Session 4

**Real World Date: 10/4/2020**

**In Game Dates(x): 11th of Lencten, 5151 M.E. - 11th of Lencten, 5151 M.E.**

**Party Level: 2**

## NPCs Met This Adventure

* Geldwin - druid in the sewers that has a fondness for rats
* Edwin Yshtar - member of the **Sovereign Brotherhood**, first sent into the sewers below Azul
* Rylee Sunbrook - actor of renowned within Azul and identical twin to Cue
* Diego Lionheart - owner of the **Lionheart Theater** in Azul

## Summary

### Breakfast of Champions

Morning comes to the party. Bashan is delivered the full contract for their job in the sewers. They will receive another 100  for completing the job and delivering proof of killing the monster. They will also receive an additional 50  for either recovering or providing information leading to the recovery of the **Brotherhood** member, Edwin Yshtar, that went into the sewers a few days ago and never came back.

The party come down for breakfast. Only a few people fill the inn. A pair of sailors are discussing in a corner, while another man is sadly looking over his notes by himself. Quintus attempts to sit near the sailors to overhear what they are discussing but he can't seem to make out their conversation. The party discuss how they will find the monster in the sewers. They first decide they must find a map or guide to the sewers. They decide to head to the Library of Lorkayn first and if that fails, head to City Hall to request some documents for their task.

### Checking Out Some Sewers

The party head to the library. Baka gets lost in the shelves. Bashan finds section with maps and find older blueprints for the sections of sewers in the **Redburrow District** of the city. He pulls the ole "Cough when tearing it out" trick and takes the maps instead of making a copy of them. He then causes a bit of a mess in the Agriculture section to cause a distraction before leaving the library with his sewer maps.

They head to the **Redburrow District** and using their maps, they find the best entrance for the sewers to get close to their quarry. As they lift the manhole cover up they are approached by a guard, asking what they are doing. They explain they are being tasked with hunting a monster in the sewers (with a few embellishments from Bashan), but the guard is angered by this. He mentions that he thought they were part of some commotion: the assassin causing the lockdown, the spotting of the **Jade Pirate** at the docks, or some other criminal element. But no it's worse. They are *adventurers*. He spits on the ground at the and walks away.

### Smells Like Trouble

As it begins to rain above, the party drops down into the sewers. They avoid the narrow path where refuse drains and begin exploring the tunnels that are designed for people to walk through. They head down long, dark, smelly tunnels and see various grates, drain tunnels, and pipes. As they round a corner they reach a circular crossroads. Coming from the eastern tunnel, they can head north, south, and west from this intersection. After some debate they decide to head west.

As they stealthily move west, they approach a room that somehow smells even worse. They manage to move quietly enough to see a creature known as a **Grick** feasting on a corpse in a large square room. There are various bodies in various states of decay in this room as well, the creatures previous victims. The party charge in and attack the creature. It does some decent to the party with it's barbed tentacles and bite, but the party manage to slay the creature. To provide proof, Bashan cuts off the head and takes it with him for payment. The

### Going The Extra Mile

The party head back to the circular crossroads. Having completed their task, they can leave, but Bashan suggest they keep searching for Edwin Yshtar and what happened to him. They decide to head north this time. They travel down long tunnels with more grates and drain tunnels as they can hear the road of the rain above them. The tunnel turns west and they continue one. They bypass a side hallway to the north and head further west and reach another junction. At this junction they head south.

The party then reach a room as they head south. It has nothing of note in it except for a lot of refuse and dirty garbage. Rats fill the room and scramble when the party, but other than that, there is only a tunnel heading further south that the party takes. After a long tunnel they reach another junction and head east in hopes of reaching back to their original starting point. They pass a southern chamber as the tunnel turns north and just as they suspected it connects back to the circular crossroads. They can inspect the chambers they passed to the north and south, or there are two tunnels they can continue west on.

### Father of Rats

They choose to find out what is in the southern chamber they passed. They find a room that seems to be a place where someone is sleeping, but it is also filled rats. The rats seem to behave differently, though, moving as a group and with intelligence. They suspect that maybe Edwin Yshtar might be the one sleeping here, and plan to leave a note for him. When Quintus attempts to inspect the bedroll, the rats move and get in his way. As the party hesitates, ready to fight, one of the rats slowly changes and grows into a full size human.

