Scions of Punjar, Session 2: Looking for Latimer

Aletha, Chiana, Regnor, and Corvus reviewed everything they knew about the strange case of the Dev'shirs' misfortunes. They knew someone had robbed and defiled the family tomb and left behind undead guardians and traps but for what purpose it was unclear. They also knew that Dugesia Dev'shir had died alone in the stable fire and that Lakasia Dev'shir had not been there and was not accounted for among the dead at the tomb. They had their suspicions about the family's honesty, but decided to investigate their final lead before confronting the family with questions and accusations.

Their final lead was a known grave-robber by the name of Latimer who was a regular patron at the Famished Froghemoth in the Devil's Thumb district. They set up a stakeout in the common room of the tavern. Corvus waited patiently in their private room above. Chiana entertained the guests with music and dance, Aletha sat with a pair of scholarly types betting over an intense game of chess. Regnor took up position at the bar. A couple hours after dark Latimer, a half-orc rogue, came in and bought some ale before heading over to a table where a loud game of beer pong was being played.

Regnor was the first to notice a trio of men sitting at a well position table in the corner of the common room. They appeared to also be interested in Latimer. Regnor took it upon himself to distract the men while his companions attempted to shuttle Latimer off to their private room. The leader of the other two brutes, Traenor a Tiefling warlock, attempted to scare Regnor off by displaying a tattoo marking him as belonging to a nefarious assassins' guild known as the Slayers, but Regnor was not deterred. He bought the brutes some ale and then tried to convince Traenor to hire him. He gave him the false name of "Regno" and asked what they needed him to do.

Meanwhile, Aletha and Chiana had closed in on Latimer who was now well inebriated after defeating his last opponent at beer pong. They attempted to seduce him into coming back to their room with them, but their innuendo did not pierce the fog of his beer-soaked brain. Finally they convinced him that they could continue playing "games" upstairs so he gathered up his coin, some glasses, and the rest of the beer to take upstairs with them.

Regnor managed to keep the Slayers busy enough that they did not notice when Latimer left his table and headed to the stairs. Once Traenor realized his mistake her ordered the brutes to search the room and then the streets outside the tavern. Regnor stuck close the the Tiefling who grudgingly accepted his help and they headed upstairs together to search the private rooms.

Aletha and Chiana had managed to get Latimer in their room where Corvus accosted him and attempted to interrogate him. Latimer was cornered and confused, but held out against their onslaught of questions and moved surreptitiously toward one of the windows.

Regnor played the bumbling side-kick role very well and frustrated Traenor to his wits end. They barged into wrong room after wrong room looking for Latimer until Traenor overheard voices coming from the party's room. Regnor made enough noise himself to warn the others of their approach. Chiana attempted to bluff Traenor by playing the part of an overworked call-girl already booked to capacity which bought them a few moments, but it did not keep him off their trail for long.

As Aletha, Chiana, and Corvus prepared themselves for intruders, Latimer took the opportunity to escape by climbing out the window and dropping to the street below. The brutes who had been searching for him outside came circling around the building and spotted him as he attempted to run off and closed in. Corvus leaned out the window and cast grasping shards at Latimer keeping him slowed down. Aletha fey-stepped down to the street and attacked one of the brutes, keeping him cursed and partially blinded. Chiana jumped down next to Latimer, who expected her to attack him and was surprised when she turned to strike the other brute with vicious mockery.

Traenor attempted to bust into the room after hearing sounds of battle. Regnor, still playing his part as the fumbling lackey, pushed him out of the way to get into the room first. Traenor finally lost his patience with "Regno" and turned on him, blasting him with eldritch magic. Regnor dropped his pretenses and slashed at the Tiefling with his greataxe. Corvus came into the hallway to support the fighter after blasting the brutes with divine bolts from the window.

One of the brutes shot Chiana with a poisoned crossbow bolt before charging Latimer with a greatsword. Chiana tries to fight off the effects of the poison but failed and fell unconscious for the rest of the encounter. Aletha finished off her brute before turning to help Latimer, who was handling himself well despite his drunken state. He had tossed sand into the eyes of the other brute to get behind and backstab him before he recovered. Once Latimer saw that Aletha did not intend to harm him he helped her finish off the remaining brute.

Corvus and Regnor had more trouble with the tricky Traenor. He managed to confuse Regnor into blooding Corvus with his axe and bloodied Regnor with his blasts. Regnor managed to bloody the Tiefling before Traenor vowed they hadn't seen the last of the Slayers before turning invisible and teleporting away.

In the aftermath, the party managed to keep Latimer from running off long enough to convince him to talk to them. They found a quiet place to discuss things. It turned out that Latimer had once belonged to the Slayers' guild but had left on bad terms. Apparently they had been hunting him down ever since and finally caught up with him. Recently Latimer had been running with a bandit band called the Crimson Hand who set up a base in the abandoned iron mines outside of town. They had been ordered by their leader, Haeldon, to dig up corpses, loot the bodies, and load them onto wagons. He had no idea where the bodies went or who had hired the gang to do the work. Latimer had stolen Dugesia Dev'shir's necklace from Haeldon's personal loot, and had not known where it came from. The Slayers had nothing to do with the grave-robbing as far as he knew, it was just an unpleasant coincidence that they had turned up tonight.

After the party bribed Latimer he spoke more freely of the location of the hideout, the layout of the mines, and the inhabitants. The party got Latimer to draw them a map and tell them some passwords before they let him go. The party decided to rest up again before heading out to confront Haeldon and the Crimson Hand and learn who their pay-masters are.