In attendance were;
Kumak Morudall: Half-Orc Bloodrager
Susan: Human Universalist Wizard
Thaddeus Whisperheart: Gnome Bard
Tim: Halfling Ranger
Kronk: Human Haunted Life Oracle
The Redeemers find themselves in need of a place to rest and unfortunately Naos district has no inns that Thaddeus can recall. While there may be some in nearby Capital District Thaddeus feels, and some of the party agrees that they would draw too much attention in the more affluent districts and elect to make their way into Lowcleft to the Red Flagon. The guards at the gate between the districts question why the group is moving around past curfew and Thaddeus gives them a story about Susan being the daughter of their wealthy employer, and that she is not quite right in the head so they had been dispatched to retrieve her. The Sgt at the gate seems to take the story but wants them to wait while he confirms it and fills the paperwork. Thaddeus convinces him that he should allow the rest to return to the safety of their inn while he remains to answer any questions and fill the various forms.
Thaddeus spends the next few hours charming the Sgt in the guardhouse and discreetly spiking the mans drink with stronger spirits. While they trade tales and laughs the gnome fans the flames of any wild conspiracy theories the man has until he is so deep in his cup that he passes out. Thaddeus searches the guard room for anything interesting but finding only common smut and a fine dagger sneaks out and makes his way to the Red Flagon. The group having arrived hour earlier, Kumak pays for the last 2 rooms available, 1 small sized room for Thaddeus and 1 normal sized one for himself. Kronk and Susan room with him while Tim takes the small room with his dog. Thaddeus instead orders a full suite for himself upon arriving and settles in for the remainder of the night and much of the next morning.
Awakening first, Tim joins the others upstairs and when Kumak finds that Thaddeus never arrived the towering half orc seizes Kronk and Susan and demands that which ever one of them used their dark powers to speak with Thaddeus last night do it again to find him. Susan casts her spell and assures Kumak that Thaddeus says he is here and quite safe, don't come look for him he will be out when he is ready. Kumak declares that he is clearly under distress and starts kicking in various doors finding the gnome on the second try.
Seeing that Thaddeus is indeed safe the two debate on the quality of his personal grooming, settling on the cursive design shaved into his nether regions as being elvish script they make their way downstairs to find breakfast when they are met by a peculiar elf who suggests they are in his employers debt and should be very interested in returning to their good graces. Thaddeus and the elf trade some barbs until Kumak's hunger gets the better of him and the half orc steps past, followed quickly by Thaddeus. The mystery elf enters into the room with the remainder and plies them with the same vague threats and promises until they agree to perform a small service, investigate a local saw mill and bring any evidence of wrong doing to them. Agreeing to his demands, Susan, Tim and Kronk join Kumak and Thaddeus downstairs where they convince the gnome and half orc to assist them, just so long as its not because the elf wants them too. Tim complains about some of his existing wounds and asks Kronk to heal him but the odd human attempts to convince the halfling that his wounds are not so grievous as to need divine intervention. Tim stands up and declares that if he wont be healed then he will go see his friend in the southern most district of Ordellia, Kumak asks if he can't heal his own wounds with his magic or buy himself a wand if he is that concerned but Tim counters that he is preparing other spells and doesn't want to waste money needlessly.
One halfling and one dog down the group head to the Sawmill nearby. Kronk descends down to the river floor while the others enter the ground floor. The ground floor is mostly barren but they do find evidence that something large had been nesting inside until recently. Kronk finds 3 men working below and over the loud grinding of the machinery tells them he is here to inspect the operation. Catching out of the corner of his eye one of the men retrieving a blade from behind a barrel as he approaches to talk, Kronk pulls out a mask made from cured human flesh that he had taken off their would be assassin the first night they arrived in Magnimar, that along with Kronks swift talk convinces the men that he belongs to their cult and one of them begins walking him around the gears explaining the operation.
On the second floor Kumak opens the door to 3 men in work clothes who question what he is doing here
"Hi, I'm Kumak, I'm here to smash some cultist's faces in. Are you cultists?"
