Knave Report 4: Generic Wizard Tower

In which the party clears Skerples's Generic Wizard Tower and mirrorwalks their way to the lost Starmoore Academy.

Dramatis Personae:

Alma Tumbler (level 5) Aspirant Ranger, purple feather mutation, Wielder of the Unknown Blade and the Lightning Bow, Chronicler and Sole Survivor of the first session

Olga Derippe (level 3) Body builder, Hammer Enthusiast, Haunted by a Revenant, Death Defier, Hoardmaster

Pepper Slorah (level 3) Expert Archer, Herbalist, Bell Priestess, Blindshot Expert, expedition leader and freshly returned from work with the Bell Priests (now retired to the status of Henchman as the player is no longer in town)

Stratford Slee (level 3) Member of the Hunter's Pact, Arguably Australian, no longer stuck at 6 HP, ex-pirate

Up the Tower

Our dramatic party of looters and booters finds themselves resting up from the doppelganger encounter in the tavern room at the base of the disappearing wizard's tower. Presented with the choice of the two doors leading out from the room. To the left, a filigreed door with wrought iron accenting and to the right, a simple wooden door. After smelling, listening to, and observing each door carefully the party chose to head left and leave the horse and donkey with their man-at-arms in the presumed safety of the lobby.

To the left was a short staircase that opened into a room with a grander staircase that split into two which wrapped around the room. Plush carpets lined the staircase and on either side were large marble statues of a stately wizard. After fondling the wizard, the party heads up the stairs but fails to notice the pressure plate hidden by the carpeting, causing a spiked ball to Indiana Jones its way down the stairs. Alma and Stratford are caught in its path while the other two are able to dodge out of their way. Now freshly suspicious of the decor, the party spends some time tearing apart the carpet to locate any further traps. While doing this, the ominous sounds of marching accompanied by the clatter of bones can be heard from above. Taking battle positions, the party readies for another practiced combat with the undead at the bottom of the stairs.

What appeared though was a group of six purple robed and unarmed skeletons which quickly set to work repairing the destroyed carpet. Somewhat deflated and unable to communicate with these newcomers, the party presses forwards up the stairs and into the next room.

A chilly room with fine wood panels and several display cases holding decrepit scrolls met them on the next landing as well as a central spiral staircase, rusted and accumulating drifting snow. Examining the scrolls found them to be extremely fragile, but one was discernible enough to identify the signature of Duke Conrad, lord of Yonwell. Somewhat puzzled, the party set to work examining the room for further hints and treasures. Uninterested in the idea of hauling the somewhat valuable furniture back down the mountain, they discovered a hidden switch underneath one of the scrolls on displays which when pressed revealed a hidden compartment in one of the display stands. Inside, Olga retrieved a nine inch long child's femur, ribboned with gold spiralling to a tapered point at the end.

Up the spiral staircase, the party finds it comes to an abrupt end in a mass of twisted metal, cutting off access to the next floor. The room they find themselves in looks to have once been a lush lounge, but now all that remains is snow drifts from a gaping hole several feet up alongside the outer wall of the tower. A section of the circular room was blocked off by a wall with a locked door set in it and in one corner of the room were the remains of the lounge, two velvet couches now frozen and moldy and a table. On the table however sat a curious oddity, a freshly baked strawberry cake, two bottles of wine whose labels were incomprehensible and bore identical illustrations of a woman run through a Picasso filter, as well as two shiny silver goblets. The whole arrangement notably showed no signs of tarnish despite the environment. Olga carefully pokes at the cake with her dagger and cuts a slice out, eating it and quickly spitting it out before any damage can be done, as small blades nearly tear apart her mouth and the cake begins to writhe.

Anna Amelia C.

Twin eyestalks pop up from beneath the strawberries adorning the cake and centipede-like legs prop it up as it launches itself at Olga's face, the cake's top becoming a writhing assortment of teeth and faux-strawberry creme but she manages to catch it and hold it inches from her. Unfortunately the rest of the arrangement begins to make similarly insectoid reveals, as the bottles of wine sharpen at the top and coil before with a mosquito-like buzz they launch for the necks of the surrounding party. Stratford is struck and despairs at the sight of the bottle burrowing into his neck and fresh blood beginning to fill its still translucent bottle-like stomach.