He is a druid named Geldwin that lives down in the sewers and protects the rats, which he calls his "children". He often takes the form of a rat and travels undetected with them. He tells them to leave and as long as they don't his rats, he won't attack them. They agree they don't want a fight with the man, but only after the look at a sidechamber to the east. After they inspect the chamber and realize it is empty, they decide they will go.

Geldwin tells them two people have passed through this area recently and haven't left. One a few days ago was traveling alone in the tunnels to the north. Another recently traveled by this chamber and headed west, where he says is the exit to the sewers outside the city.

### Couple Dead Bodies, Couple Plot Developments

The party decide to head west first. They head west on the southern tunnel and come upon the sewer grates that exit the city. Almost a dozen guards with crossbows greet them and tell them to turn back. The party notice a dead body near the bars and asks if they can check if it is the man they are looking for. They allow only Bashan to approach, who finds the man was wearing a strange animal **mask** and a familiar cloak with a yellow lining, like the cultists they fought in Coppersdale. They take the mask but leave the body and head to the northern tunnel.

Along the northern tunnel they head west on that one as well, discovering another grate with bars and about a dozen guards, so they turn back and check the only room they haven't gone in yet. In that room they find a dead body. Bashan is sure that it is Edwin Yshtar. He has a long gash on his torso, but it looks like he died from a self-inflicted neck wound at his throat. He has his blade in one hand and a handwritten note in the other. It reads:

> *"I am running out a time. I'm not going to wait for me to turn. Don't trust the Brotherhood."*
>
>

### Return and Flashbacks

Bashan pockets the note and they head out of the sewers. They discover the route they came down is now flooded from the rains above, so they exit the sewers another place. As they exit, a patrol of guards, one of which is the man that spit at them earlier, see them get out of the sewers. One guard makes to say something, but he just says, "Don't bother, they're adventurers." The guards leave them and flip them off. Before they head back to get paid, Quintus wants to make a detour to the **Docks District**.

As the party head there, Quintus has a **flashback** (new mechanic alert!) of his first sea departure as captain of the boat. His father gives him a practical pep talk. His mother hugs him silently. His sister is just a brat and sticks her tongue out and blow a raspberry. After this flashback, Quintus tries to find out about these sailors he saw in the inn earlier that day but can't find them. He does here that an all-points bulleting has been sent out by the Mayor about Ubok and the **Triton's Blade** going missing, offering a reward for information. After looking, the party head back to the **Hightop District**.

### Rewards and Secrets

Quintus and Cue head back to the inn, while Bashan, Baka, and Poem head to get paid from the **Sovereign Brotherhood**. They approach the building and Bashan does the appropriate knock. Yelbronna Stavenger comes outside and greets him. She recognizes the head he presents as a head of a **Grick** and pays him the other 100 S she owes him. After she asks for info about Edwin Yshtar, he presents the letter. After she reads the letter she takes him out of earshot of Baka and Poem with concern. Poem overhears the conversation though.

She and Bashan both suspect what Edwin meant by "turn", but before they jump to conclusions, they should keep this to themselves. Bashan agrees to secrecy but only if he is paid. Yelbronna pays him the extra 50 S for finding Edwin, but also another 50 S to keep quiet until she can do some digging into whats going on at the Azul branch of the **Sovereign Brotherhood**. He agrees and the party head back to the inn. At the inn, it is crowded and hopping. Cue keeps his head down as they order lunch and some drinks. When they return to the inn, Poem slides over to Bashan and extorts him to give him a share of the 50 S he received to keep the secrets so Poem will also keep the secrets, which Bashan begrudgingly agrees.

### Fiction and Rumors

While they eat and drink, Bashan notices the man who was worriedly looking over his notes this morning is still at the inn. He is still alone, taking up a whole table. He has spread his notes across the table and shooes people away if they try to take chairs. Bashan forces himself at the table and asks what he is doing. The man says he works in Fiction, scouting authors and manuscripts for his publisher to sell. He recently turned down a "fictional" story about one of the **Wizlocks** ("the bugbear one, Zuke?") that makes him look bad. This man found out this morning his rival publisher bought that manuscript and will be publishing it. He is worried that this book will harm people's reputations and hopes they know it's fiction, not real. As Bashan leaves him he tells Bashan that the book will be called "Forbidden Love".

