Session 27: The Killer of Skipton

The group entered a small town named Skipton in the lesser mountains on the northwest border of Louth seeking supplies. Ana went exploring for something to change her appearance and bought an obsidian ring from a halfling merchant at the nearby marketplace. Unfortunately, it only seems to affect the wearer’s attractiveness towards those of their preferred gender and doesn’t change anything about their actual appearance. ​​ ​​Meanwhile, Brottor and Thia found an elderly dwarf woman running an extraordinarily messy general store known as “Duergath and Sister”, so named for the woman and her sister. Duergath it turns out is also a member of the Loderr clan and so was willing to share some of her closely guarded dwarves brew, affectionately called “Trufflebutt” from the mushrooms and other underground grains used to brew it. They also purchased a two-person tent and some sort of metal tinderbox that seemed to be non-functional.   Nearly ready to leave town, they heard cries for help and on investigating found a simple farmer trying to attract the guards because of the dead woman on the ground nearby with a crystal-lined hole in her chest and no heart to be found inside. Melios gave a closer inspection after some questions and realized that her eyeballs, organs, and bones all seemed to be crystalline as well. ​​ ​​This lead them to speak with the guard captain who begrudgingly let them in on what had been going on and allowed them to investigate the other bodies they’d found from what appeared to be a string of murders. As they inspected the bodies, a somewhat inebriated Brottor split off and went back to ask Duergath about someone knowledgeable in crystals. She pointed him to a couple of people in town who may have information: a gem cutter and an alchemist. Running to find the gem cutter without another thought, he was lead off course by screams and cries for help, only to find an empty back alley... followed by an ambush from a trio of crystalline armed, glassy-eyed demonic figures. Taking out two of them by himself, he was nearly felled by the third before a concerned Melios and Ana appeared on scene trying to determine where he’d gone and finished off the last one, bringing him back from the brink.