With the fight on, Olga tries to throw the cake out the hole in the tower but misses, causing it to scuttle along the wall then launch at her again, closing around her face and tearing in. The bottles of wine continue to harass Pepper and Stratford who each lose vital fluids to their latching mosquito-like attacks and Alma tries to battle the goblet creatures but is taken by surprise as they snap together and steal her magical sword, using it to counterattack the now disarmed ranger. She does have a stroke of luck when using the strange bluemetal shield recovered from the Ranger's Guild. Smashing the goblets with it causes a blinding flash of light and disorients the creatures- but to no avail.

Olga manages to get the cake off her head and smashes it apart with her warhammer before being incapacitated by one of the wine bottles draining her blood. Stratford casts spider-climb and tries to cut off the goblets that are now dragging the magical sword through the hole in the wall, but he's unable to prevent this and the goblets with sword in tow disappear up the side of the tower. Pepper crushes one of the wine bottles as Olga once more miraculously survives a brush with death as the party slays the other mimic left digging into her neck. Potions are drunk, bandages used, and Alma stress eats after the loss of the sword. Disheartened after this net loss encounter with the Tea Party of Death, the party returns back to the tavern room and sets up camp for the night.

During Stratford's shift, he catches glimpse of the unexplored door opening and shines his Wolfshead lantern at it, revealing a room with comfortable beds and a trapdoor (the party groans realizing beds were available) from which a group of strange rats with grafted metal bits were escaping with a comically large wheel of cheese. After trying to speak with the rats fails, Stratford allows the group to pass through the room and escape, cheese in tow.

Day 2

In the morning, the party makes a miserable stew from ingredients they discover in the trapdoor/cellar and Olga gives a less than rousing pep talk before the party climbs back to the loungeroom once more. Picking the lock on the door is simple and the moldy, tiny study beyond is of no interest aside from the rope ladder which extends to the next floor. Stratford scouts the room and discovers it mostly ruined but for the spiral staircase continuing upwards and a large landing pad extending out over the mountainside, on which perched a gargoyle surrounded by freshly disturbed snow. He spies a decaying journal alongside a rotting table and pockets it as well before returning downstairs to consult with the party. They discover from the journal that the femur they had recovered earlier was actually a Wand of Remove Skin that had been recovered by the tower's still unknown master from the ruins of Starmoore.

Carefully tiptoeing through the room and up the stairs, the party find the next room to be only a corner slice of the floor available, with the rest locked behind iron doors, one set along the north-south wall and one the east-west wall. Observing the room to have a thick layer of ash and scorch marks covering it as well as large locks on the doors, Olga experiments by throwing a coin in and is unsurprised when after a moment on the ground, a light from below begins to glow followed by the strike of a bolt of lightning. They opt to leave this room for now and proceed upstairs to find another quarter-slice room with twin doors on opposing walls, but this time no obvious trap greets them but instead rows of shelves with alchemical ingredients.

Stratford harvests the ingredients and prepares his summoning spell with them as Alma and Olga continue examining the room, noting one door to be iron and stained with blood and the other to be simple wood. After completing his preparations, the group carefully peers into the room with the ominous bloodstains and finds it to be darkened, with several holes where stone has crumbled letting enough light in to reveal four large glass vats along the left hand wall. Two contain a vibrant green liquid with insectoid creatures suspended within which coil and shape into common objects over and over again. The third vat is filled with an opaque grey ooze and the fourth is broken open, its contents missing. Along the back wall are two operating tables with large iron chain restraints and sealed barrels flanking on either side. On one table is the rotting corpse of a wolf, its limbs hacked off and one seemingly replaced with a human foot (This tower was rumored, after all, to belong to the maniac wizard who created the handwolves which plague the surrounding lands).