As the party eats, they hear several rumors. They hear a figure known as a **Jade Pirate** was spotted last night at the docks. They also hear that people are debating about this supposed Sea Dragon now that they know a ship that disappeared, the **Triton's Blade**, was taken by pirates and not a Sea Dragon. They also overhear people talking about a play at the **Lionheart Theater** in the **Redburrow District** being interrupted and shut down by the city guard. The lead actor was arrested before the first act could finish. After finishing their meal, the party decide they want to investigate the theater, but Cue, wary of his encounter with the man who claimed to be putting on a play, decides to stay behind.

### Dress Rehearsal

Cue heads out, hood up, staying low profile, to see if he can find any information about the Wizlocks, specifically where Aust Nailo might be. While he is out doing that, the rest of the party head to the **Redburrow District** to find out what is going on at the **Lionheart Theater**. Upon arrival, it is too early for the theater to be open to the public. Baka buys the party four tickets so they can enter but they won't let them in this early. Quintus bribes the bouncers and claims they are big fans and just wanted to meet the actor. They allow it but tell them to stand clear because they are going through dress rehearsal right now.

The party head in just as the head actor is giving a speech to the other actors. He explains his arrest the night before was a mistake and someone was pretending to be him and legal action will be taken once he finds out who it is. Bashan slowly approaches the crowd and sees the head actor is a spitting image of Cue. Identical, you would say. Seeing this, he realizes that the legal actions he was speaking of are going to come back and cause problems for Cue. Bashan acts quickly while the others are still standing around in the back of the audience and heads on stage, luring Rylee to get him alone and kock him out.

### Awkward Reunions

Poem, meanwhile, asks about the head of the theater, Diego Lionheart, using a different voice than he normally uses. The other people in the play direct him upstairs to the office. Poem heads up there and knocks on the office. He removes his mask, which reveals another cloth mask underneath the wooden one. Diego doesn't recognize him, asking how he can help him. Poem then reveals his face, which Diego recognizes. They share an awkward hug and Diego asks why he is here. Poem asks if any of the actors here are apprentices. Diego says no, but if Poem is looking for one, he can recommend several of them. Poem declines, leaving, thinking that maybe visiting here was a mistake. He puts his masks back on and leaves.

Meanwhile, downstairs, a comedy of errors occurs as Bashan knocks out Rylee and attempted to leave with his unconscious body. Several bouncers and the throng of actors attempt to swarm Bashan and stop him. He signals to Quintus to fire off his boomstick, which startles and scares everyone enough for Bashan to flee with Rylee. The party run away, managing to lose the pursuers. They hide Rylee in a sack and a cart and wheel him back to the **Golden Forge** just in time to meet Cue as he returned after an afternoon of information gathering. The party gather in one of their rooms and reveal to Cue that Rylee Sunbrook is his identical twin.

### What's a Little Interrogation Between Family?

They wake up Rylee. Rylee immediately sees Cue and realizes why he was arrested. Someone mistook Cue for him and when Cue assaulted them, Rylee was arrested. The party asks what he might know about Cue or their relationship. Rylee doesn't know or care to know. He was adopted and presumes that Cue was, too. Though they may be related, Rylee doesn't want anything to do with him or whoever gave them up for adoption. Rylee's parents ended up becoming wealthy and it afforded him a good life and the ability to pursue acting.

Quintus takes the time to ask about the **Jade Pirate** they have been hearing about. Rylee explains he knows the same as everyone else. The Jade Pirate seems like he has a flair for the dramatic. He boards ships and steals things and sometimes kills people on the crew, reveals himself on deck just before he jumps off into the water. All very dramatic, so Rylee respects the hell out of him. After being annoying and patronizing, they knock Rylee back out, put him back in the cart, and drop him off in the middle of the neighborhood near the **Lionheart Theater**, hoping his friends will find him and Rylee will be their problem now.