Borgol pauses, then nods, "I suppose. I was hoping to have more to offer as proof, or support, for our wild and outlandish tale."
"Could we find him before the auction and warn him?"
Borgol shrugs, "I imagine we can, it's the convincing him I was more worried about."
Maddie swoops through the air, looping around her party members, and floats around in all sorts of orientations as she ascends into the skies above Riddleport to see the place from above.
You do take a bit of time to try to gather information about the cultists, but nobody you ask seems to know anything about them. Without a lot of time to prepare before the auction, you seek out Clegg Zincher directly.
As one of the major crime bosses in the rough-and-tumble city, tracking down Clegg Zincher is no trouble at all. His tenement is a fortified, five-story building located in Riddleport’s Leeward District on the city’s eastern side. The building itself is a grand, lonely, place—a foreboding townhouse made of stone and hefty timbers with a steeply gabled rooftop featuring a widow’s walk. Dozens of metal-grilled windows, many with closed shutters, provide a well-defended view over Riddleport.
The iron doors are all locked up tight, but each features a fancy bellpull to announce arrivals. A tug on the bellpull results in a nervous-looking man answering it after a short delay. He slides open the door’s peephole and says in a shrill voice, “Master Zincher is seeing no guests at this time.”
Flik puts on his most serious business face:
"We have some vital information that affects Master Zincher's business interest. We must speak directly to him."
The man scowls. "Very well. Wait there while I announce your arrival." The peephole slams shut.
Four full minutes pass, then the door opens to reveal an enormous Vudran man in chainmail, a greatsword slung over his back. He stands nearly 7 feet tall and is built like a tree. A layer of fat disguises powerful muscles. He glowers down at you, arms crossed over his barrel chest. "I am Mister Magenta. What is your business with the Boss?"
Flik seems to be doing very well so far, so Fergus remains quite, uneasy about the place.
When Flik doesn't speak up, Remy steps in. "We are here to warn your boss that a cult of qlippoth-worshippers have targeted him. They plan on stealing the scrolls of true resurrection that he recently acquired."
Mister Magenta's stoic facade crumbles and he gasps in surprise. "Those scrolls are a secret! How do you know about them? The Boss will want to see you right away! Follow me."
He leads you through a largely empty lobby, save for a few benches and sickly potted plants, into a meeting room with a long table and numerous chairs. "The Boss will be down presently. Please, wait here." Then he steps out of the room and closes the door.
Several more minutes pass before Mister Magenta returns with Clegg Zincher. Though shorter than Magenta, the grizzled crime boss still strikes a tough-looking figure as he strides confidently into the room. He sits opposite you at the end of the table, appearing calm and collected.
"Greetings," Clegg says cordially. "The esteemed Mister Magenta has informed me that you come bearing warnings of an imminent attack on my home—a home that is well defended by guards, traps, and political connections. All in town know that to move against me is to move against the government of Riddleport, and to do so is to incur the wrath of more lords than myself. So tell me, strangers—who is it you believe to be so foolish as to plot against me, and why do you care?"
Borgol says, "Frankly, I don't think a Cult trying to resurrect a Runelord and to release a qlippoth curse-plague are too concerned about your political connections... and, I suspect, they think they can penetrate your defenses, possibly by force, but likely with the aid of magic and subterfuge."
He shrugs, "As to why we care, well, we'd rather not start being polymorphed into strange and terrible creatures - let alone have a Runelord around - and as a Vindicator of Erastil, it's rather my canning and duty to try to stop those things from happening."
"These attackers are from beyond Riddleport--and they are counting on having a Runelord to protect them from any potential retribution."
Flik considers the situation. "We're not asking you not to sell these valuable items, but perhaps you could find a private buyer and not offer them at the auction. The cultists have made allies with various strange creatures--I would worry about security at the event."
