Werewolves Arc

== Arc Summary==

Session 15

 * Google Document (6-21-2019)

Now that the barghest is gone, Kilwin heals Reides and Marcyra’s injuries. The sun moves behind some clouds and the air starts to get colder. While everyone is eager to leave the site of the barghest’s disappearance behind, Kilwin wants to bury the quickling. Reides and Erak help him (although Erak isn’t necessarily happy to do it), while Marcyra very convincingly pretends to help. After half an hour, the quickling is buried and the party moves on.

As the party continues, the forest grows thicker and a heavy storm rolls in. Because it’s probably dangerous to keep going, the party looks for shelter. Erak and Kilwin find a particularly gnarled tree that’s hollowed out but still sturdy at the base, and large enough for the party to fit inside. The party climbs inside. Erak volunteers to be selfless and stay closest to the opening where he’ll still get rained on, but Reides does that actually because he likes the water (although he could do without the wind). The party also notices that Slumberjack wandered off at some point and is no longer with the party. Kilwin and Reides are worried about them, but Marcyra is a little relieved and Erak is pretty sure they’re the best equipped to deal with things on their own out of the party. Reides casts Light inside the tree so that he and Kilwin can see and the party hears a lot of things flying away from the tree. We split up the watch order and try to sleep.

Reides has first watch and while he has his Light spell, the darkness reminds him of the deep ocean. The Light spell ends a while into Marcyra’s watch, but she can still see because of her darkvision. When Marcyra wakes Kilwin up, he fumbles in the dark for a while before casting his own Light spell. The sound of the rain reminds him of a hymn he knows and he spaces out a little bit, but his watch passes uneventfully until it’s time to wake up Erak. Erak is out cold, so Kilwin decides to let him sleep a little longer and continue keeping watch for now. Kilwin hears an occasional wing flap and soon sees a tiny creature near the entrance. He has no idea what it is, but it vaguely resembles a bat, except it has what looks like a beak. It stares at him for a moment, and then flies away. Kilwin just thinks that was weird, until he hears a LOT of wings flapping toward the tree. He tries to wake up the rest of the party and explain that there’s a lot of strange creatures coming to the tree and he’s not sure they’re friendly. They’re really groggy though, so Kilwin leaves the tree by himself and sees one of the creatures outside (we never figured out what they are IC, but they’re stirges). Genuinely completely unsure what it is, Kilwin tries talking to it normally and greets it and apologizes for using the tree without asking, assuming that this is where the stirge lives. It immediately flies at Kilwin and sticks its proboscis through a gap in his chainmail and starts sucking his blood. Kilwin announces that the creature is, in fact, not friendly!

Reides makes his way out of the tree and sees the stirge stuck to Kilwin. He stabs it with his dagger and it falls to the ground dead, but not before splattering Reides and Kilwin with blood. It’s nasty! Kilwin looks around for more creatures, and he finds seven hovering nearby. He misses one with Sacred Flame, but swats it down with Spiritual Weapon. Erak tries to lure some of them away with a meat chunk, which distracts two of them for most of the fight. Erak, Kilwin, and Reides all get stirges on them and they hate it. Marcyra pulls one off Reides and throws it on the ground in disgust. The ones still attached to Erak and Kilwin keep drinking their blood. Marcyra also tries to pull one off Kilwin, but the one that she dislodged from Reides attaches itself to her, so she ends up just pulling that one off instead. The stirges squash pretty easily though, so the party manages to thin out the swarm (s/o to Magic Missile) and Erak skewers the last one to the meat chunk. It was a bad experience! Marcyra spots a small cave opening a ways away from the tree and suggests the creatures might live there. Kilwin goes to look at the cave (despite everyone begging him not to do that), but it’s too far away from the light at the tree, so he can’t really see anything. Reides studies one of the creatures: It seems to have pincers on its legs that it uses to get a better grip on people while it sucks their blood with its proboscis. The pincers fill with blood as it drinks.

The storm is still too heavy to move on, so the party returns to the shelter of the tree, missing some extra blood and thoroughly grossed out. Erak finishes his own watch, and the rest of the night passes uneventfully. In the morning, the party notices several large spiderwebs around the tree. Reides examines one and realizes that a regular spider couldn’t have made them, since the web is way too thick. His quill pokes the web and, while the web is a bit sticky, nothing happens. We decide not to stick around to meet the big spiders, and get going again!

After several more days of travel, with the forest getting thicker and the trail becoming difficult to find, we reach Vilais Watch. The town has a light wooden wall around it and two guards standing in front of the gate. Kilwin approaches the guards and introduces the party as travelers and ask if they can enter the town. One of the guards says they have enough problems without adding drow into the mix, which makes everyone mad. Marcyra asks if tieflings are okay, which tips off the guard that she’s a tiefling and he doesn’t like that either. Reides asks the guard to do him, but the guard doesn’t know what Reides is. The other guard apologizes for his partner being a jerk and explains that there was an attack in the town the night before and that the town is closed while they try to determine who’s responsible. Since the party is from outside the town, they definitely didn’t do it, so the second guard is willing to let them in if they’ll help get to the bottom of this. He mentions that we can’t be worse than the guy currently in charge of the investigation. He tells us that we’ll need the mayor’s permission to help, but writes us a letter that explains the situation, which Marcyra takes. He tells us that the mayor can be found at his manor, which is the only two-story building in town. We enter Vilais Watch and the gates close behind us.

On the way to the mayoral manor, the people of Vilais Watch look at us from their windows (but they don’t stay long enough to see Reides waving at them) and some guards try to stop us but let us go when they see the letter. At the manor, a blonde woman dressed as a maid answers the door and asks our business. Kilwin explains the situation to her, and she offers us some tea while she fetches Mayor Irwin. The mayor is a shorter human man with a wiry black mustache. He asks us to be careful with his tea set because it’s extremely expensive and fancy. Reides hates it, while Marcyra sticks her pinky out as a goof. Erak takes the teapot and starts chugging from it, so the mayor asks the maid (Meredith) to take it away from him. Mayor Irwin agrees to let us help with the investigation and reads the town guard’s writeup of the incident to us. The attack happened last night before midnight, when the neighbors heard a loud crash that was likely the victim’s door being broken down. The victim was a wealthy butcher named Bertram Rhastur. His body was partially consumed, with bite and claw marks all over, so the killer might have had long nails. Bertram’s wife survived the attack because she was at a friend’s house at the time of the attack. The mayor tells us that we’ll need to be accompanied by Grinlief Dartson at the scene of the crime, since he’s a trusted confidant and in charge of the investigation. Marcyra asks if this is the incompetent guy the guards at the gate were talking about, but Irwin doesn’t think this is possible, since Grinlief graduated from a prestigious law school in Falas. Marcyra is still verbally going to town on the guards and the mayor, much to his confusion, so Kilwin explains that one of the guards out front had some rude comments about drow and tieflings and that’s why she’s mad. The mayor apologizes but points out that they’re probably jumpy about drow surface raiders, even though Vilais Watch has been pretty safe from them. Erak doesn’t say much, but he understandably doesn’t seem to like it. The mayor writes a letter of approval for us to investigate the scene, and also suggests we visit Castel’s Everything Store if we want supplies or the Dark Oak Tavern if we’re planning to stay the night. Marcyra and Erak want to know how much we’re being paid. The mayor offers us 100 gold, but we haggle him up to 100 gold for each of us. He’s good for it! Erak also requests free lodging, but the mayor says we’ll need to work that out with the Vizinis at the tavern.

We make our way to Bertram’s house, which is generally well-constructed but currently missing its front door. We find the splintered remains of the door, covered in claw marks, inside the front hallway. In the parlor, we find most of the furniture smashed and a body partially covered up by a blanket. We also find a brown-haired man wearing a feathery hat, ill-fitting expensive clothes, and a monocle. He examines the party and determines that Erak must be a miner because he’s covered in soot, Reides has just come back from swimming because he’s blue and his hair is covered in seaweed, Kilwin must be a new guard because he’s wearing heavy armor, and Marcyra is clearly a fortuneteller judging from how she’s dressed. He introduces himself as Grinlief Dartson and he’s never failed to solve a case before, because this is his first one. He’s not planning to start though! Marcyra takes the blanket off the body and sees that most of Bertram’s abdomen is missing and that he’s covered in bite and claw marks. Grinlief shares his theory that, in pursuit of the most delicious and forbidden food, Bertram resorted to self-cannibalism and did this to himself. No one thinks this theory is especially plausible, but Reides asks how Bertram could have eaten himself if he doesn’t have anything stuck in his teeth. Grinlief says he brushed them, and when pressed on how he did that when he was dead, says it was magic. When Kilwin points out that magic doesn’t generally work like that, Grinlief asks what he knows about magic since he’s just a regular town guard. More or less ignoring Grinlief at this point, Kilwin examines the body and while he can’t recognize the source of Bertram’s wounds for certain, they seem familiar to him. Reides also examines the body and figures out that the bite and claw marks are canine. Marcyra wonders aloud if there’s wild animals in Vilais Watch, but when Grinlief asks if she’s talking to him, she makes it a point that she’s not. Reides steps outside to ask one of the guards, who tells him that there haven’t been any problems with wolves in Vilais Watch since the wall went up and there’s not a lot of dogs, but we might want to ask the innkeeper about it. Reides tries to give him a pat on the shoulder, but the guard stops him, saying he’s had a long day. Reides apologizes and hopes his day improves!

