Cauldron Adventures

Life's Bazaar - Part 1: It was a late Autumn night in Cauldron, and the steady drizzle had dampened the spirits of most of the inhabitants of the strange city.  Suddenly, a group of friends (Aram, Grifor, Osthryd, Paithan, Desmona, and Minolos), heard cursing and scuffling.  Quickly, they shot looks down a nearby ally and saw three figures with painted faces assaulting a fourth. "Stay away from the orphanage, you got that?" said one of the harlequin figures. Three thugs were beating up Ruphus.  Using spells, Desmona and Minolos charmed two of the thugs, and Aram and Paithan defeated the third.  Ruphus was a priest of Marush Hob, and after the three thugs were incarcerated (learning from the thugs that they were hired by someone named Jil), they all took Ruphus to the Temple of Marush Hob on Obsidian Avenue.   Ruphus was taken to Jenya Urikas' chambers.   Jenya shared information and the divination:  

The locks are key to finding them.

Look beyond the curtain, below the cauldron,

But beware the doors with teeth.

Descend into the malachite 'hold,

Where precious life is bought with gold.

Half a dwarf binds them, but not for long.

  They learned that a gnome locksmith named Keygan Ghelve fashioned most of the town's locks.  His shop was on Lava Street. 
        They sought out Jil and found out that Jil was a member of the Last Laugh and had been paid to keep people from investigating the orphanage disappearances.  She did not know why.  She simply took the money and hired a couple of thugs to do it.  During the questioning of Jil, Minolos heard a rumor that one of the children taken from the orphanage was the Lord Mayor's bastard child.
        Minolos and Paithan went to the orphanage.  Aram, Desmona, Grifor, and Osthryd went to Ghelve's Locks.  At Ghelve's locks, they met Keygan the gnome.  They entered the Store front, a comfortable room with padded chairs, a hearth, smoking pipes, etc.  Keys hung on wall for various locks in the shop.  Keygan Ghelve was 110 years old, with salt and pepper hair and a neatly trimmed mustache and goatee. His bushy eyebrows, creased face, and graven frown made him look frumpy and dour, but he possessed a sly wit and a disarming manner.
        Keygan doesn't like clients looking down on him while they're haggling over price.  During business hours, he wore a pair of wood and iron stilts that clamped to his calves and wore extra long pants to hide them.  The stilts made him appear nearly six feet tall.  He was accustomed to walking on the stilts and suffered no penalty to his speed.  He does not wear the stilts at night or while running errands, and he leans them in a corner by the stairs when they are not in use.
        Although he never lived in Jzadirune, Keygan visited the gnome enclave several times in his youth and spent the rest of his free time learning the locksmith trade and helping his father run Ghelve's Locks.  He stopped visiting the enclave when a magic plague called the Vanishing caused many of Jzadirune's denizens to fade into nothingness.  His shop hides the only known entrance into Jzadirune, although only a handful of gnomes living in Cauldron knows this.  After 75 years, Jzadirune had faded from most people's memories.
        Somewhat bored with his business, Keygan began studying magic about one year ago.  A little over three months ago, a gang of skulks and dark creepers found their way into Jzadirune from below.  They followed the staircase up to the locksmith shop, crept inside, and surprised both Keygan and his rat familiar, Starbrow.  Taking the familiar hostage, they blackmailed Keygan into telling them everything he knew about Cauldron.  When the skulks learned the gnome had crafted many of the town's locks, they made him create a single key that could open all of them.  Fearing they would kill him and his familiar, Keygan created special skeleton keys that would open any of his locks.  He then gave them a meticulous list of everyone in town to whom he'd sold locks in the past ten years.
        Keygan is not proud of his complicity, but he will not act against the skulks so long as they're watching him and holding his familiar hostage.  He knows his rat familiar is located in a dark place within one mile, and he can sense both his familiar's hunger and fright. The kidnappers include two types of creatures: "tall ones" and "short ones".  The "tall ones" resemble naked, hairless, genderless humans with blue pupilless eyes and gray skin that changes color, allowing them to blend perfectly with their surroundings.  They are usually encountered in pairs or threes and usually leave the shop wearing cloaks.  The "short ones" are sinister gnomelike creatures with pallid skin, large noses, and soft black hooves for feet.  They wear black cloaks and cowls that help them hide in shadows. The kidnappers shared a common language that Keygan doesn't recognize. He gave the kidnappers three different sized skeleton keys that can open most of the town's locks.  One of the "tall ones" carries the keys on a silver ring. He told them that the "tall ones" wield rapiers and light crossbows.  The "short ones" wield sharp daggers.  The "tall ones" have imprisoned Keygan's rat familiar somewhere in Jzadirune.   He also told them Jzadirune's doors were gear shaped and designed to roll to one side or the other.  Many of them bore traps that only the gnomes could safely bypass.
            In the lock display and storage room, where three wooden chests sat in middle of floor they were attacked by a skulk, an Angustian untouchable. It leaped down down when the secret door was found.  They killed the skulk quickly, and left Keygan's place for the orphanage.  

