Shackled 03 - The Hunt Begins Report

General Summary

Ah, there you are. I was wondering when you were coming back. I guess you want to hear the continuing tales of our motley crew. Grab yourself a drink from over there, and then have a seat.
Settled? Good. We had left off with our group resting after getting to know the city a little along with stopping a beating from happening. The beating turned out to be a warning from the Last Laugh thieves guild trying to warn off the Church of Cuthbert away from investigating the missing kids.
After dealing with that incident, our group retired for the night but not before some of the had already commit the group to helping find the kidnappers. And that is where we pick up our story.
Let's start with Lysikor, who snuck out of the inn in the night and proceeded to get arrested for assault and theft. I'll leave it here, but just say, "oh look, our hero's in action".

Trying to Eat Breakfast and One Horned Purple People

Ragnarock finds this out when having breakfast, he is approached by the town guard to ask who he is and then inform him of the arrest of Lysikor. Ragnarock thanks the guards, promptly ignores them and goes back to his breakfast. Skullgrin and Naldon also then join him where he parts with the Lysikor info. They also partake in some breakfast when again they are accosted by more men in armour, this time from the church of St. Cuthbert asking them to make themselves known at the temple after breakfast. Ragnarock sighs, just wanting a nice quick meal to himself, which he does not get.
The crew in attendance (Skullgrin, Naldon and Raganarock) head over to see about getting Lysikor out of jail. After spending a few minutes discussing with the Sargent at the jail about how if the judge decides to hang Lysikor, can they at least get this belongings? This was met with cold stares. He is to be held for three days, and then will go to court.

He's accused of assult and burglary, we are not going to kill him! Death is not on the table. We are civilized here, sheeh man.

— Sargent

Knowing that Lysikor is not in real danger and to maybe help straighten him up, they leave him in jail and head over to the the church of St. Cuthbert see respond to the summons there.
When they get there, they are lead to a small office with a seating area, where they are asked to get comfortable. It is interesting that a purple one horned Tiefling is also escorted to Jenya with them. It is here they meet Jenya who greets them warmly.

Jenya Urikas

It is at this meeting they learn that their services have been offered (in their absence) by Eolas and Lars to help search for the four abducted kids from the Lantern Street Orphanage. Naldon who is probably the kindest one of the group asks.

What's in it for us?

— Naldon

Jenya stares coldly at Naldon and he now sees the retribution and justice in her eyes that is large part of St. Cuthbert clerics, even if hidden under beauty.

Besides helping to try and find your kind old mentor who so helped you in your past; who's reputation allowed you entry into the Bluecrater Academy? Besides that?
Well, the Church of St. Cuthbert does not expect charity, and will pay your group 2500 gold to return the kidnapped children. Is that enough for you?

— Jenya

With that stare of justice and feeling a lot sheepish, Naldon agrees. The money also gets the others to agree as well. Jenya then points to the tiefling and says, This is Greye, he is a friend of Lars and has offered to help as well. I agreed and so he is to work with you as well.
Jenya then gives and accounting of the kidnapping to the crew along with a list of the missing people:

She also is able to give a clue that she got from doing a divination using one of the holy artifacts from the temple. She asked the following question:

Where are the children who were abducted from the Lantern Street Orphanage?

— Jenya

and received this response:

To help you out, if you want, you are free to use our spare prayer/sleeping rooms if needed. Our meals are plain but filling. We just expect you to be respectful while you are here. The church will try to help you out as best we can if we are able. At this time she points to a table where there is a set of small vials, enough for each party member. "Please take these to help you in your endeavor, the Church thanks you for your help".

