Mysterious Behavior - Group 1, Session 2 Report

When we last left our band of intrepid adventurers, three of their number: Osric the human fighter, Raelin the dwarven cleric, and Endrin, the dwarven sorcerer were being escorted away from the front of Morrikarn Manor by nice gentlement with halberds after being invited to spend a pleasant evening in the Iron Bar Hotel. Hestia, the halfling barbarian, Ahronelle, the elven rogue, and Dayve, the goblin alchemist returned to the inn to sleep in more comfortable surroundings.

In the morning, Dayve paid a visit to the city guard's headquarters and, after explaining that the incarcerated trio had a habit of getting drunk and claiming to be police specialists in whatever town they went to -- and promising that they wouldn't do so again while in Karnstown -- he managed to arrange for the three to be released. The four then returned to the inn to figure out their next move.

At noon, a rather terse summons from the Karn: a note that simply said, "Tankard and Plate. Sundown", helped inform their schedule for the day. Arriving at the restaurant at the appointed time, they went through the same weapon turnover / body search process as they had the first time they met the Karn, and took their seats across the table from where Jadrick Karn was enjoying another new, interesting plate of food. This one, he called, "dough pillows with meat and cheese, and red sauce". Dayve noted happily that the entire top of the serving was covered with shaved hard cheese - the chef really had taken his advice! He was only sorry that there weren't plates of food before the six adventurers.

The Karn reminded them that they were to be discrete and careful about dealing with "family members". He was, of course, aware of their run-in with the city watch the night before, and he made it clear that this should not happen again. The party explained to him, though, that indications were that somebody in Fenric Morrikarn's house - if not Fenric himself - was involved in the poisoning/cursing of the East Market Well. They explained how they had seen the gremlin drop the offending packet of goo into the well, and had followed him back to a hole that apparently led to the basement of Morrikarn Manor. They had even brought with them a bucket containing the two packets of offending material that they had fished out of the well so far.

The Karn considered this, and reminded the party yet again of the need for discretion and the need to keep any family members alive for his personal questioning. They were quite relieved, though, to hear that the Karn wouldn't have a problem if the group found it necessary to access the house itself by non-standard means... as long as it was done quietly. The evening ended with the group dismissed by the Karn. Endrin stayed at the restaurant to eat. Four others returned to the inn to find a good supper. Dayve returned to the inn by way of the docks to gather up a tasty bucket of discarded fishheads for his evening meal (the eyeballs are the best part).

That night, the party was back at the well. Their plan was to stake it out a little more effectively now that they had an idea of the direction the gremlin may take if the well were going to be contaminated yet again. Two of the party: Ahronelle and Hestia went to the grounds behind Morrikarn Manor to stake out the shrub and hole beneath it where the gremlin would likely appear. And sure enough, the gremlin appeared. Ahronelle and Hestia watched it emerge and dash off... and moments later dash back and disappear again. Dayve was unable to stop the creature that ran right past him once... and over him on the return trip. It seemed to be moving faster than such a tiny thing should be capable of. The goo packet had once more been dropped in the well. While Raelin and Osric stayed at the well, Dayve and Endrin followed the creature to the manor house where they rejoined Hestia and Ahronelle.

It was decided to enter the house to see if they could quietly find the basement where obvious ill doings were taking place. Ahronelle and Endrin would enter the house to search for a basement while Dayve and Hestia would remain outside to watch for the city guard. Upon entering the house, Endrin searched rooms to the left side of the center hall while Ahronelle quietly padded her way through rooms on the right side. Endrin searched a Reception Room, Ballroom and Dining Room before finding a stairway down in the Pantry. Not wanting to descend alone, he retraced his steps to find Ahronelle.

In the meantime, Hestia had gotten tired of waiting outside, and decided to enter the house as well. She randomly chose a direction and caught up with Ahronelle, who had already searched the Drawing Room and was now in the Library, looking for movable bookcases or some other secret accessway. Ironically, it was Hestia who, while trying to straighten a seemingly off-kilter wall sconce, who discovered the trick to opening the corner wall panel to reveal a staircase leading downward into pitch blackness. The two - neither of whom could see in total dark, nevertheless decided to at least descend the stair to see what was below. At the bottom, the pair remembered that Ahronelle had the Everburning Torch in her backpack; the two took a moment to retrieve it.

