Shadows of the Old Empire (Pathfinder Campaign Journal)

[Schylerwalker]

I have decided to post my first ever campaign journal on this website, of my (heavily homebrewed) Pathfinder campaign. Be gentle with me. I tend to ramble a lot, especially when it comes to campaign setting and history stuff. If it's pertinent to the plot, or to avoid confusion, I'll comment on houserules (Or just post them in a big lump if people are curious enough). I'll try to post once or twice a week (Which is how often we'll be playing). I am using some published materials (heavily edited) and some of you may notice names, or tweaked names, here and there.

Background
The campaign world is a mix of the Dark Ages (Just after the fall of Rome) and Renaissance/Greek City States. The players and their characters, and most people in general, don't really know much about the world beyond their own region and those next to it. Most of the campaign takes place in the Ruins of Arden. Arden was a great empire, the first true empire of humanity. Its first king, Maurin, led his warbands west and absorbed other tribes by sword and tongue. He carved out a great kingdom for himself and forced other petty chieftains and tribal kings to bend the knee to him. Maurin's kingdom was a place of astounding progress and prosperity. All religions were allowed, the aristocracy was limited in power, free trade flourished, and a centralized government and standing army maintained peace and order.

One hundred and seventy years (And nine sovereigns) later, something terrible happened. The Emperor Sindmir and the High Priest Lekath (Of the Church of Morviel, god of war, sun, and the forge) decreed that all other religions were blasphemous. Their followers must convert or leave the empire in shame, and all temples must be converted to Morviel's glory. The country was divided, and civil war ravaged Arden for three years. Eventually the Imperialists and Morviel's faithful were triumphant, and thousands fled the country in fear and shame, but the Empire survived. For a time. Twenty years later, nobles who opposed the Emperor's tyrannical rule revolted. In just five years, the terrible war that followed caused the collapse of an empire that had grown and flourished for nearly two centuries.

It is roughly one hundred and forty years later. Arden is divided amongst three powerful city-states, a petty kingdom, a small theocracy, and a dozen other quarreling minor factions. The old imperial capital, and several other cities besides, lie in ruins. Harriers, monsters, barbarian warlords, and goblin tribes roam where they will and take what they want. Adventurers are always welcome, but many disappear in to the Shadows of the Old Empire.

The Party
The majority of the party is from the cultured south. The lands to the south of Arden are mostly human, and largely verdant forests or even jungles, interspersed with grassy hills, swamps, and cliffs. Powerful maritime city-states and republics vie for power. [Think Greek and Italian city-states] They all arrived in Port Herth on the good ship Night's Song, a refitted merchant galley that takes passengers and their goods, and sometimes additional cargo, between the cities of Cantua and Port Herth.

Rhialla, Aasimar Paladin 2
Theoretically the leader of the party, and certainly its face, Rhialla is a friendly, naive Knight of the Broken Chain. The Broken Chains are the only united holy order of the lesser god Ditroea, deity of liberation, freedom-fighters, and explorers. She has come to Port Herth under the command of her Grandmaster, seeking out rumors of a slave-ring operating out of the city. Rhialla uses a bow before closing in with a longsword. She is still training with a spiked chain, the favored weapon of Ditroea and the sacred weapon of her order.

Sophie, Sylph Rogue 2
To call Sophie a thief, smuggler, and all-around cad would perhaps be too generous. She stowed away on the Night's Song just as it was leaving Cantua, stealing many of her fellow passenger's possessions on the journey. She is by turns secretive and seductive, playful and bloodthirsty. Deadly with a rapier and handy with a crossbow, Sophie uses her minor sylph magics to keep herself from harm's way.

Anrai, Half-Elf Barbarian 2
Not much is known of the impassive warrior. He wields a beautifully crafted elven curveblade, passed down to him from generation to generation. A loner and an outcast, Anrai is a secret dedicant to Ditroea and befriended Rhialla in Cantua. The rest of the party does not know what Anrai seeks in Port Herth, but they do know to stay out of his way when his eyes gleam and Iel-Shireth leaves its sheath, both of them hungry for blood.

Logan Birdwell, Human Alchemist 2
Logan was the apprentice to a successful, entrepreneurial alchemist from Cantua. However, the horizon called out to him, and Logan hopped on the ship to Port Herth with little more than a wave and a thank you. Logan is handsome and gregarious, a skilled shot with his crossbow or a flung bomb. When not flirting with the ladies, he is always crafting (Or executing) some half-cocked scheme to get the party rich, or into serious trouble...or both.

Current Setting
The party begins its journey in the city of Port Herth.

A sprawling coastal city of spires and sharply peaked black shingled roofs, covered bridges linking the upper stories of the grander buildings together. Crooked cobbled streets are crowded with blade-sharpeners and boot-polishers, street-walkers and food-vendors all hawking their wares at the tops of their voices. Herth is a city of grey, brown, and black, the dark smudge of its many industries hanging over it like a brooding cloud. The Port is a conduit of trade, the vein that connects the north and the south. Amber, flax, fur, iron, and ivory from the rough and reckless north is traded in the same marketplaces that are stuffed with gems, oil, velvet, spices, and wine from the gilded south. Herth develops all of these materials in to fine goods or passes them along to farther harbors. It rains often in Porth Herth, and the locals implement all manner of ways in both clothing and architecture to protect themselves from and reroute the weather.

Herth is ruled by a Council of the richest merchant families in the city, who control the Hearth Guard (Port Herth's military and police force), the city fleet, and all trade and business in the city. Other influentials include the Academy of Unshaped and Manifold Truths (Remnants of the Imperial Mage's Guild, turned in to a fancy magic college for the bored and rich elite), the Church of Gwyran and Gweien (The twin god and goddess of fortune, travel, and wealth, and the only real bank in Arden), and the Knights of the Iron Crown (Last holdouts of the old Imperial Guard, keepers of ancient martial knowledge and tactics).

[Schylerwalker]

The party steps off the Night's Song with a cheery farewell from its captain, Kevin Langston. They stand on the dockside of Port Herth, surrounded by a bewildering array of sounds and colors and smells. Nearly a hundred ships from a dozen nations crowd the harbor, and sailors are constantly loading and unloading the vessels with goods from all up and down the Dawning Sea. Merchant's kiosks and food stalls full of fried fish and sugared fruit crowd for space with mercenaries, pilgrims, and stern-faced members of the Hearth Guard in blue and gray uniforms, hands never far from blade or truncheon. A light drizzle (Which is an assumed constant in Herth and the surrounding region) falls on the grimy masses, somewhat obscuring the bulk of the Wave Tower, Herth's dockside bastion.

The four green-eared adventurers decide to stick together. They know no one else at all in the city, and besides, they got to know each other pretty well on the two week journey from here to Cantua. For now, strength in numbers. Anrai immediately gets off on the right foot with the locals by walking up to a random passerby and demanding (In broken Ardish) "Where do I find slaves?!" This draws quite a few startled looks and the man gives a bewildered yell and runs away. Confused and upset, Anrai moves to another man before the party can stop him. "I am trying to find slaves. Tell me where to find them."

Not wanting to be arrested, but also not wanting to mugged by a random berserker and his friends, the man (We'll call him Hubert) draws the party to a mostly abandoned sea-side cafe and buys them each some mussel soup and barley beer. They actually find out a surprising amount of information from the old salt, a local dockworker and warehouse laborer. He can tell them that slavery is (Of course) illegal in Port Herth. It's a Grand Infraction, which means that the Hearth Guard can implement capital punishment on the spot if they so wish. But he's heard rumors ("Nothin fer sure, ye kennit?") of humanoid trafficking in the city's seedy underbelly.