        Across town, Paithan and Minolos were at the Lantern Street Orphanage.  It was a two story, charcoal-colored stone building covered in mold encrustations.   It was run by an Elderly Halfling woman named Gretchyn Tashykk, a 72 year old female halfling.  Gretchyn told them they were not the only ones looking for the kids.  The town guard questioned them the morning after, but later that day a pair of half-elven investigators working for the Lord Mayor returned and questioned her again.  They seemed genuinely concerned.  They also learned about a half-orc named Patch who worked there.
           When Aram and the others arrived, they told Paithan, Minolos, and Gretchyn about Keygan's doings - and ruined his business forever in doing so, for Gretchyn swore to tell all that their locks had been compromised.  They learned that the half-elves had visited Patch a couple of times, asking him further questions.  Aram and the others then questioned Patch. They learned a low ranking guild member named Revus Twindaggers contacted the half orc last year and gave him 50 gp to "keep his eye" on Terrem Kharatys, one of the children, until the service was no longer required. Patch did not know who took the four children, but he suspected The Last Laugh might be involved because Terrem was among those taken.
            Returning to Keygan's place, Keygan gave them a map of Jzadirune.  They passed through the secret door to the darkness below.  Moving down the descending stairs, they heard strange sounds: chirping birds; rustling leaves; cheery giggles.  They found a well-hidden secret door in the wall and opted to go through it.  Turning the torch sconce clockwise opened the secret door on landing.
         Opening the secret door in the east wall triggered a 10 foot square, 10 foot deep pit containing a 2 inch thick layer of black acidic slime.  Aram, Minolos, Grifor, and Osthryd fell into the slime, and the others worked hard to rescue them.  Grifor made it to the door and opened it - discovering hobgoblins on the other side.  They tried to bull rush him back into the slime, but he threw them in instead.  Grifor felled another with a spell and Paithan took out one with an arrow.  With difficulty, everyone made it across the slime pit into an octagonal room with a large wooden platform for a floor.  Chains looped over eight enormous pulleys, and the ends of the chains were hooked to the corners, then dropped through a hole in the center.  Pulling a lever caused the floor to descend 200 feet to Kazmojan's fortress.  Here the walls, floors, and ceilings were carved from black stone and are smoothly polished.  The next room displayed a strange sculpture standing between two dangling iron cages, a five foot tall column of rough hewn stone covered with sharp protrusions and four crystal tipped appendages.  This was a stone spike, and when it was attacked by Paithan, it attacked and began taking out the entire party.  Aram was dying, as was Paithan and Osthryd by the time Grifor had his idea.  Desmona was killed, despite Minolos' attempts to resuscitate her.  Grifor ran, causing the stone spike to chase him.  Grifor ran to the elevator room and, when the stone spike entered, pulled the lever.  Grifor rolled off the platform as it ascended, and the stone spike was lifted out of the area.  
        Sounds of combat attracted the major domo, Xukasus.  He entered the hall, a huge ogre.  Minolos charmed him, and convinced the ogre to take them into his quarters, a room filled with a putrid stench, splattered wall to wall with filth, bile, bones and other disgusting remains.  A crude chair had been made out of older refuse, and an iron chest rests half buried in a small mound of dung in the southeast corner.

Aram - Bob Probst, Swashbuckler
Grifor - Allen Myers, Monte Cook Bard
Osthryd - Chris Bradley, Holy Warrior of Wemusa
Paithan - Charles Darlage, Archer
Minolos - Mark van Dyk, Wizard
Desmona - Dawn, Priestess of Marush Hob