Session 032

Session Date: 05/16/2025

The Fallen Castle

The castle had fallen into the earth. Sarras can tell that there is sandstone that had melted into mud, which implies acid was used to aid the castle falling, but there’s no other sign of magic. Ships finds 25 people corpses, 19 horses, 3 ponies, 14 mastiffs, and 4 wolfhounds - this means we are missing: 15 people, 5 dogs, and 6 horses. Ships also notices the crushed remains of what he can tentatively call fifth or sixth largest (that is, smaller than fourth largest), and we locate the musicians that they were playing when this happened. Neither sister nor the baby are here, but we do see the priest Renia, we do not see the mage. Almost all of the armsmen and most of the servants are here, but not the cook, the maids, the stablemaster, or the houndmaster. We also do not see the corpses of the Baron or his wife (who were murdered previously).

As a reminder: they speak through telepathy, and spoke in a language we don’t know so Ships had to use comprehend languages as Calthel was not there.

Questions:

1. Who made the castle fall into the earth?
   • The kruthik. The hell-drakes. The mantis-raptors.
     • These are all descriptors of the kruthik.
     • The same things that killed Ser Calyptos, who noted they spit acid.
   • Sarras has heard of these creatures: they’re very obscure and it has been more than 400 years since there has been an emergence of them near Aramath, at least. They were initially created by tieflings who used infernal magic to breed a type of drake with locusts and praying mantises. They eat ravenously and the adults breed very quickly. Unincubated eggs remain viable but do NOT hatch for a VERY long time - it’s entirely possible that just a few eggs were somewhere and something heated them up enough to make them hatch, and now there’s an infestation. They lay their eggs underground in places wet and warm.
2. Who conspired within the castle to allow this to happen?
   • No-one.
3. How did the Baron and his wife die?
   • Lady Hrista slit their throats in the night.
4. Why wasn’t this stopped by the playing musicians?
   • They were listening to their grandfather.
5. What is everything you know about the grandfather?
   • He is a rival of the Prophet’s children of old. He slept a long sleep. He chews his cud north of the Greyburn. He is bigger than Second Largest, but smaller than the Dread One. He took a horse with him as a snack.
   • The implication is that these are a rival to those that follow Sochet, which is to say that they follow a different slumbering god, or they are simply an enemy of the people here in general.

They quarry flint and slate here. Grislith is the island that everyone likes least. Calthel agrees that we should try to rout these things out, but if it is too difficult, then we should leave and consider the island a loss.

There is a nearby island called Biscione where many tiefling lived. They declared war on the gods before Aramanth was even its own country, and in that war they levied curses and summoned demons and bred monstrosities to create an army to take on the gods with. There’s nothing specifically that Sarras knows to tie them directly to that, but if they are that old, then they would certainly have been part of that conflict.

Dagon, Lord of the Deeps

Has to do with deep ocean creatures and subterranean creatures, which would definitely make sense to be used against the creatures used by Sochet the Prophet.

There is one open tunnel on this side of the bank that appears to go under the river, the Greyburn. It’s clear that a lot of kruthiks used it, and they dragged many bodies with them into it. There’s a collapsed tunnel at the north end of the tunnel that was forced open by a giant snake (which we have noticed before). Kerran also notices that there are the tracks of two humans, one big dog, and five horses escaping the sinkhole. Kerran doesn’t think that one of the sets of tracks belongs to Hrista, but can’t tell about the other set. One is someone who was light-footed and running like hell, while the other was someone who was doing some sort of weird crawl on their side - almost certainly the mage, due to the tail marks (there weren’t many tieflings in court.)

Red circle = tunnel Green circle = snake cave Dots = running away Squiggle = the dragging body Orange = dog tracks Grey horse shoes = horses

Lothar is to our NE.

Searching for Survivors

Sarras would like to prioritize rescuing and stabilizing survivors.

Ships will send his familiar to Lothar to update and request help - if there is a person within a half mile then return to let us know, otherwise go to Lothar.

Calthel sends his familiar to east to try to find any survivors, to return upon seeing a survivor or going a mile out. Calthel’s familiar returns first and reports the mage is hiding behind a bush about 200 feet east of here, and we discuss, ultimately deciding Sarras and Best Largest can head to the mage to provide support. If anything happens then Calthel can send his familiar for help.