Clegg shakes his head. "No, you misunderstand. I went through quite a lot to secure those scrolls. I sold off most of my holdings to acquire them. There have been numerous attempts on my life lately, and they are my insurance policy should I meet an untimely demise. But my finances have been crippled by the acquisition, which is why I'm auctioning off my control of the city's arena."
The crime boss fidgets anxiously. "The scrolls are going to remain here, in my vault. Which means these cultists are going to try to hit this building." He lowers his gaze and appears to be deep in thought. "So if you want to stop them, I'm going to need your help defending this place."
Fergus makes note of the dented armor and the frayed clothing, but says nothing. Yes! The greater good demands that these cultists do not get these scrolls!
Clegg nods. "Very well. Mister Magenta, prepare the brandy so we can seal the deal."
The big man steps out, returning shortly with a fine bottle. He pours a glass for each of you, and Clegg raises his. "To good fortune. Now, tell me your capabilities, and then I shall give you a tour of the building."
I am a warrior and servant to Angradd! Fergus states proudly while hefting his axe.
"Merely a wandering scholar, though I am well-informed on these matters from research and first-hand experience."
Flik find his natural humility warring with his desire to project competance.
"My body is an instrument of death," Remy says coldly, but she glances at Borgol and gives him a wink. "I am a skilled hand-to-hand combatant, highly mobile and deadly at close range. Borgol here is a priest of Erastil and a sturdy warrior. And Maddie--wherever that girl has got to--she's a powerful wizard who can control the flow of time itself. We're more than capable of keeping you and your treasures safe."
"You sound like quite the capable crew," Clegg says with a faint smile. "Alright, let's take that tour."
Clegg shows you around the tenement, starting at the ground floor and working his way up.
Doors: The exterior doors on the ground floor are made of iron (hardness 10, hp 60, break DC 28) and feature narrow sliding slats allowing those within to peek out without opening the door. The interior doors are strong wooden doors (hardness 8, hp 20, break DC 25). All doors can be locked (Disable Device DC 30 to open). Clegg carries a skeleton key that unlocks any door in the building, and Mister Magenta has one that opens every door save for those leading to areas B21–B23.
Windows: None of the windows in the tenement have glass, but each can be closed from inside with wooden shutters. While these shutters are made of thin wood and thus provide little physical protection (they can be latched, but it takes only a successful DC 10 Strength check to wrench them open), the shutters seal tightly enough to prevent creatures from entering a window via gaseous form. A set of exterior iron bars (hardness 10, hp 60, break DC 25) over each window provides much more defense.
Ceilings: The ceilings on the four lower floors are 8 feet high, while rooms on the top floor feature vaulted ceilings that rise from 8 feet along the building’s edge to 15 feet along the central line from north to south.
B2. Lecture Hall: The tenement staff uses this room for meetings and other group functions.
B3. Guard Post: When prisoners are kept in the cells, a guard is posted here.
B4. Cells: The doors to these two cells are made of iron. Prisoners Clegg keeps here are those he wishes to punish on his own without involving the authorities, but both cells are currently empty.
B5. Kitchen: This kitchen features a table for food prep, several cupboards, and the building’s only fireplace (actually a stove), located in the upper east portion of the room. The chimney is a 6-inch-square, brick-lined vent that runs alongside the building’s outer wall and doesn’t present an easy entrance into the building. The chimney’s flue is kept open unless the PCs specifically close it. A dumbwaiter between the fireplace and the door to area B7 allows staff to transport food between this room and area B17 above—the dumbwaiter shaft itself is only a foot wide.
B6. Storage: This large storeroom contains firewood and tools.
B7. Pantry: This pantry stores food supplies, but it is somewhat barren at the moment.
B8. Meeting Room: Clegg uses this room to meet with important clients.
B9. Tenement Office: This room was once the domain of Clegg’s accountant, a man he fired a year ago after a paranoid fit. The room is now empty save for a desk.
