The party presses on to reach the North Gate to the city of Cauldron before nightfall. Sixty feet from the gate the party is met by some of the city guards. Four guards line the road on each side in flanking positions. Three more come down the road to speak with the party.
Verrad uses his military experience to size up the guards. “These guys are a joke” he thinks. The party gets the idea that they could easily handle the guards but recognize that the walls of the city and the winding road up the side of the volcano would make any force think twice about attacking Cauldron head on.
The speaker for the guards has no clear sign of rank but he is wearing heavier armor. With him is a lantern bearer and a figure dressed in a tall red hat and red tabard. The speaker informs the party of several things:
There is a 1sp/per person “Gate Tax” to enter the city.
It turns out that the figure in red is one of the city tax collectors. One is stationed at all times at each of the four city gates to handle transactions. The collector is given a single gold piece by Teela and told to “keep the change”.
The speaker recognized that typically a group with a mix like yours is often an Adventure Party. You are informed that if you wish to operate within the city limits you must be registered as an “official Adventure Party”. To do so, you must have a name for the group, pay a 10gp tax, and be sponsored by a local business, church, or noble family.
Teela steps forward and shows the guard proof that she is a member of House Knowlern, and is a niece to Lady Ophellha. She produces a broach that contains the family seal that she uses to seal her sponsorship of the party. She suggests the name of the party be “The Knowlern Troupe” and the rest agree. Leander pays the 10 gp and when he identifies himself as a Rihvadi, the bowing and scraping really turn on.
The speaker of the guard is very helpful and answers several questions the party has about the city. In response to Teela’s question about places they should go, he suggests the Bluecrater Academy and the Temple of Wee Jas. He seems very open even in the cold and rain of this late Autumn night.
Cusp of Sunrise: Establishment that caters to the cream of the nobles – owned by Teela’s Aunt Ophellha.
(The guards snicker at the thought of this group entering and Krawg the half-orc probably couldn’t even get in the BACK door.)Drunken Morkoth Inn: Good basic inn favored by merchants and travelers of all kinds.
Minuta’s Board: A flop-house where the “Half-orc may be more comfortable”.
The party decides to head for the “Drunken Morkoth”. On the way there, they hear a cry for help coming from an alley ahead. Verrad spots a lookout but by the time he can act the others have already made so much noise (music and clanging of armor) that the group is spotted and the lookout darts into the alley.
One wonders if he had told the party what he saw could Teela have “fascinated” the lookout allowing Verrad to work his way behind unseen?
Leander is the first to reach the alley and sees three street thugs with blue and white make-up on their faces standing over a badly beaten Cleric of St. Cuthbert. “Bugger off, this is none of your business” one of the thugs says. It seems the party did not agree with this and soon arrows and bolts where flying towards the thugs. Cries of: “No, really this is none of your business.” “Why are they shooting at us?” “We are NOT getting paid enough for this.” come from the thugs and prompt the party to comment that the thieves in Cauldron seem to be as incompetent as the town guards!
Saelis tried a sleep spell, but the thugs were unaffected. The thugs tried to run and two of them succeeded but Verrad was persistent in bringing one down. Leander and Zylamar came forward to make sure the thug survived to answer some questions.
The thug’s name was “Tom” and as it turned out he is a member of the town guard that is doing a little work on the side for a Thieves’ Guild known as the Last Laugh. Tom, after being charmed by Saelis, was very informative. His companions, also members of the town guard, were “Troy” and “Tim”. A member of the Last Laugh named Jill approached them in the area near Minuta’s Boarding House and paid them to deliver a message to the Church of St. Cuthbert. They agreed to do it only if they were not expected to do any real damage. After all, the beating they gave the Cleric was nothing a “cure light wounds” spell would not fix. The message was that the Church was to stop investigating the disappearance of the children from the Lantern Street Orphanage that had occurred a few nights ago. The Church has vowed to do everything it can to punish those responsible. It seems there has been a rash of unexplained disappearances lately.
The party decides to take the Cleric, Ruphus Laro, and “Tom” the thug back to the Church of St. Cuthbert. There they meet Jenya Urikas, Ruphus’ superior, and the paladin Alek Tercival, who will ask the thug some questions before taking him to the headquarters of the town guard.
Jenya asks the party to look into the disappearance of the children for the church. She offers each member a potion of “cure moderate wounds” and the group an additional reward of 2,500gp for the successful completion of the quest.
She tells the party that she used a divination spell and asked the question, “Where are the children who were abducted from the Lantern Street Orphanage?” She wrote the riddle that was the answer to the question down for the party.
Jenya believed the “Locks” mentioned in the first line of the riddle could be referring to the locks at the Lantern Street Orphanage. Since it was getting late, Jenya offered the party a room where they could spend the night. She tells the party that she will give them a list of the missing people in the morning.
End of Day 1
After getting the list of the missing, most of the party decides to head over to the Lantern Street Orphanage to ask some questions. Verrad decides that he will check out the area around Minuta’s Boarding House. The street thugs mentioned that was where they were contacted by Jill and paid to send a message to the Church.
The party offers to send Krawg with Verrad but he declines, stating that he may get better results working alone. But they all agree that they will meet for lunch and check into the Drunken Morkoth Inn.
At the orphanage, the party is greeted by an elderly Halfling, Gretchyn Tashakk. At first she is reluctant to speak with the party but when she learns the party is working for Jenya she gives them her full cooperation.