He tells them about the Red Flower Consortium. Sophie's heard of the Red Flowers. They're one of the most powerful merchant companies in Port Herth, if not the eastern seaboard. They come from the semi-mystical islands of Kadama, bringing silk, jade, and exotic pets. In Port Herth, they're known by most criminals to be the Crimson Lotus, and they're basically the most powerful gang in the city. Opium's their primary concern, but they also make undesirables disappear. It's rumored they feed "refined palates" with these undesirables. ("Butcha didnae hear it from me, ye kennit?")

Additionally, he's heard disturbing stories about Corwyn Jaffe, owner of the Sunset Inn, on the dockside. He's heard that people from out of town go in to his fancy establishment and never come out. No one knows how Jaffe came by his wealth and why he's never at his own Inn, only that it has an awful lot of bouncers, and troublesome drunks and cads seem to disappear if they spend too much time there. Some say Corwyn's a vigilante. Others say he's a murderer and a thief. All agree that he's dangerous and no-one wants to mess with him.

While most of the party talks with Hubert, Rhialla wanders off after noticing something out of the corner of her eye. Standing in front of the Wave Tower is a member of the Hearth Guard, though he leans on a quarterstaff and has a red sash complementing his uniform. Beside him is a notice board, containing news of bounties and other more mundane jobs. Rhialla strikes up a conversation with the man, who introduces him as Justiciar Bylan. The Justiciars are the detectives and enforcers of the Archons, the commanders of the Hearth Guard. They hunt down evil and disorder and its source, and work with "freelance troubleshooters" to shut down crime. The most interesting jobs and bounties on the board are as followers:
-Roscoe, leader of the Birch Street Boys, a group of petty alleybashers and muggers who recently accidentally killed a member of the Hearth Guard during a mugging gone wrong.
-Atrax the Craven, a psychotic halfling murderer and leader of the Yellow Poppy Posse. He and his gang are known for using poisoned or drugged bolts and toxic bombs in their heists.
-Palaveen, rumored to be a cleric of Faizal (the dark god of ambition), and leader of the Children of Erebus, an all tiefling gang of thieves and murderers. They are said to dwell in the slums and ruins of Port Herth's outskirts.
-Hobgoblins are raiding outlying farmsteads, fishing villages, and travelers in the purlieus of Port Herth. While their raids have been small-scale so far, they have disrupted trade and threaten stability in the local region. The Council has approved a bounty of twenty five silver talints [OOC: Gold Pieces] for each hobgoblin head or intact pair of ears turned over to the Hearth Guard. Additionally, the merchant Grissom Deneld has posted a private reward. His daughter, Ethella, was kidnapped by the brigands. He offers two thousand talints for her safe return.
-There are rumors of a medium to large-sized dragon roaming the coast. There are no concrete reports of its color or size, but there are too many eyewitnesses in too many places in the same fifty mile stretch of coastline to discount the rumors. The Hearth Guard would like someone to investigate, if only to assuage the locals' fears.
-A merchant ship from Parth (the Waveskipper) was lost somewhere en route to Herth. Its cargo included olive oil, wine, oranges, and a shipment of ink, scrolls, and other supplies for the Academy of Unshaped and Manifold Truths.
-The magical burial shroud of Saint Aelys has been stolen from the wayshrine of Banistal, apparently by trained rats.

With a dizzying number of quests and plothooks, the party of course opts for the fair maiden. After thanking Hubert for his time and tipping him, and promising to stay in contact with Bylan, they attempt to find Grissom. After some embarrassing and irritating altercations with two richly dressed individuals and their guards going about their business, they find the office of the merchant not terribly far from the docks themselves. The merchant and his clerks are harassed and overworked, and Mister Deneld is sick with worry. Apparently he's lost a pair of ships (To unknown sources) recently, and he can scarcely afford the scant reward he's offering for his daughter -- the party exchanged raised eyebrows at this. They found out that Ethella was heading the family's country horse-breeding estate before she and her escort were accosted by hobgoblins. A single guard escaped, while Ethella and her other servants and protectors were dragged away, or slain.

The party assures Grissom that they will return his daughter to him, alive and well, and sets out to supply themselves for a journey in to the environs around Port Herth. Most of the gear is mundane camping equipment and trail rations. They meet a cheerful merchant, Harliam the Outfitter. They're low on coin, and after spending an hour arguing amongst themselves, Harliam generously offers a substantial discount on a large tent if they pay him back more later ("Consider it an investment in some promising, up-and-coming goblinslayers." :smallbiggrin: ) They purchase their supplies and decide to make this man their main mercantile contact and supplier, especially when he mentions off-handedly that he occasionally has used magical items for resale, at greatly reduced prices. They also purchase several bags of caltrops and a few bear traps. Sophie and Anrai both know hobgoblins are stealthy and can see in the dark, and plan to thoroughly trap the approaches to the tent at night.

At this point rarin' to kill some goblins, the party sets out in to the wild. After a day of uneventful walking through farms, orchards, and pastureland, they come upon a ruined cottage, partially reclaimed by greenery. They approach it, thinking it might make a good campsite, when a pair of loathsome centipedes, the size of men, skitter forth! Rhialla and Logan injure the beasts with their bows while Anrai sprints forward, Sophie stealthing to the side. Her caution proves unneeded, however; Anrai slays the weakened beasts with two well-placed blows. They search the cottage and find a handaxe, some loose coins, and a hip-flask of whiskey.

Another day and a half passes -- by which point they have mostly left civilized land; only the occasional cottage or herd of sheep can be seen -- when they stumble upon an overturned carriage. Dried blood, drag marks, and broken arrows and javelins, as well as hob-nailed boot prints, confirm their suspicions. Ethella was clearly ambushed here. Her guards put up a token resistance, but were badly outnumbered and unprepared. They find a crossbow and a quiver of bolts in a hidden compartment under the carriage's driver seat, and then immediately begin tracking the hobgoblins cross country. Over the course of their journey, they ascertain that the hobgoblin force numbered about a dozen, and that they made off with three captives, and maybe as many corpses. One night, they come upon a campfire and the grisly remains of one of Ethella's servants, butchered and consumed.

After two days, in which the rain steadily becomes worse and worse, the party sees a group of half a dozen humanoids outlined on a low ridge. The party spends several minutes discussing what to do. However, as the rain dies down to a sprinkle, they realize that the other group is slowly but surely descending the slope, and they're armed. When the strangers are sixty feet away, the group can make out the lanky, muscular gray bodies of hobgoblins. They are led by a hulking brute with a necklace of ears and fingers. Javelins fly and guttural warcries pierce the twilight air; battle is joined!

Logan flings his first bomb, awing his party members and startling the hobgoblins. The brigands' leader was badly scorched and another was nearly felled; Rhialla finishes him off with a well-placed arrow. Anrai was nicked by javelins and then brutally slashed across the face with a shortsword, which has left a scar to this day. With a roar, Anrai allows himself to surrounded by hobgoblins, felling one with his throwing axe and two more with his curveblade. Sophie sneaks up behind the gangleader and punctures him through the lung with her rapier. The last hobgoblin makes a break for it, but takes a crossbow bolt and an arrow to the leg, collapsing near death and surrendering.

Anrai lops off the other hobgoblins' heads and stores them in a bag with some sand. Rhialla and Logan, who can speak Goblin, begin interrogating the prisoner, who's been tied up. They find out that he was not part of the raid that captured Ethella, but he is a part of their tribe. The party huddles up to discuss their next course of action, ignoring the prisoner. When Anrai returns, blade drawn -- they've decided to kill him and continue on -- the bandit surprises them all by standing up with a sharp rock in his fist, casting aside his bindings. He yells "My life for Karthus!" And then hits Anrai [OOC: Improvised critical with a rock, 6 damage; we all had a good laugh ] upside the head, nearly knocking him unconscious. Sophie responds with a casual flick of her rapier, skewering the hobgoblin between the eyes.

After dispensing some healing (Rhialla owns a holy symbol that can hold three charges of cure light wounds, which recharges at a rate of one charge per eight hours) and resting, they doggedly continue following the hobgoblin tracks. They are truly in the wilderness now, and entering foothills long abandoned by civilized folk, lightly wooded and very rocky. While traveling, they spot a pair of humanoid silhouettes on top of distant hill. One carries a spear, or maybe a bow. The party agrees to send Sophie ahead to scout, as she's stealthier than the rest of them combined. Sophie takes a long time to carefully sneak around the circumference of the sentries, moving to the opposite side of the hill.

On the far side of the hill, in the distance and concealed by the fold of the land from the party's position, is a strange, very large rock formation. One of the boulders is massive, a craggy pillar ascending almost sixty feet in to the air. A trail of sorts winds from the sentries' position towards the rock formation. From her new vantage point, Sophie can now see that there are four burly humanoids, two of them with bows. One sides on a crate, while another sprawls on a bedroll. Deciding she's discovered enough, she begins to sneak back to the others. However, on the way back, one of the archers suddenly turns in her vague direction and points!

The group tenses up as one of the hogoblins slowly walks down the hill. No alarm has been raised, but hobgoblins are cautious and crafty foes. The sentry approaches within ten feet of Sophie's hiding spot, a javelin poised to hurl. He shouts threats in Goblin at the bushes, prodding rocks with his boot and leaping behind stands of tall grass to see...nothing. Sophie is simply too sneaky for this typical brigand. Stumped and annoyed, he begins to walk back up the hill...and earns a crossbow bolt in the lower back for his trouble. Sophie gets the drop on him again, but her second bolt is caught by a sudden gust and goes wide. She begins to sprint back to the party as the hobgoblin, bleeding and scared for his life, yelling at his companions, jogs up the hill.

Just as Sophie rejoins the rest of the party -- who are all preparing to fight the four hobgoblins -- they hear three long, twin horn blows from the top of the hill. They all freeze. A few moments later, three twin blasts from the distance answer, and they are accompanied by the bays and howls of fierce hunting creatures...

[Schylerwalker]

The heroes immediately begin to turn and flee. They can hear the howling of hounds and the blaring of hunting horns, and know that more hobgoblins than they can handle will soon be upon them. Logan comes up with...a disturbing plan. The alchemist points out that he can use his infusions to transform himself to small size, and can cover his face to pretend to be a goblin. And then, he continues excitedly, they can scoop out the brains and other innards of one of the hobgoblin heads and stick it over Anrai's face! From a distance, the hobgoblins won't be able to tell the difference!

Anrai is...less than enthused by this plan, and the ladies are revolted. However, they are panicked and can think of no other options, so they go along with it. The group retreats to a small group of boulders and small trees, adopting their disguises. A group of seven hobgoblins -- three with drawn bows -- and a single large, menacing black wolf approaches the party. The two parties stop some sixty feet from each other, and a strange discourse develops. Logan, pretending to be a goblin, convinces the brigands that Sophie was an escaped slave of he and his hobgoblin bodyguard. They apologize for damages wrought, paying the hobgoblins with some tossed rations, and after some dickering, Sophie's crossbow and ammunition as well.

The negotiations are tense, and several times the group thinks that the brutes might dispense with the pleasantries and open fire. However, Rhialla's smooth tongue and Anrai's intimidating growls finally persuaded the bandits that it wasn't worth the effort. Relieved (And near the point of vomiting) the party fled. They decide to return to Port Herth and turn in some heads, to buy more supplies. They might also be considering taking on an easier job...it is obvious that there are many more goblins than they'd initially bargained for, and perhaps they'll need more resources before they can take on the raiders head-on.

On the way back to Herth, they are ambushed in a semi-abandoned walnut orchard by a group of hobgoblins and goblins. This time the injuries are more evenly spread out; Logan is dropped by accurately fired goblin arrows, and Rhialla and Anrai are both nicked by javelins. However, Rhialla proves herself just as capable with a sword as with a bow, dropping two hobgoblins herself in melee. Sophie springs out of hiding with a miscast javelin to seriously injure the leader of the group, a menacing goblin with a well-crafted polearm. The goblin presents Anrai with an opening, however, and the berserker cleaves the commando in half with a single well-placed blow. The rest of the brigands are mopped up quickly, and the last goblin surrenders with a pitiful yowl.

They quickly beat up the last goblin and take him prisoner. Their second interrogation goes a little better. They find out that the brigands' "headquarters" contains roughly a dozen each goblins and hobgoblins, several goblin dogs, a few worgs, and an yzobu, a semi-monstrous mount favored by hobgoblins. They are led by Mash-Gakh, a fearsome rider, handy with a blade. After a brief debate, the group agrees to kill the hapless creature. They track the ambushers back to their camp, and Sophie -- the luckless scout -- is ambushed by a worg! The worg seriously injures her and Logan, but they kill the monstrous canine and take its pelt, as well as a few more supplies and a pouch of silver talints from the camp.

A few days later, the group is back in Port Herth. Fully healed and loaded with hobgoblin heads, they are even able to persuade the Hearth Guard to pay them ten talints for each goblin head, and a respectable fifty for the worg hide. Money is spread around and the heroes purchase a few new weapons and other pieces of equipment. Harliam eagerly shows them a minor but still magical halfling sword that he's willing to sell them for a "mere" fifteen-hundred talints. Sadly, they have nowhere near that much money, and must decline. After relaxing and spending a little bit of their hard-earned coin, the group decides to investigate the Shrine of Saint Aelys, and find out more about the thief and their trained rats.

The Shrine of Saint Aelys is a sprawling affair of timber, clay, and stone, part chapel, part inn, and part homeless shelter. The adventurers are forced to relinquish the majority of their weapons to the door-keepers, which much grumbling from Anrai. Rilter the acolyte fills them in with the gist of the situation; eleven nights ago, he heard a commotion in the Shrine's undercroft. He went downstairs and investigated the tomb of Saint Aelys herself, when the door burst outwards and he was attacked by three giant rats, reeking of sewage! The acolyte suffered a minor injury and fled upstairs. When he returned with reinforcements, the rats were gone...but so was Aelys' Shroud! The shroud is a magical item with a spell of gentle repose on it that keeps Aelys' body peacefully preserved. Lesser magics slow her decay, but already there are signs of rot creeping in.

