Category: Conjunction of Planes

Previously, the heroes decided to help Céleste deal with an intruder into her shops wine cellar, only to discover that Sadwick, Atilesceon’s former familiar, had been left behind by Daerlan saboteurs. Luca tricked Sadwick in sharing a lot of information about the perpetrators and rewarding him by with a banishment back to the Nine Hells.

Sixth Day, Second Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262

(Silvermoon is waning, Bloodmoon is in low sanction, Darkmoon is waxing)

After departing the wine cellars underneath Céleste’s shop the heroes decided that it was time to visit the Newport Vault and that it would be an excellent place to store Muirgheal. And so, before heading to the Careless Wanderer to prepare for a trip to the vault, the heroes headed towards the river to visit the Baths of Sedna, the place of worship lead by Emma.

After being welcomed by Dagmær, the heroes were brought to Emma’s private chambers inside the bath halls. Emma warned Quentin, who was taking the lead in the conversation, that she was in harmony with the bitterness of Winter, and that the troubled dreams induced by Muirgheal were weighing her down. A visible weight fell off Emma’s shoulders when Quentin explained that the heroes had come to take custody of the trident.

The conversation turned more pleasant once Emma had parted with the weapon. She explained that she was determined to stand in opposition of Epidemius, which was wryly accepted by Quentin.

“If your eagerness has turned to resolve, then you should make good use of it.”
– Quentin Morvrayne to Emma Desmarais

The heroes discussed Epidemius’ influence on the city, the resurgence of the plague maidens, and the burden on the sick and the wounded. Emma’s devotion to the Lady of Lakes would be very invaluable in opposition of the Lord of Decay.

The conversation turned to Queen Isabella, and what was happening inside the palace, and Emma suggested that Bláthnaid, the spring which had its origins deep within Garamond Hill upon which the palace stood, and which was responsible for feeding the water gardens, might be a good source of information. She insisted that Bláthnaid had an awareness of much of what went on within the palace walls.

The heroes departed the bath house, taking Muirgheal with them, and returned to the Careless Wanderer where they enjoyed the warmth of the hearth and a modest meal. Quentin spoke with Céleste, who was still drowning herself in wine, and explained that the heroes had taken care of the problem in her cellars. Showing the her some tough love, Quentin convinced her to rebuild her business and prepare for Pip’s recovery from her injuries. Céleste seemed to take this to heart and went to freshen up before leaving the warm embrace of the Careless Wanderer’s warm hearth and bad wine.

Quentin shared his suspicion of Monsieur Beauregard’s complicity in the attack on Céleste and Pip’s wine shop, as well as the sabotaging of the royal wine cellars. He even suspected him of orchestrating the bandit raids on the overland deliveries, as well as the pirate attacks on the overseas shipments. The vandalism had left only Beauclair wines spared, and some of their bottles had gone missing. While he did not have any proof, Quentin knew enough of how the spymasters of the noble houses of Beauclair operated to recognise their signature.

Chakuq shared that he picked up a slender rod which had been discarded by Sadwick during the short fight in the cellar, and Luca added it to the ever-growing list of curious items which needed to be investigated. He then convinced everyone that it was time for them to head down to the vault underneath Kingsport. Falka was nowhere to be found, so the heroes figured they would need to find James in order to get inside. They packed up what they felt they needed and headed out to find Goodman just off Steward’s Square. If anyone could get in contact with James, the heroes reasoned it was him. It turned out to be less complicated than that, as Goodman referred them to the Silver Cross, a brothel in a part of Northside referred to as The Lace.

They were admitted entrance by a Carcerian named Samuel, who knew James well and was convinced by Luca that they were close friends with James. Inside there were people of leisure talking and flirting with potential customers. After being granted passage by the mistress of the Silver Cross, Samuel lead the heroes down to the basement where there was an entrance to what the Carcerian referred to as the “underthing”, which was a shaft leading into the waterways.

The heroes learned that Falka used this entrance to the waterways to get to the vault, and had taken a boat that usually was moored at the bottom of the shaft. Having to do a lot of walking through the muck, Chakuq scavenged a pair of old boots from the basement so that he could keep his own boots clean. After a receiving some directions, the heroes headed down.

Neamhan, unwilling to get herself dirty by wading through sewage, transfigured into a raven and perched on Quentin’s shoulder. Luca used Blackstar to illuminate the passages they travelled through, but instead of it emitting light, it absorbed the darkness. It did not take long before the heroes arrived at a landing in front of a walled archway. A small boat was moored on the landing. Unfortunately, it was not immediately apparent how to get beyond the archway.

Previously, the heroes decided to press Céleste for more information on the attack on her shop. She revealed that a demonic creature had been left behind by the intruders, which had taken up residency among the destroyed stock of the wine cellar. The heroes decided to investigate.

