Story 11/30

The evening started with Beorn sneaking his way through the city streets trying to get to Codak's place. He manages to get there, but he had to shake a few pillage patrols along the way. Everyone else in the group is waiting in Codak's hideout and they chat a bit. Codak says that now he has met up with Cember and Apolly, he is interested in getting out of the city. He will either stay in his hideout, or make his way out of the city. Joolia says her husband works as a general laborer down at the docks. He does oddjobs but has trouble finding consistent work. He has a good idea of what commodities come through the docks. Joolia tries to sell little odds/ends in the market, but nothing of great value.

Beorn gets the attention of the group, and they let him inside after scouting the area a bit. Beorn's condition is worsening, his sores are growing and he is slowing down. They decide to move to the guard barracks nearby and check things out. They are able to get close, and find black moss growing on the sides of the building. Klon performs a holy spell on the moss, and it fissles a little. They enter the guard barracks and find evidence of a battle.

Looking around the room, they find a chest with 25 heads of city guard, a chest with standard armor and some brand new armor. In the footlockers of soldiers, they find more blue vials, a recipe for something and more brand new armor. Klon finds cloth on the inside of the new armor with a skull and sickle embroidered on it. Khaelis finds a shimmering corner of some paper over on a tackboard, but nothing written on the paper. Beorn opens a chest that has blankets, and underneath the blankets he finds a glowing box with a simple lock. He breaks the lock off, which triggers a mind trap for everyone in the room.

The group is able to solve the trap, which opens the box. In the box they find 12 green vials, a skull and sickle symbol, and a shimmering piece of paper. Aeowyn feels a strong presence to the long dead god that she can't quite remember, and the crushing arcana skill of Erevan reveals that the paper has magic writing on it. It details a recipe for the green vials:

1 clove of garlic (common) 1 flask of white wine (common) 1 handful of alchola beans (common) A few drops of blood from a Wraith (rare) The heart of any hummaniod

After the ingredients are combined, a fairly simple ritual is performed and you get the green vials. The group finds it odd that the recipe they found in the guard footlocker has the same 3 common items, mixed with Embertear (a rare but obtainable substance, think Johnny Walker Black). There is no ritual required for this recipe, just simple instructions. Klon grabs a couple samples of the black moss on their way out.

The group returns to Codak's shack, and show the simple recipe to Cember/Apolly. They recognize it as the stuff in the blue vials with slight modifications. They indicate the blue vials are a drug they used to sell, and slight variations were common. They no longer sell it, because the clientele that used the stuff tended to be a bit, unstable.

The group decides to head towards the guard barracks in the rich neighborhood, passing the market along the way. Near the market, Hawkmoon scouts a robed figure standing over Praesens rotting body, and tons of undead meandering towards the market. They decide to steer clear of that mess, and continue onwards.

They eventually find a small group of pillagers partying in the slums. Beorn overhears them boasting about how they switched the vials, so anyone addicted to the blue stuff, inadvertently drank the green. Beorn/Monashe/Khaelis decide to bluff their way up to the group, with Erevan/Aeowyn/Klon getting ready to ambush. The bluffers find the pillagers drunk and partying. The pillagers notice Beorn isn't doing well, and he says he drank a green vial. They say that he should drink a blue vial to offset the green one. Beorn does, and he feels much better, but knows there will be side effects from when he saw Erevan and Khaelis drink them.

Their leader eventually says he should go get help because Beorn drank the green vial. Monashe tries to convince him to take him with him, and while he is almost convinced of it, he learns of Monashe's wolf. The pillagers were aware (and even sent to find) a group of people disrupting their plans, and they knew that group had a wolf with them. This starts combat.

The group is able to kill 3 of the pillagers, and interrogate the presumed leader (named Melus). He explains that he is part of a medium sized crime organization. His leader received a letter a while back explaining the plot to kill Praesens, and that they could come to Thalstead and keep any loot in the wake of the assassination. He came with 20 or so pillagers, and things have been great. His leader (named Balgug) was last seen at the keep the evening Praesens was killed. He says he and his 3 dead buddies (Sulem, Urka, and Krung) were able to enter the keep last night by saying they were with Balgug, but that was the only time they went into the keep. Erevan eventually finished off Melus.

The group ends the night by heading towards the guard barracks in the rich neighborhood. On their way, they get near-ish the keep, and see black moss is creeping about 15 feet up the keep walls.

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