Sic Pixie's Carrion Crown Adventure Path

Meanwhile Grembor insults another short person ...

Meanwhile: …..

Grembor in the light of day after leaving the courthouse makes his way back to Ledov’s Chirurgery Merchants as per their agreement that the information should be found by 4pm. He strides in a little before the courthouse clock chimes the hour and makes his way to Vladka Kostel who is busy with the auction proceedings. Noticing his arrival she beckons him over and they retire into the back room to conclude their business. Vladka fishes out a piece of paper from the desk and hands it over saying “I believe this is the information your looking for; quite a nice piece if I recall; the buyer of the tools as wearing an unusual high hat and green-tinted reading glasses. The buyer owns a chirurgery supply shop in the Surgeons’ Flats, goes by the name Radniche.” She confides. Grinning Gembor takes the proffered information and bows low over her hand kissing it softly; “I am very thankful, can I perhaps thank you properly over dinner?” Vladka smiles and agrees on a place at 7pm tomorrow night. Grembor grins again and practically skips out of the auction house.

Checking the address on the paper he realises he passed that shop a few times already today so he heads out to get there before the place closes for the night. Finding the shop Grembor loiters outside watching the shop making sure it’s a kosher business; all appears to be above board so he walks into the shop while palming a dagger. Radniche’s cramped shop is piled with skeletons, pickled things in jars, and alchemical components. Radniche himself is behind the counter peering over at the new customer through thin gold rimmed spectacles. Grembor cautiously asks about the surgical kit they found; requesting information on the buyer so it could be returned to them. Radniche advised Grembor that his customer’s identity is confidential and there is no way he could confide that information.

Grembor suggested he could perhaps make a purchase and the information could come with that; Radniche warms to the subject but his tone suggests that this purchase would have to be substantial. After some discussion on possible items to buy Grembor aquires several items and Radniche confides that a striking fellow bought the kit, very dapper in black from head to toe, who said he owned a chymic works somewhere nearby. Checking through his ledgers reveals the name of the man who purchased the surgeon’s tools; a Master Vorkstag, of Vorkstag and Grine’s Chymic Works; this establishment is not that far from here he states just head towards the river and you will smell it.

Grembor thanking Radniche heads towards the Chymic works and indeed when he gets closer the smell of the factory makes his eyes water. Scouting the site he finds just the one entrance through some large iron re-enforced gates leading to a courtyard where by the sound of it some sort of guard dog resides. Pulling on the chain to ring the bell an upper loading bay door opens after a few minutes and a short figure looks out. “Bugger off” is the terse opening response; Grembor asks for an audience and is told they isn’t hiring or needing more business. Grembor demands to see the diminutive beings master; which elicits the response “Just cos Vorstags name is before mine don’t make him my master, now bugger off” with that the door slams and all goes quiet. Grembor retreats as the darkness starts plotting the demise of all short people and returns to the Scholars Rest for some food and to wait on the arrival of Sayuri and Kat; hoping their expedition went better then his. (Grembor just does not have any luck with short people; especially halflings)

Pringle

Guest appearance for a couple of weeks: Pringle Human male Enchanter.

When Grembor returns to the Scholars Rest he notices someone he knows from his ad hock working for the Judge. Joining him at his table they get to talking about what each have been up to since the last time they spoke. Pringle is currently between jobs so is interested in what his old friend is doing and is wanting to know if he could help in any way. Grembor trusting in his friend confides in the current job and they kick back and relax while waiting for the girls to arrive back from investigating Hergstag.

An hour or so later the ladies arrive looking somewhat worse for wear; they notice Grembor sitting with someone they don’t know and limp over to join them. Grembor noticing this asks them what happened which they are reticent to talk about and instead ask how his afternoon went. They quickly exchange stories; introductions are made between Pringle and the team. While they eat fish pie, drink beer and plan on the evening’s activities; they decide that Grembor and Pringle would try checking into Vorkstag and Grine’s to see if they could find the source of the problem while Sayuri and Kat investigate the goings on at Hergstag by checking on the witnesses they know about who are still in the area.

Grembor and Pringle head to Vorkstag and Grine’s; doing a circuit of the building seeing if there is a possible entrance they could exploit. Grembor notices nothing new bar a few trees growing relatively close to the building but not close enough or high enough to be much use. At Pringles prompting Grembor wraps his hands in heavy cloth and clumsily scales the wall to see over the top. The wall is 20ft high and topped with broken glass; which would suggest that they don’t want un-invited guests. Peering over the wall in the darkness Grembor notices the dog attached to the corner of the wall by a long thick chain. There is something odd about the dog as its patchwork coat seems to be held together with stitching; definitely something odd going on there. Finding nothing else of particular interest he slides back down the wall and joins up again with Pringle; relaying what he has seen Pringle confirms Grembors suspicions that the dog is most likely a Flesh Golem too. Considering the lack of other obvious entrances they return to the Scholars Rest.

