Ketra blows out "Phooo... Glad it didn't whisk you off Rosa. Not sure we could've followed if it kept climbing like that." She retrieves her extra dagger from the remains of the ooze and checks the vat again in case there was something in there under the ooze - say the Crows' victims. "Not a normal thing to find in a dyeworks as far as I know. Lets keep looking. More signs of the Crows being here will probably be around here somewhere. And if not - we've got that horrible, evil thing in the other building."
The latest danger dealt with, your group resumes their search of the dyeworks. The obvious item of interest--and the only thing reading as magical in Garret's sight--is the armor of the body that had been engulfed by the ooze.
The body is indeed half-melted, an unrecognizable remnant of meat and bone. The armor, too, is damaged but not irreparably so; enough detail remains to recognize a skull motive and pieces of a prayer in Necril etched into the plates.
The only other find of immediate significance is a bit of powder around one of the dye barrels, which proves to have a false bottom and actually contain four doses of arsenic, and six doses of opium.
Gathering up the treasure, Garret says, ”Right, let’s move along before our spells expire.”
Ketra leaves aside the armor and drugs and responds to Garret "Question is where. How about we look around the courtyard and then try that building to the right?"
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Encouraged by her friends' words of kindness, Rosalind shakes off her brush with death and joins in the search. "Hm... if there is no sign of the Cult here , does that mean they used this building to set up an ooze trap and nothing else, I wonder?"
Before leaving, Rosalind double checks for the presence of anything evil in the direct vicinity with her magic, also checking the roof and the floor with her cones of magical detection. Should nothing be found, she agrees with Ketra and takes up the front again as the group ventures outside. "Poor soul... maybe their remains can be identified by the armor once we take it back. They deserve a proper burial and their next of kin should be informed." She comments on the body and broken fullplate on the way out, trying not to think on how close things to her sharing the dead knight's fate.
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"They definitely used the ooze to dispose of someone. Someone who was probably or maybe an agent of the Whispering Way, or one of their own members of the Crows. I have to admit I'm not quite sure whether they're both ready to kill each other or if its more one sided..." Ketra muses quietly to Rosa as they advance toward the next building.
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"Ah, I figured the Way was desecrating knight's armor and/or that the prayer was involved in summoning the slime. Puzzling as to why they are then apparently fighting against eachother... unless the Slime was not planned and got here on its own, maybe? I doubt we'll find answers unless we find more enemies to ask."
[dice=Ketra Fort]1d20+5
Having turned over the dyeworks, Ketra leads the way back outside through the south-eastern door. Upon opening it she's immediately slammed by a caustic, gut-churning stench emanating from six tanning pits directly in front of her. The odor is nauseating and the dancer has to fight her spasming stomach muscles to keep her gorge down.
To Ketra's right are several pigeon houses positioned over a long tray intended to catch the birds' waste. The pigeons flutter a bit but otherwise don't react to your presence, seeming more interested in sleeping. To Ketra's right is a cultivated garden area, ingredients for various shades of dye like fennel, poppies, madder, saffron, and even a few walnut trees. Sheets of colored fabric and sheaves of brightly dyed wool hang from wires that crisscross the garden.
Across from Ketra is a barn, from which comes an animal stink and the occasional bleat of a goat. Otherwise, this area has no obvious dangers or clues.
Ketra backpedals, but the blast of noxious fumes she's taken has already done its worst. She hacks and coughs back in the main building to no avail "Air...!"
Only after she's cleared her lungs does she try to brave the courtyard a second time. She eyes the place carefully in the meantime, wary that their foes might have place a trap here to catch someone who would break in. If she spots nothing, she braves the smell to look into the barn more significantly for any signs.
Silvia, following closely behind Ketra, is similarly overcome by the horrid stench and staggers back to tie a cloth over her mouth and nose.
It does nothing to lessen the smell, of course, but it makes her feel better.