Endrin, in the meantime, had made his way to the library, but instead of finding Ahronelle, he spied the still-open section of wall panel in the corner. Investigating, he heard the muffled voices of the two at the bottom of the stairs, and decided to quietly join them. The two, using the Everburning Torch carefully to illuminate little more than a foot or two in front of them, started moving along the corridor at the foot of the stairs. Endrin was a few steps behind, and surprised the two when they stopped at a turning point in the corridor. At that point, it was agreed that Endrin and his darkvision would lead the way, with the other two following close behind without the torch. This proved wise, as they saw upon turning the corner that the long corridor ended in a room well-lit with what appeared to be several braziers.

The three proceeded slowly and silently. Silently, that is, until they were about halfway down the corridor. At that point, Endrin - turning around to ensure the other two were close behind - managed to violently smack the end of his staff against the stone wall of the corridor. The sharp report of wood striking stone was clear to hear, but after a tense moment, there didn't appear to be any response visible at the end of the corridor. The three resumed their slow move toward the light at the end of the tunnel.

Their luck ran out the instant Endrin entered the ring of light - still in the corridor - that was shed by the light sources in the room. As he did this, a human figure leapt into place just beyond the entry and gestured a finger toward the dwarf. A jet of black vapors shot forth from his finger. Along the length of the narrow jet, fingers or tendrils of black vapor writhed randomly, as if seeking purchase on something. The main jet struck Endrin squarely in the chest, but armor and flesh did not stop it. It continued through the dwarf, into and through Ahronelle behind him, and into and through Hestia behind that. The three felt immense pain as if the tendrils along the jet that were within their bodies were grasping and tearing at their insides. In a moment, the jet was gone, but in Ahronelle's case, blood continued to seep out of the entry and exit holes where it had passed through her.

Nevertheless, the elf darted past the still-surprised dwarf with rapier out and managed an extremely well-placed strike with the blade upon the caster that had assaulted them -- the blade that Dayve had treated earlier with centipede venom. Blade and poison definitely had a significant effect upon their victim, but the caster remained on his feet. He reached out to grasp Ahronelle as he reeled backward. Ahronelle felt an icy coldness seep through her as the caster's hand tried to close around her arm, but it did not faze her. Endrin's magical missiles finished off this first attacker as the three party members made their way into the room.

They realized they faced two more opponents - currently in opposite corners of the room. A woman to the left, and Fenric himself to the right were still to be contended with. Hestia and Ahronelle began advancing on the woman, but not before Hestia pumped up her barbarian rage - and Endrin quickly applied some of his magic to improve her accuracy and damage. Fenric also was moving toward the corner where the woman slowly started moving toward the party. A stack of books magically flew off a table, striking Hestia as she approached. A sickly green ray of energy from Fenric also struck the halfling, seeping the rage strength out of her. Despite these, the two made short work of the woman caster before turning to Fenric, aided by magical bolts hurled by Endrin.

Fenric then did something surprising: he drew his rapier and a duelist's dagger and assumed a fencing pose. Hestia leaped forward engage the swordsman. As the two traded blows, Ahronelle maneuvered herself behind Fenric and got in a shot of her own - a shot aided by his being distracted by the halfling. Hestia at this point, remembering that they were not to kill Fenric, assumed her most fearsome "ready to strike" pose - a grim, determined look on her face. She demanded that Fenric surrender. Almost to the surprise of the party, Fenric - faced with a greatsword-wielding halfling whose face was at the same time fiercely frightening and almost comically amusing... a rapier-wielding elf darting around behind him... and a spellcaster standing not far away - decided to surrender. He dropped his weapons and put up his hands.

