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28 Dierdos 1120
Strange Brew
In the days after the trouble at Nedrick's store (Trouble Brewing), the heroes put out feelers seeking information on why the Servants of the Beast Below might had been shadowing the wizard Leopold. When their own resources failed to turn up any leads, they turned to their temporary ally Inari for assistance and insight and returned to the task of looking for additional personnel to fill the gaps in their party's skill set. On the morning of 20 Dierdos, they had a message from Inari asking for a meeting at the Adventurers' Guild. The group assembled and learned that Inari had learned of a sea kith named Skeezy who belonged to the Servants of the Beast and allegedly had information for sale. After gaining the party's agreement, she set up a meeting for that evening at a low-class bar called the House of Hooch. The party entered the House of Hooch and found it reasonably busy. Strontium and Aria quickly spotted a familiar figure sitting alone at a table. Skeezy, they discovered, was the name of the sea kith they had allowed to escape the herbalist's shop in exchange for information during their first adventure (Help Wanted). Strontium bought a round of drinks and brought them to the table. Skeezy relaxed visibly and, with a little prompting, launched into his tale. Changes in the Servants of the Beast Below had Skeezy feeling nervous about the cult's purpose and leadership. When he'd joined the Servants, the group had been focused on glorifying the Beast and waiting patiently for their reward. In recent years, however, the Servants had seen an influx of new members: sea kin, merfolk, and other races that had previously ignored the Servants of the Beast in favor of their own churches. These new members brought with them new leadership. As the old goblinoid and lizardfolk leadership disappeared, new leaders took their place and the agenda of the group seemed to shift from worshipping the Beast to causing harm to nonbelievers. Skeezy had begun to wonder if the Servants of the Beast had been coopted by a witch coven or something of the sort. Skeezy wanted out. He asked the party for 1000gp to finance his escape to Kyrthul in exchange for information on the cult's big project. They had taken a storehouse near the southwest warehouse sector, he explained, and had some kind of secret project going on in there. Skeezy didn't know what the project was, but he knew that something was being shipped out of there the following night. Before the group could come to terms with Skeezy, a group of five grungy-looking merfolk entered the bar and came straight to Skeezy's table. They exchanged a few brief uncomplimentary words with the group and then, in unison, drank from hip flasks they had brought with them. In moments each of the merfolk mutated into an aberrant horror and began to attack the group. Strontium responded quickly with a blast of force that hurled one of the horrors back into a wall and knocked it prone, where Inari delivered a swift coup de grace to the stunned creature. Caenus entered a blood rage, pulled out his spiked chain, and attacked but was too late to save Skeezy; as the seakith tried to duck and escape, a tentacle grabbed him by the throat and snapped his neck. The blast of force had worked well once, so Strontium stayed with it. He stunned another horror and sent it flying across the floor to land at Caenus's feet, allowing the barbarian to kill it easily. Aria fought off two horrors simultaneously, using her skills to avoid being grappled by the creatures. Caenus was less fortunate, but did manage to avoid the strangling hold used on Skeezy as he was grappled by a horror. Audas used his eldritch blast and Inari fired arrows from her bow in support of the fighting crew until all of the horrors were dead. Skeezy's death left the party with a vague idea of where the Servants of the Beast were operating but no specific location. Searching the bodies of their enemies, who had resumed merfolk form at death, yielded nothing. On Skeezy they found a tattered pouch containing maybe 100gp in mixed coin; they gave about half to the bartender for his discretion and held the rest. Inari took what information they had to her contacts and managed to learn of a likely location: a storage building near the warehouse sector. She and Aria staked out the building overnight while the rest of the party rested and healed from the battle. When nobody came or left and Aria had confirmed that there was no hidden entrance in the floor below, Inari picked the lock and entered the building. Inside were crates and barrels, all sealed, along with the broken remains of a barrel and a couple of cloth sheets. They couldn't open any of the containers without leaving evidence of their entry, so they left things alone and locked up again. The next evening just after dusk the party took up positions to watch the building. Remembering the pattern of activity at the herbalist shop, they figured a