Back inside the house, Reides and Marcyra manage to track the path of the struggle. Bertram was either already in the parlor or ran to it immediately after the front door was broken down. Bertram was pushed out of a chair and knocked a vase over. He managed to run for a bit, but tripped and fell before he was killed. Marcyra also notices scratches on the floorboards that remind her of some of the dogs she’s kept in her house, as well as a single black hair (definitely not Bertram’s), which Reides manages to identify as a human’s. Reides has read about werewolves before, but doesn’t know a lot about them other than that they might exist. He asks Erak about them, since Erak told that story about being transformed into a wolf, but Erak doesn’t know a thing about them. While the party is discussing the hair, Marcyra looks behind her to check Grinlief’s hair color and sees that he’s hovering right behind her. She plucks out one of his hairs, which makes him very upset and he runs out to tell the guards that she was mean. One of the guards comes in and asks if she pulled a hair off Grinlief and she says she didn’t, and the guard really doesn’t care enough to do more than tell her not to do that. Marcyra decides to keep the mystery hair inside her book for safekeeping.

Kilwin examines the body again to look for wounds other than the bite and claw marks. He doesn’t find any, but does determine that the cause of death was a bite to the carotid artery. Before we leave the crime scene, Grinlief offers us his list of suspects (of people who might have convinced Bertram to eat himself). There’s the widow, who potentially wanted out of the marriage and would inherit Bertram’s money. She has an alibi at the time of the murder, but Grinlief said none of her friends would confirm it. There’s Grado Faust, a lumberjack who was spotted near the house around the time of the murder, and also Pat Kiyaekki, a baker who was having trouble staying in business due to Bertram’s aggressive business practices. Grinlief also tells us that he was in law school for a year and was let out early because he was advanced. He also mentions that his father donated a whole wing to the school. He offers to show Erak his diploma, and Reides asks to see it. As far as Reides can tell, it’s a legitimate diploma from St. Vashreen’s Law Academy, although he hasn’t heard of the school to know if it’s a real place. Reides is surprised but congratulates him! Kilwin asks where Bertram’s widow is staying, but Grinlief doesn’t remember off the top of his head and suggests asking one of the guards, since he’s delegated the task of keeping track of persons of interest. One of the guards tells us that the widow is staying with a woman named Lily on the other side of town. He complains about having to listen to Grinlief all day and we commiserate, even though he’ll probably have to deal with Grinlief a lot longer than we will.

We make our way to the inn on the west side of town. Inside, it’s a lot warmer since it’s actually pretty cold outside! A woman with long black hair (presumably Mrs. Vizini) greets us and offers us some free mead. She also calls for her husband, a burly man with similar hair, who gives us a very impressive inn spiel. Kilwin says that we’d like to stay the night but he has some questions about the town first. He asks if anyone has a dog in town, and Mrs. Vizini mentions that Castel has a dog, but doesn’t know why Kilwin is asking. He also asks where to find a baker (not far from the inn, just a few blocks down the road) and a lumberjack (Grado is on the south side of town). Kilwin begins to realize he’s a fool and is spilling the details of the investigation to someone who might be the culprit, but Reides covers for him and explains that Kilwin is asking weird questions because he’s new in town and likes to have his bases covered. Never know when you’ll need a lumberjack! Reides asks if there’s a doctor in town to cover Kilwin’s tracks, since even though Kilwin is wearing a symbol of Alethus and is clearly a healer, Kilwin might get hurt! Mrs. Vizini tells him that there’s Niko, an older man who lives on the north side of town.

The Vizinis ask if we want to work out payment now or if we want to wait until we’re ready to settle in for the night. Marcyra lies and says the mayor agreed to pay for our lodgings, which surprises the Vizinis but they believe her. (Kilwin resists the urge to tell on her.) Reides asks if they have whiskey, so Erak buys everyone a round of it. Reides really enjoys it since it’s one of the first drinks he had on the surface and he thinks it might even be the same type. Everyone but Kilwin gets a little tipsy off the whiskey. Mr. Vizini observes that we are a bunch of lightweights. Erak and Reides decide to do a little dancing! Erak twirls Reides around and Reides keeps up perfectly, it’s extremely impressive.

Miscellaneous Murder Notes for Next Time:


 * We can pretty safely rule out Grinlief and Meredith since neither of them has black hair. Mayor Irwin and the Vizinis do, so they’re on the suspect list, and we’ll have to keep an eye out for Pat, Grado, the widow, Castel, Lily, and anyone else.
 * Kilwin needs to stock up on supplies anyway so he’s a good pick to check on Castel and his dog (also Kilwin would just like to meet the dog)
 * Even if Grinlief’s suspect list is totally off, the widow can probably tell us more about Bertram and we can try to figure out if the attack was targeted or random, and Grado might have seen something if he was nearby at the time of the murder
 * When we meet with the widow, we should probably also ask Lily about her take on Bertram and try to figure out why Grinlief said none of the widow’s friends would confirm her alibi
 * The mayor is the only person who seems to think Grinlief is competent - maybe he just didn’t talk to the guy for five seconds BUT he might also be counting on Grinlief fucking everything up if he’s responsible or covering up for someone else
 * FLIP SIDE, Grinlief is actually super competent and he’s just fucking with everyone to try to lull the killer into a sense of complacency (Note: I do not actually think this.)
 * Either way, if/when we come to a different conclusion than whatever Grinlief tells the mayor, we might have to convince him that we’re the better detectives somehow, unless this ends in a werewolf fight or Grinlief just takes the credit for what we did
 * Also the murder mystery track could end up being completely wrong and it could just be the barghest- we might want to keep an ear out for talk of a goblin passing through
 * Wolves were enough of a problem at some point that the town built a wall to keep them out- could be normal wolf stuff, but we might want to try to find out more about that

Session 16

 * Google Document (6-29-2019)

Before going to bed for the night, Kilwin takes a little walk! He walks about 30 minutes away from the tavern, noting that the buildings are mostly constructed from wood and it’s possible for someone to climb the wall, but whether or not they got caught would depend on where they tried to do it. On his way back, he casts Detect Evil and Good three times, but doesn’t turn up anything.

In the morning, someone knocks on Kilwin’s door at the inn: It’s Grinlief, looking disheveled, along with Slumberjack. Grinlief tells Kilwin not to worry about the murder anymore since he found the culprit! Kilwin attempts to explain that he knows Slumberjack and that he’s sure they didn’t do it, but Grinlief insists that, because he saw them climbing the wall into Vilais Watch. When Kilwin points out that they wouldn’t be sneaking into the town if they had killed Bertram, Grinlief insists that they were returning to the scene of the crime. Slumberjack tries to deny it was them, but Grinlief says his monocle is enchanted to give him 120 ft. of darkvision, so he could clearly recognize them. Kilwin says he has an idea that can prove Slumberjack’s innocence and casts Zone of Truth on himself, Slumberjack, Grinlief, and Erak who happens to be passing by. Kilwin and Slumberjack are bound to tell only the truth, while Grinlief and Erak are unaffected, which Kilwin explains to Grinlief. Kilwin asks Slumberjack if they killed Bertram and they say they didn’t, which is good enough for him! Grinlief has more questions though and asks Slumberjack if they’ve ever killed an innocent. They say they haven’t because they truly don’t consider anyone they’ve killed innocent. Grinlief asks Kilwin if he trusts Slumberjack (he calls them a “dark one,” which makes them mad and they insult his fashion sense some more). Kilwin says he does, but admits that he doesn’t agree with everything Slumberjack does. Grinlief asks for more details, and Kilwin mentions that they get into barfights sometimes. Grinlief asks if they get into barfights a lot, but Kilwin has just been involved with one! Grinlief also asks if Slumberjack wins these fights, and Slumberjack is forced to admit that they can’t all be winners! Slumberjack also explains that they snuck into the village in the middle of the night because they didn’t want to wait to have their papers processed. Grinlief also asks Slumberjack if they think murder can ever be justified, and they say that they think it can be more merciful to end someone’s suffering. This strikes a chord with Grinlief and he says that Slumberjack’s reasoning would have helped a lot of people during the Memory Plague. Satisfied with Slumberjack and Kilwin’s answers to his questions (and admitting that he wishes he had some of that truth magic!), Grinlief agrees to let Slumberjack go and leaves the inn. Slumberjack pulls Kilwin to the side and tells him to give them a heads up the next time he casts Zone of Truth so they can stop themself from talking by any means possible. Kilwin apologizes because he was already pretty sure that Slumberjack values their privacy, but he didn’t see another way to convince Grinlief that Slumberjack was innocent. He agrees not to do it again! Slumberjack slaps Kilwin on the back a little too hard (they’re still a little shaken), and they go to meet up with the rest of the party.