Finding the barn locked, Zsofia rolls her eyes and mutters "What you you do without me?" as she drifts through the wall. A moment later she comes back out.
"There's cages in here, and one of 'em has a lady in it. She's passed out, looks like they beat her pretty badly." Galvanized by this report you all spring into action; Rosalind invokes a spell of silence and then you set to work breaking open the door.
The stink of animal waste fills this barn, coming from a dozen goats crammed into a stall, bleating in distress. Piles of dirty straw are all over the space and a hayloft rings the space above.
There is indeed a cage of the far corner, holding a dirty woman curled into a ball on her side. She wears a tattered arming coat and her arms are locked behind her in a wooden pillory. A metal collar around her name is fastened via a short chain to a metal loop in the bottom of the cage. She stirs slightly as you enter, but doesn't waken. Zsofia is right--she looks battered and ill-treated, but she's alive.
"Can you heal her Rosa?" Ketra wonders if this is Doeswen, but its hard to tell when she's in this state. With her mind spinning, she doesn't even realize that her words were eaten up by the silence. Eventually she nudges and points to see if Rosa might be able to help. Meanwhile Ketra looks for any keys or tools that might've been left nearby that would help free her.
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Rosalind averts her gaze at the sight of the presumed torture victim. It conjured unwanted images of her own imprisonmemt by the Whispering Way. But she nods at Ketra's silent request amd steps forward in an effort to help the woman. She approaches slowly in a non-theatening manner, trying to make contact with her. She does her best to triage her wounds, if any, and sets towards treating them and unbinding her if possible.
”Don’t worry—we are here to help,” says Garret gently as she comes awake. ”We are trying to rescue Lieutenant Doeswen—are you she?”
Ketra does indeed find a ring of keys hanging on a peg by the barn door, and some quick experimenting finds which match to the cage, collar, and pillory in turn. Under the sure, quick ministrations of Rosalind the woman stirs to wakefulness, jerking away until she takes in your appearances--whomever you might be, you're not her kidnappers.
"Doeswen, aye, that's me." She rubs the chafed spots on her wrists and eyes your pins from Varvatos. "I don't know how you found me but I'm sure glad of it. It--it hasn't been a few days or something, has it? I don't think I slept that long. Are any of the Crows still alive?"
"Corporal Hernan Entietor survived the hanging long enough for us to rescue him. He is safe in Vigil now. It has been hours, not days, since your abduction, so we hope to stop whatever it is the cultists have planned before it befalls the innocent. Did your captors let anything slip about their plans? What can you tell us of this place--I take it we have much more to do tonight to forestall the cultist plans," responds Garret.
"Captain Rosalind Sunstone here can give you more details on the military implications, but I am inclined to just incinerate whatever cultists we find after what they did to my hometown," he adds, gesturing to the captain.
"Brave corporal, that one. Was helping us investigate only minutes after he almost died of hanging." Ketra shakes her head "You too! Asking about the Crows right away. We found one at your guardpost. We came here on a lead that there might be more, but we haven't found them yet. It hasn't been all that long since you were taken." She nods along with Garret's comments, especially the part about needing to do a lot more tonight and the question about what Doeswen may have overheard.
"Sorry to put it on you so soon after getting you out, but I'm afraid there's even more going on here than just the Crows."
"Entietor lived? That's...that's something. I thought I'd gotten them all--I, ah, thought they'd all been killed. Thank you for rescuing him." She closes her eyes and thinks through the questions as they come. "The Crows didn't say it, exactly, but they were clearly cleaning up loose ends, witnesses. It's got to be related to the theft of the Shield of Arnisant; it's the only thing that makes sense for them coming after me. They were spooked though, bickering, and they mentioned one of theirs got nabbed. Was that you lot too? That's good. I heard the fighting before I passed out, how many of them did you capture here? I saw five different people." She gives you all a wan smile. "Coming at them through the sewers was clever, I'm impressed. They'd have expected Watchknights or Ozemites marching up the street but you caught them totally by surprise."
