Author Archives: Dennis

Previously, the heroes descended into the ancient waterways in order to find the headquarters of the night master. They had found signs of combat between the rogues of the Steady Hand, the aberrant lords, and the insidious skaven. They managed to find the entrance to the headquarters and made their way inside, cloaked by Emrys’ veil of invisibility.

Fifth Day, First Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262

(Silvermoon is waxing, Bloodmoon is waning, Darkmoon is waning)

The heroes were unsure on how to proceed. They were fairly confident that behind the closed door they had found, deep inside the guild headquarters, they would find the night master, and with him hopefully Hamish too. As they contemplated on their next steps, James heard the soft whimper of a woman echoing down the corridors. It was not coming from beyond the door, but from back towards the way they had come. Behind them James still saw the two rogues pouring over the map that the mercenary had left behind. He concentrated intently and could also heard a man grunting in pain and discomfort, though the sounds seemed disconnected.

When James shared what he had heard it seemed that something inside of Luca broke as he wondered whether it was Hamish that was being hurt. Luca’s voice rose in consternation and immediately James untethered himself from the rest of the group in an attempt to distance himself, afraid that Luca’s emotions would get them discovered by the rogues. Emrys, equally concerned by Luca’s increasingly unstable behaviour spoke to him and got him to focus on the task at hand; opening the door in front of them. “Either Astrid kicks it down, or I will burn it down,” Luca said, not easily placated by Emrys. Quentin, calling upon the powers of his new patron deity commanded Luca to calm himself, which worked. Once the panic was broken in Luca he found that it was easier to restrain himself.

Emrys found a keyhole in the door through which a bit of light shone. He knelt and peered through the hole and noticed that on the other side there were some people, at least two. One of them was pacing, while the other one was stationary, but it was unclear who the two might be. When James was asked to take a look at the lock in order to unlock it he found that after several, frustrating attempts that the door was already unlocked. Swiftly changing tactics he pretended like he managed to unlock it, making quite the show of it in order not to look foolish.

The heroes managed to open the door at a crack and peer inside, seeing a man standing at a desk and hearing him talk. Next to the desk stood Hamish, blank faced and impassive. Close to Hamish stood one of the strange, dog-sized, fleshy animals, ostensibly guarding the pacified Hamish. They tried to listen in on what the man the heroes assumed was the night master was saying:

David, I know our friendship has… cooled in recent years, but I still feel compelled to warn you that we have been infiltrated.

Whoever it is, they waited until this place was almost empty, which leads me to believe that we have been betrayed.

I have the mage and I will be taking him to the Upright Man. I can no longer protect him and I don’t trust the tentacle-faced scum any further than I can throw them. I know there will be consequences.

The man in question was beyond his middle years, but tall and wiry, dressed in blue cotton trousers and a black and blue, striped doublet. His face was cold, with fair skin, dark brown hair, and a regal, aquiline nose. He wore an amulet on a silver chain around his neck. The amulet bore the crest of a raven, which some of the heroes recognised to be that of house Ravensbourne, to which the ward that they were underneath had gotten its name.

The heroes decided that it would wise to cause a distraction which would draw the attention of all the rogues in the headquarters, leaving the heroes to deal with the night master. It was decided that Astrid would be that distraction; she was the fastest and crazy enough to do it. She drew her swords and started running towards the entrance, dragging the tips of her swords along both walls, sending sparks flying.

It worked, and it drew the attention of all the rogues in the complex. The rogues in the opposite room who were pouring over the map were instantly alerted and started to head towards the entrance, following Astrid. The night master was startled and reached into a drawer of his desk to retrieve a conical statuette into which he placed a crystal. He turned around and faced the wall behind his desk. On two sides of that wall were statues that looked like gargoyles with their mouths agape. Into one of the mouths he inserted the statue and instantly the wall transformed into an black, oval void from which the light could not escape. A sound of an ever retreating wave emitted from the portal.

When the night master made a move towards his impassive friend, Luca could no longer contain himself and rushed in. He ran for Hamish and tried to teleport away. His first attempt failed as he did not pick the destination with care; the translocation spell required an unoccupied space as the target, which Luca could not secure. Temporarily dazed, Luca cursed himself for his stupidity, especially since he had lost the veil of invisibility in his attempt to rescue Hamish.

