Session 9

**Real World Date: 2/28/2021**

**In Game Dates(x): 16th of Lencten, 5151 M.E. - 17th of Lencten, 5151 M.E.**

**Party Level: 3**

## NPCs Met This Adventure

* Jeras Varcona - member of the **Sovereign Brotherhood** who may have been a fall guy for a scheme
* Wolvar Frostbeard - former leader of the Azul branch of the **Sovereign Brotherhood**, leads a rogue faction within the group
* Vola Starstrike - Half-Orc masseuse who works at the temple of Isbrea bathhouse in Azul

## Summary

### Innocent Until Proven Guilty

The city guard hold the party at the **Watery Rat Tavern** for about an hour or so. They interrogate them and make sure their stories match up for how everyone died inside the bar. They reveal that the same creatures that killed all the sailors on board the **Theomer's Mistress** also kiled the people in the bar. They don't say much about who they think might be behind it or that they are connected to the **Sovereign Brotherhood**.

After the party is let loose, they head back to the **Sovereign Brotherhood** HQ to turn in their bounty for the reward of hunting down and killing the monsters responsible for the attack on **Theomer's Mistress**. Cue insists that the rest of the party get read into what is going on with this group before they turn over the proof of death. Yelbronna Stavenger takes Bashan inside to have a private conversation with him, stating she will be back to out discuss this further.

### Debriefing

After Bashan details what happened, Yelbronna identifies the creatures as **Coffer Corpses**, a particularly nasty type of undead. The Brotherhood symbols on the ship pertaining to containing and shipping these monsters is troubling. She has many questions, including what this man who fled the bar knows and why the monsters ignored all living beings and went directly to the tavern.

Yelbronna heads outside, handing Cue the payment for the proof of death. She collects the heads of the creatures, a scholar of some sort coming out to retrieve them. She then tells Cue and the rest of the party that for now they will not be read into exactly what is going on until Yelbronna herself knows for sure what is going on. She does tell them to go to the jail where the survivor is being held and interrogate him, for which there will be further payment from her.

### Dead Man Walking

Fine with it for now, the party accept their new task and head to the area of the city and find out what jail the man was taken to. They arrive and convince the guards to let them downstairs into their jail cells to visit with the prisoner, but only allow two to go down. They convince them to allow three. Baka, Poem, and Bashan are able to go down and visit with the prisoner. Baka casts Zone of Truth to get the best answers, but it actually only works on one of the guards. They proceed with their questions anyway.

Jeras Varcona, the man who voluntarily surrendered to be arrested, is a member of the **Sovereign Brotherhood**. He was trying to get in good with the clique run by Wolvar Frostbeard, who kind of does his own thing and doesn't ask permission from Yelbronna. He was given the job of waiting at the **Watery Rat Tavern** with this strange snake/dagger coin and use it to signify he is the one that should accept a delivery of some items. He is pretty sure those **Coffer Corpses** were the delivery, and he was set up to die in that bar, and would have if the party hadn't come along. He doesn't know much about what Wolvar and hsi crew are up to, but he does tell them about a Warehouse they own in the **Docks District** that they keep from Yelbronna.

### Truth and Assassins

As they have their conversation, the guard under the sway of the Zone of Truth heads over and opens a different cell, seemingly out of nowhere, allowing a prisoner out. When asked why he did that, he truthfully admits he was paid to let the prisoner go. That prisoner promptly reveals he is an Assassin and attacks the party. Cue and Quintus hear the sounds of battle rush downstairs.

Bashan goes down quickly from a deadly assassin attack. The rest of the guards, hearing the other guard admit being bribed, attack him and subdue him, also helping the party as they summarily take out the assassin before he can kill Jeras. Baka revives Bashan and they get the guards to release Jeras into their custody, as Jeras never actually committed any crime. Jeras leaves with the party, admitting that he is going to leave town as soon as he can gather some things, hoping to start a new life somewhere else.

### Avoidance and Sewers

The party head back to the **Gilded Forge Inn** to get a good nights rest. Cue wishes to have a conversation about the secrets he is keeping from the rest of the party, but Bashan decides to head to the **Sovereign Brotherhood** HQ and crash in one of their bunks to avoid having that conversation. Bashan delivers what little they know to Yelbronna before heading to sleep.

The next morning Bashan meets up with the party and they finally decide to investigate the maintenance hatch in the sewers that they couldn't get into previously. The party head down into the sewers, specifically into the chamber with the maintenance hatch. Geldwin is still down there and he greets the party, along with his horde of rats. They ask about the maintenance hatch, but he doesn't know much about it, except that it was used a while back, but he doesn't check who they are or if they are supposed to be down there. They use the key Poem signed out and open the hatch.

### Shit Out of Luck

The crawl space under the hatch is small, too big for everyone, especially Baka, to fit through. Cue volunteers to go first, sliding through this smelly, dirty tube into a small junction room. As Quintus volunteers to also crawl into there, Cue looks around. It looks like there are pipes and valves her to funnel flow and drainage of the nearby sewers, presumably for maintenance or blockage reasons. He doesn't see anything of note except there are signs that someone might have been sleeping here at one point, but has been gone for many days.

As soon as Quintus emerges, Cue tells him they need to crawl back. So slowly but surely the two of them crawl back through the maintenance tunnel and back to the party to report what they saw. After realizing this may have been a dead end for now, they decide to go inspect warehouse that Jeras told them about. However, Cue and Quintus smell like literal shit, so they decide that may a quick visit to a local bathhouse would be in order first.

### Rubdown

The party head to the local temple to Isbrea. This one is strictly a bathhouse, offering cleanings and spa treatments. Cue and Quintus need a seriously cleaning so the workers there immediately escort them into a new room and offer to take their clothes. Poem refrains from getting services but merely strikes up strange conversations with customers waiting in the lobby, with mixed results. Baka gets a simple bath treatment, while Bashan pays for an "extra special" package with a happy ending. They assure him there is no such service here, but they escort him to the massage area.

Cue and Quintus get a deep cleaning before they are moved into the regular bath house where Baka has been relaxing in for quite some time. After a while of rinsing off them have their clean clothes given to them and they leave the bathhouse. Meanwhile, Bashan meets his masseuse, Vola, who is a large Half-Orc woman. As she is giving the massage, he offers some coin for a happy ending, which she considers and ultimately decides to take him up on. After the massage and extra curricular activities, she escorts Bashan out to the lobby where the rest of the party is waiting and coyly waves goodbye, saying they should see each other soon.

### Docks by the Daylight

The party head to the docks to find the warehouse Jeras informed them about. As they sneak in, the find it empty except for the fact that a small temple has been constructed in the middle of the warehouse. They discover a couple acolytes sleeping inside the temple when they wake them up, but they are able to take them out quickly, especially with Cue catching a bolt and throwing it right back at one of them.

As they enter the temple, they realize it is a temple of Malasar, the Goddess of Assassins. And they see symbols on the acolytes that match up to that coin that Jeras was holding onto for so long. They see a back door that opens and leads further downstairs. They party attempt to be stealthy but fail as they head down into the dungeon underneath the temple.

### Assassins and Spiders, Oh My!

The party emerge into this underground dock area, which seems to lead down some underground waterways, presumably out into the ocean. They are immediately ambushed by multiple acolytes of this temple. The party manage to deal with them effectively but a large spider drops from the ceiling and continues the attack.

They manage to kill the large beast and realize that there are further rooms to explore, potentially filled with more dangers...