Session 30: Murder is Served

General Summary

Cursed Loot

21st of Wintercrest 22nd year of the Second Era
Before Lord Ozin Lorimer returned to work, the party asked him to look over the items retrieved from Baba Yaga's hut. Upon seeing the Monkey’s Paw he immediately opened a portal to the Astral Void and tossed the paw in. Among the other items he determined that the weather painting, water stone, pipes of haunting, and tome of conversations were not cursed. The Dwarf head was cursed but for a price Lorimer was willing to look into removing the curse. The party also asked him if he could investigate making the tome of conversations more focused to allow remote eavesdropping on specific people.
They also showed Lorimer the box With Baba Yaga's teeth and asked if there was any way he could keep it safe. He begrudgingly admitted he knew of some people that could make sure it never saw the light of day again. He made sure there was nothing else they wanted to have hidden away because he didn't want to have to contact these people more than once.

The Jarl's Keep

When it was time to go to the Feast of Champions, Lorimer transported them to a Wizard’s Circle in a small windowless building in the keep of Jarl Rupert Wasser on the edge of King's Lake. When they entered the foyer of the great hall, Meara immediately drew stares. She had chosen to wear a dress for the party, and the other guests were taken aback to see a Huntsman, even a female huntsman, express any outward femininity. The party turned their attention to two 5 foot high, 10 foot long silver lion statues on either side of the stairs leading to the hall proper. There, a male dwarf was staring in absentminded appreciation. When Malcolm knocked on the statue, the dwarf confirmed it was in fact solid silver.

He then listed off the total weight and value of the statues before introducing himself as Girbith Graybrewer, professional archeologist and amateur modern historian. He then told them the story of the statues’ creation: When Palhas Province became part of the empire, they were ordered to turn in the royal family’s fortune for conversion into Earranian currency, and arrange for the same to be done for all citizens of Palhas. In an act of defiance, the Wasser family had 2/3 of their fortune in silver cast into these statues, to ensure there was always Palhas silver in Palhas. Girbith also pointed out that the whole building was an act of defiance. Besides the fact that it it displayed the original red banner of Palhas, it was built with stones from the original royal keep in the city which they were told to abandon as the family would now be Jarl's as opposed to Kings and Queens.
The party was then spotted by the Jarl’s steward Reginald Moss.. He welcomed them and asked them to follow him to the main hall where he informed them about the weapons restrictions and offered them a chest to lock away the forbidden weapons. He promised he would be close at hand to unlock the chest when they were ready to leave. They were then offered to choose their seats at the head table. The rest of the guests entered the main hall from the foyer just before the Jarl entered with his private guards, which the party immediately made as knights, and followed by Nilron Morlamin.
When the Jarl arrived at the head table, he gave a speech about honoring the gauntlet and all of their predecessors, as well as their peers; making a point to express his belief that adventurers like themselves make the world a safer place. During the first course of the meal the entertainment was a group of fire dancers. Rupert struck up a conversation with Malcolm asking what they did for a living. Malcolm explained that their primary line of work was air shipping and he explained how they had designed their own revolutionary airship model and could deliver cargo without the need of a spire. Rupert was intrigued and pointed out that ships with that capability could deliver emergency supplies to towns that would usually have to wait days on shipments that arrived in major cities by airship. He then proposed the possibility of hiring Serenity for government shipping contracts.
During the second course of the meal, a gnomish acting troupe did parodies of the the battles of the regulators in the gauntlet. During the performance a woman who appeared to be the captain of the guard in Palhas city came to speak to the Jarl. Malcolm overheard the Jarl telling her to keep the incident quiet and let the rumor spread at its own speed. Malcolm successfully persuaded the Jarl to tell him what was going on. The Jarl informed him that a local criminal was found dead in the city. Malcolm asked if it was by any chance Miles Gray. The Jarl confirmed that it was and assumed that the crew of Serenity had probably had run ins with the nighshifters given their line of work. He expressed concern about the death of Miles because The Nightshifters guild was so intertwined with the provinces economy, if it were to disappear overnight, the economy could collapse, which is why he didn’t want to cause a panic by letting any of the nobles in the hall know what had happened. The Jarl also lamented the loss of a spy they had had in the organization, but was discovered and killed. He said he would feel much better knowing if someone had stepped into his role and the organization was still in operation. Malcolm admitted that he had at one time taken jobs from the guild and still had contacts that would allow him inside to determine what the state of the Nightshifters was.
The Jarl believed the deception that Malcolm’s criminal activity was in the long past and didn’t seem to hold it against him. He told Malcolm the service would be appreciated. Shortly after dessert began, Nilron asked the Jarl if he could be excused as he wasn’t feeling well. Malcolm noticed that he appeared to be engaged in a lie and pointed this out to the Jarl after Nilron was out of earshot. Rupert had difficulty accepting this information but knew that Malcolm was being honest. He called for one of the Cerulean Guard members so he could have Nilron followed. At that exact moment, Meara’s silver tell began to vibrate and the stained glass windows on either side of the hall shattered. Multiple undead bearing the marking of the Cult of Mantus came pouring through the open windows and the guests began to panic and flee. A large ball of swirling fire appeared in the center of the hall, and when it disappeared, the man the party had seen preaching for the Temple of the Black Star the day before, stood in its place. In a crass show of force, he sent a fleeing guest through the chandelier with enough force to cut him into multiple pieces. One of the Jarl’s personal guards stepped in front of Rupert as he demanded an explanation.
The leader of the cultists casually explained that the Jarl was a hindrance to their future plans and launched a fireball at him. The guard created a magical barrier around Rupert and Lorimer which decreased the size of the blast and absorbed most of its damage into the guard himself. Lorimer and the Jarl were unharmed. Unfortunately the steward was hit and used his last moments to crawl to the weapons chest and unlock it. His last words were to the regulators, “kill the bastards.”
The party grabbed the weapons and began attacking the cultists. Malcolm told Lorimer to get the Jarl to safety. The pair vanished and were spotted by the Jarl’s home before a barrier of solid rock sealed the widows. Between the knights and Meara using radiant damage, and Malcolm’s use of enchanted lightning rounds, the cultists were quickly eliminated. Meara sliced the last cultist down the middle and the stone barriers collapsed, snuffing out the cook fire and the chandelier with the cold rush of winter air from outside.
To be continued... Session 31: Treason 

Report Date

09 Jul 2020