Session 76 - Breaking the Silence
Above, the party breaks into a house and finds a family drowned in their own blood. Below, in the Riverworks, Silk warns Dristuul a capture order is out on him, assassins spring from the dark, and a tortured mage whispers the name of an organisation tied to the mysterious symbol — The Cradle. Ink scouts ahead into a cavern and finds they are not alone.
The House Above
- The up-top group reached the house, but the others hadn’t arrived yet — they found this weird.
- Nyxara created an opening through the stone wall so they could enter.
- Inside, Nyxara smelled blood while Kailas sensed necromancy.
- They eventually discovered three brutally murdered bodies — a man, woman, and child. There were no visible wounds, but blood had escaped from their eyes, ears, nose and mouth.
- Korin recognized the poison as crawler mucus and decided to take the evidence to the Customs Office.
Below the City
- Meanwhile, under the city, the other group was still trying to follow the coordinates when suddenly Silk revealed herself to Dristuul.
- She had come to warn him that the guild had issued a capture order for him, and urged him to run.
- Dristuul hesitated, thanked Silk for her loyalty, and returned to the task at hand.
Into the Riverworks
- The group found an old drainage gate leading further underground. Dristuul dissolved the hinges with acid, though the gate made a lot of noise when it fell.
- Jaruul triggered a dart trap, and the group discovered several more traps along the way.
The Ambush
- Deeper inside the caves, the group was ambushed by assassins.
- Jaruul was badly injured, but the group managed to defeat them and capture a mage.
- During the interrogation, the mage refused to talk at first.
- The group resorted to torture — Dristuul broke one of his fingers and ripped off a fingernail.
- Eventually, just before Dristuul broke his knee, the mage revealed that they belonged to an organisation connected to the mysterious symbol the group had found earlier, though he didn’t know much about it.
- He had heard them mention something called “The Cradle.”
- Dristuul marked the mage’s forehead before ultimately letting him go.
- The group continued deeper into the caves, disabling more traps along the way.
- Ink scouted ahead and entered a large cavern — where it discovered that they’re not alone.
The Cavern Ambush
- Ink scouted the cave and found multiple enemies.
- After some discussion, the trio decided to set some traps and prepare for an ambush.
- Preparation done, Sneid Arkmos used the voice of one of the deceased mages to call for help, luring the unsuspecting enemies.
- The ambush worked and the party got an early attack on the assassins.
- Dristuul and Sneid Arkmos made short work of one mage and one assassin, while the third gets scared by an illusion.
- After consulting with Ink, Sneid found out that four more men were moving into the cave, and shared the information.
- Another group entered the meat grinder — two of them dispatched quickly, while the third ran away.
- The last man standing gave a bit more fight, hitting Dristuul two times. Right after that, Sneid Arkmos took a nap.
- Jaruul and Dristuul finished off the last member of the second search party.
- The member who had run back got shot by, assumedly, his superior:
“STOP. It’s clearly a trap — barricade the cave!”
- Ink passed this information to the group, and a new plan was formulated — Sneid Arkmos would hold the stalemate and make sure no one left, while the rest of the party went back for the others.
The Party Reunites
- On the other half of the party, Korin broke the bad news to Seln Varro. Halfway through the heartfelt talk, Jaruul and Dristuul arrived back from the elevator and tried to explain the situation.
- The explanations weren’t the best — chaos ensued — but Korin and the rest of the party decided to follow the two.
- Nyxara saw how ragged Jaruul and Dristuul were and decided to heal them.
- There was some difficulty figuring out the order for the 3-person elevator, but the party eventually reached an agreeable resolution — Korin, Nyxara and Kylas would go first.
- After many screams, the three arrived at the bottom; Korin and Kailas were holding on to each other very closely when this happened.
Dristuul’s Detour
- On the second round, Dristuul jumped out of the elevator right after pulling the lever, sending Jaruul down alone.
- He revealed to Seln Varro that his past was coming back to bite him, and that he should tell the others that he went back to Drar to deal with unfinished business.
- Dristuul found a tavern, and not much later three hooded figures approached him:
“You are under arrest for the murder of a member of the Black Senate.”
- He was then taken by these figures — with no binds or chains — to be judged.