Birthright: The Worm's Supper, Chapter Four

[ewancummins]

THE MEETING AT CAER HAES

After handing a writ to Gunnar, the Castellan says,

"This new information Sir Gunnar has brought seems to me to be the sort of thing to act on, and soon. But I leave all the details up to you."

He nods to Gunnar. "Carry out your mission as you think best. If you need anything else from the palace, let me know. I now turn the meeting over to you, sir."

[alhoon]

Caer Haes:
Termelan looks at Gunnar. "So, the Manslayer is real?" he doesn't seem shocked by that, or the fact that a very powerful and sociopath wizard is behind the attacks at all.
He looks at the others "I've heard his Grace has an alliance with an archmage nearby, for just this sort of occasion: to stave off the other archmage. I don't know whether this is true or not. "

[Adam]

SEARCHERS

Cormac nods. "Aye, the Beastie's gonna help us kill Orogs tha' he says have the kids down here,"

He goes on to explain the rest of the conversation.

[ewancummins]

TUNNELS OF THE SWINE-THINGS


The party descends the oversized manhole ( dwarf hole?) into the dank and dim tunnel below.

The monster Cormac has befriended slides down after the last of the party, squeezing its bulky , rotund body through the opening with no difficulty despite its size. It plops down on the floor and half rolls, half walks, down one end of the under passage. A tentacle darts out , beckoning the others to follow.

...

The slimy thing leads its new friends through a maze of rock tunnels. Now and then it pauses, sticking its long eyestalks around a corner, or standing so very still that it looks more like a heap of offal than a living beast.

Twice the party hears distant echoing footsteps from side passages. Once, the searchers hear less describable noises.

...
A little later, deeper in the labyrinth, they hear a horrid wheezing and snuffling noise from the gloom up ahead.
And then the tentacled guide points out a shadowy figure reclined in an alcove along the long gallery, just visible in the light of Cormac's flickering torch.
The swine thing in the alcove opens its eyes.
But before it can cry out, Renn rushes up and stabs it in the belly.
Some of the men rush to his aid, stabbing and bludgeoning the orog.

The piggish humanoid shoves Renn back, uttering a wet squeal as it tries to escape.
The carrion monster slaps one long raspy pad over the enemy's mouth and drags the wounded orog to the floor. The orog flails. The monster slides on top of its prey.

Renn's henchmen fall back. They appear disgusted even to brush against the party's ally.
Sevett leans against the rock wall, retching in the abandoned alcove.

Stomach churning sounds rise from under the tentacled monster. When the creature moves on down the hall, only a few scraps of rusty armor and a broken sword remain of the orog. Even the pig- goblin's boots have vanished.

...

After that, the party avoids all sentries and all traps, except for a pair of overbold Orogs who stumble on them in a narrow passage.
The searchers dispatch both foes in a quick, savage melee.

Sevett loses his dagger in the struggle and cannot seem to find it anyplace.
He does find a stone door. The creature lays a tentacle pad on his shoulder as he examines the door. The guardsman shudders at the unclean touch.

"Orog town."
Sevett goes green at the smell of the monster's breath.

And now they all hear distant echoes of squeals, footfalls, scrapes and bumps from behind them.


The tentacled horror points out an archway beyond the narrow passage.
" Orog garden. We go? Much hiding place."


It thrusts its other tentacle back down the narrow passage, at the stone door Sevett had examined.
"Go into Orog town? "

[ewancummins]

THE MEETING AT CAER HAES

The investigators discuss matters further for a short time, and then depart CAER HAES.

They split up into pairs and singles, going off to various tasks related to the investigation...

[Adam]

SEARCHERS

Cormac whispers to the monster. "Do ye know where the children would be?" he says. "Ye're a mean beastie an' we fight well, too, but I don' fancy fightin' the whole town at once."

[ewancummins]

SEARCHERS

Cormac whispers to the monster. "Do ye know where the children would be?" he says. "Ye're a mean beastie an' we fight well, too, but I don' fancy fightin' the whole town at once."

