Rise of the Runelords Recap # 83 [RPG]

[11 Calistril 4708 continued]

Having seen Brodert Quink safely to the Therassic Library, the Heroes of Varisia (sans Kang) teleport to Magnimar with their magical sacks full of treasure.  They spend almost a whole day selling their wares and accumulate over 6,000 platinum pieces for their trouble.  Word is starting to spread in Magnimar that the giants no longer pose a threat, and the preparations for war have thus slowed.  Meanwhile, back in Sandpoint, Kang reverse-engineers the “revivification fluid” that Nisk Tander is spruiking and discovers it’s simply sugar water!

[12 Calistril 4708]

Vorvashali Voon's connections in Magnimar allow 

The Feathered Serpent to stock a surprising array of magical items.

When the adventurers return to Sandpoint and the Rusty Dragon, they find Kang in his room with a mysterious goop dripping down the walls—he explains that he’s invented a new alchemical formula to stick his enemies to the ground!  After spending the morning dividing up wealth, the adventurers make preparations for a return journey to the tunnels beneath Sandpoint.  Jinkatsyu heads out to buy something of a magical nature and finds himself in the cramped, exotic-smelling shop of Vorvashali Voon.  The enthusiastic arcanist is able to supply some of what the kitsune needs, but also shares some terrible news: sometime before dawn, just hours ago, there was an attack at the sinkhole!  Jodar Provolost’s throat was slit, and the other guard on duty simply fled.  When tracked down later, the guard said a filthy woman with matted hair killed Jodar with a single swipe of a sharpened fingernail!  Apparently the town leaders (sans Titus Scarnetti, who has decamped to Magnimar) have agreed to have the hole immediately filled in with rock and gravel.

When Jinkatsyu returns to tell the others the news, they decide to hurry to get into the sinkhole before it’s filled in.  Their journey downward proceeds as before, but this time there is no webbing in the stairwell, the secret door is open, and Yuzo finds muddy footprints on the stone floor of the antechamber.  The adventurers decide to explore a corridor that leads southward from the complex’s temple; thick fog fills the corridor, but Ava’s magicks are strong enough that she’s able to remove it on the second try.  Yuzo scouts ahead until she sees a pebble go skittering along the floor of the narrow corridor—something invisible is moving right towards him!  It becomes visible just as it stabs a cruel, serrated blade into her stomach.  The figure whispers something in a tongue that Yuzo can’t understand, and the gillman decides to beat a hasty retreat to the safety of the others.  But the masked figure, obviously the one that had communicated with Kang and Salma previously, disappears only to reappear behind the party—right next to Ava!  The grippli shaman teleports herself away, and Kang reacts quickly, gluing the attacker to the floor with one of his new concoctions.  Erik rushes into battle for the first time with the adventurers, but his unreliable contraption almost blows up in his hand! 

But with the mysterious figure now behind the party, a new threat rushes in from the other side in a coordinated maneuver: a nearly naked elf with sharp, grimy nails and an unholy symbol of Lamashtu around her neck.  A terrible curse erupts from her lips and for the briefest instant, Jinkatsyu takes the form of a fish before reverting to normal!  But the foul witch picked the wrong target in Jinkatsyu: the swordsman’s undramatic but steady attacks make short work of her.  Meanwhile, Yuzo has chased the first attacker in a running battle and bested him to the point where he has to use his uncanny magicks to disappear again.

The Scribbler is master of his domain, 

and will prove hard to catch.

With one enemy vanquished and other gone to ground, the adventurers regroup and decide to press on.  Eventually they reach an area where three once-separate chambers have become one, joined by collapsed walls.  Bloodstained fragments of equipment lie strewn about haphazardly, and the culprits are clearly visible: a half-dozen large black dogs with stingers at the end of their, ratlike tails are flying around the room in circles!  Once the adventurers appear, the hounds bay in unison and their keening turns the stoutest hearts to shame.  Kang and Yuzo are filled with supernatural terror and run for it.  Ava’s able to remove Yuzo’s fear and then gives chase to Kang, while the others do battle against the monstrous hounds and emerge victorious.

With a new danger seemingly around every corner, can even the Heroes of Varisia put an end to the threats that lurk underneath Sandpoint?

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Director's Commentary

I always liked role-playing Vorvashali Voon as an excited and enthusiastic salesmen.  I sometimes managed to persuade the PCs to buy magical gear they really didn't need!

The mysterious elven priestess of Lamashtu isn't in the AP but comes from the back matter of the first collected volume of the comics.  Issandra is a witchpriest of Lamashtu who maintains a shrine hidden deep in Mosswood, and I thought it would make sense that after reviving the Scribbler, Lamashtu would send visions to her nearby priestess to make contact.  It's also this shrine that Daviren Hosk went to investigate and never (so far!) returned from.  The PCs didn't follow this trail, however.

The mobility and tricks of the Scribbler kept him a viable enemy longer than I would initially expected.