Session 33: Tragedy Seems to Follow Us¶
Date: October 5, 2023
- sold horses (37.5 each)
- Tiran
- Sebastian
- Harry the horse and Ramona are being transported to Tiran's mother for 90gp (45 each)
Wolf wanted to spend one more night with Ramona before she was transported to stay with Tiran's mom along with the rest of your horses. While in Ramona's stall, he overheard a conversation between the stable's owner and a group of Aldarion Unlimited guards bringing in a blood-covered wagon. They told the owner that they just finished cleaning up a crime scene at 🔐 Korban's Memorial where guards and a civilian were murdered. Once they left, Wolf paid the owner 20gp to send a note to where the rest of you stayed.
At the hotel/brothel, you were greeted by Madame Mollisher herself and presented with a selection of prostitutes. Sebastian, Pasha, and Gadot simply rented a room, but both Sah-Sauj and Tiran spent the night with a prostitute -- to varying levels of success.
In the morning, you reunited with Wolf and set out for the harbor to meet Tom at his ship, The Beacon. When you arrived, you found a corpse floating in the water between the dock and the ship. It was Prince Callum, whom you had met the night before with Chickadee and Tom at the tavern. Tiran, Gadot and Pasha hoisted the corpse from the water and found a hole in the man's chest about 6" in diameter, straight through the body. Sebastian noticed that the hole's edges were burned. Pasha looked closely at the hole and discovered that it wasn't caused by magic but by a physical effect. A few guards showed up, but you determined they were just there to keep the peace.
Everyone except Sah-Sauj went aboard to look for Chickadee but only found a shit-faced Tom falling out of a hammock and wondering what was happening. When you let him know, and Sebastian sobered him up, he freaked out, knowing damn well who the dead man was. When asked if he heard anything, Tom said nothing unusual except some splashing and what sounded like a cat stuck in the cargo hold. Pasha and Gadot went down in the cargo hold and found a box tagged with the names of Chickadee and Callum. Its insides were scratched up by some creature that had inhabited it. Gadot figured that the box was big enough to hold something the size of a dog or quite a large cat. When looking closely at the thing's construction, he deduced that it was made specifically to hold the creature.
Tiran and Sebastian discussed helping get Chickadee out of town or getting themselves out of town. Tiran felt somewhat responsible for Chickadee's situation and thought she might be in trouble now. On the other hand, there was his wanted status to worry about. They decided to discuss this with the rest of the group once they rejoined and not bring any of it up with Tom, who already seemed freaked out.
Looking down towards the docks, you noticed more guards approaching, heading directly for the ship. Tiran and Wolf quietly skittered off the side of the ship and swam under a nearby dock.
Aboard, the guards placed Tom under arrest for murder and showed Sebastian the warrant. It was legitimate. When Pasha read it, he saw that multiple eyewitnesses gave testimony to seeing Tom murder Callum. As the guards dragged Tom away, he called out to Pasha, "I guess I won't see you at Gigglemug's tonight."
Down on the docks, Sah-Sauj was shooed away by the guards but was able to learn that the city was sending its veteran investigators. Sah-Sauj made his plan to get aboard the ship, unaware that Tiran and Wolf just left.
The guards deemed the ship part of the crimescene and escorted the rest of you off. As you walked past Callum's body, now laying on his back, Gadot could smell that the hole was burned using a very high-temperature heat source and a there was a lingering smell of ozone. He also noticed that the corpse seemed to be missing its lower jaw. This was sometimes done to prevent spells such as Speak with Dead from being successful.
And that's where we left off with the party split in three.