Session 2: The Dark Descent Part II Report

General Summary

Morning (or whatever time it was) came quickly, and the party of five adventurers continued their two-day journey to the trade post at Delver's Drop. Much like the first day of travel, it was largely uneventful; the road and canal both stretched onward into the darkness, with no signs of life. As they slowly approached their destination, they did notice some changes, however. Torches along the canal were lit, tunnels were carved into the walls, and the road was in ever so slightly better condition. In a few more hours, they had reached their destination: Delver's Drop. Odilia, familiar with the trading post, directed the party through its streets. Largely avoiding the ornate but seemingly abandoned residences and high-class stores of the Upside neighborhood, the party followed the road as it wound down the cliffside - the titular 'drop' - into the rundown, seedy Downside. Making their way through the decrepit houses and rotting storefronts, Odilia led the group to Downside's only inn, the Stone Sleep, to look for clues and drink. The struggling innkeeper, grateful just for the chance to make a few coins off his wares, gave the party what little information he could: 'Mara,' or whoever she was, had come in to the inn some days past with her crew, reserving beds for them but leaving immediately after. She had not returned. Finishing their drinks, the party departed the inn, following other lines of inquiry suggested by the innkeeper. Seeking answers from both upstanding lawmen and less upstanding normal men, the group split in two; while Shimmer and Vaes asked around among the local lowlifes, Odilia, Frank , and Erasmus consulted with the local sheriff. The former group - Shimmer mostly - learned from a gambling sailor that a drunk at the local tavern, the Dregs, had recently been heard bragging about a mysterious sealed chest stolen by his gang, the Lake Leeches. Staking out their hideout, a warehouse on the edge of town, they found it guarded, and awaited the others before continuing. Meanwhile, the latter group of adventurers met with Sheriff Einkel Rakanrak, who, horribly overwhelmed and overworked in the crime-ridden outpost, had little help to offer; he did however speak of a recent uptick in attacks on small craft traveling through the trading post. He had also had an earlier run-in with the dwarves the party had fought on the road; some days ago, they had been arrested after a bar fight in town, and held at the sheriff's office. They repeatedly demanded to be let go, supposedly having urgent business in Dun Barak, and eventually Sheriff Rankanrak was forced to release them to make space in his cells. Even if one of the dwarves had taken a swing at him. Gathered back at the Stone Sleep, the party pooled their intelligence, and came to a decision: they would investigate the Lake Leech hideout, with the exception of Odilia, who rather suddenly began to feel ill; hopefully just food poisoning, and not the dreaded spiral gut. So to the warehouse the four remaining adventurers went, taking up positions along the back wall. Precisely what they were going to do, they hadn't bothered to figure out beforehand though... suggestions ranged from stealth, to negotiation, to outright slaughter. Little did they know, they would end up doing all three. Shimmer, championing the first approach, proceeded to pick the lock on the backdoor, sneaking a quick peek of its immediate surroundings before reporting back. Egged on by Frank over psychic lank, she returned yet again, darting inside to get a better view; but even this, alas, was not enough for Frank. After a brief psychic spat, Shimmer at last agreed to go further in once more, dashing to hide behind a pile of crates against the wall. This was as far as she would go, but already revealed quite a bit: three gang members with crossbows on a nearby balcony, and more - perhaps a dozen - on the warehouse floor. The party would need a plan. Which would bring them to option three: outright slaughter. The breach of the warehouse was swift and brutal. Before the alarm could even be raised, Shimmer slew two of the crossbowmen with her psychic blades, ending their lives just days from retirement. In the seconds that followed, the others swarmed inside, wreaking bloody havoc on the poor Lake Leeches; as Frank cleaved the bandits in half, Shimmer slew yet more with her psychic blades, and Veas - much to xer horror - killed one particularly unfortunate bandit by pushing his nose into his brain with a flung magic stone. With a full half of the bandits slain within moments, the remainder fled the warehouse, a few futilely taking crossbow shots at the group as they ran out into the darkness. The stealthy approach evidently used up, Frank went to the first door in sight and kicked his way through. Inside this back room were four more gang members, as well as two others, distinctly different from the Leeches; men wielding massive crab shells as shields, carrying longswords lined with sharp, jagged teeth. In the back of the room lay two bloody corpses, and a third form, a man, barely clinging to life on the floor. The two 'crab people' fell upon Frank in an instant, while the larger of the two gang members began peppering him with crossbow bolts, but alas, even these jagged swords couldn't fell the behemoth. As Veas provided healing to the poor soul in the back, Frank and Shimmer cut their way through their foes, leaving only three gang members alive to flee the scene after extorting from them the location of the chest: the captain's office. While Erasmus stayed back to protect the injured man, the other three proceeded to the office, the only remaining room in the warehouse. As they approached, they overheard an argument within the room; one voice demanding he be allowed to leave, another demanding he remain "to cover the priestess' escape." As had become his favored tactic, Frank kicked down the door, finding two more of the so-called 'crab people' waiting inside with the captain of the Leeches. As before, he and Shimmer cut through these foes with ease... but the captain was another story. Enraged by the deaths of his gang, he fought all three adventurers tooth and nail, slashing away at Shimmer, dodging Frank's axe, and parrying Veas' primal claws. But in time, he too was knocked unconscious, even as he bragged that the 'real culprits' were escaping. The fight was over, and the warehouse was secure. But the chest had still not been located, and neither had Mara. And what was worse, the sound of oars hitting water could be heard coming from outside the warehouse... had the captain been right? Were the real culprits escaping by boat? They would soon find out...

Campaign

Into the Bleeding Spiral

Protagonists