Runelords 10.0 - Sandpoint's New Threat

Having arrested Tsuto, killed Nualia and restored peace to Sandpoint, the three soldiers and the scholar took a few days to relax. Eamon, when not at the church with Mother Zantis, began to care for and connect with the horse they had rescued from the goblins of Thistletop Shrine, instructed by Virgil; the devil spent much of the rest of his time keeping to himself, training his ravens and avoiding people so as to not trigger his now even shorter temper. Khyrralien milled about, busking, relaxing and training with his new crossbow, purchased from Larz in exchange for the enchanted bastard sword that Nualia had wielded. Luna continued to assist at the Rusty Dragon, when not occupied with listening to Quint talk. The four resigned from the town guard, and returned what borrowed gear they still had to the garrison while commissioning Larz to fit Virgil and Khyr with new chain shirts.
Four days after they had announced their victory to the mayor, the sheriff returned with some reinforcements to the guard, and Ms. Devarin presented the five adventurers with a small monetary reward. Having now collected, Ilsa announced that she would be leaving for Medinipur. There was no real work for her in the small village, and she hoped to have better luck in the city. She took her leave of the extraplanars, with a hopes to see them again that only sounded slightly of its insincerity. 
The next morning, Quint rounded up his summons and informed them that this was the day that they would escort him to Thistletop Shrine to see the ruins beneath it. Taking him through the woods, they approached by following the rocky coast; when they neared the island, they used Quint's magic to provide them with air as they found and entered the underwater tunnel that led to the room where they had fought the giant hermit crab. Quint gushed over the old mural, declaring that it was a depiction of a map to the fabled City of Gold, Xin Shalast. Virgil, having recently relearned the spell Invisibility, was sent on his own to investigate the upper levels, in the hopes that he could find some of their lost belongings. He found nothing disturbed in the lower levels, and stealthily made his way back into the upper basement where the shrine to Fierna stood. Here, he saw that a barricade had been set up on the stairs leading to the surface, manned by Bruthazmus. Keeping his distance from the bugbear, he poked around the temple. It seemed as though Bruthazmus was fighting with Ripnugget and his goblin warriors, occupying the lower level and keeping the women and children down with him while blocking the men up top. Deciding that this wasn't a conflict he wanted part of, Virgil poked through the rooms in secret and found his stolen scimitar in Tsuto's old room, along with some satchels of silver and gold dust that he gathered had been taken from the glassworks. 
The barricade made it too risky for him to try and sneak past, so he began to make his way back to the basement. On a whim, he checked the prison cells as he passed, where he found three goblins had been taken prisoner. One of them was no other than Ripgut, Virgil's "goblin friend" that he had assisted twice before. Deciding that he wasn't about to leave him now, Virgil made his presence known. The two other goblins wailed and screamed as Ripgut recognized the man who had suddenly appeared. He nearly remembered his name, calling him "Vestigal", and ordered him to let him free. Virgil managed to convince the goblin that he had a secret way out, past Bruthazmus and back to the surface, but he would have to be extra quiet and follow him. Ripgut agreed, and after letting the goblin free, Virgil tossed the keys to the other two, who immediately fell to fighting over them; he assumed that he would have more than enough time to escape before they managed to free themselves and alert the ranger who guarded the exit. 
Ripgut kept his promise and was silent as they slipped back down the stairs. When they were past the deactivated trap, Virgil told him he could speak again, which brought him great relief. As they returned to the submerged room, he marveled that he was the first goblin to probably ever be here. Virgil rejoined the others, who were less than pleased but not at all surprised when the devil returned with his sword and his goblin, but nothing of theirs. He defended his decision to not try the barricade, but he promised to come back on his own on the following day to try and reclaim the things that had been lost up top. Having collected up all the silver in the room, and Quint having investigated to his heart's content, the group set themselves up to swim back to shore. Upon reaching the rocky beach, Ripgut immediately dashed over to Luna, stole the silver dagger she had kept by her hip, and ran off into the thistles to rejoin his people. The others looked about, wondering whether to pursue, but Virgil chuckled, called after him to try and keep out of trouble, and told Luna that he owed her a dagger.