They learn over 30 children live at the orphanage and there is nothing that suggests, besides all being orphans, that the children are connected in any way. After a thorough search of the children’s dorm rooms, the group turned their attention to the locks at the orphanage and learned that they were all made by a local locksmith, Keygan Ghelve. The party decided that after lunch they would pay Mr. Ghelve a visit.
At the Drunken Morkoth Inn, the party meets up with Verrad and he tells them he still is working on some things down by Minuta’s. But he has learned that there are two thieves guilds in town. The Last Laugh is the largest organization in town and their rivals are the Alleybashers who run their operations out of Minuta’s.
Once again, Varrad decides to head out alone while the rest of the party goes to check out Ghelve’s Locks. Since Ghelve’s is located just two doors from Bluecrater Academy, and the locksmith’s is too small for the whole party to enter, Saelis decides to take the package he was sent to deliver over to the Academy while others go in to speak to Ghelve. Krawg and Jarzin will accompany Saelis. Leaving Teela, Leander and Zylamar to question Ghelve.
Ghelve is a Gnome but when he comes through the curtains of a back room into the shop he is at least six feet tall. Later the party will discover Ghelve wears stilts while in the shop. But on this visit they can get very little information from Ghelve. So it is decided that they will step out and wait for Saelis to return – maybe he could cast a charm on Ghelve that will make him more cooperative.
It is decided that only Saelis and Teela will enter the shop. Teela tries to distract him with some conversation while Saelis casts his charm. But Ghelve is prepared and gets the drop on both Teela and Saelis with a spell of his own. A color spray comes out of Ghelve’s hands towards Saelis and Teela but they are unaffected by the magic of the spell. Saelis’ charm seems to have no power over Ghelve. But then Ghelve seems to realize he needs to do something so he gives a motion with his eyes that he was being watched. Teela picked up on this and went into the back room to investigate.
When she entered that backroom see caught the glimpse of a shadow move at the top of the stairs. Suddenly a humanoid, a Skulk, dropped from the landing and attacked. Teela was able to hit the creature with a solid blow and Saelis stepped in to finish it off with a magic missile cast from one of his scrolls.
While Teela and Saelis were busy with the Skulk, Ghelve took the opportunity to escape. He quickly removed his stilts and ran out the door – only to be surrounded by the rest of the party waiting outside.
Once back inside, he told his sorry tale. Under the stairs of his shop is a secret entrance to the abandoned Gnome enclave of Jzadirune. The enclave was abandoned 75 years ago after a magical plague called the Vanishing swept through it. A few weeks ago creatures came into his shop from Jzadirune, and kidnapped his familiar, a rat named Starbrow. The creatures were Skulks and a smaller dark race. They force him to give them skeleton keys to all the locks he has made in Cauldron. At night they have used his shop to enter the city and bring their captives to Jzardirune.
Ghelve knows Starbrow is in a dark place within a mile. He can sense both the rat’s fear and hunger. He is sorry for what he has done but he did not know what to do. Starbrow is the only family he has left. Ghelve supplies the party with a map of the Jzadirune enclave.
The party decide to leave Krawg to protect Ghelve during the night. Krawg is happy to have a new little pet.
The others return to the Drunken Morkoth to see what Verrad has been up to and get a meal and then it if off to the Church of St. Cuthbert to tell Jenya what they have learned. Verrad also pulls one of the clerics aside to hear his confession.
Verrad has been a busy adventurer. He has befriended a young street kid who severs as his ears and eyes in the area around Minuta’s. From this child he learned that the janitor of the Lantern Street Orphanage, Patch, has been seen talking with one of the members of the Last Laugh.
Verrad also had an idea to locate one of the meeting areas of the Last Laugh. He would use the rivalry between the Alleybashers and Last Laugh to set them after each other. He found some paint and marked some of his bolts with the colors of the Last Laugh. He then found a safe location he could observe the action around Minuta’s. He witnessed all sorts of illegal and evil acts. He picked out one figure he was sure committed several crimes that night and after one of his crimes when he was in the alley next to Minuta’s, Verrad shot his bolts and after a couple tries killed the young thief.
It did not take long before the other Alleybashers took the bait and went to get some payback on the Last Laugh. Several Alleybashers went to the Slippery Eel Tavern and delivered several missile weapons through the windows of the establishment onto the patrons inside.
Verrad had mixed feelings about what he had done. He did now know the location of the two major Thieves’ Guilds in Cauldron and had succeeded in setting them against each other. But he also was not sure if he did the right things shooting the young thief in the alley. And now even more innocents could have been harmed in the retaliation.
So Verrad asked the Church to hear his confession. The Cleric was concerned that Verrad may have taken the law into his own hands. But evil must be punished in both this world and the next. He encouraged Verrad to try harder to follow the laws laid down for everyone’s protection. Without law we have nothing, though his actions did strike a blow against the evil and chaotic souls that inhabit that part of the city. Maybe now the town guard will have a stronger presence there to help bring order. In the morning a few Clerics from the Church will go to the area and see what they can do.
The party returned to the Drunken Morkoth to rest for the night.
End of Day 2
In the morning the party went down to the orphanage to speak with the half-orc janitor, Patch. Patch admitted that the Last Laugh has been paying him to keep an eye on one of the children, Terrem. He does not know why the Last Laugh is interested in the child but his contact, a Halfling named Revus Twindaggers, let it slip one day that all he knew was “it has something to do with his dead parents.”
This is where the session ended. The parties next task is checking out Jzadirune. But this could change.