What follows is a rigorous investigation by the party. They accept the hospitality of Banistal's faithful, sharing a meal with laborers, beggars, drunks, thugs, and poor travelers. While they speak and eat, they are treated to an impassioned if unimaginative sermon by Daniel Mildmon, head priest of the Shrine. Behind him looms an impressive pugilist with scarred arms the size of tree trunks and fists that look like maces. The group notes a pair of thuggish looking fellows in the vestments of Banistal guarding the door out of the feasthall. After their meal, the group heads in to the undercroft.

Their first area of investigation is the drainage room. Four chutes in the corner channel excrement and other filth from the Shrine and even a few nearby buildings in to the room. The room slopes downwards to a large, locked metal grate. The ground is covered in sludge, mostly human leavings and garbage from the kitchen and bathhouse. Anrai is able to discover small-sized bootprints, which eventually seem to somehow transition into the prints of a large rodent! After poking around the undercroft for awhile, the group heads back upstairs to speak with the rather suspicious, wiry acolyte named Walter Binxtave. The group noticed the lean man following them from a distance, sticking to the shadows, while they explored the temple.

Walter is a charming man, quiet and unassuming. He is the Shrine's liaison with the "questionable" elements of Port Herth. He secures excess food and supplies to feed the homeless and needy who flock to the Shrine, hires reputable men to protect it, and secures contracts to repair or even expand the building. Sophie immediately gets a bad vibe from the quiet man; his fingers are too quick and his eyes too sharp. However, he seems devout and earnest in his worship of Banistal, and they abandon him as a suspect for the nonce. Their next line of inquiry is with Sam Delarosa, the Shrine's cook.

A slightly overweight middle-aged man, Sam doesn't live at the shrine. He works at a local bakery and volunteers his time to the temple. The man is surprisingly quick on his feet, and Rhialla notes his finely crafted knife and cleaver are both balanced for combat as well as culinary uses. When they question his background, he seems uncomfortable and evasive. They find out that he is one of two people in the Shrine with a key to the drainage grate, Father Mildmon being the other. While Sam is certainly a potential suspect, he seems an unlikely culprit. They also discover that he intensely distrusts and dislikes Walter, and seems to have history with him.

The party finally makes their way to Daniel Mildmon, Father of the Shrine of Saint Aelys. They quickly come to the conclusion that Father Mildmon is devout, kind, generous...and completely clueless. He is obviously not even a particularly powerful cleric, and seems in over his head. When the group asks him about the keys, and how secure they are, he pulls his holy symbol out from under his robes; the keys to every major egress and ingress are located there, and when he sleeps, he hangs them on the shrine next to his bed. While the keys are out, the keen-eyed berserker notes a tiny detail; the teeth of one key are slightly irregular, compared to the others, and the handle is shorter and thicker.

After thanking Father Mildmon for his time, the party bumps in to Mitch, the massive pugilist they saw standing behind the head priest during his sermon. It is obvious that Mitch is a simpleton, none-to-alert, but certainly more canny than he lets on, and plenty charming. As they do with Walter and Sam, the party suspects that Mitch may have a criminal background. It seems that in addition to feeding the homeless and needy, Banistal and her faithful seem intent on converting the lost and forgotten to her worship. Mitch is the head of the shrine's security, but he only borrows keys, having none of his own. Mitch gives them a little more information and a few more clues -- including the fact that occasionally halflings are part of the congregation -- but they still have no solid suspect. They do a once over of the Shrine, splitting up and talking to random acolytes, guards, pilgrims, and those down on their luck.

Rhialla is the first to find out a strange bit of information. The acolyte who encountered the rats in the first place -- Riltur -- reluctantly informs the paladin that a few nights before the robbery, he saw something strange involving Walter Binxtave's chambers. While Rilter was doing his rounds in the evening, making sure everyone was asleep and everything was clean, he heard Walter's door opening. He peeked curiously around the corner, and saw one of the needy folk who'd been at the evening meal coming out of Walter's room...adjusting his clothing! He looked tired and worn out, as if he'd gotten no sleep at all that night, but he also looked pleased. Deeply embarrassed and not wanting to be discovered, Rilter quickly hurried away and tried to forget about it.

Not sure what to make of this, Rhialla gathers the party together. They decide to question Walter on this, but they find out that Walter is no where to be found. The guards at the front tell them he wasn't seen leaving that way, and when they investigate the building's only other real exit, in the kitchens, they can quickly tell the emergency door hasn't been used in weeks, and is kept bolted shut, with no lock on the outside. When they go to Binxtave's chambers and knock, there is no answer. The door is locked, and Walter doesn't seem in. Sophie grows impatient and tells the party to keep a look out while she picks the lock. She successfully does so, but a long, thin blade pops out of the lock just as she does so, skewering her hand!

A pair of acolytes come around the corner, seeing the party crowded outside of Binxtave's room, Sophie cradling a hand gushing blood, blood smeared on Walter's door. The acolytes are nervously trusting, using Banistal's light to heal her wound, but they say they must inform someone of this suspicious behavior. The party immediately goes in to Walter's rooms and begins investigating. The rooms are appointed in a dignified, but humble manner. The wardrobe and desk are both locked, and his dresser contains plain workclothes. However, hidden in a hole in his matress, they find a leather pouch. Inside are at least a hundred talints, and several semi-precious gems and a small emerald. The pouch's contents must total up at nearly a thousand all told! While sifting through the pouch, Logan notices a greasy translucent film on the coin, which clings persistently to his fingers and clothes. With his knowledge of alchemy, he becomes aware that if exposed to another chemical, the substance will turn a bright orange.

Eventually, the party is discovered. They are brought to Father Mildmon, who is none-too-pleased. After some arguing back and forth and more questioning to evade his own inquiries, they find out that there was a large pilgrimage to the shrine two weeks ago, with coincided with a large renovation project to expand the eastern wing. Who handled the contract with the mason's guild? Walter Binxtave of course. They finally reveal the pouch of riches to Father Mildmon. He is shocked; Banistal's most holy make vows of poverty and generosity. While this doesn't necessarily implicate him in the Shroud's theft, it is enough to warrant severe disciplinary action. The money is confiscated as an offering to Banistal.

The party finally decides to investigate the Tomb itself, as they realize it's the only place they haven't searched (For which they're kicking themselves). Father Mildmon takes them downstairs; the entrance is kept locked at all times, and he has the only key. When he unlocks the door, keen-eyed Anrai notes that he uses the key that looks tampered with. Inside the Tomb are several niches and stone plinths with other shrouded remnants of Banistal's faithful. On the far side of the Tomb is a large stone plinth, carved with sun motifs. Lying on it is the body of Saint Aelys. The martyr looks like she died a few days ago, rather than many years. Standing next to her is a stoic man in a sleeveless white shirt and billowing white pants, a yellow sash around his waist. He seems quietly competent. This is Jerom, a Knight of the Open Palm.

Daniel and Jerom explain that the Shroud perfectly preserved Aelys' remains [OOC: As the Gentle Repose spell]. With the magical shroud gone, they have been using lesser magics to slow down her decay. However, the signs are beginning to show, and they have not allowed any pilgrims in to see her in this state. The lack of offerings to the Shrine has been problematic. Rhialla and Logan go back to the drainage to make one last thorough sweep of the area, while Anrai does the same thing in the tomb. Sophie follows Father Mildmon upstairs to check the lock to his door, and the rest of his apartment in general. Rhialla finds several thick, wiry gray hairs, and tiny patches of fine gray dust. Anrai makes the greatest discovery, however.