The creature turns its eyestalk towards the druid, multiple eyes staring down at him in the torchlight.
"No. Town? Garden? Bright place? Big rock? Inside orogs?"
Then it belches. Even though its mouth faces the wall and not Cormac, the carrion stench fills the druid's nostrils. And his torch flame turns blue for several seconds until the foul vapor clears.

[Adam]

CRANSTEL'S LABORATORY

The old alchemist stands over the chest and its poisoned lock, carefully, minutely scraping away at the dried poison with his dagger until a little bit of the flaky substance drops off onto a glass slide held beneath it. Once he has enough, he nods in satisfaction and turns back to his work bench.

He divides the sample into several aliquots, expertly adding reagents to each individually to perform the qualitative analysis he had been unable to complete with Safana's blood. He had planned this. He had carefully eliminated those tests which had been conclusive the first time around and redone those which the human blood may have corrupted.

Finally, the last of the tests performed, he sits back in his bench, impatiently tapping his charcoal pencil against his laboratory notebook while he waited for the results.

[steveflam]

Filbert, Domenica and GIMP

On the way to the Church, Domenica and Filbert discuss what has transpired since last they met. It is in agreement that the Crone must be found and most urgent
to find out who hired her, but it is beginning to look like that cult might be responsible.


Arriving at their destination, they head inside to see if the Arch Prelate might have a spare minute to see them without an appointment.

[ewancummins]

Filbert, Domenica and GIMP

On the way to the Church, Domenica and Filbert discuss what has transpired since last they met. It is in agreement that the Crone must be found and most urgent
to find out who hired her, but it is beginning to look like that cult might be responsible.


Arriving at their destination, they head inside to see if the Arch Prelate might have a spare minute to see them without an appointment.

They are in luck.

The Archprelate has just finished a meeting with his subordinates about the upcoming ducal nuptials, and has time to see his chosen agents.

His Holiness meets Domenica and Filbert in the same underground chamber he used for their first clandestine meeting.
The old priest looks different than when last they saw him: dark circles under his eyes and gray stubble grown on his cheeks and chin. But he retains his characteristic upright posture and alert, calm gaze.
He signals them to be seated.
Smoothing his wine colored robes, the cleric sits at the head of the hardwood table.

"I have been dealing with those coin pinching Saramite cultists. They want to take part in the ceremony. "
He laughs, but without real warmth.
" But nevermind that. What have you learned?"

[steveflam]

Clearing her throat, she looks to Filbert before looking at the tiered looking priest.



"Sire, we have investigated to the best of our capabilities and to my knowledge your request thus far. We have uncovered that this Crone, I forget her name at the moment. She is quite
responsible for many acts here thus far. The riots certainly and other ill doings we know not of. She is attached to a very evil cult of which we suspect might be responsible for a dire threat to the Duke himself. I am unlearned in such acts, but it is possible she deals in the dark arts as well, if I can fathom by what I have learned from one of my men. No blade could hurt her henchmen."

She goes on to describe exactly what Vollmar and Finn told her of their battle with her men, then stops. This allows for Filbert to fill his eminence in on anything she has omitted or forgotten.

[ewancummins]

CRANSTEL'S LABORATORY

The old alchemist stands over the chest and its poisoned lock, carefully, minutely scraping away at the dried poison with his dagger until a little bit of the flaky substance drops off onto a glass slide held beneath it. Once he has enough, he nods in satisfaction and turns back to his work bench.

He divides the sample into several aliquots, expertly adding reagents to each individually to perform the qualitative analysis he had been unable to complete with Safana's blood. He had planned this. He had carefully eliminated those tests which had been conclusive the first time around and redone those which the human blood may have corrupted.

Finally, the last of the tests performed, he sits back in his bench, impatiently tapping his charcoal pencil against his laboratory notebook while he waited for the results.

...

The treated aliquots variously boil, hiss, alter in color, and otherwise go through a series of changes. Some of the reactions are predictable, some quite surprising.
More smoke than Crantel would have guessed;he has to fling open a window to ventilate the lab.
But nothing blows up.
The cold draught from the open window clears the worst of the stink: a smell like rotten meat.


He has read of something like this, but where?

