Storm King's Thunder: Session 12. Something Weird in Everlund

As they left the shop, they were approached by a boy who told them he had been asked to pass on a message - there was an elf and a man waiting for them at the Golden Oak Inn. They were puzzled and headed back to the Inn to find a wood elf waiting for them who introduced himself as Fenris. Fenris had been asked to meet them here and escort them back to Everlund. On the way to Silverymoon, he had found the young man sitting across the table from him wandering in the wilderness. The young man introduced himself as Artan Rossolio and explained he was a young nobleman from Everlund. Artan had apparently gone on a night out 3 nights ago and completely lost his memory and had no idea why he was wandering the wilderness. He asked them to take him back to his home in Everlund as he was sure his mother would reward them handsomely. He remembered very little: someone about a Golden Goose and a beautiful woman dressed in purple. By this point it became apparent that it was a little bit too late to head out on the road now.

Carlan and Korrak headed back to the blacksmith’s to see how the commission was going, but as it had only been a few hours Phlamryn had made some progress but wouldn’t be finished til tomorrow. Korrak blustered a little bit but Phlamryn grumpily responded that craftsmanship takes time. Maganose and Fenris went to buy some supplies for the road from Lionshield Coster, while Darius sat and made small talk with Artan.

However Amadeous decided to head to the temple of Lathander. This large temple to the Dawnlord was largely empty (being the middle of the day). He spoke to an elderly woman he found praying in a pew, questioned her faith and admonished her for believing to a god who didn’t listen or care about her. He then spoke to the temple’s priest, who was tending to some candles and further questioned the wisdom of following an uncaring god. Amadeous then sneaked inside a hidden alcove to one side and proceeded to walk up the walls using his slippers of spider climbing. He was noticed by the small crowd inside and drew a small audience. Walking upside down along the ceiling he screamed out to the crowd “Lileath!” and using his adamantine spear repeatedly carved “Lileath” into the ceiling of the temple.

The priest ran outside and starting calling out to the guards at which point Amadeous smashed a high window and crept out onto the ceiling. Guards searched inside the temple but were unable to find the intruder and in the confusion Amadeous sneaked down the outside of the rear wall of the temple. Finding the elderly woman from earlier kneeling in front of a gravestone he shook her and shouted “Lileath!!!”, which utterly confused her and caused her to faint. Amadeous then fled back to the Golden Oak.

As Carlan, Korrak, Fenris, Maganose and Amadeous returned they decided to have dinner and an early night before heading off in the morning. In the morning Carlan quickly picked up her commission: a beautifully wrought flower made of steel.

They head out on the road and by late afternoon they saw Everlund on the horizon. As they got closer they saw a large mansion on the outskirts and Artan excitedly pointed it out as his home. Seeing the obvious old-money-wealth, Korrak suddenly took a new interest in Artan. They pulled up the cart outside and they were greeted by the butler and taken in to speak to Artan’s mother: a stern older woman named Dezhia Rossolio. Dezhia was relieved to see Artan but also furious and sent him off to get washed and changed, but not before seeing that he had lost his family ring.

She was grateful to the Legends of Tomorrow and said she would pay 100gp for her son’s return but also offered a job. She was concerned someone was targeting her family as Artan wasn’t usually quite this foolish or forgetful and offered 500gp if they could find out why he was outside the city and 500gp if they could find the family ring. The only lead she could give was a member of the Elder’s Council of Everlund named Felix Hawkwood. The Council of Elders was the ruling body of Everlund and Felix was apparently “a little bit less foolish and pompous than the rest of them”. Felix had apparently been very interested in Artan’s disappearance and asked a lot of questions.

The party accepted and head off into the city: a large walled city on the north banks of the river Rauvin. They walked to the Council of Elders and were let in to speak to Felix: a dapper older gentleman who was reading some papers. Felix explained that his interest in Artan stemmed from several other young men had gone missing in the city recently. He was currently in the process of brokering a deal for Everlund to join the Lord’s Alliance a defensive alliance of cities across the Sword coast that included Silverymoon, Waterdeep and Neverwinter. The young men who disappeared (Jakkob Dawnflower and Timothy Salzberg) had all been from families that supported the treaty. He offered 100gp if they found out the cause.