Sayuri and Kat head out at the same time as Grembor and Pringle; they ask around and find that the three remaining villagers from Hergstag now own a small windmill on the outskirts of Lepidstadt and are witnesses for the prosecution. They soon track down the location and go see if it’s still open so they could ask some questions; luck is with them as they have orders to fulfil and as they are all supposed to be in court tomorrow they are working late tonight to make their quota. Walking in they startle the two ladies that are working late; who turn to look fearfully at the newcomers. Noticing they are two females they relax a little and enquire as to their business here this late; Sayuri enquires as to their story regarding Hergstag and they happily comply. The three sisters named Garrow, Starle and Flicht; all in their late forties, the three lived their entire lives in Hergstag. Each remembers the deaths. The village’s children vanished one by one, only to return as ghosts. Then one day the culprit was found—the Beast of Lepidstadt. It boldly walked into the village with one of the dead children, a girl named Ellsa. The witnesses all recall seeing the Beast laughing as it carried the child’s broken body. As soon as the locals saw the Beast, they set upon it with pitchforks, but try as they might they couldn’t catch it, and the Beast escaped into the swamp. The poor innocents it killed continued to haunt the village, and before long became too much for the locals, who soon abandoned the cursed village. Both Sayuri and Kat sense that there is more to the tale than they are telling and they enquire as to the specifics of the story. They convince them to reveal that of the six children who died, one—a girl named Karin—died in her own bed 2 days after the Beast was driven from Hergstag. Her father heard her screaming but by the time he reached her she was dead, without a mark on her and with no signs of entry. This makes them think again about the possible culprit and would it be worth heading back there to investigate. They get directions to which house Karin lived in so they could take a look.

Thanking the pair they head back to the Scholars Rest to meet up with Grembor and Pringle; they find them there already relaxing before the fire sipping on a beer each.

They have a quick discussion regarding what they should do next and decide to head back to Vorkstag and Grine’s to see if they could do some covert action and snoop around the factory. They all collect their things and head out not looking suspicious at all; I am sure if any law abiding citizens were out and about at this time they would stay clear of this dangerous looking party.

Pringle the Dawg ...

Approaching Vorkstag and Grine’s factory they hang around outside casually swinging a grappling hook and not looking like they are about to commit a burglary at all. Several passer bys look askance at them as they stand outside in the dark park opposite talking about possible ingress points. Finally the party realise how suspicious they look and move round to the side of the building looking a little sheepish. They continue their hushed discussion between themselves until Kat gets bored and casts spider climb on herself and quickly scales the sheer walls of the factory. Tying off a rope securely each member climbs up afterwards, Sayuri having the most difficulty while Pringle and Grembor practically fly up the 40 odd feet building. They investigate the tower windows considering them more likely to be accessible and force entry on one of them; they notice some flittering movement within prior to opening but once opened they see nothing of any danger to them. Grembor reaching in to opening the latch of the window feel the hairs on his arm shift in the breeze; there is a metallic snapping sound like a bear trap snapping shut; a sound that both Kat and Sayuri are very familiar with. Kat leaps though the open window landing in the centre of the small tower room; scanning they see loads of curios and artifacts from around the world on display. There is the snap of metallic Jaws closing on Kats forearm which is relatively minor damage but she feels the burn of some toxin trying to overwhelm her. Grembor leaps into the room on his second try after trying running into the wall headlong which any respectable thief knows is not the way to agilely leap through an open window; he swings his sword wildly around himself while looking impressive it hits nothing. The second attack upon Kat scores a glancing blow the teeth barely scratching the surface but the toxin combines with the previous dose and Kat swoons to the floor in an alchemically enforced slumber. Grembor leaps out of the window again leaving his faithful companion inside with the two small creatures; such a noble character that one.

Sayuri and Pringle are outside with no real angle of attack as the narrow window prevents them really seeing the action inside from their current position. Sayuri finishes off a summoning and brings a Lemure from the depths of Hell. Pringle looks at Sayuri in surprise as the summoning of Hellish creatures is a sure slide to the naughty side of the alignment tree; unfortunately Grembor is in the way of any assault that he could make through the window. With the added bonus of a Lemure to distract the two snap jaws Grembor feels brave enough to enter into the fray again and manages to clumsily straddle the window and get into the room. He swings at one of the offending creatures scoring a minor hit; the Lemure makes more of an impression and leaves some nasty claw marks. Pringle moves up and leans through the window unleashing a bolt of fire from his palm that strikes one of the creatures on the face instantly immolating it as it drops to the floor quite dead. Sayuri finishes summoning a goblin looking dog and sends it in to try biting the remaining critter which misses by a long way. Grembor flails around with his sword making the lemure and goblin dog nervous; while the snap jaw tries biting the Lemure. Finding to its surprise that a Lemure; while looking like a somewhat melted candle with claws; it has a stronger skin than it thought as its teeth bounce of its tough hide. Through the combination of Lemure, Goblin Dog and Grembor the critter soon collapses into a pile of component parts. All of the team crawl in through the window while Grembor considers what he could do to embarrass his friend again; shame there is no tattoo parlour close by. Pringle walks up to Kat’s slumbering body and to everyone’s shock licks her face; startled Kat wakes up to see Pringle leaning over her and her face feeling wet. She quickly gets to her feet glaring at the party daring any of them to say anything; Pringle starts looking around the room with a smile on his face.

Sayuri takes a wrong turn ...

Quickly searching the room they find several items worth closer investigation and pocket them. They have two options one a trapdoor in the floor and the other a trapdoor in the ceiling at the top of a ladder. They decide that the best thing would be to make sure that they have nothing above them so they don’t get attacked on both sides; Grembor climbs the ladder and pushes open the trapdoor above him carefully. Quiet as he is the sound of the sonic trap going off just over his head is deafening as it resounds through the whole building. There is the scramble of claws in the room above but Grembor is in no state to investigate as his eardrums complain at the pounding and he curls up into a ball; however being at the top of a 20 ft ladder while doing this is a bad idea and he drops to the floor stunned from the sound and then the impact on the floor. They hear the sounds of activity below them so they scoop up Grembor throwing him out the window onto the roof; Sayuri casts a new spell she has discovered causing her rope to lift into the air which they all climb up into an extra dimensional space; swiftly pulling the rope up after them they keep an eye out of the invisible window. Shortly after they see two figures lean out of the window; one short and the other tall. They scan the rooftop looking for the culprits and seeing nothing they close off the window and repair the damage.

