14 Kythorn, several hours before dawn
We scale the wall into Gargan’s manor. We’re detected and Az tries to make owl noises to sate the guards’ curiosity—it doesn’t work. They throw their torches at our hiding spot. One gets taken down, then the other. Loot:
- key ring
- Light crossbow
- Pearson’s Guide to Birds
- 3gp
We enter the manor and are spotted. The guard yells and then we down him. We make our way into the guard barracks and fight another guard. The second guard surrendered and told us there is a trap of some sort in the throne room. We bind and gag him and move on.
We enter the throne room and confront Gargan and three guards. We quickly fell two.
Az falls into a pit and sees a false hydra with three heads.
The last guard is downed and then Gargan falls. We turn our attention to Az in the pit. One of the False Hydra heads is Wilard’s mom. Another is Joan Osbourne.
We slay the false hydra. Falco collects some of its blood. Az steps on a crushed lute and some unfinished sheet music.
We meet in a cell an old partner of Gargan, named Barth. During the war with Tethyr, he and Gargan avoided fighting by mining in the mountains. Gargan used his fortune to take over the merchant guilds of Little Faith. Gargan used an artifact to influence the false hydra. Gargan would feed dissidents to the false hydra but have his guards prune the hydra’s heads. Gargan imprisoned Barth when he asked for a bigger payout. Mountain sickness was the false hydra devouring people. We decide to tie up Barth and take him back to Ashlay on Faith.
We investigate and find Gargan’s study. We find a flaming tome with scrolls of:
- Burning Hands
- Heat Metal
- Flame Strike
- Fireball We also find a cage to hold tiny magical creatures and Gargan’s notes about the cage and the chains that bound the false hydra. We grab the three thirty-foot chains.
We collect Gargan’s notes about magical artifacts where he learned to temporarily restore magical items to full strength. His notes also detail a Toddite who supplied him with spell scrolls (inconsistent in quality).
We loot from Gargan:
- El Niño short sword +1: BA, 2 charges: cause wind that pushes medium or smaller creature within 10 feet up to 10 feet away (DC 10 to resist)
- Diminished Circle of the Mind: Resistance to psychic damage; 1/LR communicate telepathically with somebody they have met. Can cast Friends on the remote target.
- Cage of Binding: unbreakable by undead, fey, fiends, aberrations
- Chains of binding 30ft x3, unbreakable by undead, fey, fiends, aberrations
- Reagents: pixie dust x3 (2 charges), imp wings (4 charges), faerie dragon eyes (8 charges), desiccated celestial wings (already used up)
- 518gp
- Town’s money: 5280gold, ledger of businesses taken over. We take 1000gp as payment for killing the false hydra.
We untie the guard and send him away with a bottle of wine we found. We don’t think he’s in deep with the Toddite Church.
Az picks up some extra daggers, Roland grabs some extra javelins. Kohrt collects some meat from the kitchen.
Wilard takes us to Yie. Yie tells us he noticed people in town forgetting and he’s concerned about Wilard because he’s one of the few who remembers Wilard’s mom. He’s not deep into Toddism and doesn’t know about the Toddite superiors working with Gargan. He says the head Toddite Boka suddenly switched opinions one day and started working closely with Gargan. We give the remainder of the town’s money to Yie to use to the benefit of citizens.
We return Wilard’s family farm. Wilard collects a few personal belongings, fights his dad, and returns with us to the ship. Wilard says Kohrt was right. Wilard gives Falco a vampire romance novel his mom owned. Wilard also has some Silvery Moon training materials. Wilard finds Az alone and gives her a carved short bow (+1, makes no noise when fired or when the arrow hits its target). We set sail for Faith.
We tell our story to Ashlay. He gives us 1200gp. Velor returns to us. We set sail and see smoke coming from the direction of Pegāna.