The party catches Slumberjack up on the investigation so far. They suggest that Bertram might have been the victim of some kind of ritualized murder and also the walls might have been put up to keep something in. Marcyra jokes that Bertram’s murder might have been retribution for an unpaid debt, which horrifies Kilwin until she tells him she was kidding. Slumberjack also brings up that we should check when the full moon was in terms of the werewolf theory. Kilwin didn’t happen to notice the moon on his walk.

Natasha Vizini comes out to check on us. After realizing none of us know anything about the Memory Plague that Grinlief mentioned, we decide to ask her. She explains that it happened many years ago and wiped out half of a village on the other side of the continent. She says that a scholar might be able to tell us more. She’s also pretty sure the moon wasn’t full last night, but isn’t totally sure. Slumberjack also asks her if there’s any temples in town. Natasha tells them that there’s not, but that there is a small shrine with altars for each of the main gods of the pantheon. Slumberjack asks for directions. They decide to go there, and the rest of the party decides to go talk with Bertram’s widow. Slumberjack is actually very excited to be going alone and rushes out of the tavern as Kilwin tells them to stay safe.

At the shrine, Slumberjack goes to the smallest altar, which is the one left empty out of respect for the God of Death. They ready a mystery item and their remaining handaxe. They take off their gloves and use the handaxe to cut their hands before placing them on the altar and chanting in a mysterious language, defiling it. While the altar is in an open space and there are bystanders, they manage to conceal their actions well and don’t draw attention to themself.

At Lily’s house, Kilwin knocks on the door and a nondescript blonde woman answers. Kilwin asks if Bertram’s widow is staying there and she tells us the widow’s name is Letho. Letho has been grieving heavily and Lily assumes that, as a cleric of Alethus, Kilwin is there to attempt to comfort her. She also assumes that the rest of the party is staying outside. With some encouragement from Marcyra and Reides, Kilwin goes into the house alone and upstairs to the room where Letho is staying. From outside, Kilwin can hear the faint sound of talking or crying. Lily is pretty sure she’ll get in Kilwin’s way, so he goes into the room alone. Letho Rhastur is a young woman (notably younger than her husband), with green eyes, wearing a dark mourning veil and makeup that’s been heavily smudged. At first, she speaks in a soft, broken voice. Kilwin tries to give her a Condolences talk. She asks if her friend is coming in, and after Kilwin explains that she’s not, Letho’s voice goes back to normal and she starts cleaning the makeup off her face. Kilwin is shocked, but openly admits this makes things easier for him! He explains that he’s trying to help figure out who killed Bertram. Letho, however, is much more interested in leaving town and agrees to help the party if they’ll help her sneak out of town. Kilwin admits that she’s under suspicion and asks her to take her veil off. She asks if he’s coming on to her, and Kilwin is mortified because he’s not. He explains about the hair at the crime scene and she throws her veil on the floor, revealing that she has red hair. Kilwin tells her that he knows she didn’t do it and asks if Bertram had any enemies. She comments that he must be new to town and says that Pat is the only one who comes to mind. When Kilwin mentions that Grado is also a suspect, she dismisses the idea totally and says he definitely didn’t kill anyone. Kilwin asks if Letho was with Grado on the night of the murder, and she acts fake shocked that he’d accuse her of cheating on her beloved husband. Kilwin says he wouldn’t judge, but he can’t quite bring himself to directly ask if she was having an affair. Letho rejects Kilwin’s offer of the party accompanying her to Falas because she wants to go immediately. He thinks it’s a really bad idea to sneak Letho out of town before the murder is solved! She wants to not be trapped in the town or stuck enduring everyone’s pity, and she thinks the investigation will take too long, especially since she’s not impressed with Kilwin’s investigative skills. She asks him to leave.

Outside, Kilwin tells the party how it went! He deliberately leaves out the part where Letho asked if he was hitting on her though, because he’s embarrassed about it. Marcyra points out that people can change their hair color, much to Kilwin’s dismay. Marcyra asks Kilwin and Reides to cover their ears before floating her plan to lie to Letho and say we’ll help her to get out of Vilais Watch to get her help, and then we just don’t help her. Erak thinks that sounds like an okay idea! Kilwin hears most of what Marcyra said, even though his ears were covered, and doesn’t like the idea! Reides doesn’t think that we should sneak Letho out, but he does sympathize with her and doesn’t think that wanting to leave means she did anything wrong. The party meets up with Slumberjack, who thinks Letho is still really suspicious, but the party agrees to go to Grado’s house next.

Grado’s house is a humble, rundown shack on the south side of town. Slumberjack goes to the back of shack in case Grado tries to make a run for it, and Reides knocks on the front door. Several minutes pass with no answer. One of Grado’s neighbors leaves their house, and Kilwin stops them to ask where Grado is. They admit they don’t pay much attention to him, and that their first interaction with Grado was bringing him a mincemeat pie from Bertram’s, which he took before going back in his house without saying a word. After a little more waiting, Slumberjack announces from the back of the shack that it’s clearly empty and Grado isn’t home. Before Marcyra can get her thieves’ tools, or Erak can get his crowbar, or Kilwin can say “Let’s come back later then,” Slumberjack kicks the back door down. Almost immediately, a man in guard’s armor finds us and asks what we’re doing. Slumberjack manages to start out somewhat convincing, explaining that we found the door like that and we’re concerned bypassers (who also have the mayor’s permission to investigate Bertram’s murder) trying to find out what happened, but they keep talking and the guard gets suspicious again. He’s willing to let the rest of the party go after seeing the mayor’s letter, but insists on arresting Slumberjack. With some magical help from Marcyra, Erak manages to intimidate the guard into leaving without taking Slumberjack with him, although he does confiscate our letter from the mayor to verify it.

Kilwin kind of just wants to sit down after that encounter, but Erak wants everyone to go in, so Reides offers to hold Kilwin’s hand while they’re inside. As far as the party can tell, it looks like a normal hut. They find Grado’s axe, but it’s clean. Marcyra looks under the bed and in the nightstand, but doesn’t find anything notable. With that, the party leaves for Castel’s Anything Store, since Kilwin and Marcyra really need rations and we have a dog to meet.

Castel’s Anything Store is full of junk, including toys and old swords. As the party enters, a rusty bell over the entrance calls a man with a ragged top hat and greasy black hair. That’s Castel! Kilwin asks if he has any rations, but he only has five. Before Kilwin can buy them, Slumberjack grabs all of them, purchases them, and steps outside to try one and make sure it isn’t human flesh. They’re regular rations, if a little stale! Slumberjack comes back inside and gives the remaining four rations to Kilwin, leaving Marcyra with two total for the 6-day journey to Falas. She pretends she’s not nervous! Kilwin says they’ll figure something out! Kilwin asks Castel if we can meet his dog, who turns out to be a black cat named Shadow. Apparently, because Shadow acts like a dog, people just say he’s a dog all the time. Marcyra and Kilwin love the kitty. We confirm with Castel (who has astronomy stuff) that the next full moon is in 3 days on Firstlight 15 (which happens to be the day before Reides’s birthday). Reides buys a toy boat and Erak buys a Qbby toy and pays double the price for it for luck. Marcyra casts Detect Magic on Castel’s collection. Castel comments that she must be a wizard or something and that he used to do magic, but now he prefers swords. Slumberjack agrees that swords are the best and asks to see his collection. They also browse the collection for cult-related items and find some, but they seem to just be part of the collection. They also notice that there’s somehow no dust in the store. Slumberjack browses Castel’s collection and asks for a sword with a bone handle. They also discuss ritual sacrifice stuff with him, which he seems pretty comfortable with. Slumberjack ends up buying a sword that they name Bonehilda, along with a small dagger. In her part of the store, Marcyra finds a Potion of Healing, a spell scroll that no one in the party can read (left behind by a bard, according to Castel), and a bag that Castel explains is a Bag of Holding. It can hold up to 500 lbs, but weighs 15 lbs regardless of how much its holding. Castel is willing to sell the bag for 400 gold, which is too steep for most of the party, although Castel is also willing to give us the bag as payment if we take care of some spiders nearby after the town opens again. Slumberjack offers to buy the bag and have the rest of the party owe them a blood debt, but we decide to tell Castel we’ll consider taking the job. Marcyra and Slumberjack want to put Letho in the bag (even though there’s no air inside and they know that) to “get her out of the city” for some reason, but Kilwin strongly objects to all suggestions of using the bag on people except Reides’s suggestion of sticking Tyrian in there.