Ketra crosses her arms. The woman's reactions don't ring quite true to her. As paranoid as it seems, she decides to more carefully feel out what her story is "I think you're going to need to explain a little slower what you heard happening here."
Doeswen blinks and gives Ketra a confused look. "The...raid? Your attack on the Crows, I could hear the fighting. I tried to call out but my throat was too raw. There were screams, and steel clashing--I couldn't hear a lot but I know something was happening." Her expression suddenly turns wary, more alert as she scoots away from your further into the corner. "A-are you really with the Watchknights? If that wasn't you, th-then...?"
"We spoke with Varvatos before coming here - the Knights of Ozem are still behind us. And Varvatos didn't say anything about sewers anyway." She crosses her arms "So someone else got here before us. If I had to guess, it'd be the Whispering Way agents sent to silence the Crows in turn."
"How did you know it was the sewers anyway? You were trapped here... right?"
"I heard the shouting when the attack started, the gnome was in here asking be questions, when one of the others came to the door." Doeswen's eyes flicker to the door before she continues. "Someone yelled 'they came from below'."
Ketra can't tell much--the story is muddled but she can't see the trick in it, and Doeswen herself doesn't seem to be lying so much as confused.
In a flash of insight, htough, Rosalind realizes that Doeswen is telling the truth about the attack. She must have assumed that was a rescue attempt, and now upon realizing that wasn't the case she's worried that your group might be an elaborate trick upon her. Rosa doesn't think the lieutenant has accounted for a separate Whispering Way group hostile to the Crows.
"If I had to guess, it'd be the Whispering Way agents sent to silence the Crows in turn."
Doeswen blinks at Ketra as the realization dawns. "Oh damn my eyes, of course. The Crows aren't cultists, they're hired agents; after they nabbed me the cultists could eliminate everyone together." She frowns again, "So why am I still alive?"
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Realization dawning, Garret answers, ”My guess is that your location is a bargaining chip any remaining crows are using to stay alive assuming they are being interrogated by the cultists. Evil groups feeding on each other seem to have given us the opportunity to pluck you from both their clutches.”
"Good question... Maybe a bargaining chip like Garret says, or maybe you know something the Crows don't and they were hoping to get it out of you. Did they ask you anything weird after they captured you?" Ketra mulls it over, crossing her arms and pacing around "Then again, what *could* there be? The Crows organized this whole thing. Unless you know what happened to the Shield shards afterward?"
"Either way, if the Whispering Way took the Crows down now, I'd guess they're accelerating their plans, whatever they are."
Doeswen looks disturbed at that thought. "They beat me pretty badly, asking me who I shared my investigations with. I don't think the Crows wanted to kill me until they were sure I hadn't talked to anyone else. It's hard to believe something like this could be festering in Vigil..." She shakes her head in disbelief, then denial to Ketra's followup question. "As far as I know the shards of the Shield were spirited away. I haven't uncovered so much as a whisper about them turning up somewhere. No idea why they would want to go to so much trouble, can they reforge it? Corrupt it? There has to be an angle for them, I just can't figure out what it is."
Ketra sighs at Doeswen's disturbed expression "You don't know the half of it Doeswen."
"Unfortunately, if you don't know more about the shards, we may be stuck until we can find one of the Whispering Way members that were behind it. Gildais, probably. But given who stole them, I'd guess they didn't plan to reforge it." She turns to the others "We're not likely to be able to catch up to the cult, but we might be able to trace them back now that we know they were here. Before then, we should deal with whatever is in that showroom. I'd hate to leave that to the knights."
"Before then, we should deal with whatever is in that showroom."
Silvia, watching the door intently, simply nods, then looks back at their rescued captive. "Doeswen, can you stand?"
As you help Doeswen to her feet, those of your party keeping a lookout hear and sound of armored figures approaching shortly before a quartet of Iomedaean knights appear, in full armor but with tabards over the top taking the edge of their martial mien.
