Chapter 8: Moving On
The group found themselves under arrest for the attack on the nobles' district, with several Sydonian soldiers, a mage and a constable captain aiming at them. The constable captain proved to be one of the dockworkers' union thugs they had previously encountered and let go. When they tried to explain they had just stopped the cult behind the attack, the constable drew his pistol and executed the captured cultists then leaned in and whispered "the cult of scales has deep pockets..." to the group. The group then tried to talk the soldiers into turning on the constable, which ended in the constable executing one of the soldiers for insubordination. The mage teleported away, and eventually Dox was able to convince them not to fire on them as they tried to subdue the captain. The soldiers threw down their arms as the fighting started and fled. The constable tried to fire his pistol at rasper, but it misfired and exploded in his hand catching his sleeve on fire from the powder. Rasper used their guild signet ring to command him to grovel, while thrain beat him with his thunder gauntlets and Rasper knocked him out with a blow to the back of the head using their rapier's hilt. They left him by the corpses, hoping the scene would implicate him in the murders.
The party then moved on to the slums, where they laid low with the barrow boys for a time as the chaos in the city subsided. Rasper shared the tale of the battle with the draconians with the boys, and they retired for the night. The next day, they discovered newspapers were blaming the attack on "elven radicals." Rasper received a message from their patron in Ekoros revealing them of their debt, suggesting they may find work in Southport if they desired to stay in Sydonia. The group decided to leave Dragonwatch for southport. While gathering supplies, Rasper found a poster advertising work for adventurers as "pirate hunters" in southport. They left later that day, traveling southwest along the Avron road as the first Sydonian steam train left the Dragonwatch station heading southeast towards brookstone on the newly repaired railroad.
Along the road, Rasper spread stories of the covenant of the veiled coin's (as they decided to call themselves) battle against the draconian cult of Tiamat to stop the Dragonwatch plot. Eventually, rumours of elven radicals were replaced with worries about a dragon resurgence and the heroics of the party. Thrain sampled regional whiskeys and gathered ingredients as they traveled. As they arrived in Southport, they were stopped by a pair of surprisingly helpful guards who detailed the various quarters of the city and the best places to stay and eat for adventurers in the city. They decided to stay at The Silver Sword Inn, an inn and tavern frequented by adventurers and mercenaries run by a human named Ethelstan Millwood and his dwarven life partner Aldin Firebelly. They ate a warm meal, drank the inn's famed "karak kadre bourbon barrel ale" and were advised by Aldin that they should work to spread their reputation by working small jobs to build up to bigger work. The inn's oversized notice board provided plenty of such work. After the meal, the group set out to explore the city. Dox investigated around the garden district, while Rasper spread tales of their adventures around the inn. Dox and Thrain visited a store called "The Sultry Musafir" owned by a rotund man from the Sadim Desert selling herbs, spices, illicit substances and romance novels such as "the tabaxi and the lonely sailor's wife." Dox purchased some herbs and a contraption used to smoke them, as well as a copy of the romance novel. Though he paid for it, he forgot the book at the store.
The party spent the rest of the month working small jobs and spreading word of their deeds. Dox honed his perceptive skills, while rasper found work performing as a bard in taverns. Thrain worked on his whiskey, combining elements of elven and dwarven whiskeys. Rasper also spent a few weeks chasing down a seller of magical items to spend some of their hard-earned dragon hoard wealth. They were able to find winged boots (granting flight to the wearer) and a bag of tricks (allowing someone to conjure magical animals from the bag).
As the month wore on, Dox began to feel increasingly unwell. He ran a fever, experienced memory loss, graying skin, hallucinations and finally bleeding from his eyes. The group decided to visit the mages' guild to investigate. There, they met with a wizard named Barnabus Asher who identified his illness as the process of ceremorphosis (through which one becomes a mind flayer). Dox revealed he had nightmares about a tentacled creature inserting something into his eye, and that he had developed his psionic abilities shortly thereafter. The nightmares had begun after a failed job in the sewers of dragonwatch. Asher explained that if he did not stop the process, he would transform into a mind flayer. A ritual existed to reverse the process, but the wizard explained its secret was kept by a rival wizard of his named Edwin Stearns. Edwin was currently studying the effects of fire on water elementals in the elemental plane of water, so Asher suggested the group break into Stearns tower and steal the ritual from his archives. If they could return with the details of the ritual, he would perform it for a payment of 500 gold.
With little more than the knowledge of the location of the tower, the group left Southport and traveled along the coast to the wizard's estate. There, they found an 80-foot tower surrounded by hedges on a raised bluff. A stone statue of an owl stood on the western face of the tower. Rasper used the winged boots to fly over the hedge and investigate, but found no discernible entrance. When Dox tried to climb the hedge, sharp thorns and vines pierced him. He noticed small animal bones around the owl statue, and so the group decided to try to conjure a small creature from the bag of tricks for the statue. They pulled one hairy ball from the bag and tossed it, conjuring a brown bear. They then pulled another, and conjured a giant goat and finally a lion with the final ball. When they tried to have the goat eat the hedge, it was wounded by the thorns and the eaten hedge magically grew back. None of these animals would serve, so they eventually decided to hunt for small game in the area. Olin set out and returned with a small field mouse shortly thereafter. They presented it to the owl, and it was devoured by an unseen force before the statue moved aside-revealing a passage through the hedge.
On the southern face of the tower, they discovered arcane runes. Thrain deciphered them, translating them into a riddle:
The group guessed "lock," and a door manifested and opened before them. From within, they heard a pleasant voice say "We would've accepted key, as well." They sent the animals in first, then followed. As the last person entered, the door closed behind them and the same pleasant voice said "Lifeforce does not match Professor Stearns. Tower defenses activated." Suddenly, 3 large beasts phased into existance before them and attacked. They resembled large cats, with twin tentacles coming from their heads ending in sharp-toothed maws. The beasts shifted in and out of existence, making them difficult to strike. But whenever one would be hit, it would stop phasing out for a brief moment. The lion and goat managed to damage the beasts before being slain, and though Rasper was knocked unconscious by one of the creatures the group eventually slew all 3 (with the bear surviving!). They looked around and found the first floor to be some kind of alchemical laboratory. Who knows what other dangers lurk ahead in this tower of the arcane...
My head was forged by hammer's hit, pricked by a point and polished by files. What comes before me, I frequently eat. With rings adorned I doth strike, hard against hard, a hole in my back. Shoved forth I shall defend my master's secrets amidst the night. Sometimes I spin my skull backwards, when my lord wants me - the warden of his secrets - to reveal to him the secrets within.
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