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5 Dierdos 1120 Trouble Brewing
Aria and Strontium spent the first days of the new year in rented rooms interviewing prospective additions to their new team. The pickings were slim. Most of the people who came to apply were either too inexperienced or too mercenary in their outlook for the pair's liking. The did come across one find: Audas Taius, a warlock, seemed to have the right combination of skills and experience to fit into the new group. Midmorning on 5 Dierdos, a messenger from the Adventurers' Guild found the group and asked them to come to the guild house. There they were ushered into one of the negotiation rooms where they were introduced to two men. One was Caenus, a totem warrior from the wolf tribe of Ursair. The other was a much older man who introduced himself as Nedrick. Nedrick sought the services of an adventuring group with an understanding of magical matters to search for his partner, Leopold, who had disappeared on the evening of the New Year's festival. Leopold was an elderly man, long since retired from active adventuring, but had once been quite a powerful wizard. He and Nedrick were partners in a shop in the trade sector that sold alchemical goods and minor magic items. The night after Leopold's disappearance, the shop's alarm spells were triggered by an attempt at entry. The would-be burglars escaped unseen, but the following night a far more violent break-in took place. The shop was trashed and nearly everything in it broken or spilled. Nedrick took an inventory of the mess and found that Leopold's working spell books had been taken along with a handful of potions: three of lesser restoration and two water breathing. Neighbors awakened by the noise saw three merrow (aquatic ogres) and the shadowy figure of an old man, too far away to recognize in the dark. A third incident had happened just before dawn that morning in the northeast warehouses. Three merrow, accompanied by an old woman, had broken into a warehouse of exotic magical materials and components and vandalized the place. Casks and boxes were broken, vials shattered, and the contents of every container dumped and spread all over the place. The damage was such that no accounting had been made yet, so there was no telling what had been taken if anything. Caenus had been working security in the warehouse area -- part of an increased presence since recent events (Help Wanted) -- and had killed one of the merrow himself before being incapacitated by some kind of magical effect and a blow to the head. Nedrick was concerned. He asked the party to find his friend Leopold. Since the presence of merrow at his shop and the warehouse suggested a connection between the events, he included Caenus in the proposition. Nedrick offered the party 2000gp to find Leopold. Strontium asked Nedrick about the possibility of his coming along, since the group lacked any kind of healer at the moment. Nedrick declined citing his age, but lent the party a valuable magic item: his Rod of Health. Furthermore, he pledged that if the party brought Leopold back alive they could keep the Rod. They began by examining the shop for clues. The place had indeed been thoroughly trashed. The party saw the workroom where the spellbooks had been, and Nedrick informed them that those had been Leopold's working copies; he had master copies in a secure location, and those copies were undisturbed. He also mentioned that Leopold had recently been in contact with officials from the Lord Mayor's office, possibly in connection with the recently announced expansion project. Leopold, Nedrick explained, had been involved in the preparation of the decks for the last expansion. A canvas of the neighborhood turned up little else. Neighbors had seen the shadowy figure of an old woman at the house during the breaking as well as the old man. The woman was described as ancient and ugly. The thugs were definitely merrow, large brutish creatures with no subtlety or art to their ways. Strontium expressed his suspicion that the old man was Leopold, and that the mage had been taken over by a tsochar. At the dropping of the word 'tsochar' Nedrick turned visibly white and trembly. The party hadn' t made the connection, but this was the same Nedrick mentioned in the journal pages of Eidemon, which related the Brothers of Haimen's encounter with tsochari in the northern sea some 35 years before. They compared notes on the tsochari but all that Nedrick knew about them had already been set down in the journal. Still, his hopes for finding his friend alive seemed all but dead. With no better lead to go on the party focused on the merrow, a humanoid form unusual even in the seedier parts of Marhaven. A few gold pieces and the right questions got them the tip that anyone using merrow as goons would likely be reachable through the Dogs Watch, a disreputable bar in the oldest, seamiest part of the trade sector. The group headed over to the Dogs Watch to see what they could learn about merrow in the city. It took little effort for them to notice that they were conspicuously cleaner and better dressed than most of the bar's patrons. Strontium addressed the bartender (a muscular, tattooed woman with a wispy moustache) and was gruffly pointed in the direction of two surly-looking merfolk men at the end of the bar. The wizard approached the men with Caenus at his side while Aria and Audas watched from the other end of the bar. The first merman looked at Strontium with contempt even as the dwarf made his initial overtures. Strontium tried a stronger approach: he held out a few gold pieces in one hand and let the other crackle with magic missile energy. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way," he said. Perhaps the merman resented the implied threat in the wizard's speech. Or maybe he was just in the mood for a fight and figured Strontium to be an easy beatdown. Whatever his motivations, the merman chose the hard way -- with one hand outstretched to receive gold, he used the other to bring his wooden tankard crashing down on Strontium's head. The ale-splatterd wizard responded with his readied magic missile spell as Caenus took out his spiked chain and narrowly missed the merman's companion, who was drawing a rapier. From his end of the bar Audas sent an eldritch blast flying between the men. Aria saw a sea kith with a dagger drawn taking a flanking position behind Strontium. As she moved to warn her companion, an arrow came flying out of the shadows at the back of the room and pierced the sea kith's neck. The creature grunted and fell dead. Strontium heard the noise and glanced back to see a young woman in leathers with a composite shortbow in hand, quietly watching the fight while she casually reached for another arrow. Aria jumped on top of the bar and charged into the fray. She landed a Stunning Fist blow on the arrogant merman and dropped him to the floor handily. Caenus dispached his friend with a deft strike of his chain. Strontium saw three more sea kith scrambling out from under a table to engage them and greeted the lead one with another magic missile