29th Of Bloom
We gather to open the shop in the morning. Charnoth’s back in town with his bear companion, Chrondar. Business is slow – we decide we should have some sort of grand opening event. We do get a visit from sort of a celebrity, though: the adopted son of Serai Lorenci (one of the Runewardens)! He has a rune on his face just like the Runewardens themselves do. An albino retainer came along with the boy. Diethan said he’d heard that this fellow was actually Serai’s familiar polymorphed into human form, but that’s hard to believe.
Later we hear why business has been so slow: Killraven is spreading rumors that people who shop here will get hurt. Killraven’s troglodyte sends us a little gift, too: a “Going out of Business” sign. Sounds like a declaration of war to me. But who are we to fight the Crime League? Thankfully, we hear back today from the Sisterhood of Silence. The good news is they will meet with us on the Eighth of Sun at the Fourteenth Hour. The bad news is that’s still ten days away! We stand sentinel at the shop again this evening, but no one comes to attack us.
30th Of Bloom
We regroup at noon and are unsurprised to see that we have no customers. We plan a sale for the Ninth of Sun: 10 percent off everything, and 15 percent off for members of the Delver’s Guild. I go in to work at the Guild this afternoon.
All last night Diethan sought Shim the skulk to call in a favor (we did save him from certain death in the prison of the Halls of Cordaris, after all). He hopes to meet him tonight. Meanwhile, Tharn tries to locate the assassins’ lair, and I watch the shop again. No attacks.
1st And 2nd Of Sun
I head back to the Guild with flyers that Barbatos printed about our upcoming sale. Calista and the litorians celebrate a gathering at the Mane – she’s already become quite adept at their language (it just sounds like a lot of snarls and growls to me).
3rd Of Sun
Business is still slow, and we’re bored. We think the time may be right to go after Shilukar, as the dark elf priestess, Ielenna, and the lords of Castle Shard asked of us. Does he have a connection to the technology-loving Shuul? Would he know something about the litorian slaves? Does he have the “key” to freeing Lord Abbercombe?
We head over to the Delver’s Hole and find the path to his lair that the dark elf priestess described, though it was fairly well concealed. On our way sneaking down, we run into carrion crawlers and gnoll guards. We arrive at Shilukar’s lair, and gnolls and hyenas pour out at us. Guess we weren’t as sneaky as we thought. Barbatos manages to hold them off with a fireball. (It was really impressive.)
As we enter Shilukar’s fortress/complex, gnoll archers and axemen surround us, but we fend them off. This place is very old, with gruesome pillars that look like people holding up the beams of the ceiling. We find chaos symbols on many walls inside. This must be an old chaos temple – and one with something to hide, judging by the traps we encounter along the way.
Stairs lead up to a chamber with a beast-god motif: skins, blood, and similar trappings. Is this place for the Children of Ravvan, we wonder? “Do not enter without a beast in your soul and a howl on your lips” a sign says. We make our way into a great chamber with a swirling vortex of some kind on the far wall. There’s also a huge creature in here dripping with sweat and chains. It’s not moving, but it’s not a statue either. Tearing and snarling sounds come from the vortex. Could that be a doorway into the realm of Ravvan, the beast-god, whom Ielenna told us about?
It looks like it. A pedestal in this chamber holds an idol of a creature that emits blood-red energy into the vortex. This definitely looks like the beast-god idol and conduit that the dark elf priestess wanted. (Of course, we didn’t promise to bring the idol to her…) I open my mist of divination protection, put on gloves, and grab the idol. Suddenly, the creature and the vortex both disappear, the howling cut short. An enraged gnoll emerges – a blue gnoll! Clearly part demon, Calista says. The blue creature says we will die for this sacrilege to the Children of Ravvan. Great.
Meanwhile, Barbatos has accidentally closed himself into a room with a one-eyed spider-bug and a dark elf – Shilukar! – commanding a whole horde of gnolls. Shilukar says he’ll save Barbatos if he surrenders. I, on the other hand, threaten to smash the idol if he doesn’t let Barbatos go. The only problem with that idea is that the horde of gnolls would make short work of us all…
Calista casts an eldritch web spell on the blue gnoll woman, but Charnoth falls to her blows as soon as she escapes the webs. Oddly, Shilukar seems to have no interest in fighting us. They release Barbatos and the creature (clearly a projection, we realize now) returns, as does the vortex. Shilukar calls the gnoll woman “Brugul” and tells her to stand down. The gnolls surround us. We hear her call the Ravvan idol “Father” (no wonder she’s so tough!).
Shilukar wants us to talk about “our masters in Castle Shard” and takes us to a side room. He does seem to want to help us – not what we expected. He has a message for the Lords of Castle Shard: He wants them to let him live there under their protection in exchange for him restoring Lord Abbercombe to his normal state. The dark elf claims he engineered our recovery of the golden statue-man in the first place, as well as our visit here today.
He needs sanctuary, he says, a place where he can pursue his chaositech and other experiments in peace. (Dark elves are illegal in the city, of course.) I notice that he’s carrying some really freaky-looking tools on his belt – he calls himself a machinist, but I know chaositech when I see it. He says he’ll also give us two thousand gold coins if we do him a favor against a common enemy. “I know where the captive litorians are held,” he tells us.
Now what are we supposed to do?
