SC.4.1 Bound in Blood

Session Preface

As victims collapse to the ground around you, the crowd roils like a sudden storm, choppy waves of flailing limbs and horrified, panicked expressions surge past you towards the door. The roar of noise swells, a sea of screams, shrieks, and hurried footsteps punctuated by shattered glass. Drinks, plates, masks, and costumes discarded, like flotsam falling to the floor.   Pressing against the tide, personal servants and staff storm the chamber, rushing to aid the Cassalanters out to safety through a secret doorway. Alongside them, a surge of armed guards who split into two efforts. Some begin tending to the fallen, navigating around those too shocked to move, drowning in grief. The others set a perimeter, urging guests towards the doors, trying to quell the chaos into order with little success. Soon, the City Watch will arrive. You know you have but a moment to take in your surroundings and learn what you can of this dreadful turn of events as the guards look to escort you and the crowd of survivors out and into the evening.  

Session Summary

As the ballroom descends into chaos, the companions split up with Endriel searching for suspicious behavior amongst attendees while Thaust heals as many as he can and Hawk going after Ellian. Thaust brings six of the victims back to life, Ellian included, only to find that the poison is still in their system and afflicting them. He is only able to save one attendee before the others pass away in the midst of the noise and confusion. Endriel, overwhelmed by the activity and flurry of emotions around him, can only focus on the grief of those who have lost spouses, siblings, or other loved ones in the night's events. Hawk, fighting the crowd to get to Ellian, realizes his former ally is actually faking his own death. The two exchange short words before some of the kitchen staff discreetly carry Ellian away.   As they are escorted out of the ballroom, the party sneak their way upstairs in search of the Cassalanters as to determine the fate of their son, the transformed chain devil, upstairs. Finding a locked door guarded by an armored dwarf, Thaust, furious, argues with the guard for entry before picking up the dwarf and using him as a battering ram to burst down the door. Dispatching the pair of guards protecting the next chamber, the party proceeds to the final door between them and the Cassalanter's office, but find it magically locked. By the time Thaust manages to break the enchantment through sheer rage, the nobles have escaped. Returning to the attic, the party find the chain devil as he was before. Thaust promises to free the child and in return, receives another, more vivid telepathic image of his mother spilling blood into the red leather-bound tome. Before departing, the companions bring the presence of the chain devil to the City Watch's attention, who in a panic, in turn call upon the expertise of the Arcane Watch, the city's magical defenses.   Returning to Trollskull Manor, Thaust ascends to the roof, where he falls asleep to a drizzling rain soaking into his fur. Hawk takes a moment to journal, the ghostly bartender Lif offering him a drink at the bar. Endriel goes for a walk to clear his mind. In the early morning hours, he senses the already growing tension in the city. As news of the murders, and particularly Ellian's death spread, Endriel notices small packs of Waterdeep's disenfranchised community members descending upon the North Ward.   The next morning, Hawk falls into the morning routine of serving coffee and breakfast with Mya, Trollskull now operational enough on the first floor to become a morning regular for a dozen or so of their neighbors. A crowd has gathered this morning, nursing hangovers, explained by Mya as the result of her spiking the candied apples she made for everyone. The two share a moment of shared understanding as they settle into the routine, realizing life could one day be like this for them, but the burden of the contract weighs on Hawk, knowing the day will be spent dealing with the fallout of the evening. Thaust speaks with his squire, Ulric, discussing the building incindiary rage the firbolg feels at how at every turn, evildoers seem to escape justice. Ulric shares a piece of wisdom from his father, "Rage is like a storm, it does not dissipate with the rain, but only with thunder and lightning." Endriel reconnects with the investigator Trench, who goes into more detail about his previous investigations of the disappearances. Endriel confirms they found no concrete evidence of the disappearances or stolen goods being connected to the Cassalanters, or at least not yet.   After the morning rush and conversations, the party set out for the Hall of Justice in search of High Priest Hykros Allumen, both to help them with the cursed put upon them by the Rakshasa and to determine how to handle the tomes they found in the Cassalanter's study. The High Priest confirms the red leather-bound text is an infernal contract, required spilled blood to read the terms of the bargain. Examining the text bound in black leather, he also confirms it to be as the party believed, a copy of the Cyrinishad with the power to corrupt readers and even intrude the thoughts or dreams of those in its proximity. With coaxing, the High Priest agrees to keep the latter of the tomes in a sacred chest to protect others from its influence until the companions come up with a better, long-term solution that sees the book removed from Waterdeep altogether.   Thaust offers his blood to the infernal bargain and Endriel is able to make sense of the dense legal text. The tome reveals that, while under intense financial strain sometime prior to the necrotic siege of Waterdeep years ago, the Cassalanter's borrowed a great sum of money to keep their household from falling into destitution. The souls of their children were taken as collateral, though the Cassalanters would be able to undo the transformations by either paying back an exorbitant interest on the loan or converting 1,000 souls to Asmodeus' cult. The party intuit that the Cassalanters never believed their children to be in danger, because they should have been able to repay the loan, but the siege of the city thwarted their plans, leading to their children's death or transformation.   With this information in hand, the party made preparations and plans for how to proceed.