These sea men are now riding The Eruption.
With their most expensive purchase yet out of the way, they were to return to the Burial Tomb of the Tridobaktrus to find the ring, but this was put on hold once against as Matthias and Halthor were invited to join several nobles in a feast for completely unspecified reasons, by mysterious men in dark robes.
This is probably a scam.
After arriving to the sight they hear faint murmurs from their escorts who indirectly reveal they are representatives of Dyspatur, who the party knows for a fact are one of the largest cults in Nor-Volsuth.
This has to be a scam right? Is this the same cult that the CeeCees took those statues from? Maybe they're involved with the assassins that everyone knows are after Matthias.
Regardless, the group decided to at least approach the two men to figure out more about who they are and why they were invited. They were honest that they were members of the Dyspatur cult, and said they were to meet with Lord Dyspatur himself. Buuut the path to his domain required traveling underground...and there are monsters that will kill you if you look at them, so the entire party needs to be blindfolded the whole time.
"For fuck's sake," mutters Halthor under his breath, not willing to deal with how fishy this entire scenario is. Thankfully, he had bought two hirelings earlier, and if there's one thing he's proven with time, it's that he knows how to use a hireling (expendably). He promises them both ten extra silver if they keep their blindfolds off until specified otherwise, and to his surprise, they agree. The end result of this loyalty is one of the hirelings being brutally murdered after witnessing the creatures that the cultist explicitly said not to look at.
Looks like this wasn't a scam after all. Go figure.
After meeting Lord Dyspatur, he began passive aggressively bashing the group's deity Vodim, while simultaneously buttering them up with food, wine, and women. He wants their help disposing of Hetun and his band of thieves. They've been stealing from Dyspatur and their assassins are still after Matthias for accidentally betraying them, so they have a common enemy. The party agreed and were given a map with directions to infiltrate his home, and if they successfully disposed of Hetun, the Dyspatur would give them not only their cultish magic, but additional forces for the future.
So, the party set out in the dead of night. Some even draped themselves in cloaks for their mission of quickly, and quietly finding Hetun, and murdering him. To infiltrate his home surely meant they would find themselves outnumbered by his men, but having entered his mansion in the dead of night, they had stealth on their side.
They were almost immediately discovered by one dozen soldiers.
Their plan begins to quickly fall apart as the soldiers make their presence known to basically the entire building, and to make matters worse, Matthias is STILL cursed with the inability to run away from fights. Unless they somehow had an ace up their sleeves there's no way they were going to do this without getting overwhelmed...Wait a minute...
Bodhi pulls out his newly acquired sword and the entire group of men begin to trip over themselves in an attempt to get away, because nobody wants to deal with something like that. They even go so far as to begin sealing the door of the room they entered from the inside so that the party can't enter. That at least lowers the number of men they had to deal with by a massive margin, but trouble still emerges as several more men from the Brotherhood of Strangulation emerge with ropes, and a woman who claims to be an assassin after Matthias enters. She then strips away her clothing, turning her cloth into giant bird monsters, and showing the party her sweet full body snake tattoos.
Despite their forces, Bodhi's sword deletes the existence of her birds and the men with relative ease. Little effort is needed on the part of anyone else, with the exception of Halthor who corkscrewed a man's head for trying to choke out Matthias. It seemed like despite the overwhelming odds, the party was going to accomplish their goal. Hetun even appeared during the commotion, so they wouldn't need to worry about finding him if they managed to get past this unarmored woman. Before they could even get close to striking her down however, a snake manifests itself from her tattoos and bites Matthias. He has now been poisoned, and will quickly die without some form of intervention...without some form of divine intervention. Halthor and Bodhi repeated ancient prayer and alone through Vodim's grace was Matthias healed from the venom.
Before anymore snakes can emerge, Bodhi slays the woman, and Hetun quickly follows, being unceremoniously decapitated before he could even do anything. Surprisingly, the party accomplished their mision, and the few men who were left scattered upon the sight of their fallen leader.
With nothing left to do, the party interrogated the men still locked away and now separated by a layer of caltrops left by Axrid, and find Hetun's secret stash of jewels. They loot the location, and later find a captive in the kitchen. Her name is Morrigu, a tattooed women of the Tokhari, same as the assassin. With her life indebted to the party for freeing her, she swears her loyalty to the men, and they set off together, to celebrate their victory with more wine, and more women.
Session 16 Downtime Events
Zanorak hid himself alongside Hurass, in the darkened corners of Lestryhonia, as both turned more frog-like. Zanorak's tongue grew to a terrible size as it filled up his throat, growing muscular enough to strangle a man in a grapple.
Upon the beheading of Hetun, Bodhi returned to the cult of Dyspatur. As he tossed the head to their feet, the noblemen shouted in surprise. As the cultists shouted joy and promises of future allegiance to Bodhi, he returned to the surface as it began to rain.
Bodhi, Halthor, and Matthias returned to the Temple of Vodim to pray. The trio chanted the ancient song of the world-tree and each prepared doses of holy water. As they left, they were approached by Vali, the chief Ymirist priest. He charged them, as Spears of Vodim and famed slayers of criminals, to travel to the western coast of the Giant's Drown and slay the bandits who call themselves the Fishers.
With the end of the rain, the holy trio as well as Jorund and Axrid were met by a crowd of men in dark cloaks who drew weapons upon their approach. From the crowd stepped forward a man of long red hair with a blue tattoo of a serpent across his brow who drew a sword. Calling himself Kormak, he claimed to be Hetun's brother. Blood was spilled beneath sweltering sun. Following the death of four of their number, Kormak and his men fled shouting promises of future vengeance.
Randon alone choose to celebrate the slaying of Hetun and ventured forth to carouse amid Lestryhonia. Three sacks of silver in hand he wasted 625 silver across a week of wanton debauchery. Attracting a crowd of celebrants they gained a reputation for hosting contests of drunkeness. Awakening on the 29th day of spring month 1, he found a woman beside him who thank him for his pledge to protect her from those who had been attempting to slay her. Giving the name of Dysdaimonia of Abystra, she explained she was the wife of a merchant who treated her poorly and sent men to apprehend her after she ran from home.
They gained the following rumors:
1) King Lychin of Likas and King Amkian of Beberica wage war against one another.
2) Men sail to Hamin despite the threat of the Kraken to search for treasure.
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