boat would be coming in by night. They were right. A few hours after nightfall they detected a rowboat approaching through the channel between the decks. The boat tied up next to the storage building and two of its four occupants got out. The party watched as the two men, human from appearances, unlocked the building and removed the two small casks near the door. Caenus sought to prevent the men from escaping by loosing an arrow at one of those in the boat. The arrow struck its target, which alerted the men to the fact that they were not alone. The other man in the boat called to his cohorts to hurry. Audas fired an eldritch blast at the lead man and staggered him. The second man rushed past and toward the rowboat while Strontium aimed an acid splash at the craft and injured the other man inside. Aria launched a flying kick at the men and missed but landed squarely in the middle of the rowboat and rocked it enough to knock both men off their feet. Inari shot the first man in the back and killed him. The cask he had been carrying slipped out of his lifeless hands and rolled down the deck toward the edge. This worried Strontium because they had no idea what was in the cask, but fortunately it stopped rolling at the raised edge of the deck. In the rowboat, two men drew cutlasses and one wounded Aria. She responded with a stunning fist that just missed. Audas used another eldritch blast to kill one assailant while Strontium felled another with a pair of magic missiles. The final thug dove into the water and tried to escape, but was easily caught by Aria and dragged underwater. This convinced him to surrender; with some help from Inari, Aria towed the man back over and set him on the deck. With no further need for secrecy, the group set about investigating the containers in the shed. The small casks were filled with a thick black goo the consistency of heavy syrup. None of the party recognized it. The larger barrels, however, contained a clear liquid that Strontium readily recognized as potion base. The crates held iron filings, diamond dust, and other materials commonly used in brewing potions, but the quantities were enough to brew on a massive scale. The party secured the goods in the shed for the time being and turned to their captive. This thug, like most encountered by the party, had only limited information. His job was to remove those specific casks from the storage unit and take them to the Chimera, a smuggling ship that waited just outside the 250-foot patrol limit of the Marhaven navy. He had no idea what was in the casks or who was financing the operation. In exchange for his life and freedom, the party demanded a service from the thug: that he accompany them in the rowboat back to the Chimera and get them close enough to board. Faced with no better-looking alternative, the thug agreed. Caenus and Audas disguised themselves in the dead thugs' clothing and got in the boat with Strontium, whose normal outfit looked similar enough at a distance, and the thug. They rowed to open water with Aria and Inari swimming along just under the surface, out of sight. Soon the silhouette of a sleek sailing ship appeared on the dark horizon. The Chimera was a brig, a fast and smooth ship of advanced design and exceptional seaworthiness. She would make an ideal prize if the party could take her. They advanced in their rowboat until within earshot of the brig, at which time the thug called out a password and was bidden approach. They rowed up to the aft starboard side, where the hoist waited to take the boat back up. There Strontium handed the thug the last of Skeezy's coin and instructed him to slip quietly into the water and disappear. The thug did as he was told, being careful not to arouse Strontium's ire by making noise. While Aria and Inari swam around to the bow the party climbed up to the deck and prepared to fight. They bound onto the deck in unison and surprised the thugs on the ship. A quick look told the party they were outnumbered, but no worse than they were used to. There were three common sailors on deck, one more in the crow's nest, and what looked to be a senior mate in the wheelhouse. The mates called out the alarm and another man appeared quickly from the sterncastle to bark orders at the crew. Strontium favored this man, who had to be the ship's captain, with a blast of force that almost knocked him off his feet. Inari left the one enemy on the bow in Aria's capable hands, slipping past him to climb the forward mast. Aria rocked the sailor with a stunning fist and then performed a coup de grace on the helpless thug. Caenus and Audas focused on those targets on the main deck. Strontium sent another blast of force at the pirate captain. Inari made her presence felt when a dead thug fell from the crow's nest with one of her arrows through his neck. The falling body barely missed Caenus, who was swinging his chain and dropping his enemies one after another with help from Audas and his eldritch blasts. At that point another combatant entered