Next, we visit Pat, the baker. His shop is a plain little place with no one inside but Pat himself, a muscular blonde man with lots of scars. Kilwin asks if he sells rations on Marcyra’s behalf, and technically he doesn’t, but he offers to make some bread packs that will serve the same purpose. Marcyra stocks up, and Kilwin and Reides also buy some bread for the road. Pat seems to like us! We ask him about Bertram and Pat is openly not upset about his death. Bertram almost ran Pat out of town several times, which is weird since they’re not in the same business. He doesn’t think many people disliked Bertram, though, since he brought money into the town. He tells us that he was at Castel’s at the time of the murder. We also ask about Grado and Pat tells us he was at Castel’s earlier. We make a quick stop back at Castel’s, where Castel confirms that he was hanging out with Pat when the murder happened, as he often does, and that Grado was in his store about an hour ago and might be home now.

We head back to Grado’s house, where our actions have consequences. Grado is a toned man with black hair and he’s standing in front of his house, distraught. He’s worried about how his house was broken into, but nothing is missing and nothing’s been moved around. He doesn’t know how to fix the door! He figures out that the party is the group that the guard mentions found his house like this. Kilwin tries to ask him about the night of the murder, but at first, Grado gets worried that there was somehow a murder at his house that was broken into today. Once that’s figured out, Grado says he didn’t see or hear anything on the night of the murder and that he wasn’t all that close to the house. Kilwin takes Grado aside and attempts to convince him to provide Letho with an alibi, but it’s an absolute disaster and Grado deflects him really easily. Kilwin’s not sure if Grado really believes that Letho loved her husband! Reides enters the conversation and very loudly accuses Grado of kissing Letho and that they were kissing at the time of the murder. Grado admits it! He picked her up to her to his house! Kilwin asks when this was, and it was about an hour before the murder happened. As it turns out, Grado didn’t know Bertram very well, since he was worried that he’d get killed if Bertram figured out that Letho was having an affair with him. He and Letho also tended not to talk about him much.

With all of the obvious suspects having alibis and no obvious next step, Kilwin suggests going to check in with Grinlief. He thinks Grinlief should probably be kept in the loop on what we’ve found out and also that he might have some ideas, even if we end up doing the opposite of what he suggests. After some searching, we find Grinlief’s investigative shop, which has an eye symbol on the door and fancy lanterns out front. We find Grinlief sitting with his feet on his desk, quickly leafing through a copy of Sleuthing for Slobs. He starts to say some dramatic detective thing, but stops once he realizes it’s the party and quickly puts his book down. We tell him all his suspects have alibis! He says they must not be suspects then!

Mystery Notes

What We’ve Found Out


 * Letho has red hair, and Lily and Pat both have blonde hair- barring magic or hair dye, they couldn’t have left the hair we found- the possible hair-droppers are Mayor Irwin, Natasha, Mr. Vizini, Grado, Castel, and Shadow (not human But You Never Know)
 * Letho and Grado are each other’s alibis (which also explains why Letho’s friends couldn’t confirm her alibi and also why Grado was near the Rhastur house on the night of the murder)- he also said he picked her up about an hour before the time of the murder without us telling him when it happened
 * Pat and Castel are also each other’s alibis- unless Castel’s Anything Shop is a 24-hour store, this would have to be after the store was closed

Possible Avenues of Inquiry


 * We do have two double alibis where one person could have left the hair and the other has a solid motive (Grado-Letho and Castel-Pat)- either of them could have coordinated it so the one with the motive provided the alibi while their partner in crime did the actual murder
 * Does Castel’s Anything Shop carry hair dye?
 * Shadow is pretty weird and we didn’t look into him much- checking the floor in Castel’s Anything Shop for scratches like the ones Marcyra found in Bertram’s house might be a good idea
 * We forgot to ask more questions about the walls and the wolf problems- Grinlief, the mayor, or Natasha might be good people to ask about it
 * We can also try asking Grinlief how long he’s been in town- I’m under the impression that he hasn’t been for long, but he might have some insight into how people in town get along with each other- Otherwise we can ask the Vizinis about Bertram’s social life?
 * Getting Bertram’s money is part of Letho’s proposed motive, but she seemed eager to leave town immediately- could she take the money with her? (Not that there aren’t other valid reasons for her to want Bertram dead)
 * Erak can talk to Shadow, holy shit, I can’t believe how long it took me to realize that

Grinlief Tangent


 * Also even tho Kilwin told Slumberjack that Grinlief’s not a good listener (and generally he hasn’t been), he WAS paying enough attention that he knows Kilwin is a cleric and not a town guard after our first meeting with him (Kilwin did tell him directly tho, so that’s a really low bar to clear)
 * I could definitely be wrong about Multiple Parts of this, but Grinlief sounded like his experience with the Memory Plague was at least somewhat personal- he probably knows more about it than Natasha does, but also she made it sound like it was a long time ago, which seems at odds with Grinlief appearing to be in his early 20s- maybe it wasn’t all that long ago tho
 * Re: The Memory Plague, Cody did have to invent a doctor in Vilais Watch last session, so Niko might be worth a visit if we decide we want to follow up on this Lore

Session 17

 * Google Document (7-5-2019) (HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLEE)

On the way to Grinlief’s office, the party passes by a commotion in the town square. After realizing that Erak has wandered off somewhere, we go to investigate and hope that no one else got murdered. The party discovers that the shrine to the God of Death has been defiled with a strange symbol written in blood. Nothing else appears to be wrong other than the blood symbol, which Reides copies into his journal. Kilwin is appalled by this, but is willing to let the town guard take this one if it’s not related to Bertram’s murder, although he wants to help however he can. Slumberjack is pretty sure it’s not connected to the murder (because they did it) and tries to get the party to move on.

After arriving at Grinlief’s office, Reides asks what he’s reading. Grinlief explains it’s a mystery novel and when Reides asks if he can look at it, Grinlief says it was a gift from his teacher and it’s very dear to him, so he puts it back in his desk. Marcyra asks him if there’s any priests in town, but Grinlief doesn’t think so. The shrines are mostly maintained by guards, typically new ones who get assigned duties no one else wants. (Kilwin is sad to hear this.) Kilwin tries to offer his services as a cleric to help with the defiled shrine if he’s needed. Kilwin fails to talk normally though, leading Grinlief to conclude that Alethus has the last name Clericof. Kilwin can’t tell if he’s joking. He also tries to tell Grinlief that everyone has an alibi that was confirmed by someone else, so Grinlief insists that his initial theory of the crime was correct and he solved it. Slumberjack is a little confused by this, so Kilwin explains that Grinlief’s theory is that Bertram ate himself and used magic to brush his teeth after he was dead. Slumberjack starts mocking Grinlief’s bad theory while Grinlief continues to defend it and Kilwin has the horrifying realization that it’s what Grinlief genuinely believes. Grinlief also says he doesn’t really investigate religious crimes and specializes in murder when he’s asked about the shrine. Kilwin tries to figure out if Grinlief would know absolutely anything about anyone in town and asks how long he’s been here. Grinlief says he doesn’t get out much because he’s busy with work (even though we question how much murder happens in Vilais Watch), but that he’s been here for a few months. As we start leaving so we can actually discuss the murder, Grinlief tells us that there’s a new suspect. Someone else tried to break into the town and is being held in the closest thing Vilais Watch has to a jail, which is some cages by the mayor’s manor. We say we’ll check it out!

We go to meet the new suspect and find Jorah and Julius locked in a cage. Jorah immediately asks us what we did to put this town so on edge, but we promise him it wasn’t us! We briefly explain the situation to him, including the fact that Grinlief is in charge of the investigation and not very good at it. Kilwin is sure he has to be good at something though! Marcyra wants to pick the lock to get Jorah out, but the rest of us think that should probably be Plan C. Jorah manages to call a guard over and Kilwin tries to explain that Jorah is with the party and couldn’t have done the murder and asks if he can be let out. The guard thinks for a moment before concluding that Grinlief was the one who put Jorah in the cage, so it’s probably fine to let him out, no questions asked. We realize that Jorah still has all his stuff on him thankfully, and head over to the tavern to get Jorah some food and make sure he has a place to sleep for the night. We also figure that we can ask the Vizinis if Bertram had any friends who might be able to shed some light on what happened.

As soon as we enter the tavern, it starts pouring rain and thundering. Kilwin hopes Erak is safe out there! Reides really enjoys the rain though. There’s a few people hanging around the tavern and Reides yells, asking if anyone was friends with Bertram. People turn to look at him for a bit, but no one really responds. Kilwin goes to ask Natasha (with Marcyra closely following him because she doesn’t trust him with the question-asking anymore.) Bertram did visit the tavern from time to time, but Natasha doesn’t recall him socializing with anyone except the mayor, who generally talked business with him. We fill Jorah in on more of the murder details, and he asks to see the hair we collected from the crime scene. He lets Julius sniff it and asks her to find the person it came from. At first, Julius seems to get something, but she gets distracted by the smell of someone’s food and Jorah has to pull her back before she starts eating it. We bring up the werewolf theory and ask Jorah if he knows anything about werewolves. He knows that they can eat people, can regenerate, and are weak to silver. He also knows that they don’t require a full moon to transform. Kilwin points out that this puts the werewolf theory back on the table, since we found out that the full moon is on the 15th. Reides realizes that it’s close to Firstlight 16, which is his birthday! He says he usually forgets about it, but he’s pretty sure he’s turning 30. He doesn’t keep careful track though, and mentions that he’d usually sneak out of his birthday parties at home. Marcyra is impressed!