Virgil did return on his own the following day, covering himself with Invisibility as he flew over the chasm to Thistletop. He could see that every scrap of rope that could be collected had been tied together in one long cord, and a single goblin had climbed down the cliff face, across the moat and was attempting to climb back up the other side in a bid to repair the lost bridge. Passing by, Virgil quickly found the swords and armour dropped by his teammates set up as rough practice dummies in the exercise yard. As soon as they were unattended, Virgil scooped them up. The gold was long gone, but he did manage to spy some of Khyrralien's antler decorations adorning Ripnugget's throne, which he currently sat upon with guards posted by the door. Making his way to an outside window, he tried to use Prestidigitation to collect one, but the floating ornament was seen by the goblins, who screamed that there was a ghost. Ripnugget, despite the spectre, grabbed the item out of the air. Virgil tried again a few more times; he gained nothing, but the goblins became convinced that the fort was haunted. Chuckling and leaving it at that, Virgil turned to leave. As he made to cross the chasm, he grabbed the slack of the rope and brought it across with him, tying it such that a single braid now connected the two sides, and convincing even more goblins that ghosts were at work. Chuckling even more, he returned to Sandpoint with the reclaimed town guard gear and Eamon's gifted greatsword. The others were glad that they had gotten as much back as they did, and Khyr accepted the dawning of a new superstition in the goblin tribe as a fair exchange for the loss of his decorations. 
The next morning began quietly enough: Luna had begun considering that it was time for her to return home, now that Sandpoint was safe again. She went to the dockyards to inquire about outbound ships before heading to see Quint. Virgil went directly out into the woods surrounding the town, while Khyr played sitar and began a promising day-long bender. Eamon set out from the inn towards the church, where he intended to join morning mass, when he was suddenly accosted by a man he didn't recognize. He introduced himself as Leo VanHorn, a reporter for the Sandpoint Gazette, and began asking Eamon a series of uncomfortable and leading questions regarding what had been happening in town. Trying to walk as quickly as possible, Eamon dodged the questions, some which seemed to implicate the angel's involvement in murder, and ducked into the church.
A long while later, Eamon stepped out to see that Leo was still there, now having words with the sheriff. When Hemlock saw the adventurer step out from inside, he dismissed Leo, who only stepped a short distance away. Hemlock informed him quietly that something had come up, and he needed to speak to him and his compatriots in privacy as quickly as possible. Eamon nodded, and set out to find the others. Khyrralien was quick to locate, as he sat outside playing his instrument while getting drunk; Luna was at Quint's as usual. Eamon sent Khyr out to find their teammate who, as luck would have it, happened to have just re-entered town to get a sandwich that he had been thinking about for the last few hours. After Virgil purchased lunch and joined them, they went to the sheriff's office, while Eamon regaled them of his uncomfortable encounter with the reporter. The most curious thing, they agreed, was that none of them had ever heard of the Sandpoint Gazette.
Hemlock wasted no time in telling them what had happened: last night, there had been a double murder at the lumber mill. The statement caused no small amount of shock in the people gathered, though Virgil appeared to be slightly more perturbed than the others. A young man by the name of Benny Harker, a worker at the mill, had been found brutally murdered, his corpse desecrated and left in a gruesome display: his jaw removed, face torn apart, and a seven-pointed star carved into his chest. A young woman's body was there as well, and though it had been mangled, it lacked the ritualistic treatment of the man's. When asked, the sheriff said that the girl had been identified as Katrine Vinder, only serving to make Virgil's agitation worse. Hemlock continued, saying that a note written in blood had been left at the scene, and was one of the reasons he had called them in: it was addressed to Luna Estaban. Luna, with a mixture of fear, disgust and panic, read the note: "You will learn to love me, desire me in time as she did. Give yourself to the pack and it shall all end. -Your Lordship." The note was passed around and everyone was off-put at least, though it seemed like Virgil was still preoccupied. The sheriff asked them, since they were so instrumental in bringing the last criminals to justice, if they would assist with this crime. The scene had been left as it had been found; it had been reported this morning by Ibor Thorn, Harker's coworker, who was currently in the station until the shock wore off. There were no suspects or witnesses at this time; Mr. Vinder had been arrested and brought in for questioning earlier, as it was his daughter who was found, though they had no reason to believe it was him. Khyrralien made a comment about the whereabouts and safety of his other daughter, at which point Virgil left the room; the sheriff, a bit confused at the sudden departure, said that both her and Mrs. Vinder were in their home, which was being watched currently by a member of the guard. Hemlock went on to explain that this hadn't been the only murder: two days earlier, a similar scene had been found in a barn not far from the outskirts of town. Three known con men had been sent away from Sandpoint before they could begin to fleece its citizens, and the next day, their bodies had been found desecrated much like Harker's, with a seven-pointed star cut into their torsos. They had only been identified by a neatly-printed note that one had carried, asking the three of them to meet with someone in that very barn, who had signed the letter "Your Lordship". A fourth man had also been found there, mentally scarred and invalid from the experience, who was thought to be their former bodyguard. He had been sent to the sanitorium outside of town when it seemed his wits were not returning. Gathering themselves up, the group agreed to help catch this murderer before he could strike again. Hemlock advised them to check the mill before interrogating anyone, so that it could be cleaned up. They agreed, and set out towards the mill.