Deciding they wanted nothing to do with fragile vats containing obvious horrible monsters, they close the door but a glint of metal catches Alma's eye and she spies that tucked into the corner by one of the barrels- the hilt of her magic sword emerging from a hole in the right-hand sealed barrel. Cursing her fate she creeps into the room and tries to pull it out, only for the operating table's chains to animate and attempt to bind her. She manages to evade and flips the table and then uses her Stun-Shield to cause the mimic clearly hiding in the barrel to release the sword, giving her time to grab it and haul ass out the room as the vats began to froth and crack.

After heated arguments over who was supposed to bring chains and ropes, the party finally finds their rope supply and sets up a contraption to hold the door to the operating room closed. Reunited with her magical sword, Alma opens the yet-explored room and finds a somewhat intact library with several rare tomes, including a spellbook for Mirrorwalk which reveals how to operate the rooms other feature and the goal of this journey, a grand floor to ceiling silver mirror circled with runes. They pocket their goods and explore the final room at the top of the spiral staircase. It's mostly ruined by weather and decay, however, but appears to have been a bedroom. The crumbling walls allow Stratford to make out some of the features of the forests over the foreboding Greenspine mountains, identifying a colossal Moai statue some three hexes away in the mountains that divide the Beastwarren and the Fairywood. Off in the Fairywood, he spies to oft-rumored but never before seen Spire that stretches past the sky, said to always be in the distance but impossible to reach and to be home to the Fairy Queen.

Alma begins studying the intricacies of mirrorwalking while Stratford and Olga begin disarming the trapped room with the iron doors. Olga uses her elasticity spell to reach over and unlock the door, then stretches her neck into the room beyond. At the far end is a table with a complicated brass machine that appears to dispense liquids, flanked on either side by treasure chests with posted suits of armor bearing halberds and a large tasseled rug in the center of the room. Immediately on testing the limits of her elasticity she discovers that the carpet is animate as it tries to suffocate her- but she escapes easily.

Stratford and Olga then plan the heist, suspecting that the suits of arm will animate if provoked, Olga stretches into the room and readies to fight while Stratford casts spider-climb and crawls along the roof until perching above one of the treasure chests. Spiderman and Elastigirl then move into action with Stratford opening the chest looking for an attack from the suit of armor, only to be taken by surprise by the chest's sharp teeth and lolling tongue which rises up to its obscene nine foot height to try and swallow him whole.

Olga decides she wants nothing to do with the affair and offers her heartfelt cheers and support while Stratford manages to climb the mimic's back and begins stabbing, only for the animate carpet to leap into the air and begin suffocating him. In his last ditch attempts to salvage victory, he manages to cast his prepared summoning spell and the tower shakes and cracks as the living blizzard and Harbinger of Winter Antoban steps through a crack in the world and sees his summoner in a predicament once more. Sighing, he cuts the carpet to ribbons while cold burns into those present and Olga flees back to the stairwell where Pepper and Alma wait- unable to get around the lightning trap.

Antoban is then quickly swallowed by the mimic as Stratford rolls away, but the mimic freezes up and falls to the ground dead after consuming the summoned Harbinger. The mimic's "contents" proved to turn up no loot, only revealing the insectoid carapace of the mimic. Disappointed, Stratford uses the brass machine which he finds dispenses potions, three in total (Giant Size, Transformation: Bees, Doom Treading). Potions in hand, he then tries the remaining chest only to nearly be devoured once more by a mimic. Barely escaping with his life, he spider-climbs back to the waiting party and they decide to mess with the room no further (which was a real shame, as the maniac wizard stuffed the suits of armor full of his gem supply).

The party returns to their man-at-arms and pack animals to do some inventory management and give instructions that they may be gone for some time. Satisfied with their preparations they ascend upstairs to the library/mirror room once more- hearing the occasional ominous buzzing of insects nearby. Alma activates the mirrorwalk spell and the party steps into the unknown darkened room beyond. In the light of the Wolfshead lantern they find its a small, sandy reading room with empty candelholders and a single exit from under which sand drifted into the room and a dim violet light shone.