In that moment, the fleshy dog attempted to attack Luca, but was met with a hail of the night master’s personal items as Emrys used his kinetic magic. Both Emrys and Luca were now visible, and the rogues in the other room set their sights on Emrys. Quentin saw that the fleshy dog was still a threat and ran in to finish the dog with a swing of Róisín, also losing his invisibility in the process.

While Emrys was engaged with the two rogues, Luca made another attempt to translocate himself and Hamish away from the headquarters, but this time he chose a safer location; the entrance of the headquarters. While Luca and Hamish disappeared, Quentin was left with the night master and watched as two aberrant lords emerged from one of the walls of the chamber, as if they had been merged with the very stone of the ancient waterways themselves.

All the while, James had joined Astrid in the lobby of the headquarters, both engaged with the rogues at the entrance.

Previously,  the heroes prepared themselves and set forth into the ancient waterways in search of the night master’s headquarters. They believed that they would be able to find Hamish there and liberate him from the Steady Hand. James had learned of the whereabouts of the headquarters and the heroes found a strange battle scene near to where he believed the entrance to be.

Fifth Day, First Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262

(Silvermoon is waxing, Bloodmoon is waning, Darkmoon is waning)

The battle took place on all banks of a junction of several large canals. The groups that were in opposition of one another during the fight seemed to be a large group of skavens and a group of rogues, lead by  several aberrant lords. Curiously, there were no rogue bodies; though there was plenty of evidence, in terms of discarded weapons and blood stains, that they had indeed partaken in the fight and suffered casualties. The heroes concluded that the rogues had gotten away and had taken their dead and wounded with them.

An oddity presented itself in the form of a third casualty; a custodian had been killed while bound by his own shackles. The heroes surmised that the custodian had likely died from wounds suffered at the hands of the skaven.

The aberrant lords, similarly, had been killed by the skaven; likely by one of the two brutish rat ogres whose bodies lay nearby. They were leaking a noxious vapour from their wounds and the roughly stapled surgery scars that held their bodies and grotesque modifications together.

The heroes riffled through the possessions that were left behind and found that the aberrant lords carried no personal items and that the custodian had been stripped of his possessions. The skaven had crude weapons and strange leather armour which the heroes had seen at auction before. The two taskmasters which had been driving the rat ogres had small barbed whips and small crossbows, which betrayed the creatures’ capability of sophistication. Most of them had little trinkets and talismans on them, and a few even carried some strange, copper currency with them.

Emrys and Astrid investigated the skaven shaman, a robed, white-furred creature with curved horns on its head. It was bedecked with talismans and and had a leather satchel and scroll case attached to a crude belt. Inside, Emrys found an assortment of occult items and components, likely meant to be used for spells and rituals. The scroll case contained a spell scroll and a letter. The spell on the scroll was something from the necromantic and abjuration school of magic, and the letter written in a curious script that Emrys was not able to read and decided to investigate later.

After the heroes left the scene of the battle they continued to follow James’ directions until the got to a section of the waterways in which James believed to find the entrance. After several frustrating moments searching for the entrance the heroes finally found the entrance, which was expertly hidden behind some of the plant and root growth that had grown into the corridors from the surface over the centuries.

The stone frame around the double doors was decorated but the carvings were too faded for Emrys to make out. The keystone above the door, however, was still clear enough, but only legible to Quentin. In archaic Lyrian it said:

Welcome to the Halls of the Senhadrim
Sanctuary for all who strengthen the Light
Protection for all against the Darkness

After carefully inspecting the door a cleverly hidden keyhole was found, and James could discern that the lock was fitted with a nasty and potentially lethal needle-trap. He retrieved a satchel from his shoulder bag and unfolded it to reveal a dozen slender tools. He slipped them into the lock and managed to harmlessly discharge the trap and then proceeded to open the lock.

After opening the door on a crack the heroes overheard a conversation between two of the members of the Steady Hand. They discussed tracking down and interrogating Jeroen the Daerlanian to find out if he had anything to do with the raid on the orphanage in Grimsdown. After finding out that Luca’s little dragonling could turn invisible it was decided to let it scout the nearby interior of the headquarters. It was able to show Luca that there was a room beyond in which a group of people were casually talking to one another. There were corridors leading from that room, deeper into the headquarters.

