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Message: <blockquote data-quote="cthuluftaghn" data-source="post: 299502" data-attributes="member: 4799">Session II: Chapter 8 - RegroupingSorry for the delay, Spider and company... I was on vacation.28 Growfest, Night:After helping Gann and Willow to get cleaned off, the party conducted a thorough search of the mill’s basement.  In the unlit northeast corner, five sleeping pallets were laid out in a neat row.  A stack of clean plates and a barrel of drinking water sat nearby, along with a crate of carefully preserved foodstuffs.  It was apparent that the cultists had been using the mill as a base of operation for several days, at least.  Oddly, however, there were no personal belongings to be found anywhere, except on the bodies.“Look at this,” announced Gann as he pulled a rolled parchment from the pocket of the deceased man in black.  “It’s a letter.  Perhaps it will afford us some clue as to what foul forces we are up against.”  The cleric unrolled the letter and read it out loud to the group.“Master Dunrat,Praise the Lord of Decay!Proceed to the ruined moathouse outside of Hommlet and recover what artifacts you can from The Pit. Take with you only those whom can be trusted with this sacred duty. Walk in shadow, for while much of Hommlet have become complacent there are those who are ever wary for signs of trouble. Secure in secret a base of operation in Hommlet and keep prying eyes away from the moathouse.When you have finished with the excavation you must seal The Pit and then return the artifacts to the Temple of All-Consumption. A wagon can be obtained from Tal Chammish in Rastor to haul whatever you find back to the crater.Do not fail me.Blessed Destruction!Naquent”“Dunrat! My greatest enemy lies dead at my feet!!” roared Gann, grinning from ear to ear, red-faced and quivering.  He suddenly slumped and said more softly… almost timidly, “And yet he was not cut down by mine own evil-smiting hand?”  The look on the cleric’s face was an impossible amalgam of jubilation, righteous rage, and bitter disappointment.  His friends couldn’t decide if he was about to laugh hysterically, or burst into tears.  Tas chuckled.“And what do you seem to think is so funny about this?” Gann inquired of the rogue.  Tas bit his lip to stifle his laughter, and he stared meaningfully down at the corpse at the cleric’s feet.  Gann followed his gaze, and suddenly he understood.  The short, black shaft of an assassin’s crossbow bolt protruded from the dead man’s chest.  Gann almost stopped breathing.  “The… the halfling?” he managed to croak.  “The thief delivered the killing blow?  Tas killed Dunrat?!”  The cleric wrenched the heavy war mace from his belt and squared off to face Tas.  The fiery look in his eyes was frightening to behold.  A throaty growl escaped from Gann’s lips that, to the startled band of heroes, sounded an awful lot like “murder.”  Even the cocky rogue was stunned into silence.  For a long, tense moment, everyone was certain that Gann was about to unleash the fury of his Truncheon of Truth upon the halfing.  Valeria broke the silence…“The outlander… she’s alive!” Val announced loudly, eyeballing Gann with a worried expression.  The group moved with urgency to gather around the defeated cultist, and Tas took advantage of the opportunity to slither out of the angry cleric’s reach.Tonan drew his sword and approached the strange woman.  She moaned softly and coughed up a bit of blood as he stood over her.  “It seems my blade did not cut deeply enough,” grumbled the ranger.  He touched the tip of his sword to the woman’s throat, and her eyelids trembled but did not open.  “Should I finish her off?”“She’s a tiefling!” Gann announced in awe, and he approached to kneel beside the mortally wounded magic user.  He casually pushed Tonan’s sword away, eliciting a scowl from the muscular elf.  “She’s plane-touched… not of this world.  She may be able to provide us with a wealth of information if she does not die.  Does anyone have something with which to bind her?”Valeria produced a pair of iron shackles from her pack and stepped forth.  This caused Tonan to raise an eyebrow, ever so slightly.  He blushed and turned away.  Val bent over and rolled the fallen wizard on to her side, and she roughly bound the woman’s wrists behind her back.  She moved with speed and precision, as if she’d done this before.  The troubled hero wrinkled her nose and kept her head slightly averted; as if she was loathe to touch the evil creature.  Tyris and Willow moved towards the stairs. They hadn’t agreed to this course of action, and they were not sure that they approved.  “She and her crazy friends tried to kill us without hesitation,” complained Willow.  “I think Tonan should cut her throat and be done with it.”Gann Tolar, who occasionally shows signs of being somewhat arrogant and single-minded, ignored the druid and laid his hands upon the dying tiefling.  Closing his eyes, the cleric called upon the healing powers of St. Cuthbert to bring the woman back from the brink of death.  Gann smiled slightly as he felt the divine presence of his deity move through his body, and into injured wizard.  The woman’s body glowed briefly with a warm, soft luminescence.  Her shallow, raspy breath settled into a strong and steady rhythm as the light faded, and she opened her eyes.In an instant, the insane cultist was on her feet and lunging towards Gann in a display of agility that was quite unexpected from one who had her hands shackled behind her back.  The cleric grabbed the woman by her shoulders, spun her around, and pinned her against the wall.  The rest of the party drew their weapons and backed off a pace or two when the wizard started gnashing her teeth and snarling like a deranged beast.  Gann Tolar was in no mood to put up with this kind of behavior.  When the woman spit in his face, the angry cleric reached his breaking point and he slammed her head hard against the stone wall.  The woman ceased her thrashing and stared evilly into Gann’s eyes with a hellish grin.“What is going on here?” Gann yelled at her face.  “Who are you people, and what evil have you thrust upon this peaceful town?”The woman shut her mouth into a tight-lipped smile and released a throaty chuckle.  She flared her nostrils in defiance, and said nothing.Gann pressed a hand firmly against the evil wizard’s throat and raised his heavy mace with his free arm.  “I’m warning you, women… tell us what is happening in this town, and at the Moathouse… or, by the Cudgel, I shall smite thee!”The tiefling’s eyes widened slightly, and her complexion paled visibly.  She seemed to be in some kind of distress.  The woman’s eyes began to water as she fixed her devilish gaze once again on Gann.  The wizard grinned wickedly, and blood spilled from the corners of her mouth.  Turning her head to one side, the woman spat a chunk of bloody flesh onto the dirt floor.Tyris gasped in horror, “It’s her tongue!  She bit off her own tongue!”Gann recoiled as the wizard cackled loudly, her mouth and bloody chin glaring red in the dim lamplight of the cellar.  She slumped back against the wall, weak and sick from the pain of what she had done.  The cleric stared in disgust, noting that the look of twisted pleasure never left the insane cultist’s face.The companions argued briefly over what to do with the woman, and it was finally decided that she should be turned over to the militia.  Gann wrapped his hand around the back of the bleeding woman’s neck, and shoved her roughly towards the stairs.  Although she continued to grin smugly, the evil wizard was too weak to put up any kind of resistance.  “Up you go,” ordered Gann.  “Give us any trouble, and you’ll be making a swift journey to whatever dark underworld spawned your evil soul.”Tonan charged up the stairs in front of Gann and the wizard, and the rest of the party followed behind.  They were weary and badly shaken from their violent encounter, and every one of them was anxious to offload their prisoner and get back to the inn.  As they walked past the inert body of Themock, however, Gann noted that the foreman was laying face-down on the floor.  “I thought I propped him against the wall?” the cleric wondered aloud.Tyris knelt beside the fallen man and gently placed her hand on his back.  “He’s breathing!” she exclaimed.  The sorceress rolled Themock onto his side and tilted his head back as Valeria lifted a healing potion to his lips.  The big man winced and sipped gingerly at the green liquid.  The potion dribbled down the mill worker’s chin, and it formed a sticky paste as it blended with the flour that covered his face.  Themock spat out a mouthful of the nasty mixture, and he sat up on his own strength.  He took the vial from Val and quaffed the rest of the potion with a single, giant gulp.Gann barely gave the poor fellow time to swallow before assaulting him with questions.  “Why didn’t you warn us of the ambush?  Are you in league with the evil ones?  What have you done with the millers?”The color returned swiftly to Themock’s face as the magical potion coursed through his body.  The foreman stood and backed away from Gann, visibly upset.  “I’m so sorry,” the big man said with a shaky voice, on the verge of tears.  “They said they was gonna kill me, and my family.  There was nothing I could do!  Please, just let me go home to my wife.  I’ve been through enough.”“You may go home, sir.  But please, help us first by telling us what happened here,” Endora pleaded.  “What happened to Mandy and Karlun Fies?”Themock bowed his head, and then the tears did come.  “Dead.  They’re both dead.  The poor, dear couple… it was horrible.”  Valeria’s knees buckled and she buried her face in Tonan’s chest.  The stoic ranger held her tightly, his eyes boiling with unconcealed hatred and rage over the fate of his friends.The heartbroken foreman continued, “These people showed up ‘bout two weeks ago, claiming to be old friends.  None of us know’d ‘em, but Karlun seemed to take kindly to them from the git-go, so we didna put up a fuss.  They stayed down in the cella and was no problem.  Even helped out up heeya in the mill on mo’ than one occasion.  Then it all went ta hell a couple days back when that man in black showed up.  ‘Master’ they called him.  The bastid cast some kinda spell on us all so’s we couldna move, and he slit poor Mandy’s throat as we watched.  No reason or nuthin’.”Tears welled up in Valeria’s eyes, and even the mighty Tonan turned his face away to hide his emotion at the news.Themock continued.  “I think Karlun died on the inside right there and then.  Woulda been betta fo him if he had died from ‘is broken heart… to save ‘im from what happened next.  That crazy black-robed sonofabitch pulled out this curved blade and pointed it at each of us… Karlun, the workers an’ me… Then he… he told me to keep the mill runnin’ day and night.  He said to keep the folks away, and not say nuthin’ concernin’ their presence heeya.  He said I betta not betray him, or my family an’ me would share Karlun’s fate.  And then…”  The burly foreman shuddered and covered his eyes, struggling to go on.  “And then he took that knife… he took it to Karlun’s throat like he was gonna cut it.  Merciful Pelor, I wish he had cut ‘im and ended it there… but he didna do it.  Nossuh.  The ‘Master’ took that wicked knife and skinned the miller slow.  I dunno why nobody came fer all the screamin’ that night.  Made it last for whut seemed hours while we stood froze there.  I cain’t never forget that… nossuh, I cain’t.  When it was over, the dark man’s goons dumped the bodies in the river back yonder.  We been heeya workin’ the mill outta fear ever since as they come and go’d.”The heroes were silent, and the foreman stared at Gann with pleading eyes.  “Can I go now, suh?  I ain’t seen my family in days.  It’s a long walk, and I reckon I’d love to be holdin’ my dear wife in my arms by first light.”  Grim-faced, Gann didn’t reply.“Go,” ordered Tonan in a strangled voice.  “Go home, Themock.”  The man bowed briefly and shuffled out the door without another word.  As soon as he hit the fresh night air, Willow and Tyris saw him quicken his pace and he practically sprinted up the road, and away from that place of death.</blockquote>

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