The Quality of Gold
Part 13: Stonehaven – Molentide & East Camp
Comments in Blue have been added after publishing.
Details
The scenarios did not necessarily occur in sequence, but in the end, the party’s involvement was noticed.
Scenario 4 – The Molentide Incident
This afternoon, the teachers are all at the Citadel meeting to discuss their lesson plans, while the students are either in their accommodations at the Citadel Terrace or are at dinner after the Play.
One of the students (Ransley Penrose) brought in a rare book to show off for his friends. It has been passed down in his family and his father joked that it would summon a demon to deal with misbehaving children. At the end of class this afternoon (or the previous day), he and a couple of the other students used some of their recent lessons to translate the obscure runes and when they were uttered out loud, the book caught fire! The students hid the book under a desk and fled the school, leaving the book to disgorge its summoned creature a short time after. Now the creature roams through the school, wreaking havoc and scrawling strange runes on the blackboards and walls.
Although it is now late, you hear something od coming from the nearby school. On the second floor, a dark shape moves by a window carelessly tossing something over his shoulder as if searching for something. There are no lights on, but you get a glimpse of someone possibly ransacking the classrooms.
Babau Demon (summoned but not a minion)
If the party is able to defeat the rogue demon, Headmistress Lethia or Madam Serena will be very grateful and reward the group if they come back the following day. (most likely they will not be able to return the next day if they head underground or are captured)
Reward: 100 gp each, plus an uncommon spell scroll of arcane and divine (their choice of spells) plus their choice of 3 of the following: Wondrous Figurine (Candy Constrictor), Bag of Holding (Type I), Keymaking Tools, Mask of Mercy, Aerial Cloak
Sinister Clue – if the party carefully searches Lethia’s office, which is locked with a Good lock (5xDC30) they may find (Per DC30) a hollow book with a number of little items (comb, quill, 5 tied small bunches of hair, green ribbon, spectacles, small white silk glove). These items are used in a Scrying spell and with a DC20 Per they will recognize the green ribbon belonging to Marissa Redshadow-Barkley.
Quick Key to Molentide:
M1 – Entrance/Study/Parlour
M2 – Study Tables
M3 – Magical Beasts Classroom – Master Jorin, cages contain a few minor beasts; giant rat, mitflit, Compsognathus
M4 – Alchemy/Symbology – HM Lethia, various reagents, none useable, but can serve as a lab
M5 – Kitchen/Dining Room
M6 – HM’s office – locked, see Sinister Clue above
M7 – Numerology/Theology – Master Payne, Babau rampaging here, chairs and books strewn everywhere
M8 – Herbology/Planology – currently learning about different planes
M9 – Teachers’ Lounge
M10 – Jorin/Payne quarters when not at Citadel (usually occupied during the week) – very bachelor-like, messy
M11 – Lethia quarters – hardly used since she spends most of her time at Citadel (plus other ‘activities’)
M12 – Mistress Tristessa quarters – very comfy and feminine
The party will need to rest for the night, either in the tunnels under the Opera House, in the Opera House or at one of the Lodges/Inns. At this point there is no one to suspect them and are just being watched.
Scenario 5 – Investigating a Different Camp
If the party decides to investigate another camp, they will already have some good intel to go on since they know that there will be refugees, guards, a “doctor” and lots of undead. The good news is that they have this intel and also that they are higher level, so the battles may be more easily won. But the layout of the other camps is different. See the individual camps below for details.
It will not be long before someone visits the Mountain Camp with a wagonload of supplies and refugees. Once they discover the outcome of the party’s visit, they will head directly back to Stonehaven to report, taking a few of the more intact bodies with them. It will take 4 days for Stonehaven to get word about the downfall of the camp and the only concrete info the leaders can gather is that someone came in and slayed everyone, which could have been hunters, brigands, etc. But the discoverers will bring back 3 relatively intact dead soldiers to Speak with Dead (Talking Corpse).
Other Camps
The East Camp and Ravine Camp are very similar to the Mountain Camp. They each have refugee tents, quarantine tents, a cabin for the Mistress and guard cabins. They also house a ‘doctor’ who is responsible for crafting the special candles and administering the Boost. Similar notes can be found in these locations, although the Mistress’ cabin does not contain the magic item from the Mountain Camp.
