Legends in the Making: Slayers of Renown

Game Master BloodWolven

my skills and my man Adney's general knowledge we not enough to discover what killed the unicorn and I have kept it warded against rotting since with my spells. I could detect necromancy and something terrible happening

Johanna suggests, "Let us see it and we may be able to help. If not we could put it in a room and have the scholars of our realm take a look."

we gonna whip this thing out in the throne room in front of their majesties or someplace more suited for less genteel souls? Rognar says with a small grunt

Johanna dismisses the other folk in the room leaving a few guards, one noble, and the heads of state. Once they are left alone she offers, "Now you can whip it out."

Rognar gives Koldur the nod and says pull it out if the portable hole. That thing is going to need a deep cleaning... I once heard of a portable hole that someone filled with acid and put on a ceiling inside a rope trick to fill it with acid while those inside slept...

With obvious concern on his face he states, "That sounds horrible."

With the portable hole pulled and placed Johanna goes in first then Balthazar. They shake their heads.

Koldur further explains.

"I'd have taken to to Seraphina to examine first but If you could shed some light on it, it'll be best. Else I would leave that corpse with the scholars of the kingdom and hopefully someone will figure out its mystery. In the mean times, we'll scour the rest of the kingdom and take out the immediate threats."

let's get that portable hole cleaned professionally and get a wand of unseen servant and put a whole camp in there including extra food and water and extra tack and feed for mounts and a couple of scrolls for emergencies and then head back out? Rognar says

Can we do that?

"I do have quite a bit of wealth in there......." Koldur looks to his fellow dwarf with a raised eyebrow

well then perhaps we might want to spend some of that mass amount o wealth on making ourselves more awesome before we leave, eh?

"I see. Using the wealth I obtained to make us more awesome." Koldur grumbles seeing his fellow's dwarf's ploy to use his gold to get them all more gear and equipment.

He did wonder if the city was able to afford it or not though. They were still developing the market.

"Why don't we leave the pegasus with the experts for a bit and go continue our investigation. I for one do not mind sleeping in a bed for a night or two while we try to find the murderer or murderers. Once we solve that riddle we can start some daily patrols into the nearby lands to deal with anything encroaching on the local farmsteads or see if there are any concerns posted on the boards we might be able to help with." Beorn suggests ready to be away from the King and Queen who make him nervous by their titles alone.

Koldur thinks about it as the rest seems eagar to be dismissed.

Turning to his fellow council members, the dwarf asks for a recess.
"With your leave your majesties, allow us to rest and conider our next moves. Some of us apparently have decided that we might need to go shopping."

"It'll also give us time to recover, restock and review our current information at hand,"

Koldur further explains.

"I'd have taken to to Seraphina to examine first but If you could shed some light on it, it'll be best. Else I would leave that corpse with the scholars of the kingdom and hopefully someone will figure out its mystery. In the mean times, we'll scour the rest of the kingdom and take out the immediate threats."

Johanna offers, ¨Excellent, that sounds appropriate.¨

Koldur thinks about it as the rest seems eagar to be dismissed.

Turning to his fellow council members, the dwarf asks for a recess.
"With your leave your majesties, allow us to rest and conider our next moves. Some of us apparently have decided that we might need to go shopping."

"It'll also give us time to recover, restock and review our current information at hand,"

¨You may take your leave.¨

Rognar grabs Adney so he doesn't stay to be a court bard and makes his way out and leaves the throne room toward the adventure board and says we can try to talk to some barkeeps and do some information gathering as well

Beorn heads on out to speak with some of the day laborers who worked for Garbler. Upon finding them...

"Gentlemen, how ya doing?"

"I'm investigating the murder of Garbler. Anyone have any ideas who would want him dead?"

The guards tell you what they know and relay, "The last victim was Ben Hardy Carpenter. He stayed to himself and was kind of a loner. He made nice work though."

