Date: 02/08/10

XP Awarded: 4,586 (Elvisa, Garrick, Gob), 2,293 (Kiria)

Start: The beached ship Windsprite Magnimar's Underbridge section, early winter.

Standing outside the darkened entrance to the bowels of the Windsprite, the party hesitates at the invitation to enter. Elvisa is wary of a trap that may be sprung, without silvered weapons to use against wererats. Kiria says that simply talking should do no harm, and eventually the party agrees to enter. Inside they find a tall woman with sharp features and long, black hair pulled up in a handkerchief surrounded by more thugs. She commends the party on their effective fighting style, and asks them to enter her office to discuss a business deal.

In the simple, poorly-lit wooden room, the woman introduces herself as Tiira. She asks what the party has come to the Windsprite for, and Kiria answers that they've got business with the leader of the Bilge Rats. Tiira makes a pointed reference to a violent confrontation with Wenzel, the leader of the Bilge Rats, then goes on to explain that he seems to be controlled by some other power. Over the past few weeks, he's made decisions that are 'not in the best interests of the Bilge Rats,' and she feels as if he is leading the group down a destructive path. Tiira proposes a deal where she will help the party gain access to Wenzel and his loyalists if the party will defeat them. Once Tiira becomes the new leader of the Bilge Rats, she will ensure they bother the party's townhouse no more. Elvisa asks if the party can leave to gather some equipment they may need for the job, but Tiira says they cannot leave until a deal has been agreed - she darkly hints that the alternative is much worse, with the party being surrounded by the forces of the Bilge Rats. Tiira says she will leave the party to discuss amongst themselves privately.

After Tiira has left the room, Gob questions how this deal will help the party come closer to their goal of defeating the force behind the ritualistic murders plaguing Sandpoint and Magnimar. Elvisa also questions how the party will be able to defeat a group of wererats without silvered weapons. But Kiria points out that the deal may give them a valuable ally in a city where everyone seems to be turned against them, and also ensure the safety of their most valued possession. He suggests that the party find out more about why Tiira thinks Wenzel is being controlled by someone, and any information she might have on who it could be.

Tiira returns and the party agrees to the deal. Tiira tells the party that she's seen Wenzel with a 'black-haired, green-eyed beauty' a few times around town, and she suspects that the woman is involved. This revelation sparks a memory in Gob and Kiria, who recall that the snake-woman they fought atop the Shadow Clock had glossy black hair and piercing green eyes. Tiira gives Elvisa and Kiria silvered daggers to help them in their fight, then leads the party through a secret door into a darkened passage. At the end of the passage, she tells the party that Wenzel and his supporters are in the room on the other side, to wait 5 minutes before their assault, and to return to the secret passage once they are successful. As Tiira leaves the other end of the secret passage, the cramped wooden room is plunged into pitch-blackness once again.

Once Kiria completes the countdown, he opens the secret door and dim lantern light floods the secret passage. In the sparsely decorated wooden room beyond, the adventurers see two women in leather armor reclining on a pile of silk pillows, a dwarf and a human on wooden chairs against the wall, and on a large, plush sofa on the far wall, a stylish man wearing a mithral shirt. As they look up in surprise, Elvisa charges into the room to land a punch on the dwarf. Garrick follows and finishes off one of the women with a follow-up sword blow that kills the wounded dwarf, who tumbles out of the chair onto the floor. From the darkened secret passage, Gob completes a spell that sends silvery darts of magical force into the second woman on the pillows, killing her. Elvisa spins to attack the other seated human next to her and drops him with a rapid flurry of blows. Garrick approaches the man on the sofa and wounds him with a downward chopping strike, but the man springs off the sofa and tumbles across the floor through Garrick's swings to the far corner of the room. There he leaps to his feet as his back hunches, his face elongates, and his body sprouts hair all over. Moments later, a large black wererat with silver streaks is facing the party with a drawn rapier.

Gob launches another round of magic missiles at the creature which strike true, and Elvisa cautiously approaches but her probing strikes all miss. Garrick kicks the silk pillows out of the way as he closes with the wererat and connects with another great swing, but this time the sword doesn't bite as deep, and the wound is already partially healed by the time he gets his balance back. The wererat snaps at Garrick with his sharpened teeth, but Garrick fends off the attack and counters with another thrust that kills the creature.

