Into Orleans
The team decide to travel to Orleans to try to stifle the chaos Gabrielle de Rais is doing.It won't be easy and they may have bother.
Plot points/Scenes
The team are able to get through to Eschbach ok. No stops or bother along the way. This allows them to carry out a little bit of business before going to Orleans.
They can gather supplies and any help they require while they do two jobs before leaving. Amon is still helping round the church & with the parishoners. They can also check the package and will find it's half filled with black sand from the dreaded cavern, and a small lump of greasy black stone-like substance that Father Tossil tells them is a bit of Leviathan's Flesh.
When organising their trip they can check out as much gold as they might need, and Eleia may want to come clean to a degree about her being employed as a spy for the de Rais, with Klaus of the Raven Queen's Guard as her handler. It's up to the local authorities what they do with her, though she is already imdentured at present so this may be extended or replaced with another punishment.
Then they set out. Quickest part is through a part of the Central Massif, and when there they get jumped by a group of Goblins who blocked the road with a couple of trees. The goblins ambush them from either side, looking to loot their bodies and possibly eat the horses. They seem to have a hatred of humans & the Frankish Empire due to them being hunted by them.
If they clear the goblins or get rid of them in general, then they can continue. They arrive in Orleans a couple of days later or so after they left matbe slightly more. The guards at the entrance are quite suspicious of them and try to work out if they are hiding everything. One of the rogues could work their stuff there, or Grimmaz might be able to pull his rank of Lord to get past. The latter might not go down well depending if the guards are de Rais or la Marchand, but friendly enough if any of the others.
What happens next is up to them and what they are up to will determine how they proceed.
Also, Eleia may get captured by the servants / guards of the de Rais. She will be held in their own dungeons, stripped of her cloak and equipment. Later, she will come round and see the High Elf being killed.
They have to find the de Rais estate and horse ranches. These are easy to do and find many of the guards in the city are allied with them. They will find that the local council is pretty much controlled by the de Rais and a Burgomeister Phillipe le Marchand. Their estates are close by, and at the edge of the western part of the city. They are heavily guarded, and have gardens & stables on their grounds, as well as workshops of different kinds.
There is the river nearby with culverts that would bring the team inside the gardens, workshops & the dungeons of the two houses. They are more likely to appear in the dungeons of the de Rais. How they proceed is up to them. At the same time they may encounter a number of basic undead skeletons & zombies below in the sewers put there by the de Rais with simple commands to patrol the area here to stop people slipping in this way.
de Rais House
Chances are they may see a High Elf prisoner being killed in the dungeons in the de Rais dungeon. The Elf is chained up to an angled table, and Duke Malaric de Rais is there as well as half a dozon of personal guard. A portal is opened and 5 Shadar-Kai come out. The middle one is a leader and all is dressed in very ancient armour of unknown Elf armour, created in black and with dark purple & green highlights and spiked & bladed all over. The leader removes his helmet and he has a bird-like look to his face. He speaks to Malaric telling him his family owes the Shadar-Kai for trying to set up the de Sade family, then he speaks in Elvish, saying to the prisoner that his life is forfeit now. The Elf contains old blood & an old soul that will soon belong to the Raven Queen. Drawing out a bone-like dagger, the Shadar-Kai brings out a small highly polished gem & fixing it to the hilt of the dagger before cutting down the Elf's chest then slipping it into the Elf's stomach. At the same time, it seems to absorb the Elf's moisture and eventually drys him out leaving a husk of a corpse. The Shadar-Kai then removes the gem placing it in a pocket in his armour. Again the team can do what they want here. How they get past here is going to be difficult, as they may have to fight their way through guards & maybe Duke Malaric de Rais, and if Eleia has been captured they can free her. This is likely to draw the attention of other guards. When they are in the house, they will notice just how opulant the huse is, and how rich the de Rais are. One of the things they may chance upon is Cabrielle de Rais talking to both Klaus & Phillipe le Marchand. She is angry that they couldn't get the 'delivery' and was need. What she is even angrier about is that they have lost contact of their spy Miss Gold, but her Tiefling heritage will mark her out. It seems that they are holding this over her to control her. They will likely mention her by the name Eleia, and Phillipe will be pissed saying that he needed the package as the Leviathan's Flesh was needed to create a new Lament Configuration & he had the fat of a few children already stored to covert the Flesh into a malleable form. That and the Black Sand was to be used to polish the whole thing. Both will look disgusted by him. If they have already captured Eleia so may not mention that hey are looking for her. They may attack these three and Phillipe will try to hide, with the other two fighting back. This will alert any guards.le Marchand House
If they enter the le Marchand house, they will see the dungeon filled with human remains, many are children. A few that remain are near death. a medium sized cauldron over a fire and a table with butchers intruments are nearby the cells. The cauldron contains fat. Exploring further they see a number of small cubes made of black greasy material, and occult symbols over them made of brass filigree & joined together. Ther is also a library that shows that Phillipe le Marchand is the grandfather of to remaining teenage boys who live in other households, but will inherit the property. Many of the books are occult books and one is opened showing the construction of Lament Configuration boxes along with what designs to put on them to tie them in with specifc cells of Order of the Gash Cenobites. It looks like he is trying to create the ultimate Lament Configuration and is trying to name each with titles that tie in with the Cenobites that is summoned. They may only find guards & servants here.
Related Characters
Related Organizations
Comments