February 21, 2009 - The Stormhammers track down the wand thieves and immediately get into a nasty fight.
The Stormhammers head to the Church of Bahamut first-thing in the morning to speak with Jenya. She asks them if they have any leads on the people who stole the wands and murdered Sarcem. They tell her that the rogue Bonesaw chokeslammed from the 2nd floor mentioned the name Triel, which Jenya remarks sounds vaguely familiar, but she can't place where exactly. They decide to interrogate the unconscious bandit that they brought back from the Lucky Monkey.
Huron: I'll go "question" her. (takes out a knife) Jenya: What?! Have you even asked her anything yet? Huron: ...no? (Jenya throws her hands up in disbelief)
The female bandit is panicked and very intimidated. She tells them that Triel hired her from Cauldron for extra muscle (to which Huron bursts into laughter for some reason), and also tells her that Triel is a female human woman with wild fiery red hair and heavy spiked fullplate armor decorated with the symbol of Bane, evil god of war and conquest. She also remarks that Triel never told the hired goons that there would be killing - the woman was under the impression that they were just going to rob the people. She doesn't seem to know anything else about Triel, such as her abilities or where she would be now. The party decides to let her go, but tells her that if she sees Triel or finds out anything regarding her, to seek them out at the Tipped Tankard. She runs out of the church, and Snake Eyes slips off to follow her.
Meanwhile, Lover, a minotaur paladin of the Raven Queen, is on a holy pilgrimage and has arrived in Cauldron. Out of respect for the gods, she decides to visit all the churches in town. He visits the small Church of Pelor, proudly admires the majestic Church of the Raven Queen, visits the Church of Kord, and arrives at the Church of Bahamut just as the female bandit runs out the door. Lover is showed in to meet Jenya.
Jenya urges the Stormhammers to seek out and find the wands, as the rains are still heavily falling and people are getting very concerned about the looming flood waters. Lover, standing nearby, overhears this and volunteers her services, saying that it must be fate that led her here at this very moment. SHE JOINS THE PARTY! (but not the Stormhammers, yet anyways.)
Meanwhile, Snake Eyes follows the female bandit back to a shoddy neighborhood. She goes to a hovel, unlocks the door and goes inside. Snake Eyes waits outside for 4 hours, then takes off his mask and walks up and knocks. A man answers. Inside Snake Eyes can see that they are very poor. Snake Eyes says he has something for the man's wife, and hands him a pouch and runs off before the man can open it (the pouch contains the platinum holy symbol of Kord that Snake Eyes stole from Zachary Hawkwinter in Session 5 - Bulls and a Beholder. He goes and rejoins the party.
They then head to Rhiavadi's Fine Silks, a very fancy and posh clothing store. The clerk welcomes them and shows them to a costume room full of outfits for the Demonskar Ball. Yggdrasil shows him his special invitation, and the clerk tells him that he will be portraying the infamous leader of the demon army, Aggannar. He shows them the Agannar costume, a hulking outfit with two large pincer hands, two smaller humanoid ones, and a fearsome looking hound face with large horns. The entire costume is dark blood red. The clerk tells Yggdrasil that for most of the ball, he will be wearing a regular demon costume, but when it comes time for the re-enactment of the climactic battle, "Aggannar" will fight - and lose to - someone portraying Surabar Spellmason.
They ask the clerk more details about the Ball, and find out that there will be numerous dances, a banquet, musical performances, etc. He says that they can go sign up for special dance lessons at Bluewater Academy in preparation for the Ball. They decide on the rest of their costumes. Demons: Drrk asks for something "unique" and the clerk offers him a Lemure outfit, which Drrk accepts. Cram gets an imp costume for himself and a tiny plush demon outfit for Murgatroyd. Snake Eyes asks for a Kyton costume, which they have in stock and is complete with numerous clunking light wood chains. On the human side, Huron selects a foppish bard outfit and chooses a tambourine to go with it, and Bonesaw chooses a wizard outfit which comes with a glowing staff and a magical glove which has a ball of light constantly circling it. They choose an Eladrin Warlord outfit for Artem. When asked if they are going to rent the costumes (10 gp) or buy them (20 gp), they all decide to buy them. Since Yggdrasil has to get two costumes, the Aggannar one and a regular demon one, the clerks gives him both outfits for 30g. He takes their measurements and tells them the costumes will be ready for pickup in a week's time.