Already the party can hear cries of excitement and running feet from the other side of the door. Kiria moves over and shoves one of the chairs in front of the door to block it closed, and the other party members quickly set to searching the bodies of their defeated opponents. In a pile next to the sofa, Elvisa finds several items that used to belong to Signore and Deivon. The group returns to the secret passageway and closes the door as the beating on the door becomes more powerful and the frame begins to crack. In the darkened passage, Kiria presses his ear against the secret door and listens as several Bilge Rats break into the room and survey the carnage, searching for the perpetrators. After what seems like a long time, he hears Tiira's voice enter the room and give instructions, then leave. Some time later, the secret door at the other end of the passage opens and Tiira beckons the party into her office. She gets their report, and Elvisa takes the opportunity to ask her more about this green-eyed woman who may be involved with whoever was controlling Wenzel. Tiira thinks for a minute, and mentions that Wenzel kept a messenger raven in a cage in the lookout nest atop the Windsprite's old mast. Though the stronghold of the Bilge Rats is in too much of an uproar to allow the party to investigate, the offers to release the raven the next day so the party can track where it flies to. With that agreement, she leads them out of the stronghold by way of another secret passage that opens onto a deserted alley near the docks.

The adventurers find a run-down inn in Dockway and hole up for the night, figuring it's too unsafe to return to their townhouse. The next morning, they return to the tavern across the square from the Windsprite, and soon they spy a figure climbing the beached ship's rigging. Gob sends his owl familiar Lemmywings to follow the messenger raven, and the party sits back to finish their drinks before leaving the tavern for a nearby street where the owl can find them. Soon enough, Lemmywings circles out of the sky to land on Gob's outstretched arm, and the two carry on a curiously one-sided conversation (to the party's ears). Gob informs the rest of his group that Lemmywings has followed the messenger raven to a large, decaying cathedral in another section of Underbridge. The party quickly arrives at the location and finds a massive, ruined building with broken-out windows but solidly barred doors.

Walking round the structure, the adventurers see that one of the two grand towers has partially collapsed and the roof has several sagging or missing portions. Cracks line the walls of the slightly leaning structure, and the bronze-banded doors at the top of the broad, weed-covered steps are stained green with verdigris. The side and rear doors seem to be in much sturdier condition than the rest of the structure, so Elvisa climbs up the side of the building with rapid jumps and crawls through one of the arching, empty windows. Inside she finds a large hall lined with wooden benches and sagging floor. In a few spots the floor has fallen away to leave a gaping pit that descends into the darkness below. When Elvisa jumps down from the window sill to the wooden floor, an alarming cracking sound is heard and she tumbles away from that section of floor to an area near the outer wall where the wood is more solid. Carefully padding along the perimeter of the hall, she reaches the large front doors and removes the solid wooden beam barring the doors from the inside.

The rest of the party enters, then immediately head up a much more solid-looking staircase to an upper balcony that looks out over the main hall below. The stone floor is solid, but the wooden benches that line the balcony have mostly collapsed into piles of rotting kindling. Looking up, the party can see the underside of the Irespan through gaps where the roof has fallen in. At the far end of the balcony, Garrick pushes open another set of large wooden doors to reveal another empty hall with broken windows looking out onto a row of derelict buildings next to the ruins. A small wooden door is partially hidden under cobwebs in one nook, and Kiria clears the webs away to find the door opens onto a narrow, winding stone staircase that descends as well as ascends. With Garrick chopping through the unnaturally thick webbing with his razor-sharp greatsword Villet, the party climbs to the top where the stairs terminate in another small wooden door.

Kiria cautiously opens the door to find a stone hallway with a relatively solid wooden floor. Ahead the hallway meets another lined with doors, and the party can see a larger room to the right. Exploring further, the adventurers find that this dimly lit room has two sets of large wooden doors on either side, and another small stone passage on the far side. Garrick again pushes open one of the large doors and the party finds a similarly large chamber with wooden doors on the far side. To the left and right the walls frame open archways from which the group can look down upon the soot-stained rooftops of Underbridge. Gusts of wind blow through the hall, sending the collection of rubble and leaves dancing in circles. Returning to the stone hallway near the stairs, the party notes a solid-looking door at the end of the hall. As Garrick strides forward to open the door, Kiria shouts a warning causing him to freeze. Pointing out some suspicious-looking holes in the floor, Kiria explains that it looks like the section in front of the door has been intentionally weakened. Elvisa takes a running jump and easily clears the damaged section of floor, and opens another door next to the one at the end of the hallway. Inside is an empty but filthy storeroom, and what seems to be an enormous, withered spider leg lying on the floor. Throwing a rope back to the rest of the party, the other adventurers climb along the side of the hallway until all are gathered in the storeroom next to the door at the end of the hall. Readying themselves, Kiria throws the door open.

