[Day 2 – Meeting the Starosa and initial investigations]
[This game uses the D&D 5E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened July 10, 2023.]
[SPOILERS! This is part of a published adventure set, Prepared 2: A Dozen One-Shot Adventures for 5th Edition, by Kobold press.]
Player Characters
Blaze Fulmen, Lord Auctor Braccas – male tabaxi (Noble), 6th level Storm Sorcerer; NG
Cecilia Payne – female tabaxi (Outlander), 6th level Circle of Stars Druid; LN
Joe Trade – male human (Guild Artisan), 2nd level Celestial Warlock, 4th level Armorer Artificer; LG
Via Roll20
Donnis Dustdrifter – male human (Investigator), 6th level Shadow Monk; CG
Bjoern Bjoernson – male human (Urchin), 3rd level Totem Warrior Barbarian, 3rd level Circle of Moon Druid; CN
Min – female tabaxi (Hermit), 6th level Mercy Monk; N
Autumn
Day 2
Morning
After a tasty breakfast, the group of interested people [the adventurers] made their way to the Starosa’s office. [Note: Starosa is the title of the mayor of Nogvurot, the large town/small city the adventure takes place in.] This is part of a manor on a hill in town, just east of the town’s bazaar. The guards at the gate seemed to think that the group of 3 tabaxi and 3 humans presenting themselves at the gate were some sort of adventurers and refused to let the PCs in until Lord Blaze used his persuasion skills [and his title]. Lord Blaze explain that the group had witnessed the attack of the bearded devils the night before and were told by the Night Watch to report to the Starosa this morning. The guards still seemed a bit dubious, but decide that obstructing nobility wasn’t the best path and let the group in, summoning some other guards as an escort.
The Starosa’s office was a little bit like a throne room, with a big fancy chair on a raised dais and several guards standing around not quite discretely. The Starosa herself, Enkam, was a human woman and fairly direct. She had read the report from the Night Watch and told Lord Blaze that his group could claim the small reward for stopping the bearded devils or claim a larger reward for solving and, more importantly, stopping a series of murders happening in the town. Lord Blaze looked around at his new companions to check their interest and they all seemed interested in getting paid more, so he accepted on behalf of the group, pulling out a notebook to take notes.
Over the last month and a half, a series of six murders had happened in the Nogvurot, averaging one a week. The victims were of different races, ages, genders, and social classes. The bodies had been found in out of the way places, three in back alleys and three in empty buildings, all in different parts of town. The victims seemed to have been in a ritual, possibly after their death, that turned their internal organs and eyes into a bluish crystal! Captain of the Guard Mekno was heading the investigation, but was not making much headway and the High Alchemist was very busy and not super helpful.
At this point Donnis and Min turned and walked out to go question the Captain of the Guard. [Donnis has a low Charisma and is being played as an abrupt person with little use for social niceties to reflect this.] The duo were followed by a guard. Once outside the Starosa’s office, Donnis asks the guard following them to take them to Captain Mekno. The guard shrugged and did so.
Back in the office, the remaining PCs asked the Starosa questions to get more details about the victims, hoping to spot a pattern or a useful lead. There was little and the attacks seemed random. Bjoern asked if the bodies were available to examine, and the Starosa stated they were being kept in a cold room on the premises. Bjoern asked to be taken there so he could look for clues. The Starosa had a guard take him and Cecilia and Joe followed.
This left Lord Blaze and the Starosa in the office. Lord Blaze offered to share what news he had heard from the previous city he had been in and the Starosa accepted his offer. Tea was brought around and a comfortable chair for Lord Blaze so the two could talk [read: gossip about other nobility].
Elsewhere, Donnis and Min met with Captain Mekno in the captain’s office. The captain showed them a map of the town with the murder sites labeled. Donnis asked for and received the order the victims were found, making his own notes. The duo also learned that there were chalk marks on the ground near several of the victims but no one had copied them. Also, some of the sites were no longer preserved as they were paths people took to get through the town. Donnis immediately asked to be taken to one of the preserved sites so he could observe it.
In the cold room, Bjoern, Cecilia, and Joe examined the bodies of the victims. They determined that the wounds suggested the attacker was short, shorter than the bearded devils. Joe, with assistance from Cecilia, determined that the person stabbing the victims was using a slim blade, similar to a dagger, and was not very proficient with the weapon. Finally, Joe identified the type of crystal as Kyanite, a type of stone good for magical energy storage. Looking into the bodies, he also learned that the transformation not only turned their organs and eyes to kyanite, it also transformed their bones. Strangely, the only organ missing was the heart from each victim, which were removed with minimal damage to the body, indicating great skill.