The party wait for another hour before descending and Grembor again breaks into the window; they all slide through into the room beyond. Some discussion later Kat creeps up the ladder cracking open the trapdoor above. The resulting silence and absence of movement convinces her that the room is in fact empty; they sneak around checking it out regardless. Dropping down again they turn to investigate the trapdoor leading down into the building proper; finding it unlocked they open it up to discover the bedroom of a seriously disturbed individual. As much an abattoir as a bedchamber, this room contains not only a four-poster bed, but also numerous workbenches and alchemical gear; the walls are lined with shelves and strange looking objects in jars of liquid. Bits of rags litter the floor, and the air is heavy with the stench of spoiled food mixed with acrid chemicals. They each carefully climb down the ladder and start searching the room; they swiftly find a locked strongbox beneath the bed and several completed potions on the table littered with alchemical gear. This room is part alchemy lab, part slaughterhouse, and part bedroom. The many jars about the room contain alchemically preserved body parts from a variety of creatures. One bell jar full of liquid contains a small gold key at the bottom. Pringle takes a careful look at the jar assuming that the liquid is more than water and that the key is the one to the heavy box; he advises Grembor that’s its just water and that he should just reach in and take it out. Grembor looks at Pringle the doubt showing heavily upon his face as he considers the chance of Pringle being wrong to the chance of him loosing his hand in the water like liquid in the jar. Searching around he finds several other empty jars and carefully pours the not water into these so he can fish out the key without having to touch the liquid. Finding some leather he wraps this round his fingers then picking up the key inserts in into the lock and swiftly turns it. Everyone notices the acrid smell and smoke coming from the impromptu leather glove Grembor is touching the key with. Accusery looks are directed Pringles way who manages to not give a damn with very little effort; they open up the chest finding the working of a trap inside cleverly bypassed by the key. Grembor slips the contents of one pouch into his palm with only Kat noticing the slight of hand; the rest is laid out on the desk for perusal. The chest apparently only contains some gold and some finished potions of Antitoxin. They swiftly ransack the rest of the room and then open the door to peek out into the main room. The toxic fumes makes the eyes water as they look out over the huge vats of acid and bleach; slipping out of the door they are standing upon a narrow walkway. This chamber occupies a whole side of the building, from the cellar level below up to the roof high above. Seven iron vats, each ten feet across, occupy the majority of the room. Furnaces fuel the vats at cellar level, while at the ground floor level a series of planks have been laid across the vats to allow passage to a ladder that leads to an iron walkway on the level above. Two ladders also allow access from the planks to the floor below. The air in the chamber is cloying and acidic; each vat sending their contribution to the fumes into the already fume choked air. They notice several malformed creatures shambling around the factory; each different from the other and each looking like a hideous amalgamation of several different creatures.

The creatures notice the arrival of the party and with hoots; calls, growls and other various calls they start moving towards them in a series of strange hopping, lurching steps. The group gets ready but Sayuri panics at the sight and runs into a room adjacent to the one they came out of and stops in surprise as a figure rises up from its preparations and looks at her with an evil glint in its eye. This figure is a humanoid, presumably male with dark pink flesh drawn tightly across its emaciated body; this being resembles a gaunt human stripped of its skin, its pulsing muscles completely exposed. It looks upon Sayuri and smiles a smile that would make a snake proud; promptly donning a long coat with many pockets and plucking a wide brimmed hat of the table and placing it on his head with a flourish and another evil smile that would chill the bones of a master Vampire.

Alchemists are not happy people ....

Grembor opens the volley with a pair of arrows which miss completely; you would think he would get the idea by now and just leave the bow alone. You could have your eye out with that thing … Kat slides out of the room as a Mongrelman approaches the ledge and swings his swords at it missing and becoming overcome with the fumes; Grembor soon follows with some serious retching as the toxic fumes from the vats of acid and bleach irritate the lungs and throat. The Mongrelman seem to be wearing some sort of cloth over their faces to filter out the worst of the toxicity. Pringle from the back considers his options carefully then decides it’s time to bring out the big guns and starts summoning. Sayuri opens with a volley of force darts; springing from her hand and striking the poor defenceless potential mass murderer. With a grin he selects several components and combines them then throwing the resulting mixture towards Sayuri; missing it impacts on the wall close to her and bursts into flame; the resulting effects singed Sayuri slightly. The four Mongrelmen counter with their clubs catching a surprised Kat on her side cracking a couple of ribs; one of them on the vats tries climbing up onto the walkway so they can flank but the climb seems too much for him currently. Grembor smiles and unleashes a couple more arrows in rapid succession towards the Mongrel trying to climb up and one hits the mark scratching the poor unfortunate factory worker on its arm the other going very wide; Kat strikes out with her pair of swords; they both hit the Mongrel beside her who sinks to his knees while it’s head bounces off the walkway into one of the vats followed shortly by it’s still twitching body; the smell if possible gets worse as the acid eats into the flesh bubbling in a horrifyingly eager fashion as the mongrel’s body starts to melt like warm wax. Kat decides there and then that it’s not a good idea to hang around these vats. Pringle finishes his summoning and a rent in the air opens and an Air Elemental steps out immediately attacking one of the Mongrels with its claws while bringing a breath of fresh air with it. Pringle follows the creature out onto the walkway to get a better view of the combat; they are currently unaware of the fight Sayuri is waging just beyond a door.

