A Sawmill and a Chemical Works
Our Heroes begin with a professional consultation with Sheila Heidmarch of the Pathfinders, to figure out what's up with the strange piece of metal they've found. She identifies it as part of The Sihedron Rune - and she has a manner of speaking where one can really hear those capital letters - and activates the Shard (deactivating the Curse of Envy) by applying an Ioun Stone to it.
The Party then retires to their rented suite of rooms, thinking that the hour before dawn is the best time to begin assaulting the two locations. Since they've already been inside the sawmill they head to the Chemical works, arriving there around 9am, just as the sky is lightening.
The Chemical Works - Vorkstag and Grine's Chymic Factory, to be more precise - is on a small island in the river on which Magnimar is built, isolating it and it's chemical stench from the Good People of Magnimar. It's an ugly boxy building, two or three stories tall (the only windows are at the top), with a 2-story belfry of some sort on top of that.
The Party stakes out the Chemical works for a few hours, seeing a tradesman drive a cart up the building, get several barrels loaded in, and leaving. No workers are seen to come or go, and talking to a few people in the neighborhood no workers are seen coming or going as a general rule - just people driving up to pick up shipments, or drop off barrels and other supplies. Perplexing! Unable to find any workers to interrogate, Vig scales the walls and looks in - he sees a variety of strange workers, who seem to be comprised of bits and pieces put together from other species - Mongrelmen! No other people or workers or Judge Ironbriars are about.
So it is up to the top of the building! Nelson the wolf is beginning to enjoy being hoisted around, if we're to be perfectly honest - he enjoys wearing his harness in the cold November rain, and once he got over the initial strangeness enjoys seeing the world from higher vantage points. At least, he seems to - maybe he's just glad to be included in the party's shenanigans. It's hard to tell, with War Wolves, sometimes.
At the top of the belfry is a trap door - Our Heroes enter a bedroom that's been abandoned for several days. A brazier sits on top of a dresser, with a burned spine of a book inside - and upon more diligent searching The Party finds a scrap of paper, apparently a journal page from the room's last occupant. What does it mean? Who could it be from?
It's Nualia. I mean, c'mon. I am not going to insult your intelligence, Gentle Reader, and insulting Our Heroes generally results in violence of some sort.
Clearly she was here, and now she's moved on. Soon, thinks the party - soon there will be a reckoning and justice.
But not today! Going down another level the party enters a store room of curios - brass birds, statues, and other strange objects. Nothing is magical, so the party continues downward through yet another trapdoor in the floor.
And comes into a hallway with several doors. The smell of bleach is much stronger here; Our Heroes enter another door and find a storeroom, and then an office with a dresser....
Oh. Oh, my. Gentle Readers, perhaps those of you with nervous constitutions would do well to cast your attentions elsewhere.
Okay? Are you sure? There's something horrific in the dresser and I would hate for my Gentle Readers to be overly scandalized.
Well. All right then. The dresser is filled with skins - human, elf, dwarf, halflings - around thirty sets of skins, including the faces. Each are hung up delicately, with labels on the hangers seeming to identify the person who was skinned.
The Heroes decide that perhaps this is the time to involve local law enforcement.
They head out the way they came in, and then make their way to the offices of Judge Darrimid. Informing her of what they found, she gets up and goes immediately to the police, to mobilize a force to lock the Chemical Works down and get it searched.
The Party, meanwhile, heads to the Sawmill, and enters the same room which Vig broke into several nights previously. Sweep and Clear! Nothing is found on the third floor - except in Ironbriar's office, where his journal is found. It's written in a strange code - a combination of Draconic, Elvish, and Infernal, and it will take Kendra quite a while to translate.
Moving downstairs The Party finds Ironbriar's chambers, where the walls are lined with plaques, each of a skinned face.
Oh. My apolgies, gentle reader, for not giving proper warning that time. It's not really easier the second time around, is it? One might hope that one never becomes inured to such scenes of horror. I fear for our party in the adventures to come, as more and more horrors are revealed. As one stares at monsters, one risks become monstrous oneself.
Sweep and clear, though! The party continues downstairs. As the party descends to the river level, they find a room with machinery and waterwheels, being attended to by a few workers. Workers who are really cultists! They draw knives and attack but are quickly subdued by Our Heroes.
Continuing through into tunnels carved into the bedrock of Magnimar, They stumble upon a dozen or so cultists in masks, performing the Sihedron ritual on two Magnimarians, tied naked to an altar. Combat is joined! And quickly ends, with Our Heroes emerging victorious and almost unscratched! Judge Ironbriar lays dead, the cult's back broken; Our Heroes head to the Chemical Works and acquire the assistance of several armed City Guard to secure the Sawmill as well.
It's evening now, but not time to rest just yet - The Party heads into the Judge Ironbriar's chambers, and picks the lock to gain entry, searching for any further clues while Kendra attempts to wrest secrets from Ironbriar's journal. She is partially successful, and reports to the party what she's learned. Our Heroes camp out in the judges offices for the night, to be joined by Judge Embreth when she arrives to work after a long but fruitful night. The Judge has several bottles of wine in her office, which she gracefully offers to share with Our Heroes. They gratefully partake in some Day Drinking, rehashing the events they've suffered through in Magnimar with the Judge and doing some much needed depressurization.
But as with all things that change, time moving forward means that situations ebb and flow; the elderly Judge and Our Heroes finish a fourth bottle of wine before noon, and realize that they are all exhausted - Our Heroes retire to their rented suite for a much needed rest, with the expectation that when evening falls they will head to the Clocktower referenced in Ironbriar's journal, for a reckoning with Xanesha.
