After sending Dale off to join the Raven Queen's growing followers, Aletha, Regnor, and Chiana went back to searching for their missing companions. They eventually met a trio of revelers, either getting an early start or still going after a long night of partying, traveling down the street. A massive Goliath male was staggering toward them with his beefy arms around the shoulders of two giggling women, an Elf and a Tiefling. Aletha and Chiana stopped the group to ask them some questions. The Goliath looked on the new pair of women with lasciviousness and asked in a slurring voice if they wanted to join him for some drinks and some fun. The Elf and the Tiefling looked Aletha and Chiana up and down with disdain. The Tiefling woman opined, "What do you want with that bony Eladrin bitch, Brutus. She looks frigid to me." Regnor watched the exchange from a respectful distance.
Aletha fey-stepped behind the Tiefling and tripped her into a puddle of mud, or vomit, and the Goliath laughed at the woman's misfortune. The Tiefling flung a wrathful glance at Aletha, but was humiliated into inaction. Chiana presented the Goliath and the Elf with Cadavra's scribbled image of a frothing tankard and asked if they knew of a tavern near here that matched it. The Goliath failed to focus on the image, but the Elf quickly replied, "Yeah, you're looking for the 'Frothing Tankard Inn'. It's that way near High Court, but I don't know why you'd want to go there. It's boring and overpriced." They thanked her for the information and Aletha told Brutus to look them up again if he was looking for a job, because they had many openings for someone with his talents. The Goliath laughed heartily at her innuendo, but was quickly ushered away by his entourage and down the lane. Regnor quietly watched the trio saunter away, keeping his own private thoughts to himself.
The group went in search of the Frothing Tankard Inn and soon found a building with a sign matching the sketch. It appeared devoid of activity from the outside. Regnor and Aletha took a cautious circuit around the building while Chiana peeked in through a window. At first the common room looked empty, but soon a single middle-aged man in an apron came into view from the back room and began dejectedly cleaning up the leavings and evidence of previous customers. Sensing that he was being watched, the man looked up and was startled to see a pale face staring at him from the window and recoiled, spilling plates and mugs on the ground. Chiana quickly came in through the door and apologized for scaring him.
Aletha and Regnor didn't find any signs of a fight outside, but did notice that the building had a deep foundation and probably stood over a cellar. They finished their search and came around and entered the building. The innkeeper, who introduced himself as Harry, was happy to see new customers after his initial shock and brought them wine and beer. The guildmates question Harry on the day's events and he mentioned that another group like theirs had come by earlier and caused a ruckus. They bullied his nephew, who worked for him, into letting them into the basement where there was a loud commotion and much damage done. The intruders had spooked his customers at the time who were all driven away. Then the group left and said they were moving on the Fortune Street.
Harry's nephew had admitted to him that he had been bewitched by a woman with white hair into letting her into the basement and keeping it quiet. Harry hadn't been down there in at least a week and was not aware that his nephew had let anyone down there. He reprimanded the boy when he found out and sent him home to his mother. Aletha, Regnor, and Chiana asked permission to look into the basement which Harry reluctantly allowed. In the basement the party found the remains of a frantic battle. Wine racks and storage shelves were tipped over and smashed on the dirt floor. The smell of spilled wine filled the air, but the liquid was slowly being absorbed in the dirt, making a muddy mess. Many humanoid bones were mixed with debris, enough to account for 10 skeletons. Chiana used a Detect Secret Doors ritual to locate any remaining hidden undead, but was convinced that the basement was cleared.
Feeling guilty about the damage that the other GoHAC members had caused, Aletha paid Harry 50gp as recompense. The innkeeper was pleased and gladly posted GoHAC's contact information on the wall and agreed to send folks their way in anyone needed help. The group then went in search of their friends on Fortune Street.
They crossed the Pinch in a hired boat and entered the Bazaar of the Gods on their way. They passed through the crowds and mad prophets preaching various forms of doom on their makeshift podiums and made their way to Fortune Street. There they found Vismund, Mina, Mike, and Rael standing outside a building debating what to do next. The building appeared to be an abandoned residence, the upper floors showing signs of a fire that had burned holes in the roof and blown out all the windows before being put out. The opening on the lower floor had been boarded up to keep out squatters, but the planks on the front doors had been pulled down recently. The GoHAC team was relatively certain that this place matched Cadavra's clue depicting fire and next to the words "my good 'fortune'".
Aletha sent everyone except for Regnor and Chiana back to headquarters after reprimanding them for their careless behavior at the 'Frothing Tankard Inn' and promised to take it out of their pay. Then she told Regnor to enter the building. He burst into the front room, making out nothing in the dark interior at first, but then he caught sight of movement in the back. The smell of smoke and rot were powerful. Aletha moved past Regnor and into the room in order to get a better view of what lurked in the back of the room. Two hulking zombies, slightly hunched so that their heads did not strike the high ceiling, lurched forward, throwing smoke damaged furniture out of their path, in order to grab at the warlock. Aletha attempted to eyebite the first one, and failed. Chiana joined them inside and shot at the massive lumbering corpses, which could have been ogres or trolls at one time. An arrow lodged in the first creature, but it came onward, undeterred.