After some deliberation, the heroes decided that Emrys would turn the entire group invisible and they would sneak into the headquarters. In order for Quentin not to draw so much attention while invisible James gave him his enchanted boots to wear which would significantly quiet his step.

Once inside the heroes stayed close together and went exploring. They discovered that the first chamber had three rogues casually talking to one another. They chose to ignore the corridors leading east and west, instead making their way to the far side of the room to take the corridor leading north.

At another junction they found a large store room where two people were quietly doing the logistics for what looked to be a smuggling and fencing operation. While a man was working on a ledger and meticulously documenting all of the items, a woman was packaging valuable art objects in crates, readying it for transport.

It was at this point that Emrys could finally put his finger on something which had been nagging at him since entering the headquarters; the layout was exactly the same as that of the carceratum. This opened up questions on how the headquarters and the carceratum were related, but it also answered why Garvan was so capable of finding a way out of the carceratum.

To the east which seemed the heroes found a room which looked like a mess hall of sorts where two rogues and a mercenary pouring over a map, talking about raiding a retinue of people travelling in from the west. Their intention was to kidnap some high ranking nobility that were travelling with the retinue. Quentin suspected that they might well be discussing the retinue that his father was travelling towards Kingsport with.

There was much more of the interior of the headquarters to explore, and the heroes had seen no trace of Hamish yet.

Previously, the heroes were getting ready to descend into the ancient waterways below Ravensbourne and infiltrate the headquarters of the night master in order to find and retrieve Hamish. Before doing so they wanted to enjoy a lavish meal, prepared by Ramsey with the ingredients that James had arranged for, and were interrupted by some violence that broke out at the Careless Wanderer between a retinue loyal to lord Aberforth Dunkeswell and those loyal to lord Peregrine Blackwell, both contestants in the annual royal master angler fishing competition. Also, Luca finally completed his research into the ritual spell the heroes had found in the hoard of the green dragon and used it to summon forth a small dragon with colourful butterfly wings.

Fourth Day, First Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262

(Silvermoon is waxing, Bloodmoon is waning, Darkmoon is waning)

Luca introduced the dragonling to the rest of the heroes and it immediately drew the attention of Lauryn. While Quentin recognised the shape of the dragons of legend in the creature, it was Emrys which recognised it as a faerie creature, which also explained why Wynn had responded so fiercely; for there were rivalries among the sidhe.

The decision was made that the heroes would venture out to find the headquarters of the night master the following day. Luca had once again affirmed that Hamish was his friend and he wanted to help him. Astrid had in turn affirmed that she was Luca’s friend and she would help him.

The heroes retired to their rooms. Luca spent some time with the dragonling and found it hard to ignore Blackstar’s incessant need for attention. Blackstar only wanted one thing; to consume; consume the dragonling. James found that when he got to his room Astrid was not there and the cot that she had been sleeping in had been removed. He dismissed her absence and went to sleep.

Fifth Day, First Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262

(Silvermoon is waxing, Bloodmoon is waning, Darkmoon is waning)

In the morning, James got up early and left the Careless Wanderer to visit the Temple of Light and meet with father Devon. He realised that what he was about to undertake was dangerous and that it would be good moment to offload some of the valuables that he had gathered and put them to good use; should he not return, father Devon was to sell the valuables and dedicate the coin he earned to the clinic. James also asked whether father Devon would bless him, which the old priest did by reciting a short prayer of thanks and blessing.

In the meantime the rest of the heroes spent time together in the tavern eating some breakfast. Astrid seemed nervous, bouncing her legs as she ate. Luca shared a special potion with Astrid; one that would give imbue her body with a short burst of incredible speed.

When James returned he walked into the Careless Wanderer together with two men who looked as if they had spent the night on the road; mud-covered and soaked. When James sat down he, as well as Emrys, noticed that Quentin got a bit uncomfortable with the two riders. They stood at the bar and attempted to negotiate lodgings. Their Beauclairois accents were thick and it became clear that Quentin was concerned that they were the vanguard of high lord Gaulthier’s retinue. James offered that he could relay a message to lord Dorian if anything were to happen to Quentin.

For Quentin the arrival of the two riders meant that his father was not far away and he would be reunited with him soon, something which seemed to fill him with some trepidation.

