Still the 2nd of Growth
We sell our loot from our last foray into Pythoness House, and Tharn returns from the Mane to report on his brother, Charnoth, who has been off outside the city walls communing with the Great Brother (whatever that means — I think it has something to do with the Bear Spirit).
During his time of meditation out there, it seems that Charnoth received a prophecy that the enslaved litorians will remain in the city but out of our reach till the Harvest Moon. Then out of nowhere, he was attacked by black-robed humans and a half-ogre/half-troll named Durg! They killed his bear companion, Chrondar, and beat up Charnoth pretty bad. During the fight, Charnoth heard one of the humans remind Durg that they weren’t supposed to kill any litorians. (Why, so they can use them as more slaves?!)
Luckily, during the fight, Charnoth’s friend Mowrar arrived on the scene and together they fought off the attackers. Mowrar had come from the plains seeking Charnoth, it seems, to tell him of trouble within the tribe of Malethar; Charnoth was desperately needed back home. And so he left! Just like that! Tharn seemed sort of shocked about the whole thing. I don’t blame him. But Tharn is staying in the city to see through the quest for his missing tribemates.
3rd of Growth
Seanus heard noises out in the alley late at night and went out to discover a big winged creature out there. In the morning we find a footprint of a large bird. From up on the roof, Tharn notes that a few shingles are missing. Hmm, that’s weird.
Later on, Diethan and others ask around about an ogre/troll named Durg. They learn that he works as an enforcer for a human crime boss named Korben Trollone, a.k.a. Korben the Keeper in the South Market. We wonder whether Korben works for Killraven. Apparently, he likes to go to an exclusive club called Swordthrower’s in the Nobles’ Quarter. Aha, we found an invitation to that club in the house of the assassins Killraven sent against us when we first took ownership of the store. While on watch this evening, Tharn sees a giant raven flying about near our shop. Another link to Killraven. Meanwhile, Barbatos has to tend to the next issue of the Midtown Partisan, the broadsheet he publishes “anonymously.”
4th of Growth
We meet with Myraeth to discuss the liquidation of gems, jewelry, and art objects. He tells us of a group called the Gurhorond, a clan of dwarves that operates Star Jewelers in the Guildsman District. They are always in need of gems and will pay full price. When we ask him about the giant raven, he tells us that a witch named Volius Stern has a witchraven companion. This powerful and dangerous character lives in Rivergate. Great, why’s he poking around our store?
After reporting in at the shop, we visit the dwarves and sell a lot of gems and jewelry, then divvy up some of the extra cash. We also advertise for part-time appraising help at the local hiring hall, so poor Seanus can have a day off now and then.
Next it’s off to Pythoness House again in the afternoon.
The voice is gone as we enter, so that’s good news. The statue looks the same as the last time we were here, though. We start out on the fourth level, where we fought the skeletons before. We search Radonna’s low-ceilinged room. The statue resumes its cries. We can hear someone upstairs, today, too. We search the terrace garden for the lost pieces of the “spiral contrivance” key to the statue as well as the key to the square tower, but all we find are some skulls and bones. While out there, though, we see the hairy, horned goatlike demon watching us! Ignoring him, we head upstairs. We find a hatch in the ceiling that leads to the square tower. The walls of this place feature abstract carvings of people. As we investigate, skeletal rats enter the room with a skeletal ratman, but we make short work of them. Through the hatch we find a chest (locked) and a mini-statue of the naked bald statue guy with half of Maquent’s “spiral contrivance” — the key! We take it.
Exploring the higher levels, we realize that ultimately we must confront the demon. In a torture room high up in the house we meet him, catching him fairly unaware. After a heroic but traumatic battle on the ledge of his tower, we lay him low, and he disappears in a puff of red smoke — leaving behind his equipment, lucky us! Inside his tower we search his horrid nest. I even manage to remove one of the gemstones from the emblem on the tower’s exterior, but I can’t get at the others.
Back at the shop that evening, Seanus manages to open the chest — it contains coins and other stuff. Seanus gets his pick from the chest (a silver headband) as our thanks. Then we all head off to the Temple of Teun (or other houses of healing) to take care of these diseased rat bites. Quite a full day!
5th of Growth
Today we finish up at the houses of healing. I visit the Temple of Excellence and participate in a magical ceremony that offers me training in a new heroic feat. I feel ready for anything!
6th of Growth
What a surprise! We receive an invitation to visit Castle Shard tomorrow. While I’m off at work at the Delver’s Guild, Calista and Tharn check into building onto our shop — it would be nice to add living quarters. Sadly, it’s beyond our means at present.
