Diary of Captain Nomed Oppenheimer - Entry Number 3
Saturday, October 14th 907 of the Third Age
We are making our final preparations. After the rather eventful night, we finally have enough money to set sail. Although our presence in the city has created quite a commotion, we have evaded capture by the city guard. Unfortunately, the storm is coming soon, and we are racing against the clock to fix our ship.
After we returned to the Inn from our “Tanning” deal, we decided to head towards the Church of the Silver Throne where we believed Lord Winsworth was grieving over the grave of his dead wife. Unfortunately, said church was on the opposite side of town and the murder of Byron Bigby had the town watch on high alert. The fact that so many guards were on patrol now forced us to take a detour around the far side of the city, right past the home of Mr. Frakesworty. Hoping to solve his problem, we knocked on his door, only to be told by the elderly butler Hawkes, that he was back at the Inn, looking for us. We bid Hawkes good night, and made our way through alleys and side streets to the Church of the Silver Throne.
Once there, and after Chironomous relieved himself on the church door, we headed towards the graveyard out back, where we found a sad sight. Lord James was hiding behind a tree near his wife’s grave, and said grave had been torn open, from the inside. This confirmed to us that the ghast we had faced inside the Wanton Wench was Lady Clarinda Winsworth herself. Distraught, Lord James asked us where his wife could be, and when we gave him her brooch, and told him what had happened to her, he gave us a reward of 600gp, and asked that he be reunited with his wife. We agreed, with Chironomous taking a great interest in Winsworth and telling him all about his lord and savior The Gyre.
During this time, our priest, along with Java, disappeared for about 10-15 minutes, and when they returned, Juju only said that he needed to retrieve something of his. For some reason, he also seemed particularly concerned with the skies, as he kept glancing up nervously.
With Lord James in hand, we decided to head back to Frakesworthy Manor, as he must have returned to his home by now, and we were not disappointed. Greeted again by Hawkes, we were told that his master was indeed home, and that we were to wait in the drawing room while he got his master. We entered the drawing room, and we noticed that the manor was in rough shape, as if the Frakesworthy family had fallen on hard times, and also on the ceiling of the drawing room was a mural of an impending storm, destroying everything in sight. Soon after, Frakesworthy stormed downstairs, flanked by his three female guards. Flustered by his appearance in his house, he admonished us for forcing him to wait, and then stated he still needed our help, going to a back room and returning with a small box.
The small silver chest was embroidered with a dragon, and was magically locked with a small poem, and a puzzle, where we had to place different combinations of the letters a and z into spaces to unlock the chest. Try as we might, we could not figure out how to open it, and the chest heated uncontrollably as time went by. I placed one of my new frost bombs to mitigate the damage, and when the chest finally exploded with immense force, those of us next to it were unharmed, but Frakesworthy’s guards were knocked out, and the room was destroyed. Inside the chest was a large diamond necklace, and several broken vials. Figuring that we would not be paid for “opening” the box, we attacked Frakesworthy, and grabbed the necklace.
We could not subdue Frakesworthy in time, and he let out a call for the city guards. Because of the increased activity outside, one of the city patrols was just happening to pass by and a chase ensued. As we ran, Lord Winsworth offered to give himself up to buy us some time, and we agreed, giving him the necklace, and running into the woods.
The next few hours were a game of cat and mouse, being pursued by the city watch and their blink dogs. We evaded capture, heading far east, before looping back around towards the Wanton Wench, where Slip was waiting. She told us that our actions had the city pretty much on lockdown and that even The Family would have trouble protecting us. We asked her if she could get us to the Six Sisters, as dawn was fast approaching, and she agreed, saying that she would come and get us.
While on the ship waiting for Slip to return, we decided to determine who would be the “official” captain of the ship. I was outvoted, and Lucky Lulu took up the mantle of Captain of the Wanton Wench, for now. With that, also came the articles of the ship, which can be read elsewhere, and required much debate over each article, as we all had various complaints with the ones drawn up by Lulu. That was settled around the same time that Slip returned with a wagon that we hopped in and hid. The city guard had the entire city locked down, so we were skeptical of our chances, but they let Slip right through their checkpoints, with a simple flick of the wrist. After a short ride, we made it to the Six Sisters.
We had informed slip that we needed a sixth person for the job, and when we arrived we met Mirth. She was a Family candidate, and she informed us that although she would help with the ritual to find the hidden treasure, her real purpose was to locate a ring of her father’s that had been used here as payment for one of the sister’s “services”.
The building itself was a dilapidated thing, with wooden planks boarding up the doors and windows, and a marsh surrounding the land. Mirth told us that she tried to enter earlier, and that she was stopped by giant frogs hiding in the marsh. We used nearby rocks to throw into the marsh, and when the frogs leaped up to attack, we shot them down quickly. After doing this a few times, I cut out the viscous tongues of the beasts, and we pried open the main doors to the building.
Inside, through the dark, we could spot a large green pool in the center, gaudy furniture surrounding it, stairs leading up, and a statue that hinted at hidden keyholes throughout the building. Just as we were starting our search for the keyholes, six skeletons emerged from the green pool, with viscous green liquid dripping from them. We quickly learned that this goo was acidic, and between tossing chairs and throwing frost bombs, we dispatched the six sisters. Each carried a necklace with one of the key’s symbols on them, and they were color-coded. I scraped the goo into vials, and we found the keyholes scattered throughout the room. We just needed to find which key went where.
We went upstairs, where there were seven doors. The first six led to colored bedrooms, these rooms lay above the keyholes on the first floor, which gave us the answer to the key locations. The seventh door was blocked by a magical lock that required us to use mirrors to show a certain number of people for different parts of the puzzle. This was simple enough, and when we finished it, the door opened, leading to another bedroom, and it seemed the bed was occupied by the most beautiful succubus I’ve seen. Apparently, this was disconcerting to the other members of the party, and they wanted us to flee of all things. The only thing that kept their attention was a key and a pair of rings on a necklace she was wearing. Mirth recognized one of the rings as her father’s and made a move to snatch the necklace. Although she broke the necklace free, she could not escape the succubus’s grasp, and Mirth died immediately. Juju grabbed the necklace, Wrane grabbed me, and Chironomous slammed the door behind us as we ran out.
With Mirth dead, we went outside and informed Slip. Exasperated, she said that Mirth would not have been good for the family anyways, and when we asked, she agreed to take part in the ritual. With the knowledge of the color-coding, we opened the windows to allow light to shine on the statue, and when it did so, it showed the order in which to use the keys. When we did, the far wall opened, and a set of stairs led down. In this lower section, we found an altar to the succubus, apparently faked, a large collection of fancy clothing and lingerie, and an old chest. Using the key from the succubus, the chest opened, giving us 1200 gp, and six silver daggers. Slip said that she would take the clothing as payment, as she could sell those more easily than us, and we returned to the cart with our treasure, and made our way back to the ship.
We agreed to wait until afternoon, when we would move the ship to the docks, and bring the supplies on board, to make repairs and set sail. So here we are, waiting for the ship to move, and to see what insanity lies before us as we plan our next moves.
