Session 4
The following morning, Arnold is rested and has replenished his spells. The party scours the area for loot, Whiskeythimble finds 80Gb in gems which he quietly pockets. Hardy Da finds some mithril pieces.
Whiskeythimble asks Hardy Da about the Wolfs Head Medallion, and Hardy suggests perhaps a reward in returning it.
Arnold is prepared to teleport the party to Thane. He gathers the party in a circle, holding hands, and the world seems to shimmers and the party is on the fields outside of Thane. There is a beautiful lush forest nearby, and next to them is a church of Mei. "Funny", says Arnold, "she knows what time I was arriving, but she is not here." He clarifies that 'she' is his sister Cosanne, and his sister is nominally a nun affiliated with the church.
Arnold makes the traditional gesture of Mei as he enters the church. He spies Cosanne praying at the altar. Turning around, she says 'I've been expecting you all. I trust your journey wasn't hard'. She promises food shortly, and offers visions of their future in recompense. She asks Arnold to show her the hand and eye. 'Everyone steel your minds', says Arnold, and Cosanne says that in this temple, they will be safe.
Peering into the box, she declares that it is not of this world, and evil, and thanks the party for keeping it safe. Dining on salad a few minutes later, Cosanne asks if they have any questions. She assures Yourunawitha Despair that the weight of her curse will lessen. She says that in a day or so they'll be called before the court of the Wolf King, but shouldn't be going to jail. She suggests they go to the guild hall in town.
Hardy asks what Arnold was doing at Eshkrisher, and Arnold says that he was wondering about transformation, and how the Blattoids use it - but got captured. Whiskeythimble asks and is assured that their will be a thieves guild in town. Arnold promises to set the party up at the White Plume, a local inn. The matter of pay is raised, and Arnold promises to provide letter of rights, and to cover accommodation at the White Plume. He also mentions a dwarven blacksmith called Barrons, he can make some fine weapons.
Visiting the blacksmith, Whiskeythimble asks if Barrons can make mithril armour for him if he supplies the mithril. He asks Hardy Da if he'd like to share his mithril, so they can both get mithril armour, and Hardy agrees. Dolly Dagger asks about upgrading his sword, and is told that it can be made a +1 weapon. Barron asks too if he has ever thought of giving his life to Leng. Dolly declines, as Barron speaks of the god of labour and the land, and then requests donations. Dolly gives him 20Gp, and Barron's eyes well with gratitude. Hardy gives 10Gp in gratitude for Barron making the Mithril chain lighter.
Dolly serves soup for the orphans, and Hadry plays for them. Imbued with fey magic, the music is swtill terrible but seems to have an entrancing effect on the children.
Whiskeythimble and Yourunawitha Despair find the Arcanum outreach, and see it as a library with classrooms. The local mage there, a 722 year old gnome called Dottie, greets them. Youruna asks about gaining more strength, and Dottie asks her about the shard, and says that the Shadowfell shard can be attached to a small object, and allows her to curse a creature she casts a spell on. Dottie offers to arrange citizenship for Youruna at the Arcanum. Dottie says that should Youruna become a renowned adventurer, the Arcanum may call on her to assist with the war against the druids. Youruna accepts, and Dottie produces a massive stack of books to help her learn Dwarvish.
Dottie doesn't have much in terms of daggers or instruments for Hardy, but she mentions a Lute in the Northern Ward that enhanced bardic magic, but it was stolen by the cult. The guild may help. She enchants Hardy's Lute, allowing him to cast bright light 60ft on command for the next few days. Dot hands out sweets to the party, and Dolly offers her one of his special poppers, which Dot accepts gratefully.
Taking a breather in the tavern, Whiskey approaches a cloaked figure at the bar, and tries Thieves Cant on him - and is greeted with confusion. Standing instead on a table, Whiuskey shouts out in Thieves Cant offering beer. Seeing the reaction from one table, he joins them and starts chatting to a well dressed young man.
The man chides him for revealing himself, and asks what Whiskey is looking for. Whiskey asks for various tools that might be available. The man proposes a shadow cloak that provides half cover can help him blend into the background, in exchange for a promise to help the guild in the future, and Whiskey accepts.
The figure asks if Whiskey knows of the cult activity in the Northern ward, where at 3:30 each night cult activity happens, and any guards sent to investigate are found dead the next day.
Dottie hands in her signed citizenship forms to Dottie, and thanks her in Dwarvish, much to her delight. Dolly fetches his new sword, and sees many of the citizens walking around with straight backs. He is passed the sword, and he feels a positive influence from it.
Finally arriving at the guild hall, they see one person, Norman, sorting papers and requests at his desk. He agrees to the proposal to check out the cult activity, He agrees to pay 20Gp each if they resolve it, and Whiskeythimble pushes this price up to 23Gp. Norman provides a map of the city, and asks if the party has spotted a gargantuan blue dragon to the South.
