ASFTD: Session VIII

A Shadow from the Deep

General Summary

After breakfasting with Linde Frankesen, the party were joined by two of Linde’s associates, a male Half-Elf called Notker Lubin, an influential member of the community in Kleinhauptt, and a female Human, Anselma Irmhild, the Head Steward of the Baron's household. Both of them were greatly interested to hear the tales of the party’s travels and, like Linde felt that there was a lot that could be gained for the local community by using this information as leverage against the Baron. Notker spoke at length about how the Baron was becoming more and more oppressive, not just in Kleinhaupt, but across the Barony of Hohensten, and mentioned that necessary repairs that needed to be made to roads, buildings and Kleinhaupt’s defensive ditch were not being made, as virtually all spending by the baronial household had ceased. At the same time, taxes were being consistently raised with no good reasons being given as to why and no mercy being shown to those who could not afford to meet the rises. Anselma also spoke about the tense atmosphere within the Baron’s mansion, saying that a lot of secretive meetings were taking place between the Baron and his spymaster Valentin, and that the excuse being made for the absence of the Baron’s son, who had apparently gone to study in the Ravendorp School of Political & Military Science was wearing particularly thin. Anselma also mentioned that few people believed the rumour that the village of Ansbirn in the north of Hohensten had been destroyed by Goblin raiders, and that nothing was heard from any of the columns of criminals that the Baron was bringing into the Barony, and then sending to ‘resettle’ the village. As Anselma used to have relatives in Ansbirn, the fate of whom she can only speculate on, she is keen to get justice for them.
With Linde and her associates having all spoken, Notker proposed to the party that they help them increase the pressure on the Baron, so that he either comes out and tells the truth about what is going on in the Barony, or that at the very least he makes concessions to his people, so that they can live a better, more prosperous existence. As far as Notker is concerned he, and he believes most of the other residents of Kleinhaupt would be prepared to use force to get their way. As the party are already known to Valentin, Notker proposed that they should go there soon to meet with him and the Baron. As it is almost certain that Valentin will know the party are already in Kleinhaupt, he will be expecting them and will become suspicious if they stall too much. Notker then proposed that the party should go and see if they could lend their services to aid the clergy of the Temple of Ludgera in the town, which had been occupied by some malevolent spirit that had ejected the clergy by force, and which they did not have the power to rid themselves of. Notker was keen to impress that getting the priesthood of Ludgera onside would be very advantageous for rallying the populace behind their cause, especially as the The Feast of Ludgera was less than 24-hours away, and the Baron had so far showed no signs of offering the temple more aid. With the morning getting underway, Anselma made her excuses to leave, as she could not afford to be away from her duties for too long, and Notker decided to leave as well, telling the party that they could find him at the Sleeping Wyvern Inn on the west side of the town. As Linde’s co-conspirators left, Elijah, Rain and Thorwald decided to head straight to the baronial mansion, leaving Arno and Johann to sort out their own business with Linde Frankesen.
It did not take the party long to walk from Linde Frankesen’s offices and residence to the foot of the fortified hill on which the baronial mansion sat. Ascending the hill, the party were able to pass through the gates of the palisade wall relatively easily, as the mention that they had business with Valentin meant the guards began to immediately escort them to the mansion itself. Passing through the courtyard, the party couldn’t help but notice that a large contingent of baronial guardsmen were being put through a very professional looking drill by a large, rather ferocious looking Human, who was clearly in charge of them. On being admitted to the main hall of the mansion the party not only saw the familiar figure of Valentin again, but could see for the first time the much frailer figure of Baron Theobald Hohensten, who were engaged in a conversation with some other advisors. On seeing the party being admitted to the hall, Valentin, after whispering a quick word in the Baron’s ear, dismissed the other advisors, and ushered the three companions forward. For several minutes, Valentin appeared to stall as he engaged the party in more idle conversation, and the reason for his stalling became clear as the large Human Guardsman, the party had seen drilling guardsmen outside, entered the hall through a back door, and came to stand behind the Baron, and was introduced as Wolfram, the Captain of the Baronial Guard. With Wolfram’s arrival, it became clear that Valentin was about to steer things towards official business, Thorwald was able to subtly cast Zone of Truth over the three figures, convincing them that it was an enchantment to stop them from being overheard, with both Valentin and the Baron clearly being effected.
In the conversation that followed, the party told of what had happened to them since they parted ways with Valentin and his agents in Ebenbirn, culminating with the macabre presentation of Bedezorus’ gift to the Baron, the box containing the severed ear of his son. Although the Baron was clearly deeply affected by the presentation, Valentin continued to lead the conversation, saying that they were working hard to collect enough of the ransom, in both coin and people to be able to at least negotiate with the Shadow Elves of the Kin of Sabratha, when they went to meet them as Bedezorus had instructed, at the village of Ansbirn in just over five days’ time. When questioned as to whether the money would be returned to the people and taxes eased if they were not able to come to an agreement with the Kin of Sabratha, Valentin answered in the negative, and outlined how the money would be ‘re-invested’ to aid the Barony as a whole, by helping to fund a new mining facility in the south of the country, and that the Baron and his men were ready to meet any potential threats to the Baron’s position and authority with force, and lethal force at that. At this point, Wolfram interjected, having become increasingly agitated that Valentin, and to a lesser extent the Baron were being far too free with their words, and demanding that Thorwald remove the spell he had placed on them. With the enchantment lifted, Valentin was clearly reflecting on how much he had said, and dismissed the party, saying that they had spoken for long enough that day, and that if the Baron required their services again then Valentin would contact them. With that, Elijah, Rain and Thorwald began to leave the main hall of the mansion, and they could already hear the argument that was breaking out between Valentin and Wolfram before they left the room.