B10. Common Armory: Extra weapons and armor for the tenements’ guards are stored here. At one point, this armory also kept more exotic weapons for use by house gladiators in Zincher’s Arena, but those weapons have been sold off. Today, all that remains are three halberds, some dented metal helms, a half dozen battered small metal shields, a few rolls of bandages, some used whetstones, and half a tin of metal polish.
B11. Stable Storage: This area is used to store feed, tack, and exotic saddles for the axe beaks in the stable (area B12).
B12. Stable: Clegg keeps his beloved and loyal axe beaks in this dirt-floored stable.
B13. Tenement Bedrooms: At the height of Clegg’s glory, the second, third, and fourth floor of his tenement housed guards, servants, gladiators, and friends, but as his star faded and his paranoia grew, the inhabitants of these rooms left, were fired, or simply went missing. Today, only two servants (a female cook named Genna Vearaven and a male butler named Hortus Hanch) dwell on the second floor, while only eight guards dwell on the third and fourth floors. Unoccupied rooms are musty but clean. As all three floors share an identical layout, only one of these floors appears on the map.
B14. Emergency Exits: Barred windows allow light in at both ends of the fifth floor’s central hall, but Clegg points out that each is also a cleverly hidden secret door. As with all other doors in the tenement, they are locked. Neither door opens onto a balcony—there is no obvious visual cue from outside that the doors exist. Those who wish to use either of these exits from the building must be skilled at climbing, capable of flight, or willing to simply take the damage from the 50-foot drop to the ground below.
B15. Washroom: This room contains a tub, a latrine, and a washbasin. B16. Captains’ Rooms: These two rooms are neatly ordered, clean, and spartan in their decor, each containing nothing more than a simple bed with a footlocker pushed under it. Each room is occupied by one of Clegg’s two guard captains—soldiers who have remained loyal to Clegg for many years.
B17. Lounge: A fine portrait of Clegg—smiling benevolently—hangs on the north wall of this elegant lounge, a chamber decorated with fine sofas and small tables for intimate dining experiences. Three large landscapes hang on the south wall, each depicting the same family of Varisian travelers in peril, but featuring Clegg Zincher in heroic poses as he saves them from the packs of wolves, gangs of murderers, and marauding giants that besiege them. A dumbwaiter connects to the kitchen on the ground floor below.
B18. Guest Rooms: Both of these guest bedrooms are currently empty—in fact, neither has been used for many months.
B19. Mister Magenta’s Lounge: This lounge is decorated with paintings depicting landscapes from distant Vudra. Clegg’s bodyguard, Mister Magenta, stays in this lounge. He prefers not to sleep in a bed, believing that such comforts would only “soften” him.
B20. Upper Armory: Clegg has held on to many of the potent weapons he’s accumulated over the years, although he’s sold off more than he’s kept. This armory once featured weapons to outfit his favorite gladiators, but today the room looks sparse. What remains includes a teak potion case containing seven potions with labels indicating they are potions of cure moderate wounds, a matched pair of +1 flaming kerambits, a dozen screaming bolts, a +1 clangorous steel shield cast in the shape of the face of an angry dwarf, a suit of +1 moderate fortification hide armor, and a monkeyskin pouch containing three fire elemental gems. Zincher is willing to let the PCs use any of these items they might need to help defend the tenement.
B21. Library: This room was once a well-stocked library. Clegg was never much for reading, but all the best people apparently have libraries, so he wanted one as well. Of course, the books were among the first things he sold when the going got rough. The empty shelves leave the room stark and barren. A lonely statue of Clegg stands in a corner. B22. Clegg’s Bedroom: The door to this room is made of iron. This exceptional bedroom features a superbly carved four-poster bed depicting axe beaks fighting each other. A long mirror hangs nearby, with a similar one on the ceiling above the bed. Paintings of Clegg’s gladiatorial fights adorn the walls, with the one exception being an enormous painting of the island of Devil’s Elbow about to be struck by a falling star. This painting is 4 feet wide and 8 feet tall, and Clegg points out it is actually a secret door leading into the treasury (B23).