Sayuri unleashes another torrent of force missiles which impact upon Vorkstag’s chest causing him to grunt in pain and irritation; he takes out a potion swallowing its contents with another evil smirk. The massed Mongrels surge forward on the narrow walkway only one able to attack at any time and having only their clubs they do their best. Swinging at Kat the foremost one misses its club impacting upon the doorway; Kat attacks and one hits but only cause’s superficial damage to the mongrel. Pringles air elemental however has a much better angle not being impeded by gravity it plunges its claws into the creature pulling some rather useful organs out; the Mongrelman stares at its heart for a few seconds before collapsing in a pile that slides off into the vat of acid below adding to the pungent aroma. Pringle smiling directs a Ray of Frost at the Mongrel trying to scale the walkway causing its face to freeze up somewhat discouraging it from approaching. Grembor working through his nausea shoots an arrow at the mongrel taking it in its eye then moves through into the recently vacated room while drawing his sword as the air in here is somewhat fresher. Kat opens the door to the room Sayuri disappeared into and steps into the room seeing Vorkstag for the first time; looking the skinless creature up and down her stomach churns a little in disgust.

Sayuri unleashes another volley of force missiles but to her shock they impact upon a shield of force and are harmlessly dissipated. Vorkstag grins evilly at Sayuri as he palms another bomb and hurls it at her direction again missing and causing an explosion of acid which splashes both Sayuri and Kat. The last of the Mongrels steps up and tries to club Grembor senseless but is thwarted by his deft movements, oh and by the doorframe he is standing in. Two more move from the space below and start climbing the ladder; there is a shimmering in the air as a short figure materialises while throwing an axe at Pringle; the axe is a glancing blow even from hidden and Pringle takes this is his stride. He also feels the poison on the blade entering his system but the glancing blow seems to have not delivered enough to cause any problems. Grine screams in anger as his surprise attack is practically ineffective and reaches for another axe. Kat charges in swinging at Vorkstag and scoring some good hits with her swords; Sayuri rushes into combat swinging with her fists and feet; doing minimal damage but it all adds up eventually. Grembor dispatches the Mongrel before him with a vicious twist of his sword in the beasts kidneys with the help of the Air elemental while Pringle throws his only dagger at the small gnome like creature who threw an axe at him; the knife flies wide and disappears into the vat of acid followed by come colourful curses from the wizard. Two Mongrels climb up the ladder one reaching the top while Vorkstag claws at Sayuri with a very painful result for Sayuri as both claws draw long gashes on her arm and shoulder making her stagger back a step with the force of the blows. Grine throws another axe at Pringle but this one flies wide also again followed by some uncouth cursing from the diminutive evil bugger who was hoping to cause pain and draw some serious blood. Kat slashes Vorkstag again only hitting with the one sword this time; Vorkstag turns to look upon Kat as she is now causing him more pain than the meddling spellcaster and winks at her feeling confidant with only the pair taking him on. Pringle retreats into the room the combat is happening in with Kat and Sayuri while his elemental attacks the Mongrel on the ladder almost causing him to fall the 50 feet to the floor below before dissipating back to the plane it was dragged from.

The Mongrels climb up the remaining distance and close on the doorway where Grembor is waiting sword in hand and blood in mind; risking an attack as one passes the doorway they are persuaded to stop and deal with the bloody minded ranger; which they both miss. The main fight with Vorkstag is a bloody affair with Vorkstag pulling out a flask and throwing it at Kat which impacts spraying acid around the immediate area and burning Kat and causing some slight damage to Sayuri. However this damage is leaving Sayuri very close to collapse as she has taken some serious pain already today and is all out of healing potions. Luckily Pringle is just out of the area of the blast so does not feel the pain of the others two; Grine pulls out his last throwing axe and coating it with poison throws it at Grembor in the doorway; he ducks instinctively as it buries itself in the door close to his head and laughs as the capering gnome below him jumps up and down in frustration while using some very colourful language that would possibly shock a lady of the night. Kat backs Vorkstag into a corner and swings at him with her swords causing a minor gash on one arm; Sayuri takes out her crossbow and starts shooting bolts at the weird looking alchemist to little effect since her main ranged offensive capability is rendered ineffective by a simple potion. Grembor cuts down one of the Mongrels trying to manoeuvre itself into the room to attack Pringle as they know wizards are trouble. Grine casts a darkness spell making the darkness much deeper and causing problems for the only human in the band Pringle who suddenly is unable to see clearly enough to make out more than shadows in the darkness but he see’s Vorkstag’s shadow draw out a wickedly flanged mace and swing it with cruel efficiency striking Kat a solid blow staggering her backwards a step; almost dropping her to her knees.

The last remaining Mongrel strikes Grembor with its club; his shoulder goes numb for a second as he almost drops his sword; Kat recovering from her recent hit snaps both of her swords towards Vorkstag’s stomach hoping to bring him down; both hit but neither do significant damage. One grazes his hip as he twists out of the way while the other catches his knee with a glancing blow; Sayuri shoots another bolt at Vorkstag with a glancing blow and some small damage while Pringle shoots off a spell which misses. Vorkstag swings at Kat and misses by a large margin; Grine moves through the darkness into the room with Vorkstag and most of the group while the Mongrel scores a hit on Grembor but the damage is insignificant. Kat returns the favour with Vorkstag and misses with some very unlady like cursing; Sayuri disgusted with her failed attempts to harm Vorkstag turns her attention to the newcomer and unleashes her force missiles towards Grine who lacks the protections of Vorkstag. Her missiles impact upon his chest and stomach with the force of three cricket ball’s sending him staggering to the wall to keep his feet, Grembor strikes out at the last Mongrel hitting with his sword but causing less damage than he hoped; only causing a shallow gash in its forearm. Vorkstag twirls his heavy mace and swings high catching Kat off guard as it connects with her shoulder and rebounds into her face; she is knocked onto her back her swords flying from her hands and a tooth flies across the room and shatters some very expensive alchemical equipment. Kat is down and her blood is slowly pooling around her head as it bleeds out of her mouth and nose. Vorkstag looks up at the two remaining in the room and works his shoulders as if limbering up for another good hit; Grine looks back at him and grins through bloody teeth from the harassment his body has just taken from Sayuri’s spell. Pringle steps up with no fear and unleashes his most powerful spell almost point blank towards Grine; a blast of scorching flame shooting from his hand impacting with enough force to knock Grine off his feet and against the far wall. The double impact of Sayuri’s missiles and Pringles scorching blast are enough to persuade Grine to slip his mortal coil and collapse lifeless upon the floor.

