Session 0043 - Surthain

Roster

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Player characters who's player is attending the game start with 1 Hero Point, and can get more during the session.

Absent

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Session Log

After securing passage up the Rachi river with Captain Chinxero the party secure rooms at the Open Palm Inn in Stormreach. It is relatively early in the evening as they settle in and enjoy a very good meal. They have roughly twelve hours before they need to meet Captain Chinxero at his riverboat in the Harbor District.
While they enjoy their meal the topic of the Emerald Claw comes up and they realize they don't have any information about the cult and their activity in the city. After eating they decide to head back out into the city and try to gather some information. Each of the dragonmarked houses has some representation in the city, with the houses Deneith, Jorasco, Kundarak, and Phiarlan having their own enclaves and the remaining houses having a presence in the Citadel of the Twelve in the Silverwall District.
They begin their inquiry with the enclaves, trying to visit each and ask discrete questions. Alicia is the party face, doing most of the talking. Initially everyone except for Hrovard help out, but their efforts don't turn up anything useful. Most responses they get are along the lines of "I've got no idea what you're talking about", and "Lots of strange people come to Stormreach. Unless you’re seeking an army, I doubt you’ll find who you’re looking for."
When the enclaves don't produce any information they start moving around each quarter and visit the numerous taverns in town to buy drinks and ask questions. This initially doesn't produce any results, but after persisting into the evening they end up getting results.
One person offers "You know, I have seen some of those uniforms you describe. Yeah, day before yesterday. No, I don’t recall anything else." Encouraged by this, they press on a bit longer and another person tells them "Yes, I remember a group like that, with a warforged. I’d say about two days ago. They came by airship, a fast-looking thing, and asked questions about the deep jungle. They’re gone now."
Satisfied that they found out all they are going to learn without a lot more effort, they return back to the Open Palm Inn. It seems that the Emerald Claw has a couple of days heard start on the party.
When they arrive back at the Inn they are greeted by the proprietor with a message that was left for them by a courier just before they arrived. They grab a table and open the message. The text, scrawled in blood, reads: “I answer asks for gold. I Surthain. Meet now, Xaponath Lane, Old Quarter.”
The party take the message and immediately head back out into the city to the Oldgate District. They have heard that Oldgate was one of the oldest and most significant parts of the city, but passing through it doesn’t give them that impression. Oldgate seems too ordered and polite, too clean and safe. Contrary to its name, this area feels newer than the rest of the city, and the people seem as if they’re in a city of their own, far from the chaos in the neighboring districts.
After asking around a bit for directions to Xaponath lane, they finally find it. Unlike most of the quarter, this lane is relatively unkempt and run-down. They cautiously walk down the lane with hands on their weapons. It is quite dark in the lane, so Ferdinand lights up his lantern to help light their way.
They walk down to the end of the lane and discovers a dead-end but there is nobody here to meet them. However, both Alicia and Muroni are quite alert and notice a figure enter the lane and approach them. The figure wears a cloak with the hood over their head and they walk slowly towards them.
The group turn to face this person and call out to them, but they do not respond. Instead, they just continue walking towards the party at a regular measured pace. The party turn to face this person, with Muroni moving to one side and very effectively concealing herself in the shadows of the nearby buildings.
Hrovard is the first to move forwards towards the figure, getting to within about fifty feet. He sees a little under the hood and catches sight of the ends of his bare arms. The individual has a gruesome face with big eyes and arms with rough flesh, leaving him unsure of who or what this person is. He calls out and asks him if he is Surthain. They hesitate to speak while continuing to walk forward at the same pace, but replies with "Y-yes...".
With that response, Hrovard motions to the party to hold up and indicates this is Surthain. At the same time Ferdinand moves up past Hrovard to move up closer to the figure, within about fifteen or twenty feet. He gets a much closer look and realizes this person is not right - they have unusually large dark eyes and scaly flesh that appears rotten. There is a strong stench about the person that is being masked by a lot of perfume.
Concerned about a possible conflict, Alicia also moves right up to stand next to Ferdinand, effectively putting herself between this person and Hrovard. Meanwhile, everyone else moves forward cautiously, including Muroni who edges forward with her bow in hand.
Surthain then walks forward, opens its mouth unnaturally wide and stares hard at Alicia. She screams out involuntarily in response as she is gripped by a powerful force that seems to drain life from her body (she fails a save and is Drained 2 and Doomed 1. Surthain seems to swell with power in response.

The party is quick to respond, grabbing weapons and moving in to attack Surthain.
Ferdinand attacks the creature and misses it, then he steps back. Alicia had a crossbow handy, and she fires a bolt at Surthain, but also misses. Hrovard moves in to flank it and manages to hit it with his axe, and does some damage but it does not seem to hurt it very much.
Eriana runs in and manges to trip Surthain and stab him to some effect, then Muroni tries to hit Surthain with arrows, but has a hard time targeting him while prone so she misses. In response to being tripped by Eriana, Surthain glared at her and she felt the same feeling of dread as Alicia, but she is able to resist it.
At the same time, Harbek moves up and casts a Spiritual Weapon spell at Surthain and critically hits him, clearly doing damage and apparently slowing him somewhat.
Alicia is convinced that Surthain is undead and yells this out to the rest of the party. Surthain staggers to regain his footing but is slowed and continues to be attacked by the party.
This time Ferdinand runs back in, tumbles past him and managed to land a good blow against Surthain with his rapier, yet the creature does not seem to be badly damaged by the attack.
Hrovard struggles to hit it, but Alicia does manage to hit it with a crossbow. The bolt clearly seems to damage Surthain and it glows slightly with is vitalizing magic energy.
As everyone attacks it, the creature fixes its gaze this time on Eriana she fights against it yet still feels drained as Alicia did (she suffers a Drained 1 effect even when she makes a successful save).
In the next round of combat the creature is hit several times and swept off its feet again by Eriana. It is clearly taking damage, and the bolt stuck in it appears to be causing lingering vitality damage yet Surthain gets up and fixes it gaze on Alicia again. This hits her even harder than the first time (she critically fails and suffers Doom 1 and a Drained 4 effects).
This attack on Alicia clearly boost Surthain, appearing to restore it somewhat. The party continue to attack it, and it takes damage but remains standing. Hrovard managed to hit it a couple more times with his axe, and Muroni gets ready to run in to melee after frustration at missing with so many bow shots. Eriana tries to trip it a third time and fails. Fortunately for the party, it fumbled while trying to claw at her and slowed itself down. Eriana grapples it, and Surthain breaks free but is too slow to fix its gaze on anyone.
Surthain does manage to break free of the grapple while surrounded, but the final blow comes from Alicia nailing it with a bolt from her crossbow. The undead collapses and the area around it seems to get a little brighter, as though it was somehow dampening the light around it.
After combat they gather around and look at Surthain to try and understand what they were dealing with.
Alicia has heard of undead known as a Bodak whose gaze alone can kill someone. Rumor has it that anyone killed by its gaze will rise as a Bodak the following day, so they count themselves lucky it didn't kill anyone. What little they know also seems to fit with its tough hide and vulnerability to holy weapons.
A search of the body doesn't turn up anything of interest. Surthain did not seem to have any gear on him.
They ponder what this was all about and come to the conclusion it was a set-up. Ferdinand postulates that all of their questions about the Emerald Claw in the city must have raised suspicion and Surthain was left here to try and kill off anyone who was too curious about the cults activities in town.