The Age of Worms / Hall of Harsh Reflections pt. 1 / Vish the 28th through the 29th, 3592 CE / 3-31-19

General Summary

Rikit and Drask have just docked in Kedesh, having returned from their mission to Cauldron. They decide their first stop in town should be the Crooked House, in order to seek out their companion Lulu, who stayed behind to negotiate for peace in the Mistmarsh and locate the diadem the fighter Auric took from the Whispering Cairn. When they find her at the inn, Lulu is acting strangely, but Rikit cannot determine what is wrong with her, and the young oracle insists that she is fine. While Drask speaks with Tarquin Shortstone, the dwarven proprietor, about upcoming gladiator matches, the deep gnome experiments with feeding whiskey to Viscera, his tumor familiar. This leads to Rikit himself getting extremely drunk, and soon it is time for the party to retire. They are awakened in the middle of the night by a commotion from downstairs. When they reach the common room, they see Tarquin Shortstone is on the ground, bleeding out from a knife sticking out of his chest. One of a group of visiting merchants they recognize from earlier in the evening is attempting to aid the dying dwarf. The onlookers point accusingly at Drask and indicate that is was him who stabbed the dwarf. Lulu rushes over to assist the dwarf as well, but the innkeeper expires nonetheless. The merchant goes to summon the town guards, and Lulu tells her companions that a confrontation will do no good and they should wait for the opportunity to explain themselves to the authorities. Drask knows that he is already mistrusted as a lizardman, and Rikit is still too drunk to argue, and so they wait. When the city guards arrive, the trio are taken to a holding cell. Several hours later, a guard comes to inform them that an angry mob has formed, and they will need to be moved to a safehouse for their own protection. The party is transported to a warehouse on the docks, where they are once more locked in barred cells. They notice several others similarly interred; an unconscious man dressed in official robes, a finely dressed, though disheveled, elven woman, and two guardsman sharing a cell. Lulu continues to reassure the group that everything will work out, but her statements are contested by the elven woman, who introduces herself as Ilya Starmane, a noble of Celene. She claims that guards come periodically to beat prisoners and drag them to an unknown location, such as what happened to the unconscious man in the adjacent cell. The disgraced guardsmen dispute Ilya's claims that she is an innocent victim, but provide no further information. Not long after, Ilya's prediction comes true, as two armed guards enter her cell and beat her mercilessly before dragging her unconscious body from the room through the north door. Determining that he is no longer satisfied to sit and await a similar fate, Rikit formulates a plan. He sends Viscera to retrieve the one lit torch at the end of the room, so that he can extinguish it, and then, using his darkvision, forms a makeshift lock-pick from a chunk of the wall using his stone shape ability. After fiddling with the lock, he is able to free himself and his companions. However, when he goes to investigate the southern door that he believes leads to the warehouse's exit, he is ambushed by the two captured guardsmen, who easily escape their cell and have produced swords from a hidden spot. A battle ensues in which it becomes apparent the guardsmen can also see in the dark, despite their apparent human heritage. The truth is revealed quickly when Lulu also turns on the party, transforming into a bizarre grey-skinned creature, a doppelganger! After one guard is killed, transforming back into his doppelganger form, and the other knocked unconscious, the fake Lulu flees through the door to the north, saying "You'll never find her!" Drask and Rikit bind the surviving guard, and Rikit attempts to torture him for information by cutting off his foot, but gains little insight other then the fact that they will have to venture deeper into the warehouse if they wish to find the real Lulu.

Character(s) interacted with

Rikit Bhang Drask Lulu Victry (Ixian) Tarquin Shortstone Elax (doppelganger disguised as merchant) Ilya Starmane Gattel Watam (unconscious) Regim and Martal (doppelgangers disguised as disgraced guards) other doppelganger guards Crooked House patrons the city watch

Report Date

31 Mar 2019

Primary Location

The Sodden Hold

Secondary Location

Kedesh