ROR:Session/13

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Starring: Calum, Haneet, Hilma, Isra'a, Karaz [Played by Linda], Tokki
Guest Starring: Aldern Foxglove (the 4th), talking angel statue, Xanesha, Erylium (of course)
Challenge: Below
Location: Magnimar's The Shadow Clock
Date Played: 31 October 2015

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Flying High Down Deep

Chapter 2: The Skinsaw Murders - Part 7/8: The Seven's Sawmill / Shadow of Time

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The Seven's Sawmill

Isra'a

We found the location of the cultists’ lumber mill. For a change of pace we decided to go with a stealthy approach. I disguised myself as a cultist and snuck in the basement. Once inside I found three ‘lumberjacks’ were working the machines. I signaled the group to follow and moved along the back of the water wheels to position myself for combat. Initially, I wasn’t sure if they were innocents or not – once my companions arrived there was no doubt. I managed to catch one moving along the back unaware – he never had a chance. We disabled the waterwheel mechanics to prevent us having to deal with the saws inside on the upper floors.

The cultists on the first floor used a trap door to shower us with acid. We moved along the outside of the building and charged the front door. Inside were several cultists – these ones left little doubt as to their intentions. Ignoring the acid bath they gave Haneet, they wasted no time in attacking us. We dealt with them and moved upstairs – Ironbriar had to be close.

We found Ironbriar at the top of the lumber mill, he was waiting for us. He had prepared an illusion that Haneet and myself made short work of… we aren’t always the most perceptive ones in the group. We coaxed out the real one and dealt with him as we so often do – with swift and blinding violence. I think Tokki wanted to question him – I like the stabby kind of justice myself. Within his belongings we found evidence that will hopefully clear our names and a new lead pointing towards the source of the evil.

Tokki

Unforgiving cuts

In the great tree of justice

That must never fall

Devil before me

Draped in the great cloth of law

Must show its true form

The Shadow Clock

Isra'a

The evidence gathered at the saw mill led us to an abandoned clock tower. We discussed methods of dealing with it, one being that we topple the tower. In retrospect, we probably should have done this. The entrance to the tower was unlocked, so we went inside. The interior was dark – we could just make out an abandoned cart, a pile of leaves and high above the tower’s bells. Our impulsive Haneet decided to jump into the leaves – unfortunately for her there was a golem of some sort laying in wait.

The golem wasn’t as dangerous as some foes we have faced, but it kept itself backed in a corner. It made movement to come out of the corner – I should have stopped it, but I was too busy thinking about setting up a flank. It unleashed a devastating attack that felled Calum. I’m not a fan of the old man but I don’t want to see him die either. That was the beast’s last gasp and we set about securing Calum’s body – the threat in the tower must be dealt with now.

Moving upward we were slowed by the disrepair of the stair case and the enormous bell that was loosed in our direction. Deafened by the bell we emerged into the upper reaches of the clock tower. Here were five foes, three cultists, ok makes sense. Aldren Foxglove – sure why not… Elyrium… why? Why did it have to be that damn quasit? One day I am going to kill her – I hope no one is around when I do, or that they avert their eyes.

Being familiar with us and me in particular, Elyrium cursed me once again. She plunged me into darkness – my account of the encounter from here out becomes spotty. I know we were able to deal with the cultists and I believe I destroyed the beast Elyrium summoned. The fake Aldren lasted a little longer but it too fell. Escaping the fight to torment me another day was Elyrium… damn it.

The group helped me scale the scaffolding along the outside of the tower up onto the top. Here I heard an angelic voice telling me I would be shown the way to the tower if I only knelt. I did so – soon our guide appeared and suggested that I fetch the authorities. This seemed like an excellent idea – I began to make my way back down the tower. Being freshly blind this was an ordeal; I am not used to being without my sight. I wonder why she chose me to go for help – wouldn’t one of my companions be better able to accomplish this task?

