Recollections by Kaylorr
9.28.345 CE
Another two weeks gone by and another group investigation complete. I joined up with Rezik, Sarya, and Avant this time to investigate some old slums somewhere in Solace…I wasn’t paying much attention… Travelling with this group was probably the most fun I’ve had since being admitted to the Magistery. We were to hunt down some thugs of a so-called Black Ice Gang. After a few minutes traipsing around these ratty slums we came across our target. An old building being used as some sort of hideout. Instead of debating how to enter without causing a scene, Rezik came up with a brilliant idea of busting through from the building behind…and bust through we did. Instead of kicking down the front door, we kicked down the wall separating the two buildings and entered via the second floor. These Black Ice thugs were no match for our group as Avant and Sarya quickly brought death to them with their raw power. Creepy looking fellows they were, too. All of them with different shades of black and grey covering their skins. Luckily they all died the same. On the bottom floor we came across what I recall the leader of this outpost and her lieutenant. After a brief skirmish, the leader lay dead and her lieutenant was knocked out and tied up as we needed information.
Interrogating this man was a cakewalk. The power that was coursing through me every time I dug my dagger into his knee then healed him was almost invigorating. With every non-answer he gave, I would add to the pain. First it was his knee. Then came drenching him in water and electrocuting him followed by more of my healing. Then came the water boarding.... I don’t know how long we (I think it was we, it could have been mostly me doing this interrogation) went at it but by the end we gained everything we wanted to know. I have to ask Headmaster Danavus if he has any insight towards getting information from an enemy.
All of these missions and investigations we have all been completing are tied to one another. These Black Ice Gang members were harvesting Rust Monster saliva to be sent away and used towards some sort of chaos curse. The same curse that the owlbear feathers I came across were being used for. Same thing with the red dragon egg…they need red dragon scales. There’s also mimic’s teeth, Frost giant beards, Mindflayer brains, a Lich’s phylactery, and eyes from a Beholder needed in this same curse. We found this gang was also working for some sort of Spider Queen. Lolth I believe was the name. Supposedly, can only be confronted via portals to the Underdark. No way of knowing if this Spider Queen is the puppet master in all of this but it sounds like she may be one of the few. I wonder how much the Magistery knows and how much they are willing to let on. Either way, we all need to prepare for the coming storm…
PS – I really need to learn to pay attention when casting. I almost took out my group with my Thunderwave spell…oh well they’re still alive at least.
PPS – Beware of the White Fire Gang….
Recollections by Rezik
Another day, another task – this time I joined Sarya, Avant, and Kaylorr to learn more about what The Black Ice Gang was doing in the tenements district. Normally, I would object to visiting such areas of squalor – the people there are even less interesting than normal commoners – but my curiosity of The Black Ice Gang got the better of me.
Melvin, the scribe, gave us the specifics of what we would be doing. He was of little help in telling us where we might begin, but alas, there’s not much you can expect from these scribes – they think highly of themselves, but do little more than copy book to book – why don’t they just memorize it?
We left for the tenements district around 9am, our goal was to be out of the filth by evening – not wanting to be caught with the homeless after dark. Our journey started at the Community Center, just outside the district – in the hopes of finding someone that could point us to “shady individuals” (at least shadier than the normal folk).
We started by asking the children – they tend to know everything – but since we stood out, few wanted to speak to us. As we explored the area, we realized we were being followed – we knew we must be close. It wasn’t long before we came across a home, with a handful of lackeys loitering out front.
We knew that we wouldn’t be able to learn anything from the lackeys and instead needed to find the boss. Also, we knew that they would be hard pressed to intimidate – something that we tried in our last run-in, but failed. It was time to do a more direct approach – kind of.
We circled the building and realized that the back of the buildings were close enough to break through – we didn’t need to go through the front door of the gang hangout, instead we could make our own backdoor.
We broke into the home behind the hangout, went up to the second level and started to break down the wall. We made quick work out of it and luckily found that it opened up right to a window in the hangout.
We jumped through and were in The Black Ice gang’s hangout, without alerting anyone. As we starting exploring the rooms, we came across a thug – we tried to dispatch him quickly, but luck must have been on his side – Sarya and Avant just couldn’t get a clean swipe – even though he was simply sleeping on a bed.
The noise we made, lead to us being joined by two more thugs. We fought tirelessly before we were able to dispatch all of them. (Note to self – Kaylorr electrocuted our group, along with the enemies – he’s not particularly good at targeting his spells, but his healing was invaluable).
Once we felt comfortable that no one was left on the second floor, we started to slowly make our way to the ground level. It was there that we saw the leader (presumably) speaking with a commoner – discussing some kind of business.
She saw us and quickly shouted something, it wasn’t long before we were fighting her and another thug – one we would learn was named Nim.
Inspiration overtook me and I decided to make this seem like a rival attack – shouting “The white fire gang is here!”.
We killed the leader, but were able to knock out Nim (using another decapitated head as a missile – I’m getting really good at this).
With Nim knocked out, we prepared the area for our interrogation. Kaylorr is exceptionally skilled at torture – he was able to continually hurt & heal Nim until he told us everything – barbaric, but effective.
We learned a lot – first, many of the events over the past few months have been connected! Nim told us that they had come from the under dark (through a portal from an alternate dimension) following the Spider Queen’s will to spread chaos through the “Chaos Curse”.
He told us that it was “almost too late to stop the chaos curse”.
We found out the list of ingredients for the curse (I believe this is accurate, but I can't be 100% sure):
- Red Dragon Scales
- Mimic Teeth
- Rust Monster Acid
- Owl Bear Feathers
- Frost Giant Beard
- Brain of a Mind Flayer
- Lich’s Phylactery
- Eyes of a Beholder
In the end, we destroyed the hangout, marking it with designs & logos of the newly formed “White Fire Gang” – hanging Nim’s body out the window with a sign. Hopefully, that will deter others from joining the Black Ice Gang – or at a minimum potentially help us begin to recruit our initial “ears on the ground”.
We reported most of this to Headmaster (Grandmaster? Or maybe Crownmaster – Melvin hates me for that joke) Eowyn. As usual, we didn’t get much in return – other than a “Oh that’s interesting & disturbing”.
I’ll have to spend some time learning more about the Spider Queen, the Choas Curse, and - of course – helping build the White Fire Gang.