SOTDL CAMPAIGN DIARY: INTERLUDE IN CROSSINGS, 4.11.17

The Heroes:

• Ecna Lubma: dwarf priest grudgebearer
• Gruntbelly: dwarf magician sorcerer
• Kane: human warrior fighter
• Mathias: jotun jotun juggernaut

The heroes spend three days in Crossings, awaiting the meeting date that the relic hunter known as Nareesh is supposed to have with the hirelings that the group rescued from the beastmen camp.  Mathias has been searching over a year for a jotun relic that Nareesh's people stole from a sacred place in the jotun homeland.  The group learned from his hirelings that Nareesh had been hired himself to find certain relics for an unknown client for some kind of ritual.

While relaxing at the Honored Dead Shrine and Brewery, the heroes are introduced to Elder Fobb; a halfling noble that serves on the town council.  Fobb is the uncle of Theodore, whom the heroes had rescued from Farmer Ham's farm and the noble wanted to thank and offer a reward to the heroes for their bravery and service to his family and to the people of Hamlet.  The heroes, skeptical of strangers, cautiously accept the money and Fobb's gratitude.

When Fobb departs, Stohk Ironbrow informs the heroes that the wounded priest they rescued, Father Gregory, had been released from the local asylum where Sgt Alise had taken him.  However, nobody knows where the priest went.  Later, the heroes hear that Sgt Alise had been brutally murdered in her home.  These are two things that the heroes investigate during these days, but individually the heroes also care for some personal needs.

Mathias: The jotun asked Stohk Ironbrow where he might find a suit of armor to fit one of his stature.  The priest directed him to an ogre named Rech, who works in a factory in the Smokestacks district.  The ogre, an apparent retired warrior with a metal prosthetic arm and leg, agrees to give the joten his old gear provided he not use them to cause trouble and that he do a favor for the ogre at a later date.

Kane: The young warrior goes to his father's home and finds his step mother and younger brother (apprenticed to a master mason) and sister (a secretary to a noble of the town council) visiting.  After an uncomfortable discussion about his disgraced older sister, who, it seems, is living in a neighboring town.  Kane goes to see if his father needs any assistance, but finds his shop closed, his father out with a client.  Kane spends time in his manor, learning that he can allow those whom he chooses to see through the fey glammer that disguises the house as a burnt ruin.  Kane does some shopping as well.  Kane also goes to The Guild to try & find Nareesh, but learns that a woman matching the description of Lara cancelled the meeting room reservation that Nareesh was supposed to use.

Ecna: Having revealed to Stohk that he wished to take up the mantle of "grudgebearer", the priest took Ecna into the vaults below the shrine/brewery, equipped him with proper gear befitting a grudgebearer, and showed him the Vault of Grudges, containing the books of grudges from other grudgebearers of the clan that Stohk had rescued from their fallen stronghold.  He presented Ecna with his beginner book of grudges and challenged him to equal or exceed the offenses documented within that vault.  On day 3, Ecna is in the Honored Dead when an acolyte from Father Gregory's comes over to borrow some bread when a wounded citizen the acolyte was caring for, and who had come from the Purse district, suddenly attacks another acolyte in the street.  The citizen had somehow turned into a zombie and was trying to eat the acolyte.  Ecna emerges from the brewery/shrine, fires a warning shot at the zombie from his new pistol, then proceeds to behead the undead creature when it attacks him.

Gruntbelly: Visiting his former master, Caribdus, to inform him of his learnings, Gruntbelly learns that the daughter of Master Dreen, Candace (whom the heroes had rescued from the Rude Boyz gang and who was possessed by a demon) had apparently run away from home to elope with her beau Phineas.  This happened before Caribdus could warn his friend of his daughter's state and her current whereabouts are unknown.  Gruntbelly then takes advantage of his time in the wizard's tower to visit his library's restricted section to read up on Demonology.  He learns that the green blade that warns of demonic presence was created hundreds of years ago by the Tower Arcane order of wizards, which serves the Emperor.  Gruntbelly also learns of a demon prince known as the Destroyer of Worlds, which once threatened Urth many thousands of years ago.  Afterwards, Gruntbelly makes his way through the streets of Crossings when he spots Lara, the hireling of Nareesh that they set free.  He follows he and sees her meet a tall, cloaked man.  Gruntbelly uses his magic to eavesdrop on their conversation and learns the man is Nareesh himself, who knows the heroes are after him and is still interested in the fey relic that Gruntbelly still carries.  The two leave town on a commercial carriage.

On the 3rd day, early in the morning, something strange happens in the Purse district, which draws the attention of all of the Brown Cloaks in town, and Inquisitor Randolfus.  The event was an explosion of sorts that came from one of the manors in that part of town.  The heroes learn that the inquisitor entered Purse shortly after the event occurred and ordered the district quarantined until his return.  The Brown Cloaks learned that people within the district were becoming ill, dying, then becoming a walking dead.  The heroes decide to check into this, but before they do, they go and investigate Sgt Alise's house.  As they look around they determine that some bat-like creature entered via the chimney and killed Alise.  They also found her journal which indicated that she was trying to find out who released Father Gregory from the asylum, with the only clue being the doctor's description of a white haired, pale young lady being the one to gain his release, though they were unable to tell her how or why they let her release him.

After this, the heroes go back to the gate leading to the Purse district, now early night, are allowed entry by Mathias' contacts in the Brown Cloaks, and they start heading towards the manor at the far end of the district - that belonging to the noble Katandramus; the one with the weird mist emanating from it...

End of session.