Mother of Flies - Session 39: Walcourt Raid, Part II

Dramatis Personae

Alfaren “Alfred” Eredel – Elf transmuter

Alizander Carmelizzia - Human (Varisian) sorcerer

Boecca – Half-orc inquisitor of Erastil

Carlos Santiago - Half-orc (Alkenstarian) evoker

Slavé/Jancen – Tiefling (in guise as a human) rogue/assassin

Tavo Dechirent - Human cleric of Pharasma

Oathday, 21 Pharast, to Fireday, 29 Pharast, 4709 A.R.

The brawl in Walcourt spills over into multiple maze-like chambers. Alizander and Boecca deal with the remaining dark stalker guildsmen in the Council offices. Carlos stands guard in the main guardroom, prepared for any other intruders to come through the four as-yet-unexplored doors. Slavé peers through the arrow slit into the dark hallway beyond the brutal spear trap he discovered. Alfred floats invisibly into the same room and collides with the also-invisible Slavé, who luckily manages to maintain his composure and continue manning the spear trap. Soon enough, three Council thieves make their way down the hall, and Slavé activates the trigger mechanism on the trap, sending a wall of spears through the flimsy wall, pinning the first thief to the wooden wall behind. The other two thieves push past their dying comrade and into the trap room, to find it apparently empty as they are unable to see the invisible Slavé and Alfred. Slavé sneaks back down the hallway he came from, hearing the sound of dark folk through one of the doors in the hallway.

The dark folk storm into the trap room, shouting at the two Council thieves in their strange, unknown language. The Council thieves back away from the dark creeper footpads, wary and perhaps afraid of the dark folk. Alfred, meanwhile, sees his time to strike, and invokes a choking cloudkill spell to waft over the tightly packed gang of dark creepers and Council thieves. The deadly cloud sends all of the dark creepers and thieves into violent convulsions as its poisonous vapours penetrate their lungs and bloodstreams. The dark folk die in flashes of bright light; a blinding series of brilliant white flashes, momentarily illuminating the halls and rooms of Walcourt in stark light and defined shadows.

Beocca and Alizander, meanwhile, discover what appears to be a Council conference chamber, outfitted with a massive slate table, leather chairs, and a number of what appear to be fine works of art on the walls. Alizander retrieves an ebony tinderbox from the table; it contains a small amount of ash that radiates a faint magical aura. Boecca jerks to attention when he notices a small, plum-sized semi-transparent sphere float very quickly through the air in the hallway behind him. Neither of the adventurers are fast enough to exit the conference room before it is engulfed in a series of chilling cold blasts from small nozzles hidden in the walls. Alizander and Boecca leave the room promptly after the trap is sprung, neither of them eager to face its frosty bite again.

Slavé heads downstairs, following several escaping dark folk, where he encounters a swarm of strange rats, more shadow-stuff than rat. He runs from the creatures and manages to avoid them, heading south through the east wing of the maze-like guildhouse.

The Returners upstairs notice the flying transparent spheres several more times, but hesitate to investigate their source. Alfred recognizes the spheres as the result of a spell called prying eyes, a powerful scrying spell. Carlos, eager to find the basement, decides to unleash his newly-created clay golem. The massive golem begins pounding on the floor, eventually finding a weak point and falling through to Walcourt’s first floor, directly onto a large oaken table holding the body of a badly-mutilated victim. Moth-eaten curtains of red velvet drape the walls of the square chamber; low-burning torches burn in sconces mounted between them. Carlos, Alizander, Boecca, and Tavo follow the golem – Tavo brandishing the Morrowfall before him.

Alfred makes his way back to the room with the spear-trap that was sprung by Slavé, and heads down the hall from whence the Council thieves came. Through several empty rooms later, Alfred comes upon another group of Council thieves, these ones waiting beside a narrow, cramped shaft leading to the first floor below, one of them wielding a noose as if to hook something from the shaft. Realizing five thieves could probably overwhelm him in direct combat, Alfred sickens them all with a stinking cloud and descends through the shaft to the first floor below, finding himself in a narrow secret passage between the outer wall and the rooms of Walcourt. At the bottom of the shaft is a collection of 13 hats of assorted sizes and styles hanging on pegs – none of them radiate magic, and their purpose is unclear.

In the curtained room, Alizander, Carlos, Tavo and Boecca are attacked from secret doors behind the curtains. The Returners make short work of the novice thieves attacking them, and send most of them running. The clay golem smashes through the set of double doors in the room, exiting into Walcourt’s grounds. The other Returners examine the body on the table and realize after some investigation that it is none other than Vassindio Drovenge. The Drovenge patriarch’s lower jaw has been torn away. Tavo determines that the grandfather of Chammady and Ecarrdian Drovenge was tortured for some time before he was finally granted death. The Returners all remark on the strangeness of the room – a torture chamber as one’s first welcome through Walcourt’s front doors.

Treasure

· From the Dark creeper footpads

o Masterwork daggers (10) (worth 1500 gp total)

o Black smear poison (15 doses) (worth 2700 gp total)

· From the Dark stalker guildsmen

o Masterwork short swords (6) (worth 930 gp total)

o +2 Leather armour (3) (worth 6540 gp total)

· From the Council thieves

o Coins and jewelry (worth 900 gp total)

· From D11. Nightmaster’s Office

o Council documents (worth unknown)

· From D10. Daymaster’s Office

o Council documents (worth unknown)

· From D15. Council Chamber

o Tinderbox containing magical ash (worth 100 gp for ebony tinderbox; ash unknown)

Experience

· Dark creeper footpads (10) – 12000 xp

· Dark stalker guildsmen (2) – 9600 xp

· Novice thieves (4) – 1600 xp

· Council thieves (3) – 2400 xp

· Wasp arrow traps (2) – 12800 xp

· Cone of cold trap – 12800 xp

· Spiked pit trap – 6400 xp

· Total – 57600 xp

· Per PC – 9600 xp

Current XP Total per PC

· Carlos, Slavé – 101,902 xp

· Alfred – 99,347 xp

· Boecca – 99,327 xp

· Tavo – 95,257 xp

· Alizander – 93,917 xp

· Fame Points - 21