Wallacian Campaign Session #45

= = = = = = = = D R A F T = = = = = = = =

• The session began in Smuggler's Fen just after end of the battle in the previous session.
• Leanna took possession of the Amulet of Drowning
• Rus and Mary each took possession of two of the Stingray Venom Vials.
• In addition to securing the captured prisoners with manacles, they blindfolded and gagged them, and blocked their ears. The party then loaded their prisoners and the crates of weapons onto the smugglers ship. The party collapsed their folding boat and stowed that on board as well.
• Keeping the rest of the prisoners under guard in the stern of the ship, the party interrogated the smugglers one-at-a-time up at the bow.
• Crow started by questioning the youngest smuggler, a teenage boy. Crow learned that the boy expected a divine deluge to drown the enemies of the smugglers, and that his god's followers were baptized by sea water.
• Applying pressure to the second, older male prisoner, the party learned that the smugglers worshipped Dagon. One of the party members recalled that Dagon cults believed that their god would destroy the surface world in a great flood, and that Dagon's followers would be transformed into merfolk.
• Regretful for revealing the identity of Dagon, this prisoner jumped overboard as he was being led back to the stern of the ship. As he sank into the river, he called out underwater "My soul to Dagon!", then deeply inhaled the brackish river-water. As he died, a cold wind blew over the ship, chilling everyone.
• The party fished out the young man's body and did a more thorough search. They discovered that he had a trident tattoo over his heart.
• The party discussed a variety of plans to use the young smuggler's death to their advantage, including a failed attempt to disguise his trident tattoo as the holy symbol of Tyr. However, in the end the party did not pursue any of these plans.
• While interrogating the second female smuggler, the party implied they would defeat all the other Dagon cultists. The prisoner blurted out "Ha, you'll never defeat the whole town!" The knew of only one town this far south - town of Innsmouth.
• The final prisoner, the woman who originally wielded the Amulet of Drowning, revealed nothing during her interrogation.
• The next day, the party sailed the smuggler ship downstream to rendezvous with Captain Sullis and his flotilla of three long ships. After briefing him on what they had learned, he agreed to send one of his ships north to Westport with the three surviving prisoners and the crates of weapons. He also agreed to bring his two remaining ships to Innsmouth the day after the lunar eclipse of the silver moon.
• The party deployed their folding boat and transferred themselves and the dead smuggler to it, then headed south along the coast towards Innsmouth.
• As the folding boat reached the Manuxet River, it landed on the south bank just long enough to deposit Etu and Mary, who then began stealthily approaching Innsmouth from the land.
• The rest of the party then continued upstream to Innsmouth. Leanna sent her hawk familiar to fly ahead. At the docks they met Frank Marsh, the elderly town master. The party explained that they had found the boy's body floating out in the bay, and decided to bring him to the nearest town. Frank confirmed that the boy, named Tanneth Sterris, was indeed a town resident. Frank then sent someone to summon the boy's mother to the docks.
• Some of the party went to the Gilman House inn/tavern and bought a round of the local stout ale for the customers in an attempt to loosen their lips, but most of the customers just accepted the drinks and returned to their own conversations.
• When they asked the innkeeper, Aellope Gilman, if there was anything of interest in the area, she replied that there was an ancient temple to some sea god up on the ill south of the town.
• The dead boy was carried to his mother's house, and friends and family came to pay their respects to his mother. Crow entered and tried to approach the grieving mother, but a burly man blocked him and would not let him pass.
• Excusing himself, Crow left the house and stealthily walked around to the side of the building. He heard low, murmured chanting in a language he did not know.
• While wandering the town looking for clues, Rus and Crow encountered an elderly vagrant poking through trash. The locals called him "Ol' Willy". He was alternating between humming to the tune "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and mumbling seeming gibberish. However, Crow seemed to detect a pattern to his gibberish - he was a man who seen things not meant for mortal eyes.
• When Willy realized that Crow was understanding him, he grabbed Crow by the shoulders and exclaimed "It's not real! It's all a dream! The Sleeper shall awake!" Willy then seemed to lose interest in Crow, and went back to rooting through trash while humming the same tune.
• Meanwhile, Etu and Mary had discovered the ancient temple about a half mile from town, half-buried in the hillside. Inside they found a small chapel-like room. Examining the altar, they found a hidden mechanism that slid the altar to the side, revealing a stairway cut into the rock leading downward.
• Following the stairs down, they found a long corridor with numerous hooded cloaks hanging on hooks embedded in the walls. session
• Beyond this, they found a large chamber lit by chandeliers with magical flames. The sides of the chamber are flanked by water, and at the far end is a raised dais and altar.
• Leanna's familiar saw Etu and Mary enter the temple, and quietly suggested to her comrades that they should join them in the temple.
• We will pick here at our next session on 21-Dec-2025.

Quests in Progress

• Search for Mary's parents
• Learn the secrets of the Lich-Queen Cult