Maxy rushes down the stairs and over to the undead who just appeared and lunges at it with her face full of tentacles, trying to grab and tear at it!
Aygavan takes a moment to study the new undead before stepping down from the stairs and lashing at it with his wihp.
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Zab moves and readies while Maxy and Aygavan move to attack one of the undead, but neither strike. Two undead charge at Zab but both miss. Another steps up to Maxy and sends a barrage of attacks at her. She mostly fends it off, but a single claw slashes her shoulder.
Initiative Bold Go! Grasmere Cemetery Slide 2
Ghorza [-8]
H [?/?]
Mazy [-14: I need a DC 13 Fortitude from Maxy]
Aygavan [/]
Zab [Take your readied attack against the first to go in.]
G [/]
Ghorza steps down and attacks the enemy in front of Zaborjca!
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Ghorza strides forward and tries to attack, but fails to connect. The undead that seems different shifts over to put Maxy between it and Aygavan. It then lashes out with both of its bony claws and one manages to strike Maxy along her forearm drawing blood.
Initiative Bold Go! Grasmere Cemetery Slide 2
Ghorza [-8]
H [?/?]
Mazy [-19: I need a new DC 14 Fortitude from Maxy]
Aygavan [/]
Zab [Take your readied attack against the first to go in.]
G [/]
Maxy grunts "This isn't going very well!"
Zaborjca uncoils like a tightly wound spring at the first enemy to reach striking range!
Maxy bites twice, hard, at the more wounded foe in front of her then steps back toward the group.
Ayg clambers to his feet before lashing at the different-looking undead with his whip.
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In a barrage of attacks Maxy drops what appears to be the leader of the undead. Aygavan turns and strikes the next undead in line, but it remains standing. Zab stabs a second of the undead.
The three remaining undead all send a flurry of blows at Maxy, Zab and Ghorza. After the flurry of attacks, Maxy is struck once but Zab and Ghorza manage to avoid all of the blows.
Initiative Bold Go! Grasmere Cemetery Slide 2
Ghorza [-8]
Mazy [-24: I need a new DC 13 Fortitude from Maxy]
Aygavan [/]
Zab [Take your readied attack against the first to go in.]
G [-9/?]
G [-10/?]
G [/]
Maxy grits her teeth in pain but can't communicate how hurt she is with the spell transforming her mouth. Instead, she tries to take down the threat in front of her, snapping three times at the opponent in rapid succession, trying to twist, grab, and tear.
Aygavan moves around to the bottom of the stairs and tries to give Zaborcja some support against the undead he's fighting.
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Zab strikes the undead who turns hissing at him. This leaves an opening for Ghorza to conjure a blade and strike down the creature.
The room goes quite. There are the bodies of four undead. Aygavan is standing next to a large painting on the ground formed from a dark red liquid and charred ashes. Any search of the undead shows a similarly painted image on their backs over where their heart would be.
A large vase, the size of a halfling, is filled with more vilely smelling liquid and charred ashes. The more perceptive of you think that some of the blackened ashes in the art and vat have some kind of insect body in it.
Maxy looks at the insect symbols. "These seem important. Do any of you know what they are?" She keeps busy searching the bodies and room for anything else valuable or informative.
Zaborjca holds his magnet light close to the insect body and inspects it closely. He pulls a well-worn pad of paper from his bag and refers to some hand-written notes as he does so.
”Cant say what this is.” Ghorza admitted. ”But I might know someone who does…”
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Zab recognizes the burnt insects as Death's Head Hawkmoths. The images on the undead and the floor look like they were likely intended to be drawings of the large moth.
The group returns to town with the injured nobles, villain's and evidence of what they found. Madge is busy and you are scheduled to meet the next day to discuss your findings. That gives you a day to investigate the different issues that you discovered, but were not able to fully identify.
You visit a scholar of various religions and tell her what you saw and found in the graveyard. She seems quite concerned by what you tell her.
She begins by suggesting that the tattoos and the spectral crossbow that was summoned during the fight suggests that the group that was enticing young nobles to the graveyard are worshipers of Nocticula, a Demon Lord whose area of concerns include assassins, darkness and lust.
An alchemist that you know is able to name several psychedelic plants that were added to the cask that you found. The alchemist does not think it would kill anyone, but inhibitions and hallucinations were sure to follow drinking the concoction. If you mention the cask and what was in it to the scholar, she believe this concoction may have been intended as part of some rite to Nocticula.
The scholar seems equally concerned about the undead and the Death's Head Hawkmoths that you located and suggests that only followers of Rajuk Amon Gore would have created the undead in that fashion. He is a dark god followed by assassins, doomsayers and necromancers and his favorite creature is the Death's head hawkmoths that were used in the dark rites to raise the dead.
The following day, you go to Madge's office. Madge looks just as harried as when you last saw her and she motions you in and says, "So...what was going on in the graveyard?"
"Drinking. Partying. Some slap and tickle." Zaborjca pauses. "...and also undead horrors, rites to the Demon Lord Nocticula, and evidence of Rajuk Amon Gore cultists. You were correct to be concerned about the goings-on there."
”The drinks were spiked with psychedelic plants. Enough to cause hallucinations, but not enough to kill. We didn’t find anything more sinister than that in the drinks.” She added. ”But aye. What was going on there? Less than ideal.”
Maxy scratches her head. "I'm quite confused about the Demon Lord worshipers and the dark god worshipers. Were they working together? Did the same people worship two beings? I don't really get it..."