Directly behind the altar itself, Anrai crawls in to the space between Aelys' final resting place and the wall. There, the sharp-eyed half-elf is able to determine that one of the flagstone is a slightly different shade than the others. After nearly five minutes of probing and poking, he slides his fingernail under an eroded corner of the flagstone; the entire thing noiselessly swings out on masterfully crafted and cunningly concealed hinges. On the other side is what seems to be a sewer pipe, cracked open; a foul stench wafts out. The hole is barely large enough for a small-sized creature to squeeze through, and in fact, he can see tufts of thick gray hair and little splatters of blood on the edge of the pipe.

They show Father Mildmon and Jerom, who are both horrified and shocked. Who could do such a thing, and how. The party is absolutely sure of Walter's involvement at this point, and suspects him of colluding either with a halfling and his trained rats, or with a halfling wererat...perhaps both? Regardless, the party eventually comes to a decision. They must delve into the sewers through the Shrine's drainage grate, and see what they can find in the bowels of Port Herth.

[Schylerwalker]

A pair of forgotten details that I feel will be overlooked if they are edited in to the second post:

1) When the party got back to the city, there was a general background buzz amongst much of the populace. One of the patriarchs of a powerful merchant family with a seat on the Council passed away, and his son (Marius Korhold) took his seat.

2) Nobody in the party can actually use Detect Magic, so identifying anything other than potions is difficult for them. Harliam, however, is an expert with Use Magic Device and wands of Detect Magic and Read Magic. They got two +1 flaming arrows off of the leader of the second group of goblinoids, and the whiskey in the hipflask is enchanted; equivalent to three potions of cure light wounds.

[JerichoPenumbra]

Looks good so far, though in betting that the party will be regretting if the haven't already, the lack of a dedicated arcanist or healer.

[Schylerwalker]

Looks good so far, though in betting that the party will be regretting if the haven't already, the lack of a dedicated arcanist or healer.

The arcanist, definitely. Not having read magic or detect magic at 1st level is not quite crippling, but close. The alchemist was thinking of rolling a bard, but the AoE damage against low-level mooks has proven pretty brilliant thus far. The Paladin has a wand (I'm using the rules from 5th ed for wands, kind of) and will get lay on hands next level, the alchemist will be able to use infusions on other people next level and is already making back-up potions...so they're okay, for now.

[Schylerwalker]

Logan and Sophie decide that before they head down in to the sewers below Port Herth, they should be able to do a more thorough investigation of Walter Binxtave's quarters. After receiving Father Mildmon's blessing, Sophie unlocks Walter's wardrobe. After shoving aside some clerical vestments and cleaning supplies, the party is surprised -- but not terribly so -- to find a trapdoor slightly stained with sewage in the bottom of the wardrobe. After several failed and clueless attempts, Logan realizes that the drawer of the desk is far too thick for its actual contents, and discovers it has a false bottom. Everyone crowds around him for enlightenment. Inside the hidden compartment are several crudely sketched maps of the nearby sewers. They're labelled, and some of the maps include drawings of the streets above.

The party brings this rather damning evidence to Father Mildmon. The abbot fusses and makes excuses -- he doesn't want to believe one of his most useful acolytes is a traitor -- but finally gives in. They are given permission to detain Walter if they find him in the sewers, and to assume that he is at least collaborating with the thieves who stole the Shroud. Logan runs off to craft some alchemical tools while the rest of party examines the map and gets a little rest; it's been a long day. Directly beneath the Shrine there is an area marked "meeting place." Not too far away from that is an area called "the Warrens", and on the far side of that is an area marked "hidden basement?" The hidden basement(?) is just beneath a local winesink; they passed it on the way to the Shrine.

After retrieving their weapons from the priests, and having one cast a light spell on some of these armaments, the party enters through the hole in Walter's wardrobe. It's obviously not a proper part of the sewers; the pit is crudely dug and punches directly through the ceiling of a sewer tube. Handholds are hacked in to the sides of the pit. Hanging from a spike hammered in to the shaft's wall is a rope, and they climb down it on to a slimy ledge. There, the group is startled to find a simple, mildew-covered desk and splintery chair. Neither piece of furniture has anything interesting about it. Anrai muses this must be meeting place. "But for what?" Rhialla inquires. Logan shrugs and leads the way, while Sophie skulks a dozen yards behind the party with her crossbow.

Anrai is able to discover several more tufts of wiry gray hair, and both he and Logan find a few small-sized bootprints...some of which appear to transition in to giant rat prints. As far as the party can tell, they have at least two transforming rat creatures to deal with. About fifteen minutes later -- at which point their lights have worn off, and they tentatively lit torches -- everyone but Logan spots a door recessed in to the sewer wall. The door's frame is of surprisingly good architecture, and the door itself is sturdy, if worn by its environment; thick oaken planks with rusting iron bands. Carved in to one of the planks is a crude drawing of a skeletal hand clutching a flower. Rhialla quietly says that this strongly resembles the profane mark of Ustelev, the Grave Prince...god of famine, pestilence, and undeath. Sophie finds no traps, unlocks the door, and they head in.

The berserker leads the way, curveblade drawn. Stairs lead down in to a series of twisting halls, their floors coated with sludge of questionable origin. For once, the warrior's keen eyes fail him and he steps on a tripwire. A collection of cans containing glass and rusty nails comes clattering from a hidden recess in the ceiling. No one is harmed, but it does create quite a clangor. Now more on edge than ever, the party creeps along. They hear drops of water, creaking pipes, and the squeaking of large rats. Rounding a corner, Anrai is assaulted by three giant rats, the size of dogs! They sink their fangs in to him with brutal effect, but he grimly holds off the vermin while Logan hurls a bomb and Rhialla heals him. Finding nothing of interest, they continue exploring the grimy passages, going up a flight of stairs. Anrai is surprised to find the outline of a secret door!

After a brief discussion, they head through a tiny hidden passage, which turns out to be a strange shortcut to a room they were about to head to anyway...however, it does provide them with two avenues of attack. On the other side of the secret hallway is a large room supported by four crumbling pillars. Piles of rags are shoved in the corner, and the filthy leavings past meals, what happens after those meals, and drug and alcohol binges coat the floor. In the room are two humans and three kobolds dressed in rags and rotted leathers; all have the shakes and stair off in to the distance, and mumble under their breaths in languages most of them can't understand. Rhialla, however, recognizes that one of the languages has Celestial prefixes and suffixes. She steps forward, hesitantly saying in the holy tongue "Hello? We don't mean--" But the closest man immediately leaped to the attack, brandishing a spiked club!

The battle was brief but vicious; the kobolds joined in with slings, flinging filthy shards of pipes and broken masonry. Anrai briefly rages, swiftly cutting down the drug fiending thugs while the others rapidly bring down the kobolds with missile weapons. The half-elf takes a stone to the nose and Rhialla earns a nasty bruise and gash, which she heals. A few silvers and coppers are turned up on the bodies, but Logan is more interested in the burnt silver spoon, pipe, and pouch of snakeweed that turns up. "It's for alchemical purposes!" he says defensively to the raised eyebrows as he shoves the items in his odd-smelling bag. There's three exits from the room; two sets of stairs going back down, and a door on the far side. The door is jammed shut with a large metal pipe and a pile of junk. Rhialla clears out of the way and the group curiously piles through, wondering what the junkies were trying to keep out.