The large main room where the work was conducted was a gristly sight indeed, and a disgusting smell of rot lingered in the air. Harker had been hung up for all to see, his body ritualistically desecrated as the sheriff had said. The remains of Katrine were perhaps even more unsettling: it appeared as though she had been thrown into the log slicer, and her body was mangled beyond recognition. Poking around, they found some footprints in the wood dust on the ground, but couldn't make out where they led to in the confusion. However, there were a few more disconcerting pieces of evidence: an axe had been dropped nearby, covered in blood and gore both on the blade and handle, but it didn't appear that either of the bodies had been attacked with it, suggesting that it had been used against the murder. The viscera on the axe head did not seem human, and had a potent reek. Further, there was evidence of claws, both on Harker's body and on the footprints in the dust, but both the prints and wound patterns suggested a human-shaped assailant. The murderer was the size and shape of a human, with clawed hands, feet and the stench of death about it: the evidence suggested a ghast, ghoul, or other intelligent, brutal undead creature. They relayed this information to the sheriff, who had joined them. He shook his head, and said that this was a dark time, but they at least had a procedure for undead. The guard would be put on alert and equipped with wands of Detect Undead, hopefully allowing them to hunt down and destroy it; if the three of them could run and fetch him the wands from Father Zantis, that would be appreciated. They agreed, but it was easy to see the fear and uncertainty on Luna's face as they left.
Meanwhile, Virgil had gone to the Vinder's house. He could see the guardsman watching a short distance away, but ignored him as he went and knocked on the door. A middle-aged woman with a despondent and tired look answered the door, though her resemblance to her daughters was still apparent. He asked for Shadliss and she nodded, calling her down and returning to where she had been sitting, staring at nothing. Shadliss ran down in a panic, asking what was going on, why they had taken her father away, and where her sister was. This caught Virgil off-guard, not expecting to be the bearer of such terrible news, and he broke it as gently as he could. Shadliss broke down into tears and Virgil took her in his arms, where she collapsed as she racked with sobs. He held her there in the doorstep until she ran out of tears; when she was able to stand again, he reiterated that her father was in no trouble, and he could take her to him if she wanted. She nodded, and leaned on him heavily; it appeared that Mrs. Vinder was in no state to go anywhere, so he half-carried Shadliss to the guard station alone. As he went, he passed by the other three who happened to be heading towards the church. Luna made an overly-bright and awkward comment about how they were on their way to get detection wands, to detect things; her obvious fear made it clear to anyone who knew her what exactly those wands would be detecting. Virgil nodded, and said that he would meet up with them shortly.