On their way out, they scare and intimidate the regular customers. Cram decides to use mage hand to pull someone's pants down. He spots a middle-aged man trying on some breeches and yanks them down. The man turns out to be Ankhin Taskerhill, who lets out a startled yelp and trips over and falls. Scandalized shrieks and laughter fill the store, and the Stormhammers make a hasty exit before they are spotted, very proud of themselves.
Snake Eyes, Yggdrasil and Cram sign up for dance lessons. The lessons start next week and cost 10gp a person.
They go back to the Tipped Tankard and meet Shensen, who confirms that the woman named Triel was leading the assault at the Lucky Monkey, but unfortunately doesn't know anything else about her. She gives the party some magic boots of spider climbing as thanks for rescuing her. As they eat, Huron notices her glace subtly at Fraxx a few times, but she doesn't do anything more. After eating she leaves, wishing them luck on finding the wands.
The Stormhammers decide to check into Patch's disappearance. They head to the Lantern Street Orphanage and speak to the kids and then remember that Terrem was returned to the orphanage by a mysterious woman. They ask him if she had red hair or "spikey clothing" but he says that she wore a red full head veil so he couldn't see her hair, but she was wearing robes and not armor. Gretchen tells them that Patch was nervous when the children were kidnapped, and then abruptly one day never showed up to work. They get directions to his house and head there.
A single guard is outside and recognizes them, greets them, then lets them in. Patch's house is a small one-floor apartment. A mostly-finished bowl of cereal is on the table, and nothing looks disturbed or out of place. It doesn't seem that Patch had packed and left for a long trip or journey. While searching, they find a hidden stash of coins underneath some shirts in a dresser, and they conclude that he didn't run off but was kidnapped or ambushed on the way to the orphanage.
Trying another lead, they head to the barracks and seek out Skylar. They show him the jester coins they have found, and say that they want to try to draw the Last Laugh out of hiding by confiscating all the counterfeit coins that are currently in circulation throughout the city. After some hesitation, Skylar agrees that it's worth a shot and gives them a warrant to do so (but they have to buy the jester coins from merchants who have them for 1g apiece.)
They also mention Triel, and Skylar instantly recognizes the name. He tells them that 3 years ago, Triel was a member of the Cauldron guard, but one night apparently went insane and brutally attacked her own patrol, killing three before being severely wounded and chased out of town. She vanished into the wild jungles outside of town and due to her serious wounds, the guard assumed she was dead. Wanted posters with her face were put up around town for a while but after no reports of her appearing in over a year, they stopped. He also tells them that her name is Triel Lanthenmire...as in Cora Lanthenmire. He adds that after the incident, the Lanthenmires erased her name from all family records. They ask him to sketch her, and he tries, but he's not a very good artist. Bonesaw decides to head to the Lanthenmire estate while the rest of the Stormhammers head around town collecting the counterfeit coins. Cram decides to follow Bonesaw.
Bonesaw finds the Lanthenmire estate and sneaks around to the side, and stealthily scales the wall. He goes up to a side entrance (seemingly a kitchen or pantry storage room) and tries to enter, but magical force seizes him and starts restricting his body. He throws off the paralysis though, and backs off. He spots a balcony above and climbs up, though he makes a fair amount of noise and commotion (Cram, outside the yard in the alley, hears stone being scratched and Bonesaw's armor screeching against the wall). Bonesaw climbs up and enters, spotting two elderly people sleeping. Judging from their dress they look like servants. He walks through the room, causing floorboards to creak and his armor rattling. The two wake up, and Bonesaw says that he's only here to talk to Cora in regards to Triel. Doesn't cut it. The woman starts screaming and the man leaps to his feet and waves a poker in Bonesaw's face. Bonesaw grabs it and throws it off the balcony, then hears footsteps pounding up stairs. He opens the door into the mansion to see a dozen armed guards rushing up the stairs towards him. He doesn't see Cora and assumes she isn't here, and turns and leaps off the balcony to the ground. He climbs back over the fence (a loud magical alarm is now sounding behind him) and he and Cram turn and walk down the street. Moments later the guards and some city guards arrive and arrest them both for breaking and entering. (though Bonesaw corrects them that it was only entering.)
The rest of the Stormhammers realize Bonesaw and Cram are late meeting them, and go to the Lanthenmire estate to find out what happened to them. There, they are surrounded by guards who recognize the Stormhammers symbol as the same as Cram and Bonesaw wear, and question them about involvement in the break-and-enter that just occurred. They talk their way out of being arrested and head to the barracks, where they spot Cram and Bonesaw in a cell. Bonesaw demands to speak with Cora, but Skellerang shows up and tells them that the Stormblades are away on a mission, riding with haste to the nearest major city to try and acquire more wands of control water. Someone says that the Stormhammers are already trying to find the wands, but Skellerang points out that he doesn't care who gets the wands, as long as enough are found in time to stop the floods. The Stormhammers grudgingly agree with this logic.
