02 - 12/20 : Trollkiller

The party decided to question the last shop in the market square before speaking with the trademaster, entering the jewelry store Brilliant & Bold. There, they met the owner, Bixley Boldleaf, who was conversing with the local tailor Rimbleskimp Rofferton of Rofferton’s Ravishing Raiments. The party noted that Rofferton was the only shopkeeper who remained silent during their questions about Vilya. Yuna sent her familiar, Diz, to tail him while they spoke with the trademaster, Brenna Vennan. She confirmed most of what the party had already learned, but added one additional habit of Vilya’s, that she frequently visited the Old Market to look for potion ingredients. Diz returned and informed Yuna that Rofferton had returned directly to his business and shut himself in, so the party decided to pursue the lead in the Old Market.   While discussing the possibility of using themselves as bait, Button mentioned sensing Vilya somewhere nearby. Yuna helped to pinpoint the location, but it seemed to be further underground. The party identified a warehouse with a symbol of Hecate hidden near the door and Draltha wasted no time busting into it. Inside, they found a trapdoor leading further underground to a large cavernous region.   The party was met by a low voice in a language they didn’t know and found a mutated ogre sitting in an open area, playing with a long-dead corpse. The party launched a surprise attack, making short work of the giant, but alerted the cultists present in the process. Draltha saw some movement from them, leading to combat between them. While the cultist posed little threat, their leader was a powerful spellcaster and managed to do a lot of damage to the party with her hit and run tactics and her lesser hellhounds.   After a long, difficult battle, the party was victorious, clearing the hideout and taking some time to recover. After exploring the location, the party was able to find and free Vilya and discovered pits of blood that the party surmised was being used to transform the missing townsfolk into Lemures. Finally, the party found a note written in Infernal that stated that the cult needed to pick up a shipment from “The Gnome,” which the party assumed to be Rofferton.   The group returned to report their findings to Zelem, who was unamused to learn that a cult of Hecate was operating beneath his city. He assured the party that he would have the unholy area beneath the town dealt with. As the party expressed their suspicions of Rofferton, Zelem and Sendra noted that he had recently expanded his wares to include magic beyond what they assumed he was capable of. While he had no legal reasons to send the guard to investigate Rofferton’s Ravishing Raiments, he asked the party to look into the shop themselves, with help if needed, after a much needed rest.   Before leaving, Zelem discreetly messaged Yunaleth through his ritual book to speak with him. He asked her opinions of the team, but seemed more interested in the reason why a Revelmoore noblewoman had taken up this job. Yuna revealed the uncertainties about a large sum of money in her city and the possible conspiracy surrounding it. Zelem expressed his views of nobility and the problems with that system, leading to a tense conversation between the two tieflings, which was soon forgotten as Zelem cast Modify Memory on Yunaleth, replacing their discussion of the missing money in Revelmoore and nobility with a request for Yunaleth to visit Zelem’s establishments in the city, to give him her opinion on his business operations. As she left, Zelem told Sendra that they would be sending some “clubs” to investigate the goings on in Revelmoore.