He also points out three different traps in his bedroom. The first is a guillotine blade hidden in the doorframe; it drops down on anyone who enters the room without first bypassing the trap by pressing a hidden button just to the left of the door’s handle. The second is triggered by a hidden switch on the bed’s headboard, launching a hail of poisoned arrows that targets all creatures in the room save for anyone on the bed itself. The third and final trap is a magical one associated with the entrance to area B23; anyone who attempts to open the secret door without first pressing two additional hidden switches causes the image of the falling star in the painting to shoot out of the painting, striking the 10-foot-radius area immediately in front of the door. This effect damages only living creatures, not the building itself or Clegg’s belongings.
B23. Treasury: The walls, floor, and ceiling of Clegg’s treasury are all reinforced with iron and lead plates. The treasury contains a mostly empty shelf holding 10 bags of platinum coins with 100 pp in each (the shelf once held many more bags than this), the deed to this tenement, a set of child’s rags, 10 adamantine ingots worth 500 gp each, and, each bound in its own leather-and-bone scroll case, the primary cause of Clegg’s destitution: three scrolls of true resurrection.
B24. Rooftop: From atop this dizzying summit, the whole of Riddleport seems to squat and lurk, the view dominated by the vast arch of the Cyphergate to the south. The facade of (what will soon no longer be) Zincher’s Arena looms to the southwest, while acrid plumes from the gas forges churn nearby. The roof’s edge features a 5-foot-wide walkway, while a 10-foot-wide widow’s walk, about 10 feet above the lower ledge, can be accessed from the north and south via iron ladders. A character can scramble along the steeply sloped roof with a successful DC 10 Climb check. Iron lightning rods rise from the corners of the building and from the sides of the widows’ walk, while two iron gratings run down the shingles to prevent anyone from being able to easily navigate the lower walkway. Note that there is no direct roof access; Zincher took this out years ago to limit the points of entrance into the complex.
"So, that's everything," Clegg says upon completing the tour. "The scrolls are in the treasury, and I'd prefer they stay there rather than risk them getting pickpocketed or otherwise lost or damaged. I'm planning on taking Mister Magenta and four of my eight guards with me to the auction. The other four guards, my two captains, and my cook and butler are all at your disposal. I'll leave the planning on the defense up to you. As I said, you're welcome to any of the weapons in the armory.
"Let me make one thing clear, though. My axe beaks in the stable. They're my babies. If either of them come to harm, I'll be very upset indeed.
"I'll help finance additional defenses, but money is tight--otherwise I wouldn't be selling off my control of the arena. You can have half of the platinum and adamantine ingots in the treasury to purchase what you need, but not a copper piece more."
Borgol suggests, "That's enough money to pay for a few wards. Our issue is that we won't know their plan to get in, and whether by divination magic or paying servants, it's guaranteed they know what they're looking for. I'm tempted to suggest a few augury spells to help us figure out where we can reinforce - but I personally like the idea of a layered one - falling back to the vault as the final defense."
Aye! Borgol, that sounds like a good plan! Fergus says nodding in agreement.
Maddie is wide-eyed at the giant pile of money, not that it's really possible to tell, as she remains floating invisibly above Remy's head.
She kicks back and floats around, trying to think of spells that she might be able to use, or magic items to create in service of their efforts.
You spend the afternoon preparing defenses, assigning Zincher's guards to their posts and setting up the wards you purchased at the market. Clegg, Mister Magenta, and his other bodyguards leave for the auction a few hours before sunset, giving you a chance to finish getting everything in place.
Things are quiet for a long time. Borgol is the one to notice a subtle change--the ground beneath the north door on the ground floor seems to have softened and sunken in a bit. The sudden subsidence has damaged the door and its supports slightly, but it isn't obvious what has caused it...
Borgol whispers, "Heads up -- if we're summoning now's the time. Something's softened the stone there - either a magical attack or something burrowing under."