Vorkstag screams in rage as his partner in crime is laid low; eying up the two before him with murderous rage. Sayuri and Pringle gulp in fear as they seem to have now annoyed the one who felled their best fighter; Kat has nothing to say on the matter being mostly dead. The Mongrel strikes out at Grembor again missing by a significant margin; Kat remains mostly dead and slips one step closer to plain dead; her blood spreading in a larger puddle. Grembor slips his sword past the Mongrels defences and scores a significant hit; the Mongrel is still standing but it’s not looking happy and it never looked pretty. Vorkstag comes to his senses and surveying the situation slips a bottle into his hand; the party all gulp in fear as he raises it over his head then promptly swallows its contents and fades from view. Cursing Sayuri reaches into her pouch and draws out a handful of flour scattering it in the area Vorkstag was standing in; there is a faint cough from that direction and the flour makes it possible to pick out the faint outline of Vorkstag still standing in the same position. Pringle tries vainly to see him but is unable to pick out the alchemist due to his invisibility; he unleashes a spell into the area on Sayuri’s word but only hits the wall. Grembor and the Mongrel trade blows and Grembor comes out on top; well he is still standing looking very much worse for wear while the Mongrelman is in a rapidly spreading pool of his own blood and no longer moving apart from the occasional twitch. He runs into the room where the other three are and see’s Kat’s prone form lying on the floor in a somewhat dead fashion.

Vorkstag notices Sayuri has discerned his position and tries vainly to creep out of the room but the keen eyed Sorcerer follows his movements with more flour; Vorkstag makes it past Grembor and is a good distance along the walkway. Pringle is unable to see anything and thinks Sayuri is making it all up however he is kneeling by Kat trying to staunch the flow of blood from her wounds having taken some potions from Grembor and gently trying to force the healing liquid down her throat. Grembor runs after Sayuri who is trying to follow the still mostly invisible Vorkstag and fires off a shot from her crossbow which seems to stop in mid air with a pain filled grunt; Grembor fires off a couple of arrows which predictably miss the mark. They eventually track down the Alchemist in another room and fill him full of holes. He drops lifeless to the floor much to Sayuri’s and Grembor’s relief. Pringle gets Kat to a woken state with the potions but the party is pretty much battered. Looting the corpses they find some healing potions which they immediately use to help with the pain and then start looting the rooms.

DM’s Note: This was a long combat split along 4 rooms and three levels; most of the party were in single figures apart from Kat who was a long way into negatives. Sayuri had I think 3hp’s left; Pringle took a couple of hits from Grine’s axes (including one very feeble sneak attack) and maybe a Mongrelman and was not very healthy. Out of them all I think Grembor was the best off as he only took on the Mongrels. This is why you don’t split the party. Having one character taking on a BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy) alone is a recipe for death; they were lucky.

The party start ransacking the factory and discover a large amount of alchemical items which they take with them; they find a wardrobe full of various skins one of which is the skin of a hulking 7 foot tall Mongrelman which might match the description of the Beast; They discover a Blood Caiman bite on Vorkstag’s shoulder which puts him in the swamp for the attacks. They also discover a pile of money which Pringle and Sayuri split due to Grembor’s and Kat’s attention being elsewhere. They open up the loading bay doors and snipe the poor Flesh Golem hound from 20 ft up. The Golem can’t retaliate nor can it hide so it gets worn down and expires in a very humiliating fashion. Three Mongrel men also are cut down by sniper fire and looted; they ransack the rest of the factory finding a couple of ledgers with names and items delivered and only really pause when they find a room filled with 4ft of water and thirty odd floating dead bodies in there. Grembor notices one or two of them are moving against the water not with it so they close off the iron door and leave those for the authorities.

Meanwhile Kat runs off to find some guards and is directed to the courthouse where she makes a surprisingly good recovery from a failed Diplomacy roll and convinces the guard sergeant to assist with 15 watchmen and some envoys from the Church of Pharasma to help with the possible thirty odd zombies in the cellar. They arrive as the rest of the party have finished up making sure everything is dead and they assist with the collection of the evidence and transporting it to the courthouse.

As it’s close to 4:30 am and they have to be in court the next day to present the case for the murder of 6 children in Hergstag of which they have little to no evidence for they decide to call it a night and sleep till 8am the next day.

Courtroom day 2

The day dawns overcast, drizzle moistens the air and the wind blows from the mountains making it a cold day. They approach the courthouse having had a disappointing breakfast of oatmeal (porridge) with dried fruit and honey with a side of hot sweet coffee and cream. (Personally I would love this for breakfast) The party is very tired with only a few hours sleep; Grembor heads off to see if he can find some replacement healing and something to help with the fatigue while the rest head to the courthouse.

