Flashback

The party - sans Horus - are in Mordent. The date is some weeks in the past, prior to us departing for Lamordia, but after we sent the thieving Muharans back to their Gods-forsaken land.

Louie, as he normally does in his downtime, is having a nap. He dreams of a moonlight drenched land, filled with werewolves and Selunes. Louie latches onto a Selune, and she takes him to Lazarette Rock, where shit is going down. “The children cry for salvation, but time grows short. Niynjushigampo grows stronger with each passing night.”

Rather than thinking this dream is a result of eating too much before bed as a normal person would, Louie assumes this is a personal quest for him from a God. Main character syndrome, much? Anyway, he rushes to gather as many helpers as he can, starting with Rusty. The Captain overhears, and so now he needs to be filled in on Louie’s hallucination. As it is being explained to him, Uncle Ricky wanders past, and now we have to explain it again. Uncle Ricky is feeling credulous today, and tells Louie that the dream was real. Yeah - a real dream. Uncle Ricky says that the merging domains are allowing Gods to sneak back into the domains. Across Mordentshire, at least 63 children have been killed by their parents in the last few weeks. All the parents claim to have been ordered to kill their children by their gods. Uncle Ricky dispatched Mizzium to Lazarette Rock 3 weeks ago, but hasn’t heard back.

During this epic exposition, Cletus wandered past, but didn’t much care about the backstory, so we didn’t have to start all over again. Thanks, Cletus!

Lazarette Rock

The Captain sails us to Lazarette Rock. It is eerily quiet. The population is decimated and downcast. There are no children to be seen. Further into the town we can see an erratic blue light - it is the only splash of colour visible. We head in to investigate.

As we walk through town, we see a man, distraught, digging in the dirt with his bare hands and crying “Why did she do this?” As we pass, he groans as he uncovers a child’s body in the earth.

We round a corner to see Mizzium, interviewing a woman. She is fixated on repairing a fishing net - she ties and reties the knots until her fingers bleed. It is obviously the Summer of 69. She tells a story of how her dead husband visited her in her dreams, telling her to kill their daughter so she could “join the Eternal Catch”. Cletus recognises the phrase. It is an afterlife that fishermen believe in. Mizzium has spent the last 3 weeks taking reports from parents who have killed their kiddies. While we catch up with him, we hear a voice saying “William! No! Don’t do it!”

The party turns to run that way, but a woman quietly tells Mizzium she did something. Louie and Rusty run in William’s direction, while Cletus and Mizzium head towards the lake that the (dripping wet) woman came from.

As Rusty and Louie race toward the harbour, a noise can be heard from deeper in the village. Louie changes direction to head toward that noise, correctly assuming that if Rusty can’t handle the problem at the harbour, there’s nothing he will be able to do.

Rusty saves that day

Rusty can see a townsman attempting to drown his daughter in the harbour - they are about 100 feet away. Rusty uses his bonus action to Misty Step 60’ toward them, and then does a full move to within 10’. He then casts Levitate on the child, preventing the father from pushing her head under the water. He keeps trying, though, so Rusty grows to Dreadnaught size, giving him reach to grab the father by the scruff of the neck and pick him up. The father attempts to throw his daughter into the water, but all that does is make him lose his grip on her, and she floats gently upward under Levitation. Rusty holds the father under one arm, and tows the daughter like a party balloon back to the shore.

Once he reaches the shore, Rusty sets the father down, and he immediately starts hitting Rusty, and jumping up to try and grab his daughter so he can have another go at drowning her. Recognising the clinical signs of hysteria, and having read all the latest literature on ways to treat sufferers, Rusty immediately performs the indicated remedy, and slaps the shit out of the father telling him the snap out of it! Rusty knows his shit - this works. Having calmed down, though, he is insistent that his daughter be returned to his custody. Fully aware that a person who has shown a vulnerability to external interference is susceptible to relapse, Rusty is hesitant to release the girl to her father’s custody without supervision. He certainly doesn’t want to stay here and supervise, so he looks around for a responsible adult. Literally the best he can find is the guy we saw earlier digging his dead daughter out of the ground. At least he didn’t kill her - his wife did. Rusty trusts him to look after the child.

Cletus saves the day

Cletus and Mizzium make it to the lake, and see a rowboat some 80’ out with bubbles still coming up next to it. They also notice that on the mountain above stands a hooded figure, watching the scene unfold. Cletus does an epic long jump into the water and swims down where he finds a young boy in the process of drowning. This is a god damn fishing village! Why don’t the children know how to swim? Cletus grabs the kid and swims to the surface, and starts to push him into the boat. The mysterious hooded figure on the mountain casts a spell, and a whirlwind picks up around the boat - then he dramatically flicks his cloak, and disappears behind a rock.

Rusty gets a weird feeling that someone, somewhere, is violating his copyright on an improved cloak of billowing.