Start of Game (1/2/24 and 1/18/24) – Investigating the East Camp
The only notable differences are:
East Camp – The potbellied stove in the Mistress’ room pivots to reveal a ladder leading into a tunnel (DC18 Per to find). There is also an old trap door in the floor of the guard cabin, DC24 to find that leads down a ladder to an old refuse pit that has since been occupied by a nasty creature that crawled up from the deep hole. 1 Round after entering the chamber, the horrible stench aura will fill the room and the party will need to save vs. stench. Then the next round, the creature will crawl up out of the hole and lash out with reach at some unlucky soul.
Once complete go HERE
Ravine Camp – at the end of the northern cave is a narrow, web-ridden tunnel leading to an unused cavern of stalagmites and large boulders. A few ghoul bodies lay ripped apart on the ground at the entrance. Farther in is the current occupant, a nasty Skaveling that was first brought here by the Mistress to start the ghoul population. Now it lives a hungry life of population control.
Once the group has cleared the camp, they can either head to the last camp (Ravine Camp) or back to Stonehaven.
I believe that the party headed back to Stonehaven and did not visit the Ravine Camp, but here it is for posterity.
If they head to the Ravine Camp and follow the road, there is a good chance they may run into the exodus of undead and guards from that camp after they received a magical warning from The Mistress. The party could also hide and let them pass then continue on to the camp where they will find the unfortunate aftermath of a massacre. If they intercept and defeat the exodus, the Captain will have an intact note on his body. If they bypass the exodus, they may find the burned remains of the same note in a firepit.
If the group heads back to Stonehaven there are three choices:
- Enter town normally and be confronted by extra guards, then either get arrested, fight or flee
- Sneak into town and try to keep a low profile, go underground
- Try to enter the Citadel by the secret east entrance
A Warning Message
Once the party’s involvement has been discovered, Osanna Cadell will use a Sending spell to warn the other camp leaders of the possible assault coming their way. Her message arrives too late for Professor Demeter, but she is able to get a message to Ravine camp’s officer Capt. Ravage who jots it down on a piece of parchment then wads it up and tosses it towards a firepit (DC22 Per to find remaining note):
“Disruptors coming, use amulet to terminate all survivors, load undead in cart, bring all to east cavern entrance, make haste, no witnesses”
See map for location of Ravine carts each day. If the party runs into them, they will make a formidable force just in numbers and the party should think twice. If the party is spotted (warning in letter about no witnesses), the undead are commanded to pursue and kill.
The party did not opt to go this direction so they did not know of the note and fate of the undead in the last camp.
Chapter 9: The Jig is Up
The party has now taken too much time outside of Stonehaven and returns after the corpses have been returned and questioned. Their involvement in the north camp is known (lots of tracks and signs that point back to them) and all Knights will have orders to arrest them on sight for “questioning”. All conspirators and complicits in town will notify a Knight if they appear.
- In the Lower Village, Nate Leeds and Thad Dugger are Conspirators
- Tolin, Inbrus and Dundali are Complicit
- In the Upper Village, most of the residents have lived here for decades are Complicit (exceptions are the newlyweds and their servants and the students.
- The teachers are all conspirators
If the party has the foresight to stealthily scout the town before returning, they may avoid some of the following consequences:
- Once they appear in Stonehaven, the Lastwall Knights will begin to close in and one will demand they drop their weapons and submit to them.
- Party can either fight or flee at this point. Fighting is probably useless since they are vastly outnumbered.
- If they submit, they will be divested of their weapons and backpacks, then their wrists and legs will be manacled (-15 speed, DC5 flat to manipulate), they are placed in the back of a cart, chained to a central post (Athletics DC30 to break) on the cart (immobilized) and hauled up to the citadel. (See Imprisoned! below) 3xDC22 thievery to unlock. <- this is the option the party ‘chose’
- If they try to escape, they will be pursued relentlessly (see Chase-The Great Escape below)
- If they escape, they may need to sneak back into town or just leave altogether
- One last option would be for the party to try to enter the Citadel by the underground entrances where the zombies came from
If the group (for some reason) wants to question the smuggler, Feister can arrange a meeting with a fellow named Qualin, a half-elf ranger/smuggler who has a room at Dreadmorgan’s Safehouse. He is part of a country-wide movement to infiltrate and thwart this regions slave trade and to legitimately get refugees into the process of leaving Ustalav or settling in a safer region.
He has a large covered wagon about ½ mile away specially built for smuggling with false barrels of vegetables that can house 6-10 people while he drives a horse to the north or south, depending on his current situation. He works with Feister and Brunin to coordinate the refugees.