H:RotG Chapter 8: Pot of Greed

Despite their success in the purging of the wicked curse placed upon them, the adventurers we follow through this tale are solemn. T, their beloved rambunctious bard, has been spirited away from this world by an unfortunate pull from the Deck of Many Things, leaving behind his worldly possessions as well as one card, the Ace of Spades. They barely have time to process their shock and grief before they happen upon another unfortunate scene, happening upon the blackened oozing corpse of Theodore, a plantfolk they had met while waiting to enter the city only a day ago. Though they had clearly been occupied during the murder itself, an orcish man that oozed authority named Tyrell demanded to bring the crew in for questioning. The crew tentatively agreed, unhappy but unwilling to cause a scene.

Turns out this cop is a member of the League of the Autumn Wind, a small guild dedicated to helping those in need throughout the Southern Mantle. He leads the party to their worn-down yet rustically comfortable home base, a humble station of operations, before locking them behind the bars of one of the three cells. Next to the group is housed a different individual, a towering cactus of a plantfolk with gaping hole where his face would be, within which is a petite little owl. He introduces himself as one Kefyn Cactar, a sheriff for a similar group of lawmen far to the northeast called the Cabal of the Brass Arrow. A foreigner who stood out like a sore thumb, he had been brought in for questioning as a murder suspect only to be proven innocent by the most recent death.

One by one, the heroes were taken out of their cell and personally interrogated by Tyrell. First asking about the purpose of their visit to the Ashen Breach, then about the circumstances leading up to their arrival at the casino known as Drukat. Satisfied with the innocence they’ve proven and unable to procure any sort of proof against them, he releases the group (and their cacti acquaintance) under one condition- they use their freedom to help the League track down the murderer before they reap their next victim. The troupe of travelers agree, becoming unwitting detectives in the case of the Shadow Killer.

Speaking with Tyrell and his fellow League members, the party learns that the killer arrived shortly after the Shining, the event where diamonds began erupting from the volcano the city is built upon. The murders were far more infrequent at first, but were easy to connect- the victim was always a big and recent loser at a casino, left as crumbling petrified husks with a deep black depression in their chest, tar-like fluid seeping from their eyes. Their bodies somehow continued to live for several days after being hit, but their souls were forcibly removed, harvested by some sort of necrotic force. Most troubling of all is the casino owners’ complete lack of willingness to comply with the law, covering up the murders and even sending assassins after the League once or twice, though the attempts were quickly thwarted. They had been trying to trace a plantfolk down for the crimes, thinking they were immune to the magics being used, but with the death of Theodore they were proven wrong.

The party, with their new friend in tow as well as one of the League’s officers, are sent to a casino called Duelist’s Kingdom. It’s a gambling joint with a gimmick centered around summoning monsters and spells to defeat your foes, with the exception that the “monsters” were live combatants fighting as a team against others. As the night was advertised as “high risk gambling” the chance of finding a prime victim was huge, so the group went to participate themselves to either serve as the losers and fend off the attack, or protect whomever loses the most.

None other than Dunkle the “goblin” greets the crew as they approach the dueling casino, in newer, lower quality threads pacing around the lobby anxiously. Seeing the group that pilfered his clothes away in their last gamble, he seems strangely happy, and approaches them with a convenient offer- play as his “cards” for his match against the skilled duelist Larry Seto, and he’ll give them the bulk of the reward, a massive pool of gold known as the “Pot of Greed”. The party agrees, each being assigned a “monster” in his deck of cards and venturing onto the battlefield.

The two duelists exchange obnoxious quips as they summon their illusionary tricks and beasts, bringing forth very real people to the battlefield below them. A team of skilled mages use illusion magic to “illustrate” the special effects and non-monster cards being used in the combat. Soon enough Dunkle has summoned the entire party, and on the opposite side a powerful set of foes blocked their path. Amongst the enemies is a fellow orc named Loc'na that Rok had befriended on the other side of the wall- one that, in a state of blind aggression fueled by the questioning of his lifelong beliefs, Gant slayed with no remorse. There was no time for the young barbarian to fight her friend about this, however, as the game ended and mere moments later Larry was being gripped by a shadow silhouette. With their combined magics the party manages to stop the death of the young competitor, and their new friend Kefyn was even able to tag the shadow with tracking magics.

Taking a moment to examine the arena before chasing the culprit down, they discover a few things. Firstly, the shadow seemed to have phased straight through the arena’s wall as soon as the duel ended and Larry let out an anguished cry, suggesting that either the killer had a way of remotely viewing the battle or that the shadow is able to hone in on feelings of agony or loss. They were able to stave the attack off of the losing duelist early enough that he was not dead, though clearly in visible pain, as there are sooty handprints on his head and chest, the latter of which burnt through his clothes  and leaving what would probably become a rather gnarly scar. Detect magic revealed it was a mixture of necromancy and enchantment that hit him. Lastly, as the shadow fled a device fell from the ceiling, a small metal box clonked onto the floor, a strange device filled with half-“eaten” diamonds, of which were being slowly filtered in through a hole in the ceiling it had been covering. It doesn’t appear to have anything to do with the killer itself, instead being a device that further improved the “realism” of the game they had just been playing.

Before they leave to trace down the tag Kefyn placed on their shadowy foe, a group of men in cheap suits blocked their path, glaring them down and pressuring the party to come with them. Rok, eager to take out her rage, punches one only to crush him to a total paste, terrifying the other goons and causing them to scatter. The cactus’ magic alerted him that the shadow had returned to its master, and that the two of them were moving at quite the pace. Fearing that they’ll run out of the tracking magic’s range, the crew blasts out of Duelist’s Kingdom, hot on their tail. The typical red-hued skies swirled with un-typical shades of black and green, lighting the scene in an ominous anxiety-inducing manner.

On their way up the mountaintop, the group was stopped and dragged into an alleyway by an inconspicuous looking old woman, a white-furred Leonthrope (a lion-like race from Ohwald who shifts into a more human-like appearance at night). She says her name is Corinthia Sun-Wind, that she’s a friend of Shards that had heard about the group’s intention of visiting the Ashen Breach, and that she had been looking for them. Still battered from the battle at the casino, the kind woman offers them some macaroni and cheese, healing their aches and pains. Corinthia reveals that there is also wall of anti-magic making it difficult to reach a group that could assist the party, an organization called the Brigade. She sends them off and tells them she’s going to continue trying to reach the Brigade in order to help them with this murderer, and to be careful, as they are clearly a powerful foe.

Eventually, the signal is traced to a humble, beat-down shed of a house. The adventurers break in, only to discover a tunnel diving into the earth. It leads into a large, round chamber, with a platform for a weapon at its heart. Behind it, backlit by menacing shades of red and orange, is one Solaris Nifeton. Two heavy doors emerge from the earth and begin closing the exit… only for Judge, the tiefling the group met outside the city, to come and spirit away Zor, who had known about the murderer from the start and was conspiring with outside forces. The anger of betrayal seethes into the adventurer’s blood as they turn to face the bloodthirsty half-elven Nifeton, who charges at them with a posse of kobolds and a murderous grin.

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