|
|
Session 2: "After Pandora" or "Thorns of the White Rose"
-
After cleaning up from their second excursion into the sewers, the party rested and recouped at the Cracked Crockpot. Delroy, in a show of grateful magnanimity, offered them free rooming. (Within limits, of course. Delroy still has a business to run.) However, Ivaeleus, the elf, still felt uncomfortable spending the night in a city and chose to pass the hours in the forestlands just outside the city walls. Niclaus excused himself to the Temple of Tyr to alert them of the strange shrine and the undead creature they found in the sewers. What he’d hoped would be a quick interview became several hours of filling out report paperwork in triplicate.
-
The next morning, many of the party slept in and enjoyed Maggie’s filling brunch at the Crockpot. Ivaeleus joined them soon after, having dropped in at the Verdant Gnoll to follow up on a parchment found in the sewers. (1) His inquiries were less than productive, so he returned to the Crockpot and warned Maggie that someone was after her cookbooks. She was very surprised at this, as all her recipes had been passed down to her at her mother’s side and none had been written down. She had no idea what “cookbook” anyone would be interested in. Finally, Niclaus rejoined the group, rubbing his aching hand and voicing his disbelief that his report wasn’t inspiring immediate action from the Temple.
-
The group went back to the roach-infested house to investigate further. They found the house cordoned off and “seized for auction by the Church of Tyr. Trespassers will be prosecuted.” Niclaus then decided that as a representative of the Church, he could escort the party through the site so that they could reclaim their arrows and quarrels. (Besides, the party decided that Dale was too dangerous to be left alive; and if the Church wasn’t going to help, they had to do it themselves.) The house had been thoroughly searched and everything informative or useful had been burned or removed. However, Claz found a secret niche in the basement hiding two books describing the properties and Last Will and Testament of one Margerite De’Folteshain. Her considerable properties were to be split between her nephews, Ian and Crimble, and the White Rose Chapter of the Lord’s Talons. Further exploration revealed two bodies, apparent dockworkers or menials, stabbed and left in the sewers.
-
The party advanced into the sewers and found that Dale had escaped. While searching for him, they found a previously secret door left ajar. They followed the newly revealed passage to a door with a white rose decoration and a nicely appointed bolthole. They searched the room finding five scrolls and a small chest filled with vials, all marked with white roses. Suddenly, they were assaulted by a surge of energy that left them feeling as if the life had been sucked out of them. A black orb, pulsing with purple streaks, was hovering in the middle of the room. They dashed out of the room, just as the orb belched forth a heavy, black smoke. Out of the smoke leaped two grizzly, black dogs with burning hollows for eyes. They quickly killed off the dogs, but the orb then summoned an elemental using the most convenient element available – the sewage. They fought the elemental, but weren’t having an easy time of it. They retreated back to the secret door, only to find it closed and secured. They finally managed to destroy the elemental and break open the door to get to relative safety. The door had been jammed shut with the same spikes the party had used to seal up Dale’s room. They then limped back to the surface to heal up and identify the new items they’d found.
-
1. In the previous adventure, the party had flushed out a nest of sewer rats in a large cistern. They didn’t have time to investigate thoroughly at the time, but decided to come back later. When they did, Simon skirted the sides of the cistern looking for anything worthwhile that the rats may have scavenged. On the far side, he found the submerged and highly decayed body of a halfling. On the body, he found a ring (later identified as a Ring of Protection Against Disease), a magical elven rope, and a scroll case. In the scroll case was an advertisement offering a good price on a cookbook believed to be in the possession of the Brimbletons. Inquiries were to be made to Rufus at the Verdant Gnoll.
|
|
