He’s pretty pissed off, and enlists the party to try to
track down those responsible, whilst he’s busy re-establishing his organisation
in the Mong Xar underworld. The party picks up their first lead at Stark’s Shop
of Wonders – an arcane emporium run by an aged but powerful warlock. He makes
the party a deal – if they can either collect a debt, or if it cannot be paid,
meet out suitable punishment, he’ll give them some information. The party
agree, and find themselves in a battle with some lunatic sea-spirit worshipping
sailors and a couple of water elementals, who’ve no way of paying the debt they
owe Stark for a shipment of Kua Toa roe. Victorious, Jodric suggests scuttling
the cult’s temple, which is a converted ship, and Stark is well pleased with
the outcome. He doesn’t know much about these demon worshippers, but he directs
them to a gambling house where he knows a mercenary who has done some work for
them often plays.
The party track down this mercenary, chase and kill him, and
find a note on his body which mentions a meeting in Daddy Hung’s Wagon Wheel
Factory, now closed down, that very night. They stake out the joint, but their
efforts are thwarted when none other than the city guard themselves come to
clear the area, claiming they must do so in the name of some public health
emergency. The party regroup, overpower the city guards outside and enter the
warehouse.
They burst into the warehouse in time to see a short, portly
man trying to make his escape through the back, protected by the city guards.
But they aren’t the only ones there, a group of stocky foreign mercenaries
engages the party, and despite best efforts to stop the fleeing man, the party
is too engaged by these mercs and the guards, and the man escapes in a
carriage. Combat continues inside, where another robed man, gaunt and lean and
terribly afflicted by some rotting disease has joined the combat. He eventually
escapes the party, fleeing into the city night.
As the party search the warehouse, a Tiefling with one eye
enters, and introduces himself as Lucien. He claims to be a member of the
Dhigan Society, working for the House of the Jackal, the wing of the society
that is most concerned with criminal activity. He’s been assigned to keep an
eye on Captain Octagon’s activities, and when all when quiet on that front his
suspicions were raised. His investigations also led his to this warehouse. When
the party show him a document they found, stamped with the family seal of the
Bai family, he is aghast. Sho Zan Bai was a Grand Advisor to the Emperor two
hundred years previously, when it was revealed he was in league with the forces
of the abyss. He, and his wife and children, were executed and his line
believed to be extinct. Who could be using the Bai family seal after all these
years?
Lucien suggests that the first place the party should look
is the Bai mausoleum, on the outskirts of the city. Here the party find
evidence that the Bai line had continued, in secret – the family tree in the
mausoleum has been kept up to date over the centuries. Someone had also been
expanding the tomb, and had filled it with some nasty surprises from the abyss.
As Seraph and Querion began to look through some demonic tracts, Sand’s powers
seemed to take on a life of their own – and just at a passage about the boon’s
offered to those who make pacts with the Lady of Decay! Seraph took this as
evidence that Sand was in league with demons, and expelled him from the party.
The party returned to Lucien. He was gravely troubled by the
news, and said he had to consult Uncle Shin, the leader of the House of the
Jackal, before deciding on the next course of action. Unfortunately, he also
had bad news for the party – their two newest members, Jaeles and Querion, were
drawing much renewed interest with local bounty hunters, it seems someone had
tipped off the guard that they were at large in the city. Thankfully, Lucien
knew a guy who could help them out.
After a scuffle with one such group of bounty hunters, one
of whom decided to switch sides and, in recompense, pledge his blade to the
party’s cause, the party met with Lucien’s contact and arranged a quid pro quo
deal – they’d take out some smugglers who hadn’t paid off the guard and had
also taken liberties with the Lieutenant’s intended, and he’d stage their
deaths (conveniently, the two smugglers bear a passing resemblance to Jaeles
and Querion), confirm the kill and put an end to the bounty. The party succeed
in this, and return to Lucien’s safehouse, waiting to meet with him and plan
their next move.
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