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Madge seems troubled by the news and says, "Well, there does seem to be more going on then I expected when I sent you in to appease Jens. It also makes what else has happened even more concerning. Yesterday morning, Father Jens was found dead in his bed. It was assumed that he went naturally to meet his Goddess...but now I wonder if that was true. Still, the nobles and the church both appreciate what you did and that none of the nobles died or that the graveyard was not further damaged. The two groups have put together a reward for your work." Madge reaches into her desk and toss a decent sized pouch onto the table that clinks as it lands. "There is a thousand gold for you to split up. For now go and relax. If these cults are really about, I am sure we will hear from them again. For now keep this quiet. We don't need the followers of Pharasma, or any of the other gods or goddesses, to start some Holy War against a couple of cults that may or may not be around."
With that Madge motions you to take your reward and go.
About a week passes before the party hears from the Kortos Consortium again. Each member of the party receives a letter that reads as follows, "Once again your services to the Kortos Consortium are needed. Several of our agents working with the residents of the island's interior have reported increased levels of minotaur activity. Meet with Bredden, our senior agent in charge of overseeing the overland caravan routes. He will be at his cabin outside of town. He will fill you in on the rest of the details."
Zaborjca receives the letter at his home - he ruffles the hair of his children as he reads, looking pleased. Business this month looks livelier than usual. He heads to a courier's office, and dispatches a message to the others. "Don't know if you got the same letter I did, but we seem to work well enough together. Lookin' to do another job together? Meet me here at sundown, if so."
He then begins the work of preparing his equipment and potions before evening.
Ghorza arrived, the fact that her skin was as stone was a sign that she was ready to face the minotaurs. She was feeling great, ever since she had sunk all of her savings into a ring. It was enchanted, so that she no longer needed food or water, and needed to only sleep for two hours a day. It was not only an investment, but it was life-changing in the way if affected her day to day. In many ways it felt like she had paid to add years to her life. All in all, life was looking up. But she definitely did need more money, given how much was just spent.
"Aye, another job." She said. "And this one seems more simple than the last. Instead of undead and cults, we just have several tons of muscle and brute force to deal with. What could go wrong?"
The party gathers together, making ready to head out of Diobel.
Aygavan is absent, having obligations to fulfill for an Aspis Consortium trade contract.
It's an hour's travel to Bertran's house, and the party arrives at his cabin just as the sun is sinking low and the shadows are growing long. It's a tidy two-story affair made from cut and fitted logs. Nobody is inside, however, or at least nobody comes to the door when called.
A bit of time passes, perhaps concerningly, before all manner of rustling can be heard from the brush surrounding the cabin and a man steps out. He holds a crossbow in one hand, and the other steadies a boar slung over his shoulder.
His voice is rough, and the rambling drawl of a Kortos inlander is clear in his speech, "My, my, my, seems I've got guests! Deepest apologies for not bein' here to attend your arrival. I do suspect though..." He hangs his crossbow on a loop on his belt and pats the boar on his shoulder, "I suspect that bein' late with dinner is a fair margin better than bein' on time and goin' hungry. I'll cut to the chase though. If you all were brigands, you'd have tried to shoot me already. You all don't look like traveling merchants either. So I must ask, what're you all doin' here?"
Maxy spends the weeks with her kin in the underdocks, swimming and thinking about the dark dealings she got herself mixed up in, before responding to the next job.
She eyes the man and asks "We were supposed to meet a Bredden or a Bertran or someone like that. We're agents of the Kortos Consortium." she nods to the letter that Zaborjca offers.
"Minotuar problem needs solving, or so we've heard." Ghorza added in.
Bredden nods, ”Here from the bosses? Well, I’m glad they’re sendin’ someone out to help me out. Come on, we’ll talk over dinner.”
He gets to butchering the boar and promptly gets a stew going. With dinner bubbling away on the cookfire he sits down with the party, ”So, for about a month now I’ve been seeing minotaurs further up in the mountains. They haven’t been hostile, even when they’ve absolutely seen me. I’ve tried doin’ some investigation myself and tracked them back to a mountain called the Grandfather’s Sorrow. They’ve got a little walled settlement there, but I’m not much of a people person. I’d like you all to head over there, see what’s got them on the move. If they get hostile, then by all means get away, though.”
Ghorza politely declined taking a bowl. In the past, she would have gladly done so, but with her ring she felt no hunger. It did not seem right to waste the food. Rather, she sat and listened intently. Nodding to Tocash's question, she added "And by any chance did it seem like they were looking for something?" From everything she had heard about minotaurs, they were violent demon worshipers. Not that she had ever seen one before, of course. But still, the idea of them having a walled settlement, and wandering around without attacking anyone? If nothing else, she wanted to know what they were up to.
”Well, I saw about a dozen huts in their village, give or take a few. I’d guess somewhere around 50 minotaurs, all told. If they ain’t friendly, takin’ ‘em on in open battle wouldn’t end well. It hadn’t occurred to me they might be lookin’ for something. It’s possible, certainly, but I can’t say for sure.”
Zaborjca raises an eyebrow at that number, but says nothing, simply taking another bite of boar stew.
"Certainly not something we could fight." Ghorza mused. "But we can make contact. Gold isn't paid for nothing, aye? And what's life without a little risk."
Maxy nods slowly and thoughtfully. "Yes that is interesting. I'm not very good with talking to people but Tocash, you can handle it, right?" Then she pauses "Wait, does anybody know what languages Minotaurs speak?" Because Maxy certainly does not.