Then once they get to his cabin on the outskirts of town you see several chairs and a table outside next to carpenter tools. One of the guards offers, "His last project he was working on the side when he wasn't working on making a building. Oh that reminds me you could talk to his foreman, he might know more. We found the body slumped next to the door facing the roadway, all of the stab wounds were on his chest. So he likely knew who killed him."
** spoiler omitted **** spoiler omitted **** spoiler omitted **** spoiler omitted **** spoiler omitted **** spoiler omitted **...

This is the main one. The others after it add a little more detail.

That was Aug 13, 2022

"I'll be collecting my weapon first while you lot gather information. If you have anything else you'd prefer to get and I have enough to spare, I can consider." Koldur lets the others know as he heads towards the smithy.

Rognar makes his way over to the board to check any other quests while Adney will try to gather new information with his bardly skills.

Adney will make his way around and see what information he can follow up on for the murder.

know local: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (3) + 12 = 15

Flouncy will try to assist Adney in gleaning whatever information he may discover.

kn. local: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

Nothing new on the wanted board, but still many posters remain.

1d4 ⇒ 2
After two hours Adney returns to the group and explains what he learned. Most people are scared. The rumors of the cult of Gyronna is here and inciting scorned lovers to rage. You hear there are about a dozen women in town who fit this profile.

Looking at the first victim Gary Garbler:
He was found dead in his bed, a slit throat and dozens of stab wounds to the chest. His balls were removed and shoved in his mouth. The door was found open. He had no family but was known as a lady's man, sleeping with the girls that get caught in his webs of lies. He was a general laborer manager, plenty of charisma to settle down hot tempers while on the job.
Thanks Beorn!

So your next move will likely be:
With this knowledge in hand, the PCs might question several women in the town, using Sense Motive checks to see past the cultists’ Bluff checks. Each suspected woman interrogated has a cumulative 25% chance of actually being a cultist, and each interrogation must be handled delicately with a DC 20 Diplomacy check—each failure results in rumors of “unfounded and
cruel interrogations” spreading through the nation and causes even more unrest.
Another option is searching suspected cultists’ houses for religious paraphernalia looking for evidence of the cult’s practices (shabbles
and unholy symbols) with a successful DC 20 Perception check, but hunches and circumstantial evidence are not proof, so the PCs will likely have to catch the women in the act, especially if they want to expose their leader.
Surveillance of suspected cultists (using Stealth,
Perception, or Survival checks) can lead the PCs to the cult’s
secret rendezvous.

Flouncy suggests a bit of espionage. He thinks that if we interrogate one, she might be spooked enough to tell others. That would reveal any who are worried about getting caught.

I can spy on a lady or two and follow them without being noticed pretty easily. That might rule out a few, and perhaps lead us to the cult itself.

"I'm of a similar opinion to Flouncy. We could split the likely suspects between us and use what skills we may have to garner evidence or eliminate suspicion. I for one am not much on drawing out information in conversation. I'm rather blunt and that may not be good for dealing with a woman who is not guilty. But, I do have a good eye for detail and can move about relatively unnoticed most of the time. Thoughts?" Beorn says sizing up his idea.

I like the way you think. Let the dwarves sweat a woman or two, then we'll see where they go and who they talk to. Innocent people wouldn't do much. Guilty women in a cult are going to spread the word to their comrades, just to keep things quiet and cover their tracks.

"The plan seems solid except that I have little skill in coaxing or persuading others to inform me of the going about town. There are so many womenfolk in the city and only so many of us. Best to narrow down to a few likely suspects and work it from here."

Assuming Koldur has gone to pick up his upgraded gear.

Rognar nods and says we can grab a couple of elixirs and do some deplomacy and I am pretty good at figuring out motives

"Let's start observing some people. Beorn says and goes to Adney to get a list of women. From there he will head out to pick up with one of them and begin observation.

Perception: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (16) + 16 = 32

Stealth: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (9) + 14 = 23

Yes Koldur you have acquired your upgraded weapon, but in the time you were gone, it was the only thing accomplished.

Beorn, you are just watching one of the women Adney thinks might be apart of the cult? She doesn't notice she is being followed... though after following her for several hours she has not given much sign besides going about her day delivering meals to workers. Do you want to follow her home, enter the bakery, or something else?