Ahronelle collected the weapons as Hestia continued to threaten the captive. In short order, the three had him bound up, and were beginning to decide what to do next.

Meanwhile... Osric and Raelin had gotten tired of waiting at the well, and had decided to head toward the Manor. Outside, they met Dayve, who was still keeping an eye out for the city watch. Dayve and Raelin decided to enter the house together, leaving Osric outside on watch. In the center hallway, they randomly chose to head left - and found their way through ballroom and dining hall before entering the pantry. Dayve thought he died (again) and went to heaven as he found himself in a room filled with cheeses of several varieties, pastries, cakes and other baked goods, and various other foods and ingredients. Unfortunately, as Dayve was retrieving a "treat", a porcelain plate slipped and crashed to the stone floor. A light at the top of the servant's stairway in this room told them that somebody had heard this. The two scrambled down the basement steps they had also spied, hoping to hide from whomever was coming to investigate the crash.

They were relieved as the unseen figure could be heard muttering about mice as the pieces of broken plate were cleaned up while they cowered against the sides of the basement stairs in shadows. A few moments later, the sounds of feet on the servants stair once more told them they were safe. At this point, they looked around and realized they were in another kitchen storage area. The winerack caught Raelin's attention. Perhaps he wanted a souvenir, so he decided to take a bottle. Knowing little about wines, he chose randomly, depositing a bottle in his pack. Another quick look around told the two this basement wasn't what they were looking form.

The two retraced their steps to the front door and then moved to the other part of the house. They found the secret stairs in the library, and arrived in the basement lair of Fenric and his associates just as Fenric was being tied up.

A decision was made that Ahronelle would go up to Karn Manor to inform the Karn that his cousin was indeed behind the well-corrupting incidents, and that they had him in custody. She did this, bringing Osric along as well, but it took a while before being allowed into the compound, and a while longer for the Karn to appear. But appear he did, and his most trusted associates were tasked with returning with Ahronelle to "collect" Fenric and clean up the mess. When Ahronelle and the Karn's men returned, the party was summarily dismissed. Taking the strong hints to leave, they started to head back to the inn. But before they left sight of Morrikarn Manor, they did see one of the Karn's men loading a lumpy-looking rolled up blanket into the back of a wagon, and clearly heard the moan released by that blanket when it was dumped off a shoulder and into the cart bed.

The party slept in, and while enjoying a late brunch/lunch at the tavern - and Dayve was out at the docks trying to score another bucket of fishheads - yet another summons to meet the Karn at the Tankard and Plate arrived. When Dayve returned, he mentioned that he had seen what looked like one of the Karn's men rowing a small boat away from the docks, with a forlorn looking Fenric sitting in the back of the boat.

When the party arrived for their meeting with the Karn, they found him once more enjoying an exotic dinner - this one appeared to be made ouf of alternating layers of sheets of the white doughstuff interspersed with layers of meat, cheese, and red sauce. But they were shocked to find that, for the first time, there were plates in front of their chairs, and these plates were also piled high with this not-seen-before delicacy! The Karn thanked them for their service, and informed them that Fenric would no longer be bothering anybody.

As the dinner plates were cleared, and dessert was served - another layered conconction, but this time it was layers of hard cake that had been soaked in kafay along with a kafay-flavored whipped cream. Alongside their dessert plates, pouches of coins were also dropped - payment for their services. Over dessert, though, the Karn explained that Fenric had threatened that "others"... "they" would take revenge for his demise. The party recalled that they too had heard Fenric talk about what "they" would do when they found out he was captured. The Karn explained that, apparently "they" were somewhere in the mountains or forests beyond the mining town of Stannilode in the western foothills of the Iron Mountains. The Karn wanted the party to go deal with whoever "they" were. He added that, since it was highly unlikely that any Karn family members would be living that far out, their needs for discretion and care were significantly less severe. Dayve's grin at hearing this was from ear to ear. The Karn also indicated that if the party wished to "recover" for a few days in town before heading out, that was understandable.

After dinner, the party returned to their inn to recover and plan their next adventure.

The session ended here.

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