7th of Growth
At Castle Shard, of all people, Lord Abbercombe comes to see us! Seeing the gold statue-man makes us realize that Shilukar must have received the sanctuary he sought from Lord Zavere and Lady Rill, and restored the long-lost noble as he promised. We have mixed feelings about anything where that dark elf is concerned.
Anyway, Lord Abbercombe thanks us grandly for helping to recover him. He said he’s an adventurer like us and that Shilukar found him a year ago while exploring dark elf ruins. The dark elf and his men jumped him and placed him in a sort of stasis (that’s how we saw him at Linech’s burrow.) But at that point, he was already gold. It seems that when his house was undone by foes, he was poisoned by a magical venom. He would have died if his friends had not placed his soul in this golden body. They were working to magically restore his own body when they were set upon by the enemy and killed. His real body was destroyed, leaving him forever a living golden statue. The architects of this deed were of House Vladaam.
He makes us a standing offer to help us if ever we need it — Rill can always reach him. It’s sad that he lost his noble house all those years ago. We fill him in on our current missions. Just then, Shilukar shows up in his bathrobe. He reminds us that his old lair still has a gate to a hellish dimension standing wide open. The blue demon woman apparently has a brother who’s still on the loose, but he offered to give us information to help defeat them. Barbatos panders to the dark elf and tries to impress us by drinking some of that nasty dark elf wine. We warn him to watch it!
8th of Growth
Back to Pythoness House we go in the pouring rain. We still need to find all those chaos weapons that are stashed there somewhere! When we arrive, we hear something moving in the gatehouse. Is it Taunell the ghost, warning us off? We walk through the gatehouse towers. Tharn hears a whisper of, “No, no, no!” from the tower where I once saw a face. Our litorian friend cries out, “Taunell!” but there is no answer.
But Barbatos can tell there’s magic in this tower, an aura that fluctuates in size.
We head back down to the first level of the south tower, which we find empty and dusty. We climb a ladder to higher levels. The castle seems eerily quiet. As we ponder that, we run across a big pile of rat bones. Hmm, something’s been eating rats around here — but what? Or who?
Up we climb. We find a ripped portrait of a red-haired woman (Maquent?) and precisely placed piles of stuff. Does someone live here?
Opening a door, we come face to face with a two-headed man who seems to have been cobbled together out of spare body parts. He wears the other half of the spiral contrivance around one of his necks! “Don’t kill him!” a new voice calls to us. “He is the last. You will be trapped if he’s gone. I must go fight.”
Now who is THIS? The voice seems to come from an open trap door in the gatehouse roof.
So how to get the key from this aggressive, two-headed cobbledman? Barbatos hits on a solution: He gives him a potion of love to drink, and the Cobbledman promptly becomes extremely fond of our wizard friend. He happily gives Barbatos his half of the key to the statue. Barbatos has to give him his signet ring to console him as we head back downstairs.
We hear the slow voice of the statue below us: “I must feed.” Its pronouncements seem to come less frequently, the more denizens of this place that we slay. An hour later when it says, “Chaos is the key,” Calista inserts the two pieces of the spiral contrivance into a slot in the statue. It responds by sliding forward on a track and exposing a stairway down. At last!
We emerge into a low-ceilinged room (ouch! my head!) and pass by moldy crates and supplies. We note a shaft leading down through the cobblestone floor into the solid rock. It doesn’t appear to have been made by normal means. A corpse is affixed to a wall near the hole; it has a symbol on its forehead.
I climb down the shaft into an icy cave at the bottom. As the others join me, I light a magical flame, hoping to melt some of the ice down here: It’s not natural! Through one icy wall, we see a frosty minotaur guardian — it looks confused for a moment at the melting ice all around it, then it bursts free and attacks us! We hit it a few times, and Calista distracts it with a spell, but just as it falls, another one bursts free of a different icy wall. In time, we drop him as well, and I’m happy to take up their giant weapons.
The minotaurs emerged from a niche in which we see a cold pool. Tharn dives into its chill waters with a rope attached to his waist so we don’t lose him. He sees a blind snake in the water covered with chitinous plates. A fight ensues underwater, and we manage to pull our friend to safety as Calista boils the water in the pool and Barbatos hits the snake with magic missiles. Tharn resumes his scouting of the pool and discovers another cave on the other side of an underwater channel. We all join him on the icy cold swim and are rewarded in the second cave with a discovery of five frosty chests! Inscriptions on the chests confirm that we have found the chaos weapons we’ve been searching for!
Before we depart with the chests, we notice an iron door standing locked in the rear of the cave. A plaque on it reads: “This is the greatest of all weapons against the kings of order, created by that ancient elven champion Vaiod the Slayer.” We decide to let that one wait for another day….