Sarras finds the mage easily, and gives lay on hands to get him hopefully travel ready. He reports that they killed everyone, and Sarras reports that not everyone seems to be accounted for and there is evidence of others getting out. She says we will not rest until we find everyone, and he reluctantly agrees that he is well enough to ride. She helps him onto Best Largest and they walk back to the rest of the group.

As Sarras starts to return, Ships’ familiar returns to report one of the Baronness’s large dogs is just under a half mile north of us. Kerran goes to round the dog up. The dog is basically a St. Bernard sized Rodesian Ridgeback in grey and seal brown - his name is Lion. Kerran also goes to round up the horses as Sarras and the mage - Diligent - return.

Conversation with Diligent:

1. Was there any warning?
   1. No, none. Suddenly the flagstones were falling and everything lurched and slid. I got through a window as everything was falling.
   2. Lady Hrista survived the collapse, but then one of the kruthiks came up and drove its spikes through her chest. I don’t know what happened then.
2. We were unable to find Hrista’s body so far.
   1. They took every corpse that wasn’t buried, that was big enough to dig. They didn’t take the horses, except for one that was big enough.
3. Did you see if they took them into that tunnel (the one with the drag marks)?
   1. They were going that direction, but I’m uncertain if that’s where they went.
4. Did you hear any cries of those that were wounded being dragged off?
   1. No, and all of the arms men were inside the castle. The stablemaster and the houndsmaster were outside - they may have made it. Everyone else was in the kitchens or the hall. Lady Hrista is the only one I saw stand up after that, and I was the only one that made it through a window. There was barking, then it stopped.
5. My companion seems to have found one of the dogs, at least, and some of the horses may have gotten away as well. We will round up all that we can. We sent for aid for Ser Lothar. You called the kruthiks, as if you are familiar with them.
   1. Uh, yes, I’m familiar with them.
   2. He stops making eye contact once she points out that he knew the word kruthik, going from crazy eye contact to no eye contact very fast.
6. And there were no indications, nothing that arose your suspicion other than the behavior of your lord, that something of their ilk may have been making their home around the castle?
   1. No.
7. Hm. There are signs that they may have been there for quite some time. It’s possible that there is not much we can do other than retrieve corpses… We will ensure that you’re taken care of and recovered by Ser Lothar’s men, but until we have a better idea of everything that has conspired here, I’m sure you’ll understand if we need to keep all survivors under close watch for their protection.
   1. I don’t know what could protect me from them, but I won’t fight it.
8. I’m sure as you are studied, you are aware that they do not like noise, and we have other defenses against these. We will certainly do our best to bring about what justice is necessary.
   1. They’re not normally… I’ve never heard about them doing this to a structure. They dig, yes, but they dig angled warrens… They don’t… I’ve never read anything like what they did.
9. We have reason to believe there may be greater dangers working with them, but that is all I will say for now. We should focus on recovering. If there is anything you can say to aid us, we would appreciate it.
   1. Yes, yes, of course.
   2. He looks down quick and checks to be sure that the three books that he has strapped to his right hip are still present when you ask fi there’s anything he can tell us to help, and then he stops paying attention to them very suddenly.
      1. Calthel notices this as well, and Ships definitely notices that he’s acting very shiftily. We are within our rights to confiscate these books, but it is better to wait until things simmer down and we take care of him.

Ser Lothar and his men arrive, and Kerran does manage to - with help - round up all five missing horses. Kerran heals the horses as they also got pretty messed up. Lothar’s men will locate one of the maids that had run off at full tilt, the northern set of tracks. Her name is Eldrina. Where Diligent is shell-shocked, she is still in full on panic mode.

Ser Lothar’s men try to calm her down and they manage to get from her that she had taken a slop bucket out of the kitchen to throw it, so she was not inside the castle when the collapse started, and that’s how she got away. She is otherwise not coherent, and is deeply uncomfortable to have been brought back to the sinkhole.

Calthel suggests we take the survivors back to Ser Lothar’s so they are not near the sinkhole. Kerran questions the animals and the horses know nothing. Lion is confident that other than the horses, there were only five total survivors: himself, the mage, the maid, Hrista (who did not survive for long), Hrista’s snake.

Sarras mentions all of this to Ser Lothar. He says he will set a watch. The main thing he wishes to know - and the sooner the better - is if we are fighting this, or if we are fleeing and evacuating. Sarras says we need to discuss further, but we may need to execute a combination of both: evacuate as many as possible, and attempt to recover as many bodies as we can while getting the measure of what we are up against. If it is something we cannot fight without great loss, then it is possible that it is currently captive to the island and cannot leave, so it would be wise to leave and return with greater forces.

