Session 2-3: It's People
Activity Log - A world bourne of blood
General Summary
Ten days have passed since the Ravinger estate burned to the ground in our encounter with Ellis on Dieter’s behalf to stop his reanimation experiments. The city has treated this tragedy as a mysterious accident and have considered father and son lost in the fire. Wherever the three of them are now, I hope they stayed hidden. The cemetery’s ownership was now in limbo, but work continued in dealing with the still many dead from the Counting House attack. I myself have continued to spend time helping with the restoration of Ravensperch's arts district. It has afforded me little time to write and perform, and I was beginning to become frustrated by the interruptions to my craft by demands of violence from my Uncle, even if in service to the city (for the right fee). It is a typical morning as the others and I stop in to his office to find several more job requests that he hands to us, urging us to take one to complete. One was a lengthy letter from Lt. Freeleaf asking us to search for two missing constables in exchange for confiscated goods (to fall discreetly on to our group) as we could operate secretly with no official connection to the Constabulary. I was pleased with his trust in us. My efforts to keep him apprised of criminal activity that we find on our jobs was paying off, directed away from our own less savory actions of course, minor though they are by comparison. I did not want to make an enemy of the city’s officials. The other letter was from someone wishing for us to hunt and capture a bulette, colloquially known as a land shark, for some kind of menagerie they wished to open. We considered these, while Horick, none too subtly, waved a letter directly addressed to him, saying that there was trouble with Lockland bandits harassing a circus troupe up north. He was being tasked with driving them off so they could set up their tents. He was wise to keep from us the fact that the job likely came from the MacMurdaugh Hotel on behalf of the Night Manager; whatever he was sent to do did not sit well with us. We preferred, however, to keep an eye on him even so. In the end, Tea Kettle beseeches us to take on a job that had been lingering for over a month now. The request came from his mentor and teacher, a Tengu named Blue Bottle. He wished for Tea Kettle to infiltrate and steal the notes and research of a disgraced fellow Tengu named Sifter, who had a facility further north of the city along Lake Tairos. There, he was conducting experiments with a new method of creating Manacite, one which could prove to be dangerous and catastrophic for the land, but also one in which Blue Bottle wanted access to to refine and use for himself. It sounded dubious and deadly, given the Tengu’s nature to be somewhat dismissive of Tairosian concerns. For them to label this Sifter a maniac must mean something. TK, for his part, was among the most reasonable, by our standards, members of his clan I’ve ever met, and so hoped his loyalty to his teacher did not mean he would be willing to endanger Ghal Pelor for this potentially dangerous research. Horick was happy to help as the location of this lab was just south of where he said the circus was attempting to set up. Cojitron and I agreed to help, and keep an eye on our reckless companions. After supplying ourselves, we decided to rent a boat to take us up the coast of the lake rather than take the land route. The trip would be much faster that way, and even then it would take the better part of a day to reach the woods where the facility was said to be. At the docks, we find that the only boat that was in port available for rent was a rather shoddy fishing vessel barely big enough to fit us all. The owner, an aged fisherman named Harbin Barrel, drove a hard bargain and demanded eight Aurins a day to ferry us around the lake, which we told him was a trip to “see the sights”. Horick even rented a fisherman’s disguise to complete the story that he was going to catch the big one. It was obvious that our story was half baked given how remote and desolate that area was, so he set the price to include keeping quiet about being hired by us. We accepted and boarded his boat, which we found to be sea worthy but only just; any slight damage could compromise it. My concerns grew with the revelation. We spend an uneventful day traveling up the coast, sticking close to it in case of any trouble. The following day, we make landfall at a good spot to trek into the woods towards where the lab should be based on Blue Bottle’s instructions. Harbin promises to wait by the shore, warning us of wolves and even some owlbears in this part of the woods. We make our way into the dense forest, now wary of the wildlife. We navigate without too much difficulty and I mark tracks as we go deeper. There are indeed scattered owlbear tracks, but what is most concerning is what the surrounding woods began to turn into after a couple hours of hiking. A kaleidoscope of colors splashed about the ground and trees, punctuating their terrible, deathly condition. It was as if the life had been drained from them, and the mutation of color and crystalline corruption was caused by the unnatural reaping of life here in order to, from TK’s words, create a “better” manacite. As if on cue, we soon encounter a crazed owlbear crashing through the trees after being alerted to our presence. Fortunately we had spotted it and were able to injure it grievously from a distance before it reached us. As it made its way towards us, we could see that half its body had been corrupted with protrusions of green crystal, and it was clearly in great pain. Horick put it out of its misery. Sickened, we continued on. It is night by the time we reach the facility, a grotesque structure spewing something terrible into the air. The land around it was dying and transformed into a wasteland and, worse still, it was steadily spreading. There are lights but we are having difficulty seeing given the dangerous looking clouds