The courthouse is very busy with a large amount of people sitting outside; if it was a carnival atmosphere yesterday the crowds have doubled this morning. There are food salesmen walking through the crowd selling suspicious looking meat in a bun; or rat on a stick. …. Kids love em!!! They make their way to the courthouse and meet up with Gustav who is ecstatic with the sheer amount of evidence they have recovered. However very little physical evidence is there for the case being presented today; Gustav is hoping that by presenting the new evidence they will be able to get some leniency from the judges on today’s proceedings.

Grembor returns feeling much better just before the court starts fully and nods to the rest of the party; today Kat is presenting the evidence.

10:00 a.m.: The Trial of the Beast resumes. Chief Justice Khard asks the prosecution to outline the details of the alleged events in Hergstag.

10:30 a.m.: Witnesses for the Prosecution. The prosecution describes the events that transpired in Hergstag 7 months ago, alleging that the Beast slew six children and, when caught, was driven from the village. Otto calls three former residents of Hergstag, the sisters Garrow, Starle, and Flicht, to give their eyewitness testimony of events in the village.

12:30 p.m.: Witnesses for the Defense. Gustav calls Kat to present any evidence they found in Hergstag. Kat stands up nervously and pauses for a few minutes as she collects her thoughts; knowing they have very little to present to the court on this matter. Eventually after several nervous coughs from the judges and some rather obscene catcalls from the gallery she presents the few items they have. She explains the evidence they have from the sisters Garrow, Starle, and Flicht and how they have a slightly different story. How the Beast was found bringing Elsa back into town; noticing the Beasts face creasing in a grimace Kat realises it’s crying not smiling and points this out to the judges. Additionally the points are raised that while they drove out the Beast; two days later the last child died in her bed on the 2nd floor; the window was closed, doors were locks and there was no signs of forced entry. There were also no signs of any wounds on the child; the parent was in the room within minutes of the child starting to scream; surely there would be evidence of the Beast in the room if the Beast had done the deed.

While they were investigating the hamlet of Hergstag they were attacked by a wraith child; this might suggest that a wraith was at fault and not the Beast as a wraith could attack and kill a child in her bed and would require no other form of entry.

Kat is reminded that there however is no proof of this so they can’t take this as evidence as it’s merely conjecture on her part.

She then goes on to present the other evidence they found the night before; how they traced the surgical tools they found in Morast to Vorkstag; how Vorstag and Grine were dealing in Cadavers; Vorstag’s body was brought in and the wounds of the blood caiman were shown; also the wardrobe of skins was wheeled into the courtroom and shown to the judges with the shambling man skin which also sports the results of the blood caiman bite and how the face they found in the bag also ties Vorkstag to the location. Plus the selling of cadavers and the missing bodies in the graveyard.

The judges think hard on this and Gustav stutters out a request in light of these remarkable discoveries to allow evidence to be presented on today’s hearing tomorrow as well as tomorrow’s case. After a long deliberation the court agrees much to the party’s relief.

2:00 p.m.: Court Recess.

After the trial, Gustav meets up with the party and congratulates them on a job well done; he thanks Kat directly as her excellent delivery of the evidence helped sway the judges. Gustav also reminds the group that they have to investigate Sanctuary and find evidence on Hergstag for the court by 10am tomorrow morning. Thankfully Sanctuary is only 3 miles north of the city.

Grembor is raring to go as he has lost his fatigue through the use of spells and does not need to rest to recover any spells. The other three however are not really feeling the motivation and they bunk down in the courthouse as they have some suspicions that there may be trouble tonight with the angry mob from the snippets they overheard and the prevalent anger in the populace. They take their suspicions to Gustav who asks them to keep an eye on the courthouse to make sure it’s safe; they don’t like it as they have a busy night ahead of them but finally agree.

Grembor goes it alone ... and has a date

Grembor sulks for a little while then decides to head to the Sanctuary with Kat’s wolf to scout it out while the other sleep and recover spells; collecting his horse he rides out of the north entrance and is gone. It does not take long to travel the 3 miles to the site with no random encounters either (my dice no longer like me it seems) he arrives at the burnt down ruins which were the Sanctuary. There are 12 gravestones to the right of the track and the building is a complete ruin; hardly a stone is left standing. Tethering his horse close to the gravestones he proceeds on foot creeping up to the ruins themselves; squatting in the overcast sunlight with the drizzle dripping down his long nose he stays for several minutes just watching the ruins and the surrounding area for any signs of life. The only things he notices are that there is a hole in the foundations that leads down underneath the ruins and a square metal object sitting in the ruins. The metal object looks like a chest or strongbox of some sort; ever cautious Grembor pulls out his trusty bow and launches an arrow at the box with a metallic clang. Surveying the area for a minute or so more he concludes that the box is a box and that there is nothing else in the immediate vicinity.

Scuttling up to the box bow in hand he examines the scorched metal noting that the lock is fused and melted. The only way this is going to open with be through the liberal application of force; luckily he is carrying his trusty crowbar and applies this to the problem. However the problem does not appreciate the crowbar much and refuses to deliver it’s secrets without some effort on Grembors part; he digs up the box and carries it’s weight to his horse where he straps it to the saddle. Leading the horse away for a distance he tethers it again and then returns to the ruins to check out the hole.

