Spoils of war

Here is a list of loot we collected this time out.  It doesn't include any coins or baubles, just noteworthy stuff.

Two Thasselonian tapestries
Bracers of Armor +2 (2,000 gp)
Small silver sphinx statuette
An ancient zither
Clockwork construct (man)
3 scrolls of waterbreathing (group saving 1 for the pirate ship) (187.50 gp each)
Wand- Lesser restoration (17chg, group keeping)
+1 Cold Iron Ranseur (2,185 gp)
Thasselonian glaive
Thasselonian masterwork halfplate (750 gp)
12 Thasselonian javelins
4 Thasselonian ranseurs

The Thasselonian stuff isn't of any particular quality, but it would be worth more than normal to the right buyer.  I noted claim prices on the few things I thought folks might consider keeping.  Let me know if anyone wants to make a claim on any of it.


-G-

Return to Magnimar

The terrain changes noticeably after the long, dark journey down the hallway leading from the lower levels of the Crow above.  The last room encountered above had been filled with aquatic sinspawn, but had had roughly the same look and feel as the rest of that level.  This new area appears more sewer-like than the lairs above.  A mix of waterways, ledges, and wooden plank bridges spreads out ahead.



















Garath looks about, then grunts.  "What have we been down here now, two days? Three?  Might be a good time to head back to town.  At some point, we will have to make multiple trips back with all the valuable junk we have collected.  Heidmarch might be interested in some of this stuff we collected.  The clockwork man, the rubbings of the huge metal plates in that giant summoning device.  Plus, there's a fair bit of stuff we could sell off or divvy up.  I'll show you all the list in a minute, people can make claims, we sell the rest once everything is priced out.  Thoughts?  Otherwise, let's move back through the Crow, pick up what we located, and head back to town for a day or two."






"Of course, there is also the matter of the sunken ship at the bottom of the bay.  Maybe we can deal with that as well.  Thoughts?"

Dramatis Personae

Sheila Heidmarch                    Pathfinder Venture Captain, resides at Heidmarch Manor
Natalya Vancaskerkin              Former Tower Girl, at Heidmarch Manor, working for VC SH
Lan                                           A local fisherman
Olar                                          A local fisherman
Rasmiri Jaikarko                      Sczarni crime boss. One of us owes him a favor(?)
Doctor Landis                          Curator at the Museum of Ages
Laureline Landis                     Doc's wife; threw a garden party which was attacked by oozes
Justine Landis                          Doc's daughter; very attractive; Alejandro has "dibs"
Dr. Archisa Aparna                 Pathfinder, resides at Heidmarch Manor
Koriah Azmeren                      Pathfinder assistant, works for VC Sheila Heidmarch
Dremis                                     Defeated foe; was trying to impress Aspis lodge in Capital District
Ol' Ma'am                                Proprietress of the Old Fang
Zograthy, the Magnificent      Fortune teller in Washer's Row; pesh head
Sabriyya Kalmeralm               Princess of the Market; really likes us
Lt. Kaseidi                              Lt. of the Watch, often at the Avensoar; Alejandro has "dibs"
Billiver Billiven                       Gnome alchemist, runs Billiven’s BB&EE
King Zugga                             Deceased; King of the Mites; mourned the loss of Clickylegs
Fenster                                    Deceased Madman; warehouse squatter in Underbridge
Ayala "The Rat" Javeski         Tower Girl leader, wererat, whereabouts unknown
Terisha Skiloni                        Tower Girl lieutenant, whip-wielding ambusher, location unknown

The bireme sets sail...

As you watch, the sides of the vessel suddenly sprout oars, and a several deck hands run up from below and scurry into the rigging to unfurl the ship's large, single sail. The ship starts to move out of the bay out to sea, and as its speed rises, you are able to spy two flags fluttering from an ensign staff at the rear of the boat:

Lower Levels of the Crowe

Anyone who peeks over Garath's shoulder is able to see the maps and notations Garath has made regarding the lower levels of the Crowe . . .

30- Fight with ants
31- Mining mites flee
32- Black widow fight
33- Zugga's "throne room"

34- Secret door!

35- Mites' bedchamber (abandoned)
36- Stairs down
37- Water spider's lair

 

38- Stairs back up
39- Dog spider battle, nearly killed Garath
40- Sinspawn in cages
41- Webbed spider lair... Garath navigated this in dark
42- Healing pool
43- Ancient kitchen (centipedes in ovens)
44- Ancient pantry (skeleton servers)
45- Battle with Clickylegs
46- Barracks leading to stairs down . . .

He has not yet set down the map for the lowest level, wherein there be devils.

Thinking of a Woman

Just as Alejandro begins to explain to the group the common uses for a vessel like a bireme which Kagome spotted out upon the bay of Magnimar, he turns back to the beautiful woman who made such an observation. 

"Mi Amore Kagome... a thought has just occurred to me.  Did you find it interesting the decor of the level where the demon was found.  I have known many women, and laid in many parlors.  I have ventured the far expanse of the inner sea and paid my respects to all sorts of churches and temples.  That level of the Crow did not seem to me to be like a temple."
  
Turning to Gareth, "You know that the place we have been wandering through is really old (I mean REALLY old), and the other runelords have been dead for almost 10,000 years, so nobody knows what they really looked like, right?"

"Krang, isn't it true that statues that have been found in other places depict Alaznist as a beautiful, yet enraged human woman with long hair, flowing robes, and wielding a thorny ranseur." Alejandro pauses to mumble something about carpet and drapes under his breath.  "Isn't that’s what the mural that was here and is now gone looked like, and so did the statue where we fought the abyssal larva."

Looking back to Kagome, "Which leads me back to my initial thought.   As I think about the depictions of Alaznist that we have found, I get the feeling that they aren't so much of statues in temples or places of worship.  They feel more like family portraits, or personal memorabilia.  All of this seems to suggest that perhaps this wasn’t just an outpost of Alaznist’s followers, but a redoubt of the Runelord herself."  

"Krang, what do you know of this runelord?  All I know is that Alaznist is said to have been impatient and impulsive, caring little for magical research, and preferred modifying her many troops by magical means.  Gareth, do you think this has any relation to these 'sinspawn' that the professor asked us to get samples of?"

Awaiting our departure from the Crow-

As Lan has come to bring us back to the mainland from the crow, you are all discussing and deciding how to row ourselves back to shore.. Kagome moves to the stern of the small fishing ship to contemplate her feelings about the slaying of the demon. "was it necessary?" "what made him a beast?" "would they slay me if they knew what I really was?"... In her contemplative state Kagome finds herself scanning the horizon. She catches about a hundred yards to the north, out into the sea, a boat. The boat is larger than the normal fishing boats in the cove. It has a single mast and sail, and oar ports on either side. Kagome can see two men on the deck of the boat standing near the rail, one seems to be looking in our direction with a spyglass... They gesture to each other and speak, It seems to Kagome as if they noticed her observations of them, and then they moved below deck... She relays this to the party, and asks if anyone else can tell if the boat has any markings that may indicate who is aboard.