Down and down I traveled – I should get myself a cane… knives are not terribly useful for feeling your way around. I am not sure how far down I managed to get when the feeling that I should get the authorities abandoned me – why on earth would I get them? I can’t stand them. My companions told me what had happened on the top of the tower – I am ashamed, I was duped once again and left my party to fend for themselves.

Tokki

Led by a murder

To the depths of Magnamar

Searching true evil

Scarecrows, cultist, stairs

It was truly harrowing

And our bell got rung

Literal forked tongue

Gilded in silver and lies

Heavy veils to lift

Karaz

Calum down? Calum dead? This cannot stand. Like an outsider in my own body I watch it move, watch it fight, we must finish this and fix the wizard. I helped in my way.

Follow-up

🎲 DM Searching Xanesha's lair

• You find the following letter, crumpled and torn to pieces:

My Sister —

I trust your little band of murderers is doing well, gathering the greedy souls for our Lord's rise? Has Magnimar proven to be as sinful as you had hoped? It may interest you to know that my plan to nurture greed here in this backwater has blossomed – the quality of greed in a soul is so much more refined when it is given the proper care. Are you still simply carving the Sihedron on them as they expire? How crude! My method of marking is so much more elegant. In any event, I'm sure that your plans for harvesting greed where and when you can find it "in the wild" are progressing well enough – I just hope that your raw, ungroomed, and likely inferior, victims don't interact poorly when mixed with the purity of my own subjects. If you tire of your little project there, know that you're always welcome to come here and serve as my assistant little sister! The nearby fort should be in our control by the time you receive this letter, in any event, so there'll be plenty of room for you if you wish to take me up on my generous offer.

Oh! Before I forget! Have you managed to harvest that lord-mayor yet? By all accounts, he might just be the cream of the crop in Magnimar – his soul might even rival several from my hand-grown harvest!

• Her notes and scrolls:

She had charmed many lovers throughout the city and was harvesting souls in competition with her sister "for our lord". Prime of those lovers was Ironbriar, who was a quarter-way-decent elf before falling for Xenesha (magically, then for real) and being corrupted by her over time. She had become complacent and liked to be a puppet master and leave the harvesting to the cults below. It was Ironbriar's idea to recruit the Skinsaw Cult, as he had pursued them in the past, to be her tools. She claims that recruiting Aldern was her idea... but that conflicts with Ironbriar's notes saying it was his.

• Chests

Treasure listed elsewhere. Largely logged as offerings from her lovers and cultists.

A ranked-list of greedy souls and potential sacrifices throughout Magnimar, headed by the lord-mayor himself, including the beginnings of plans to get near him for harvesting.

🎲 DM Temple of Sarenrae

• The temple offers to pay bounty for any EVIL items from the party for destruction at 1/3 (instead of 1/2 market value for selling to the public).

Arrests

Calum

• ?

