With the Skinsaw Man defeated, they were able to get the
rest of the evidence, which pointed to an evil Skinsaw Cult based in Magnimar.
They went to Mayor Kendra to present the evidence.
“So, I guess it’s time for you to go to the big city!” the
Mayor said. “I’ll make sure to get you tickets on the next caravan to
Magnimar.”
“But Magnimar must have its own adventurers to deal with the
problems there,” said Valeros.
“Wouldn’t it be better if we just sent them the
evidence and they could deal with it? They probably know the city better. And
Sandpoint still needs our help.”
“That’s the thing. You have been so good at defeating the
evil, that the other adventuring parties in Sandpoint are having trouble
finding more evil to fight. We’ve already had several parties leave the town
for that reason, and we don’t want to be dependent completely on you. Not that
we don’t trust you, but you know how evil can be sneaky sometimes. And I’m sure
you’ll have a great time in Magnimar – plenty of stuff is going on there.”
So they went to Magnimar to investigate the cult. They had
some information to go on – they knew what the skinsaw cultists looked like,
since they all wore the same uniforms. And they had some locations of possible
cult hideouts. On their way, they planned strategy. Harsk would go to the local
sawmill, because there were rumors the cultists had taken it over. Valeros and
Lem would go to the city gates, hoping to talk to the local authorities and see
what was going on. Ezren would go to the academy – he had a knack for finding
spells.
The first thing that Valeros found at the city gate was a
cultist! Under the city gate there were cultists performing a ritual, which
Valeros as able to defeat. He was surprised that the guards hadn’t noticed the
cult right under their noses, so he went up to tell the guards. The guards said
that they knew about the cult, but there was nothing illegal about it. Valeros
wasn’t sure – he wasn’t particularly familiar with Magnimarian law, so he
didn’t know if they were telling the truth, or if they were just saying that
because they were in league with the cultists. He decided to stay to seek out
more information.
Coming on another trip was someone returning from a merchant
expedition – it looked exactly like Aldern Foxglove! The old one, not the one
before he turned into the Skinsaw Man. Thus, Valeros knew that the cult was
using an Aldern Foxglove lookalike to throw people off the trail. Since Valeros
didn’t know who was his friend or not, he didn’t reveal this information just
yet, and played along. A gobln
warchanter attacked the gate, but he was able to defeat it.
Back at the mill, Harsk explored and found none other than
Justice Ironbriar! He asked the justice for help in tracking down the cultists,
but instead the justice attacked him. Fortunately, by using the blessings of
the gods he was able to injure the Justice with a well aimed throwing axe, and
the justice left.
Harsk quickly toke the rest of his party about this. Valeros
confronted the guards at the city gate, and they agreed to help – they said
that if Valeros would take over the bandit-killing duty or a bit, they would
stand guard and make sure that Justice Ironbriar didn’t escape there. Ezren convinced
some of the people at Magnimar Academy to keep an eye out for the villain as
well.
Lem went on his way to the Shrine of Lamahstu, where he saw
a makeshift shrine to Calistria in the corner. Evidently there was some
inter-deity conflict going on here. Lamashtu is the god of monsters, while
Calistrqa is the god of revenge – but most adventurers like her because her
blessing helps with stuff that requires dexterity (and of course Lamashtu never
favors adventurers at all, since adventurers and monsters are enemies.) So Lem
said a prayer at the shrine of Calistria, and felt a mental attack from
Lamashtu – he forgot the sanctuary spell he prepared just in case. So he went
back out of the shrine and rested.
Ezren explored the academy. He found a building that looked
abandoned, so he entered it, because abandoned buildings often have good stuff
in them. That’s kind of surprising if you think about it, because if there’s
good stuff in the building, why would it be abandoned? But the building had
some simple spell scroll in it, an as he approached, he saw this was another
gathering of the Skinsaw cult! The cult had apparently found a way to summon
zombies, and they had just completed the ritual and released a zombie horde.
Valeros killed a zombie, but Lem and Ezren were caught unprepared and had to
flee – Lem using his cape of escape, and Ezren got cornered and had to use his
Sihedron Medallion to protect himself.
