Document 4: The Invisible Bond (Adventure)
Details (Part 1)
The Invisible Bond
Alma timeline: Born as Sertia Demetrius > Presented with bracelet age 5 > Anabel died when Sertia was age 7 > Trained with father until age 16 > Sent to military school in Maheto > Trained for 2 years in Maheto then sent to the Northern Verduran edge to patrol > Killed in first skirmish age 18 > Raised and served in undead horde for 2 years > Killed by Jana and Illendir, a powerful cleric and druid tasked with eradicating the undead marauders in the eastern Verduran > Raised by Jana with the blessing of Sarenrae and memory wiped > Illendil transported them to an area near an old friend of his who could look after her and get her back into life again > Found by Izan and convalesced for 3 months then sent to Cassomir
A Gift of Love
Anabel and Kendrick Demetrias knew they were blessed when they saw their child for the first time. Demetrius had known only a life of brutality and service, while Anabel had lived a long life of exile and ostracization. Their new daughter was the embodiment of the redemption and change that they sought for themselves, so they poured their love into the child freely, without reservation or hesitation. Anabel was a frequent supplier of alchemical items in Maheto and she became good friends with a quiet Shoanti exile named Takoda Greyeagle. The smith always made time to listen to Anabel’s impassioned stories of her new daughter and he almost felt he knew the child even though they had not met. So when Anabel approached the smith with a commissioned work, he was more than happy to create something beautiful, unique and rare. When Anabel arrived to pick up the item, Takoda revealed a surprisingly delicate and detailed silver bracelet that looked like it was constructed of silver stems and flowers. Anabel had never seen anything like it in Takoda’s previous works. It took her breath away and she could not be happier. But Takoda was not quite ready to hand it over. Handling the delicate items by a soft calfskin cloth, he whispered an ancient Shoanti word of power and handed it to Anabel with instructions to give it to her daughter before anyone else. The bracelet would form a bond between mother and daughter that could transcend distances and maybe even time.
When Anabel arrived back at their home, she and Kendrick presented the young child with the bracelet and when she took it and clasped it onto her wrist, the bond ritual completed. A small portion of Anabel’s soul melded with the silver and the young girl could feel the warm love of her mother whenever she wore it.
The silver bracelet is a semi-intelligent item that has a small portion of the consciousness of Anabel Demetrias and the ability to communicate with its bearer via empathy and mental imagery. Its ultimate goal is be reunited with Sertia, but it is also very wary of trusting strangers. The bracelet experienced a dark time when Sertia was killed on the Galt border. Although the young half-elf was transformed into a cruel reflection of her former life, the bracelet stayed hidden on her wrist under layers of rotting skin and dried blood. And when the undead creature was expunged from her body and raised again as a living being, the bracelet rejoiced. But joy became confusion as the bracelet, which still had the connection to Sertia’s soul, did not recognize the mind of the girl any more. Her memories were gone and the bracelet was determined to help the young woman regain her memories…somehow.
When the old mage removed the bracelet from Sertia’s unconscious form, it cried out in despair, causing the old human to ‘accidentally’ drop it on the ground, but he dutifully cleaned it up and placed it in a small leather sack near the girl’s bed. The next thing the bracelet knew, the mage picked it up and was desperate to reunite it with the girl, but she was not near. It was then passed to a young human who was tasked with reuniting the bracelet with its owner. And that was good enough for the bracelet.
The next time the bracelet was held it was between the fingers of a nasty, evil human who had stolen it for the human boy! The bracelet began to subtly influence the nasty man to greedily hoard the fine piece of jewelry. It found a perfect plan when the nasty man began to daydream about a pretty serving girl from a nearby town who he wanted to impress. The bracelet ‘suggested’ that the serving girl would fall head over heels for anyone who presented her with such a fine piece of jewelry. And so, the bracelet has been on its way to the forest border town of Mirewood in Taldor.
Background
When Alma left Izan Artigas’ care, the old wizard hired a young local to take her to Cassomir so she could begin her search for answers and maybe find someone to help her with her blossoming internal arcane power.
A couple weeks later, Izan was tidying up the room where Alma lived for the past few months and found a small satchel of goods that he had found on her person on that fateful day in the gardens. He had completely forgotten about returning these to her and now he had lost track of the young woman. With hopes that perhaps she was still in Cassomir, Izan hired a different local farm boy name Osto to take the satchel of goods to Cassomir and seek out the young woman in each inn he could find. He was instructed to question the gate guards, innkeepers and dockmasters and given a few silver to loosen lips if needed.
Unfortunately, the young man was set upon by a band of ruffians out of Sinkmoor who have a reputation for shaking down travelers or outright robbing people as they pass through the area. Osto was not a fighter nor a brave lad so he quickly gave the thugs what they wanted and he was allowed to return from where he came.
The brigands enjoyed their new booty and within the satchel found a few interesting items: an empty shortsword scabbard, a floral handkerchief made of well-worn silk and a thin silver bracelet with fine details depicting flowers and vines. The leader of the brigands was fascinated by the bracelet and would not allow his comrades to sell it. He intends to give it to a particularly friendly and buxom lass he met in Mirewood in hopes that she will find new respect for him and fall in love.