Before departing, James went up to his room and took some time to disguise himself. Once he was done he was hard to recognise, with a deep, hooded cloak which obscured his face. At the same time, Emrys spoke with Lauryn and got an update of their outstanding debt with the Careless Wanderer, which was nearing one hundred gold crowns.

Quentin stepped into the foul weather and walked to the rear of the Careless Wanderer to find Wojciech. The Silesian was taking care of the Beauclairois destriers that the riders had entrusted to him. Quentin asked the stable master whether he could venture a guess on how far the retinue was away from Kingsport. The Silesian said it was likely that the men departed the host about two days prior, which meant that the host itself would likely arrive in about four days.

It was time for the heroes to make their way to Ravensbourne where James knew there was an entrance into the ancient waterways which would bring them closest to the headquarters of the night master. With some trickery to distract a patrolling group of crownsguard and custodians, the heroes managed to enter the grim subterranean world of the waterways. The dragonling, which Luca had named Caraxes, was sent to scout up ahead. Emrys and James almost immediately noticed various symbols left behind by the rogues of the Steady Hand.

Soon the heroes stumbled upon a body of a skaven warrior. Its body seemed to have been partially embedded in the embankment of the underground canal that the heroes were walking down. Emrys mused that either the skaven was transmuted into the stone, or had been translocated into the stone when a teleportation spell went awry. He also noted that the armour that the skaven was wearing was made from the same thick leather that as the strange armour the heroes had seen at auction at the Landsdowne auction house in Bournemouth several months prior. Also, the skaven had several curious talismans tied on dirty bits of string around its neck.

Soon after the heroes came upon a junction where several large corridors connected. Mere minutes from where James believed the entrance to the headquarters of the night master to be, the junction was the location of the aftermath to a battle. Two dozen skaven of all shapes and sizes lay dead among the bodies of others; aberrant lords as well as the body of a custodian. It was a strange site which bore further investigation.

Previously, the heroes spent the better part of the afternoon engaging with Réonan at the Circle of Magi where the enigmatic head archmage was interrogated about the vault they suspected was under Kingsport. They confirmed that Réonan was the vault’s keeper and had summoned Xarrombus from the far realm to act as the vault’s guardian. They also confirmed that Réonan was indeed a celestial whose name at one time was Zerachiel.

Fourth Day, First Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262

(Silvermoon is waxing, Bloodmoon is waning, Darkmoon is waning)

When the heroes returned to the Careless Wanderer the tavern was full of fishermen who were making merry. The heroes had a things to discuss and felt they would not be afforded the privacy they needed and so retreated to the stables room that Emrys had rented for himself.

Most of the conversation was around eyes, glass eyes and eye patches. Having liberated Jeanne and Vydia from the hands of the Steady Hand thugs, they both had damaged eyes due to the slug that had found its way into their eye socket. The day master also had a glass eye and the suspicion was that this could have been caused by those strange slugs as well.

Quentin was reminded that he had taken a strange eye from Kalauranthalasis’ lair, which had been identified as a strange magical artifact called the Eye of the Pirate King. He wondered whether it might belong to the day master, but quickly dismissed the idea; the butcher had light brown eyes with flecks of green, which did not match the artifact. But another thought crossed the young knight’s mind; eyes usually come in pairs and perhaps there was a twin that was in the possession of the butcher; he, more than most, would have reason to keep a magical eye handy.

The question came back around to what the heroes would do next, and Luca reiterated that he wanted to liberate Hamish from the aberrant lords. James explained that it was likely that Hamish had been brought to the night master’s headquarters, which could be found in the ancient waterways underneath Ravensbourne. Moreover, James believed it likely that the headquarters were the entrance to the Newport vault.

The heroes discussed the possibility of scouting the ancient waterways underneath Ravensbourne but felt there was limited opportunity for them to do so safely. This prompted Luca to dedicate some time to performing the ritual summoning of a familiar; he had found a scroll amongst the treasure in the Wyrmblood ziggurat but had been thwarted in his attempts to perform the ritual. He finally saw an opportunity to do so, having secured the relevant components only recently. The familiar might be able to assist in scouting.

