Wealday, 18 Kuthona

As we wrestled with the question of what to do with Ironbrier, we reviewed what we knew. He claimed to have been charmed by Xaneesha into doing her will. He claimed that he would not have done it, otherwise. He claimed he would reward us for letting him go. He claimed to be a member of — indeed, a priest of — the same religion as Xaneesha, but a different faction. His god was known as Norgurbur, the Reaper of Reputation. He did in fact carry a holy symbol consistent with that religion, but his faction, one of four, was one more interested in the more secular issues of reputation and power rather than the masks and the killings. He seemed more angry about being used than about the deaths, but we shouldn’t hope for too much regret over the deaths, given his apparent alignment and spiritual background.

Avia was adamant that he should either be turned over to the town for justice, or killed summarily. Trouble was it would come down to the word of a band of people recently arrived from out of town and strangely familiar with the murders, against that of a high justice of the city. We’d likely not win that battle of accusations. And killing him ourselves was regarded not an option by more than one member of the party. I find myself among that group. Perhaps it was his rank, perhaps it was that he appeared to have been used, but it seemed his freedom would actually get us closer to the greater evil. It is dismaying to realize he will not see justice for the deeds he’s done, but sometimes the forces of good must choose between the lesser of two evils, not simply between good and evil.

And so it was in this case. It was by no means unanimous, but fortunately those in the minority did not choose to argue with their weapons. It is the single most divisive issue I’ve ever seen this group wrestle with.

His freedom was tempered, of course. Sabin and I would become his “aides” for 12 hours while he “put his affairs in order”. He agreed to take care of the, uh, disrepair at the mill, and make some arrangements so that much of his wealth and belongings could follow him (or meet him) where he was going. We did not ask where he was going for we knew he would not tell.

We went with him back to his residence, and to their credit his staff did not spend any time asking him why he’d acquired two new assistants, especially with one being a half-orc. We were briefly mentioned as “bodyguards” and nothing more was said. In this role, we had free rein to follow him, and gave him a modicum of privacy while he wrote numerous letters. He even allowed me to inspect one and while it could have been written in some sort of cipher I suppose, it seemed to be what he said it would be: a letter directing the disposition of some of his wealth and belongings.

Since we were still not entirely trusting of him, Kane and Rigel were to follow us discreetly and watch over us, to make sure we ourselves were not charmed by him into doing something untoward. So we were partially but not entirely surprised when we heard what sounded like a large explosion from his bedroom shortly after dinner. We three rushed to the room but found nothing but a tripped ward and an open window. He chalked it up to his enemies already having sniffed out his weakening power, but Sabin and I looked at each other and guessed Rigel had been too tempted by the sparkly and shiny things in his house. (We discovered later that we were spot on.)

Later that evening, a messenger returned with a box of platinum and gear. Ironbrier made a non-magical offer for us to join him, but both Sabin and I declined. There was a bit of hesitancy in Sabin’s response which made me look at him closely, but no, in the end nobody joined him. He announced things were in order and we’d leave in about two hours. He dressed in rather plain travelling clothes. He seemed to have a travelling bag that could hold much more than one might think. (I’d heard of bags like that but never seen one. Seems quite handy.)

We left for the town gates just before 1am. We presumed that one or both of our tails, Kane or Rigel, would notify the rest of the party. Although they didn’t get there before we said our final goodbyes, they were there within minutes of them.

Before he left, he kept his word and told Sabin and I of Xaneesha. She has taken up residence at the shadow clock. Beautiful but very persuasive; since she was able to charm him I suspect the persuasive aspect has significant magical components to it. He said she is the personal agent of the dark forces, and that she has 5 henchman we need to watch for. The clock tower is in the Underdark, and the front door is guarded.

Additionally, he said that Aldrin was paying 200 gp per week in hush money. He had killed his wife and didn’t want anybody finding out. 200 gp per week was draining him pretty fast though; had he not fallen victim to the fungus in his manor, he may have had other problems soon.

Fungus, by the way, is what Xaneesha was most interested in. Aldrin was back at the manor because she had directed him to bring samples to her. Those samples may well have been what led him to the fate he suffered.

After relaying all of this to the rest of our party, we returned to the inn for a good night’s sleep. Oh, and Sabin and I each earned 1 gp for our short stint as bodyguards. Not bad pay; maybe I should look into this line of work.

hah.