Opening the door reveals their destination, Starmoore Academy, and much more. Beyond the shack they're in is miles of grey sand dunes with a great stone citadel-like structure sunken into the sand in the distance. The skies are roiling smoke with crackles of electricity which reveal enormous gliding shadows beyond, but at least the grey sands are warmer than the mountain tower and the air has a strange but not unwelcome sweetness to it.

Starmoore Academy lies now in the distance, and the quest to save their friend, guildhall, town, and possibly the realm makes another step as the mirrorportal closes behind them- unable to be opened for another day. What lies ahead for the Whoa Whoa Bellringers in the ruins of the Starmoore Academy? Will they recover the greatest joke or will they become lost in the disjointed and merged spaces of the Stygian Library that the Academy now finds itself? Was this all just a prolonged excuse to run Stygian Library? Will there be a giant owl spirit? Only time will tell.

Knave Reports 2 & 3

Dramatis Personae:

Alma Tumbler (level 5) Aspirant Ranger, purple feather mutation, Wielder of the Unknown Blade and the Lightning Bow, Chronicler and Sole Survivor of the first session

Olga Derippe (level 3) Body builder, Hammer Enthusiast, Haunted by a Revenant, Death Defier, Hoardmaster

Pepper Slorah (level 3) Expert Archer, Herbalist, Bell Priestess, Blindshot Expert, expedition leader and freshly returned from work with the Bell Priests

Stratford Slee (level 3) Member of the Hunter's Pact, Arguably Australian, no longer stuck at 6 HP, ex-pirate

Picking up where we last left off, in the basement of the guildhall, the group cautiously enters and finds themselves in a large cylindrical chamber, a thin ring walkable around the perimeter of a massive pit that dropped about twenty feet and looked to be carpeted in bones, with something moving underneath. At the top of the cylinder some hundred feet up was a shifting, vague cerulean light. On the left side of the ring and the opposite were alcoves, but the group was hesitant about approaching the bone pit. 

Examining the walls, Olga noticed a gray, fleshy growth covering stonework, with the growth apparently originating from the upper portion of the cylinder. Making cuts into it revealed a void beyond, and with some effort Olga ripped a large enough hole to put her head through, where she saw some incomprehensible architecture, long tendrils of stone and hazy cerulean lights in a great dark void with something running like ants over the stone. These things, it turns out, were the hands encountered on the street and they tried to pull Olga through before the group was able to pull her back into the corridor. 

After settling up and making a plan, Olga and Stratford agreed to scoot along the walkway around the pit and check out the alcoves while Alma and Pepper kept watch with bows drawn. On reaching the first alcove, the exploring pair discovered it was a chute with water pouring from above and crashing downwards with a faint light being visible down the chute. Not wanting to risk a one way trip, they kept pushing to the second alcove and found it to be a stairway with a cold wind scented with pine blowing out of it. The pit of bones began to rustle though, as a scream was heard and a body dropped from above the cylinder into the pit, quickly sinking into it. Alma and Pepper began to make haste to join the pair on the other side as the pit began to hurl bones at the walls and then assemble slowly into a great hand of bones, reaching upwards until it was torn to pieces by long tendrils of pallid flesh, settling the pit again. 

Down the stairs they found that, most unsettlingly, the passage opened onto a large mountaintop expanse, a valley with a flat plain of snow fringed in tall pines with a large outpost tower on the far side, all shrouded in darkness with no moon and unfamiliar stars- the only light being a pale cerulean light from somewhere behind the tower. Despite the astronomical issues, Pepper recognized this as the outpost tower in the Greenspine mountains that the guild had previously cleared of Honorwatch soldiers and plundered Destrian's scrying orb. 

Uncertain of what was illusion and what was not as well as eyeing the suspicious mounds of snow in the valley, the group put out their lantern and crept through the snow and pines fringing the valley until reaching the tower. A sheer cliff lay beyond the outpost tower itself and Olga checked the vistas while the rest of the party moved to the tower's doorway and examined what appeared to be fresh tracks milling outside of it. On further investigation they looked to be donkey tracks, one or two, and did not stray from the tower. Olga, looking over the cliffside, saw confusing sights of a great mountain range in the north with a searing octarine light beyond it and swarming objects around what must have been the town of Magda. Looking further along the central road she saw where Honorwatch should lay was instead a great red eye which burrowed into her mind and suddenly the cerulean light flared and illuminated the valley, causing giant skeletons to rouse themselves from the snow piles. 