set while Audas fried another with an eldritch blast. Despite the heavy damage the sea kith were brave enough -- or perhaps drunk enough -- to continue to charge. Strontium used a blast of force to send the pieces of another sea kith flying back across the room. That convinced the final kith that the cause was lost and sent it scuttling through the bar's doors as fast as its little legs could move. The woman in the corner watched it go with an amused expression on her face. While his teammates secured the unconscious merman and checked the bodies, Strontium approached the woman with the bow with wary friendliness. Her name was Inari, she told him, and noted that he and his friends were clearly not regulars in this part of town. He gave her a brief description of their purpose at the bar and was asking about hiring her as a guide when his teammates called out with a discovery: each of the mermen bore a tattoo on the chest of a lidless eye beneath a wavy line. Inari confirmed that the tattoo was the mark of the Servants of the Beast Below. It was something of an open secret that the Servants of the Beast had become increasingly active of late. "Like rats" is how Inari described them. Caenus dragged the unconscious merman across the floor to a back room, thumping the captive's head enough to bring him around for questioning. Strontium and Caenus executed a highly effective good cop/bad cop strategy that left the merman squirming in his bonds and yammering. The merrow, he told them, had been brought in by the old woman and the old man. One was dead but two more remained. The gang was quartered in a sailmaker's shop in the oldest part of town. Inari knew the place and agreed to conduct the party there for 50gp. Caenus released the captive and the party allowed him to flee with his life. Inari led the group to the shop. Aria checked out the area below from the water and reported that there was a large hole in the floor that looked both recent and roughly made. They debated using the hole as an entry point but opted instead for the back door. With Inari in the lead they crept forward. Inari checked the door for traps, found none, and quietly picked the lock. The door creaked slightly as it opened and the party found the two merrow waiting for them with huge spears at the ready. Strontium sent a blast of force at the nearest merrow but the creature's size allowed it to resist the pushing force. Audas used his eldritch blast to follow up on the same creature while Inari and Aria moved to engage the second. While they focused on the big monsters, an old woman -- a sea hag -- quietly emerged from the hole in the floor and made her presence felt by her horrific appearance. Strontium sent a blast of force at the hag and sent her flying backward and into the hole with a splash. The merrow jabbed at Aria and Caenus with their massive spears in an even exchange of blows. Audas and Inari backed them up with eldritch blast and arrow attacks. The going was slow but the merrow were clearly wearing down. Then a pair of magic missiles came streaking at Strontium. The wizard turned to see an old man, dripping wet, emerging from the hole in the floor. His instincts told him this was Leopold, despite the weak nature of the spell used on him. When the hag appeared again behind the mage, things looked grim indeed. Caenus felled the first merrow with a mighty swing of his chain and turned his attention to the new opponents. The mage responsed by casting reduce person on the warrior, which reduced the reach of his chain as well as his body. He attacked and hit the hag anyway, even as the hag bit Inari. Aria continued to trade blows with the second merrow. She got backup assistance from Audas in the form of an eldritch blast that took the weakened monster down. As the merrow fell she turned her attention to the mage. Inari had already hit the mage with several arrows and Caenus with his chain, but the mage showed no signs of serious injury. He didn't even bleed from his fresh wounds. Thus it was no surprise to Aria or Strontium when long blue-black tentacles emerged from the wizard's back and lashed out at Caenus and Aria. They dared the creature to show itself, knowing that the dead body of Leopold was providing a measure of physical protection. Finally, after a few failed attacks with a flaming sphere, the tsochar emerged from the body and flailed away with all four tentacles. The group focused their efforts on the tsochar but knew they were in trouble because of the creature's damage reduction. None of them had an adamantine weapon, which meant that most of their blows would do little or no damage. Audas and Strontium focused their magical energies on the creature and managed to make headway despite the tsochar's spell resistance and the near constant threat of the flaming sphere. Aria took the Rod of Health and used it to heal herself and the miniature Caenus, who was near death and being crushed by two tentacles. Strontium tossed her a dagger to try and cut the tentacles but Aria botched the catch and had to delay her attack. Finally Inari came around into a flanking position and managed to deliver an effective sneak attack that killed the monster. The group searched the house for clues while Inari retrieved Nedrick. The old cleric confirmed that the dead mage was Leopold. He tried a raise dead spell but the magic failed, which was not surprising given Leopold's advanced age. The group did not find the stolen spell books, or anything that looked like spell components that might have come from the robbed warehouse. They did find two of the stolen potions -- one water breathing and one lesser restoration -- and a fair amount of coin that clearly belonged to the Servants of the Beast. They also helped themselves to a pair of Bracers of Armor +2 from the hag's dead body. The rest of the house held nothing of value, but they did find a set of notes that detailed Leopold's movements for several days leading up to his disappearance. According to the notes Leopold had been summoned to City Hall on 23 Wyden for a long meeting. A few days later, on 27 Wylden, Leopold had placed a large order with a magical supply store for expensive material components and magical fabrication supplies. That would have been two days before his disappearance, which begged the question of what he had been working on. On his arrival at the scene Nedrick was horrified anew at the malevolence of the tsochar. Leopold was already dead days before he'd engaged the party, he realized. Sensing that they may have great need for it, he told the party to keep the Rod of Health anyway. He also gave to them Leopold's magical vest, a custom item that belonged to his dead friend. Inari took her 50gp and departed. The rest of the group, which now formally included Caenus, returned to their rented rooms to discuss the bigger problems. Strontium made plans to follow up on the movements of Leopold and learn what the mage had been working on. Plus, the party was still short a healer and a stealth expert. So much to do, and no idea how much time.
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