The bracelet hopes to find a good soul that it can work with to discover Sertia’s fate and where she may be today.
Robbing Hoodlums
One of the easiest ways to make a few coins in Taldor is to get hired on as guard for a business with travel needs. In many countries, caravans are the most common place where guards can be hired. But near Cassomir, there are a series of canals in the southern areas of Taldor that merchants use barges to transport their goods. And although they are slow moving, the barges also need competent guards to fend off bandits and creatures of the local fens.
Your adventuring group were hired by a local bargemaster named Grady Nine-toes to accompany a tall barge carrying food and building supplies to a backwater shanty town called Sinkmoor, which most people call Stinkmoor due to the nearby fetid swamplands.
After a mostly uneventful two day journey along the well-travelled canal, your group arrived in Sinkmoor and took in the sights after getting your pay of 2 gp each.
The settlement known as Sinkmoor consists of a half-dozen crooked buildings with mud floors and some strange inhabitants. The town definitely deserves its nickname of ‘Stinkmoor‘ as the marsh gasses seem to accumulate in this area most strongly.
Sinkmoor
Notable Buildings and People
The Muddy Bottom – Inn/tavern run by an exiled former/failed gnome engineer Geevil Wrenchington who tries in vain to keep the small settlement above the waterline of the surrounding swamp. When not busy running his establishment, he runs out on some emergency repair to prevent a local building from sinking, tilting or capsizing. Since this place is one of the most popular places to stop and get a drink, he constantly adds extra rooms and even a 2nd bar to the tavern in a hodgepodge fashion.
Yivglik’s Shack – A small shack at the intersection of the two canals has dozens of long poles stacked against its side. The lizardfolk entrepreneur Yivglik charges 1 sp to help guide the barges onto the new distributary. Most bargemasters accept his assistance since he is very good at it and has no problem jumping into the canal to protect the sides of the barges from hitting the banks. Yivglik speaks broken common but stays close to his shack unless he is hunting in the swamp for his next meal.
Flies and Fries – A picture of a one-legged fat frog chowing down on a large frog leg welcomes travelers to this open-air stand where several grills are set up with various swamp delicacies including frog legs, eels on a stick, toad-eye soup, barbequed swamp rat (“tastes just like chicken!”) and the special – filet of hydra. The stand is run by a dirty dwarven woman called Kissy whose mouth appears to have been scarred and healed in a way that created a permanent pucker.
In addition to the establishments above, there is also a general provisions open-air stand (basics, tack/harness), a general craftsman who can perform most simple repairs and a squat wooden tower occupied by Pawg, a burly Ogre Boss who is paid each week by the other merchants to keep the peace and protect from any swamp critters who may enter the settlement.
After spending an interesting night at this charming town, you decided to keep moving on along the north-bound canal to the forest-edge settlement of Mirewood. There was rumor that they had some trouble with goblin raids from the forest.
Packing up early to get out of this smelly backwater, your group headed north on foot along the canal road for the 2 ½ day journey to Mirewood. The first day was easy travelling and within a few hours, the stench subsided enough for you to take a few deeper breaths. About 2 hours into the next day’s journey however, you spot something ahead that looks like trouble. A wide barge looks like it has been partially rammed into the side of the canal and group of figures is finishing up dispatching the barge’s crew and beginning to loot their new prize.
The bandits are not paying much attention to their surroundings and are intent on looting the bargers and the barge itself. If the party is careful, they can get fairly close to them before they are noticed. The bandits have a passive perception of 16 (21-5) while looting.
Tactics: The bandits will try to get in close to take advantage of their AoO, flanking and Jim’s Gang Up feat. If Jim falls below 100HP he will try to negotiate his way out of dying by offering the group a valuable item (the silver bracelet) which he has stuffed in his boot. If the party does not cooperate, he will run west right into the pair of curious Marsh Giants.
As the last bandit is engaged, a pair of marsh giants heard the commotion and have come to investigate and maybe find a tasty snack. They will laugh, call out and then throw a couple rocks while they close to attack.
Treasure – the bandits have a total of 78gp, 135sp, 6x10gp gems, a bronze ring with a tiger eye setting worth 15gp, a +1 Striking Dagger (Dunky), a coral beaded bracelet worth 10gp, a darkwood buckler (Rideyr) attached to the leg of one of the bandits who thought it was a piece of wooden armor and a fine silver bracelet made to resemble delicate flowers and stems (6, Enchantment, Divination). <<Merle>>
The marsh giants have many things that the group probably won’t find valuable such as 4 goblin skins, a necklace of fingers (human, elf, goblin), a leather cloth with 9 scalps, a large sack with rotting ‘snacks’ (eyes, organs, etc.) and they also have +1 Shortsword (2) (Barnabus) and a Stalwart’s Ring (5) (Merle) still attached to one of the necklace fingers.
Take note of who takes what as the bracelet’s bearer will be critical.
3 Bandits – 3×20= 60 XP
Pearly Jim – 80 XP
2 Marsh Giants – 2×60= 120 XP