Session 59: Finders Keepers
General Summary
Some of us are up early to pack up for our trip to Elspeth when we hear shrieking coming from Nathan's room. Unfortunately, we're all made aware of the fact that he's Aliego's new pawn after Amelia's wish. Given that Nathan is already a tangled mess of anxiety, TT lies to him about a temporary solution to his problem. With some lotion and some silver coins, she makes a "special" cream and instructs him to cover Aliego's mark with it. Darcie almost foils her plans, but I insist that it's a holistic remedy from my homeland while TT glares daggers at him. Nathan believes in our spiel, but he doesn't want to do much of anything until the mark is dealt with. Worrying that his nerves would get the best of him, we allow him to head back to the ship with Ozoss, the dracolich.
TT sends Marcus ahead with a note telling Julius what Ozoss is and the effects of Amelia's spell on him. He's asked to keep control of Ozoss on the off-chance that we're not back onboard within fifteen days. After Nathan's departure, we rent a luxury carriage for the week long trip to Elspeth. The first day of the trip passes without issue. We stop to camp for the night and while the others set everything up, I head out to hunt our dinner. Pinned to a tree with an arrow is a leather bag that smells like it's been sitting at the bottom of a river for weeks. There's also blood splattered on it and after checking to make sure it wasn't trapped, I open it up and find a set of keys and a map leading to a keep nearby. After returning to camp, I show everyone what I found.
We make the decision to head over to the keep during the night and pay the carriage driver and guards to stick around until we get back. While there's traps along the way, it's nothing too complicated or even dangerous. We reach the keep, which is more than obviously abandoned considering its crumbling walls and insect infestations. One such swarm is made up of hell-wasps, which are infernal beings that like to feast on corpses. TT asks Abagor if he can communicate with them considering their shared infernal origins, but he doesn't want to because in his words, "They tend to be unreasonable.". This doesn't discourage TT from attempting to speak with them herself. They're more than willing to hear her out when she offers them her secret recipe if they stay on friendly terms with us. She gives them a sample of said recipe, which is barbecue sauce slathered on Radagon's rotting finger.
It's a hit with the hell-wasps, who assure us they won't be a problem. They also warn us of other creatures and traps inside, which they can't protect us from. With a strange, new friendship acquired, we explore all that the keep has to offer. Which in terms of previous dungeons, isn't much. It's clear that someone's cleaned this place out before we could. We manage to collect thousands of gold's worth in gems and fancy clothes, but aside from that, there isn't much. I notice fresh tracks in one of the rooms with us and the hunt is on. Amelia goes incorporeal to try and beat the other looter to the front door, but by the time we all manage to scramble upstairs, they're already gone.
Cayde's able to catch up with them quickly though and drags a halfling out of the woods and to our feet. While the majority of our group terrorize this poor guy, TT goes to complete her end of the bargain with the hell-wasps. She's horrified, but hides it well as the wasps crawl into a corpse and puppeteer it in order to write down the recipe for her barbecue sauce. The halfling is robbed of everything he owns and everything he found in the keep. We spare his life though and Amelia kindly gifts him a cursed bag of holding before sending him off. With a few hours until sunrise, we head back to our camp and sleep.
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Report Date
03 Jul 2022
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