The party briefly discusses the defilement of the shrine, which Slumberjack is begging us all to let go. We consider letting Julius sniff around both crime scenes, although the rain would have washed away the evidence at the shrine. It’s still an option for investigating Bertram’s house, though. Jorah wonders about getting a room for the night, and Kilwin lets him know how Marcyra lied about the mayor agreeing to pay for the rooms. Jorah isn’t really comfortable with that (and neither is Kilwin honestly), so he goes to ask Natasha. He gets a room for five silver and Natasha pets Julius, who starts barking. Jorah gets a little suspicious! As Natasha brings Jorah his food, he asks her about the lockdown. Natasha admits it’s unusual, but says the mayor ordered it because of his close dealings with Bertram. Kilwin gets the feeling that Natasha being sad about Bertram might be a little performative. Jorah asks Natasha if she’s seen the crime scene, which she denies, but Jorah notices she’s sweating and not making eye contact. He uses Detect Poison and Disease on his food, which comes up clean. Natasha notices and Jorah tries to play it off by saying he’s had a bad experience before and can’t help himself. Natasha tries to reassure him before hurrying away to discuss potential new business models with her husband. After she’s gone, Jorah tells us that she was lying and that she either did it or was involved. He also suggests that they might be planning on running. Kilwin and Reides go around to the back of the tavern and find a backdoor, but no footprints in the mud. The backdoor creaks open and Natasha peeks out and looks around before noticing Kilwin and Reides. She says she was just looking for firewood, so Kilwin finds the pile and hands her some, which she immediately hands off to Vladimir, her husband, before going back inside. Kilwin gets the impression that she wasn’t being totally honest! He manages to convince Reides that she was being suspicious and they go back inside to tell the party what happened.

Kilwin and Reides come back inside and find Jorah chowing down. The rest of the party asks why they left the door unattended. Kilwin explains that he has to come inside if he wants to talk to the rest of them and also he doesn’t think it’s a good idea for anyone to spend the night outside alone, considering Slumberjack and Jorah both got into the town and Tyrian’s somewhere out there. While the party discusses how to handle this, a commotion happens in the kitchen. The party rushes in and finds the backdoor open and Natasha and Vladimir standing in the kitchen in shock. Natasha tries to explain that it was just her brother Drakov going out for an evening jog (in the middle of a thunderstorm). Kilwin immediately follows Drakov and the rest of the party goes too. Kilwin manages to find Drakov’s tracks pretty easily in the mud and the party tracks him to the town square. He’s a human man with black hair like his sister and brother-in-law. He tells us to get away from him. Jorah casts Detect Poision and Disease and turns up nothing on him. Drakov continues to run and Kilwin, Marcyra, and Reides follow him, while Slumberjack and Jorah plan to turn back to the inn to make sure the Vizinis don’t make a break for it. Kilwin, Marcyra, and Reides corner Drakov by the town wall, and Kilwin tries to tell him they just want to talk, but Drakov says they should have brought their whole group if they suspected him because now they’ll die alone. He transforms into a human-wolf hybrid.

Jorah and Slumberjack don’t see this happen, but Kilwin yells out for help before attacking Drakov. Julius hears him and starts to run over, while Pepega flies over to Jorah and Slumberjack to get their attention. Drakov claws Kilwin pretty badly and also bites him, but Kilwin manages to resist the werewolf’s curse. As a werewolf, Drakov seems to resist most non-magical attacks. As the party starts to bloody Drakov, he insists we won’t take him alive or get anything out of him. In the end, Slumberjack knocks him on the head and knocks him out non-lethally. Kilwin makes sure Drakov isn’t actively dying before Jorah manacles him and Slumberjack lifts him up. They mention to Kilwin that they’d like a new fur coat. Kilwin thinks that’s really freaky because Drakov is just a guy who happens to be a werewolf, but he’s pretty sure they’re kidding! (They aren’t kidding.) Natasha and Vladimir catch up to the party and Natasha insists that her brother is innocent. Reides and Kilwin both sympathize with her, but Kilwin at least is still pretty sure Drakov killed Bertram. Marcyra uses Detect Thoughts and discovers that Natasha is intensely worried about Drakov and genuinely believes he didn’t kill Bertram. Natasha does mention that they found Drakov at the crime scene, but she absolutely believes that Drakov doesn’t have it in him to be a murderer. Kilwin is sympathetic, and both he and Reides think there might be something else going on, but Kilwin still manages to spot a guard through the rain and calls him over. He explains that there’s a werewolf and that he might be innocent of any real crimes, but that they should probably keep him in one of the cages by the mayor’s manor overnight (and also get Drakov some new clothes since the ones he was wearing ripped when he transformed and it seems especially inhumane to put him in a cage outside in the rain without clothes). At first, the guard thinks Kilwin is just crazy, but then he sees that there is really a werewolf and gets a little freaked out! He didn’t think those were real! He agrees to put Drakov in a cage, but also asks that Kilwin stays in a cage overnight as a precaution since he was bitten. Kilwin agrees that this makes sense and is totally willing to spend the night in a cage as long as it’s a different cage than Drakov’s. The rest of the party doesn’t care for this and Reides refuses to leave Kilwin alone overnight- the rain doesn’t bother him anyway. Kilwin says he doesn’t have to, but still appreciates it! Jorah puts part of his tarp over Kilwin’s cage to keep him dry, while covering himself with the rest of it. Marcyra takes shelter under the eaves of a nearby building and Slumberjack is just ready to sleep in the street. Natasha and Vladimir also stay by Drakov’s side. Marcyra tries to convince Natasha that Drakov might act totally different when transformed, but Natasha can’t believe he’d be that different. Vladimir also trusts Natasha’s judgment and says that Drakov could be described as troubled, but not a bad person. He also says it would be difficult to find someone who didn’t have trouble with Bertram. Natasha also can’t think of anyone who would have anything against Drakov, who mostly keeps to himself and works at the tavern. Kilwin casts Detect Evil and Good and finds out that the spell doesn’t work on werewolves.

Kilwin, Reides, Jorah, and Slumberjack get some sleep. Drakov starts to get up around 1 AM and transforms back into a full human, but passes out for two more hours before waking up for real. After figuring out where he is, he asks what he’s been charged with. We tell him he’s under suspicion for murder and Kilwin also groggily points out that Drakov attacked him pretty badly, although he understands why he did. Marcyra casts Detect Thoughts on him and discovers that he hurts, he’s very uncomfortable, and he doesn’t want to talk to us. He says he attacked because he didn’t have any other options and that being a werewolf has made him expect that people want to kill him. We point out that we didn’t kill him, even though we could have! Drakov also insists that Natasha is wrong and that he did kill Bertram. Kilwin makes sure Slumberjack is out of range (they’re asleep) before casting Zone of Truth, preventing everyone except Reides and Marcyra from lying. Kilwin asks Drakov again if he killed Bertram. Drakov says he confessed to the crime, and Reides and Kilwin immediately call him out on avoiding the question. When asked if there’s other werewolves in Vilais Watch, he just says there’s werewolves in a lot of towns. Kilwin asks Natasha and Vladimir if either of them killed Bertram, and they’re both able to deny it, so Drakov isn’t trying to cover for either of them. Natasha asks if any of us did it, which we can also deny. Reides asks Drakov if he’s ever bitten anyone before Kilwin, and Drakov says he hasn’t had the chance. He slipped up! Reides calls him on it! When asked, Natasha says she doesn’t know any other werewolves in Vilais Watch. Drakov admits that he was framed by the person who turned him into a werewolf, but refuses to tell us who or say anything else here, since they apparently have eyes everywhere. Reides manages to find the guard who imprisoned Drakov and Kilwin and tries to tell him that it’s important to the investigation for Drakov to leave his cage. The guard refuses though, since the mayor has ordered that Drakov be kept imprisoned for the safety of the town.