He draws his blade and casts divine favour.
Fergus will cast Weapon of Awe on his axe.
Maddie giggles, invisibly floating near Remy's head, and tries something on a whim, given that people are coming in from below.
"A little luck wouldn't hurt us, here."
Flik will cast good hope,
"A little luck and a lot of skill," Remy says confidently, calling upon her ki to toughen her skin.
A pit opens up on the near side of the door as Maddie casts her spell, but a minute or so passes without anybody attempting to enter through the weakened door. As you remain alert, Flik spots a trio of tiny creatures floating in the air in the stairwell, quietly peeking into the ground floor. These six-legged horrors have spiders' faces and a fibrous stalk growing out of each of their backs—a stalk ending in a snapping mouth.
Flik points out the creatures. "Heads up! Those creatures can soften earth and wood! The break in has begun."
At Flik's shout, the qlippoths shriek and move to attack, but the bard's spell of good hope gives you the edge!
Fergus will ready an action to attack when one of the creatures gets close enough.
Borgol calls on Erastil to fill him with the energy of life and growth, doubling in size as he steps forward, swinging the flaming sword, leaving silver and red fire in its wake.
for
for
for
Fortunately, the tiny qlippoths don't prove to be very tough. They resist the flames on Borgol's blade, but the holy energy burns their fiendish flesh, and with brutal strikes, he cuts down two of the three fiends. Fergus rushes forward and slays the final cythnigot.
However, the damage is already done. The qlippoths have weakened the doors to the tenement, and as the alarm spell begins to go off, it's clear that the cultists are about to begin their assault!
Realizing that it'll be helpful, Borgol casts enlarge on himself , and starts to walk toward the weakened doors -- staying back from the blast rune. "Fergus, Remy, we know how they're coming in. Let's use the bottleneck to our advantage."
A booming detonation from outside the tenement indicates that the cultists have set off the glyph of warding on the front door. Amid cries of pain and curses, several heavy blows land on the wooden door, and it collapses to splinters! Beyond it you can see four men and women wearing studded leather emblazoned with the gaping maw symbol of the qlippoth lord Yamasoth. They brandish their halberds as they prepare to attack!
Fergus will quickly take move to form the bottleneck and will ready an attack action for the first enemy that stands in the way!
Remy leaps into the fray with a flying kick, dealing out swift justice to the cultists.
Between her attacks and Fergus's, the first rank of cultists fall!
Borgol says, "This is too easy. They're a distraction," even as he steps forward to keep a line with his friends.
Flik will start dispensing advice and ready an ear-piercing scream to cast on anyone who it looks like is casting a spell.
Maddie casts a pair of spells, reappearing as her magic washes over the enemies.
Both of the remaining cultists manage to resist Maddie's slow spell. One of them tries to cast a healing spell, but Flik's scream disrupts his concentration, and he loses the magic. The other one steps up to attack with his halberd, but misses badly.
You can see another group of four cultists are rushing to aid their brethren!
for
for
for
Maddie rends space open, twisting it into grasping tendrils which restrain the attackers!
Borgol cuts down the cultist that stepped up with a few brutal slices of his sword. Fergus and Remy swiftly take down the last one in the initial group, while Maddie conjures a field of black tentacles that ensnare the second group of four!
The cultists cry out and struggle to escape the tentacles, but they are unsuccesful. It seems they will have to be incredibly lucky to escape before they are crushed to death.
However, Borgol's instincts prove to be correct. The cultists are just a distraction, and as a rent in space opens in the ground floor's hall, a true threat manifests itself. This fiend appears to be a mass of floating intestines tangled around a fanged mouth—the tips of its coils also end in toothy maws. It roars and wriggles its grotesque tendrils, making your stomachs heave.
Nyogoths are immune to acid, cold, and mind-affecting effects. They resist electricity and fire, as well as weapons that are not lawfully aligned. Damage from piercing or slashing weapons causes them to spray acid on their attackers.