Chapter IX: Shadow Over Ashenport Part 2
The 15th of Firedawn in the year 3250 C.R.
General Summary
The adventurers regroup the following morning after the posession of those who heard the eerie sound the night before and could not resist the call. Heading back into the Smooth Sailing Inn, they are approached by Terza from Megiers of the Gold Leaf Consortium, Jandal Phen-an opulent jeweler from the Republic of Lumene' who employs the "Tusk Twins," Jogra and Ogra as his bodyguards, and finally Matthias Creel of the trading company Surrens, Creel, and Blackwell from The Free City of Weyrcliff. Terza offers the adventurers 500 silver dragons and Matthias throws in 300 of his own to ensure the safety of their people and find out what's going on and stop it. Jandal demands the warriors find a way to get him out of Ashenport, but offers no coin.
Deciding to venture out of the inn and into Ashenport to find answers, the group wanders into the Ashenport town hall. Bursting into the office of the Alderman, a man called Ritter, they interrupt a hushed meeting between the alderman and the sherriff named Kearn. A tense confrontation with the sherriff gets the alderman to agree to reveal problems that he could reveal publicly but agreed to meet the adventurers the next morning.
After leaving the town hall, the group is ambushed by a group of men wearing dark blue robes casting spells, and a strange type of creatures that appeared a slimy, scaly hybrid of man and fish. The ambushers are quickly slain. From there the warriors decide to visit the Church of The Gleaming Dawn, Ashenport's temple to The Twelve. Inside they see a temple tabernacle that shows signs of misuse and neglect. Suspicious, Mandrakus questions the priestess of the temple, a gaunt elderly human woman named Sharallan. She is vague to any questions asked of her, but does reveal on the eve of night on the next day there will be a ritual held to regain the gods' favor and beseech them to abate the storm. She says those that wish to stay and pray to the gods may do so, but otherwise they are asked to leave.
Returning to the inn, they find it abandoned by the staff. The heroes then hear the sound of breaking glass coming from the inn's kitchen. After investigating the kitchen, they find it empty but find a broken vial of a black sticky ichor and the back door to the kitchen ajar. Duvall ventures outside into the storm to track the person who fled the inn, but their footprints were quickly washed away from the storm.
Everyone, guests and adventurers, were hungry so the kitchen was raided and a hot stew made. What was presumed to be night, everyone retreated to their rooms with watches set, doors barricaded in case the evil call sounds again that night. And indeed, late into the night with the storm still howling outside, the eerie call sounds filling the stormy night air with evil. This time, almost all succumb to the call. Only Theolin, Duvall, Alistar, and the three merchants fell victim to the call's spell.
Failing to stop the inn's patrons from leaving the Smooth Sailing Inn, the adventurers rush outside to save Mandrakus, Myra, the Tusk Twins and others from venturing beneath the waves of the Celinadian River. Alistar succeeds to awaken Myra and then they are again attacked by strange spellcasters in the dark blue robes. The robed cultists tried to stop the group from awakening any more of the ensorcelled victims, and the heroes cannot seem to awaken their companion Mandrakus.
The battle raged as much did the storm. All but one of the cultists were slain, the last escaped into the dark of the storm. The distraction worked howeverm as almost all but Myra waded into the river to drown; including the party's own cleric-Mandrakus, who walked into his own watery grave. Theolin and Duvall were destraught, as all but six guests of the inn survived. The Tusk Twins, sellswords and bodyguards, even Mandrakus met their doom that night. But the storm and the call would claim one more victim, the merchant Jandal had hung himself in his room at the Smooth Sailing Inn, presumably from terror and desperation.
But the despair continued after one more discovery. Alistar and Myra used the choas of the night's events; the mass suicide of those who could not escape the call and then the battle outside, to escape into the storm in an attempt to travel north to the Witchwood to find Myra's sister. With just Duvall and Theolin left, their despair could be cut with a sword. Unbeknownst to them, two stubborn and determined travelers trudge their way through the unholy deluge and into the town of Ashneport.Character(s) interacted with
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