Haneet

• Ironbriar was a totally evil cult guy. I mean, he had a big knife and tried to kill us and everything. I actually got to run on the ceiling when we killed him, which was the best. I didn't know that I could do that, at least with the right spells. I think he was being clever, because he was standing in a pile of garbage, and was all, "Ha, now nobody's going to go tumbling past me to get a flank, I'm an invincible evil guy", but he wasn't actually, and I guess he wasn't too clever, because I ran on the ceiling, and THAT was clever. Anyway, I talked to the crows, and told the crows all about the Bleachlings. Have you ever met a Bleachling? Oh, you have! Tokki is one. They're kinda serious and dull, but I think that the crows were going to like that, and the crows wanted to be sad and serious all the time, so I figured they'd get along. That's why we went to the clocktower though, because of the crows. There was a snakelady cult leader there, so we got to go climb the tower, and this was so cool, up until Calum died, which wasn't really a thing that I liked, but I've been dead before, so it's not like, the worst thing, it just, y'know, you feel really crappy until Hilma gives you a spell to not feel awful anymore. Have you ever died? So, anyway, the cultists dropped a bell on us, which was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. I didn't get hit by the bell, but the stairs totally did. Which… how did we get back down? I think I missed that part. I might have walked on the walls, I guess, but Hilma is really bad at climbing stairs. I had to help Hilma climb the stairs a bunch, which was actually kinda fun, because I got to walk on the walls while doing it. Did you know that there are slippers that let you climb on walls? As soon as we're done here, I'm gonna get Calum to make me some. Oh… I guess after Calum isn't dead anymore. I'll probably go to the Prism instead. Have you- oh, no, you haven't. Hey, I have a potion of Reduce Person. Do you want to go dancing after this? It's really fun. The best part, of course, was when I jumped across the rafters and knocked one of the cultists into a hole. Xanesha was at the top, and she totally magicked us to think she was a good person, but she was actually an evil snake lady. She made Isra'a go "get the authorities", which sucked, because he was blind, and wasn't going to be able to get anything. Plus, I wanted him to be there so we could stab Xanesha. OH! I forgot about the Flesh Golem. The Flesh Golem killed Calum. And that bell that they dropped, it actually landed on Calum, which was like a one in a million shot, and it was hard to prop it up to get Calum out. The bell didn't kill Calum, the Golem had already done that part, though. Anyway, I figured, if Xanesha- who I thought was good, because of magic- wanted the authorities, the best way to do it would be to ring the bells, plus I actually kind of wanted to ring the bells. Have you seen my monkey skull? Watch this! Xanesha made me jump off the tower, but I had a rope, and tried to be clever, but Feather Fall is kind of lame, but I flew to grab the wall and ran back up it, and got back up just in time to hit Xanesha and she didn't see it coming, because running on walls is clever. And then she died. And then you arrested us. I'm not really sure why. We're heroes!

Hilma

• ?

Isra'a

• Fortunatly, Isra’a hasn’t been seen around the magistrate’s office, no way I could have been involved in this jail break you’re accusing me of. I haven’t been seen in Foxglove’s town house. I wasn’t ever told to stay within the city – nor was I ever at the lumber mill.
• Regarding the bell – for that I apologize, it was cut loose and the intent was to stop us from scaling the tower. I never meant to alarm anyone. If we had our way it never would have been cut down and nearly crush us.
• As for the power vacuum caused by the death of Xenesha – I did you a favor. From what my friends told me she has been orchestrating a series of murders throughout your city, corrupted your very own magistrate Ironbriar and had her sights set on you. I haven’t seen anything that would indicate she wouldn’t have succeeded had we not intervened. After seeing the trouble these people have caused in Sandpoint, I wouldn’t want to see that happen to Magnimar too. I hope we have cut the head from the snake and you can resume your rule over this city in peace.

Karaz

• Yes I'm with them. Whatever they did I did too. Friends? Not sure I would get my hopes up that high, they let me hang around and I help them if I can. They are pretty nice to me, the little one gave me cake once, the cleric has healed me a lot, and the dead guy gives me magical baths. They don't even charge me! If they say the murder cult is bad I will go with that. If we go to prison will I be in with them? I would prefer that please. Now can we fix Calum? If not I might have to bathe with water soon. Look, have you ever had friends? You have? So you help them right? I did that. Maybe we are friends. I don't really have anything else to say here. Talk to them.

