Participants:
Allen - Ryan G
Anaris - Brian H
Azool - James T
Dundee - Johnny L
With Zain still meditating, Bryseis still nursing her sore throat and Vilroy praying to Saint Ardenn for guidance on the recent horrors he faced. The rest of the Champions of the Obscene set off to finish off their personal errands in the City of Stromford.
As they are a bout to leave, they met a retainer from House Carravone to meet with Elisa Carravone. Elisa had decided to allow the party access to the House Carravone's armory to reward their efforts in dealing with the Hobgoblins that almost succeeded in conquering the Town of Farswell and other neighboring villages. For those that did not picked a weapon, Elisa used her personal connections and introduced the party to some tutors.
During this period of time, Azool learned that Sir Traynor has been sent to the City's fortified prison island in situated in the middle of the river within Stromford itself. After paying a visit to the Carravone mansion, Terrence Carravone sent a retainer to accompany Azool into the prison. There Azool found that Sir Traynor has been badly tortured and is in no condition to speak to him. Azool wanted to dig out more information from Sir Traynor but felt the presence of the prison wardens and the Carravone retainer to be rather inconvenient.
He then later seek an audience with Terrence to inquire about the status of the "mercenaries" the party found within the wooded areas east of Stromford. Terrence informed him that the mercenaries got away by the time his soldiers arrived. Azool criticized the nobles of being inefficient to which Terrence retorted that they could not rush into this blindly without adequate preparation. Azool questioning methods were brash and antagonized the Carravone nobles greatly. Terrence having little patience left in him, bade Azool farewell and Azool left to regroup with the rest of the party.
Meanwhile, Dundee visited Restaurant Rordon Gamsay to find out what happened to his shipmate David Samgee. Arriving just in time only to see his friend being dragged away by the City Guards. Dundee learn from the City Guards that David has been sent to jail for owing Rordon Gamsay a thousand gold pieces and failing to pay off his debts or show up for work. A waitress coming out of the restaurant whispered something into Rordon's ears and the halfling chef look extremely perplex.
Dundee sensed an opportunity and asked Rordon if he could be of assistance. Rordon pondered for a moment and came out with a list of items he needs help with. All of the items are not so easily procured and require the party to do some legwork to retrieve. The most crucial of all is that these ingredients must arrive in Stromford fresh and unharmed.
- Black Cattle from Longfield Village
- Live Giant Frogs
- Fresh Cockatrice Eggs
Dundee himself found a cattle driver in the refugee camps while Anaris found Mister Garland, the traveling merchant the party met a month ago in Farswell.
Elsewhere in the military training grounds. Allen spent his time training or on the trees plucking out the leaves of the tree until it was completely bare. His behavior left several soldiers at the camp stumped, even the archery trainer wondered why Elisa introduced this weird elf to him.
Anaris exasperated by his wizard trainer lack of "useful" spells for him to learn, return to the tavern and look through the ancient scroll that his colleague given to him. He found two scripts both which cannot be read and placed the parchment in front of a mirror to see if there is a code. Indeed, he discovered that the smaller text is written in common which itself is a puzzle.
While traveling within the City itself, Anaris bumped into an elven woman in regal blue robes which caused some minor misunderstanding. Anaris was accused by being a pervert for brushing into the lady's bosoms and then as a stalker for following the elf lady into a dark alley way. Anaris finally realized that may be a purpose to all this.
Returning to the tavern later the day, he found a crumpled note stuffed into his robes, which instructed him to visit the Pleasure Palace. Fearing this might be a trap, Anaris requested Azool to accompany him. Allen bored of plucking leaves off a tree, followed after them while Dundee decided to rest early.
The trio visited the Pleasure Palace and found there appears to be nothing threatening within it. All they found were voluptuous females of most races as well as some well built men wearing scant clothes. As Azool had no preference, the parlor got him a Dwarven maiden. Anaris asked to "loosen his muscles". Soon they each were lead into separate rooms and given a relaxing and comfortable massage which ended an hour later. Anaris was expecting something more and was stumped as to what all these fuss might have been.
While putting on his robes, he found another scroll case tucked into his sleeves. Anaris walked towards the reception area and found his companions waiting for him. As the night is still young, the trio wandered around the entertainment district and found another bard performing nearby. The bard used her bardic magic to enhance her musical performance tremendously in a surreal manner, the crowd went wild and threw coins at the makeshift stage. After the crowd has dispersed, Anaris approached the performer and introduced himself. He learn that the bard is Arianna Moonsong and asked if she is interested in tutoring an apprentice. Arianna informed Anaris she would consider it and the two exchange address of the taverns they are staying in and then parted.
While traveling back to the Horny Goat, the trio heard a scream and a young feminine voice yelling, "THIEF!" and ran forward to investigate. Arriving at the scene, they see a cloaked figure speeding away, heading towards the canal. The figure leap into the canal and landed on the platform and ran towards the sewer entrance that connected to the canal. Azool and Allen gave chase.
Anaris decided to approach the victim and found that it was a young girl in her teenage years with her mules pulling a cart. She is dressed in familiar attire from the Collegium of Magic. The teenager broke out in tears as she feared she would be punished by her mentor. Anaris thought that the streets could be dangerous at night and decided to escort the fledgling wizard to her residence. While his hawk familiar was dispatched to get Dundee to help them out.
After Anaris sent the poor girl home, he met up with the rest of the party outside the sewer entrance. As they stepped into it, a warm pungent odor wafts across them. The smell of decomposing organic matter and raw sewage assaulted their olfactory senses so much it made it so difficult to breath. Anaris tore out rags from his old robes and wet them, the party then used the wet rags as a mask to filter out the horrible stench that permeates the sewers.
This time Allen succeeded in finding the foot prints of the thief, the party trudged through the filthy labyrinth of the City sewers following the tracks. While following the tracks, the party also picked up several crystalline objects that pulsed with soft blue glow. The party deduced that the thief must have dropped this while making a run. Eventually after passing by several junctions and a trap that fire javelins at them, the party arrived at a circular stairwell that leads to the surface. . The stairwell is filled with iron sconces. The party noticed something amiss and discovered that all the torches were made of iron and were welded to the sconces except for one sconce.
They investigate the sconce and found it had threads within it and there were buttons or teeth within it that acted as some form of mechanisms. At first the party tried nudging the empty sconce but that didn't work. They later used the empty sconce as a mold to create a key. But that did not work either. They then climb the stairs to the surface and found that it lead to a cellar of a residence. Breaking into the residence, they searched the pantry, living room and found nothing that would fit into the empty sconce. Allen climbed to the second level and found the sleeping quarters, sneaking into the rooms, he searched the tables and cupboards for anything unusual. But all he managed to find are worker clothes and a strange leathery sheath shaped to encase a cylinder like object.
Finding nothing, the party went back to the wall section of the sconce. There they pushed and probed but could not budge the wall which they believe to be a door. Dundee then cast meld with stone and passed into the stonewall. Coming to the other side, he realized there is also another empty sconce that requires a "key". At the other side he saw a solid metal door at the end of long corridor.
Casting Meld with Stone, Dundee returned to his companions and informed them what he saw. He proposed that he use Meld with Stone and have everyone meld through to raid the thieves hideout. However the rest of the party was concerned that they may end up in trouble with no way to escape and thus did not take up on his suggestion. The party continued to pull, tug, rotate, nudge the empty sconce at the stairwell to no avail for at least another hour or so.
Exasperated, it dawn on them that they might need the actual key to activate the mechanisms. The party then backtracked to the sewers. They found that the trapped section of the sewers to be much larger with pressure plates extending to almost section of the entire corridor. Thinking there has to be a better way to go about doing this. The party went back to the central chamber where all the raw sewage, refuse and debris is gathered. While they were there, they saw something shining through the sludge and filth.
The party stuck their hands in the search through the heaps of refuse and managed to find some coins. But while doing so, they awaken the sleeping monster that is hidden within the refuse. It sprang out with its spiked tentacles slashing around. It struck Azool but the barbarian stood strong and the party retaliated. Now fully emerged from the garbage, the monster lashed out at Azool again while its massive maw opened wide and its teeth tore into Azool's thick midriff. But the large monster is no match for the four Champions of the Obscene. Anaris's firebolts singeing off parts of the tentacles while Azool's greatsword tore off chunks of flesh off the monster's body.
After dispatching the terribly ugly monster, the party resume digging through the refuse. An hour passed but all the party could uncover was several coins and some gem stones. Dundee is absolutely certain the key MUST be here somewhere and stuck his hands clawing through the muck furiously. Another hour passed and the party uncovered even more coins and some precious stones.
This time Dundee seems to be strangely obsessed about finding the key, so much that finding the treasure does not interest him anymore. He dug and dug and found more coins and even a filthy box. Opening the box, the party found small figurines carved out of turquoise. It turns out that digging through shit could be rather lucrative in Stromford. But by then the party is covered in slimy sludge from head to toe. Dundee's beard is wet and matted with slime and there are bits of solid faeces stuck to his beard.
Tired of digging through the disgusting muck, the party looked around while resting and found a cupboard propped up in the corner of the central chamber. Desperate Dundee whipped out a key he found earlier in the house above and approached the cupboard cautiously with his shield drawn. He thought to himself, this key might open this cupboard that leads to the key that would fit into the sconce!
As he draws closer, the cupboard doors fling open revealing a set of nasty teeth and pseudopod lashed out at the dwarf. Although momentarily surprised, the four Champions are far too seasoned for this monster to prey on and wailed on it furiously. It was not long before the mimic monster is laying dead in its own pool of purple ichor mixed with raw foul smelling sewage.
The party then gathered up decaying and rotting furniture and tied them to a bundle. Dragging it around the sewers until they came upon the trapped area again, the party pushed the lump of wrecked furniture into the pressure plates and triggered the traps. Javelins fired again and got stuck to the front of the improvised weighted plow. The party continued to explore this section of the sewers and found even more traps. This time, Dundee cast meld with stone on Allen and had the ranger go ahead to scout. Allen walk right into the stone wall and stuck only his face out on the other side to observe.
He witness scores of hunchback humanoids with rodent like heads and they have only three toes. The strange humanoids were squeaking among themselves. Allen returned to the party and informed the rest what he saw. Physically and mentally exhausted and covered in stomach churning gunk, the party stared at the stonewalls that are dripping with foul smelling liquid while blankly contemplating what their next move shall be....
Return to the sobbing apprentice mage and inform her that they only found three of the stolen items? Or continue pursuing the miscreants to the ends of the earth?
Campaign logs with details can be found here.
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