The adventure continues at the Pathfinder society just
outside of the Center. The Chosen have
been there a couple of weeks waiting for the Pathfinders to find out more about
the prophecy regarding the Yarafad-reborn nascent demon lord.
They are called to the Pathfinder society and informed that
although there is nothing new in terms of the prophecy, there have been
troubling reports of followers of Choranus being murdered in the southern city
of Magnamar, which could just be coincidence, but could also be related to
recent events.
The Chosen are asked to travel to Magnamar and investigate,
but first to stop at a small orphanage on the south side of the Center to visit
with Aralis, the proprietor of the orphanage who is a follower of Choranus,
and whose brother recently made a pilgrimage to Magnamar and who has not been
heard from since. They also caution the
Chosen to be on the lookout for some sort of powerful being that could be a
shell for the reincarnated Yarafad.
The Chosen visit the orphanage and find Aralis to be a kind,
40-something woman who has quite a handful at the orphanage, as the orphanage
contains mostly mutants and half-breeds; the kind of children are not really
welcome at normal orphanages and who have no real chance of ever being
adopted. There is for instance a
half-Minotaur toddler (named “Gorag”) running around and ramming into things,
and Aralis herself is holding a baby, that while human in shape, has half of
its head (top down across the nose) covered in green scales (“the sweetest baby
named Tamenth”), who is smiling at her with big gums and is one of those babies
that is so ugly it’s cute
She tells them pretty much what they already knew – that her
brother Lendik went on a pilgrimage to the city of Magnamar to take a Dawnwalk
(a ritual walk just before dawn along the waterfront), and never came
back. Now, with reports of Choranus
followers being murdered in the streets during Dawnwalk, she’s concerned that
he may be one of the victims.
The Chosen (less Trinity and Theon, who are currently in a
Center prison after raising a ruckus at a local tavern) travel to Magnamar and
track down the local town hall where they are introduced to Kasadei, the law
officer involved in hunting down the killer.
She tells them there was first a disappearance of a travelling priestess
of Choranus, followed by a grisly murder of a Choranus Dawnwalker every week or
two after that (the victims’ hearts were cut out), for a total of 4 murders so
far.
She explains to the Chosen that she would like to set a trap
in what they believe is a likely next spot, using one of them as the bait (none of the guards are competent enough) –
pretending to be a Dawnwalker. The
Chosen agree, and since it is early in the morning they have all day to
prepare.
They first go to the local
Order of Choranus, who are initially skeptical of the Chosen, but once they find
out this is the group that actually freed Choranus they are much more
forthcoming. The Order tells them:
- The first victim that disappeared was a
travelling Choranus priestess named “Zadendi”.
She went for a Dawnwalk, disappeared, and is presumed dead.
- The other 4 victims were simple followers, and
while the Order has been discouraging locals from taking Dawnwalks until the
murderer is captured, as Magnimar is a common location for pilgrims to travel
to, many are still taking Dawnwalks simply due to ignorance of the murders.
- The Order confirms that the first victim was
Aralis’ brother Lendik
- The group also mentions that almost a century
ago, a Priest of Choranus and a couple of his followers built a shrine down in
the southern portion of the city (called “the Shadow”, as it is perpetually in
darkness as it is located under a large bridge, and is a very bad part of
town), but they were quickly murdered by thugs and the shrine was abandoned
- Necromancers were hired to speak to the dead
bodies, but little info was gained about their murders, other than there was an
eerie absolute silence just before they were killed, and one of them briefly
saw a knife that had a white feather dipped in blood on the handle. (Florence recognizes this as the symbol of
the Demon Lord Shax –Lord of Lies and Murder)
The Order offers them some robes of Choranus and advice on
how to move like someone on a Dawnwalk, and after some discussion Emrys is selected
as the bait, while the rest of the Chosen decide where they are going to
hide/wait on rooftops and alleyways.
As they have some additional time to kill before dawn, they
go to the taverns to try and get some more information from the locals. They hear some stories about scratching
noises on the roof, flapping sounds, and one guy who even experienced absolute
silence in his house, just inside his front door. It eventually went away, and when he opened
the door he found one of the dead bodies.
One homeless and very drunk dwarf told the group that he saw something flying southward
through the air one night carrying a body, and it seemed to land somewhere down
in the Shadow part of the city.
(NOTE: This week's adventure only had one battle, but it was EPIC. My description below simply cannot capture the complexity and fun involved in the 2+ hr encounter.)