emanating from the building. Cojitron volunteers to take a closer look, unaffected as they were by the gasses. Sneaking over, Cojitron manages to approach near to the front of the facility, spying several guards that are wearing bulky breathing apparatuses attached to a backpack that pumps clean air for them. The corruption pools around the building and the guards are on edge. They make their way back and TK suggests they survey the test area after hearing these details. Horick and I remain some distance from them, fearful of what the environment could do to us considering what we have seen of the wildlife thus far. With all the curiosity of a mad scientist, TK moves closer to the building. However, as they attempt to move towards it, a patrol of three guards halts them and demands to know who they are. Their attempts to convince them they have gotten lost in the area fail on account of TK being a Tengu himself; it seemed that there were several within the facility working for Sifter. The three advance on Cojitron and TK with their weapons. The two of them retaliate with deadly spells, throwing a moonbeam that blinds and harms them where they stand, as well as a sphere of flame from Cojitron, who rams it into the guards, striking a dying tree behind them. The tree, filled with the deadly, corrupted gas from the facilities activities, erupts in a loud explosion. Horick and I spot this and, girding ourselves, we brave the corruption and move to our friends. TK, for his part, has been steadily feeling more and more ill as he spends time unprotected in that area. The deadly radiation released distracts the guards long enough for Cojitron and TK to subdue them. Unconscious, they strip them of their masks and backpacks, dooming the poor guards to a grisly demise in the poisoned environment. As we reach them, we find TK working on fitting the mask onto his beaked head. Horick and I take the other two and put them on, breathing a little easier. As TK was finishing up and we were contemplating moving the bodies somewhere hidden least another patrol came around, a loud alarm sounded and we saw guards from other directions racing towards the entrance. Realizing that a burst of deadly radiation from the processing was about to be unleashed, we ran inside. Unknown to us, Cojitron fell behind and was locked outside the facility. It is fortunate that our friend was largely immune to its effects. Cojitron witnesses a lightning storm build and rain down horrible energy on the field outside the facility, changing and warping the woods even further. They are able to avoid being harmed by the storm, taking cover nearby. The three guards that accosted us earlier are reduced to cinder nearly instantly, protrusions of crystal growing from their remains. Within, realizing Cojitron was stuck outside, I ask one of the guards how long they supposed this storm would last. They could provide no answer, as they were given little information from Sifter and could only weather these disasters as they come. I try to pry more details as to their numbers and recent goings on without giving away that we were not mercenaries like them, but only come away that they have been overworked and were getting injured by the growing radioactive events caused by Sifter’s manacite refinement. Already several have perished and many more injured and in the infirmary. This however, did not dissuade them from taking the payout from Sifter for this job; they also seem confident in Sifter’s assurances that the masks would protect them. All told there were eleven other guards in there, as well as around five other Tengu researchers, all of whom TK was acquainted with. Fortunately for him he had disguised his form and so did not appear as a Tengu currently. The group of them were accompanied by a number of clankers that assisted with manipulating the machinery as they performed their research. The guard I was chatting with asked if I would take a shift for him in the brig as he needed to make his way to the infirmary, exhausted as he was from overwork. I put on a show of reluctantly accepting. He wanders away and TK returns, having listened in on the group of Tengu speaking in their language amongst themselves about Sifter wanting to move to the next phase of their plans. We find a map on the wall and commit it to memory. Tracing out the route to the generator room, we make our way there under the guise of heading to our next guard rotation in the brig. We hoped that Cojitron could find their way to Sifter once they got in; we would all need to be there to find the plans eventually, though at this point, I would prefer their destruction after seeing the damage this process had wrought to the environment. Not five minutes later, the all clear is given and the doors to the entrance, of which there is only the one way in and out of the facility, re-open. Cojitron enters, and is immediately questioned by the guards about what had happened to them. They very accurately describe having been trapped outside, and they suggest that they go through the detoxification protocol for the clankers before resuming their “duties.” Cojitron accepts and they are taken to be cleaned down by several guards, coming away quite refreshed. They wheel away, joining the other clankers and speaking with them on their current tasks. They seem wholly trusting of Sifter, dedicated to their duties despite the disdain from their Tengu overseers for their “clumsiness”. Cojitron eventually, after pretending to blend in with these clankers, manages to sneak off to try and meet up with us, having to guess on the route we took. Meanwhile, we pass by the infirmary, finding several of the guards being cared for after having been exposed to the radiation outside. They looked sickly and in dire shape. I spied the guard who gave me his shift in the brig, so we moved on quickly. We find ourselves a short while later at the brig, which only has two cells and is guarded by just one mercenary. Surprised to see three of us come in to take over for him, he is at