Toilday, 19 Kuthona

After discussing it among ourselves, we thought it wise for some of us to get some additional training before confronting Xaneesha. Some people only needed a week or so for their training, while a couple needed two. I myself was already “up to snuff”. Before undertaking this, we (Nolin, Olithar, and myself) decided to try to see if we could trail where Ironbrier went. Near as we can tell, his trail got lost on the road pretty quickly after leaving town. While none of us are expert trackers, we suspect magic still may have been the primary means of his transportation. After all, we may not have been the only ones tracking him.

Late in the day, we did encounter some sort of frog men that Nolin insisted were hazards to travellers because they were so close to the road. They seemed to be building, or at least hanging out near, three mounds of mud, and they did brandish weapons at us. But it was hard to take them seriously with their frog-like appearance. At Nolin’s insistence we did away with three of them and while I escaped unscathed, they did mark up Olithar and Nolin some. And we did find, after slaying them, they actually did have some weapons that were not theirs, about 20 gold pieces, and the remains of some people, so I guess they really did waylay travellers. Ya just can’t tell by looking, I guess. I didn’t look close enough to see if the travellers’ bodies had simply rotted or been eaten. Really didn’t need to know that much.

Knowing that the others were busily training anyway, we made a leisurely trip out of it, travelling a few days out and back. Although we did meet several other travellers, none of them had seen a man matching the description of Ironbrier. Neither did we encounter any more wildlife that needed to be put down. We returned to Magnimar midday on Sunday.

Sunday, 22 Kuthona

Our multi-day journey was easily summarized to the remainder of the party, and Nolin took it upon himself to do some training too. Olithar and I will go scout out the clock tower tomorrow while Nolin starts training and the others finish.

Monday, 23 Kuthona

The clock tower looks a bit intimidating, even in daylight. We tried not to stand out so much here in the Underdark, but I imagine we still looked a bit out of place. Although the front door seems secure, the tower looks like it may be in disrepair. That alone probably keeps a lot of the locals away, but a quick tug on the front door also indicated it was locked. Seven years ago, one of them tells us, the city declared it dangerous and took effort to close it off.

The base was about 60 feet on a side, but it towers up almost 200 feet, maybe about 180. It narrows some as it rises, so it’s not 60 feet square all the way up. The belfry still shows some elegance after all these years, and had it not fallen into disrepair would likely be a tourist attraction in its own right. In its current condition — mortar is crumbling, and bricks are falling out of it — it’s more of a distraction than an attraction. Near the top there’s still a scaffolding of some sort hanging precariously on the side of the building.

I hope the stairs inside are in better shape than the outside suggests, or thoroughly examining this properly will require more skill or magic than may be present in our group. I wonder if there are rooms underground? Such a building must require a firm foundation.

Fireday, 3 Abadius

The days have passed leisurely for myself and Olithar, as others complete their training. Well, actually, Olithar has been off hanging around his temple, I guess, but I’m content to spend the days resting mostly and occasionally getting out and walking around just to keep in shape.

We had had no messenger come by from Ironbrier, and we were beginning to believe perhaps the reward portion of his speech had indeed been fluffery, but lo, today a cloaked messenger arrived. Meeting him was like meeting with a state spy; we did not mention Ironbrier’s name out loud, but instead referred to “our friend” and “those incidents”. In this manner we communicated to the messenger that we had not yet attacked Xaneesha or the clock tower, but intended to within a few days. He might return in, say, one or two weeks if he wished additional news. He gave no indication if he would. We mentioned to him we had moved to a new inn; he nodded.

He did say there was a parcel at our feet under the table, and that it was for us. He then abruptly left. We casually removed it to our room and after Rigel checked it for traps and such, opened it to discover seven gold bars, each worth 500 gp. Normally we take out a share of what we recover or are paid for “group expenses” but agreed that given the form this particular recompense had taken, we wouldn’t try to split up 7 bars 8 ways.

I’m good with that.

Sunday, 5 Abadius

The murders are still happening, and Nolin, the only one still training, has agreed we can’t sit idle while more people are losing their lives. Tomorrow, in the early dark of morn, we will go to the tower.