"Second Swordknight Varvatos is concerned about alarming the populace, so she's sending us in small groups by various routes to avoid alerting anyone else that something's afoot." The warrior at their head informs you. "The others should be arriving soon in staggered groups. Oh thank the Inheritor, the prisoner's alive. I take it the enemy has fled their camp?"
"Fled? Not quite, it seems. Someone got here before us." Ketra grimaces, thumbing the end of her nose before shaking her head "We've got a lead at least. But first we've got some monster in the showroom to deal with before it gets out and causes havoc. Can you watch Doeswen and help get her somewhere safe in the mean time? And have someone watch any entrances to the sewers near here?"
”Excellent plan, Ketra,” says Garret. ”Now that the lieutenant is safe left us clear the main house while there may still be crows alive left to question.”
Garret prepares to follow the group into the main building.
When you explain the unknown threat in the showroom, the knights nod their understanding and gently but firmly steer Doeswen away, the latter looking around as though expecting Crows to jump out at her. Gathering yourselves at the showroom's back door, Zsofia gives you all a self-satisfied smile as she drifts through the door; after a moment you hear the click of the lock and the phantom swings it open.
Even in the darkness you can tell the building holds a vast array of cloth and leather displayed on tables or hung upon ornate hooks. Near you is a large wooden countertop, only just visible under heaps of fabric swatches and samples. Velvet curtains hang in front of several small changing room on either wall to your left and right. It's also immediately apparent that there was a struggle here--several mounds of cloth have been knocked to the floor and lay in loose piles, there are scrapes and scores in the wall in a few spots, and the smell of blood is unmistakable.
Zsofia starts to make a remark when a sudden wave of intense emotion washes over all of you--terror, pain, fury, betrayal; the cocktail is so sudden and unexpected it leaves you dizzy for a heartbeat. A trio of inky black figures, vaguely humanoid with brightly gleaming silver pinpricks of light to suggest eyes, emerge seemingly from nowhere with a chorus of echoing wails!
These creatures are incorporeal spirits called "exiled shades," the product of those who were riven out and possibly even slain by their former allies. Exiled shades are consumed by the pain of their betrayal and their paradoxical desires to simultaneously destroy and be reunited with its former comrades.
+ ROUND ONE +
Silvia
Rosalind (Shaken)
Ketra (Shaken)
Hostile Spirits
Sanduro
Zsofia (Shaken)
Garret (Shaken)
”Exiled Shades—incorporeal undead! exclaims Garret, wishing he had refreshed his Shield spell before entering the battle.
"Incorporeal? Hmph." Ketra focuses inward and summons up her innate power as a duskwalker to put the dead to rest. She touches her dagger and it begins to emit a smoky glow. "I can deal with that." She dashes past Garret and takes on a defensive stance as she approaches the first shade.
With a careful slash, she releases to stored undead-killing magic upon the foe.
Garret and Rosalind immediately recognize the exiled shades for what they are; Garret knows that in addition to the impressive defenses of incorporealness the shades have modest resistance to channeled positive energy but are otherwise bereft of unusual defenses. For her part, Rosalind knows that in addition to the aura of supernatural fear that surrounds them, exiled shades' can drain the thoughts and memories of those they touch--and worse, those whose minds are lost to the shades fall under their control as well.
If an exiled shade deals a cumulative amount of Intelligence damage greater than or equal to a humanoid target’s actual Intelligence score, the affected creature does not fall unconscious as normal. Instead, the target ceases to take penalties from its Intelligence damage and falls under the control of the exiled shade, as per Dominate Person.
As the shades rise to confront your group, Silvia brings her rifle to bear against the nearest shade and lets loose a one-woman volley of shots against the green shade, though her shots are of limited effectiveness. Not so Ketra's blade, which glows with ghostlight and shears through the unquiet spirit with great effect--even moreso the flash of golden light from Garret's spell stored within. The shade is left ragged and faded, barely clinging to it's unnatural existence!