The Investigation

Our crew heads right over to the Orphanage to look around and ask questions. So Skullgrin decides that the best way to proceed is to insult the elderly halfling lady (Gretchyn) who has spent her entire life caring for unwanted children like they are her own. Repeatedly. Well, it is safe to say that tactic did not work. It took the quick talking Raganarock to calm Gretchyn down (really, she is one of the nicest ladys in the city!) enough for her to let them in. Naldon had to show them the written list of missing people from Jenya before they were believed. Which if you were looking at the situation from the outside in, why wouldn't she be a leary of a random group of strangers asking to come in her orphanage to look around.
Over the course of a couple hours, they do a through search of the grounds, they talk to all the workers there, and even talk to a couple of the kids. This is what they found:

Orphanage Workers

• Gretchyn, (owner, female halfling)
• Jaromir Copperbeard (gardner, Male dwarf)
• Neva Fanister, (nurse, female human)
• Temar Flagonstern (cook, male human)
• Willow Atherfell (schoolteacher, female half-elf)
• Patch (Janitor, male half-orc)

Information Found

• City guard lead by Terseon Skellerang (Captain of the guards) came same day kids reported missing to investigate
• Kids are locked in their rooms at night (a wing on each side of the second floor, one for boys and for girls)
• No sign of secret doors or forced entry
• All door are locked at night. Only XX has a key. Seems like no real way in or out unless magic was used
• Maker of orphanage locks is local locksmith Kegan Ghelve of Ghelve's Locks
• One small boy "little Bobbie" talked to Ragnarok about bad gnome who took friends. "It came from my dream and took them."
• A couple days later, two elfs working for the lord mayor's office came by two days later asking the same questions. XX wrote down their names, which are Fellian Shard, Fario Ellegoth

Gelve's Locks

With their investigation of the orphanage done, they decided to first look into the two elves who were asking questions. Something did not sit right with the group. So they made their way over to City hall, one of the oldest buildings in Cauldron. It is a simple one story building made of the same materials as the walls themselves, black malachite.
On the way over, there is a loud boom, from somewhere in the city, with a small puff of white smoke coming from the SW. Citizens on the street do not seem to take notice, except for some to shake their heads in exasperation and carry on.
Inside city hall they are greeted by an older gentlemen who look at them unexpectedly, "Yes? Can I help you?."
Eolas asks to see if anyone named Fellian Shard or Fario Ellegoth are working for the mayor's office looking into the kidnapping of the missing kids. He looks at them with a flat face and say's "Nobody working for the mayor's office with those names, and the city guards are the ones looking into the disappearance. Now is there anything else?"
The crew look at each other and thoughts are now going through their heads. They respond to the clerk with a no, and walk back out.

Well, that is interesting.

— Motley Crew

They then continue their journey to Ghelve's Locks. They find a nice two story structure with a turret facade that covers the front of this building. It has a nice big side window from where you can see a variety of locks on display. Going into the store, you are greeted by a welcoming store, with a fireplace framed by two inviting deep seated leather chairs as the first thing you see on your left. Opposite of you is a wall with two cases on it, one is filled with various smoking pipes. The other, much bigger is a large open display of about two dozen locks of all various shapes and sizes. Some look very plain, while others have intricate designs.
Greeting the crew from behind a counter on the right is a distinguished Gnome that introduces himself as Kegan Ghelves. The odd thing is that for a gnome he is as tall as Ragnarok. He is well dressed and his fine cloths match the decor of the room. After greeting the group, he comes out from behind his counter and then it becomes clear that the reason for his height. He is walking on stilts of some sort, that are hidden in his pants. This gives him an odd appearance of having a very long legs.
Our team dispenses some small talk about locks and their quality. The party then starts to pepper Keagan with questions about the locks at Lateran Street Orphanage.
Keagan is happy to talk about his locks and shows examples from his display case on the wall that was seen when the group came in. It is at this point that the group starts to press him on all the missing people, and kids specifically. Keagan starts to do weird things with this faces, but the crew does not really seem to undestand. Noone notices he seems to be in distress.
After not getting anywhere with his motions he continues with the charade of showing locks. He goes over to the lock display, and that is when both Ranarock and Skullgrin lay it on thick. At this time , Kegan beaks and spills what he knows:

