Samsone’s Escape

438WeSaEs

The party had head towards the city after they had gathered as much information from the Blackmane’s estate as possible. They had not been travelling for more than an hour before they ran into a farmer herding his sheep away from the city.

“Hail travellers, spare me a moment if you would.” he called out as they approached. As they got near they noticed that several sheep had large injuries that resembled larger slashes and cuts than what they had seen at the Blackmane estate when investigating Samsone’s pen. “There is a beast out there that has a taste for sheep. They called me crazy when I claimed that my animals had started being taken by a monster but I’ve seen it. Large scaled wings, a long tail with a barb. I’ve heard the stories. It’s a wyvern for sure.” he said with conviction.

“They think me mad. No wyverns in these lands for years, centuries they had claimed. But look at my beauties. All of them had injuries to prove they been beset upon by a foul creature.” he continued. “So I’ve left. I’m taking my sheep left the old farm and I’m leaving. The guard wont save me, the kings men don’t believe me so it’s the only thing that’s left. The old mill will have to turn itself now.” he said as the sheep started to get away from him, slowly. “Farewell! and watch the skies!”

Sure enough the party came across a Mill with a farm attached. As they walked past one of the doors to the barn moved despite there being no wind. Approaching the barn they heard the sound of foot steps on hay and something hard like horns, or claws, scratching at the wood of the door. As they drew near the scratching stopped and rushed movements could be heard as something scurried behind the door.

Entering it was pretty hard to miss the creature that was currently attempting to push itself between haybales to hide. A baby manticore with what appeared to be a sky blue collar was trying its best to hide from the party. A large bronze emblem of a “S” hung from the collar as it jumped from bale to bale to try and create distance between itself and the party.

Samsone was a baby Manticore. Despite being only a youngster it was the size of a large dog with powerful muscles, a scorpion like tail and large bat-like wings. Small horns sprouted from its forehead and a thick mane of hair was already proudly on display. However as they pondered what to do about the creature it looked suddenly alarmed, looked towards the roof and dove deeper into the barn.

Thats when the party heard wingbeats of something large passing above the barn. Large powerful wings carried an unknown creature nearby as it circled the farm and barn. A reverberating growl pressed down upon them and dust rained down upon the barn as the creature neared and expressed its displeasure, or hunger. Perhaps the farmer was right, perhaps it was a wyvern that had taken his sheep and that left the question. Why did Anzia Blackmane have a baby manticore as a pet. And of course, what was the creature above them.

Karaol at Night

437WeKaNi

The party marvelled at how many people were just walking down the street despite the large demonic shapes that crawled, leapt of flew between the rooftops as they watched and chased the party through the streets. They had only discovered the location of the bag after hearing Naye, the stablemasters daughter shriek out in shock and fear as a demon started attacking the pile of bags and kit that they had taken from the horses the party had intended to take out.

A mix-up. The saddlebag from their horses had been mixed up with Fylaine’s quarry, the Prison of Gesig. However the church to Selune was on the other side of the city and despite Fylaine’s help in fighting off demons that were nearly spilling out freely they had lost her a few streets back when something bigger than a Quasit appeared and attacked them. It was not long until similar creatures were appearing and attacking them relentlessly.

Large bat-winged creatures with scaled heads, bulging muscles and an odour that invoked nausea jumped down from stalking them along the rooftops before stamping their hooved feed defiantly. The variety of demons that kept appearing really told a unfavourable picture of what lay within the prison itself. The demons were no match for the party and after a few strikes in less than a minute of heated combat the creatures were left dead on the floor. However it was a minute that they had been delayed and the seal weakened now with every moment after it was attacked by the creature in stables.

Rushing onwards the sounds of beating wings finally met with the patron’s of the taverns, bars and inns on the ground and a panic erupted with many people fleeing inside the buildings, many more however flooded the streets in their panic. This unfortunately accomplished two things. One it created a moment where the party could slip along with the horde of people fleeing down the street and, second, it created more prey for the demons that started to swoop down and snatch at the commoners, merchants and revellers of the night life in Karaol.