Cletus saves against the whirlwind, but the kid doesn’t and he starts to rise into the air. Cletus leaps out of the boat, allowing the whirlwind to lift him into the air, so that he can use his body to protect the child from damage.

Cletus is wondering what to do about the whirlwind. Dan hasn’t played Cletus in a while, so he looks through his equipment and to his (and everyone else’s) astonishment, finds he owns, and is proficient with, a boomerang. Still hitting some guy behind a rock that he can’t see while flying through the air in a whirlwind is a big ask. He throws once - miss. He throws twice - miss. Crap!

Oh, right - he’s a high level fighter! He gets three attacks a round! The throws thrice - critical hit! Clonk! The whirlwind ends as the cloaked figure loses concentration. Cletus and the child fall to earth - but Mizzium is there with a handy feather fall, and the child is saved!

Louie and Raymond save the day - with an assist

Louie and Raymond have the furthest to travel, but by combining dash with frog leap, they get there in 2 rounds. They see a number of villages remonstrating with a guy who is throwing them around with unnatural strength. He hurls one of them right across the street and through a window. He is holding a baby in one arm, and attempting to skewer it with a red hot poker. He is babbling something about having to kill the child for Pelor. Pretty sure this idiot knows fuck all about Pelor. That sounds nothing like anything he would do.

“Freeze, muthafucka!” Louie wraps a cloak around his hand and grabs the child, and wrestles the poker from the villagers grip. He then tosses it into a well. The remaining villagers continue to wrestle with the man, while Louie goes into the house to see if the projectile villager is OK.

He’s not OK. His throat has been slashed, apparently by a really unlucky fall through the glass window. Louie whips out a quick Revivify and Lay on Hands to bring the guy back to life. He comes to screaming “Why did that hooded figure cut my throat?” Suspicious.

On a serendipitous note, Louie layed on hands for 5 HP, for which he gets a free cure disease - and cured the cancer that we didn’t even know the guy had.

Protecting the village from itself

The party regathers, and Rusty starts to put forward a plan to get the townsfolk to congregate in one area so they, and the party, can keep an eye on each other to forestall further nefarious behaviour. He has barely started before it becomes obvious that the townsfolk are against this idea. Mizzium reveals that this was the first thing he tried, but the townsfolk absolutely would not cooperate.

Cletus realizes this is a lost cause, and instead tells the gathered townsfolk that he’s going to have a big cook-up, with barbecued meats and drink for all. Sneaky little fucker. His plan is a success, and we get the town to congregate in the square for the night.

While the party is going on, Rusty wanders over to the town hall and looks in the tower. Inside the tower, hidden from view, he releases Wit, and sends him up to the top of the tower. His job is to stay hidden, with just an eyestalk or two watching the townsfolk. He is also to keep the party in comms with his telepathic hub, and to quietly scan the surface thoughts of the townsfolk to see if he can catch any insanity before anyone acts on it.

We ask around the trustworthy townsfolk, to see if anyone is missing. Someone is missing.

Several someones, as it turns out. Ted, Fred and Led, and their mother Debby, are not here. Elaina Thornwick and her baby are missing. Jacob Reefwalker the fisherman and his son are missing. Borkin and his child are not here. Borkin has apparently been seen walking out with Elaina. Derek the merchant is not here, but he has no children. Lastly, Sister Morrowin of Illwater is not here.

Debby’s house

Leaving Mizzium and Wit to watch the townsfolk, the party heads out. The first stop is Debby’s house. When we reach it, it radiates a chill. Rusty sends Minion to look around the back, where he finds an outhouse. Peeking through the vent (yes, Ethan, outhouses have vents) Minion sees the three children. He hears the oldest one telling the others that “Mummy isn’t feeling well, so we’ll just stay here until she feels better”.

The party enters the house. Cletus heads upstairs. Something had a go at him, but sorry, Ethan, 28 isn’t good enough to hit Cletus. Cletus doesn’t even notice. Rusty checks the front room. His passive perception is good enough to notice that something is up. He makes an active perception roll, which is amazing, and spots a human shaped silhouette coming straight at him and trying to hit him. Sorry, Ethan, a 27 isn’t good enough to hit Rusty, either. Rusty immediately loses sight of the shade, but responds by casting Faerie Fire across the room. He outlines something that looks suspiciously like a Shadow (those lessons with Uncle Ricky really pay off). Rusty hits it with his flail and absolutely massacres it with one hit.

Upstairs Cletus finds Debby’s body. She has been dead for a couple of days. This is obviously tragic, but Rusty is a bit relieved he hasn’t just murdered a mother. Debby’s throat has been slashed, the blood is dried, there is dust on her neck, and a symbol has been carved into her chest. (It’s a holy symbol of Bhaal).

Cletus takes the children to the town square where Mizzium and the townsfolk can watch over them. The rest of the party head to Borkin’s house. Cletus catches up on the way there.