It is apparent even to those without the proper training that the sewer walls are of finer architecture at this point, and the walls are drier, without the stench of rot and mold everywhere. At the far side of the new hallway is another door. They ignore it for a now, as the hallway also branches off to the left. Anrai saunters fearlessly through despite his friends' admonishments, and sees four armed and armored foes standing in a dusty room with niches carved in to the walls, plinths in the alcoves. Scattered on the floor and in the alcoves are humanoid figures wrapped in moldering shrouds. Anrai squints at the figures in the darkness as they slowly turn around, then stumbles back as he sees yellowing bones, gaping jaws, and hateful pinpricks of light in empty sockets. One rushes towards him swinging a rusty flail, and he coughs up blood from the devastating strike.

The narrow hallway makes it difficult for the party to assist Anrai. Rhialla uses the last charge of her holy symbol to keep him in the fight, while Logan and Sophie plink away with crossbows. Anrai shatters a skeleton with a single mighty blow, but the missiles prove largely ineffective. Logan waits for them to group up and takes out two skeletons -- who'd never even got the chance to use their halberds -- in a fiery conflagration. The last skeleton proves stubborn, holding off Anrai and Rhialla in melee. Logan tumbles in to the room, yelling a brave battlecry...which is cut short as the skeleton's flail crashes in to his face and brings him to the brink of death. Sophie is barely able to finish off the monster with a final well-placed bolt.

Logan is given a healthy gulp of whiskey and two other potions to get him back up, and he staggers to his feet...and keeps staggering. The group happily plunders the tomb for some semi-precious gems and jewelry, a few coins, and a finely crafted longbow, which goes to Rhialla. Rhialla identifies several motifs and carvings in the crypt, and knows the place is consecrated to Dehas, the god of servitude, industry, and purity. She notes that the next door is buckled slightly in towards them, as if the occupants on the far side have braced it as well. The party hears muffled conversation on the other side, and they greet the inhabitants cheerfully. "Are ye skeletons?!" "No, we destroyed the undead! We mean you no harm!" "Who are ye?" "Oh, we're adventurers, working with--" "Crap, adventurers?!?! Get ready!" *squeaksqueaksqueak* Everyone looks to Rhialla with a glower as Anrai kicks down the door. Two more drug-addled thugs are waiting for them with spiked clubs, guarding a set of sturdy double doors, but these wretched men prove ill-matched against our brave heroes.

They see a rat-tail disappearing around a corner, and briefly give chase. However, the giant rat disappears around a hole that is much too small for any of them to get through. They explore the empty rooms and passages a bit before continuing. They are able to discover the drainage grate beneath the Shrine, albeit much further down than they anticipated, and stumble upon a group of leprous and gangengrous beggars covered in rags and weeping sores. The pathetic creatures look up at them with luminous eyes, bits of feces and flesh falling from their filed teeth as they stare at the group. After sharing a silent look, the party agrees to close the door and never come back, even going so far as to jam it shut with one of the many broken pipes they've found.

Sophie searches the double doors for traps, but fails to find anything. Anrai attempts to pull them open, and a hole pops open in the ceiling, shooting an arrow in to his shoulder. To add insult to -- substantial -- injury, the doors are also locked. Sophie cheerfully picks the lock as Anrai glares at her and drinks his last healing draught. He then bursts in to the room with a roar, blade drawn, anticipating the worst. The next room is massive, bigger than the two largest rooms they've been two combined. It is dominated by a huge irregularly shaped pit, ten feet down with stairs leading to it from either side. The pit is filled with unspeakable filth, and the walls of the pit are lined with toxin spewing pipes. Filthy mats and crates, and a single bedroll and footlocker, are scattered along the walls.

Scattered throughout the room, prepared for battle, are two kobolds, two giant rats, another brain-fried thug, and a humanoid rat standing on its hind legs! The ratman is barking orders in a jovially condescending manner; he sounds like a drill sergeant. Indeed, a swagger stick is tucked under his arm, and he starts the battle with a rousing "Come on, you maggots! You wanna live forever?!" Taranat is standing on the far side of the pit, wielding a strange-looking crossbow which he fires with deadly skill. The "boss" is quickly frustrated by his minions' incompetence. In a blur of steel, Anrai cuts through both rats and the thug while only taking a minor nip in the process. The kobolds prove more effective, minorly injuring Anrai, Rhialla, and Logan with their slings. However, the party is equally frustrated with their inability to injure the ratman, as he nimbly dodges around or absorbs their missiles with his fancy chain shirt.

Anrai rounds the corner as Logan shoots a kobold with a bolt poisoned with centipede venom; the kobold keels over, screaming for mercy. The other kobold does much the same after being slashed across the edge by Rhialla's steel. Taranat mocks the party mercilessly, whittling them down with deadly accurate bolts. One such bolt punches through Anrai's chest and he collapses, blood spraying out of the twin holes the dart made. Logan rushes forward, his skin bubbling and legs lengthening as he imbibes various alchemical infusions and his mutagen. Rhialla and Sophie finally close in with the rat, and he briefly drops Rhialla with a well-placed bolt, all the while dodging most of their attacks. Sophie manages to skewer him with her rapier, but the blade slides out with no visible blood or discomfort! Cue more laughing from the obnoxious ratman.

Logan manages to hurt the beast for the first time with a bomb, which enrages the creature. He drops his crossbow and dashes in to melee. At first he's unable to really scratch the alchemist...until's he flanked by a dirty little kobold that everybody forgot about! Logan takes a signifigant amount of punishment, woefully missing with a tanglefoot bag that might have signifigantly shortened the fight. Rhialla suddenly remembers that she's a paladin, and she channels the power of Ditroea through blade and blow. Her sword of mercy takes the wererat by surprise. She clubs it one, twice with the flat of her blade, and Sophie finishes off the last lizardman (With no small amount of relish). They remove the rat's equipment -- including several healing potions, which they avail themselves of -- and tie him up for questioning.

Taranat proves reticent, but a poor liar and a bold boaster. He gives away much, including the fact there are at least two other wererats; his brothers. One of them is named Kassem, and he is a powerful priest of Ustelev...he's in the next room over, with his most trusted bodyguards! Walter isn't a wererat, as far as he knows, and apparently Kassem is somehow going to use the burial shroud to resurrect someone or something. He's a fighter, the "general" of their glorious army, which will someday take over the surface world! He transforms in to a regular rat and makes a break for it. The slippery bastard almost gets away, but Anrai and Sophie are having none of that. The swift-footed swordsfolk catch up with and quickly put an end to the creature's grandstanding.

Everyone leans on their blades and catches a breather. Wounds are washed and bandaged and swords are sharpened as they consider their next move. Do they believe Taranat's boasts and claims? Some want to retreat back to the Shrine to rest and recover. The others believe that Kassem will flee with the Shroud if given the chance. One thing is for certain...the sewers definitely need more rat exterminators.

[Schylerwalker]

After a few minutes of recuperation, the party agrees to head back to the Shrine. As far as they could tell from Taranat, Kassem wasn't going anywhere soon; he'd been locked inside the Inner Sanctum for quite some time and very rarely left as it was. After some prodding from Sophie and Logan, Rhialla and Anrai agree to explore a little bit more of the Warrens before retreating right away. Sophie claims Taranat's strange-looking crossbow. It's known as a flatbow, the favored weapon of assassins, thieves, and rich merchants and nobles with too much time on their hands. The flatbow can collapse to a surprisingly compact (And concealable) size, reloads very rapidly in the hands of those proficient in its use, and can be wielded easily in one hand. It's also of very fine quality, and could probably fetch a high price. Most of the grime-coated corridors seem abandoned, filled with empty rooms and side passages containing little more than sewage, rat leavings, and soiled rags.

