Rewards Earned
- Experience Points: 1250
- Treasure: 500 gp each (reward from Countess Matilda)
After a good night’s rest, the group had audiences with deposed King Albigensius IV of Avalon and Countess Matilda.
Following the events at the Last Resort, Spike, Chow, and Richard spent a few quiet months seeing to their various business and personal interests. A couple of weeks into the dry season, Chow received a message from Finn, requesting his assistance in a disturbing matter in the Eastern District. After an initial meeting, Chow brought in Spike and Richard to discuss the matter with Finn.
Apparently, many children had gone missing over the last few months in the District and elsewhere in the city, and Finn’s “constituents†wanted them back. The Syndicate’s questioning pointed to Cresh Manor, an abandoned house at the edge of the city with a dark reputation.
The group agreed to investigate and set off to talk to the families that lived nearest the manor. The families and friends of the missing children told similar stories – little Paitr or Jenny had gone to the manor wall on a dare, or been playing stickball near the house, and just didn’t come home. After cataloging these unfortunate tales, the party grabbed a few hours of sleep, and met up to stake out the manor to verify the reports of strange lights and noxious odors emanating from the house.
Shortly after dawn, the group entered the front gate of Cresh Manor. Rather than follow the path to the front door, they bushwhacked through the overgrown vegetation to a clearing around back. While investigating a disturbing fountain in a clearing behind the house, the party was surprised when a massive hedge sprang up out of nowhere to separate Chow from the rest of the group. Spike, Richard, Balama, and Isaac heard Chow engaged in a fight on the other side of the hedge, but their efforts to hack and burn through the vegetation were largely unsuccessful. Frustrated, they turned their attentions to the barred back door of the manor and crashed through it in half a minute or so. Spike, Balama, and Isaac charged through the front door and back around the house in time to fight off a small, strangely resilient lizard that was trying to drag Chow’s unconscious body through the hedge.
Meanwhile, Richard was distracted by a babbling apparition that coalesced in one of the fireplaces in the main hall of the house. He huddled fearfully in a corner for the duration of the fight with the devil lizard, but used a brief moment of lucidity to wrap himself in silence and escape the allip. He quickly joined the rest of the party outside the house and entreated Harrimast to bring Chow back to consciousness. That done, the group exited the manor grounds to rest and regroup.