As Virgil left and entered into the station, Leo reappeared out of nowhere to begin asking questions of Eamon again. Khyrralien aggressively took over the conversation and physically blocked Leo from following Eamon and Luna, who kept walking quickly. Though Leo turned his questions towards Khyr, it was obvious that not only did he have little interest in him, seeing him as Eamon's subordinate, but that Khyr was not going to give him any interesting scoops. The imposing man was overtly friendly, but had a very threatening undertone to his words and actions. When asked, Leo said that the Gazette was printed quarterly, which was why he hadn't seen it, and very quickly tired of Khyr's company. He turned to leave, and Khyr pointedly followed him, meandering behind and watching as he went to the Rusty Dragon to buy and eat a leisurely late lunch.
Luna and Eamon continued on to the church, where Mother Zantis dutifully passed over the three wands of Detect Undead they had requested, deeply saddened that the village was now to be beset by the wretched living dead. Luna was visibly uncomfortable, on the edge of panic, but it seemed to go unnoticed. They walked back towards the mill, and as they did, Luna began to mutter to herself, becoming increasingly agitated. As they began to draw near, she suddenly turned and ran off the path into the trees. Eamon followed immediately and, owing to his superior speed, she didn't get very far at all before he grabbed her arm and stopped her. She tried in vain to escape his grip, asserting that she had to get away because Sandpoint would be looking for undead now. They would assuredly find her out and attack her, blame her or drive her out, not to mention that whatever it was seemed to have an interest in her and might leave the town alone if she fled; she had to get away. Eamon tried to convince her otherwise, not about to allow one of his teammates to run off alone and unprotected into the wilds where a murderer lurked, but in the end managed to keep her there purely from the strength of his arm. She eventually slumped over and curled into a ball: she agreed to not run off, but she couldn't go back to town, so she would just have to stay right there. At a loss, Eamon sat down beside her.
Virgil had taken Shadliss into the police station towards the holding cell where her father was kept. The guard posted there apparently already had orders to allow Virgil access, but was hesitant to allow the young woman. He quickly relented to Virgil's request though, and Virgil stood out of sight as he escorted her down the hall to Mr. Vinder's room. The two shared an emotional reunion as they hugged through the barred door. Later, when they had finished, Virgil took her back out to a private waiting area, where he told her he had to go help with the investigation, if she would be ok alone for a bit. She nodded, and agreed to stay there until he got back. He promised that he would, and left her with her grief.
He made his way to the mill, where the clean-up had begun and he was updated on the investigation so far. The sheriff was surprised that the others weren't back with the wands yet, so Virgil set out to see where they had gone. He noticed, now that he was looking, the place where Luna and Eamon had trampled the plants where they had run off the path, and he could see them not too far away. Joining them, Eamon silently pleaded for him to fix the problem. She had mostly calmed down by this point, and Virgil explained that none of them allow anyone to hurt her, but the act of running away now might very well be construed as guilt, and put her in a bad light at least. Whatever was running around killing people had to be stopped: there was little reason to think it would stop attacking Sandpoint if she left, and no reason to believe it would stop murdering if it followed her. Eventually, she picked herself up slightly, and though she was still overcome with fear, she fell in behind the two men and agreed to carry on. The three returned to the mill and turned over the wands to the sheriff; he thanked them and handed one back to the adventurers for them to use. He appreciated their help, and directed them back towards the police station to question Ibor and Mr.Vinder.
As they headed back to the station, they were rejoined by Khyr: Leo, after lunch, had retired to his room, putting an end to the fey's aggressive voyeurism. When they entered the station, Virgil broke off again, returning to sit with Shadliss. The others went to Ibor's cell, where Khyr was appointed in charge of getting the man to talk, as neither Eamon nor Luna had any particular skill with honeyed words. Khyr sat with the shell-shocked man, still rendered speechless from the sights he had witnessed earlier that day. Gently pushing him rendered little result, so he resorted to magic, using his spell-like ability to drunken the man slightly. The effect, not unlike that from having had a few beers, calmed the man somewhat, and he was able to tell them a bit about Harker. He had been working at the mill with him for years, and Harker was a decent sort, who hadn't seemed the type to get caught up in something that violent. Katrine had been his lover and girlfriend for a while: they had been meeting at the mill in secret to avoid getting caught by her overbearing father. He did mention one fear, however: Harker had been extorting money from the mill, skimming off the top to make a bit of extra cash that he was saving. The mill owners, the Scarnetti family, had been known to do some shady things, even if they had never been caught at it: there was more than one nearby mill that had burned down, driving the value of the Sandpoint mill's goods up drastically. Though no one had ever died in these events, Ibor worried that perhaps this was the Scarnetti's way of retribution for the money that had been stolen from them. Though the adventurer's discounted the involvement of the Scarnetti's with a bloodthirsty ghoul, they noted the possible connection and thanked Ibor for his assistance before leaving him to recover. 