Borkin’s house

A soft glow is coming from Borkin’s house. Minion, scouting ahead, hears a soft voice calling “Dad?” Cletus knocks on the door, setting off a pretty well made crossbow trap. Sorry Ethan, you’re just not going to hit his armour class, OK? Cletus enters to find a young boy sitting in the corner on top of a trap door, eyes hollow. “I don’t want to go to sleep. When Papa dreams, he turns scary.”

Rusty and Louie open the trap door, and a voice cries out “Darius! I told you to stay upstairs! Every night, Niynjushigampo calls to me!” It’s the father, Borkin. He’s apparently mentally strong enough to recognise that the voices in his head are an external influence, and he’s been fighting them, the best he can. We ask him how long the voices have called to him. He says “Ever since the mists thinned, I could hear them.” Rusty asks him if he can hear the voices now. His eyes roll back in his head, and his voice changes. An eldritch voice croaks: “You search for meaning in madness. I give clarity of purpose. You cannot cleanse Lazarette Rock - it’s stones remember every scream.” Then Borkin regains awareness. So that answers Rusty’s question.

Louie doesn’t sense anything with Divine Sense, but he does sense a curse on Borkin. Rusty casts Protection from Good & Evil on Borkin, and the influence on him appears to be banished.

Lore dump

Niynjushigampo, we recall, is an alias for the dark god Bhaal. During the time of troubles, Cyric managed to slay Bhaal, but Bhaal had put in place plans of his own. He had sired countless children across the Multiverse, and their purpose is to converge at some future point and resurrect Bhaal.

Elaina’s house

Cletus takes Borkin and his kid back to the cookout. The party moves on to Elaina’s house. She is sitting on her front porch in a rocking chair, rocking her baby in her arms. She speaks to her child: “Hush, now. Hush. The night carries away voices - we can drown them out with song. The hands. It’s in my hands. When I hold my needles, they shake - not from weakness, but in anger. I fear I might hurt someone.”

Rusty asks her if she would like to rest. She says yes - Rusty casts Catnap on her, putting her unconscious for 10 minutes. We retrieve her child from her arms, but it is already dead - stabbed through the top of the head with a knitting needle. As we store the body for later resurrection (it is dead too long for Revivify, but we did Gentle Repose it), we hear a Bang! from next door. Raymond takes the sleeping Elaina to the town square.

It’s probably Derek.

Next door, we find a building that is obviously a shop. There is a counter in the front room, and behind it we find a body. Gentle Repose and store, this is getting routine. A cat is seen going upstairs.

We scan the room for clues:

There are blood spatters on the counter - the person was attacked from the front.
It was not a robbery - nothing has been obviously taken or disturbed.
There are smears in the blood, as if someone was trying to finger paint something.
The front door was open - there has been no forced entry.
There are bloody fingerprints toward the rear of the house - the killer left by the back door.
There is a faint herbal scent - medicinal or ritualistic.
There is candle wax dripped near the body on the floor. It matches the candles in the shop.
There are defensive wounds.

We hear a voice from the back yard. “Are you OK in there, Derek?” So it is Derek.

Outside we see Masha. She was on the way home from the cookout, and she heard chanting coming from Derek’s shop before the Bang. She saw someone jump the back fence, and points us in the direction they went. Rusty, Cletus and Louie head that way while Minion ducks upstairs to check on the cat.

Derek’s fucking cat.

Minion hears a voice say “The greater good demands sacrifice. Would your god spare you from darkness if you did not obey?”

Minion answers: “Yes, because he isn’t a sociopathic asshat”.

The voice responds “Your gods have brought whispered words of comfort. Mine demands blood.”

Minion asks “What part of sociopathic asshat didn’t you understand?”

The cat attacks Minion for 10HP damage. Minion flees. Ethan latches on to the oversight of not saying “Disengage”, and attacks Minion for another 11HP, which drops him. At some later point, when Ethan finds out that Homunculi drop their heart (a gem) when they die, he retcons that the cat eats Minion’s heart.

At the cliffs

Rusty senses Minions demise - they’ve been in a telepathic hub the whole time with Wit, after all. He pulls out another heart (he argues that he has 3 homonculi, why wouldn’t he have made a couple of backups?) and activates Tag. They also spot a hooded figure walking into a cave by the water. Rusty casts Arcane Eye and sends it ahead - Rusty, Louie and Cletus head into the cave.

It’s really late and Dan is asleep already.

For next week - we know that there is at least one acolyte of Bhaal in the cave, but there’s probably more. Whirlwind is a 7th level Druid/Wizard spell, so at least one of them should be 13th level unless Ethan is playing fast and loose with the rules. Actually, never mind - the odds that he isn’t is vanishingly small. In any case, we’re killing them all, and with any luck there will be a child of Bhaal for us to 1) kill and 2) catch the soul of to power some contraption for Rusty. No way we’re allowing that to go back to daddy.