16 - Daily Grind at the Sausage Party

Group


 New NPCs


Marshal Report

Searching through Sephik's personal effects they find that he had a magic ring he used to transport bodies.  The ring let him hide and draw his equipment easily for assassination as well as transport bodies so long as they were below 150 pounds. This raised more questions than answers, particularly around Sephik's true motives. Among his possessions, the group also found a pouch of coins with obliterated markings, leading them to suspect these were Duergar coins paid by Shandar for the execution of the Speaker of Goodmead..


The group then devised a plan to infiltrate the "Uphill Climb" Inn near the Caer, where they disguised Gildon as Sephik. Upon arrival, they found the inn bustling with both knights and caravan members. Subtle investigation revealed a dark secret: the caravan had been using Sephik's victims to make sausages they sold to unsuspecting townsfolk. It was likely these sausages might explain the increase in ghouls in the dale as cannibals often rise as undead.


Torga was quite upset the bastards in the Caer wouldn’t let the caravan in to trade.  So planned to head to Caer Konig at first light then cross the tundra to Tourmaline afterwards.  


Party investigates caravan wagons befriending the sled dogs in the process and find clear evidence of human corpses being used to make sausages.  The group sabotage the wagons to prevent a quick get away and then decide to call the knight's attention to the wagon to see if the two groups are aligned.  But as the group plan their efforts a guard walked out of one of the rooms to use the privy and stumbled onto the group which must have looked very suspicious.  Goodboy tried to tell the guard that the group was just walking their dog and nothing strange was happening at all. This did not help. The knight noped teh hell out and went straight to his commander who soon emerged to see what was going on.


Nyree recognized the commander and slipped into shadows to stay out of sight.  Quick thinking by Gildon (now playing a frazzled townswoman) lead the knight commander to the wagon where (s)he saw bodies poking out from under a tarp. (Especially suspiscious now that the party had added the extra bodies of Sephik and his two refugee victums to the pile. All of which made the sausage making wagon super suspicious looking, The knights started to raise the alarm and assemble but the caravan master's husband caught a glimpse of the knights searching the wagon and a fight started as caravan members poured out of the building and began to cut down anyone in their way to hide evidence before work got out.  Torga and her first mate proved to be devastating combatants chopping down knights on their way towards the wagons.


The caravan’s numbers were overwhelming the few knights of the Dawn in the inn.  The group called out that they were Marshals and jumped in to assist.  Ithkan told the knights that Titania had sent them after the caravan after seeing something suspicious but then Ithkan kept busy calling on his god to to keep the dropped knights alive.  Meanwhile the rest of the group focused on bringing down whirling dervish of a caravan leader as Torga fled towards the wagons only to run face first into Gildon's magical blast - knocking her back around the corner of teh building and letting Fingal ice her to slow her down.  


Nana, and Fingal laid down magic suppression.  Nyree shot the biggest threats.  Ithkan saved lives and faced down the heavy hitters.  Gildon was initially caught on the far side of the building in his helpless villager guise but eventually darted off ot a latrine only to dart back as a more masculine figure whom blocked Torga path to the wagons.  Under heavy fire the caravan leaders quickly fell and with both their leaders down the other members of the caravan surrender easily.


Nyree slipped through the chaos and darkness to go search Torga's room recovering an iron lockbox the group later opened to reveal 92 gp, 76 sp, 235 cp, and seven gemstones worth 10 gp each. After looting the caravan master's room the party questioned Torrga to determine motivations and who knew what was going on.  There was lying and deflection but most members of the caravan were clearly in the know and complicit in the horrible atrocities being commited.

The leader of the knights thanked the group for their help and for saving so many lives.  He planned to take them to a big city to be punished since those cities conducted regular executions and the crime clearly called for capitol punishment.

Amusingly after the battle was done and the inn was being searched by the party and the knights it came to light that the back room was being used for a large séance by a halfling bard named Rinaldo whose séance was made extra realistic by the sounds of battle outside the room. Ithkan recognizing the scam put a bit of pressure on Rinaldo but offered to let up if he put in a good word for Titania and talked her up amongst the townfolk with along term plan to help her gain power in the knights once the group straightens out whatever is crooked in that organization.

Advantage

Treasure

100 gp in unidentifiable currency

170 gp in mixed currency


Investigation priorities / assignments


Questions to explore next time: