Session 40: Ill Omens Report
General Summary
The Cleansing of the Inquisition
The party rested in the Inquisition's basement beneath Castle Carderby, fortifying themselves and rallying against what was to come.
Once rested, they entered the teleportation chamber, a fairly small, well-appointed room whose main body was taken up by a large red circle on the floor, which glowed slightly.
There were also two doors on the opposite side, which entered a room which seemed to be a store for the clothes of those individuals who they had been torturing a couple of rooms over.
Gortan pocketed the money he found there
Tarvy, meanwhile, began the attempt to dispel the circle, and succeeded on the first attempt, the small red glyphs that made it up fading out of existence.
The group then made tracks, accompanied by the very ugly dwarf, out of the castle undercroft, through a long tunnel that wound around to somewhere under the town, emerging into an unobtrusive looking house. The house itself looked to have been well tossed, without much of note.
Outside, men were fighting, Carderby's garrison against the Inquisition, with Gauvain leading from the front as he casually and brutally slaughtered 3 inquisition footmen. Seeing him like this he seemed more alive and in his element than in the position of politician and father.
He told the group to head to the Foamy Duck and he would meet them there later on once the worst of the resistance was cleared out.
The Fulcrum moved through the town, helping where they could and dealing swift death to any inquisitors who got in their way.
Return to the Foamy Duck
They adventurers arrived at the Foamy Duck tired and blood soaked.
There they spoke with Sybil and Taurog, the latter seeming not entirely happy to have been saved, seemingly conflicted and begrudging his own inhuman heritage. He agreed to speak with Gauvain and assert himself as best he could.
A while later Gauvain and his close retinue arrived. The party spoke with him and he informed them of what had been going on, that he and Lord Carderby had come here to set up the Beskan town about 13 years ago, shortly after the birth of Hugo, Carderby's second son.
He also explained that he had once been a member of the Inquisition but had honourably stepped back from the role in exchange for sending reports back to Beskus from Carderby.
Eventually it had been decided that there needed to be a means for Inquisitors to get there, and demands were made to Gauvain to arrange for a teleportation circle to be made. They tried to delay it, however, eventually they had to hire Cate Advizod to help create one as well as advise Carderby's governance of the region.
That done the inquisition had started pouring through, including Keller, who was the Inquisitor's representative in the region.
Gauvain seemed throughout the whole conversation to be deeply conflicted about the whole thing, torn between his loyalty to his home and his loyalty to Carderby, whose death, despite apparently organising, he appeared unhappy about.
He also explained that the Orcs in the town from Ozrag were part of some sort of agreement between Beskus and Ozrag, however, he didn't have any particular agreements and didn't get involved in that sort of politics. He seemed to have respect for them as warriors.
Finally, he agreed to show deference and tolerance towards the Fulcrum, with the potential for better alliances in the future, for now his attention is focused on cleaning up Carderby and getting it back to profitability.
After this Taurog made his way down to speak with his father, and the party let them talk. According to Sybil later, this went well and Gauvain had agreed to allow Taurog to shadow him as he went around his business, and give him more of use to do.
Before leaving, Gortan and Tarvy went down for another look at the prisoners in the basement, and Tarvy made an attempt to dispel the magic which had hold on them. Focusing and placing his hand on the neck of the female gnome, he attempt to remove the curse which appeared to have hold on them.
He, with Gortan's inspirational help, was able to take a hold of a solid mass, seemingly within the Gnome's neck. As he tore it out, the gnome slumped forward to the ground, dead.
The thing in Tarvy's hand, a black ooze not dissimilar in texture to the Gib, wriggled and squirmed in Tarvy's hand, tendrils reaching out up his forearm and down to the floor. Gortan made it move with magic before Tarvy stamped on it, leaving nothing but a crushed remnant on the heel of his boot.
While the other two were in the basement, Rukk went out into the town and attempted to heal those he could, while also burying the dead and placing flowers over the graves. Some of the townsfolk were grateful to him and helped in the process.
They decided this was a problem they could not deal with here and so, leading the pliable non—humans they brought them up and found a cart to load them into.
Omens most Ill
Shortly thereafter, the party took their leave of Carderby, taking the unresponsive individuals from the prison with them.
They spread word among those there that Castle Sunder was open for business to all those wishing to trade, as well as being a safe place to live if that was something desired.
The party travelled back over the course of the next couple of days, warm and sunny, an enjoyable contrast from the muck and mud of Carderby.
They arrived at the castle, still exhausted but happy to have returned.
After putting the unresponsive creatures in the crypt, they spoke to a few of the inhabitants of the castle.
In particular, Gortan went to see Nephi who was still caring for Nanny Goosey. Nephi was thankful for his help and agreed to let him watch her for a bit while she went to rest.
As Gortan was strumming his lute and trying to calm the restive Nanny Goosey, she stirred, clearly in great discomfort, coughing and spluttering, struggling to breath. She reached out for him with urgency as her old, gnarled hands grasped his, he could hear her trying to form words. Bending close to her lips and trying to hear , he hear the words, faint but clear "They are coming".
With those words spoken Nanny Goosey leant back into the pillow coughed once more before a long exhale. She was dead.
Gortan hurriedly informed everyone else in the castle, and they all gathered around to prepare for the funeral and burning of the body (as otherwise there was no knowing what might happen to it).
Tarvy spied an opportunity to get an ingredient he needed, the blood of a freshly dead humanoid, and decided it should come from Nanny Goosey.
Unfortunately, not being a natural surgeon and also being very tired, meant Tarvy did not make the best job of it. Initially he tried to take blood from the arm, however, little was coming out, not enough to fill his vial, so he decided to go knick the throat, sliding his blade across, he dug a little too deep and a little too far, and what remained of the blood pressure spurted all over his arm and upper torso. He got his blood, however, also made a terrible mess as he was doing so.
Shag, seemingly upset at what Tarvy was doing, picked up the body and took it to the fire while Arela, without her spellbook and with tears visible on her cheeks, set light to the pyre. Most people stood around until, sometime later, the body was burnt almost entirely to ashes.
Everyone then made their way slowly to their rests.
As they slept, Tarvy and Hallaster had another dream, a darker, more sinister, more real dream. (Recorded)
They awoke, short of breath and afraid in the middle of the night, to hear footfalls in the passage outside their rooms and a knock on their doors as Horbane, without his staff, came rushing around, telling them to all get to the tower now.
They hurried up and as he looked and they squinted, they each perceived it slightly differently, something was wrong, something felt wrong with the world. They saw a crack, a greenish light around blackness somewhere to the south of the Rift, some inexplicable phenomenon that made them all feel profoundly uneasy. It was not, at that moment, however, something that could easily be explained.
