove as a child, though she still considered the town her home. Lonn flirted with her a bit and offered for her to stay in his room. After we examined the contents of the pack Zinovia had found in the water, we discovered that we now had two enchanted cloaks in our possession, one of which could create an illusion of a fiery explosion which Fox found very attractive.
That evening we walked to Audrahni's cottage and had a nice meal with her. She told us she'd seen some unusual blue lights in the cemetery recently and felt that something would happen that very night. She hoped that perhaps the information we'd found would ease Sir Roderic's ghost at last.
Suddenly Zinovia blurted out that Audrahni was being followed and the woman she'd been with earlier was a spy! I had been too deep in my thoughts to notice this earlier. Audrahni was surprised. Hunter then told her about everything we'd found. Audrahni remarked that it was odd that more Thassilonian things had come to light here since she arrived in the town. Lonn asked her what deity she had served before moving to Roderic's Cove. She explained that she had served one of the Empyreal Lords, Ashava, but had lost her faith after her order were all slain by enemies. Her order had been seeking the sword Baraket, but that had been before she joined and she didn't know why they'd been seeking it. But the order had been a scholarly one, and perhaps they'd had information about the Runelords. Her mentors had mentioned other groups who were researching the Runelords.
Audrahni suggested that if we want to find out more about where the sinspawn were coming from, we will probably need to go to the city of Magnimar. She is willing to come with us. Gold will come too, as Magnimar is where she lived after she left Roderic's Cove.
With our discussion concluded, we went out into the cemetery to look for the blue lights. We encountered Sir Roderic at once. He expressed gladness that the town was now safe. As he began to fade from sight he asked that we take the weapon away - meaning the Sword of Wrath - and he would be able to rest. His last words were that we should seek his legacy.
End of Volume 1. Characters are now 5th level.
No comments:
Post a Comment