Session 5: "You're a Dingle!"
(July 29, 2018)
After the party barricades the doors and takes a short rest inside the library room, Vaelin takes the lead in interrogating Poinsettia Willbareen, halfling mayor of Asherhet and warlock of the fiend. She is a servant of Graz'zt, a demon lord who specializes in pleasure and debauchery. She doesn't fear death, believing that alive or dead, she will serve Graz'zt and receive her reward, an eternity of pleasure and luxury beyond reckoning. She hints that she and her cultists have indeed summoned a lesser demon, and that it awaits the party in the secret chambers below. When Vaelin says that he himself will slay Graz'zt, Poinsettia laughs in his face. Vaelin summarily executes Poinsettia as a demon-summoning evildoer. Ward and Lan are left to guard the four remaining captives (Poinsettia's human bodyguard and three halfling cult fanatics) while Dara, Snadwick, and Vaelin venture through the secret door and into the passageway leading below.
The first chamber they reach appears to have been where the inner circle of the cult had been awaiting Poinsettia before proceeding to the next stage of their rites. It shows signs of having been hastily abandoned when the six cult members rushed up to Poinsettia's aid. The air is suffused with the thick smell of incense, covering up any other odor. Dara, using her detect magic ability, locates an idol of Graz'zt carved from a cylinder of purple stone, exuding a weak magical aura. Snadwick studies its more arcane attributes and deduces that the idol would have a corrupting influence if kept in prolonged physical contact.
Moving on, the passageway slopes down to a second chamber. This one is only half lit, but in it the party can see a wagon, with someone chained atop it, and a donkey. Dara, with her elvish darkvision, is able to see a demonic presence in the shadows—a pallid gray creature, approximately human sized, with a goat-like head and a long barbed tail. Its skin is covered in pustules and oozes pus, and it is surrounded by flies. The stench of decay and corruption is strong.
Dara rushes in and fey-steps the unconscious captive free of his chains. The bulezau snarls in Abyssal, "How dare a servant of the Raven Queen enter my domain!" Only Snadwick is able to understand him. In the ensuing battle, Snadwick attempts to talk to the bulezau in Abyssal speech. The demon proves to be a servant of the demon lord Graz'zt, summoned here to create chaos and serve the warlock Poinsettia. The bulezau likewise does not fear death; like all demons, he cannot be killed on the Material Plane, only sent back to the Abyss. He taunts Snadwick that she would wish she could be "safe in the Pits of Hell when the nautilus ships come." She has no knowledge of what "nautilus ships" might be, or what threat they might represent.
While battling the demon, Vaelin discovers why the captive man had been held here—the oblex spawn sent to Poinsettia had been feeding on his memories, absorbing his identity in order to impersonate him. The oblex attacks him but is unable to land a blow.
The party defeats the demon and the ooze, the former dissolving into foul ichor from Dara's eldritch blast, the latter splattering under Vaelin's sword. The donkey turns out to have been a household servant, polymorphed into this shape as punishment. The captive human turns out to be Erland, a merchant with a reputation for honor and fair dealing, who had long criticized Poinsettia's rule; he had been mentioned by the priestess when Vaelin asked her who would make a suitable new mayor for Asherhet.
Exploring beyond this ritual chamber, the party finds a locked door. Vaelin persuades the donkey to kick it down. Inside is an office and sleeping chamber. Many papers, out of order and in general disarray, are found, bearing messages in the same code Snadwick had deciphered before. They document correspondence between a certain P. Carn and the Starling, the Gray King, and Sashi—a new name for the party. Sashi is apparently a leader of the Tasters, a bandit gang operating out of Rajgan itself. The papers imply that Sashi and the Tasters might be the recipients of another oblex bomb. The papers also make clear that the Gray King is the ruler of Darjheim, and the ultimate source of the oblex spawn. The P. Carn mentioned in the papers helped facilitate their transport from the cavern to Rothenel Manor after the Gray King had obtained them from the Underdark.
Beyond this office chamber, the group finds a dark, dank passageway lined with cells, holding many of the townsfolk who disappeared. Some of them are still alive, though horribly diseased—covered in pustulent boils and oozing sores.
Many of the remaining cultists upstairs—many of the richest and most powerful citizens of Asherhet—protest the party's invasion and attempt to cast blame on them, but armed with the deputization from Captain Kaldek and the writ from the priestess, the party take control of the situation. For proof, they have the survivors, the correspondence from P. Carn, as well as a jar of ichor from the liquidated demon.
Questioning a surviving cultist quickly reveals that P. Carn is Periwinkle Carn, Poinsettia's personal assistant and second in command of the cult. She is currently on a secret mission, her whereabouts unknown. The magical black market at Zanjamand is one possibility.