The hole is irregular and seems to lead down 15 feet on a steep slope; the slope has many claw marks on it’s side and the tracks of a medium sized humanoid with clawed feet are abound around the hole too. Not being able to identify the tracks as any natural creature Grembor carefully ties off his rope and goes down the hole head first as quietly as possible. The sounds of snoring accompany his decent as whatever is in the hole seems to be sleeping soundly; reaching close to the bottom Grembors low light vision scans the area; his eyesight is not sufficient to pierce the darkness down here but it can detect a bit. He notices a clawed foot there and an outspread arm here with long dirty claws gently flexing as it dreams of things probably best not mentioned. The hole leads down to what he assumes is the basement of the Sanctuary and will need some further investigation. However not alone; Grembor twists around on the rope and ascents as quietly as he descended; reaching the surface he pulls up his rope; unties it and coils it back up as he retreats back to his horse. Heading back into the city he mulls over his finds as nothing he found really indicates anything out of the ordinary. Maybe something in the strongbox will grant some insight into the problem.

Grembor makes it back to Lepidstadt at roughly 6-6:30pm and quickly cleans up; purchaces some flowers on his way out and meets up with Vladka at the appointed time and place. They share a pleasant meal and discuss many topics; they both have a very nice time and sadly to Vladka’s disappointment Grembor has to depart as it’s getting dark due to his “work for the city” He escorts Vladka home where they share a brief embrace and promises to meet up again and Grembor leaves in a rush to return to the courthouse and make sure the rest of the party are awake and ready.

Mob Rule

The courthouse is still standing and has not yet been burnt down which is a bonus. Grembor walks in and finds the party sitting around chatting amicably about nothing much. He deposits the strongbox on the table and grins at the rest; they notice the slicked back hair and clean clothes which cause many a raised eyebrow. They decline to comment however and ask about the box instead. Grembor tells the tale and they soon set too it with a borrowed crowbar from the barracks toolbox. It pops open with some encouragement and they are somewhat disappointed to find only badly burnt papers inside. Sifting through the ruins however they do find several of the pieces have Vorkstag and Grine’s Chymic Works written on them; they also find several other words and phrases that may indicate some hints to the documents but nothing definitive. Disappointed they file the information for later and then sit around for a while considering what else they know; reading over the case files they find one survivor of the fire; the Doctor’s assistant Karl who was blinded by the events. He lives close to the river but it’s too late to investigate that now; that’s something for the morning. They discuss what they expect to find in the basement of the Sanctuary and in the hamlet of Hergstag; at the top of their lists are more wraiths.

A couple of hours later at about 10:30 they hear a commotion outside; the unmistakable sound of a mob; many angry people with torches and pitchforks; a true ruler’s nightmare. They slip out of the solid doors leaving the safety of the fortress like courthouse and walk to intercept the mob. The mob consists of roughly 40 odd people, all looking to be townsfolk and most likely scared and drunk; fearing for their livelihood and families. Ten of them pick up a portable ram and start approaching the main doors of the courthouse; the party notice also 4 better armed and armoured individuals in the crowd which seem to be some sort of instigators or ringleaders. These people are carrying heavy crossbows and clubs and arrange themselves around the perimeter and level crossbows at the party. Kat steps forward and in a commanding tone yells “STOP!!!” the group with the ram falter in their charge and start looking confused; One of the ringleaders tried desperately to force them on but Kat is an imposing presence; she presents the option of continuing and possibly dying or leaving and living another night. The frightened townsfolk look at each other and several of them drop the ram and retreat. Sayuri casts a sleep spell on the assembled masses and two more of them drop while the ringleaders open fire with their crossbows causing Sayuri some serious damage. Grembor shoots off a couple of arrows at the closest ringleader who laughs derisively at Grembors attack even as the two arrows bounce off the wall an inch from his face; his laugh falters as he realises how close he came to a nasty blood gurgling painful death by impalement; the team carrying the Ram retreat and slink away into the side streets.

A series of arrows and bolts exchange with minor damage on both sides before the next assault materializes; a party hefts a ram and heads to the side door while another group start forward with ladders with the intent of scaling to the balcony. Grembor runs forward to intercept the group with the ladders and shouts at them attempting to duplicate Kats efforts earlier; this is looking to be working as they pause and start putting down the ladder; then one of the ringleaders shouts at them and they re-heft the ladders and start towards the courthouse again; leaning the ladders against the balcony and starting to scale them. Kat looks at the ram the other group is holding and with a word and gesture the metal of the ram becomes burning hot which they all quickly drop and seem reluctant to pick up again as they take a look at their rapidly blistering hands. Sayuri mutters a few words and points at one of the ringleaders after being dissuaded from summoning something to massacre the whole mob; a thin grey beam shoots from her finger hitting one of the ringleaders in the chest; he looks on in surprise as his posture stooping and his burdens become too heavy to lift. The heavy crossbow in his hands seems to weigh so much more; the armour on his back seems to pull his now pasty lean frame to the floor. He staggers to one knee and starts’ crawling away as his strength has been sapped by the insidious spell. Grembor reaches the pair of ladders and bracing his legs and back gives a mighty heave and pushes the first ladder over into the second; the four people trying at that time to climb the ladder all fall to the cobbles below in a tangle of limbs and ladder; there is a sharp wet snapping sound and a scream as one poor townsfolk has his arm broken by the weight of ladder and people on top of him. They all seem a bit dazed as Grembor draws his sword and looks menacingly at them; they help their injured friend to his feet and make the excuses that they have to get him to a cleric. … They slink off into the side streets closely followed by the several who have blisters appearing on their hands that were carrying the scorching hot portable ram. Sayuri shoots off another grey ray from her finger at another of the remaining ringleaders who also collapses as his strength is magically sucked from his body. He is helped away by the remaining mob members … The end result, a broken arm, several bloody noses and burns a few people have minor wounds from some stray arrows and two very weak ringleaders who will not be rising up against the state in a while; all in all a win for the good guys. …

Sanctuary and a candelabrum of rotting heads

After sharing round some healing and a brief discussion about repayment for healing services they set out in force to investigate the Sanctuary on the way to Hergstag.