The party heads to the White Bloom, and receive their letters of rights from the innkeeper, Mrs Dee. Dolly has his owl lurk around the Northern Ward, to keep an eye out for unusual activity. The party dines on medium rare steak with a mint sauce. The rooms are comfortable and well appointed, and the party awakes in time to venture out towards the Northern Ward.
It's a pretty ward, with plentiful small gardens, well cared for. The streets are deserted, and Dolly's owl reports feeling young and stupid.
Youruna feels it first, an infernal presence casting some sort of summoning magic, summong creatures from the hells. It comes to her as a whisper, seemingly close by, and the party sneaks closer to the sound, hanging back for a moment for Hardy to cast Bardic inspiration on himself, Dolly, and Whiskey. Youruna activates her shield.
Rounding the corner, they spy three figures in black robes, chanting in infernal from a book. Around them, are five misty big dogs. Hardy casts Faerie Fire, but it fizzles and the figures turn toward the party.
Dolly casts Tasha's Hideous Laughter on the figure holding the book, and he falls to the floor convulsing in laughter.
Youruna casts Sorcerors Burst on the second figure, hitting nhim for 7 thunder dmg and making him vomit some blood.
Whiskey sneaks up and fires his short bow, dealing 7 dmg to the second figure as the arrow lodges through his skull from the top. He steps back and fades into the background.
Dolly feels a snap in his mind as the first figure recovers from laughter, and he calls the shadow dogs to attack. The misty shapes solidify into hellhounds, and the first attacks Dolly for 14dmg.
The second dog approaches Hardy and opens it's mouth, launching a fireball at him and dealing 6 fire dmg.
The other two dogs both attack Dolly, dealing 3dmg each to him.
Hardy casts Faerie Fire on the mages again, managing to target one of them.
Dolly, surrounded by mages and hounds, swings his great sword at the illuminated mage, beheading him.
Youruna runs up to Dolly and holds onto him as she casts using Thunderwave to throw the hounds and last mage back, dealing 12dmg. The last mage slams into a tree and slumps to the ground, dead. Calling on her metamagic, she casts Sorcerors Burst on one of the hounds but misses.
Whiskey fires his bow at the closest hound, dealing 16dmg.
The hurt hellhound tries to bite Hardy, but misses.
The second tries to bite Youruna and misses.
Then third bites Dolly for 8dmg, and the fourth flanks Dolly and Youruna.
Dolly casts Faerie Fire again, illuminating three of the hounds.
Dolly uses second wind to heal 10Hp, and attacks the closest lit hound, dealing 28dmg and slicing it through. It drops to the ground, dissolving into black ichor.
Yoruna uses Booming Blade and swings her dagger at the hound, but misses.
Whiskey fires at the hound in front of Hardy, wounding it.
That hound bites Hardy, just managing to get through the mithril armour and dealing 7dmg.
The next hound attacks Youruna but misses.
The last hound fails to find Whiskey, but blows a fireball at Youruna and Dolly. Dolly dodges, taking 3 dmg, while Youruna takes 7.
Hardy casts Thunderclap but fails to hit the hound in front of him, and grants Bardic Inspiration on Dolly.
Dolly slashes the hound in front of him, killing it.
Youruna cats Tasha's Mind whip on the hound in front of her, hitting it for 11dmg.
Whiskey fires a shot at the hound in front of Hardy, lodging an arrow into it's lungs, and then pulling it out by the shaft.
The other hellhound bites Youruna, dealing 7dmg.
The last one manages to spot Whiskey, and breathes fire at him, dealing 5dmg.
Hardy runs up to one of the hellhounds, casting Thundercalp but failing.
Dolly runs up to the other hellhound, cutting it's legs off and dropping it.
Youruna casts Sorcerors Burst on the last Hellhound, hitting it for 6 psy dmg.
Whiskey steps around the Hellhound, and casts Thunderwave, throwing the hellhound against Hardy and killing it.
Dolly picks up the book of Devil Summoning and hands it to Youruna. Whiskeythimble finds and distributes 30Gp each to the party. The clothes on the kids are fine material, and have a family crest. They seem to be lesser sons of House Bathory. On inspection, the book turns out to be the belonging of Mathias. Hardy knows of Mathias Bathory as one of the oldest werewolves in the land, and the one who trains new army recruits. His record is also, apparently, spotless.
Youruna also finds a deck of cards, wrapped in velvet. The party makes their way back to the White Bloom, where Youruna studies the book. She learns how to summon a hellhound for up to a minute, but since her alignment is different it may attack her.
Whiskey banks his gold and letters of rights at the Arcanum bank.