Session 10: Cheating Son of Hell

General Summary

Four heroes arrive in Nova Aera, through chance they all end up at the same inn, the Sleepy Bastards Inn. Cosmos, the centaur barbarian looking for the world's best apples. Cuss En de la Boot, the catfolk butterfly blade drifting from town to town looking for work. Ekaterina Drazhova, the human Winter Witch from the far north. Lastly, there was Gori the Boil, the human cleric of Pharasma hailing from Fyre. After having a few drinks all of them gather around the notice board. The group decides to go on a mission together. They discuss going on a mission to retrieve some Umber Hulk eggs, but they then reconsider and instead take on a quest to find out whether a Jötunfolk's husband is cheating on him or not. 
They leave the tavern and head right over to the harbor to meet with the jötunfolk Flint in his house. When they arrive they found him right about to leave the city, distraught about his husband spending yet another night somewhere else, and that no one had accepted his request. Now that a group actually was interested he decided to stay and see what they would find out. They also promised to beat the husband up if they would find that he was cheating on Flint. The husband, named Gorick, was described as a human man, with dark hair and a muscular build. The group was pointed in the direction of where Flint's husband was supposed to have gone. They walked up along the port until they reached the cottage of the vanaran Sing Song Qan. A small two-room building that hung from a tree and rested into a rising rock formation. It was made of long twisted twigs which formed walls and a leaf-made roof. Inside they saw the vanaran sitting on his own, reading a book. After knocking on the door Cuss En de la Boot took the lead on questioning the frightened monkey-man. However, since he didn't want to tell them where Gorick was, Cuss took to some drastic measures. Being practiced in the art of threatening people, Cuss managed to convince Sing Song to disclose the location of Gorick. They also managed to convince him to give them something that belonged to Gorick, who promptly gave them a sock that had belonged to the human. Not questioning how he came to have the sock they left the now terrified vanaran. Upon smelling the sock Cuss found it weirdly smelling of sulphur. 
The group made their way up further up the port to the home of Elered Issoldir, where they will supposedly find Gorick. The house was a tall three-story building. As Ekatarina sent her owl to investigate the windows, they found that all the windows on the top floor were covered up. The other floors were covered in books, parchments, and scrolls. Some seemingly magical. Cuss picked the lock of the door and disarmed the tripwire set by the door. The group entered slowly, trying to sneak inside. Cuss and Ekaterina did so without any problems. Cosmos entered as quietly as can be expected from a centaur. Gori, however, managed to trip on the door and fell face-first on the floor with a bang. Alerting the residents upstairs. The group stayed however and readied themselves to possibly beat a man senseless. When two men arrived down the stairs, one of them a human and the other an elf, they stood by the stairs and beheld the intruders. The human stood first with the half-naked elf cowering behind him. He pulled his swords at the sight of Cuss' swords. 
As the two asked what they were doing here, the group found it apparent that Gorick was in fact cheating and prepared for a fight. In order to save the elf any harm, Ekaterina hexed him to sleep. When the elf fell back into a slumber, Gorick smiled. He turned back towards the group and laughed, claiming that this made things much easier for him. As the group asked him in order to ensure themselves of his guilt, he openly admitted to cheating on Flint. Then as the group approached him he transformed. Flesh fell off of his bones as he grew in size, sprouting a long bony tail. Before them stood an Ozylyth, a Bone Devil. A fight broke out. After showers of blood, ice storms and a wall of ice, Gorick seemed to become distraught. He floated back, turned invisible, but the surrounding ice and snow revealed his location. He summoned a hell hound to distract the party, but they quickly dispatched of it. After finally being gored by the raging Cosmos, who in his rage had sprouted horns, he realized that these adventurers where more trouble than worth. He teleported away. 
The party made sure that Elered was okay as he finally woke up. They informed him of what had happened. They then left to head back to Flint. On the way, they checked on the Vanaran Sing Song Qan, but found him dead. It looked as if he'd started to pack, but was interrupted and killed before he could leave. He had also had his tongue and vocal cords ripped out and put on display next to him. To find out more Gori casted a spell that allowed them to speak with the now-dead vanaran. The spirit of the vanaran told them that Gorick had come to him and killed, before dragging his soul with him back to the Nine Hells, meaning that Gorick was, at least for now, not in Nova Aera. Still the vanaran pleaded with them to warn Flint in order to save him. The spirit then begged them not to send him back to hell, but reluctantly they had to. 
After this, they went straight back to Flint and explained what they had found. He paid them and then left to try and catch the same ship he had originally planned to leave with. The party then split up, with Cosmos and Cuss heading back to the inn, whilst Gori and Ekaterina told the city guard about the murder of Sing Song. They showed them the body and explained the whole thing, before they too left for the inn. Well back they found that Cosmos had gone to bed in the stables, refusing to climb the stairs because of his fear of heights. Cuss on the other hand sat in a deep discussion with Inigo, the catfolk bard. Gori joined Cuss and Inigo, whilst Ekaterina sat down with the legendary hero Thomas Torkenmad, the savior of Nova Aera.

Rewards Granted

• 2000 gold

Campaign

Adventures of Nova Aera and Other One-Shots

Protagonists

Ekaterina Drazhova

Human
5-Level Witch 1-Level Winter Witch

Gori the Boil

Human
6-Level Cleric

Cosmos

Centaur
6-Level Barbarian

Cuss En de la boot

Catfolk
6-Level Butterfly Blade

Report Date

20 Mar 2021

Primary Location

Nova Aera