Azimuth 2 - Session 42 - Coin in the Cistern
General Summary
New Keeleon
Storm Sewers
In the late evening of 20 Adroth 5A 352, the Lightbringers traveled to the Mud Ward and entered New Keeleon’s storm sewers. They followed Aramish’s map toward the northeast as they attempted to find the Blood Oyster Moss the potion-maker needed. The storm sewers were large brick tunnels that funneled the runoff from the city out to the Mud Ward and the Rexun River. The recent rain left everything wet and slick. Their map led through the larger collection tunnels, avoiding the smaller branching pipes that led elsewhere. Ilmendwyth, Romsca, and Chaka led the group, followed by Mortimr and Arwin, while Gertrude used a Light spell to illuminate the tunnels for Romulus and Captain Ruslan. Ilmendwyth found a section of the tunnels that angled a different direction, which sent the rainwater farther ahead instead of to the outflow path. Following it, he found a large red-and-black brick archway which led to a huge chamber. He pointed out the orcish runes on the arch, which Chaka magically read as “Highland Hills Cistern A”.Highland Hills Cistern
Ilmendwyth peered inside and saw a large chamber with pillars supporting the roof. The columns and mossy walls had water lines showing historic water highs. It was too dark to clearly see, but this overflow room continued downwards to multiple smaller chambers. Ilmendwyth, Chaka, and Romsca felt a telepathic message enter their minds. It showed a hurt kenku stuck in slowly rising water, with repeating words, “Help! Help! Kenku! Coin!” They felt it was coming from deeper in the cistern. Ilmendwyth yelled to alert the rest of the group, and they rushed forward. The party quickly followed, also getting the same message as they turned into the cistern. Ilmendwyth was the fastest and farthest. Piled trash and refuse flowed forward into deeper standing water in the farther chambers. He couldn’t see a kenku among the floating trash, but the angles of the brick walls blocked sight into the farther chambers. He trudged father into deeper water. Passing a corner, he didn’t notice the fleshy tentacle with rows of eyes until it lashed out at him. He quickly stepped back as a large, bulbous otyugh emerged from the trash. Its eye stalk honed in on the elf. It lashed its spiked tentacles and eagerly opened its drooling maw.Sewer Aberrations
The party reacted quickly. Mortimr summoned a canine-like beast from the shadows: a wolf made of plant thorns and pink petals. The wolfthorn rushed to bite, and Chaka ran forward to engage. Two more otyughs emerged from the pump rooms. Mortimr cast a spell to banish one in a flurry of rose petals. Chaka and Ilmendwyth dodged the grasping tentacles from the remaining two, but a giant drooling maw bit through Chaka’s armor. He felt the aberration’s saliva poisoning his system. His strength sapping from him, he moved away as Ruslan rushed to put his shield between the otyugh and Chaka’s retreat. Romsca and Gertrude rushed towards the melee. All the while, the group kept getting the same mental image of a drowning kenku. Ilmendwyth disengaged from the swarming tentacles into one of the pump rooms, but he found no sign of any kenku here. Romulus, Gertrude, and Mortimr launched magical fire, while Arwin and Ilmendwyth pelted arrows into the otyughs. Romsca lit her flind flail with molten fire. She smashed through an otyugh’s jaw and scattered it to the water, dead. With the first otyugh slain, the wolfthorn began to dissipate. Mortimr had stretched his magic thin, and he felt his connection it deeper. The wolfthorn looked back to Mortimr before dispersing into pink petals. With just one otyugh left, Romulus summoned two giant octopuses into the other pump rooms. He instructed them to look for the kenku, but they found no one among the rainwater and trash. Ruslan held back the otyugh’s biting maw with his shield, but its grasping tentacles lashed and entangled Chaka and Gertrude. Arwin shot the tentacles and Chaka fell back to the water. Mortimr cast an illusion to