The Storm Beast

436WeStBe

The party watched from the city wall with the other guards as they huddled against the ramparts. The wind was growing to a gale now, causing debris and dust to whip at the exposed skin of those watching the cause of their kings ire.

As they party watched the storm looking for something that would tell them that the could silence the storm, their frustration only grew. The mages of the court had told them that attempts to banish the storm with magic had failed and soldiers had a worse time. Nothing had come up as a way to silence the storm and as it grew closer to the city and its path remained true the likelihood of them failing was rising now.

However, as they watched the storm the lightning that struck the ground did something odd. The blue bolts of lightning hit in a similar spot and the point was travelling in a constant line towards the city. Rushing towards one of the nearby towers where a large telescope was housed. The older elven woman who operated the telescope grumbled as she realigned the great construction within the tower to point where the party had indicated.

Looking through the eye peace it took a few moments before they were able to get the device to focus on the point that they needed it to. There, at the centre of the storm was a giant creature, a deer that buzzed with lightning and was surrounded by a constant shield of wind and debris. Blue lightning moved across its antlers and the fur around its neck as it strode forward. The problem with the creature wasn’t its presence but was also its size as it towered above trees, taller than many giants they had seen.

The party had found a plausible way that they could silence the storm, now they just had to work out how they could achieve it.

The Guildmaster’s Journal

435WeGuJo

Something about Bastions story didn’t make sense particularly around how the information of a dead man came to light years after it was buried. As they moved through the guild they could see Kilt talking with some members down stairs, drinking and laughing. It had been an impressive week for him and the guild as they had quickly expanded with some perfectly times contracts.

However as they moved up stairs something caught their eye, the door to the guild masters room was open. Inside the room was a large wooden desk, a well made chair, a cabinet that held a few glasses and half empty bottles of a alcohol. On the large desk was a journal, two lit candles that didn’t appear to expire and a handful of coins.

As they looked over the journal they watched as the words on the journal started to etch itself onto the page. On the page was information of all the other guilds, the nobility and the merchants and information that could be useful for someone in the guildmaster’s chair. Flicking through the pages the start of the journal told a terrifying picture, the story that Bastion had revealed to the party as the reason for him resigning as the guild.

The hallway started to get noisy as it appeared that Kilt and a few members of the guild were returning to their quarters in the guild building.

The Cornered

434WeThCo

As the rumours circulated around the high priest being the one who broke the orders rules the gathering crowd of clerics of Kelemvor muttered nervously. The High Priest was still dressed in his evening robes as stood in front of the other clerics and, shakily, addressed them.

The clerics were all in their robes but many were still waking up as it had not been long since the party had discovered the high priest in the hall casting magic. A heartbeat later he had been seen by three other clerics who were on their way to retiring for the night.

“My brothers and sisters. As you may have heard the culprit for healing within our halls, preventing the worthy souls to be judged by our lord Kelemvor has been found. Unwillingly so or not, with knowledge of what I was doing our creed, our doctrine has been broken and there is but one punishment. Excommunication and execution.” he looked them all in the eyes before he turned his eyes to the door of the church.

There was a growing volume of noise coming from the village. As the room looked towards the sound of the noise the large barred door shook as someone pounded on the door. “Help! Monsters!”.

The party raced out of the church in time to see one of the same creatures that attacked them sink its teeth into one of the villagers and drag them between two houses. Except there was more than one and several villagers were twitching and frothing on the ground nearby with the same gruesome bite that their companion had been inflicted with.

The Clerics rushed forth with the party to meet the creatures on the streets. The creatures shied away from the clerics when confronted outright before circling back to attack when their guard was lowered. The fight was gruesome with casualties on both sides however as the silence of the aftermath was replaced by the quiet sobs of the survivors, and the twitching and whining of those afflicted by the bite the full scale of the attack was revealed.

More than half the cities villagers were bitten, a dozen of the clerics joined their number and all of them were fighting back the magical curse that the creatures bites induced.

The decision had to be made, heal them now or wait and see what would happen to these people. Many looked like they would not survive the night from their wounds alone and the clerics looked to the high priest Matihas to make a decision.”