Tokki

• As I am sure you are aware, there is already some evidence that is in possession of the justices. I'd recommend asking for the these to help collaborate the facts we are giving. You may also have a little difficulty tracking down some of the rest of the party. They can be found here ::scribbles down likely places each would be::
• Now, to the point, I'd like to first address leaving against the orders of justice. I did leave a note of where I was going, and additionally, it was in the cities best interest to go. As you know, Ironbriar was working for the murder cult and extended his influence as far as he could. In case his evil touch infected other justices, we had to act before tracks could be easily covered. This keeps the people of Magnamar safe in the long run, and we mustn't forget that we must keep the taxpayers in mind. The evidence shows this was a good action on our part.
• The evidence pointed us toward the old clocktower. Once again, nothing was submitted as the validity of the justice were under question. The bell was not dropped by our hands, but the cultist. This caused the structural damage that you have mentioned as well. Though, the structure was questionable to begin with and should be demolished for the safety of those around the area.
• There will always be crime. Like all things, though, crime comes in shades of grey. What we removed was beyond the pale. Massive murders and death cults go beyond this "crime problem" you speak of. In fact, your head was in line to be culled as you can clearly see in the paperwork that was confiscated from the clocktower. It is also worth noting that the the expanse of this cult reached far, and I suggest you examine some of your staff more closely. For what it is worth, the city is quite well maintained and safe, and your passing would throw more chaos than that of this murder cult being eliminated.
• Now let me tell you a bit about these things called a runewell and what we encountered in Sandpoint. They are linked to the seven major sins, and the death of those that embody those sins powers them for cabal rites. There is a strong corollary with the notes recovered and what happened there. There is another out there collecting souls that they believe carry greed.
• I am not one that can judge if you carry greed, but you can always do what you can to remove yourself from their glare otherwise. Now, let me tell you this idea I have about a debtors relief program that could help the city and dissuade the murders from wanting to target you... ::Plans for the rickshaw business would attempt to ensue from here::

Downtime

• The party has earned 49 days of downtime. This will be December and January in Magnimar. (Climate cf. that of North Carolina.) Chapter 3 will begin 01 February (game calendar). Note, Calums is +1 Negative Level for the first week of downtime.

Calum

• ?

Haneet

• Slippers of Spider Climbing (2400gp and 3? days)
• +1 on the Adamantine Morning Star (2000gp and 2 days)
• Retrain No Escape (350gp, 5 days) - Swift Foot (+5 enhancement bonus to speed while raging)
• Time and funds permitting, also a Belt of Giant Strength +2 (2000gp crafting cost, 2 days)
• Haneet will pay Calum anything else she has, and do Calum favors for the time investment (which isn't much- this totals out to 6750, Haneet has 6971)
• Dive from the Irespan.

Hilma

• ?

Isra'a

• I would like to make my two kukri +1 (2000 gp and 4 days of time), Mithril Shirt +1 (500 gp and 1 day)
• If I have enough Headband of mental prowess +2 wis / +2 int (5000 gp and 10 days time)
• I am wondering about the agile modifier on weapons – is this available to be used?

Karaz

• Ask Calum to enchant the temple sword with Keen (4000 gp and 8 days I believe?)I will pay extra for his time as well. He can set what he thinks is a reasonable fee.
• Retrain on Scorpion Style to learn Improved Trip
• Help the others where I can. If not try to find some jobs to make some more money I guess, not much else I need to do.

Tokki

• Enchant MW Composite Longbow to +2 and Armor to +1 (9 of Calum's days and 4500 gp)
  • Get a gift or two
• Train in learning how to speak Giant (20 days and 1400 gp)
• Work on making and licensing a rickshaw business in Magnimar
  • Focus on it being a redemption program for debtors in the city as opposed to jail

🎲 DM Section

Encounters

Basement cultists

Buffed Cultist x3 (Clr1/Rog2/Rgr1)

First floor cultists

Buffed Cultist x4

Justice Ironbriar

As-published, Clr6/Rog2

Missing Cultists

Many of the cultists from the lumber mill were not here to encounter, already having been encountered in the Hall of Justice. Those in the Hall were unbuffed Clr1, Rog2.

Scarecrow

Awakened flesh golem (CR7)

Terrible Stair

Environment: jumps/etc. No CR, but would be around 3.

Falling Bell trap

CR4... I nerfed it to be appropriately CR 4 instead of 7 or so.

Belfry

• Buffed Skinsaw Cultists x3 CR3 each (Nerf: was supposed to be Faceless Stalkers CR4 each)
• Aldern Foxglove again (Faceless stalker brd1/wtc1/ftr1 = CR6)
• Erylium (CR 7)

The Ange

• Xanesha (Lamia matriarch CR9)

Recap Reward

Before next session's day

• Isra'a, Tokki

Late

Not done

• Calum, Haneet, Hilma, Karaz [Played by Linda]

Expires

End of Chapter.