In the end, the party decides the best plan is for Marcyra to finally use her thieves’ tools and break Drakov out. Kilwin decides to try to go back to sleep, since that way, he can at least Pretend he didn’t see this. The rest of the party follows Drakov to a small shack on the edge of town where Drakov is pretty sure he can speak freely. Natasha and Vladimir get lost on the way. Drakov transform into his hybrid form to knock the door down and everyone enters. He tells us that Mayor Irwin is the one who killed Bertram. The mayor is also a werewolf and bit Drakov on the night of the murder in order to frame him for the crime. Reides is absolutely furious. Apparently, Bertram and Irwin’s business deals were going too far in Bertram’s favor and murder is the only way Irwin knew he could get the money back. Murdering the opposition may also be how he became mayor in the first place. Marcyra wants to kill the mayor, but everyone else wants to bring him to justice normally. Drakov confirms that the full moon has literally no effect on werewolves, but he’s not aware of any way to force a werewolf to transform. Reides thinks that there might be books with helpful information at the mayor’s house or at Castel’s. Drakov also tells us that the mayor threatened the Vizinis if he tried to expose him, so Drakov was keeping quiet to protect them. Reides suggests putting Drakov back in his cage so that the mayor doesn’t suspect that he talked to him. Drakov agrees to the idea, but also suggests that Julius wait behind at the hut so he can transform into his full wolf form and pretend to be Jorah’s dog when they walk back to the cages. Jorah agrees this is a good idea and tells Julius to stay. The party takes Drakov back to his cage and locks him up again.

Session 18

 * Google Document (7-12-19)

After the party returns Drakov to his cage, Jorah goes back to the shack to get Julius and Slumberjack just kind of excuses themself. Erak meets up with the rest of the party, though, after spending some time hanging out in the woods. The remaining party starts debating several topics, including how to potentially identify a werewolf, their next move, and how to wake up Kilwin. Their talking eventually wakes up Kilwin, who starts wondering if a werewolf test could help him get out of the cage. Drakov confirms that werewolves are weak to silver and that he’s had trouble holding silver objects since his transformation. Kilwin suddenly realizes that he’s in jail and that he technically got arrested and has a mild freakout. Reides wants to see what getting arrested is like too, but Kilwin tries to convince him it’s not fun. The party decides that the mayor’s reaction to touching silver is probably the best way to expose him, and potentially even get him to transform in front of a witness. Marcyra also mentions she can do certain illusions with Prestidigitation and, at Erak’s request, uses it to give Erak a clown nose. He loves it.

The party decides to try Castel’s Anything Store for silver items, even though it’s 4 AM. However, the light is on and the door is open! Castel is sitting down for lunch, but the store is still open for business. He’s eating chicken soup. Reides learns that Pepega apparently shares her name with a breed of chicken that’s commonly eaten. He cradles her protectively. Reides asks if Castel has anything silver. Castel rummages through his collection and offers a very tarnished silver cup for 25 gold. Erak tries to convince Castel that Natasha offered the party a full silver silverware set for less than that to try to get Castel to lower the price. Castel believes him and says he should take Natasha’s deal. Reides asks permission to pet Shadow and introduces himself to Castel. After petting her for a bit, he asks Erak to ask her what her pronouns are. Shadow puts her paw in Erak’s hand and Erak casts Speak with Animals. Shadow, who is absolutely delightful, requests belly rubs and also doesn’t know what pronouns are. Erak tells Shadow that Reides gives even better belly rubs than he does, so Shadow approaches Reides, and Reides gets a turn to pet. Erak asks Shadow what kind of owner Castel is and Shadow says he’s great and lets her play wherever. She does admit, though, that he doesn’t give the best belly rubs because that’s the doggy-smelling guy from the tavern. Erak asks if there’s any other people in town who smell doggy and Shadow mentions a short man with a black moustache named Mayo. Erak warns her to stay away from him because he’s a bad dog. Castel throws a sardine to Shadow and she does a flip and catches it, and everyone is impressed. Erak asks Shadow what kind of dog she is. She doesn’t know but she confirms that she thinks she’s a dog. She’s too focused on her fish (and some of Castel’s soup) for further conversation though. After bonding with Shadow, Erak decides to just buy the cup for 25 gold as thanks for Castel letting him talk with Shadow. Castel calls Shadow to him and Shadow “whispers” into his ear to give Erak the cup for 15 gold instead. Erak gives the cup to Reides, who tries to clean it by hand before giving it to Marcyra to clean with Prestidigitation. Marcyra gives the cup back to Reides, who gives it to Erak because he’s better at throwing things if it comes to that.

Erak looks for a guard to hopefully let Kilwin out of his cage. He and Reides explain the situation and that the silver cup can potentially be used to identify a werewolf. The guard is willing to try it and takes the cup over to the cages. He asks who the werewolf is, to which Drakov responds. He hands the cup to Drakov and it audibly singes him. The guard concludes that Drakov is a werewolf and is about to walk off before the party tells him that Kilwin is the one who’s just suspected of being a werewolf. Kilwin takes off one of his gloves and takes the cup. He’s unaffected! The guard leaves the cup with him while he takes a few minutes to confirm that Kilwin’s been charged with nothing else (and Reides tells Kilwin all about Shadow) and then returns to let him out. Kilwin is very relieved to be out of jail! He does apologize to Drakov for getting his hand burned and asks if he wants him to look at it. Drakov says he’s fine though! Kilwin also points out that we’re probably working with a time limit on exposing the mayor, since Drakov will probably be executed for Bertram’s murder before too long.

Kilwin suggests going back to Castel’s to check for books about werewolves, but it turns out that he closes by 5 AM. We head back to the tavern instead. Natasha is awake and asks us what happened. The party reassures her that Drakov is innocent, but also that it’s not safe to tell her who the culprit actually is. We learn from her that Drakov had trouble controlling his transformations for the first day of being a werewolf and had to stay locked in the cellar, but seemed to have no trouble with them after that. Kilwin also asks her about the wall around Vilais Watch and the wolf attacks that it stopped. Natasha doesn’t remember much since the wall went up about 20 years ago and she was too young to really pay attention then, but she does remember that Grado collected the lumber and Bertram and Mayor Irwin financed it. Kilwin tries to play it off as him being interested in the local history of places he visits!

The party sits at a table and tries to plan their next move. Kilwin suggests trying to use Grinlief to somehow derail the investigation or to get all of the relevant parties in one room for a “reveal” that we could use to expose the mayor in front of witnesses. Kilwin is worried this is kind of taking advantage of Grinlief, but the rest of the party assures him it’s not that bad. Before this plan can be refined, the mayor enters the tavern, looking for the party to congratulate them on solving the murder and tell them that the execution will be later in the day. We try to raise some concerns! We don’t think a regular humanoid killed Bertram, but just because Drakov is a werewolf doesn’t mean he’s the killer! The mayor says that werewolves are dangerous and break into people’s homes to murder the weak, so Drakov is a danger to everyone anyway. We try to dismiss those as baseless stories, but the mayor obviously “won’t listen.” Reides agrees that we can’t have werewolves out on the street while giving the mayor the stink eye, which he does notice. Kilwin asks what Grinlief thinks of the whole thing, hoping that he’ll derail things on his own, but the mayor just says Grinlief is fuming because he didn’t think of the werewolf angle first. Before the mayor leaves, Kilwin says he has something to discuss with him, pulls him aside, and confides in him that Marcyra lied to the Vizinis that he’d pay for their rooms. He pulls out some silver coins and tries to force them into the mayor’s hand, but the mayor manages to break away from him. He says he’ll sort things out with the Vizinis later and quickly excuses himself, announcing that the execution is at noon.

The party almost immediately decides that their next step should be breaking Drakov out before he can be killed. We figure that the shack where Drakov talked to us would be a good hiding place for him, as well as Natasha and Vladimir, who are probably going to be in danger as soon as Drakov goes missing. Marcyra could use her thieves’ tools to pick the lock and Reides could use his Invisibility spell to conceal Drakov during the escape. Marcyra ends up being the one to break the news to Natasha. She tells her that we’re planning to break Drakov out and hide her and Vladimir. She doesn’t understand why she needs to hide and Marcyra almost implicates the mayor in the murder, but the party covers for her. Natasha also tells us that Vladimir already had a plan to free Drakov, but he wouldn’t tell her anything about it. We offer to collaborate with him, but then we find out his plan is just to break the lock off and run, so we go with our original plan. After a lot of debate over who should take Natasha and Vladimir to the shack (which really confuses Natasha and Vladimir, who think it should be fine if we just tell them where to go), Marcyra ends up using Message to tell Kilwin where to go and the rest of the party ends up waiting for him.

The party heads over to the cages and finds Drakov in his cage flanked by two guards. Kilwin asks Erak if he has any idea on how they can create a distraction, since they’re the two who aren’t essential to the actual breakout. Reides offers to cast Sleep though, and Erak engages the guards in conversation about how they should overwork themselves less and how managers will always try to screw you over even when they act cool to get them to step forward so Reides can make them sleep without also affecting Drakov. As a half-elf, Erak is immune to the spell. Marcyra almost fails to get the lock open in time, but she manages. Drakov is mostly confused by what’s going on. Reides takes his hand (making him blush) as he casts Invisibility on Drakov. We immediately start running through the backstreets toward the shack. Drakov is worried about Natasha and Vladimir, but we tell him they’re already where we’re going. He also clarifies that he doesn’t own the shack and it was repossessed by the bank at some point, but we’re not going to worry about that! After a while, Drakov realizes that he can get there alone faster than he can with us. His hand transforms into a paw before breaking from Reides’s grip, and Drakov runs toward the shack as an invisible wolf.