They arrive at the Sanctuary at just after 11:30pm and under the light of the somewhat obscured moon they investigate. The party soon notices two individuals who seem to be checking through the ruins sniffing the floor and inspecting the location the strongbox was excavated from. Kat casts a powerful spell and the weeds and grasses of the area bow to her command writhing around the legs of the pair; one is able to wrench itself free while the other is held fast. Realising these are some type of ghoul Grembor draws back his bow and rapidly fires two powerful Undead Bane arrows at them, one hits while the other goes wide disappearing into the rubble of the building. The one hit staggers back a step then gurgles around the arrow imbedded in its throat as its insides start glowing from the positive energy of the arrow and its head explodes in a gory fountain of blood. The other Ghoul sees this and screams running towards the party hindered by the vegetation which tries to prevent it and the rubble it has to work through; as it gets close to Sayuri she is almost overcome by the reek of rot and other foul odours. Pringle casts light on a passing rock and tosses it into the ruins illuminating the hole down to the basement in shadowy light which makes the ghoul easier to see in the darkness for the light dependant upon them. They then realise these are not simple ghouls but ghasts; a whole different kettle of fish entirely; elves are immune to the paralysis of a ghoul; but ghasts, not so much … Kat fires off an arrow followed by Pringles Disrupt undead which soon takes care of that one. However two more emerge from the hole; one being caught in the entangle spell while the other moves to intercept the party; they both are slain very swiftly. Sayuri soon finds the magical arrow that Grembor shot and hands it back to him none the worse for wear. This is the only one they have left.

Descending into the basement they discover a lovely candelabrum of rotting heads; several mundane items and an empty bottle of Vorkstag and Grine’s Chymical Bleach. Another tie in to the dubious duo and making it more likely they have ties to this place. They decide that the heads can wait and decide to pick them up when they return after visiting Hergstag.

Unleash evil upon the world ...

Heading to Hergstag in the middle of the night they are un-accosted by anything more dangerous than a few bussing insects and the calls of a fox or two. They arrive at the dilapidated hamlet at a little before 1am; Grembor taking the lead and Sayuri and Kat looking on expectantly as he makes his way through the undergrowth following the faint tracks and remnants of trails through the small village. They soon are spotted by a vengeful sprit all rage and hunger which sneaks up on the rear of the party and tries vainly to bury it’s wicked insubstantial claws into the back of Sayuri; however Sayuri cast Mage armour a while ago and it’s still active and this foils the surprise attack of the evil little wraith child. However this does alert the party and they soon dispatch the child with a combination of sword and missiles from Pringle and Sayuri. Grembor finds to his dismay that his bow is unable to affect the wraith; and circles round looking for something else he can use to help.

They continue onwards soon discovering the remains of a skeleton which is trapped in a bear trap. This opportunist thief was thinking to loot the houses of the abandoned village and get away with the perfect crime. However he did not bank on the villagers leaving bear traps lying around to trap the returning Beast; nor on the wraith children who would taunt and torture his poor soul over the period of several nights before he died all alone from thirst and malnutrition. Such is life …. So they loot his body finding some nice masterwork thieves tools which Grembor pockets along with some other nick knacks.

They make their way to the church; this is where Kat and Sayuri encountered the wraith child last time. Checking around the area Sayuri is the only one to spot the child creeping through the graveyard towards the group. They turn and start moving towards where they were told Karin’s house lay. The Wraith seems to be following them so Grembor turns and fits the only arrow he has to the bow that he knows can affect this creature and fires it practically point blank into the small wraith child. It hits and the child dies screaming in a burst of bright positive energy as its already damaged form is rent by the power of the undead bane arrow. Such a waste of a powerful item that …. They might have need of such an item later.

They approach Karin’s house which is the location of the last murder in the village; the sixth child to be killed in her bed with no signs of the beast ever having been there. The mood is dark as they approach when out of the corner of his eye Grembor notices a shadow darker then the night descending upon them. This looks like it may be a wraith but it has a collection of glowing red eyes; it also seems to buzz like an angry hornet’s nest which is decidedly odd for your average wraith. It descends upon the party and its claws strike out dealing Grembor a bone chilling slash on his arm; he feels the cold of death descend upon him as his arm goes numb and his heart skips a beat as if something vital was drawn from his body. Kat steps forward casting a healing spell which caused some minor damage; Sayuri casts her force missiles at the wraith which impact causing it to recoil in pain and anger while tossing the badge of the warden to Pringle. Grembor steps back pulling a scroll from his pouch and casts a minor cure spell holding the charge in his hand; the wraith circles round to attack Sayuri causing an attack from Kat which misses; the wraith tries attacking Sayuri but misses due to her force armour. Pringle steps up and using the badge casts an ectoplasmic ray of flame which strikes the wraith in the side causing it intense pain and diverting its attention from Sayuri to Pringle. The several glowing red eyes of the wraith turn and stare balefully at Pringle making him shiver and step back a step in anticipated pain. Kat steps through up beside Sayuri casting another healing spell and plunging her positively charged hand into the wraiths chest making all of it’s eyes glow brightly in surprise as it feels the positive energy of the healing spell rip through it’s spectral form rendering it asunder and scattering it’s ectoplasmic form to the winds as it screams and collapses in on itself with a whimper and a soft buzzing. They hear several wailing screams heading off into the distance as the death of the master wraith frees its children and they flee as full wraiths to molest the surrounding countryside for years to come.