first skeptical but I manage to bluff my way past his questions. TK whispers to me that the one occupied cell housed his mentor, Blue Bottle. Indeed, the aged Tengu looked, by my estimation, agitated, squawking up a storm. I relayed back that Sifter was worried the prisoner would try something as the next phase of their research was about to begin, and that seemed enough for him. After he left, TK dropped his disguise dweomer and spoke to Blue Bottle. Blue Bottle is an impatient and, to put it mildly, bluntly rude person, but as I understood their culture, this was not unusual in how they dealt with others. Blue Bottle seemed glad that his student had received his job request, but was immediately complaining at how long we had taken, blaming Horick and me for distracting him when TK explained that there were other tasks we as a group had to complete before acting on his letter. In the meantime, Sifter had locked him up when he challenged his manacite processing techniques. TK expressed concern for what it was doing to the surroundings outside, but Blue Bottle seemed eager to steal said research and improve upon it. Whether he meant to solve its polluting side effects or make it more “efficient” is unknown to me, but it set my hair on end. I was grateful that he had decided to speak in Balmoran instead of Tengu in our presence. He presumed we were TK’s hirelings and though he corrected him and called us his companions, Blue Bottle called such relationships troublesome. I tried to reassure him we could help with the mission. He grudgingly accepted and we armed him after releasing him. He insisted we reach Sifter, steal his research (which would likely require killing him if he got in our way, which TK groaned at; he seemed loath to act against fellow Tengu) and destroy this plant so he cannot continue his reaping. Though Horick was eager to destroy yet another facility housing a madman working on dangerous experiments, I was less than pleased at having to risk our lives once again in less than two weeks by blowing up a nightmare factory. Cojitron in the meantime traveled down one of the main corridors of the building, eventually finding themselves next to a large vault that is left unlocked, likely due to Sifter having no fear of anyone infiltrating this facility. Within they find many, many carts and chests filled with gleaming, green manacite, likely the fruits of Sifter’s reaping process. Cojitron fills their bag with as much as they can carry just in case, as well as inspecting the manifest they find in the vault. It seemed that Sifter had already partnered up with some people in Ghal Pelor to sell their manacite to select shops and less reputable individuals within the city. Of note, Mr. Noble appeared to be one of these customers. Cojitron exits the vault without anyone being the wiser. Not much further down this corridor, Cojitron finds the main generator room which also houses the enormous laboratory where Sifter is found with the other Tengu assistants and a gaggle of Clankers helping run the machinery. Several large tubes above the individual generators powering the facility housed a few victims of Sifter’s experiments. Cojitron went about pretending to do some tasks and witnessed Sifter and the others use his “process” to reduce the poor soul in one of the tubes in a painful looking ordeal to a pile of manacite. The horror of such a thing defied comprehension. Not only was this Reaping process producing a secondary corruption far greater than the Tengu’s normal operation, but it costs literal lives to pump out the magic stone. Cojitron is about to leave the lab in order to find us, when we, coming from the brig led by Blue Bottle, burst into the room with Horick leading the charge. Sifter recognizes Blue Bottle immediately and does not hesitate to approach us and attack with his magic. Blue Bottle immediately demands that Tea Kettle prioritize the research notes on the table near the main generator, and instructs me to find a way to detonate the generators around the room to cause a chain reaction to destroy the facility. I ask about how to free the people within the tubes and, nonchalantly indifferent to their plight, claims that stabbing said generators would cut the power and release them. That, however, would take far too much time and Blue Bottle was in no mood to show me how to work the equipment, eager as he was to steal Sifter’s research. In the meantime, Cojitron was forced to contend with a few of the clankers in here who, clearly not built for battle, sadly turned on our friend out of misguided loyalty to the cruel Sifter. The other Tengu, also not warriors themselves, began to flee the area. The struggle alerted the mercenary guards to trouble in the generator room, and it soon became very complicated. Blue Bottle, Horick and Cojitron fight the insane Sifter while I go about to each of the generators around the room, setting the crude bombs I took off Rudivik at the boathouse so long ago and setting them to explode in twenty seconds. Tea Kettle, obeying his mentor’s wishes, begins shuffling as many papers and research notes into his bag as possible, stopping every so often to direct his steel defender in the attack against Sifter, as well as watch the exit from the lab, knowing that we would soon be facing reinforcements. The battle with Sifter ends as quickly as it began. He and Blue Bottle do not even bother talking as the former fires blasts of powerful magic from his staff at our group, injuring Horick and Cojitron badly. Horick’s counterattack and warlock abilities grievously wound Sifter, however, and Cojitron lines up a lightning bolt and electrocutes the Tengu scientist to a smoldering heap. This also has the added effect of setting off yet another fire in a facility we are fighting within, and, in addition to my soon to be detonated bombs, meant that it would reach the fuel lines connected to the generator sooner and blow the building up faster than we intended. Seeing this, TK is forced to leave behind some of the research to Blue