Moonday, 6 Abadius

Our thinking about investigating before the sun rises is two-fold. One is that what we are about to do — break into an area closed off by the city — is something we’d like to be a little bit surreptitious about. We might be in and out in an hour, and if we can do that while it’s dark, even the twilight of a rising sun, all the better. Two is that if we find these forces seem to benefit from darkness, an increasing light works in our favor.

We really didn’t know what to expect, other than Xaneesha and five misshapen henchmen defending their turf.

We started by picking the lock on the front door; practically child’s play for Rigel these days. Carefully entering the tower, we could see in the dim light that the outside may well be worse off than the inside. We used our continual light rocks to see better, but they didn’t make the contents really look any better.

Debris was scattered around. Fallen framing and timbers were in each of six small rooms that started to the right of the door, as we entered, and ran counterclockwise to the middle of the wall opposite us. To the left was a staircase that looked like it had seen better days. It led up into the clock tower, winding around and around the outside wall as it rose.

Some footprints were evident on the staircase that indicated it still seen relatively recent use, so that offered some meager evidence that Ironbrier had not lied about this building being used.

We were a bit startled, but not really very surprise, when one pile of debris stood up as we were inspecting the damaged rooms, and approached Olithar. It had bits of people, animals, and debris integrated into a body-like shap, and a selection of shrunken heads dangling from its belt.

This must be one of the misshapen ones. And when it smacked Olithar, it smacked him HARD. And that was just the beginning.

First, it was huge; easily as big as any three of us. Second, much to my and Olithar’s dismay, flame seemed to have no effect on it. Olithar’s spiritual weapon passed right through it without damage. Kane tried channelling positive energy to it; no effect. Magic missile did seem to do damage to it, at least. Avia finally switched to an adamantine weapon she has and that seemed to do real damage at last.

We did dispatch it, but it took great effort and all but I were signficantly injured. Our clerics healed us, but this did not bode well if we encountered the other four henchman at the same time.

On the corpse of this abomination we found a +1 scythe and a cloak of elvenkind, that Avia accepted. Searching carefully through the debris also discovered about 125 gp, 309 sp, a tarnished silver ring with the inscription “TO AV WITH LOVE” and a silver mirror. The mirror and the ring might have some intrinsic value, but nothing found was magic.

We found nothing else of interest on this floor, in the main hall or in any of the rooms. That left nowhere but up. Sabin and I tried to go up but it was clear the wood would not likely support the two of us standing too close together.

Since Sabin could cast featherfall on himself if need be, and I’d, at best, have to read it from a scroll, he went up alone. He’d gone three times around and reached the first set of windows when he heard a noise from above. A sawing noise. With no further warning, a huge copper bell fell from the heights. It took out the section of stairs Sabin was on, and hurt him badly just from the blow. He fell, but was able to feather himself down.

Meanwhile, I had the good fortune to be in the target area, and when the bell came crashing down, careening off what structure was left, fate dictated that it should land on me. I took even more damage than Sabin, and had to be pried out from under the bell and healed almost immediately.

And so much for any degree of secrecy in this operation. Outside, it was considerably lighter but now people were gathering about the tower, gossiping about the loud noise. We quickly decided to spin this as best we could, because sure as the sun rises every morning, when we exited the tower there were a pair of constables there. We brought out the body of the creature we’d killed and loudly announced there was some foul presence in that tower.

As the constables (and crowd) looked over the misshapen corpse, you could almost feel the tide swing in our favor. We told a tale of having seen it and it ran into the tower. Knowing it would be harmful to the town and wondering idly if it might be responsible for the killings, we chased it in and killed it, as any capable townsperson would. The crowd was murmuring and although the constables were still mildly suspicious, they couldn’t deny that the body in front of them was not a citizen of the town.

We announced were going to go back in and see if there was more, and did they want to come? Nooooo, the constables were willing to let us go in but they would keep the peace out here. Already they were shooing people back (“nothing to see here, just a rotting building, move along”) One did comment, after looking at the bell, that the rope appeared to have been cut. Gasp, really? One of the onlookers commented that sometimes, people who live here could see something or some things flying in and out of the tower. (That’s distressing, that maybe we get up to the top and it just flies away. Not sure we can do much about that.)

Anyway, I need to wrap this up and rejoin the group. We are strategizing about what to do next. I’m hearing ropes, and I’m hearing Spider Climb and I’m hearing “long way to fall”. Sigh. I need to learn that featherfall thing.