Ser Lothar, his wife, and his four arms men are ours in any endeavor. As he was conditional in his support in the political matter, he is unconditional now. He will do as we think is best. Sarras thanks him for his pledge. We send the survivors back with Ser Lothar to his estate, and we discuss what to do.

Calthel and Ships ultimately convince Sarras that we are not prepared to enter the caves right at this second, and we should go to Ser Lothar’s to rest and discuss.

Three books:

1. Book written in another language
   1. Book on kruthik lore.
   2. He accepted the posting on this island as he thought they were here. He has been studying them for about a year and a half. He has - among other things - an almost full map of their tunnels. He will state that off the central north tunnel there is a place where they stop digging tunnels and start digging caverns. He hasn’t ventured in there as there is nowhere to hide.
   3. In the book he will state that they don’t seem to have any elemental weaknesses or resistances, they have keen smell and tremorsense and darkvision. They can climb on the ceilings of their tunnels and have a speed of 40ft, climb of 40ft, a burrow of 20ft through soil, burrow 10ft through stone.
   4. He states they are sensitive to loud noises (especially new ones), and that they react to strong scents, but they react furiously and positively to strong scents. They seem to prefer fresh meat to older kills. When they succeed at a hunt they devour everything on the spot - contradicting this dragging behavior.
   5. There are notes where within the last few months he’s been actively collecting information and organizing it in a way that sounds like he’s passing on reports, but there’s no indication as to who. His spellbooks:

Looking at the way he organizes his spellbook, we can 100% tell that he received his primary education at the Navigator’s School. He graduated the Navigator’s School ten years ago, and then graduated the Grammary of Necromancy two years ago. The first spellbook is obviously the book we show to friends at dinner party, the second spellbook is obviously the cult spells.

Sarras goes to find Ser Lothar on the realization of the cultist spells in his second spellbook. He cannot afford a wizard of his own, but his wife knows a very little amount of magic - cantrip level, not spells.

In the Morning

She wants to workshop any ideas to detect and protect the baby, and then firebomb the bugs.

The maid mentions that since the baby got cauliky last fall, only Hrista could handle them. There were no new additions to the castle, but there were visitors. Those that visited had prestidigitation and thaumaturgy, but she saw nothing fancier than that.

Diligence is arrested, and then we rifle through his things. As we look through his items, there’s no indication who he is sending reports to, and there is another illegal item: a poisoner’s kit.

His full inventory is as follows: poisoner’s kit, 10 gp, pet beetle, kruthik claw, dagger, spellbook, arcane focus: green crystal orb, backpack, book of lore(kruthik), book of lore(poison/acid spells), ink pen, 10 sheets of parchment, bag of black sand, small knife, a dozen rat & weasel skulls

Sarras makes sure to pointedly confiscate the poisoner’s kit, the kruthik claw, the arcane focus, and the skulls.

She stops to question the maid.

There were two travelers that came as jesters: a white dragonborn woman and a human man, and they were arguing. The maid explains that the white dragonborn looked like a local white dragonborn - one of the island families, though she can’t really tell them apart very well. She struggles to remember the human man, struggling to remember anything about the human except that he had very small teeth.

Hrista had been rather taken by the travelers, and they had stayed for a couple of weeks. They had arrived on foot and had a pack mule with saddlebags and a small locked chest. Nothing was missing from the castle when they left, but the funny thing was the dragonborn woman… She must have headed out before dawn on the day that the man headed out - he’d said that she’d gotten a head start, but nobody in the castle had seen them go.

She recalls that Diligent had given the man a small bag of coin, so they may have known each other, or he paid for them to be here, or owed him a gambling debt.

Sarras begins interrogation. Zone of truth fails, so she goes to command. Diligence doesn’t know who the white dragonborn woman is - she serves the Prophet. She’s not a real dragonborn, that’s just the form she likes to take. She asks if the woman took the place of anyone in the castle - he says he didn’t know at first, he wasn’t part of it, but when the man - Tacker - left, he took Kera (the baby), meaning that the baby got “caulicky” and was actually a changeling.

Ships rolls the knucklebone dice and knows that shapshifters typically cannot change their shape, but he is aware that a lamia matriarch can change her size and shape: typically a humanoid, a small animal or creature, or a large shape. Kera could be the one we found in the dread one’s chambers, or there’s a secondary baby that’s been kidnapped.