At one point, the party comes around the corner and is surprised to find one of the leprous beggars devouring the corpse of a thug they'd slain previously. The misbegotten creature is elbow-deep in the thug's stomach, slurping on his entrails and ripping out huge gobbets of flesh to devour. The beggar looks up at the adventurers and stares at them with luminous eyes. Rhialla quietly confers with her compatriots as the pitiful being stares at them; she is reasonably sure that the beggar has become a ghoul. Driven to cannibalism by the leprosy, the whispers of a dark god, and drug overuse, the poor man has risen as an undead creature. It does not seem willing to attack, considering its overabundance of food, and they decide to walk past it, for now; when Rhialla describes their preponderance toward paralysis and creating more ghouls with their bite, Anrai and Sophie seem none-too-keen on tangling with the beast. Anrai steps in to the room with the intent of sidling along the wall and going through the far door, when an unseen leper-ghoul around the corner leaps at him! The beast catches him with a claw, but Anrai resists its insidious grasp.

The rest of the party is only able to slowly enter the room. The ghouls prove poor combatants, if terrifying ones, but the first ghoul is able to sink its fangs deep in to Anrai's flesh. The bitten area burns unpleasantly and Anrai feels his pulse quicken. With a ferocious shout, he cleaves the ghoul in half as the other is riddled with bolts. Rhialla and Logan check Anrai's wound; the inflamed tears and slowly seeping, watery blood confirm their worst fears. Anrai has contracted ghoul fever. The berserker insists that he feels fine and can continue on, but the rest of his friends feel nervous travelling with someone that could "go all ghoul at any second." Everyone heads quickly out of the Warrens, but when they're about half-way back to the Shrine, they're ambushed by a pair of giant cockroaches. The vermin bring Sophie and Anrai close to death, and they're exhausted and filthy by the time they climb back through Binxtave's wardrobe.

Aklo, one of the thugs hired by Mitch to protect the Shrine, startles the party. He's waiting in Walter's room with a club and a dagger in his hands. To be fair, he's just as surprised to see them, especially so mangled. [OOC: Everyone was at 1-3 health] He runs off to grab some actual acolytes, who are generous with the light of Banistal. The acolytes separate the men and women and assist the exhausted adventurers with washing and bandaging their new wounds. Afterwards, they eat some humble fare and collapse into simple cots, each of them sleeping for eight to ten hours. When they awaken, everyone feels varying degrees of new insight about their adventuring careers. They reflect on the places they've been, the foes they've fought, the abilities they've utilized. [They leveled!]

The party's first stop is the Temple of Gwyran and Gweien, the twin goddesses of fortune and misfortune, trade, luck, wealth, and travel. Nobody at the Shrine of Saint Aelys is powerful enough to remove diseases, so they naturally go to the largest temple in Port Herth. It is a huge and lavishly decorated building, staffed with well-dressed and well-fed layfolk, most of them young, pleasant, and attractive. They spend a few hours there removing Anrai's ghoul fever, getting fancy bandages, and considering starting a "bank account" at the wealthiest church in Arden. They decide to wait until they have more money.

With a few new tricks up their sleeves and some plans formulized, the party goes out to do a little buying and selling. Taranat's masterwork chain shirt is repurposed to reinforce and augment Sophie's leather armor, effectively making it masterwork studded leather at a fraction of the cost. They buy a few more healing potions and some silver ammunition before making one last trek in to the sewers. While they're out on the town, they hear some additions to some previous rumors they'd picked up. Apparently the drake spotted on the storm coast landed on a fishing boat and demanded that the fishermen dump their catch and everything else they had on them in to the water, before diving beneath the waves. According to the eyewitnesses, it was blue with silver fins. Considering the proclivity of fishermen to exaggerate, the Hearth Guard would still like some troubleshooters to investigate before they hire professional dragonslayers.

Additionally, the party hears a few more rumors about the new Councilman, Marius Korhold. Sophie is aware that Marius' father, Darrian, was an aging man in poor-health, but still a strong voice on the Council. Darrian passed away suddenly in his sleep less than a week ago, and Marius became the new patriarch of the Korholds -- premiere jewellers, gemcutters, and purveyors of high fashion in Herth -- and their representative on the City Council. It is said that the middle-aged patrician has a sadistic streak a mile wide, and engages in perverse pleasures behind closed doors. Some say that the Korhold line has fiendish blood in it somewhere, and that Marius is a tiefling, though he must hide it well.

While Anrai and Rhialla disapprove of such a man, or what they know of him, they're not equipped or trained enough to investigate a rich and powerful Councilman, or a dragon, so they happily -- more-or-less -- flounce back in to the Warrens. They immediately stride in to the large room where they fought Taranat and encounter a lone kobold. His eyes are glazed over, and a stream of smoke pours out of his mouth. He seems disinclined to fight, so Logan engages him in Draconic discource. The little reptile doesn't have much information, but he can tell the group that Kassem never leaves through the front doors, and is working on some kind of "maaaaaaagical sperimen, dudes." Logan gives the kobold the rest of his snakeweed and tells him to run along before he gets caught in the crossfire. He does so, muttering something about the "Pissed Lizards" as he scampers off.

The party arranges themselves in front of the double doors. Anrai is wearing the rags of a thug over his armor and holding a thug's club, his sword sheathed across his back, as he opens one of the doors. The room on the other side is smaller than Taranat's domain. However, it lacks nearly any mold, the walls are ornately and lovingly shaped -- though covered in crude graffitti and carvings dedicated to Ustelev -- and a throne resembling a cross between an anvil and a forge dominates the center of the room. Standing in the throne is another small humanoid rat, this one wielding a falchion designed to look like a silver snake-head with a huge tongue. He wears blackened leather armor with scattered patches of silver scales and a raven-skull brooch dipped in silver, with onyx eyes; a green cloak flutters from his shoulders. The wererat has one green eye, one yellow, and both gleam with madness.

Directly in front of Anrai are a pair of rotting corpses with empty eyes and hungry mouths, impaled with rusting pipes and tottering towards him on bleeding feet. Before he can do anything, however, there is a sound like the world collapsing around him, Rhialla, and Sophie. Sophie and Anrai drop their weapons and clap their hands on their bleeding ears, while Rhialla just blinks and shakes her head. Kassem laughs, dancing on his throne and speaking ecstatically of the glory of disease. The zombies prove much quicker than they look, and begin to mercileslly pummel Anrai and Rhialla with their torn hands. Logan scorches them (And Rhialla) with a poorly tossed bomb, and Anrai chops one in half with his beloved blade once he shakes off the rat's magic. However, as soon as the zombie falls, a rat the size of a man leaps from the shadows of the room and sinks its fangs in to his arm!

