What a wonderful smell
We are still down a player for our Zweihänder game due to serious illness. Their character, Floquert, would probably have been able to find out information that might be useful to us. Our GM assumes that he would have related this information to us, so lets us know that:
- Floquert now has a good idea about the adult entertainment scene in the city, and can confirm that the White Orchid is the very best in the city, catering to the rich.
- He has run into some problems with the Heavies, the same street gang that Djarin has heard about.
- The people in the city are mostly happy, but there is some concern because more than the normal number of people have been going missing. Given the places they have vanished from, and the lack of dead bodies, this probably isn’t entirely due to the basilisk.
- He has heard details about the big upcoming party.
Eva continues to record our activities.
We headed to the sewers looking for any clues as to the whereabouts of the basilisk, and eventually discovered a hole where something large had broken out sometime recently. We spent some considerable time discussing how best to locate and kill it, and ended up purchasing a couple of ducks to use as bait.
The sewer had a definite aroma to it that wasn’t at all pleasant, but after some hours of searching around I think our sense of smell we destroyed enough to not care. We found a suitable junction not far from the exit the creature had used, and setup the duck as bait. Somehow, though I’d been carrying both ducks around with me all day, one had managed to slip away without me noticing.
Beneath the duck, under the water, we placed some stakes and nails, and hung a lantern above the duck so we could see what was going on (and hopefully to prevent the creature from seeing past it).
Sometime after nightfall, we heard the sounds of a large creature approaching through the water of the sewer. It came into view, lit by the lantern that hung above the duck, and paused, as if sensing us hiding in the darkness beyond. But it moved forward anyway, giving a loud shriek as it impaled itself on our traps.
Djarin shot his crossbow, impaling the creature through the mouth, and by the time that Calthar stepped in to finish it off, I think it was already dead.
The effort of getting the creature out of the sewer was more effort than the slaying of it, and attracted the attention of the guards though they were more than happy to leave us to it. I think the stench that accompanied us by this point was more than enough to drive people away.
By morning though, we had all parts of the creature up on the surface and a crowd was gathering (at a distance) to see what we had killed. When the butchers turned up, they were happy that we had slain the beast that had been causing them so many problems, and promised to pay us our reward.
The question of what to do with the carcass was solved by a local alchemist who was thrilled to find a dead basilisk on her doorstep, and Djarin does a great job of bartering her up to paying us 48 gold for the carcass.
That was plenty enough for us all to be able to get a hot bath and clean ourselves up. Djarin is spending the night at the Wild Orchid, whilst I simply had a bath at our usual inn.
We set off in the morning for the village of Middleton to the south, where strange noises have been heard coming from their crypt. We had been planning to maybe try and crash the party at the Wild Orchid, to find out more information on the merchants, but we’d heard that the party had been postponed, which gave us time to do other things.
There are also rumours that ‘oath signings’ are going well – I believe this may be something to do with the strange man that Djarin had seen in the market, but we need to investigate to be sure. There was also a fire at someone’s shop – according to Calthar it may have been some revenge taken by Stephana Rochu.
It should take us another few days to get to Middleton – it appears I took the wrong turn sometime today and we’ve had to retrace our steps to get back on the right road.
Player’s Note: I quite like the travel rules that Zweihänder uses. There are three different skill checks (survival, navigation and stealth), which splits the responsibility between different characters and each affects a different aspect of travel. Eva failed her navigation check so we initially got lost, then Calthar failed her stealth check so we got an encounter.
Earlier today we ran into a tradesman on the road. He and his wife were selling various goods from their wagon, and though the other’s wanted to ignore them I took a look at their wares, wondering if they had any good cheese.
Fortunately Calthar was keeping her eyes open, and spotted the wife cutting the strings on my purse as she showed me what was available. After a minor altercation, my purse was returned and we took a wheel of rather nice cheese in payment.
When we arrived in the village of Middleton, we were met somewhat suspiciously, but suddenly change their tune when we say that we’re here to sort out their crypt problem. They were happy enough to get us some breakfast whilst they filled us in on the details.
Apparently, about a mile to the east there is an old burial ground which dates to before the village was founded. There are some mounds out there, one of which they call “The Crypt” because of the stonework around it. It’s been said to be haunted for as long as anyone can remember, but they haven’t had any problems with it before now.
A few weeks ago “Old Robert” started complaining of hearing noises at night, as if something was shuffling around. Then he disappeared. Over the next couple of weeks both Sally and Roderick vanished as well. They’ve also lost some chickens and sheep.
They found some booted tracks which came from the burial grounds, and when they followed them back they discovered that a new hole had been dug into the Crypt. They caught some of some glowing green eyes and fled.
After some prompting from Djarin, they offered has 2 gold each to deal with the problem, which seems more than reasonable.
Calthar then asked some sensible questions and they remember that a group of people did turn up here a few months ago – including someone who matches the description of Sir Kelvis. It seems like he’s been busy, seeking out artefacts and causing trouble all over the place. He had a team of miners with him, and I guess he had the hole dug and has run off with something that whatever is left in the burial grounds wants.
So we need to head out and investigate, and hope whatever is there can be reasoned with.
Player’s Note: After some discussion about undead, the GM allows Eva to swap out her Haunting spell for Anoint Weapon, which is probably more generically useful. We also get chance to spend some Reward Points, so Eva is able to learn Incantation, giving her at least some chance of being able to cast a spell. She also has some holy water, which will hopefully help against undead.
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