In another attempt to draw the Last Laugh out of hiding, they head to the fanciest tavern in town, The Slippery Eel. They head inside out of the pouring rain and get a table, but the waiter insists that Murgatroyd be left outside.
Waiter: I'm sorry, your pet will have to wait outside. Murgatroyd: (to Bonesaw) Hey! You're gonna have to wait outside!
As they sit down to eat, Murgatroyd perches on a nearby window sill and glares at them, soaking wet and miserable in the rain.
The party enjoys a nice meal, being purposefully loud and obnoxious and talking bad about the Last Laugh. Soon all the other patrons are offended and leave. Huron grabs a waitress's ass as she walks by, she turns around and she's pretty ugly. They finish their meal and Huron pays the 30gp bill, and feeling bad about making them lose their other customers, since that wasn't the intention, he tips them another 70gp. The manager thanks them and after a bit of conversation, gets them another 20 or so jester coins.
While the party is eating, Murgatroyd sees a messenger running the streets announcing that he has a message for the Stormhammers. Murgatroyd "signals" the party inside by spreading his wings - during the Flood Festival, Huron got a giant tattoo of the Stormhammers symbol on his back, and Cram and Snake Eyes also got small shoulder tattoos. Yggdrasil also got a special plate etched with the symbol from a blacksmith and attached it to his body. Murgatroyd ALSO got two small tattoos under each wing, one saying STORM and the other HAMMERS...so when he spreads his wings it reads STORM HAMMERS. The party sees the "signal" and rushes outside to talk with the messenger. The message is from Artem saying that someone left a letter at the Tipped Tankard addressed to the Stormhammers. They rush back and open the letter. It says "IF YOU SEEK TRIEL, HEAD TO THIS LOCATION OUTSIDE OF TOWN (with a crudely drawn map). THIS IS IN RETURN FOR PREVIOUS SERVICES." They gear up and head out.
Cam has to leave, so Cram and Murgatroyd retire to the Tipped Tankard, citing a bad case of indigestion.
Following the map, they arrive at an ancient lava tube hidden deep within the jungle. They descend into the mountain, and come out on a rocky ledge overlooking a giant subterranean lake faintly glowing with phosphorescent moss and lichen. A rickety iron cage/gondola and pulley system spans the lake, and the chains enter into a nearby building. They blow inside and slaughter 3 thugs inside, and spotting a lever on the wall, pull it. The cage starts to move across the lake, and only Yggdrasil is next to it and able to climb in. Everyone else has to run and leap for the cage, except for Snake Eyes, who remains behind. Huron actually leaps ON TOP of the cage and rides it all the way to the bottom. Snake Eyes waits, and starts tying a rope around a horseshoe to slide down the chain.
On their way down, they spot movement to their side across the lake on a small beach, of humanoid shapes moving around. The lift quickly carries them out of sight of the beach though. They descend and see a vast stone keep before them, worked out of the actual stone. Though obviously intended for humanoid use, it looks very foreign and unnerving. Huron recognizes a few traits as belonging to an ancient bloodthirsty underground race called the Kopru, who killed themselves off hundreds of years ago.
The cage enters a small shack on the beach and stops, and they exit and leave. (Huron hops onto the roof of the shack and waits for the others.) Yggdrasil almost triggers a tripwire trap, but Drrk spots it and disarms it. They study the trap and realize it was connected to the wall, and would have brought the entire wall crashing down upon them. They send the cage back up for Snake Eyes, who abandons his rope/horseshoe plan and gets in. He tosses the roped horseshoe at the lever a few times before managing to activate the lift. He remarks that the ruins are definitely the work of elves. (natural 1 on History check.)