After the party barricades the doors and takes a short rest inside the library room, Vaelin takes the lead in interrogating Poinsettia Willbareen, halfling mayor of Asherhet and warlock of the fiend. She is a servant of Graz'zt, a demon lord who specializes in pleasure and debauchery. She doesn't fear death, believing that alive or dead, she will serve Graz'zt and receive her reward, an eternity of pleasure and luxury beyond reckoning. She hints that she and her cultists have indeed summoned a lesser demon, and that it awaits the party in the secret chambers below. When Vaelin says that he himself will slay Graz'zt, Poinsettia laughs in his face. Vaelin summarily executes Poinsettia as a demon-summoning evildoer. Ward and Lan are left to guard the four remaining captives (Poinsettia's human bodyguard and three halfling cult fanatics) while Dara, Snadwick, and Vaelin venture through the secret door and into the passageway leading below.
The first chamber they reach appears to have been where the inner circle of the cult had been awaiting Poinsettia before proceeding to the next stage of their rites. It shows signs of having been hastily abandoned when the six cult members rushed up to Poinsettia's aid. The air is suffused with the thick smell of incense, covering up any other odor. Dara, using her detect magic ability, locates an idol of Graz'zt carved from a cylinder of purple stone, exuding a weak magical aura. Snadwick studies its more arcane attributes and deduces that the idol would have a corrupting influence if kept in prolonged physical contact.
Moving on, the passageway slopes down to a second chamber. This one is only half lit, but in it the party can see a wagon, with someone chained atop it, and a donkey. Dara, with her elvish darkvision, is able to see a demonic presence in the shadows—a pallid gray creature, approximately human sized, with a goat-like head and a long barbed tail. Its skin is covered in pustules and oozes pus, and it is surrounded by flies. The stench of decay and corruption is strong.
Dara rushes in and fey-steps the unconscious captive free of his chains. The bulezau snarls in Abyssal, "How dare a servant of the Raven Queen enter my domain!" Only Snadwick is able to understand him. In the ensuing battle, Snadwick attempts to talk to the bulezau in Abyssal speech. The demon proves to be a servant of the demon lord Graz'zt, summoned here to create chaos and serve the warlock Poinsettia. The bulezau likewise does not fear death; like all demons, he cannot be killed on the Material Plane, only sent back to the Abyss. He taunts Snadwick that she would wish she could be "safe in the Pits of Hell when the nautilus ships come." She has no knowledge of what "nautilus ships" might be, or what threat they might represent.
While battling the demon, Vaelin discovers why the captive man had been held here—the oblex spawn sent to Poinsettia had been feeding on his memories, absorbing his identity in order to impersonate him. The oblex attacks him but is unable to land a blow.
The party defeats the demon and the ooze, the former dissolving into foul ichor from Dara's eldritch blast, the latter splattering under Vaelin's sword. The donkey turns out to have been a household servant, polymorphed into this shape as punishment. The captive human turns out to be Erland, a merchant with a reputation for honor and fair dealing, who had long criticized Poinsettia's rule; he had been mentioned by the priestess when Vaelin asked her who would make a suitable new mayor for Asherhet.
Exploring beyond this ritual chamber, the party finds a locked door. Vaelin persuades the donkey to kick it down. Inside is an office and sleeping chamber. Many papers, out of order and in general disarray, are found, bearing messages in the same code Snadwick had deciphered before. They document correspondence between a certain P. Carn and the Starling, the Gray King, and Sashi—a new name for the party. Sashi is apparently a leader of the Tasters, a bandit gang operating out of Rajgan itself. The papers imply that Sashi and the Tasters might be the recipients of another oblex bomb. The papers also make clear that the Gray King is the ruler of Darjheim, and the ultimate source of the oblex spawn. The P. Carn mentioned in the papers helped facilitate their transport from the cavern to Rothenel Manor after the Gray King had obtained them from the Underdark.
Beyond this office chamber, the group finds a dark, dank passageway lined with cells, holding many of the townsfolk who disappeared. Some of them are still alive, though horribly diseased—covered in pustulent boils and oozing sores.
Many of the remaining cultists upstairs—many of the richest and most powerful citizens of Asherhet—protest the party's invasion and attempt to cast blame on them, but armed with the deputization from Captain Kaldek and the writ from the priestess, the party take control of the situation. For proof, they have the survivors, the correspondence from P. Carn, as well as a jar of ichor from the liquidated demon.
Questioning a surviving cultist quickly reveals that P. Carn is Periwinkle Carn, Poinsettia's personal assistant and second in command of the cult. She is currently on a secret mission, her whereabouts unknown. The magical black market at Zanjamand is one possibility.
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