Stepping outside the cold room, Bjoern cast Animal Messenger, providing Donnis a brief update on their findings via a local bird. Donnis and Min were at the site of the first murder when the bird arrived and stated Bjoern’s message. They questioned the guard with them to learn about the site. It was a house that was abandoned prior to the murder and had been empty for a time. A person with a key had come in to see if anything needed repair and found the body. It seemed to the guard that the victim had been murdered first and then positioned in a circle with markings before the heart was removed. Donnis investigated the still extant chalk markings and identified them as Infernal runes that spelled out “Cage the Soul”.
At about this time, Lord Blaze finished sharing news with the Starosa. She provided him with a Coin of Authority to show that the group was on official business while investigating the murders. He left the Starosa’s office and caught up with Joe, Cecilia, and Bjoern on their way to the first murder site to meet up with Donnis and Min.
Once the entire group was together again, they decided to investigate where they fought the bearded devils the previous night. As they knew how things ended for the young dwarf, they worked backwards, looking for tracks or evidence of the killer. Bjoern wildshaped into a bloodhound and followed the scent trail of the bearded devils while Cecilia and Min followed the tracks of the young dwarf, Joe providing Guidance.
The young dwarf tracks went back to the amphitheater the play was in the previous night. He had left the amphitheater at the end of the play and went through the side alley to avoid heavy foot traffic on the main street. He was surprised in the alley and then fled, which is when the investigators saw him.
The devil scent trail went back to the spot where the dwarf was surprised and then led up. Lord Blaze made use of his boots of flying to lift Bjoern the bloodhound to the nearest roof, where Bjoern picked the scent trail back up. It led along the edge of the building facing the alley the dwarf had started down, suggesting they were waiting for him to get to a more secluded spot before jumping down to attack him.
Tracking back from there, Bjoern followed the trail to the side of the building, where Lord Blaze had to lower him back down to the ground. From there, Bjoern followed their trail north through back alleys and side streets, crossing two major thoroughfares, until he reached the origin point, a courtyard on the north side of town near the docks. The courtyard was the location the bearded devils had been summoned and they had made a near direct line to the south side of town to find the young dwarf and attack him. This did not seem random but a planned attack.
It was late morning at this point, so the group started knocking on doors of the residences around the courtyard to see if anyone had heard anything the night before. This turned up nothing useful for the investigation, but they did find a gnome who became very nervous when the group identified themselves as being on Starosa business.
Lord Blaze pushed his way in and had the others search the home. Instead of evidence of demonology or any kyanite hearts, they instead found a large stash of elfin pipe weed [an illegal drug in the city] and smoking pipes. After some questioning, it became clear that this was what made the gnome nervous and he was expecting the group to take some of his weed and leave. Lord Blaze [whose name became somewhat a double entendre at this point] was the last to realize this and made a terrible attempt at subtly stealing some of the stash [noticed by everyone] before leaving. Bjoern, still in bloodhound form, grabbed a very fancy looking smoking pipe [very expensive and very illegal] in his mouth on the way out and gave it to Lord Blaze. Lord Blaze cleaned it immediately with Prestidigitation and then tucked it away for later use.
Back in the courtyard, Joe cast Detect Magic to see if there was any residue from the demon summoning. He found none, suggesting either a low level summoning spell or not a spell. Puzzling.
The group left the area and went to a nearby tavern for lunch and to compare notes [and take a short rest].
End of session
Commentary
[Much running around and collecting facts. After we had officially stopped for the night, Min’s player suggested she carve a wooden heart as a go-by so that Cecilia could cast Locate Object and find one or more Kyanite hearts. Clone GM 1 allowed this and had her roll – it was a 25, so a very good likeness of a heart.]
[Clone GM 1 is doing well as a first time GM. He’s having some issues with the presentation of information being a little scattershot, but that seems to be an issue with the writing in the adventure he is running. I’ve had similar issues with published adventures and learned to either re-write them or use sticky notes to provide concise bullet point lists for easy descriptive reference. He’s also probably reading this, so “Hey, Adam!”]
Hell Comes a’Glittering
Last session: Session 1 and 2
Next session: Session 4