Please, Gentle Readers, allow me to invite you to join us next time, for right now The Heroes are all a-slumber, and we must rejoin their Adventures on the morrow. Until then!
The Party then retires to their rented suite of rooms, thinking that the hour before dawn is the best time to begin assaulting the two locations. Since they've already been inside the sawmill they head to the Chemical works, arriving there around 9am, just as the sky is lightening.
The Chemical Works - Vorkstag and Grine's Chymic Factory, to be more precise - is on a small island in the river on which Magnimar is built, isolating it and it's chemical stench from the Good People of Magnimar. It's an ugly boxy building, two or three stories tall (the only windows are at the top), with a 2-story belfry of some sort on top of that.
The Party stakes out the Chemical works for a few hours, seeing a tradesman drive a cart up the building, get several barrels loaded in, and leaving. No workers are seen to come or go, and talking to a few people in the neighborhood no workers are seen coming or going as a general rule - just people driving up to pick up shipments, or drop off barrels and other supplies. Perplexing! Unable to find any workers to interrogate, Vig scales the walls and looks in - he sees a variety of strange workers, who seem to be comprised of bits and pieces put together from other species - Mongrelmen! No other people or workers or Judge Ironbriars are about.
So it is up to the top of the building! Nelson the wolf is beginning to enjoy being hoisted around, if we're to be perfectly honest - he enjoys wearing his harness in the cold November rain, and once he got over the initial strangeness enjoys seeing the world from higher vantage points. At least, he seems to - maybe he's just glad to be included in the party's shenanigans. It's hard to tell, with War Wolves, sometimes.
At the top of the belfry is a trap door - Our Heroes enter a bedroom that's been abandoned for several days. A brazier sits on top of a dresser, with a burned spine of a book inside - and upon more diligent searching The Party finds a scrap of paper, apparently a journal page from the room's last occupant. What does it mean? Who could it be from?
It's Nualia. I mean, c'mon. I am not going to insult your intelligence, Gentle Reader, and insulting Our Heroes generally results in violence of some sort.
Clearly she was here, and now she's moved on. Soon, thinks the party - soon there will be a reckoning and justice.
But not today! Going down another level the party enters a store room of curios - brass birds, statues, and other strange objects. Nothing is magical, so the party continues downward through yet another trapdoor in the floor.
And comes into a hallway with several doors. The smell of bleach is much stronger here; Our Heroes enter another door and find a storeroom, and then an office with a dresser....
Oh. Oh, my. Gentle Readers, perhaps those of you with nervous constitutions would do well to cast your attentions elsewhere.
Okay? Are you sure? There's something horrific in the dresser and I would hate for my Gentle Readers to be overly scandalized.
Well. All right then. The dresser is filled with skins - human, elf, dwarf, halflings - around thirty sets of skins, including the faces. Each are hung up delicately, with labels on the hangers seeming to identify the person who was skinned.
The Heroes decide that perhaps this is the time to involve local law enforcement.
They head out the way they came in, and then make their way to the offices of Judge Darrimid. Informing her of what they found, she gets up and goes immediately to the police, to mobilize a force to lock the Chemical Works down and get it searched.
The Party, meanwhile, heads to the Sawmill, and enters the same room which Vig broke into several nights previously. Sweep and Clear! Nothing is found on the third floor - except in Ironbriar's office, where his journal is found. It's written in a strange code - a combination of Draconic, Elvish, and Infernal, and it will take Kendra quite a while to translate.
Moving downstairs The Party finds Ironbriar's chambers, where the walls are lined with plaques, each of a skinned face.
Oh. My apolgies, gentle reader, for not giving proper warning that time. It's not really easier the second time around, is it? One might hope that one never becomes inured to such scenes of horror. I fear for our party in the adventures to come, as more and more horrors are revealed. As one stares at monsters, one risks become monstrous oneself.
Sweep and clear, though! The party continues downstairs. As the party descends to the river level, they find a room with machinery and waterwheels, being attended to by a few workers. Workers who are really cultists! They draw knives and attack but are quickly subdued by Our Heroes.
Continuing through into tunnels carved into the bedrock of Magnimar, They stumble upon a dozen or so cultists in masks, performing the Sihedron ritual on two Magnimarians, tied naked to an altar. Combat is joined! And quickly ends, with Our Heroes emerging victorious and almost unscratched! Judge Ironbriar lays dead, the cult's back broken; Our Heroes head to the Chemical Works and acquire the assistance of several armed City Guard to secure the Sawmill as well.
It's evening now, but not time to rest just yet - The Party heads into the Judge Ironbriar's chambers, and picks the lock to gain entry, searching for any further clues while Kendra attempts to wrest secrets from Ironbriar's journal. She is partially successful, and reports to the party what she's learned. Our Heroes camp out in the judges offices for the night, to be joined by Judge Embreth when she arrives to work after a long but fruitful night. The Judge has several bottles of wine in her office, which she gracefully offers to share with Our Heroes. They gratefully partake in some Day Drinking, rehashing the events they've suffered through in Magnimar with the Judge and doing some much needed depressurization.
But as with all things that change, time moving forward means that situations ebb and flow; the elderly Judge and Our Heroes finish a fourth bottle of wine before noon, and realize that they are all exhausted - Our Heroes retire to their rented suite for a much needed rest, with the expectation that when evening falls they will head to the Clocktower referenced in Ironbriar's journal, for a reckoning with Xanesha.
Please, Gentle Readers, allow me to invite you to join us next time, for right now The Heroes are all a-slumber, and we must rejoin their Adventures on the morrow. Until then!
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