The group got little more from Mr. Vinder than a screamed tirade that this was all their fault for bringing such awful events into town with them. They hadn't particularly expected anything more from him though, and none thought for a moment that he was involved. The guard assured them that they had no evidence against him, and honestly the only reason they weren't releasing him immediately was because right now he might turn violent on the adventurers. Mr. Vinder would be home by the evening, once they had cleared out and he had calmed some. Thanking the guard, they turned to leave. It was already getting late in the day, and the sanitorium where the infirm bodyguard was being kept was well outside of town: there was no way they could reach it before nightfall, and visiting hours were likely going to be long over by then. They would have to set out the next morning. As they left, Luna tugged on Eamon's sleeve: something had occurred to her. Certain types of ghouls were viral, and someone bitten by one could, over a series of days, fall ill and die, becoming a bloodthirsty thrall. She didn't know if this was the case here, but it was a sobering thought that lent urgency to their visit to the bodyguard.
Virgil escorted Shadliss home, and though she was loathe to let go of him, she knew that it was best that he go so she could be with her family. He embraced her one more time, and told her that he had to go to the sanitorium the next morning, and would come see her when he was back in the afternoon. She nodded, and reiterated again that as long as he came back and didn't leave without telling her: she couldn't bear for him to disappear on top of what had already happened. He promised that wouldn't happen, and she went inside.
Luna was nervous and agitated; with the other's blessing, she took the huge pile of silver that they had recovered and exchanged it for the materials and parts she needed to finish her musket further, giving her something to occupy her hands and mind with overnight so that she didn't panic. Khyrralien napped and Eamon sat near Luna, wanting to make his silent support felt. Virgil, when he was satisfied that Luna was occupied, left the inn and spent much of the night wandering the town: his agitated energy pushed him to do something, but there was little to do other than to patrol the outer streets, assisting the guard in their vigil for the murderer.
As the group prepared to set out on the several-hour walk to the sanitorium early the next morning, Ameiko told them that Quint had actually stopped in last night to see them. It was well past a reasonable hour to call on someone though, so she took a message instead. They thanked her and stopped at his house on their way to the town gate. It took a bit of knocking to get him to come to the door, and when he did it was obvious that they had gotten him out of bed. He had wanted to inform them of his recent discoveries last night, and wasn't particularly thrilled with being woken this morning. However, he told them what he had found. It seemed that the symbol of the seven-pointed star was something of the crest of Valparaiso, the national emblem that adorned their works and landmarks. It was thought to originally embody the seven holy virtues, but in Valparaiso's hands it came to represent the seven virtues of rule, the foundation of Valparaiso's power and otherwise known as the mortal sins. If they were going to find more ruins for him, and have a hope of finding more runewells in Virgil's case, they should find evidence of places marked with a seven-pointed star. Unfortunately, he personally didn't know of any more sites off-hand, and if he did why would he be here and not there? He did say that he would see what he could learn. Meanwhile, they told him that they were headed to the sanitorium, which he derided, to see the surviving victim, which he derided, who may be turning into a thrall, which he derided, due to the actions of a murderer who carved a seven-pointed star into his victims, which caught his interest. If they could find this murderer and learn how and where he learned of the Valparisan star, he would like that information. With that, he returned into his house, with another apology from Luna for waking him.