What do the rest of you do?

"What should I do?" he asks considering everyone else is offering to help somehow.

Having that weapon makes a huge difference.

I'm not sure what you can do but wait, Zod. We'll need you when we know who to go after.

Flouncy will select one of the other women and attempt the same as Beorn.

stealth: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (20) + 18 = 38

perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21

sense motive: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11

Beorn follows her all day and into the night. He will stakeout her home through the evening. He will stick with her for a couple of days before switching to a different woman. While watching he does try to match up the ribbon he found on the outfits of women about town who pass by.

Perception: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (5) + 16 = 21

Flouncy will do the same.

perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30

After a few days you don't think the baker support woman has anything to do with the cult. Though Flouncy finds Melissa Weaver goes around to many other places that seem off, maybe she is just a very social person. She interacts mostly with women.

Beorn decides to shift targets. Getting a new name he moves out to begin his watch again. Flouncy can make his decision as he will.

Stealth: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (10) + 14 = 24

Perception: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (5) + 16 = 21

Beorn's second target is a net maker, Jelen, she sticks to her hovel most of the time, making a net. A few male 'friends' stop by at normal intervals. One as the sun rises, one at noon, and one near the end of the day.

Flouncy thinks there is more to Melissa than meets the eye, and spies on her again.

stealth: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (2) + 18 = 20

perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25

sense motive: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71xvwVQABvw

Meanwhile, Koldur makes himself scarce as he roams the castle and streets speaking to the locals to understand their needs and local gossip. While he may not be as skilled as his companions in their roles. He could at least serve as a distraction to what they were actually doing.

Diplomacy 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2 Facepalm

Jelen is likely a prostitute. The woman or women they are looking for are likely not prostitutes, they seem to hate men and would not sully themselves. Beorn heads back to Adney to get another name. Then he heads out to follow the woman.

Perception: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (7) + 16 = 23

Stealth: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (4) + 14 = 18

Rognar will cast eagles splendor and then cast silver tongue (+4 for silver tongue and +4 for Cha) and make his way from tavern to tavern speaking on behalf of wine and luck at each stop along the way and looking for disgruntled women!

diplomacy: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

As Koldur will likely share all the rumors he collects:
Rumors of troll sightings in the south grow, causing a slow panic to build throughout the nation. If the PCs make a successful Loyalty check, the rumors cause no harm—otherwise, the nation gains 2 points of Unrest per Event phase that the rumors continue. Next month and the assurances of trolls are not there or proof that you have killed one at least, would negate the Unrest before it happens.

The Stag Lord has risen from the dead and now stalks the Greenbelt, gathering an army of ghostly bandits from an ancient crypt in the eastern Kamelands.

Beware the mad hermit to the south. He speaks to beasts and lives in a hollow tree.

A green dragon lives in the Narlmarches and eats anyone who crosses its path.

Some gnome explorers came by a few weeks ago, claiming that they were here to map the entire Greenbelt; they were last seen heading up the Skunk River.

This news and these rumors are interesting, and I want to pursue them, but it seems we have a killer or killers in our midst.

Flouncy will again spy on Melissa if he saw nothing of interest.

stealth: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (17) + 18 = 35
perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (7) + 12 = 19
sense motive: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

Beorn reports in, "I don't think it is her either. I could pick up another suspect or should we shelve this investigation and go kill some trolls?"

"Upon second thought, I think we need to let the constables handle the murders, at least for now. I think we are about the only ones well suited to handle trolls and I'm not sure if even we are ready for an undead Stag Lord. I heard he was a handful when he was alive." Beorn says rubbing his beard.

Yeah, I guess you're right. Let's go see about the trolls, then.

It seems that we can make no further headway in this task. Let us put that aside and hope the local watch might be able to discover something more or leave it to our capable leaders who reside in the city." Koldur agrees seeing that other then Beorn and Flouncy, no one else is making any headway.

"I suggest we look for those gnome explorers first. We might be able to find not only trolls but also the mad hermit and even teh Stag lord."