Welcome
Alamar
We wondered around the caverns below the Derro section of the city until we found a large cavern with two multi-tiered mesas. One held a large red egg, which I immediately assumed to be a red dragon egg given my recent memorable encounter (thankfully, not a CLOSE encounter) with one. The other held a derro woman conducting some kind of ritual. She appeared to “summon” a shiny object of some kind, reacted joyfully, and made notes in a book.
Session map
I spent most of the last year in a sanitorium. They thought my obsession with black sand was unhealthy. Fools. They only taught me to shut up about it. I see a bright new future in carbon trading! By regulating the burning of fuel, the church can tax absolutely everything! Transportation, farming, even lighting your home at night! Ahem. Where was I?
After they let me out, I took a role with the church running a small gambling operation in partnership with the temple of Crom. The deal was simple: Crom runs the fights, I hold the bets and set the odds. I did very well for myself. The rest of the group split up to tend to their various activities and industries. We agreed to meet in Eastdale after I retrieved the device intended to trap the gibbering mouther. (And what a pain that was – it required the whole wagon, when the roads could even support a wagon, and once we left the roads for the forest we were reduced to a rope sling between two mules and a LOT of porters.)
Before we could use the entrance we found, a crazed halfling called to us from the other side of the moat wanting a boat ride. We brought him over to the island once we realized it was Sanfire, a fellow member of the Glorious Blades And Hammer. We descended into the area below the floating tower.
Within, a large room with several wall sconces holding candles on top of skull pyramids. The large room had smaller rooms off to one side, and a floor covered with black sand that seemed to be magically (?) drawn into pits. One of the rooms had similar sconces holding skeletal men in fetal position. One of them seemed to still live, asking for water, but was not helped when he got it. Then, a sigil of some kind flashed, and he returned to the fetal position and said no more.
Session map
Lyrian had a damaged sword and no funds to repair it. I offered a loan, but she preferred to look for work in the city instead, a matter in which my own purse – dwindled as it was by inflated city prices and the purchase of a canoe, though not yet completely flat – agreed. We inquired at a noble’s home, who had a package he wished delivered to the temple of Crom. However, he wished it delivered in secrecy and could not show me any documents indicating he had paid proper taxes on the contents, whatever those contents might be, nor did he have the basic courtesy to offer a bribe. We left without employment, which I felt was quite appropriate. Lyrian disagreed.
Of course, as soon as we opened the east door, we were attacked by giant rats driven by a (presumed) wererat with a set of pipes. We fought them off at the cost of all but one of the hirelings; I was out of spells, the two new folks from the Gray Company were badly hurt, and there were more rats on the other side of the door and a wererat we hadn’t even seen yet. Going to mark this one up as a failure; too wounded to continue with a reasonable chance of success. Why Stria and u-Huery ditched me in this sewer I have no idea, but their replacements lack a lot in the toughness department and numbers just aren’t helping. That said, we did clear out quite a few rats. Attrition will have an effect on the enemy too.
Session map
Staying at the Druid and Whale proved profitable. We shared our tale with several strangers who happened to share our table, and they committed themselves to the cause. Apparently this is quite the inn for adventurers, as we were also able to find a number of souls willing to sign up to help for a fee. Sadly, none of them possessed silver weaponry. We would need to improvise. I sold Frederick’s cache of treasure, which he apparently stored in his boot and forgot about, to help fund our expedition. The money paid for a silver dagger and a silver handaxe for our new companions, along with a canoe, which was by far the most expensive item. We also bought barrels and scrap wood to make a raft. The weapons would take time to prepare, so we made arrangements to return in the morning. Feeling paranoid after hearing reports of a rat from the kitchen, I insisted we move to a different inn. We visited the Howling Knight, which was filled with shadows and shadowy characters. We tried the Elf and Lamb after that, an interesting place with an open courtyard in the center surrounded by walls.
A strange man named Roger joined us in the sewers. He seems pleasant enough, and a fine warrior, albeit short a few of his marbles. We told him of our plans for the crocodile and he was in favor.
The alligator fell to our blades and my mace, and quickly, despite the size of the beast. I give thanks to Denara’s blessing for that. We struggled to haul the creature’s body to the surface, but eventually succeeded. There, we found it was already twilight, and our makeshift carrying mechanism seemed inferior to simply fetching the wagon. That’s where it all went wrong…
Alamar
We went poking around the section of the city where the derro are supposed to stay, and where our particular derro might have a home or someplace we could find him or at least we could wander around hoping to see him by chance, which is what we ended up doing after paying street urchins to look for our derro while they urched. Some of them had seen him, but not recently, or at least that’s what they told us. It’s what I would tell a bunch of strangers spreading money around looking for a neighbor, so it’s not unexpected. We went all the way to fhe far end of the main street – conveniently, only one street in derro slums – and turned around to come back. On the way back we noticed a cave entrance hidden off to one side, and because we were bored, decided to explore it. It had some water, a couple side caves we are definitely too big to explore, and another side cave filled with strange bones arranged in ritual patterns and one of our fellow former prisoners who wanted us to worship him? Weird. We killed him instead. No regrets.
Session map
We ended up fighting the wererats, of course. Because of course they were wererats. We did manage to get some additional information from their spokesrat first, though. They worship Arimaniux, a sewer god who was thought to be eradicated 30 years ago. Their nefarious plan appears to be to nap kids (more sinister than it sounds!) and raise them to worship their god of filth. Probably infect them with lycanthropy, too. I trid to reassure the kid we wouldn’t sell him, but the wererats have good ears. They warned us off going north, into their territory, so of course u-Heury did exactly that. I stepped forward as well, as did Landon. We both killed our share of rats; I saved Landon from a nasty bite by killing the rat about to sink it’s teeth into him.
Session map
We collected our gear from the wagon and headed back towards the cellar, stopping on the way to chat with a weaponsmith. I had him mount the two dragon scales that were Frederick’s legacy to a warhammer, which I will carry in his name. The smith swears the scales will have no effect on the hammer’s actual function, but I am not so sure. Surely a blow from a dragon’s scales is more potent than one without such materials! Tis a pity Frederick could not have slain the dragons rather than merely driving them off.