Without further ado, the group left for the sanitorium, several hours walk away from Sandpoint. When they got there, they found an ugly, squat building, three storeys tall and made from stone. Entering the front door, they found a plain room with a desk and a bell cord with a sign that said "Ring for Service". They pulled it, and a few minutes later a woman entered the room. She was dressed in a similar fashion to a nun, though it didn't seem she had any religious affiliation; she introduced herself as Erin Habe, the matron in charge, and asked them hurriedly what they needed. They said that they were there on behalf of the Sandpoint Guard, and needed to speak with the man who had been brought in a few days ago. She explained that he was in no state to talk, and that she was very busy and needed them to leave. They pressed their own urgency, but she was unwilling to grant them access, only becoming more insistent that they leave. They even went so far as to state that they worried he may be falling prey to a ghoul's bite, but she dismissed them, saying they were more than capable of handling undead and had procedures in place for such events. She said that, at best, they could come back in a few days to see if he was improved, and with that she left through the door she had entered, locking it behind her. 
The four were at something of a loss. They didn't want to walk the six hours it would take them to get some sort of proper warrant from the sheriff and return, especially since they had reason to believe a thrall might be loose in the building, to say nothing of the curious and suspicious behaviour from the woman. Eventually, they decided to just let themselves in. Both doors leading from the room, one which the matron had used and another that seemed to just lead to a smaller first-floor annex, were locked, and the device was beyond Luna's ability to pick. They looked outdoors, but the only other door was locked just as securely as the first two. What windows there were were little more than slits, designed so people couldn't hope to climb through them. Returning to the front entrance, they shrugged, physically broke the lock and clasping mechanism on the door the matron had left through, and cast Mending on the door as they pulled it open.
Inside was a large communal room that appeared to double as a kitchen/eating area and as a sitting area for residents. There were only two people there currently, both women dressed as orderlies. Their appearances marked them immediately: both had the look of Arroyitans, but they had inhumanly deep red skin and curved ram's horns growing from their heads. As the door opened and they turned to see the intruders, one of the women, a large, muscular sort with a mean look about her, stood and approached them. Virgil tried to talk their way out of a conflict, but it was obvious that a conflict was what the orderly wanted: she had been instructed to turn them out, forcibly if necessary, and she didn't particularly care what they had to say about it. Weapons were drawn across the board, and though the orderly swung first with her fist, Virgil retaliated with his sword. He landed a brutal strike to the woman, but she did not back down. Both of the orderlies, teiflings by their appearance, wielded foreign short swords that Virgil recognized as wakizashi, and moreover of a make that suggested Yeto moreso than Arroyito. As he began to question the women on their place of birth, the women switched to speaking Infernal, and he switched in kind, taking them slightly off-guard. Khyr began to dance, fascinating the wounded woman. The other, smaller and slighter than the first woman, tried to snap her out of it but turned and ran when she saw she would be unsuccessful. Virgil and Eamon gave chase, but she made it to a door on the far side of the room and called out, summoning another woman from further inside. 
They recognized the newcomer immediately: the wizard who had fled from Thistletop Shrine when they had come for Tsuto. The slighter teifling warned her that one of them could speak Infernal, and the wizard cursed them for interfering with them again. The teifling cast Darkness, hindering only Virgil, who lacked his ability to see in darkness while in his human form. He called over to Luna, telling her to assist in subduing them, as he knew he'd be basically unable to strike anyone in the darkness. The two women attacked Eamon, who had fallen into his battle rage and begun to change inexorably into his more disconcerting, chaotic appearance that he took when lost in fury. Khyr, still dancing and enrapturing the first orderly, began to stick his head into other adjoining rooms, finding nothing but empty, unused bedrooms. As Luna found her attacks to be more-or-less ineffective, thanks to the women's natural or magical protection, Virgil continued to chatter at them in Infernal, wondering who their master was, as he had a fairly good guess. They asked him if he served, in such a manner that it was obvious that there was a passphrase response he was meant to give. Unwilling to pretend he was in service to an Infernal master he had no intention of serving, he did not attempt to lie and was thoroughly scorned. As Khyrralien decided that he was sick of wasting his time, he stopped dancing and shot the woman he had been distracting. Virgil and Eamon turned and ran back towards her, and Eamon, now visibly inhuman, landed a cruel final blow. The other orderly cried out for her sister as the woman fell, and the wizard yelled a black curse in Infernal, calling out Eamon as an angel. The two turned and ran, while the four convened around the fallen orderly: a quick check by Luna told them that she was well and truly dead. 
Category:Rise of the Runelords