Kegan Spills It

• Creatures came up from Jzadirune and took Camillia, Kegan's sister. They then blackmailed him.
• The kidnappers include two types of creatures, "tall ones" and "short ones". The tall ones look like noble grey elves but with none of the noble thought. The "short ones" looks like short wizened elves with wrinkled faces and hooves for feet and exaggerated bent kneels."
• They forced Kegan to give skeleton keys of most of the locks he did in Cualdron. He gave them 3 different sized skeleton keys that can open most of the locks in town that he installed. one of the "tall ones" carries the key on a silver ring.
• Jzadirune was a small enclave inhabited by gnome spell-casters. The enclave was abandoned 75 years ago after a magical plague called the Vanishing swept through it. The disease caused several of Jzadirune's residents to slowly fade away into nothingness. Keygan doesn't know whether the plague still poses a threat.

With this knowledge, a search of Ghelves lock's starts, while a cowering Kegan watches in despair. As the group starts to look through the back room "behind the curtain", they are attacked. There is a balcony overlooking the backroom, and from there 2 of the "short ones" drop to the back room workshop and attack the group, while another 2 stay up top and shoot down into the fray.
A quick but furious battle ensues. Both Ragnarock and Skullgrin force themselves up the stairs to attack foes upstairs, while the battle continued to rage below. Naldon was able to put an arrow in the back of a one of these creatures which allowed Ragnarock to finish him off. With the killing blow, the "short one" explodes in a ball of light, incinerating the creature's corpse, leaving nothing but a pile of ash and bits of metal.
This left Naldon open to attack though and with another volley of arrows from above, was pierced by multiple arrows; mortally wounded, he slumps to the floor unconscious and bleeding out on the floor. While Skullgrin was putting his axe through one of the creatures above (literally, he split him in two), Ragnarock took to throwing his axes as the stairs and landing above was too narrow to get by to attack directly.
Greye meanwhile rushed over to Naldon, knelt down and started to pray. Holding his hands together like he was cupping the very air, a soft warm glow started to ememate from his hands, when the glow fadded, about a dozen small berries cradled in his hands. Using these berries, he put about 1/2 the berries into the mouth of Naldon and then gently massaged them down his throat. After a few moments, Naldon's eyes opened.

Jzadirune

With the enemies dispatched (in glowing balls of light), the party resumes taking stock of the situation and searching the area. By doing this, they find the secet door, that must lead down to Jzadirune as well as a map

.
Knowing that they just about lost one of their own, and with only having half the party, they decide delay going into the old gnome enclave until tomorrow, after they get some supplies and come back with the whole group. A scared Kegan, agrees to the parties terms of helping them as much as he can; by also not getting too upset when they supply themsevles with some locks as well as a couple of pipes from his wall. In retrurn they agree not to say anything right now to the town guard or the church.
An with that, our motley crew walks away into the rainy night; leaving a scared kegan, with 4 small piles of ash on his carpet and a little lighter in his cache of money, locks and pipes. (Yeah I know, stealing from a guy who was blackmailed and now blackmailing him.. sure it's a grey area, but not THAT grey. But mortals have their own willpower and the freedom to choose.)
It's getting late, so I will wrap it up here, until next time.

Greyhawk    Shackled City Campaign    Session Reports (SC)    Chapter 01 (SC)      Shackled 03 - The Hunt Begins Report

The Motley Crew

• Eolas (Human Cleric of St. Cuthbert) - MIA
• Lysikor Stickyfingers (Half-elf Rogue) - MIA
• Lars Dino (Woodelf Ranger) - MIA
• Naldon Amakiir (Eladrin Wizard)
• Ragnarock (Human Barbarian)
• Skullgrin Bonesnapper (Half-orc Fighter)
• Graye Damyrus (Tiefling Druid)

Campaign

The Shackled City

Protagonists

Naldon Amakiir

Report Date

25 Apr 2023

Primary Location

Ghevle's Locks

Secondary Location

Lantern Street Orphanage