All song and all dance, at once interrupted.
A blood curse perchance, with beauty corrupted
And struck down in need, the City of Light
Now pleads for brave deeds to end this foul blight.
Things that go bump
Evening was approaching as the heroes stepped out from the alley. Before them spread the vast multicoloured canvas of Asteria, the City of Lights. Flags and banners of every hue were strung between houses or hung from flag poles and balconies. Thousands of people were out in the streets, revelling in the entertainments on offer, dancing to the cacophony of tunes being played, or haggling with merchants over their wares.
Shadows were lengthening and so the party decided to find lodgings for the night. Four of them headed off in search of a suitable tavern while Garrie and Rossglum made their way to the Lawbringer’s Hall to speak with Captain Amos about the dockside statue.
While not the worst place they have stayed, the party was still unimpressed with the Crooked Hearth as they walked in. A gnome lay unconscious on the floor next to the bar, a half-empty pint glass towering over his small frame. Behind the bar, a Dwarf looked up as they approached. “Good evening gentle folk” he said in his distinctive accent, “How can we help you?”
“You can tell me where I might find a better tavern than this one,” Kayla replied.
“There are taverns a-plenty in Asteria, but you won’t find other lodgings if that’s what you are looking for. The festival season has seen to that. We, however, have two rooms available for a reasonable price.”
Wolf moved forward and dropped a heavy sack on the table. “Fifty pounds of fresh venison. It’s yours for the price of two rooms for a week.” The dwarf stared in disbelief. Fresh meat and venison no less. He hastily found two keys and called for a scullion to prepare the rooms.
“Please, my lords and ladies.” His beard parted to reveal a toothy smile. “Take a seat by the fire while your lodgings are deloused. I will call our cook to bring fresh venison stew.”
Wolf sighed and closed her eyes for a second. “Show me your kitchen, I will cook the meals myself.”
Rossglum looked up at the imposing structure in front of him and shuddered. The building reminded him very much of his home of in the cliffside city of Wyldflock. Painful memories danced before him but he shook them away with a ruffle of his feathers and followed the Dragonborn up the steps. A guard stepped forward and blocked their entrance. Garrie turned slowly to look at him with his red saurian eyes “We are here to speak with Captain Amos regarding the statue on the Merchant’s Dock.”
The guard backed away slowly and gestured to open the door.
Inside, a polished marble floor reflected the light from high windows. A woman sat behind the desk and looked up as the two companions approached. “Good evening sirs, how may I help you?”
“Please advise Captain Amos that Garrie the Dragonborn and the bard Rossglum wish to speak with him.”
Amos leaned over a map of the city, his finger tapping absently on the desk. “A curse you say? Interesting. The court wizard Ortho says much the same thing.” He paused, thinking through the opportunities that these new arrivals presented.
Rossglum interrupted his train of thought. “We think the statue is supposed to be a whale, but I don’t think the sculptor has ever seen one before. That’s probably important.“ He nodded and winked at the captain. A puzzled look crossed Amos’ face. Was this bird mocking him?
“Ortho advised that he will be examining the fountain in Cerulean Plaza at first light tomorrow. This was the first in the city to be corrupted by this blight. I suggest you meet with him and offer your assistance. In the meantime, you may wish to speak with my agent, Lilke the gnome. He has been my eyes and ears across the city for the past few days. There is a substantial reward for uncovering the source of this … contamination.”
“Where might we find this gnome?” asked Rossglum.
“His usual haunt is the Crooked Hearth – an old inn near the wharves. You may need a bucket of water to get his attention.”
The common room of the Crooked Hearth was teeming with people and the delicious smell of roast meat rose above the usual funk of body odour and spilled beer. Rumour of a new cook had spread quickly across the district.
The party stood around the still-snoring form of the gnome. “This is Lilke the gnome? Hardly ‘eyes and ears’ material,” Acacia noted.
The bucket of water did its job. The gnome leaped up, shaking water off himself, immediately awake. “The docks tonight, that’s where I need be!” He looked around at the group. “Who are you lot?”
“Amos sent us” said Garrie.