Cranstel consults a rare tome in his collection, one the authorities might confiscate if they knew he owned it. Hobart's Index of Forbidden Formulae, a manual ostensibly written for the aid of physicians and investigators but infamously associated with asssassins, hedge witches, unscrupulous alchemists, and other villains.
(One twelve copies were printed before Hobart was murdered by an unknown poisoner and his notes all burned to ash, along with his entire laboratory. Inferior, partial, hand written versions have showed up in the decade since, but Cranstel owns a printed original.)

Priestess Idele has always seemed more broad minded than her superiors; if she realizes what the folio contains, she has never commented on it.

In the book, he finds the answer at last.

The poison comes from the flesh of the walking dead, pickled in an herbal concoction and then ground into a paste. If Safana had not been magically treated, she might have died. And the scarring would have been much more extensive. As in her whole body, including her face, would take on the appearance of a rotting corpse! A little gray mark is the least sign of what she would have looked like.
Hobart's text indicates that this particular "living death" toxin is the particular speciality of cultists of the Demon Prince Orcus.

[VAN]

Filbert and Domenica with the Archprelate

Filbert waits Domenica to finish talking then adds:

"We have raid the inn that the Crone own and we managed to capture one of her bodyguards. He gave his name as Lachlann. Sir Gunnar interrogates him and he confirmed that he is an agent of the Manslayer. His mission was to aid the Crone in disrupting the marriage of the Duke and Soraene Alam and stirring up strife between the two duchies. He also admitted that if he had a chance to kill either of them, he is to do so, but not by exposing himself to identification and capture.The Manslayer wants no peace between Tuornen nor Alamie, and certainly no alliance. All this should be accomplished using the Crone, her thugs, and her monstrous tools. Lachann also gave to sir Gunnar a possible location of where the Crone maybe at this time."

Filbert makes a small pause and adds:

"Your Holliness, it seems that the threat is bigger than we thought if the Manslayer is involved. A foreigner bard named Termelan that has aided us in the raid and gave us information about the cult's activities, wants to go to Endier and meet with the archmage there asking his help. I like Termelan he is smart, resourceful and keen on assisting me and His Grace at best of his abilities. He is currently at my service while he stays in this land."

[ewancummins]

Filbert and Domenica with the Archprelate

Filbert waits Domenica to finish talking then adds:

"We have raid the inn that the Crone own and we managed to capture one of her bodyguards. He gave his name as Lachlann. Sir Gunnar interrogates him and he confirmed that he is an agent of the Manslayer. His mission was to aid the Crone in disrupting the marriage of the Duke and Soraene Alam and stirring up strife between the two duchies. He also admitted that if he had a chance to kill either of them, he is to do so, but not by exposing himself to identification and capture.The Manslayer wants no peace between Tuornen nor Alamie, and certainly no alliance. All this should be accomplished using the Crone, her thugs, and her monstrous tools. Lachann also gave to sir Gunnar a possible location of where the Crone maybe at this time."

Filbert makes a small pause and adds:

"Your Holliness, it seems that the threat is bigger than we thought if the Manslayer is involved. A foreigner bard named Termelan that has aided us in the raid and gave us information about the cult's activities, wants to go to Endier and meet with the archmage there asking his help. I like Termelan he is smart, resourceful and keen on assisting me and His Grace at best of his abilities. He is currently at my service while he stays in this land."

"Caine. As wizards go...he keeps his word. But this falls outside any usual understanding of agreements that exist, I should think. The Manslayer. Hmm...I think it would be best if you contacted Caine post-haste. Explain to him that without this peace of the two duchies, this marriage, his sources of magical power in Tuornen would be imperiled--not by anyone from Tuornen but by Rhoubhe. Put it just like that and he may name a reasonable price for his help."
The Archprelate steeples his fingers before him.
"My men are also searching the city for the Crone. If she has not passed the walls..."

[steveflam]

Filbert and Domenica

"Sire, trust me when I tell you, she has my complete attention. My resources are all concentrated on finding her. Whether it be here, across the river or anywhere else in the kingdom.
I have ears and eyes everywhere. I am being optimisitic, like the half full glass, that she will be brought to justice."