With Drakov safe for now, the party has to figure out how to expose the mayor, especially since Reides and Kilwin’s efforts so far have definitely tipped our hand to him. Kilwin suggests trying to work with Grinlief somehow, but Marcyra is pretty sure he’d rather die than admit we’re right about anything. Kilwin still thinks it’s worth a try, since the mayor probably wouldn’t suspect Grinlief of figuring anything out and there’s a chance we can get him to work with us if we make him think it’s his idea and let him take the credit. Marcyra is willing to let the party try, but she decides she has to stay outside because she doesn’t think she can keep a straight face.

At Grinlief’s office, we find him moping at his desk with his hat pulled down over his face. He asks if we came to gloat, but Kilwin assures him that we’re actually doing the opposite because we got the wrong culprit. Grinlief perks up a bit and says we obviously would’ve gotten it wrong without his training. Kilwin forces himself to agree. Grinlief very graciously (in his mind) offers to help us fix our mistake since we’re fans of his. Kilwin thanks him and tells him that there’s a second werewolf in town who turned Drakov to frame him for the crime. Grinlief starts taking notes and muttering about a dissertation before remembering that we can hear him. He asks if we have any idea who this second werewolf is, so Reides brings Marcyra in to use Message to tell him. Grinlief thinks there’s no way it could be the mayor! Kilwin offers Grinlief the opportunity to prove us wrong. He explains about the silver cup (which Grinlief takes from Erak to examine for a bit) and how the mayor should react to it if he picks it up if he’s a werewolf. Reides offers to use Minor Illusion to disguise it as some other material so the mayor won’t be suspicious. Grinlief proposes that he invite the mayor over for a celebratory drink and give him the cup. We decide that the best place for the meeting is the tavern, since it’s more likely to get us more witnesses and it’ll give us more space to maneuver if there’s a fight. The party does let it slip that Natasha and Vladimir aren’t at the tavern, but Grinlief doesn’t get too suspicious. Grinlief is sure that the mayor will come, although he does mention that whenever he invites the guards for a drink, they say no. Reides offers to go for drinks with Grinlief after this (and Kilwin volunteers to tag along), which makes Grinlief really excited, although he tries to play it off. Kilwin also asks Grinlief if he knows how to fight. Grinlief says that he knows how to use a hand crossbow and confirms that he has one. Kilwin tells him to make sure he brings it, since the mayor might attack after he’s been exposed and Grinlief should be emotionally prepared for a fight to break out. He also says that if Grinlief doesn’t feel good about his chances, he shouldn’t feel bad about running for it. Kilwin also offers to use his magic to protect Grinlief as best as he can. (He does feel bad for putting Grinlief in danger like this when he’s not sure if he’s really prepared for that.) Marcyra points out that the mayor turning into a werewolf and attacking is really the best case scenario here! Grinlief might be having his doubts about working with us!

Grinlief leaves to set up the meeting while we prepare at the tavern. Reides and Marcyra go through the Vizinis’ tableware and don’t find any silver cups, but they do find wood, iron, and tin ones. Reides can use Minor Illusion to make the silver cup look like a wood one, which seems like the least likely material to arouse the mayor’s suspicions. The party then hides behind the bar, out of sight but close enough that Kilwin can still cast Sanctuary on Grinlief if it comes to that.

Session 19

 * Google Document (7-20-19)

The door to the tavern opens and Slumberjack enters, very confused to discover that the tavern appears to be empty. Kilwin peeks out from the party’s hiding place behind the bar and beckons them back, where they also attempt to hide and the party fills them in on the plan against the mayor. Everyone does a really bad job of hiding: Marcyra keeps hitting her horns on the bar and Kilwin is just clearly visible as he tries to see what’s going on. Eventually, we hear talking outside even though no one can make it out. Grinlief and the mayor enter the tavern. Grinlief tries to get the mayor to sit at the table we picked out, but the mayor wants a booth. Grinlief rolls with it, and walks over to the bar to grab the cups and “the bubbly.” Kilwin overhears a fainting sniffing sound. Grinlief also very conspicuously looks over the counter at us before returning to the mayor. Still, we hear Grinlief walk back to the booth, pour the drinks, and a sizzling sound and a scream of pain as the mayor picks up the disguised silver cup. The mayor is shocked that Grinlief figured him out (almost as shocked as Grinlief is that the mayor is actually a werewolf) and bolts. The party leaves their hiding spot and quickly follows, with Kilwin thanking Grinlief for his help on his way out. The mayor’s tracks are really obvious in the rain and lead back to his mansion. Grinlief follows us and seems pretty impressed that we were right about everything.

Kilwin and Slumberjack go into the mayor’s house first. They hear the mayor and his maid, Meredith, in feverish conversation. Kilwin manages to make something out about us being “onto them.” Slumberjack signals to Kilwin to be ready for a fight. As the rest of the party (plus Grinlief) enters the mansion and the mayor notices us, he tells Meredith to kill us all and transforms into his hybrid werewolf form. Slumberjack immediately goes in for an attack on Meredith before she gets the opportunity to transform and gets her good. They notice that Meredith’s teeth start to grow sharper. Marcyra also focuses her attacks on Meredith, giving her severe burns and melting some of her flesh, while Kilwin and Erak focus on the mayor. Meredith has a sword and attempts to attack Slumberjack with it, but misses them. The mayor also tries to bite Slumberjack, but fails. Grinlief fires one single shot at the mayor with his crossbow, but misses and then spends the rest of the fight cowering behind Marcyra and Reides. Kilwin manages to knock out Meredith with Spiritual Weapon and then runs over to her to use Spare the Dying to stabilize her. This makes the mayor really mad for some reason and he runs over to kick Meredith’s body out of the way and tells Kilwin that he’s going to die first. He doesn’t manage to bite Kilwin either, though. Kilwin just reaches out to touch him, which confuses him until his flesh starts rotting from Inflict Wounds. Reides hits the mayor with Magic Missile, and manages to control the spell well enough to knock him out without killing him.

We have to reassure Grinlief that it’s over and it’s safe for him to stop cowering. Marcyra openly wonders why we’re leaving Meredith and Irwin alive, but Kilwin argues that we should let the people of Vilais Watch deal with them however they deem appropriate. Additionally, we know that werewolves maintain their transformation when unconscious from our fight with Drakov, but we don’t know if werewolves are still identifiable if they’re dead- better safe than sorry. Kilwin wants to stay with the bodies in case they wake up, so Reides volunteers to get a guard. No one else goes with him.

Outside, Reides enjoys the continuing rain, but can’t see any guards, partially due to the rain cutting visibility. The only person he manages to find is a figure walking toward him, and something about the figure makes him deeply uncomfortable. Reides is not a fool and books it back to the mayor’s house, and the figure disappears in the rain behind him. He comes back in, visibly distressed, and tells the rest of the party what he saw. Kilwin lets Grinlief know that there’s a situation potentially happening and tells him to stay inside with Reides while he checks it out. Marcyra volunteers to go check it out with Kilwin. Outside the mansion, they see a figure slowly approaching the mansion, clad in splintmail. They both freeze for a moment before the figure comes close enough to ask “Where is he?” in a familiar voice, tainted with the darkness of undeath. Kilwin and Marcyra freak out and run back inside. Kilwin announces that Tyrian is here! He quickly explains to Grinlief that he needs to get out and that the party is being pursued by dark forces, which probably won’t target him if he’s not with the party, and that if there’s any back entrance into the mayor’s house, he should definitely use that and get to safety. It turns out that the front door is the only door to Grinlief’s knowledge, but we tell him to escape through a window that Marcyra accidentally broke during the fight with the mayor. We basically shove him out as Marcyra locks the door. Tyrian knocks and Erak calls out to ask who it is, but doesn’t get an answer. Reides and Marcyra back away as far as they can from the front door toward the mayor’s fireplace. Marcyra gets distracted by the flames for a second before a form breaks through the window by her and she’s knocked to the floor by a ghoul. She and Reides both scream. When he’s done screaming, Reides runs back toward the entrance to the parlor, where the rest of the party is. Erak rushes in and picks up Marcyra and throws her away from the ghoul before Kilwin kills it with Spiritual Weapon. We hear footsteps from the main hall as a second ghoul enters from the window Grinlief escaped through and attacks Reides. Down the main hall, we see that the door was kicked open during the commotion and Tyrian is there, decayed and missing some less important body parts. He walks up to Kilwin and tells him good afternoon. Kilwin starts to say that it’s actually kind of a bad one before Tyrian punches him in the gut. Kilwin heals Reides and casts Sanctuary on him to try to protect him. The spell deters the ghoul from attacking Reides again, but Tyrian scoffs at Kilwin for trying to protect Reides and manages to break through it. Tyrian’s fist attack does roughly double damage to Reides because of Tyrian’s grudge and he falls to the ground, unconscious, before Tyrian turns his attention back to Kilwin. Kilwin essentially begs Slumberjack to heal Reides instead of him, even though he’s looking very rough. Someone manages to kill the second ghoul at some point. After healing himself and Reides, Kilwin hits Tyrian with Spiritual Weapon. Tyrian comments that Kilwin has grown, but he’s grown more, before decking him in the face. Marcyra checks a side room in the mayor’s house, but says there’s nothing useful in there. Reides is scared out of his mind and wants us to run so, after exchanging a desperate look with Kilwin, casts Fog Cloud over the main hall, enveloping Tyrian and Kilwin. Reides escapes through the broken window closest to him and leaves the encounter. Erak reaches into the fog and manages to grab Kilwin and pull him out and toward the window, which he gestures to. Kilwin hits into the fog with Spiritual Weapon and manages to hit Tyrian before gratefully taking the hint and, pretty confident he can’t do much for the rest of the party, running as far as he can for the rest of the fight. Tyrian tries to attack the Spiritual Weapon before realizing that we’re running. He says that’s fine and he’ll just kill us later. With Tyrian occupied and Kilwin and Reides out of sight, Slumberjack takes the opportunity to kill Meredith. Erak gives them a judgmental look before telling Tyrian we will run all we like and skedaddling. Marcyra also hotfoots it out of there. Tyrian emerges from the fog and thanks Slumberjack for waiting for him, and takes a swing at them. Slumberjack notices that Tyrian appears to have recovered from the damage he’s taken in the fight. Even though they were planning on killing the mayor too, they just shove Tyrian back into the fog and book it.