“Then be quick about it, gather your weapons and hurry. If my theory is right then there will be something to see.” With that, he raced out of the door yelling something that was lost in the din.
The Darkened Dock
At the far end of the merchant’s wharf, lights blazed as the work of loading and unloading ships continued into the night, but the gates themselves were eerily quiet. None went in or came out through the statues and indeed the area around blight itself was unusually dark. No lanterns were lit and no torch bearing guards patrolled the area. The party could just make out three shadowy figures standing in the darkness at the base of the corrupted statue. They seemed to be swaying in time with the odd seaweed on the statue itself.
“As I suspected. We have some more friends visiting,” the gnome muttered to himself.
“Why did no one think to mention this?” Acacia asked. The gnome turned and whispered “Two nights ago, the first of these creatures appeared. We lost one of the Guard to it. Damned hard to kill because … it is already dead. But I think fire will be their undoing.” He looked around. “Where are your torches? I told you to bring torches.”
The group approached silently, watching for any response from the shadowy figures. A foul stench of death and decay reached Kayla’s sensitive nose, and with it, a smell that she recognised from the sewer earlier that day – the smell of blood.
As the party grew closer, the creatures turned to face them. Rotting flesh hung from their faces and their dead eyes glowed with a macabre light. A wailing moan rose from their dry throats as they shambled towards the party.
Kayla loosed an arrow at close range that struck the nearest creature in the head. It continued its shuffling advance oblivious to the shaft protruding from its eye socket. Rossglum leaped to the side, away from his companions waving his hands in a complex pattern. A booming wave of thunder surged out of his body. One of the walking corpses was blown head over heels into the sea, but the other two stood their ground. Shards of stone and strands of seaweed blew off the corrupted statue, spattering into the water beyond the wharf.
A bolt of fire streaked through the air and struck the nearest creature in the chest. It stopped, gasping in shock and immediately burst into flames, crumbling to ash and dust on the flagstones. Garrie looked on as his target was destroyed. “It seems the gnome was correct.”
Rootsmasher swung his scimitar at the remaining figure, cleaving a hefty chunk of rotting flesh from its arm, but it still came on without stopping. It struck back with a powerful blow to the goliath’s jaw that made him see stars for a second. Acacia loosed an arrow at the monster that took it cleanly through the neck… and still it would not die.
In an act of desperation, Wolf called upon her forest gods and assumed the form of a horse, galloping into the fray and delivering a powerful kick to the undead abomination. The creature’s head snapped back, seemingly hanging on by a mere flap of skin and it stopped. Slowly it reached its hands behind its back and pulled its head back into place.
Acacia and Rossglum took off down the dock to find torches or lanterns, while the party continued to battle the creature. In the meantime the second zombie had clawed its way back up from the water and was shambling back into the fight.
Arrow and sword seemed to have little effect on these abominations. Perhaps destroying the statue itself might have some effect on them. Several of the party aimed their blows at the statue instead, hoping to topple it while the rest kept the zombies occupied. A shattering blow from Acacia (with Rootsmasher’s axe) sent the corrupted statue into the water. The monsters turned and looked at it, almost with a sense of loss about them, but they turned back to the fight.
Rossglum hurled the lantern he had found and hit one of the creatures in the back with it, the flaming oil spreading quickly. The creature crumpled to the flagstones, but the other attacked Kayla while her attention was on the statue and dealt a powerful blow that knocked her to the ground. Wolf, in the meantime, was growing tired of these hellish corpses that refused to die. She assumed the form of her pack leader – a dire wolf – and tore the head off the remaining creature.
The seafront was silent except for the laboured breathing of the victors. Kayla stood up, her face bloody from the blow the monster had landed and looked at the corpses. “We need to burn these to ensure they do not trouble people again.”
The party returned to their lodgings to tend to their wounds. The shock of fighting such unnatural creatures was draining enough, but seeing their companion appear as a slavering dire wolf was perhaps the greater shock.
Previous episode
Episode 03 – There are strange things afoot…
Enemies Defeated to date
1 x Griffin
2 x Blink dogs
3 x Bandits
1 x Bandit captain
3 x Zombies
And we finish the evening’s session in Episode 5 – The Halls of Darkness