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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mikeawmids" data-source="post: 6314020" data-attributes="member: 6776411">(Savaged) Rise of the Runelords Final Session (Part One of Two) Player Characters Val : Karrack (Lizardman monk-turned-revolutionary, hero of goblins and founder of Hope/Stinkpoint) Cariryn : Krogg (Brutish half-orc garbage collector, has traded his wheelbarrow in for a life of adventure) Mal H : Ben (ludicrously wealthy ranger with a fetish for all things oriental... and eyeballs) Crusader Hank: Rast (sausage-fingered dwarven rogue with an embarrassing rash, constantly scratching, one eye bulges comically from its socket) Steboucha : Aereon (Antony's super-magical uncle) Having (seemingly) banished the ghoulish shadow of doom hanging over Sandpoint, the party are enjoying a well deserved respite from (mis)adventure, when an envoy arrives from Magnimar. Although the death/disappearance of Aldern Foxglove (aka: The Skinsaw Man) bought an end to his spree of murder and mutilation, there have been a number of similar slayings committed in the City of Monuments. Mayor Haldeem Grobaras is frantic to catch the killer(s) before the terrified population lose faith in his leadership. His desperate plea to the party for aid in the (thus far, ineffective) investigation is due to the imminent mayoral elections, which Grobaras fears he will lose if he cannot prove his competence by bringing the culprits to justice. Hopping aboard a ferry (at the Mayor's expense), the party sail to Magnimar and disembark in the Bazaar of Sails. The envoy escorts them to the Alabaster District, where the most rich and influential of the cities residents dwell within their luxurious mansions and verdant estates. Mayor Grobaras is a corpulent whale of a man with a a bushy, walrus moustache and mutton-chop sideburns, who is disgruntled to have his (second) breakfast disrupted by the appearance of a group of ragged adventurers. Between (vast) mouthfuls of food, Grobaras explains how the recent string of murders threatens his career and demands that the party bring him the bounders responsible - before the ballots are cast in seven days time! Recognising that the Grobaras exhibits certain avaricious qualities that may bring him to the attention of the killers, Ben and Aereon try to persuade the greedy mayor to change his money-grubbing ways. Grobaras misinterprets their concern (they don't want him murdered before he can reward them) as an attempt to fleece him out of more gold and he throws a chicken drumstic at Ben's head, then kicks the lot of them out of his mansion. Finding five star accommodation at a hotel in the Vista district (despite their argument with the Mayor, they are still engaged upon his business and bill their expenses to his office), the party discuss how to find the townhouse of Aldern Foxglove amidst this vast, urban sprawl. Rast pops out to visit his brother, who owns his own locksmithing business in the city, while Krogg returns to the waterfront to make enquiries amongst the half-orc dockers and dunny men. Meanwhile, Ben visits Leis Nivlandis, the man running against Grobaras in the mayoral election and plots to overthrow the man who dared to bombard him with poultry. The party soon have an address to the Foxglove townhouse. The key they found in the Skinsaw's Man's sanctuary (in the ghoul-infested sea caves beneath the ghost-haunted mansion) grants them access. Although the house seemed abandoned from without and the interior is in a state of disarray, they are met by a curiously dispassionate maid, who seems utterly unperturbed by the appearance of armed strangers. The group are ushered upstairs to meet the Lord and Lady of the household. They are gobsmacked to find Aldern and Iesha Foxglove - alive and well - waiting to receive them. The noble couple and their serving staff are all acting rather odd though - and things kick off when Lady Foxglove tries to brain Karrack with a bottle of wine. When the Saurian monk retaliates, her flesh ripples like pliant rubber and the lizardman immediately recognises the creature as a Faceless Stalker; marsh-dwelling dopplegangers. After exhausting the element of surprise, the Stalkers show themselves to be uninspiring combatants and are soon defeated. While most lie dead and twitching in various stages of bloody dismemberment, one survives long enough for the party to bark questions at it. Aereon realises the wretched creature is under some manner of enchantment and manages to break through the sorcerous conditioning. Searching the house the party discover two items of immediate interest to their investigation; the deed to the haunted Foxglove mansion and a horrible, leather mask. They learn that Aldern Foxglove had fallen in with a rough crowd (of murderous cultists) called the Brotherhood of the Seven, operating out of a shady sawmill on Kyver's Islet (which Rast already suspected, having found shavings of sawdust at the scene of a recent execution). Deciding not to take any further action before reporting their findings to the Mayor, Krogg takes Karrack, Ben and Snot out on the lash with the boisterous band of half-orc labourers he befriended that afternoon. Ben soon discovers (to his regret) that humans should not drink orc beer in excess and stumbles out of the tavern in the company of a woman ugly enough to be half troll (he wakes up the next morning handcuffed naked to a bed in some flea-ridden pay-by-the-hour waterfront dive, feeling bruised and abused). Meanwhile, Rast and Aereon go looking for someone who can identify the magical properties of Foxglove's unsettling mask. They soon encounter an impoverished street magician, who makes the mistake of overcharging them for his decidedly unremarkable services. To teach him a lesson, they force the poor bastard to put the mask on and tell them what it does. His struggles soon lessen and his demeanour turns from miserable to murderous. Rast and Aereon conclude that whatever purpose the mask may serve, its use is not benevolent. Adding to the list of injustices visited upon this poor beggar-wizard, Rast also steals his Hat of Invisibility. To be continued....</blockquote>

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