They see two entrances - a small side entrance to the west, and a main, central entrance directly before them. They head to the side entrance. Inside is a small meeting room with a large table, and sitting around it are three black skinned dwarves with white hair (duergar) and a tiefling in snakescale-patterned leather armor. Bonesaw rushes in and fire breaths them. The duergar draw warhammers which ignite into flame, and the tiefling starts throwing black fire at them. The Stormhammers spread out and retaliate. Snake Eyes heads for the Tiefling spellcaster, who is able to teleport away after being struck, and keeps blinking around the room. One of the duergar growls and doubles in size partway through the battle, and the duergar all shoot poisoned quills from their prickly beards during the fight. At one point, Lover teleports away from a duergar strike to appear above him, and smashes him with her spiked shield as she falls on him. Afterwards, they find an amulet that protects against poison on one of the duergar, and take the snakescale leather armor off the Tiefling's body, which allows the wearer to move and superspeed and dash around enemies (shift 3 squares, even through squares occupied by enemies).
Corey has to leave, so Lover says "Bad Clams!" and rushes back to Cauldron with...a severe case of indigestion.
The door in the room leads into a hall, with doors on either side of the hallway. Snake Eyes checks the door on their left for traps and finds none, while Yggdrasil and Drrk open/shoot into the other door. Inside are some sleeping humans - Drrk shoots one. Bonesaw leaps inside and fire breaths again, incinerating four humans and burning the other two, who leap up and grab halberds. Huron enters the room too with Yggdrasil, while Drrk and Snake Eyes hang back...only to hear rumbling and metal grinding coming from behind the other door. They step back just as a giant metal statue of a minotaur with a greataxe smashes through the door and wall, pushing them aside. Snake Eyes attacks it as it moves by, but his claw bounces off its thick metal skin. It comes to rest, and its torso spins quickly in a 360-degree turn, slashing out at Drrk, Snake Eyes and Bonesaw with its axe, causing heavily bleeding wounds, and blocking the hallway between the 2 doors. Out of the smoke and dust of the pulverized wall, a spider with large fangs leaps at Drrk, but Drrk shoots it in mid-air and it doesn't manage to bite him. It pushes him back into the duergar room though.
Yggdrasil and Huron hear the giant statue burst through the wall, but can't maneuver very well in the small guard room and are momentarily unable to strike at the statue. Meanwhile, a halfling wizard announces his presence by causing a poison cloud to billow out of the floor, poisoning some people for ongoing poison damage. Snake Eyes moves past the statue to fight the halfling, noting a desk and a few bookshelves full of texts in the room, as well as a halfling-sized tunnel in one of the walls. Bonesaw trades blows with the statue, eventually smashing its knee with a Dizzying Strike (I think?) and Huron eventually gets into position for a Cometfall Charge, and they lock down the statue for a time. Meanwhile, Drrk finishes off the spider, who kept leaping and pouncing at him and skittering all around the duergar room. The halfling unloads at the Stormhammers, firing off a fireball, which after activating some giant red metal gauntlets he was wearing, caused ongoing fire damage, and then using a blast of dazzling colors that dazed a few party members. The last human guard attempts to charge at Yggdrasil from behind (who was frantically healing the party) but stumbles and runs into the wall, knocking himself unconscious.
Huron is pissed at the halfling and pins him in place, though the statue reaches back and intercepts half the blow. The halfling knocks Huron back with a spell, freeing himself, and positions himself by the tunnel - but Snake Eyes intercepts him and they fight for position. Between the halfling's spells and the statue's greataxe chops, and the various ongoing sources of damage (statue axe bleed, halfling poison cloud, halfling fireball burn) everyone is low on hp. Drrk eventually finishes off the statue and everyone rushes the halfling. Snake Eyes bull rushes the halfling away from the tunnel, and blocks it with his body.
The halfling hurls another fireball and teleports to the back of the room, but Bonesaw, Huron and Yggdrasil follow. Huron critically fumbles an attack and slashes into Bonesaw by accident, who falls to the floor, dying. The halfling then tries to blind everyone with a dazzling flash which also causes radiant damage, and Huron also falls. However the flash reflects off Drrk's platinum belt buckle (natural 1, miss = critical fumble) and the halfling reels back, burned, and falls to the floor dead. Drrk runs forward and shoots the halfling repeatedly while Yggdrasil and Snake Eyes quickly stabilize and heal Huron and Bonesaw. Everyone uses some healing surges, and Huron stomps into the guard room, and moments later everyone sees the broken and slashed body of the unconscious human guard fly through the doorway. They strip the halfling of his gear, and take the gauntlets (which make a fire attack do ongoing fire damage, and also enhances any future fire attacks in that encounter). The texts and tomes are all related to the ruins and their history, and are worth 100gp to an interested collector. They also find one of the wands of control water in his pockets.
They quickly go back to the guard barracks and barricade the door to rest and recuperate. Bonesaw takes the gauntlets for now.
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