Session 07: Trap at the Old Moathouse

General Summary

The party agreed to assassinate someone. Let that sink in for a second. They agreed to kill a human person in exchange for goods. Some took the charge more easily than others, but ultimately the group agreed to the deal. Luckily, this particular person they were hired to kill was not a particularly good person. Their target was Gothrey, son and right hand of the local Baron (who himself is getting more and more suspicious by the session). The party was tasked with meeting an envoy from the Hand of St. Cuthbert near Gothrey's base of operations, an old abandoned moathouse south of the city, infiltrate the building, and cut the head off the bandit snake.
Make their way to the moathouse they did, however the Dawnbreakers(?) arrived hours early and found themselves in an impromptu stakeout of the old moathouse. There seemed to be little movement inside, and as the hours passed and the sun waned in the sky, the party slowly, stealthily, made their way closer to the moathouse exterior. Just off the road near the entrance to the ruinous small castle, the group met their thieves guild envoy, four individuals hooded and masked, wearing the insignia of the Hand. They spoke little but followed the party as they began their sweep of the moathouse.
Overall, the moathouse seemed shockingly quiet. Little moved that was larger than a rat. The ground floor seemed abandoned almost entirely. Where were the bandits? Were they out on a raid? Or was something more nefarious going on?
In a small side chamber, the group stumbled upon -- almost literally -- three sleeping bandits. Grumm made short work of one, relieving his body of its head before he could yell for help, and the group awoke and tied up the other two for questioning. These three seemed to be young new recruits, who had been kicked from their usual quarters below and told they needed to keep watch and sleep up on the main floor. The two remaining captives admitted it was an odd request, but had followed their superiors' commands nonetheless.
Suspicious, the group continued their way further down into the dungeons below the moathouse. Walking down a dark, cramped staircase deep into the earth, they found themselves in a large, damp, cavernous space lit by a single torch on a walkway above them. In the middle of the cave was a large pool of water of indeterminable depths. However, still there did not appear to be any people in sight. Where were they all hiding?
The answer, they would soon find out, was much closer than expected, as bandits popped up from behind the banister of the raised walkway, lighting torches and raining down crossbow bolts from above, while the "thieves guild envoy" attacked the party with swords from behind. It was a trap!
Leading the trap and sneering insults at the party from a safe distance was their target himself, Gothrey, Cleric of Vecna, at whom the party proceeded to launch magical attacks, much to his disliking. As they attacked him at range from the ground, he unleashed the final part of his trap, a Giant Crayfish that lived in the pool of the cave and was hungry for a quick snack. The group was now being attacked on three fronts.
Grumm, in an unlikely stroke of brilliance found a way to make Gothrey a little more vulnerable. He attacked the supports holding up the raised wooden walkway, sending sections of it crashing to the ground and building an impromptu ramp directly up to their target. Gothrey was not thrilled and backed away in fear, continuing to spew threats and insults until the moment our rage-filled barbarian hit him over the head with his great axe. The party had managed to scrape by, surviving Gothrey's trap.
The tied up Gothrey, stripped him naked, and interrogated him, threatening to cut off his manhood and throw it to the crawfish and all sorts of other rude things. He gave up little information, other than the frightening realization that he was working as part of a cult to the evil god, Vecna.
While Gothrey claimed their real thieves guild envoy was killed by he and his men, the group found an old companion, Horus Lightfoot, tied up and bound in Gothrey's study. Apparently he had been their contact they were supposed to meet, but had been apprehended by Gothrey's goons, who proceeded to steal his outfit and forge additional ones of their own (poor imitations, he added, surprised the party was even fooled by them).
It was at this point, after the party had looted Gothrey of several hundred gold pieces and a Bag of Holding, that Gothrey awoke again. His manner had changed. No longer was he joking, or even pleading for his life. He was calm and collected and shouted praises to Vecna, foretelling the fall of the party at his master's hand, as black, necrotic energy spread through his body, killing him and preventing the party from asking any further questions of him. It was a terrifying sight.
The group returned to the thieves guild victorious, and, after speaking highly of Horus' valor, were granted a copy of the Baron's most recently used cypher. They spent the evening using it to crack the coded letter in their possession and the plot thickened further. The letter was a correspondence between Baron Whitford and the corrupted druid, Belak. It seems the Baron had specialists breaking down the magical properties of the Gulthias Tree's deadly winter apple into an extremely potent poison with the intent of assassinating the King of Solara himself. What the next step was for party was unclear. However, one thing was certain, this thing was much bigger than anyone had originally imagined.

Report Date

01 Jun 2018