the fray: a woman in a long coat, whose figure was encircled by swirls of darkness. Strontium fired off a magic missile volley but, to his dismay, they failed to affect her. He had little time to reflect on this before the mage responded with a sonic blast that wracked his body with painful sound energy. The captain added a devastating arrow shot against Strontium while more pirates appeared from the hold and the deckhouse wielding crossbows, threatening to turn the tide of the battle. They were too late, though. Audas and Caenus combined to kill the last of the common sailors. Aria used the rod of healing on herself and then rushed toward Strontium to assist him. Strontium continued to pound the mate with magic missile volleys and killed him, but Caenus drew the mage's attention and fell victim to Tasha's hideous laughter, effectively taking him out of the fight. Audas absorbed a sonic blast as well but used Leopold's Metamagic Vest to minimize the affects. Strontium turned his blast of force against the mage and found her more vulnerable to that. The captain breathed his last when Inari put an arrow through his heart from her sniping position in the rigging. As Aria killed a mate the mage withdrew into the deckhouse, leaving a wide patch of magically-conjured grease between the party and the entrance. As Strontium accepted healing and the rest of the group dispatched the remaining crew, a ray of flame shot out of the deckhouse and lit the grease on fire, creating a burning barrier. Aria was ready to run through the flames but Strontium had another idea: while Aria swam around to the stern and climbed the transom, he used another blast of force, this time focused on the grease, and pushed enough aside to make a safe passage through the burning grease. He followed Audas and Caenus inside while Aria entered through the window. Inside, they were completely unsurprised to find the mage lying dead on the floor and a tsochar standing on top of the body. The aberration flailed at them with its tentacles, but Aria was too quick and Caenus too strong to be gripped so easily. After a magic missile attack from Strontium, an eldtirch blast from Audas and a solid smack from Caenus's chain the creature leapt out the window and swam for it. Aria was having none of that. Pausing only long enough to accept an adamantine dagger from Inari, she dove into the water and pursued the tsochar. Her superior swim speed made it easy for her to catch up to the creature and stab at it with the dagger, which was proof against the tsochar's damage reduction. A couple of hits was all it took to destroy the tsochar. Aria dragged the body back to the Chimera, where the fire had been extinguished, to receive accolades from her teammates. Aside from a little scorching, the Chimera was in prime condition and constituted a rich prize in itself. A search of the ship turned up more valuables. The ship's mage had been wearing a lesser ring of regeneration to protect herself from the physical damage inherent in hosting a tsochar. The captain had an adamantine dagger on his belt and wore a cloak of the manta ray. In the captain's cabin they found a strongbox containing 1800gp in coin and a bag of valuable gems. And in the ship's hold was an array of obviously-stolen trade goods that would fetch a significant reward once returned to the merchants of Marhaven. The final discovery came when Inari searched the wheelhouse and found a secret compartment containing a magic wand. Strontium identified the wand as one of unseen crew, a spell with which he was not familiar but which, according to his identify spell, creates a number of unseen servant-like beings capable of sailing a ship under direction of a helmsman. He made a note to find the formula for this spell to add to his books. Perhaps the most interesting find on the ship was two more casks of the black syrup, one of which was only half full. With no survivors to interrogate, they transferred a sample to a smaller container to take to Grimaldi for analysis. Using the unseen crew, the party guided the Chimera to the southwest docks and showed their prize to Riley Hanal-Rian, the master of the dock. Riley was pleased to receive the stolen goods and estimated their value at 10,000gp, with the party due a finder's fee of 10 percent. Grimaldi accepted the black goo and spent several days experimenting with it before he was able to come back to Strontium with a report. The syrup itself had no magical properties at all, he reported. When combined with some of the other ingredients found in the shed in the right proportions, however, the result was a sort of paint that neutralized the magical properties of anything to which it was applied. The party made themselves at home aboard the Chimera and gave Inari a share of the monetary rewards of their adventure. In the days to come they would ponder the ominous implications of Grimaldi's discovery for a city built on magically-protected wooden decks.
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