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Message: <blockquote data-quote="peteyfrogboy" data-source="post: 1169976" data-attributes="member: 5677">Terror In Freeport: Part 6Hearing the angry hiss of serpent men ahead, Rachel rushed to the attack. She charged in with her cutlass held high, dodging the serpents' hurled javelins. Her blade flashed downward, opening the belly of one of the serpents and leaving it writhing on the floor. Nevroth and Parika fired arrows from the doorway, scoring hits on a serpent and one of the cultists.The cultist nearest Rachel dropped his smoking censer and began chanting, pointing his finger at the warrior. Rachel gritted her teeth as the all-too-familiar chill began to wrap itself around her heart. This time, however, the fear did not send her running. Instead she advanced, slashing the black robed man across the shoulder. The other cultist drew a short sword from within his robe and held his hand over the blade. The sword began glowing with a vile luminescence.One of the serpent men threw a javelin toward Rachel. It few true and straight, on target for her heart. She raised her shield and the glyph on its face flashed red, sending the missile flying harmlessly away. Even as she grinned triumphantly, she felt an arrow tear across her shoulder. She turned to see Nevroth sheepishly moving his aim toward the other side of the room.The serpent men gave up their fruitless barrage and charged the archers at the door. Nevroth and Parika were no strangers to close quarters archery, however, and their attackers were soon lying still on the floor. Meanwhile, Rachel has delivered a final blow to her first opponent and was facing off against the cultist with the black-glowing sword. They traded blows briefly, but the cultist was no match for Rachel's flashing blade and fell without once drawing blood."I'm so glad to see you," said Edwin. "I thought for sure they were going to kill me." After a moment he craned his neck up to see his rescuers cautiously approaching the altar. "Is something wrong?""Well, we're just not sure you're... you," said Parika. "Someone looking like you tried to leave us to die in the sewers last night.""Oh, I assure you I'm myself," Edwin said. "One of the cultists used a potion to change himself into a likeness of me. It must have been him who tricked you. I've been chained to this altar since yesterday."Nevroth glanced at Edwin's robes. "He certainly doesn't look like he's been splashing around in the sewer. I think we can trust him."Edwin was quite relieved to be finally released, and he proceeded to heal their wounds, further convincing them that he was genuine. Parika searched the room, finding nothing except a rolled up note hidden in a niche under the altar. The note was written in the indecipherable serpent script, except three words: "Parika", "Nevroth", and "Rachel". She stowed the curious paper for later study.Rachel finished cleaning her cutlass and slid it back in its sheath. "So now what?"Edwin's brow furrowed. "When they first captured me, one of them said, 'After tonight, your kind will be out of the way for good.' I'm not sure what he meant, but it can't be good. We have to stop them, and quickly."Parika glanced around the room. "Well, this place is a dead end." She fell silent as she say the black candles flickering. Underground, there shouldn't have been any wind to disturb the flames. "Hm, maybe not." She inspected the rear wall of the temple, finally discovering another secret door behind the looming statue. She opened it to reveal another steep ramp going up.***Rachel poked her head into the room at the top of the ramp. She played the beam of her lantern across the walls, revealing a well-stocked wine cellar. In addition to the casks and bottles, there were also several open crates. There were no people in sight, so she led the way quietly into the cellar. She illuminated one of the crates with the lantern light. "Bierce Vintners? We must be in Verlaine's basement!"The others filed in, looking around the room. Parika put a hand on her hip. "I knew he was involved in this somehow. So now what do we do?"Nevroth scratched his chin. "I don't know. Do we have enough evidence to accuse a powerful member of the city government?"Heading for the stairs, Rachel slashed her cutlass through the air. "I don't much care. This is the only lead we've got on this whole mess, and I'm not going to leave without checking it out."Unable to find fault in that logic, the others followed up the stairs as quietly as they could. The inside of Verlaine's manor was as exquisitely decorated as the exterior. Creeping slowly into the dark-paneled main hall, they saw no guards or servants in evidence."So far, so good," whispered Parika. She noticed that there was a door close at hand that was open. She peeked inside to see a well appointed but empty kitchen. At the other end of the long hall she could see the heavy front door they had seen from the street. It was slightly ajar now, which seemed odd to her. Another door at the end of the hall was still closed. The burglar led the way down the hall, glancing up the stairs to the next level as she neared them. Still no one was in sight. Parika eased the closed door open, revealing an opulent sitting room. A large portrait of one of Verlaine's forebears glowered from above the hearth, but no living eyes were to be seen. "Why can't I have this kind of luck all the time?" she muttered to herself. A pair of double doors on the right hand wall swung aside to reveal a dining room set with a lavish supper.Rachel sniffed as she entered the room, then frowned. She stepped toward the unoccupied table and held her hand over a roasted pig. "This food is cold. Something is very wrong in this house."With nowhere else left to go, they mounted the stairs to the top floor of the house. Parika led the way, cautiously peering into the upper hall but seeing no one. The first door she opened led to a bathroom, but the next revealed an abattoir. Verlaine lay sprawled on a blood-soaked bed, with his guards strewn about the room like broken toy soldiers.The point of Rachel's sword dropped. "I guess Verlaine's not behind all this. At least not anymore."Ever practical, Parika stepped around the bodies to get to the bed. "If that key was to this house, then we need to check behind the bed." Before she could even start to contemplate how to move the massive bed, a mahogany wardrobe nearby burst open. A wiry man in black leather leaped out, drawing a wicked-looking rapier.Parika jumped up onto the bed, fumbling for her bow. Nevroth charged across the room, but tripped on one of the many corpses and landed hard, smashing his head into the floor. Rachel hung back near the door, standing protectively in front of Edwin.The dark man walked toward the door, casually slashing the stunned manhunter's throat as he passed. By the time he reached the door, Edwin had scurried back out into the hall. Parika finally found her balance and sent an arrow across the room into the man's shoulder. He glared at her and went to leap onto the bed, but he had underestimated Rachel's skill with a sword. She cut him across the leg even as he tried to twist out of her reach, sending him tumbling to the floor. He thrust at her with his rapier, but she batted it aside and delivered a hard downward slash across his collarbone.Meanwhile, Nevroth had drunk one of his healing elixirs, with one hand clamped over his bleeding throat. He recovered enough to stand, and all converged on the assassin lying on the floor. Before they could question or kill him, however, they heard Edwin cry out from the hall. The priest's shout was followed by an explosion and another man's scream. Rachel poked her head out the door and looked down the hall, only to see a man with his hand held above his head, his body engulfed in flames. Parika and Nevroth were looking toward the door as well, but their attention returned to the assassin as he slammed a hand onto his belt pouch and exploded in flames as well."This is insane," said Parika as she backed away from the flaming corpse. She glanced toward the bed, then slung her bow over one shoulder. "Come on, let's check behind this bed before the whole place goes up."Rachel and Nevroth put away their weapons and helped Parika move the bed away from the wall. As they worked at it, secondary explosions from the fire sprayed droplets of flame around the room. They finally got the bed moved far enough for Parika to see the seamless plaster behind it. "Blast! Nothing here," she said as she patted out a smoldering patch on her sleeve. most of the bed was burning now, and there was barely a path to the door. "Let's get out of this place."DM Notes:* Alchemist's fire + botched attack + bad roll on the critical fumble table = bursting into flame out in the hallway.* At first I thought Slaan was going to be a tougher fight, especially after doing a casual 4d6 sneak attack on Nevroth, so I delayed sending McNeil into the fight. As it turned out, he didn't accomplish much anyway. Alas, poor assassins, we hardly knew ye!</blockquote>

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