Bottle’s consternation, lest he be caught in the blast. Having had a dry run of sorts with a fire of our own making just a tenday ago, we knew a volatile situation when we saw it. For my part, I had managed to use my lock picks to barely manipulate the controls enough to pop the locks on the three tubes still containing injured and sick, but alive, victims before the process annihilated their bodies and turned them into manacite. One was a human, another a river halfling, who we had earlier overheard the guards discuss having been attacked by in recent weeks due to their fervor in protecting the area from Sifter’s corruption, and the last a Tengu who Sifter had locked away due to a disagreement. The river halfling is grateful for the help but had nothing but anger towards the Tengu prisoner, wanting to leave them to their fate. Tempting though that was, I released him just in time for the bombs to go off. The explosion exacerbated the fire from the fire caused by the battle with Sifter, and weakened as the three of them were, I was forced to treat them with healing supplies to get them well enough to even flee the room. I yelled to everyone to run as the bombs had indeed shut down the generator but also, as TK had warned earlier, the fire was growing ever fiercer and closer to igniting the fuel lines and destroying the whole place. The mercenaries chose this time to make it to the generator room and, seeing the carnage and fire, attempted to shoot us down with crossbows and prevent our escape. The steel defender is knocked down by a guard after a brief struggle, but Horick leaps into the fray, literally, and proceeds to knock the guards about while Cojitron and TK join him in running through the break in their ranks. The battle is short lived, for as hardy as they were, they were no match for our dwarf friend and the magic that rained down from Cojitron and TK. Blue Bottle, for his part, fought clumsily but very ferociously. Seeing that the fire was about to consume the lab and then the facility itself, the guards eventually panicked and fled, though not without trying to fire bolts to bring us down. I hurry the prisoners through the exit while Cojitron saves as many clankers as they can, though some fell in the chaos. I sprint past my friends and past the vault and into the foyer, finding the exit from the facility wide open as the alarm blares and the remaining guards and Tengu stream outside. Any that managed to stand in our way had been defeated by us. I run outside, turning to see my friends and Blue Bottle, as well as the prisoners, reach the exit just as the fuel lines finally combust, bringing down the building in a spectacular explosion. The falling debris manages to catch Cojitron and knock them out, though fortunately the others just manage to make it outside before being buried alive. We quickly set to work freeing our friend, who fortunately is none the worse for wear after TK’s mending restores them enough to function properly. Outside, the guards are in shock, and I put on a display that Sifter’s mad experiments had caught up to him and he had caused this explosion in his folly. They seemed to accept that version of events, as the Tengu had fled back to their community as soon as they escaped the building, but were confused on what to do now. I suggested they flee back to Ghal Pelor and civilization, as the area had become dangerous. Most agree to that, but others decided to go through the wreckage for any valuables. Cojitron revealed that they had commandeered some of the manacite set for delivery, though the thought of using something created by butchering intelligent life turned my stomach. Blue Bottle grudgingly congratulated Tea Kettle on a job well done after the latter turned over what he could save from the lab to him. TK did voice his concern on Sifter’s evil process, but Blue Bottle claimed they could solve the “kinks” in the process and make it far less damaging. I…was skeptical at this, and was glad to see TK was as well. We would need to keep an eye on his mentor to make sure his improvements on Sifter’s research did not equate to devastating the land or require the sacrifice of living creatures to produce their stone. I would hate to have to move against someone so important to my companion. We part ways and return back to Harbin’s fishing boat, claiming that we had got in a good amount of sightseeing and fishing, and requested we be taken to our next destination, to fulfil the next job Horick had taken on from the hotel. Much as I despised having to be the harbinger of something so grandiose as the fiery destruction of yet another factory of horrors, it had to be done for the good of all. This Midnight Circus, however, concerned me deeply, as I very much recall stories about something with the same name from Imme’s book of tales. And those stories were not pleasant ones. All we could do now was watch Horick’s back, because he was dead set on serving the Night Manager. The end for now, ~Bayour S.
Rewards Granted
- 300 Aurins for completing Blue Bottle's request
- A number of the manacite created from Sifter's gruesome reaping process
Missions/Quests Completed
- Sifter is killed and his research taken and given to Blue Bottle
- Facility is destroyed in a blaze
- Several people rescued from being experimented on, including Blue Bottle
Character(s) interacted with
- Harbin Barrel, an aged fisherman whose boat we rent for the trip
- Sifter, a Tengu caster whose manacite creation method has him banished
- Blue Bottle, the Tengu mentor or Tea Kettle, whose job to sabotage, then later rob and destroy, Sifter we undertake
Related Reports
Notes
Did Dayne Reed's previous Blackhearts take on jobs of such magnitude? We have stumbled from one situation to the next based on little more than the requests offered to us that have become struggles against great evil or consequences that could shake the city and beyond. Mere coincidence that fiery destruction was the result of our last two jobs seemed a poor explanation, but what else could it be?