Fortunately Dawnflower’s father was also on the Council of Elders and in attendance this evening. The party spoke to him. He was distraught at the disappearance of his son and said that his son and friends often used to visit local bars in the evening and a casino boat called the Grand Dame, which was currently moored in the docks.

Saying goodbye the Legends of Tomorrow resolved to investigate the Grand Dame, with Darius posing a young noblemen. Now it was early evening and they headed to the docks and found the Grand Dame: a large riverboat alive with music, laughter and merriment. The guards stopped them outside and explained that they could not attend in armour or armed. They deposited their arms and armour in the cloakroom with Jimotei, a guard with absolutely stunning hair.

They then excitedly head onto the casino floor to find it alive with music, laughter and young men drinking and playing dice games and a strange Drow strategy game named Sava. They were informed they needed to buy some casino tokens to gamble with and exchanged some gold to gamble with and found the tokens were decorated with gilded images of golden geese. They spotted a beautiful woman dressed in purple playing Sava with an older man at the far wall: the older man had apparently just lost and laughed, pushing over his tokens and declared that he didn’t know how she was doing it as she always seem to know what he was thinking before she did.

Darius smoothed his eyebrows, approached her and introduced himself. She greeted him and introduced herself as Lady Atalia. They settled down to play and Darius found himself outmatched: she seemed to anticipate his every move. Making small talk he asked about the treaty and disappearances. She looked into his eyes and he heard a voice inside his head: “‘Pretend as if everything is fine. We need to talk. Not here. Follow me when the boat returns to the docks. Nod if you understand me”. Darius nodded and Atalia moved her last piece, winning the game. She then declared that she had enough games for the evening and left. Darius watched her leave and a few moments later made his excuses and followed her, while trying to look natural and was shortly followed by Amadeous. Korrak got up and followed them both, making absolutely no effort to be subtle.

While the other three followed Atalia, Maganose and Carlan gambled with Maganose winning a few rounds of dice (a game named Kobold’s Knuckles) and Carlan being bested at Sava by a greasy little halfling. Darius followed Atalia down a dark alley and found her waiting for him. She begged for help: she was under the power of an evil sorceror named Oosith who had arrived to the city a few months ago. Oosith was a tall handsome man with dark hair and a moustache and held a base in the sewers. Under threat of death, she would drug young men at the casino that Oosith identified and bring them to a sewer grate in the alley they were standing in. He had strange fish men followers who would take the abducted men away. She gestured to a grate they were standing near. Darius said he would be back and returned to the Grand Dame and informed the rest of the group what was happening. Amadeous stood on a wall near the alley and watched Atalia, who seemed to calmly wait for Darius to return.

They grabbed their weapons and armour and headed into the sewers. It was dark and smelled absolutely revolting, 2 inches of waste running around their feet. Fenris scouted out the sewers finding an abandoned old service room, a chamber with a large pool of relatively clean water and another full of waste in which a voice called out for help, claiming they were stuck and needed help. He headed back to the rest of the group and appraised them of his findings. Amadeous searched the service room, finding old corpses dressed in fine clothes and 10 golden geese tokens in the pockets. As they walked past the room with the large pool several strange fishmen emerged from the water, alongside an enormous snake. The leader of these Kuo-Toa addressed them, calling himself “Bibbleth” the high priest to the mighty god Oosith, who dwelled beyond. Carlan spoke to him, explaining that they were coming to worship Oosith and pay their respects. So convincing was she that they let them pass. They ignored the voice in the other room calling for help and decided to press on to see Oosith.

As they entered the next chamber of the sewer, they found it mostly filled with water, with a bridge spanning the waste and a room visible beyond. A voice called out to them, saying it was glad to see them and asked if they could please step into his office on the other side they could talk all about this. More Kuo-Toa splashed around the edges of the room. Darius and Korrak edged forward towards the office as they spoke, noticing that the Kuo-Toa were starting to press in on them. When they nearly reached the other side an enormous three-eyed head emerged from the water, hissing and they drew their weapons and prepared to defend themselves: Oosith was an aboleth

A short but brutal battle ensued: Darius and Korrak were dragged into the water and found themselves covered in disgusting mucus that cursed them. Fenris unleashed a furious torrent of arrows at Oosith, causing terrible damage and under a rain of arrows, axe slashes and magic missiles Oosith died, with the Kuo-Toa soon following him. The chamber stood silent, filled only with the splashing of sewage and stench of death.