Once dawn approaches, the group heads to the suspected
murder site and set up their ambush.
Emrys begins Dawnwalking around a couple of city blocks, with the rest
of the Chosen on the inside of his route – Desna and Remy on a rooftop keeping
watch, and the rest hidden in a courtyard behind a fence below. Additionally, Emrys has Florence’s familiar
Joey in his pocket, with whom Florence is now able to telepathically communicate.
After a couple of circuits, Emrys notices a stone gargoyle on
a rooftop in the Northwest of his circuit that was not there previously. He taps Joey, who communicates to Florence that
something is up, and the Chosen begin focusing on moving to the Northwest –
Desna stays on the roof, Remy climbs down and starts circling around from the
Southwest, while the rest of the Chosen cross the street and start working
their way West from the North side of the street.
Thanks to Emrys’ heightened awareness, he notices a figure
approach him from behind , and turns to throw a stone pre-loaded with a light
spell at the figure, just as she’s throwing a stone at Emrys that is pre-loaded
with silence. It is evident now that the
attacker is a woman with short red hair, wearing leather armor and carrying a dagger. The two begin to fight as the
rest of the Chosen try to move in (or attack remotely), and the gargoyle leaps
off the roof and attempts to pick up the attacker and flee. Unfortunately, the gargoyle rolls a 1,
misses, and lands instead in the middle of the melee.
The next round, the gargoyle successfully is able to pick up
the attacker and start to fly up and away, but Florence unleashes the Griffon
Sphinx of Wondrous Power, who is able to catch up and grapple the gargoyle
(causing the attacker to fall 30 feet to the ground). For the next few rounds, the Griffon
Sphinx and Gargoyle continue to grapple, with the Gargoyle taking shots at the Griffon
Sphinx, but nothing much else happens.
Back on the ground, multiple Chosen have surrounded the
attacker and are doing a number on her, but the spellcasters are a bit tied up
due to the silence stone. At some point
the attacker calls up a mist that obscures everyone’s vision, except Remy’s, as he has climbed up on the roof of a building and is jumping and swinging at the
gargoyle.
Eventually Florence runs up and throws the silence stone
into the mist towards the melee, preventing the attacker from casting more spells
and allowing Chosen spellcasters to cast spells (no Chosen spellcasters were
in the melee at this point). The Chosen
then fundamentally switch tactics to non-lethal damage on the attacker (while
she continues to unsuccessfully try and escape) in order to capture her. This is ultimately successful, when Ang gets
a hold of her and just punches her into oblivion.
Ang then joins Remy on the rooftop at the same time that the
Griffon Sphinx maneuvers the gargoyle onto the roof of the building,
allowing Ang and Remy to full-on attack the Gargoyle until he is dead.
The local guards show up just after the battle (surprise),
and they take the attacker back to the town hall. The Chosen are allowed to interrogate the
attacker (who is not very forthcoming), while Kasadei sends for the Order of
Choranus. During interrogation, Ang
accidentally knocks the attacker out again, and by the time she comes to the
Choranus priests have shown up, and are shocked to see that the attacker is the
priest of Choranus (Zadendi) who went missing just before the murders
started.
The priests beg the Chosen not to beat her any more, as they
would like to investigate in their own way and potentially return her back to
the light. Florence casts “Blood
Biography” on Zadendi, and receives the following information to these
questions (which are automatically asked by the spell):
-
Who are you?
Zadendi
-
What are you?
A worshipper of Shax
-
How was your blood shed? By the Chosen
-
When was your blood shed? Just a few hours ago. And before.
Not a whole lot there, so they retrieve the body of the
Gargoyle, and Florence casts the spell on him also:
-
Who are you?
The Scarlet Son
-
What are you?
Half Gargoyle/Half Fiend
-
How was your blood shed? By the Chosen
-
When was your blood shed? Just a few hours ago.
Florence recognizes the name “Scarlet Son” from some of the histories and prophecies regarding the Chosen as a major assassin used by previous nascent Demon Lords. The Scarlet Son was banished back to the Abyss hundreds of years ago and not heard of since.
The Chosen agree to let the Order interrogate Zadendi in
their own way, and decide they want to investigate the southern part of the
city in the meantime, to see where the gargoyle may have been taking Zadendi
back to. The main decision they need to
make is whether they are going to sleep first and recover their spells and
energy, or head down right away while it’s still light outside.
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