I can�t believe that the group left me as a deposit. For a key.
And came back with a bag of huge snake heads.
Apparently, they had robbed a wagon leaving the warehouse, and took from it a number of bricks. Once broken open, the bricks contained a yellow symbol. The heads are left with the watch, to give to Commissioner Williams in the morning.
We left the watchhouse, and stepped straight into a group of Counsellor Vallane, who informed us that we were expected to report� oh, we were under arrest for the unlawful entry to the guarded compound.
We reached a large plaza, and were taken to the courthouse. We were left in a large room, and our weapons were demanded from us. They took these from us, and put them on guard.
After about an hour, Captain Vallane swept into the room, calling us �hooligans� and saying that we had gone too far. He did not know what we were doing in the temple, and told us that we had to clear out of the city. He even offered us a ride on one of his boat. Then, he told his guards to �show us a bad time� � and all 2 dozen of them drew swords�
And Brother Egil burst into the room, and spoke to the Guard Captain. He produced a scroll, and the Captain ordered his men to leave.
Egil announced that Lucius had, once again, been kidnapped. Egil said that Lloyd �owed him a favour�.
Still reeking of the sewers, the others left with Egil and I from the courts.
Lucius was kidnapped from the temple very quickly; there was a short sharp cry, and Egil found papers on the floor. There was nobody in the streets outside. Egil spoke to the watch, who led him to us at the courthouse. The serpents were apparently seeking to complete their sacrifice of Lucius. And Egil was leading us down a narrow sidestreet towards the temple district.
As Huey started to play us some travelling music, I found that I was rather bored with the whole affair, and started yawning widely. Still, I was having a nice conversation with Brother Egil, and tried to stifle my tiredness. It was only early evening, after all.
We decided to check the Temple before investigating the sewers, which I was very reluctant to do. Egil healed those in the group who were hurt, before producing the key to the manhole and unlocking it. There were signs of several people around the top of the sewer.
In the sewers, there were signs of passage, half a dozen people heading south. After some minutes, we heard a sound of something being dragged, and then a door shutting. We thought that we had travelled perhaps half a mile. The tunnel then split in two.
Rhia found the tracks of the snakes dragging something, as well as the faint outline of a door, where the tracks ended. The side-tunnel ended about 20 feet after the doorway.
Huey managed to stumble across the trigger of the door, revealing a 20 by 20 room, with massive shapes within. Heaps of irregular rock chunks. Friar Porpington and I stepped into the room, with Rhia and the orc. From outside, Egil slammed the door shut. We heard gears engaging behind the walls, and the room started shaking. Rocks fell on our heads.
The room shaking got worse and worse, and heavier rocks fell from the ceiling. Simultaneously, one wall opened wide, and the entire room started to tilt to tip us through it. Friar Porpington and I started to drop through it, although I was able to wedge my weapon and dangle from it out of the room. Below was an enormous grinding device, which started to grind towards Porpington�s ankles.
A few moments later, there was a terrible crunching noise, and Porpington was gone before my very eyes.
Then the floor settled, and the ceiling opened. The others had opened the door, and we fled through it. My torch was gone, but more importantly, so was Friar Porpington.
The dead body of the fake Brother Egil (killed by Veit and Huey whilst we were locked in the room) contained a map, which covered the trap we had just been caught in, as well as another mark, which was not described, but which we believed to be directly under 100 Wave Avenue.
We headed in that direction, with tears in our eyes and vengeance in our hearts.
The others eventually found a catch in the wall of the sewers, revealing a dark tunnel leading down. I was not looking, as I was too distressed. The slope was at a 60 degree angle, leading down 95 feet into the ground.
It ended with a corridor going to the right. The corridor bent several times, before stretching into the darkness, with openings leading off it. We stopped at the first door which was on the left. It was unlocked, with an elliptical storage area in it. Incense, black candles and ceremonial daggers, and several animal parts lay within. We identified several items which had been taken from the previous temple which we had conquered.
We moved up to the door on the right. The second chamber was a little larger, filled with books written in the same unknown language. There was also a desk, which was cleared of books or papers other than a small leather bound volume. �The True and Secrette Historie of the Brotherhoode of Free-Port�. It also had the yellow sign impressed on the cover.
The text was filled with illustrations and out of date maps. We learned that thousands of years ago, Yig, the Serpent God was worshipped by the snakes, before their civilisation was destroyed by the followers of the Unspeakable One. The civilisation degenerated, but a few of the Unspeakable cultists (also snakemen) remained, before the pirates came to Freeport and settled there.
Drakh agreed to create the city as an independent trading city. The Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign continued, and flourished, and members even managed to move in the daylight world. The most crafty priests went above ground, and founded the temple to the God of Knowledge.
The corridor continued around a curve. The room at the end had stalactites, a statue of the unspeakable one, and a figure waving a censer, with Egil tied to the altar.
There were also 6 other cultists which the DM forgot to mention�
The group leapt into action, and before the snakemen had finished turning, 4 of them lay dead. The others died moments later. Egil was freed, as was the halfling, after I decided that they did not register as evil.
Egil claimed that we had kidnapped him, but plainly this was not the case. We left with him and Rosco Tosscobble, the halfling, although we burned everything on the way out.
We ignited the books, and climbed a secret passageway behind the statue. We emerged into a plush storeroom, filled with empty crates marked �Biers Vintners�. Also, many bottles of posh wine. We headed up the stairs into a hallway. We heard a cry of agony from upstairs, and headed up. A pool of red seeped from beneath one, which was kicked open by Veit, revealing the remains of Counsellor Vallane and 4 of his guardsmen lying dead.
And then we got ambushed�
With shouts coming from within the room, I was shot in the side with a crossbow by a second figure. That person was cut down by my glaive immediately.
Every single person in the house had been murdered. Egil suggested that the people in the temple was also being framed, and we got Egil to go looking for the watch.
The other assassin was killed, but was carrying a document stating that we were entitled to search the temple. Peculiar. But we took it with us anyway.
We were let in to see High Priest Thuron, who wasn�t evil. We marched in and announced the imminent attack. He knew about the Brotherhood, and intended to make a stand, and asked us to stay and help; naturally enough we agreed. The clergy were armed, and stood ready by our sides.