The men pull long razors for their answer and the fight is joined. Thaddeus and Susan spy through holes in the ceiling leading to the 3rd floor a rather attractive woman whose eyes go wide at the sight of the raging bloodrager below her. She quickly shouts some orders that are lost in the din of battle and the sawmill then casts a spell that causes Thaddeus to flee the building. Susan summons a wolverine at the stairwell and finds herself unable to continue due to several cultists blocking the way up. Kumak spends the next few moments slamming his hammer into the 3 men that were on this level to begin with and 2 more who had jumped down from the 3rd floor until he arrives at the stairwell and tackles through the last 3 opponents.
Kronk having inspected the machinery as well as he feels he can pretend to is moving towards the door, supposedly to inspect above when Capt Tiernay pokes his head through the door, having finally tracked the group down. The cultists start moving towards him when Kronk stops them, and manages to tell them that this man is with him before his sleeve is caught by the machinery. The cultists all give a collective gasp and wince in anticipation of whats to come as Kronk is yanked into the spinning gears and pistons. Crushed and jabbed the human sees an opening against all odds and manages to angle himself so that he is ejected from the sawmill after only a few seconds of torment. Casting levitate just before he plunged into the icy river below Kronk hollers for the men to stop the machinery so that he can escape back up. Capt Tiernay slowly backs away and finds Thaddeus just exiting the building. Snapping back to himself the gnome commands his personal assistant to carry him back upstairs into the fray.
Kumak slams his Earthbreaker into 2 of the remaining 5 cultists, felling one and putting the other to his knees which Susan's wolverine dives into tearing his throat out. Two of the other cultists move into position while the final looks to Kumak,
"I Suggest you get everyone out of the building as fast as possible"
Kumak suddenly turns towards the wall and using his adamantine hammer smashes a large hole through to the other side glimpsing the fleeing form of his rather attractive friend from before. Then the half orc moves towards the nearest cultist, meaning to start tossing friends and foes alike out his newly minted exit. Thaddeus ascends the stairs and Susan having seen the exchange warns him of Kumaks intent. The gnome counters the compulsion and with Susans aid finishes the other 2 cultists. The final one, assessing his surroundings flees into a back room and bars the door but Kumak smashes through the wall to glimpse him escaping via a hatch on the roof. Up there the man looks like he cant decide if he should leap into the river below or not, but the arrival of the raging half orc seems to settle the matter for him and he jumps. Kumak leaps after him landing nearby, Thaddeus jumps as well, seemingly just for the hell of it. The waters are relatively turbulent and all 3 are having difficulty doing more than staying afloat as they begin to be swept further down.
Kronk just now emerging from the below spies the three and annoyed at his entire ordeal magically seizes the cultist, who begins to sink and drown until Kumak catches up and hauls Thaddeus and the cultist out of the river. Tying up the cultist and taking his holy symbol the Redeemers take stock. The final 3 cultists below, still unaware of the developments should be easy to deal with, then they can take stock of the building and see if this endeavor has payed off.
Thoughts:
The Oracle refusing to heal the ranger was a bit odd, but I figured he wanted to hold on to his spell slots and channels for the moment, especially since the ranger stays back out of the fight. The ranger declaring he is then leaving was odd, I tried to give him some outs like, you can prepare cure light wounds yourself, or hey don't you have a lot of money? You could buy yourself a wand if you are concerned, but he was annoyed so he sat out the rest of the session. Interjecting every initiative round that he was indeed, still walking. The issue I'm seeing coming up is Tim was already hard to show horn into the party. He never spoke to us, I had to go way out of game to do what he was trying to get us to do, now he seems to have zero connection to us and is more interested in doing his own thing. I had been hoping to get some drinking and mild illicit substances to have a rundown with Thaddeus and Susan about some of their backstory, as a way to include some Kronk and Tim stuff too but I just don't know.
I am working the next game so we will see how it goes.
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