Rhialla channels the power of Ditroea in to her new bow and launches an arrow in to Kassem's chest. He howls in pain and calls upon the favor of Ustelev, diving for cover. Anrai collapses over the course of the battle and Sophie is forced to heal him, and the two dash in to the room, slicing through the last zombie and the giant rat. Kassem steps forward and deals a horrendous blow across Rhialla's chest, but Ustelev's priest cannot stand before Ditroea's champion, and she beheads Kassem with a mighty swing of her blade. The party cheers as the wererat falls, and then quickly claim his magical items as their own. On his body is a rusty iron key. After a minute or so to heal, they search the defiled Inner Sanctum. They confirm that it was once dedicated to Dehas, and begin to suspect that the Shrine of Saint Aelys -- or at least the original building -- may have once been one of his Temples before the Empire's first civil war.

In the corner is the corpse of a hulking wererat, human-sized and muscular, but in an advance state of decomposition. Draped over it, is the Shroud of Saint Aelys! They claim the Shroud and examine the ratman's corpse. Logan deduces that this must be the natural lycanthrope who infected the others, and he and Rhialla surmise that Kassem must have been trying to somehow bring the wererat back to life through some sort of twisted ritual utilizing the Shroud.

Sophie finds a secret door behind Kassem's throne, and they follow it into a service corridor of sorts. They traverse pitch-black corridors, hopping over puddles of sludge and dodging sudden shards of broken pipe. Eventually they see a splintery gray door with rusting iron bands, and a large rusting lock. Anrai steps cheerfully up to the door holding Kassem's key. The slime-slicked floor suddenly collapses underneath him, with a one foot gap between the pit trap and the door. It turns out that the floor was just thin wood, painted gray, with a thick layer of slime on top. Anrai is impaled by spikes at the bottom of the pit, and howls in agony as the bemused Sophie hauls him out. The party uses almost the last of their healing to get him back in to fighting condition. On the other side of the door is a short hallway, leading to a second door. Everyone looks at Sophie.

The sylph sighs and searches the hallway. She finds a hole in the ceiling, slanted to aim towards the second door. After several attempts to jam the hole, she sets off the trap and earns a javelin to the chest which knocks her off her feet. Feeling a little silly -- and a lot of pain -- she accepts a helping hand (And a little healing) from Rhialla and staggers back into a standing position with a glare at the rest of her party. The second door leads in to the brothers' treasure vault. A small clay urn is stuffed with silver and copper, with a pouch of gems on top, and a shelf contains half a dozen valuable-looking art objects, most of them incorporating silver to some extent. Sophie's eyes gleam as they collect the items, most of them content with the haul. Logan discusses buying a portable alchemist's lab, and the entire party insists on buying him one and a full lab. Everyone agrees that his healing potions have kept them going through many an encounter.

Almost by accident, the party stumbles on the last brother. The service corridor leads to the back entrance of a secret door, more than apparent to them from this angle. After concurring for a few moments, Rhialla just bursts into the room with her new sword drawn. On the other side is a room filled to the brim with furniture, junk, clothing, cooking utensils, scrap metal, and scattered coins, gems, and more art objects. Desperately trying to sort and pack this mess is another wererat. He hops in to an overstuffed armchair when Rhialla enters the room, spinning around in midair. "Behold the might of BAELIOS!" he screams in a high-pitched voice, pulling out a pair of flasks. He flings them at Rhialla, and they shatter over her face and stomach. The acid slides harmlessly off her face, but the alchemist's fire makes her double over in pain. Three dire rats clamber out of the wreckage and launch themselves in to the fray!

The battle is very short but intense. Anrai runs in to the room, cutting himself on the various rubble and earning a nip from one of the rats. He engages Baelios in melee, and the wererat is only too eager to flank him with one of his pets, mocking the barbarian as a reckless fool. However, Baelios' pets prove no match for bombs and blades, and he quickly finds himself alone and badly injured. He flees down the service corridor and is about to make his escape. As one last bit of mockery, he looks over his shoulder and sticks his tongue out at the party...when a silver arrow-head catches him between the eyes. Another cheer! As far as the party knows, all of the wererat brothers are dead and their copious riches belong to them.

They return to the Shrine of Saint Aelys. Father Mildmon is overjoyed to receive the Shroud. He's had all the locks in the Shrine changed, which took a little more than half of the money confiscated from Walter's hidden stash. He offers them the small emerald -- worth roughly three hundred and fifty talents -- as payment, in addition to as much healing and hospitality as the Shrine can afford, indefinitely. The whole party, even Sophie, is varying degrees of relucant to take the money, but they eventually decide that they could use the cash. "Hospitality" includes their own suite of rooms; a bedroom each for the ladies and the gentlemen, and a mix of parlor and dining room where Logan eagerly installs his laboratory.

Rewards for completing "Rats, Foiled Again!"
-Serpent's Bite: +1 scimitar in the hands of a medium creature, +1 falchion in the hands of a small creature. Deals 1 point of acid damage per strike, an on a critical hit, the target must make a DC 14 Fortitude save versus Filth Fever, no incubation period. Goes to Rhialla.
-Warden Brooch: Grants a +2 to Initiative and Perception checks. During the surprise round of combat, the wearer has DR 1/-.
-+1 studded leather armor. Goes to Logan.
-Cloak of resistance +1. Goes to Anrai.

Everyone leveled! Nobody multiclasses. Logan takes the Shape Bomb discovery, and Anrai learns the Accurate Stance. Sophie takes Minor Magic, earning the party a much needed detect magic. Rhialla's player, relatively new to the game, understands the sheer power and usefulness of lay on hands and divine grace.

[JerichoPenumbra]

Sounds like things are progressing well enough. Are you guys using the using the Unchained versions of classes?

I feel sorry for Grissom considering his daughter is probably dead by now, and if she isn't she probably wishes she was.

[Schylerwalker]

Sounds like things are progressing well enough. Are you guys using the using the Unchained versions of classes?

I feel sorry for Grissom considering his daughter is probably dead by now, and if she isn't she probably wishes she was.

Yes indeedly, the Rogue and Barbarian are Unchained. The Barbarian's player is loving it; he's new to tabletops, but he's proven really eager. Very bloodthirsty in combat, but he also loves the investigation and roleplaying side of things. All in all, his character's kind of the party mascot. :smallbiggrin:

I also feel sorry for Ethella! The party is taking a few days off to refine some gems for sale or spell-storing (Alternative rules in Gary Gygax's World Building Guide) and crafting potions and alchemical items, and to generally rest and discuss their plans. Anrai and Rhialla, IC and OOC, are rarin' to go rescue the fair maiden and kill some goblins, but the other two (Veteran players) are more than a little cautious.

[JerichoPenumbra]

Yes indeedly, the Rogue and Barbarian are Unchained. The Barbarian's player is loving it; he's new to tabletops, but he's proven really eager. Very bloodthirsty in combat, but he also loves the investigation and roleplaying side of things. All in all, his character's kind of the party mascot. :smallbiggrin:

I also feel sorry for Ethella! The party is taking a few days off to refine some gems for sale or spell-storing (Alternative rules in Gary Gygax's World Building Guide) and crafting potions and alchemical items, and to generally rest and discuss their plans. Anrai and Rhialla, IC and OOC, are rarin' to go rescue the fair maiden and kill some goblins, but the other two (Veteran players) are more than a little cautious.

Understandably so, I haven't been in one of your games in ages but heroic idealism and blindly rushing in typically end poorly (of course there are exceptions both intended and not [goddamn Rico]). However I'm mostly surprised that the alchemist isn't tossing acid/alchemist's fire around like a madman or at least that's the impression I'm getting. The bomb class feature is potent especially at early levels but he should be trying to spread the splash.