Sixth Day, Second Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262

(Silvermoon is waning, Bloodmoon is in low sanction, Darkmoon is waxing)

Céleste’s wine cellar was a heavy, vaulted basement with a mezzanine that ran all the way around it. It was old; clearly once part of the ancient waterways and built with the same materials and in the same style. The shaft of the ox-driven dumbwaiter that lowered the heroes from the surface to the cellar was etched with faded runes, which Emrys and Luca recognised as wards of abjuration, once used to secure the waterways against incursions. Faded and eroded statues of winged warriors stood in archways along the mezzanine, further proof of the cellar’s age.

The cellars themselves were chaos; shelves pushed over, bottles broken, and barrels smashed. There was a sour stench in the air, coming from burgundy puddles of stale wine on stained stones where it had not been washed down the drains which connected the cellar to the waterways.

The enormous shadow of a horned creature with leathery wings was project against one of the walls, originating from behind one of the wine racks, and a booming voice demanded the heroes identify themselves. Most of the heroes were curious rather than intimidated. They had faced adversaries from the outer planes before and felt all the more confident for it. Chakuq melt away into the shadows and started to circle around to the other side of the wine rack, while Quentin called for the creature to show themselves. This was met with threats.

“I will slit you open and splash around inside you like a child playing in a muddy puddle. I’ll string a fiddle with your guts and make you play it while I dance.”

Luca engaged the creature in its native tongue and quickly managed to identify it as Sadwick, the once familiar to Atilesceon the Artificer, whom the heroes defeated in the realm of Old Llygad. It form was small and slender, with leathery wings and a vicious looking stinger as a tail, and certainly not nearly as intimidating as the big shadow that it cast suggested.

Before its identity was established, Sadwick engaged in a battle of insults with Neamhan, properly rubbing her the wrong way. And while it was being approached by Quentin from one side, and Chakuq from the other, it used a slender rod made of engraved silver to summon a large beast of burden, must like the one that Epidemius rode on steward’s square. Quentin quickly engaged the beast, together with some of the other heroes, and found that the beast’s rider, a woman dressed in shepherd’s clothes and wooden shoes, had also materialised with the beast. She was quickly cut down by Quentin, which revealed her to have radiant, pupilless eyes; something which troubled the young knight.

With a combined effort, spearheaded by Neamhan and her connections to wind and air, the beast was quickly put down. Luca dealt the killing blow, using Blackstar as a conduit for his magic, and predictably a jolt of excruciating pain ran through his body as he absorbed some of the creature’s vital energy, reinvigorating himself through clenched teeth. Neamhan disapproves of what Luca has done, and tells him that “it is better to fade with the leaves, than to steal the root’s breath.”

Chakuq, Luca, and Neamhan worked together to capture Sadwick, who turns out to be a foul-mouthed, cantankerous little prick who constantly belittles Quentin and takes the piss out of Neamhan. In return for a promise to let him leave the cellar unharmed, Sadwick explains that he was brought to the cellar a group of Daerlanian infiltrators. They had been smuggled from the Fields of Strife, through Northshire, and into Kingsport by the Procyon, a group of elven outlaws under the leadership of Cendelius, a notorious bandit that some of the heroes had come in conflict with in Allenham, on their way to Pinefall.

Jeroen, a familiar Kingsport ruffian was among the Daerlanians, as was a Lyrian warlock by the name of Tiberius. It was that warlock who had summoned and bound Sadwick, and it was his intention to leave the imp behind to make it seem as if the perpetrators of the vandalism were devil worshippers, possibly the Cult of the Dark Queen. Tiberius was described as a balding man with a neatly trimmed  white beard and icy blue eyes.

After smashing up the wine shop and its cellar, they intended to infiltrate the royal palace. The heroes had already learned that the royal cellars were infested with wood worm, which had laid waste to the royal wine stores.

After some investigation it was clear that not all the wines had been destroyed, but certainly most of it. The wines that survived all happened to be Beauclairois, but since that was the most popular source of high quality, well-regarded wine, that could be a coincidence. Sadwick also shared that the Daerlanians took one bottle from each surviving vintage.

This, coupled with the Sadwick’s claim that while travelling to Kingsport, the Daerlanians were in frequent contact with an employer, told Quentin that Monsieur Beauregard was behind it all. He just could not understand how or why he had set all of that in motion.

Luca, true to his word, repaid Sadwick by letting him leave the cellar unharmed… but not quite in the way that Sadwick had intended to leave. The young warlock had created a powerful arcane circle around Sadwick and banished the imp back to the Nine Hells.

With their work at the wine shop done, the heroes departed for the Careless Wanderer, keen to inform Céleste that they had taken care of the problem.

Previously, the heroes spent an evening at the Careless Wanderer together with Lord Andrew, trading rumours, playing songs, and enjoying each other’s company. Chakuq went on an excursion to validate the presence of the restless dead in the city, and Quentin sent a discrete invitation to Ser Croy, his father’s master-at-arms, to join him for a conversation the following day.

Sixth Day, Second Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262

(Silvermoon is waning, Bloodmoon is in low sanction, Darkmoon is waxing)

The first of the heroes to wake up on a calm but bitter-cold morning is Neamhan, who shapes into a cat to take a stroll around a dark Kingsport. She followed the smell of rats to a sewer drain. As the rest of the heroes slowly wake, Ramsey is experimenting in the kitchen with a new cream filling for his sugar wheels.