make Gertrude appear molten-hot, and Romsca summoned a flaming hammer to kill the otyugh holding Gertrude. But Mortimr’s spell broke his concentration on the Banishment spell. The last otyugh reappeared and attacked. Ruslan and Romsca rushed into melee, while Chaka and Ilmendwyth reeled back. Ilmendwyth shot arrows as he maneuvered into the last pump room. He saw bundles of red moss growing on the walls and saw a kenku hiding in the upper pipes. He called, “Don’t move!” to it, and the kenku repeated it back and nodded. Mortimr landed a massive blow with a spell and Arwin shot a dire hit. Romulus summoned a Scorching Ray into its maw, engulfing it in fire. It collapsed as it burned in magical fire. The group saw one last pulse of the telepathic image as the last otyugh died.Coin the Kenku
As the party gathered and removed Chaka and Gertrude from the tentacles, Romsca and Ilmendwyth told the kenku the danger was gone. It came down from the pipes. It was a short, wet, and hungry kenku with a jingling jacket. It was flustered and scared, and it looked like it had been in the storm sewers for days. The kenku was shaken, which made it difficult to communicate through its mimicry. It conveyed its name was Coin. It gave a trinket of woven grass and coper pieces to Ilmendwyth and said thanks in multiple copied languages. An ornery Mortimr said, “Yeah, I think you owe us more than that,” and Coin quickly gave other trinkets and gifts to the group. Ilmendwyth recognized some of the language Coin used as copied Thieves Cant. Coin cocked its head at the elf and said, “Feather-on-the-Wind? Coin! Birdkeeper!” Ilmendwyth said to stop talking. Meanwhile, Romsca healed Chaka of poison and Romulus sent the octopuses to dig in the trash for anything useful. They found tattered blue cloaks, similar to ones worn by the Commandment of Sky cultists.Commandment of Sky Connections
The party gave Coin some quick food and drink. After Coin recovered somewhat, he was able to more effectively communicate. Even still, the mimicry language was difficult to understand. Coin took a parchment from Chaka and quickly began to write in beautiful, official-looking calligraphy. Coin pointed to the otyugh bodies and said, in a copy of Sir Talmid’s voice, “Garbage disposal. Take that bird to the garbage disposal.” Coin explained he was hired to make forged documents for Sir Talmid, but instead of payment, he was brought down here to be fed to the otyughs. He slipped away and the otyughs ate the two cultists that brought him down here, and Coin had been hiding in the pipes since. Though Ilmendwyth tried again to get the kenku to stop talking, Coin didn’t seem to care. He was a loud, chatty bird, and said, “Smug Mugger! Bird-on-the-Wind! No interact, order, no interact, caravan!” He also said, “Rudok friend!” Coin wrote he was a member of the Rabble, and Rudok was the one who connected Coin and Talmid for this forgery work. Coin seemed worried about Rudok’s safety and seemed to believe they both were double-crossed. “Feather-on-the-Wind. Know- Rudok- location- Pillar Mine? Pillar Mine? Rudok go- Pillar Mine?” Ilmendwyth asked about this Pillar Mine. Ruslan brought out their map of Tarteria, and Coin pointed along the Orc Highway to the south of New Keeleon. He said if Rudok had gotten away, he may go to a Rabble safehouse called Pillar Mine.Resource Gathering
As they talked with Coin, Arwin and Romulus gathered some materials from the otyughs before burning the bodies with the aid of magical fire. They then examined the growing red moss in the farthest pump room. Romulus cast a spell to speak with the plants. He asked about their preferred environment. Romulus and Arwin suggested places in the Rill Priory that may be suitable for trying to transplant the moss for future use. They gathered a colony of the moss for Aramish, then headed back out the way they came. Joining them, Coin happily chirped and chattered the whole way through the storm sewers.
Report Date
19 Mar 2025
Primary Location
Related Characters
20 Adroth 5A 352 to 21 Adroth 5A 352