Valeros hung out at the city gate more, where he saw a brief
performance by a wandering snake charmer. Harsk joined him, where another
performer came to cheer up the crowd, this time with a dart throwing
performance. He noticed the darts looked magical, and he wanted some. Lem sand
the sond to distract the performer:
Your show is cool,
your show is cool, I’d like to be a part:
Perhaps all the show
needs is one good kick start!
While the performer was listening to Lem, Harsk picked up a
couple of the darts. Then Lem decided to join in the fun and do his own show:
healing. He perched two toads on his shoulders and first demonstrated by
healing himself. Then Harsk stepped up and asked to be healed, and one of Lem’s
toads make a magical croaking sound, capturing the healing energy back again.
He healed Harsk, and he did the same thing to Valeros with his other toad.
“New from your local magic shop: Toad familiars! These
familiars will remind you of all those spells that you forget after you use, to
make sure you won’t ever be without your spell. And it can even help you
explore as well! Disclaimer: Familiar abilities may not function during
encounter. Use of familiar is recommended for preparation prior to encounter.”
Back at the Academy, Ezren was ready to go back in to fight
the cultists. His detect magic spell had told him that the cultists were
preparing their zombie ritual again, so he went in prepared. He had warned the
others at the city gate that zombies would be coming. He went in, and killed
the zombies. While he was looking around, he found some writings – these looked
like divine writings, not arcane. He consulted his codex for information,
looking up the symbols in it. He realized that the symbols were for a spell of
desecration – but it may be possible to reverse the effects, turning it into a
spell of consecration. He called upon Calistria for aid, and was able to figure
out how to create the spell. But it was a fickle spell – probably he would only
get one use out of it. Thus he decided to save it for a later time, where it
may be sorely needed. He soon finished checking out the cultists’ lair, and
found some minor scrolls and trinkets but nothing of much use.
Meanwhile, back at the city gate, the party was going on.
They were having a series of training bouts to practices with different kinds
of weapons, including a glaive. Lem cheered Valeros on as he participated in
the fights, and he won, and got the glaive as a reward. But the celebrations
came to an abrupt halt when more zombies came out of the ground and attacked!
Harsk and Valeros easily killed a few zombies, but Lem was caught off guard. He
had been doing an archery contest with his crossbow and had left it laying
there – and couldn’t find it! He called for help. Valeros rushed over and held
the zombie off, and called upon Gorum to grant Lem strength. Lem got powered up
and was able to defeat the zombie. Ezren was also attacked by a zombie but
killed it with an acid bolt. Lem then took a rest and used his cure spells to
heal himself, because he was exhausted – he gave up lots of his energy to help
the others. Valeros went back into the watchtower at the city gate, where they
gave him a spyglass to help him explore.
Harsk went over to the waterfront to investigate there. The
skinsaw cultists really seemed to be open about what they were doing – a
skinsaw cultist was the first thing he saw! The skinsaw cultist had
commandeered a boat, and Harsk jumped aboard. It was hard to aim his dagger
with the boat rocking in the waves but he was able to do it. He threw the
dagger at the cultist, killing him, then pulled it out and threw it again at
the bandit who had jumped aboard, killing him as well. He searched the boat and
found no signs of any villain.
--
Now things were a little calmer. They had plenty of time,
and only two locations left to explore, so they could take their time and make
sure they got all the good stuff for the next adventure. Harsk moved to the
Shrine and explored there, but had to turn back when faced with a ghost that
his weapons couldn’t harm and a scout that shot him in his crossbow arm before
he could get his shot off. Ezren arrived and helped explore further – he felt a
blast of psychic energy and screeches of a siren, but when he got though it
all, he felt Shelyn’s blessing.
Ezren cast a spell of augury to sensewhat lies beyond. The
shrine was mostly explored, so he could get much information about what was
left. When the divination was complete, he announced:
“I can tell you some good news. There is nothing left of
value in this shrine, so it is okay to close. The villain must have gone to the
Temple. I would recommend that we keep a guard here to ensure that the villain
cannot escape back to here. It would be good if that was Harsk, that he could
also keep watch so he could help at the Temple. I know there are spells in the
Temple, so it would be good if I was one of those to go to the Temple to get
spells.”
There was plenty of time left now. They had plenty of time
to explore the Temple and get some stuff – some blessings and a couple weapons,
and then finally corner Justice Ironbriar and bring him to, well, justice.
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