The room beyond is an open chamber with a soaring roof that fills the uncollapsed cathedral tower. The other four walls of the room are essentially open archways overlooking an 80-foot drop to the rubble below. In the center of the room is a familiar-looking pile of silk sheets and cushions, and rising from the center is the enormous lamia matriarch. Garrick immediately goes into a rage and charges with an orcish battle cry, swinging at the creature's large golden trident to try to destroy it, but only strikes a glancing blow. Elvisa dodges and weaves as she enters the room, then quickly moves into the corner out of the reach of the creature. Gob finishes the words to a spell that magically enhances everyone's speed, and Kiria begins singing the words to a stirring battle chant.

The creature hisses and then lunges forward at Garrick with its trident, rapidly piercing his defenses and badly wounding the half-orc. As the trident stabs him again and again, Garrick feels a curious numbness overcoming his mind. Garrick again attempts to destroy the trident but his first attack misses. The creature again stabs Garrick wounding him further, but he takes advantage of the extended trident to again bring Villet down on the shaft with a powerful two-handed blow. This time the blow lands well, and the golden shaft tears apart with a scream of metal. The creature drops the ruined weapon with a stunned expression, and Garrick leaps in to deliver a stinging blow with Villet.

Now that the creature's offense is weakened, Elvisa springs out of the corner to close with the creature and pummel it with a series of kicks and blows, but her attacks have little effect on the evasively dodging foe. Kiria launches a volley of arrows as he continues to sing, but each sails past the creature and through the open arch behind her. Gob chants a spell and with a crack of thunder, a lightning bolt shoots from his hands to wound the snake-woman. She recoils in pain, then reaches out to claw Garrick. Though Garrick isn't badly wounded from the attack, a sudden wave of confusion comes over him and he finds it difficult to concentrate on his battle moves. Hovering on the edge of consciousness, it's all he can do to stay on his feet and keep his defenses up. He manages to launch another series of offensive strikes, further wounding the lamia matriarch.

Next to Garrick, Elvisa tries to distract the creature while the half-orc barbarian's defenses waver. Elvisa feints to one side and manages to slip through its defenses to land a punch on the creature's temple with a loud crack. Stunned, the snake-woman reels and drops her defenses long enough for kiria to hit with a few arrows. Gob casts another spell that sends more magical missiles into the creature, and Garrick is able to focus his attention enough to make a crushing attack with his greatsword, driving his weapon deep into the monster's belly. Shrieking, she drops to the floor and writhes wildly, with blood spewing out to soak the silken sheets and pillows. Standing back until the monster's death throes subside, the party search through the room.

Kiria finds a long scroll hidden under one gore-covered pillow and Gob is able to decipher enough to reveal a long list of names and professions (moneylenders, merchants, gamblers, etc), with many crossed off. The list is titled 'Sihedron Sacrifices', and the party recognizes a few names from the town of Sandpoint - the crossed off names are people who became victims of the serial killer. The most prominent name on the list is Lord Mayor Haldemeer Grobaras, and extensive notes describe his daily habits and schedule.

Discussing the find, the party agree to return to their nearby hotel and get cleaned up before going to meet the Lord Mayor in the Bazaar of Sails to inform him of the assassination plan and the defeat of what seems to be the mastermind behind the recent killings. The party finds him and his entourage as they approach one of the restaurants noted on the scroll and Kiria approaches with the dramatic warning "Sire, we bring news of a planned assassination attempt against yourself!" This of course gets the Lord Mayor's immediate attention, and the party are brought under guard to a private room in the Arvensoar tower to be interrogated.

Telling the story from start to finish, with several flourishes and dramatic enhancements, Kiria shows the mayor's advisers the scroll of names and the cyphertext journal from Justice Ironbriar. The party is released, pending review of the supporting evidence, and Lord Mayor Grobaras visits them before they leave the Arvensoar. He thanks them for foiling the string of serial murders and makes it clear that he expects them to be present at a dinner party he will be throwing at his home the next evening. He sends them back to their townhouse with a group of city guards to be posted around their building.

The next day Kiria takes Elvisa and Garrick shopping to get clothing appropriate for a sophisticated dinner party, and that evening the adventurers are picked up from their townhouse in a beautiful guilded carriage. Arriving at Defiant's Garden, a luxurious estate perched at the top of the Seacleft, the group are surprised by the scale and opulence of the dinner party. The evening passes in a swirl of names and faces, and it seems that almost every council member or merchant lord is present. As the dinner begins, the Lord Mayor stands and gives a short speech, briefly outlining the party's adventures in rooting out the dark shadow of evil blighting the city before mentioning that he is awarding 6,000 pieces of gold to each of the adventurers as a reward for their heroic services to the city.