James decided that he wanted to write a letter to lord Marcus explaining everything that the heroes had learned since they had spoken to him and the rest of the Sheridans last. He also felt that the heroes were deserving of a good meal and so he went out to find ingredients. Luca retreated to his modest chambers to prepare and perform the ritual while Quentin spent some time skimming the book of Celtician lineages. He concluded that he would likely have to spend more time in order for him to learn anything useful about the ancient noble houses of Beauclair.

James was able to secure the ingredients that he was looking for, despite breaking curfew in order to do so. It was testament to James’ familiarity with the city and his resourcefulness that he managed to scrounge the quality ingredients together for the modest amount of coin he did.

When James returned he noticed a knight and her retinue of henchmen ride up to the Careless Wanderer in the icy, pouring rain. The knight was wearing the elaborately decorated armour of the Order of the Lance, but before James could determine why the unusual party had arrived at the Wanderer he headed inside and spoke to Ramsey in the kitchen, instructing him to make a grand feast with the ingredients he had found. Ramsey was impressed and delighted that he could finally cook a proper meal again and forget about the curfew’s impact on the quality of his cooking. It was probably the first time that James had seen the surly man smile.

When James had emerged from the kitchen, he found the knight standing in front of the tavern room, flanked on either side by her henchmen, declaring the following:

“Grimnir Bouldertoe of the Iron Foothills, I have come on the order of Lord Aberforth of House Dunkeswell, Earl of Hungerford, Viscount of Monk Bridge, Protector of Northern Ashenvale and sworn Banner to House Grey. He demands that you fulfil your oath of service to him and return the rockplate catfish.”

Evidently, the knight was Dame Morena, sworn sword of house Dunkeswell and barontesse of Hittersleigh was there to demand that Grimnir, one of the dwarven fishermen, return into the service of lord Aberforth. Apparently the dwarf and his team had switched to lord Peregrine’s team during the fishing competition and the threat of losing the competition was enough for lord Aberforth to send an armed retinue to adjudicate the matter. As Ser Liam of the Cloakwoods, sworn sword to house Blackwell, stood between Dame Morena and the frightened dwarf, James could no longer conceal his scorn.

Several comments, none of them designed to deescalate the situation, tumbled from James’ mouth and before he knew it swords were drawn and blood started flowing. James tumbled out of the way of danger and exited through one of the windows and into the alleyway along the Wanderer, but not without sustaining a couple of wounds.

Luca, who had heard the ruckus during his preparation of the conjuration ritual, had come downstairs and confronted Dame Morena. He managed to leverage his newfound title as Baronet of Evenshade Hall into a parley and appealed to her better nature and the honour of lord Aberforth to make sure that the dwarves were treated fairly.

When Dame Morena had left, not without James inflicting some wounds of his own on her henchmen, Luca turned his attention to Ser Liam and tended to his wounds. When James returned he was treated as well, and not for the first time did the heroes see a noticeable change in Luca. His powers, while still devastating, also had the capacity to heal, to sooth and to nurture.

A familiar face popped up when dinner was served and the heroes sat down for their meal; Wynn, the blue-skinned, white-haired Quickling had found his way into the bread basket where he was gleefully munching away at the lovely sourdough that Ramsay had prepared.

James finally prepared the letter to lord Marcus and turned to Wojciech, the Silesian stable master of the Wanderer. It was not the first time Wojciech had run errands between Kingsport and Lynnecombe and he happily took up the charge. James paid him handsomely and made sure he had enough coin to bring some friends for protection. The Silesian would deliver the letter if the heroes had not returned three days after their departure the following day.

After dinner James visited Luca in his chambers just as the conjuration ritual was finishing and laid witness to the summoning. An arcane circle had been drawn on the floor of the room with charcoal and the remainder was ground up and mixed with incense and used to draw the symbols of power within the circle. Once the powder was lit and burned, the fragrant smoke concentrated itself in torrent in the centre of the circle. It looked as if it was solidifying more and more until the shape hardened into a chrysalis of pale green.

Once the smoke had completely cleared the chrysalis began to stir gently. Luca took it into his hands and slowly watched as it began to crack like an egg, and from inside a blue-skinned wyrmling with wings like those of a colourful butterfly unfurled itself, looking up at Luca with innocent eyes.

When Luca came downstairs to join at the dinner table Wynn spotted the wyrmling and exclaimed “A servant of the summer court!!” before erratically racing off with blinding speed.