The party manages to reconvene far enough away from the mansion that they’re pretty sure they have time to catch their breaths. Pepega lands on Reides’s shoulder. Reides wordlessly grabs onto Kilwin and hugs him, which Kilwin stiffly and awkwardly returns. The party agrees to ditch Vilais Watch and start heading for Falas immediately, in hopes of putting some distance between Reides and Tyrian. Kilwin feels really bad about leaving like this, especially without Jorah, but we collectively decide to trust Jorah to figure out something happened and where we would be going. Erak offers to run back to Castel’s to buy the Bag of Holding for Reides, since he has the gold on hand and he’s in the best shape of any of us. Kilwin offers to go with him, since he’s worried about Erak going alone, but Erak vetoes that since Kilwin is more likely to be a liability at the moment. He asks Reides to send Pepega with him just in case and heads off alone. At the store, Castel picks up that something is seriously wrong and asks Erak if there’s anything he can do to help. Erak tells him he really can’t, other than selling him the Bag of Holding. Castel tells him to stay safe, and Erak promises he’ll back at some point to pet Shadow some more. As Erak makes his way back, the party discusses how we’re going to get out of the town, since it’s still locked down. Kilwin’s not sure he’ll be able to climb the walls, so we decide to try walking through the front gate first. Erak runs back holding the Bag of Holding up. He pretends to trip as a joke and then trips for real and gets covered in mud. Reides is extremely touched that Erak actually got the bag. With that accomplished, we just run through the gates before the guards can really stop us. As he’s running, Kilwin yells out “The mayor is a werewolf, talk to Grinlief!” and just barely hears one of the guards saying “What?” as the party leaves Vilais Watch for the road to Falas.

Session 20

 * Google Document (7-26-19)

The party runs as far from Vilais Watch as they can, exhausting Marcyra, Erak, and Slumberjack. They reach a fork in the road, but thanks to the map and some worn down road signs, the way to Falas is obvious. As tempting as it is to just explore the world, the party agrees that it’s best to just head to Falas without taking any more detours. We need to rest though, so we find a small clearing off the side of the road, where an outcropping of rock provides us with a bit of cover. After starting to settle down for the night, the party hears hoofbeats from the main road. Reides tries to hide, while Kilwin tries to stealthily get a look at who’s approach on the road: Neither of them do a very good job. The hoofbeats stop and the horse gets hitched to the sign. Kilwin has a hard time making out the humanoid figure who’s checking the ground and starts to follow us to the clearing. A shadow darts out in front of the figure and bounds for Erak. Fortunately, it’s Julius and the figure is Jorah! Jorah has no idea why we’re hiding. As Erak starts playing with Julius, Kilwin asks if Jorah saw him. Jorah still has no idea what’s going on, to Kilwin’s relief, so he explains that Tyrian showed up when they confronted the mayor, which is why they had to leave town.

Jorah joins us in setting up camp and offers his tent as shelter for anyone who wants to get out of the continuing rain. Reides and Kilwin take Erak aside and give him 50 gold each to help cover the cost of the Bag of Holding. They also just really owe him in general. Reides empties out the Bag of Holding onto the ground and a Potion of Healing falls out and shatters. Jorah asks Kilwin if he got hit by a cart or something, and Kilwin explains that Tyrian just punches really really hard and he got punched a lot. Jorah heals him as best as he can, and Kilwin is very grateful. Erak manages to make a fire in spite of the rain by making a small covering for it and drying off the kindling he gathered. Marcyra uses her magic to make the fire a little bigger and make some fire animals to play around with. Reides is smiling and the rain is helping him slightly, but he’s still clearly distressed. Erak gives him some meat to give to Julius and Marcyra makes a fire Pepega that mimics the real Pepega’s actions to try to cheer him up.

We decide to get some sleep before discussing our plans to deal with Tyrian. Erak suggests that Kilwin and Reides pass on watch duty tonight, since they need rest the most. Reides offers to cast Sleep on Kilwin if he wants, but Kilwin decides to pass. Reides casts Sleep on himself to get to bed and Kilwin says some prayers before turning in for the night. Jorah takes first watch and tries to keep an eye out as he tends to his horse and does his nightly routine. He also leaves his coat over Julius as Erak takes over and he turns in for the night. Erak posts next to where Kilwin and Reides are sleeping and he’s understandably a little scatter-brained during his watch duty. Still, nothing happens. Marcyra is extra jumpy and feels like the shadows are closing in on her. She makes some more fire animals to try to calm down. Slumberjack wakes up from a dream and doesn’t even pay attention to their watch, instead watching one of their sleeping companions and thinking about what they were just told.

The night passes uneventfully, and in the morning, Slumberjack asks Jorah if he wants to go hunt for food. Jorah isn’t sure how successful he’ll be or how to preserve the food, but Slumberjack offers to go with him and says that we may as well try to cure it and bolster our rations while we have a chance. Soon after Jorah and Slumberjack leave the main party behind, Jorah uses Primeval Awareness to check the surrounding 6-mile radius. He senses some fey and some aberrations, but mostly importantly, some undead. No dragons though! He tells Slumberjack about the nearby undead and suggests going back to warn the group. Slumberjack suggests that they and Jorah could deal with the undead themselves, but Jorah admits that under normal circumstances, he’d already be running for it.

Jorah and Slumberjack return to the group and Jorah tells the rest of the party about what he found out. The party starts to gather their things, but before they can get far, Kilwin and Jorah hear a stick snap nearby. They spot a horde of lumbering, rotting figures moving in on the party, surrounding them. Jorah is very alarmed and immediately fires his crossbow at one. He gets it in the chest easily, but it continues to approach him. Its limbs are hanging on by threads. Slumberjack manages to knock one down, but it gets back up until they behead it. Kilwin tries to stand between the zombies approaching from the south and Reides, but the zombies seem repelled by him and move around him to attack Reides anyway. Marcyra does a ton of fire magic and hits a bunch of zombies and it’s extremely cool, but doesn’t quite manage to kill them and also it smells really bad. As the zombies close in on him, Jorah drops his crossbow and pulls out his shortsword. Kilwin wracks his brain for anything he’s read about the undead and realizes that these creatures can always rise again unless they’re hit extremely hard or they’re hurt by radiant damage. Kilwin calls upon the powers of Alethus to turn the zombies around himself, Reides, and Jorah. Marcyra shudders, but the zombies hate it even more. Jorah strikes at one that’s now fleeing from him, but it just snaps its head back and turns back to him. The zombies just refuse to die for a while, especially one that keeps attacking Julius and survives being frozen by Reides and manages to dodge Sacred Flame while it’s on the ground. Erak also has it out for this zombie because we all want to keep Julius safe, but it just laughs at him. Eventually, Kilwin manages to hit it with Sacred Flame, which boils it from the inside out. Two of the zombies manage to escape, and Jorah tears one apart with his shortswords before retrieving his crossbow. As Julius rips the last remaining zombie apart, we hear a familiar voice from the south and turn to see a figure we all know and hate. Tyrian is here and he’s hoping to finish us off after his zombie subordinates softened us up.