Emerging into the light of day once more, the three companions decided to mull over what they had heard, and head to the Temple of Ludgera, to see if they could lend a hand there. As they approached the temple, notable as one of the few, and the largest stone buildings in the town, they saw on the steps before the large double metal doors into the temple, a group of priests and priestesses standing in a group, clearly quite distressed. As they approached an enormous priestess, who turned out to be a female Goliath, noticed Thorwald and recognised him as a fellow holy man, and approached him and his two companions to petition them to help them regain access to the temple. The Goliath, whose name was Bruna and who was the Head Priestess of Ludgera told of how during the traditional laying out ceremony that takes place as part of a Hohenite funeral, the spirit of the deceased man rose up from his body and chased everyone out of the temple. The two guardsmen that were dispatched by the Baron to investigate the issue were killed by the spirit, and since that time no-one had dared to re-enter the temple. Despite having petitioned the Baron numerous times to send help, and despite all of their own efforts and prayers to rid their temple of the malign spirit, the clergy of Ludgera had not been able to succeed, and the Baron had refused to waste anymore men on what he called the ‘temple’s problem’. Even though the The Feast of Ludgera was due to take place imminently, with a focal point for its activities being the temple, the Baron refused to send them help. Having heard the tale, Thorwald agreed to help Bruna, and he, Elijah and Rain were led round to a back door to the temple and entered the holy place.
Inside the temple, which was dominated by an huge marble statue of the Storm Giant Ludgera battling the Black Dragon Arnwulf, as told in the myth of the Duel of Ludgera & Arnwulf, the sacred space was still set out as it had been for the funeral, with the open coffin still positioned directly before the statue, with its occupant lying relatively undisturbed. As they investigated the temple further, the party discovered the bodies of two baronial guardsmen, neither of whom had any physical injuries, but who had looks of abject terror on their faces. Thorwald in particular could feel a malevolent presence within the temple, that at first could not be distinguished as a physical form, until they saw the body of one of the guardsmen begin to rise slowly to its feet. As the corpse began to shuffle slowly towards the party, they were able to ask it some questions as to why it was there, and the spirit spoke of how it had been sent as a messenger to tell of Ludgera’s displeasure at what was happening in the Barony, and that it could only rest once those who were truly worthy had come to defeat it. With that, the spirit left the corpse and attacked. In the scuffle that followed, Rain in particular was petrified by the spirits ghastly form and aura, and fled to the other side of the temple, where he attempted to distract the creature, to no avail by setting fire to the coffin with the spirit’s own corpse inside. Eventually the ghostly spirit was defeated by a combination of Thorwald’s divinely inspired magic, and Elijah’s new Dagger of Riposte, that proved to be very effective at harming the incorporeal substance of the spirit. Eventually, the creature was banished, and the temple was free from its haunting.
Bruna and the other priestesses and priests outside were overjoyed to see Elijah re-open the temple’s double doors to the outside world, and Bruna emotionally thanked the party for their efforts, as the other clergy began to start the clean-up operation. As they spoke to her, Thorwald mentioned what Notker had said to them about getting the clergy of Ludgera onside for whatever was to happen next, and to demonstrate how little goodwill there was in the temple for the Baron, Bruna took the party into a storeroom that had once been filled with offerings and accoutrements that the clergy used in their ceremonies to honour Ludgera, all of which had been taken as ‘tax’, without explanation by the Baron’s men. Bruna told them that whilst discussing their predicament when banished from the temple, the priests and priestesses had agreed that what was happening was prophetic, and that the inability of the Baron’s own men to triumph over the spirit, and the success of comparative strangers to the Barony and their deity Ludgera, told of how the Baron’s power was waning. Furthermore, as they moved to leave the temple, Bruna told them that a column of prisoners had set off that morning from Kleinhaupt, headed for the village of Ansbirn, and that, if liberated, those prisoners might become valuable allies to help sway or combat the Baron.
Leaving the temple, the party made their way directly to Linde Frankesen’s residence, where they were immediately admitted and proposed their plan to intercept the column of prisoners to Linde. She agreed that securing the prisoners as potential allies would be a good idea, and she proposed that the party offer to give them employment in Linde’s own trading company, where she could employ them as guards, feed, house, cloth and give them all a wage and a new life, and gave them a bag of gold to act as a payment of good faith. Summoning Johann and Arno to accompany the three companions, Linde provided them with horses, and they set off in pursuit of the column. After several hours of hard riding, the column of prisoners and their guards came in sight, and Elijah, taking the direct approach road straight to the head of the column, blocking its way and shouting that both the guards and prisoners were going to their certain death or enslavement at Ansbirn, as the Kin of Sabratha would ambush them there and take them down into the Underdark as chattels. As the prisoners looked increasingly nervous, as did some of the Guards, a final demand was made for Elijah, Rain and Thorwald, along with Johann and Arno to move out of the road, which was refused. Having reached an impasse, the sound of swords leaving scabbards rang through the air.

Report Date

22 Nov 2018

Primary Location

Kleinhaupt