Building Trust - Part 1 - Wagner Abbey Game 1
General Summary
As Nisaba's fourtune would have it, the remaining days' trip to Frial was totally uneventful. The caravan arrived in town to no fanfare whatsoever and the Red Word immediately began unloading the secret Cargo for their client giving us only a brief moment to bid Morgan (and Ser Brightshine ran off to join the Order of the Golden Lion) adieu until we run across him in town again. They hauled it to a busy tavern near the government district where an older wild-eyed man silently took receipt of the Cache from the Captain as he declared us instrumental in protecting the cargo.
With no reply and the Red Word's escort complete, they beat a hasty retreat to their caravan and we stood awkwardly with the man for a few moments before we struck up introductions of our own. He immediately accused us of no specific allegiance and held his hand on a very curvy dagger at his waist that was concealed. After convincing him that we were looking for work and interested in ancient magics and histories of Tairos too, he calmed down and set about to coaxing us into accepting a dangerous mission from him in order to prove our worth/our first assignment in his charge. He claims to lawfully hold the deed to what used to be the facilities for the College of Magic here in Frial, though it has seen it's possession changed several times through the epochs and since the Queen's war, it has fallen to disrepair like much of the Bell Haven district. Apparently, it had been a place consecrated to Sandor ~spit is seen on the page near his name~, numerous vagrants, and most recently it was a hideout of Abdul Odred, a necromancer of some skill, though none of this history came with much detail or corroboration.
It was at this point he finally trusted us enough to declare that he is Digby Sparrow, and said he would be residing here at the 12 Carrots Tavern until our intern project was complete. We went into the inn to get some food and additional information about the area to not much avail, and on our way out are accosted by a younger woman, Charity, who pleaded with us to not throw our lives away in the schemes of Digby, her great-grandfather. We explained that our course was inviolable and as his exterior may set off alarms, ultimately examining the College and hopefully her kin's materials afterwards would be of great use to us. She tried to steer us away again, but with the face that many of people had accepted this mission from him and not returned safely, just in the last week, we would likely not survive. Ospher admonished her to believe in the need to attempt this in order to progress to our goals, so she resigned herself to showing us the horror of the place itself before allowing us to go to our doom.
A short carriage ride later and dusk was creeping up on us as we arrived at the Bell Haven district and another half hours walk took us to the building itself. As we walked onto the grounds, Sparrow popped out around the corner to make sure we still wanted to do this and explained that he had a few more rules for us to follow. We agreed since it seemed unlikely that we would be able to get around them and explore the place and convinced Charity that she would be of help in looking over the place. There were claims that the prior mercenaries had broken windows and busted down doors to gain entry but we could never find proof of this. The front door's lock was reinforced magically by my observation so we decided to check the cellar entrance afterwards and while this lock wasn't similarly enhanced, Ospher was able to make use of his ability to transmute materials and turned a link to wood and we whittled that away and entered. The cellar had been overrun with water from the aqueduct, which is a feature of old Balmoran design I'm told so we ventured in to see which of these rumors was true.
Minutes later, a pair of giant centipedes sprang from the water to attack one of Charity's dancing lights and I set my shield and defended against their attack while they peppered the creatures with spells. Between that and my dagger, we made short work of them and Ospher took one to sample for later culinary creations. Venturing further we came to another locked door but while Ospher muttered his incantations to vex the next chain, a swarm of flesh eating beetles came down through the ventilation and started biting at Ospher and myself. Again, another quick few cantrips and they were similarly dispatched. We opened the door to find a room of confinement that had a number of prison cells in it as well, certainly confirming that this place has served many different purposes over the years. In this room was also a box containing a number of old possessions of the former prisoners here. A few of the cells here also were gore-slicked from some ancient horror that the next room, the storage room, revealed to have been caused by zombies forcing themselves free.
The room had a number of boxes and 5 zombies lurching about mindlessly. Charity was frightened, and rightfully so since I haven't revealed the nature of my magics yet. I explained that I think by spiking one of the doors closed, we could attack them at a distance and hopefully eliminate them all before they could close the distance. Ospher came up with a smart use of one of his cantrips in order to trick a few of them into remaining further in the room due to them hunting by smell. Several minutes of ranged and melee combat proved us the victors in the fight with the only casualty being my face as one of the zombies overpowered me holding my shield ahead of me and slammed it into my face. We took a short break here to recover and for Charity to refresh her preparations from her spellbook. We found some extra equipment here that looked as if it would control the aqueduct vents and drains that we held onto.
We resolved to examine the wine cellar next and while initially looking at the wreckage, Ospher saw some preserved hundred year old bottles and in his distraction was snatched up by an Ochre jelly. We used some magics and assaulted the creature while he explained that attacking it with bladed weapons would be a very bad idea. I rushed forward to attempt to free him to no avail when Charity hit the thing with an ice shard that exploded upon impact rendering Ospher unconscious. I freed him then and pulled him away while she shot another of that same spell at him, breaking more bottles, but defeating the creature. I tended Ospher's wounds and they took a break while I searched the room, finding a Hawk headed key in the process. The controls we sought for the cellar as well were here and damaged and Charity was able to fix them aptly and we set it to drain for us to dredge next time we returned.
The other adjacent hall from the storage room had a corner that went to the grand hall with moonlight shining through, so with the blessing of Nisaba we sent Ospher to examine the area and he returned very quickly saying he thought he saw a ghost. At this, we decided that we would return in the daylight to see if the key would open anything else from the outside.
Charity means well, but her great-grandfather's ravings have left her with a distinct lack of confidence. She is almost as capable as Ospher with the magical arts, and is more familiar with the town than us. She will be a good person to have around, especially if we can redeem her in his eyes.
Digby Sparrow is a codger through and through. Hopefully he has books worth examining, otherwise based on what Charity has explained he may be a reliable source for manacite.
If the Abbey is haunted, we may need to recruit additional help from Ser Brightshine. I don't think the three of us would pose much of a persistent threat to a ghost.
Character(s) interacted with
Charity Sparrow
Digby Sparrow
The Corpses of Past Hirees of Digby
Ser Brightshine
Captain Farley
Notes
https://www.worldanvil.com/hero/journal/01cea83a-c337-4171-8d51-490d7dca8e09/view
"So he's definitely going to die by himself out there?"
"No no, he's a sneaky halfing, he'll be fine! ...wait! Not like that, but he's agile and a halfling!"
"Stealing my beds!! I tell you what, if you find them kill them!"
"He's a crazy insane rube! people go into the Abbey and don't come out!
Adjenna Affreux
Level 6
Lamiah
Neutral Cleric
(Charlatan)
(Charlatan)
39 / 39 HP
Ospher Spurshoe
Level 7
Stout Halfling
Neutral Good Wizard (Transmutation)
(Cloistered Scholar)
(Cloistered Scholar)
/ 44 HP
Building Trust - Part 3 - Wagner Abbey Game 3 by Adjenna Affreux
Building Trust - Part 2 - Wagner Abbey Game 2 by Adjenna Affreux
Report Date
13 May 2020
Primary Location
"It gives me more leeway to get away if anyone is after me! More throats to slit will slow them down!"