Shaking off terror's icy grip on her spine, Rosalind steps forward and readies herself to receive an assault; she also recalls a weakness of these creatures--the symbols of the organization they were betrayed by still has a powerful hold over their psyches; when confronted with such symbols they quail and gibber, but those who overcome their grief and fear are enraged.
Wailing and shrieking, the shades come at you! Ketra nimbly dodges the attacks from the ragged green, only to be caught by the grasping hands of blue emerging from the wall of a changing booth! Luckily the brain fog is mild and easily overcome by the focus demanded by battle. Rosalind swings at the red shade as it closes, her blade cutting through its insubstantial form before it plunges a ghostly claw into the Watchknight's shoulder! Rosa immediately feels her thoughts becoming muddled and sluggish, though it's not yet debilitating.
+ ROUND ONE +
Silvia
Rosalind
Ketra (Shaken)
Green Shade (-58hp)
Red Shade (-10hp)
Blue Shade
Sanduro
Zsofia (Shaken)
Garret (Shaken)
+ ROUND TWO +
Silvia
Rosalind (-4Int)
Ketra (Shaken; -1Int)
Green Shade (-58hp)
Red Shade (-10hp)
Blue Shade
Sanduro
Zsofia (Shaken)
Garret (Shaken)
Looking into the building, Garret sees the frightening shades flit around, his Deathwatch eyes confirming they are indeed undead. Gripping his Selective Metamagic Rod, he carefully casts a roaring fireball into the room, its magic seeking to incinerate the spirits while leaving his allies unscathed!
Ketra shields her face against the flames but finds them parting around her to her surprise. Unharmed, she tumbles past the shade near her to gang up on the other one together with Rosa.
Silvia brings her rifle to bear on the shade pinned between her allies, firing a trio of shots before the first casing has hit the deck.
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Evading the shade jabbing at her from the changing room, Ketra crosses the showroom to gang up on the spirit harassing Rosalind. Along with Silvia the three of them tear the unfortunate shade to ectoplasmic ribbons, before the paladin turns her rifle on the remaining shade. Zsofia follows up on the gunfire with a sudden rush and flurry of vicious punches that still manage to hurt the undead despite the cover of the changing room; Sanduro's own volley of arrows are not so fortunate though with the arrows tangling in cloth or punching into the thin wooden walls but missing the shade.
Heedless of its own survival the remaining shade shrieks again and flails at Zsofia, who curses vehemently. "I had something really clever for this...but it's gone down. Stupid shade."
+ ROUND THREE +
Silvia
Rosalind (-4Int)
Ketra (Shaken; -1Int)
Blue Shade
Sanduro
Zsofia (Shaken; -4Int)
Garret (Shaken)
Silvia takes a step through the doorway, firing off another burst over Zsofia's shoulder.
Ketra's plenty swift on her feet as she dances back toward the blue shade and stabs away with a flick of her wrist.
Maybe too swift.
Rosalind and Ketra close quickly on the remaining shade, but Silvia's bullets get there first. Already battered by spell and ectoplasmic haymakers, the spirit's form frays and twists away into nothingness, leaving you all panting and your ears ringing in the fight's aftermath.
The source of the smell of death and blood isn't hard to find--underneath one of the scattered piles of cloth you find three human bodies, dressed well but not extravagantly, like artisans or merchants of modest means. Alarmingly, all three bodies have been decapitated and the missing heads are nowhere to be found.
Unsurprisingly, there are signs of a fight here; it looks like the Crows made their stand in here, but you notice signs of others present besides just the three corpses. Scuffs and smears of blood on the floor suggest a heavily armored figure collapsed and was dragged away, and there are signs that indicate several addition unarmored bodies were removed as well. Prisoners and/or the attackers' own fallen, perhaps?
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”I would guess these are the betrayed Crows that rose as Exiled Shades,” says Garret. Casting Detect Magic, he scours the area for clues magical and mundane. He also puts another Searing Light into the spell-storing dagger.