Quentin, still shaken from a stressful dream, cut himself while shaving and was reminded of the maiden, the mother, and the crone chanting “sangreal” and was left wondering how it related to the Blood of Alban. In the taproom he met Dame Pauline who was getting ready to depart for the Black Alder Farm. Quentin sensed a tension in the bannerette, but could not discover the reason for it.

Luca was roused from a bad night of sleep by a presence in his room. He reached out for Blackstar, for without the staff in hand he was not gifted with dark sight, and heard the voice of Aurion; “The staff has become a crutch for you, Luca.” Once Luca realised his patron has graced him with a visit, relief and trepidation filled him in equal measure. Aurion was keen to understand what the status was of the tablets the heroes had recovered, as well as where Luca stood on subjugating Blackstar. Luca’s patron suggested that Quentin and his devotion to the Raven Queen would align with his own goals in the near future, which the celestial suggested lay somewhere in the east.

Chakuq decided to sleep in and woke up well past eight bell. After a modest breakfast he spoke to Wojciech about finding a jeweller or gem cutter to carve the teeth he had harvested from Epidemius’ mount into talismans. He was given a name, Eustace, who operated from a small workshop in Southside, just off the Street of Spices.

Lord Andrew also spent the night at the Wanderer and has a vicious hangover. Neamhan, still in her cat form, comforted him by sitting in his lap. His face brightened up briefly as he said that it didn’t happen often that a beautiful woman wanted to sit in his lap, but when the flirtation passed the misery of his hangover returned on his face as he continued to pick at his breakfast.

Emrys came down after spending some time in the peace and comfort of his luxurious room. He made sure to freshen up, and take a deep breath of fresh air from his balcony before coming down, and was delighted to see that he was doing significantly better than his dilettante friend, Andrew.

Astrid was last to come down and was carrying some of her travelling gear. She grabbed a quick bite off the table and announced that she’d be spending a few days on a barge, travelling up and down the river Lyn with Aram the boatsman. Before she hurried out she gave Neamhan a couple of scratches behind the ear and spoke to her in a way that gave Neamhan the impression that they were able to communicate, despite Neamhan having adopted her cat form. Astrid was out the door before Neamhan was able to discover the truth of it.

After the heroes broke their fast, the conversation turned to next steps, and the heroes decided to refocus themselves on the Liber Bubonicus, which they believed might reside in the Upright Man’s library in the Newport vault. Chakuq had a lot of questions about the vault, and Emrys explained some of the basics, including vault guardians.

When Céleste once again came into the taproom, Quentin decided to have a word with her. She shared more of the details of the attack on her shop and how Pip got so badly wounded. She believed there was a connection to the Steady Hand, since she had recognised Jeroen the Daerlanian as one of the people vandalising her shop. The group that was responsible had also left something demonic behind in her basement.

The heroes retreated to Emrys’ room to talk in private about the problem with the wine shop. Neamhan pleaded that, after days of inaction and indecision, finally a problem presented itself that the heroes could quite easily solve; exorcise the demon from the cellar of the wine shop.

Before departure, the heroes did continue to discuss the attack on the wine shop. Oddly, not all wine had been destroyed, but about eight in ten bottles and barrels were destroyed, and of the remaining wine, samples had been stolen. Neamhan recalled that there was an odd incident at the diplomatic delegation from Beauclair, where a quartermaster has lost his thumbs because he disobeyed the strict orders not to part with any of the delegation’s wine. That, coupled with the wine shipments from Carceres lost to pirates, and from Beauclair and Daerlan lost to brigands, there was an uncommon level of scarcity of wine. It felt as if someone was out to manipulate the market.

The heroes were determined to do something good for Céleste and hopefully discover more that would unravel the mystery of the wine shortage. They prepared their gear and took the keys they were given by Céleste and headed over to the shop.

Once at the shop they gained entrance to the shop and found it in disarray. There were two trapdoors which lead into the cellar, but neither could be opened with the keys they were given. In the courtyard behind the shop they found an ox-drawn dumbwaiter that lead down into the wine cellar.

Neamhan had a chat with the ox, whose name was Rudolph, who could explain that there was an angry creature in the cellar who was getting steadily drunk on the spilled wine. Rudolph also explained that not all of the intruders went into the shop or the cellar, but that one of them, an elf, stayed outside.

When the heroes used the dumbwaiter to descend into the cellar, they found that there were faded wards carved into the walls of the elevator shaft. It was clear from the type of stone that the walls were made of that the cellar was once part of the halls which lead to the vault. This was supported by the old statues of winged warriors that could be seen when the cellar, which was in as much disarray as the shop, came into view.

After careful inspection a booming voice could be heard, demanding that the heroes identify themselves. The voice came from behind a large cabinet, and a large shadow of a winged creature with wicked horns could be seen on the wall behind it.