A hallway door at the groups flank, previously ignored, burst open and disgorged three human-sized zombies. One of them grabbed and held Aletha, but she used her ethereal step to escape it and appeared next to Regnor. The other two grabbed and held Regnor, impeding his movement and making him an easy target for the hulks. The first hulk reached across one of the smaller zombies and slammed Regnor into the ground. The other swiped clumsily at Aletha and missed.
Aletha retreated outdoors and shot eldritch blasts back into the building at the zombie hulks. Regnor cleaved through the smaller zombies holding him, but more kept streaming out of the hallway to replace the ones that fell. Chiana began to sing of victory and blasted the zombies with a sorcerous burning spray. She too backed out of the doorway, allowing Regnor to get surrounded, but kept him upright through multiple uses of her majestic words. Regnor bravely fought on, sweeping through the ranks of zombies, but one did slip by his defenses. It managed to catch up with Chiana and ripped at her, knocking her unconscious and ending her song.
Aletha killed the zombie attacking Chiana and then attempted to bring her back from the edge of death. After failing her first aid attempt and watching Chiana slip closer to death, Aletha gave up and just fed her a potion of healing. Meanwhile Regnor had slain the rest of the zombies with his acid breath and even managed to knock over one of the hulks, but to his horror the hulk stood up again a moment later. Regnor was bleeding freely from multiple wounds and was running out of exploits.
Chiana, newly revived, and Aletha stayed as far away from the hulks as possible while still being able to target them with their ranged attacks. In many ways this fight was very similar to the first fight they had on this adventure at the Dev'shir's tomb. Then Regnor had been left alone surrounded by skeletons while Chiana and Aletha had stood outside the tomb and picked them off one by one as they came through the door. Now they concentrated their attacks on the hulk that had stood up again, destroying it, then focused on the last one. That one also proved to be resilient, standing up when it was first knocked down, but Regnor gave it no quarter and dismembered it with his axe.
The guildmates searched the rest of the building and found a cache of 445 gold coins, four healing potions, and a magic item Regnor laid claim to, presumably hidden here by Cadavra on her last visit. The group had some suspicion that this building was the one promised to the guild for their help and intended to question the Dev'shirs about it. After a short rest they headed back to the High Quarter and knocked at the Dev'shirs door.
Elam answered after making sure that it wasn't a horde of hungering dead trying to get in and eat him. He summoned his parents, Lord Abir and Lady Noura, who came downstairs to see who had arrived. Aletha informed them that they had dealt with the tomb looter and ended the threat to their family. Lord Abir asked about the fate of his errant daughter and Aletha handed over the sack containing Cadavra's head. The family was horrified, Elam was struck dumb, Lady Noura was inconsolable and the Lord was close to retching. Lord Abir got control of himself and commanded his son and his wife from the room.
Chiana handed over Lakasia's journal. Lord Abir asked about where her body was and they told him they had left it in the attic of the Rudebaker's residence. Lord Abir explained that the Rudebaker's had worked for their family for quite some time, handling the matters of their salt processing business. The warehouse had been part of that business. He admitted that the house on Fortune Street had been the property that he was giving the guild.
They moved into his office to settle the matter of payment. Lord Abir handed over a deed to the Fortune Street property and a purse containing 250gp. He apologized for the lack of on hand funds and suggested they pick out 750gp worth of art objects from their collection in the house to complete the payment. Aletha pressed him on the condition of the property he was giving them and recommended that he instead help them by hiring workers to fix and remodel the place. They settled on a reasonable exchange of services and then parted on good terms.
Their mission complete, the group earned a few days of rest and relaxation. Chiana spent some time learning a couple of ritual spells she had copied down from Cadavra's journal: Knock and Magic Circle. Aletha leafed through the "Necromatic Devices of Illserves" which detailed other artifacts the infamous necromancer had invented. In addition to the Cauldron and the Cudgel of Command, the book describe a Shadow Censor very similar to the one Aletha had taken from the Maw of Madness. The book contained instructions on the creation of Corpse Light candles and a goblet made from a skull that would confer the gift of undeath on any who drank blood from it. Aletha found the whole thing disturbing and decided to turn it over to the temple of the Raven Queen to deal with.
During their down time they learned of other events in the city. A plague had broken out among the poor in the Smoke district. Those infected sometimes reanimated as zombies after their deaths. This new development could have been due to the necromantic goo that had spilled out of the cauldron and into the water supply. The guild also heard word that a Winter carnival was coming to a small town on the outskirts of Punjar and was promised to be quite a spectacle.
Marie, the Rudebaker's one-time paid servant, happened by GoHAC headquarters and inquired about a job. Aletha interviewed her and they came to an arrangement where Marie would cook and clean for the guild at the salary of 3sp a week, to increase to 5sp a week when she had learned to read and write, and they would also provide her with two new dresses a year. So GoHAC hired their first non-combatant employee.
New job leads came in over the next few days, due to the guild's aggressive advertising campaign. Corvus returned from the temple to say that his brethren might have lead on the location of the skull goblet of Illserves and would like the guild to look into it. Unfortunately the cauldron had also disappeared from the windmill and they would like the guild to recover it and any other necromantic devices they manage to find. Suspicions were cast at the death cult of Orcus growing in numbers in the Bazaar of the gods. Another prospective client came in the hopes of hiring the guild to deal with a pesky dragon and recover the creature's horde. Aletha, Regnor, and Chiana decided they'd rather go to the carnival than look into any of the other jobs.
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