The group crowded into the tower and shut the door behind them, peeking out they saw the light had settled again and the snow piles remained undisturbed. They continued to argue about whether this was illusion or not before continuing up the stairs of the outpost, which it seemed had the same layout that Pepper remembered. The first floor was empty aside from a cold hearth and shattered furniture, but the second floor had a curious circular room with purple curtains around it and a fire burning- a stool next to it with a shiny black statuette of a donkey on it. Pepper grabbed the statuette and examined it suspiciously before dashing it to the ground. Immediately, a large man with a donkey's head stepped from beyond the curtains and sat heavily on the stool- unable to be roused by any of the group's questions. Still cautious, they left the donkey-man and continued up the stairs. 

This top floor was notorious to Pepper, who remembered a deadly ambush that nearly cost the group their lives. Checking the side passages, she found the skeletons that had ambushed her were present, but seemed to be statues of stone lying in wait and unresponsive to the touch. A large statue of an Honorwatch necromancer however was present on the balcony overlooking the cliffside, and on investigation the party were surprised when it shattered the stone off of it and revealed cold brass metal- animating and attacking the party. As it did so, the skeleton statues did the same, and the group was locked in combat. 

Olga tried to hurl the brass necromancer off the balcony but her prodigious strength proved inconsequential under the grip of the brass statue which grabbed her and prepared to drop her off the balcony- looking down she saw that just beneath the cliff was a swirling orb of cerulean light that the statue seemed to want to drop her into. Combat went poorly as Stratford and Pepper were nearly fatally wounded by the spearwielding metal skeletons and Olga was dropped through and off the balcony, disappearing into the orb. Now, with Pepper grabbed by the statue, Alma charged forward and tackled the statue- taking it, Pepper, and herself off the balcony and dropping them into the orb. 

 Those thrown through the orb found themselves hurled into a dark, cold area. Olga- first through, lit a torch and found herself in a room of glossy black stone and groesque statues. Looking up she saw a pale orb being held by one of these statues- a grotesque version of Destrian Rumboldt, and was nearly crushed when Pepper, Alma, and the statue tumbled out of the orb. The battle continued with Alma and Olga spying a door and making their way to it under the inexorable advance of the brass statue while Pepper tried to shatter the orb- accidentally touching it herself and tumbling back through. 

Meanwhile, Stratford- now alone with the brass skeletons, fled the room and shot down to the first floor- the swirling cerulean orb moving and visible through windows and following his descent. Reaching the first floor he burst through the door- the orb just above it began blazing painting the valley in sickly lights and causing the giant skeletons to drag themselves together out of the snow piles in the valley. Pepper Slorah- screaming- came tumbling out of the orb right in front of Stratford and the two made a stand before the chasing brass skeletons again- with Pepper being struck fatally. Stratford fled now for the tunnel at the other end of the valley, nimbly avoiding the lumbering giant skeletons but being whittled down by freezing bursts of ice they hurled, until mere steps away from the alcove he was fatally struck at the last second. 

Beyond the pale, Olga and Alma fled through the door and left the statue behind. Through a long dark hallway of similar glossy stone, they eventually emerged through another door to a contrasting scene. Brilliant colors and finery, a king's banquet hall in bright daylight with a grand city visible through stained glass windows and a court of nobles mingling and laughing. Some inspection of the attendants revealed they made no responses to the presence of Olga or Alma, and their speech sounded like gibberish. Of note they spied a large double door with a heavy conspicuous lock. Deciding to see if she could get any loot from this group, Olga tried to snatch the crown from a large, stately looking but indistinct king and the room suddenly drained of color and became a blank, glossy black and featureless room, with only the door they came through remaining. 

Pondering their situation, they were surprised when Pepper and Stratford suddenly dropped into the room with a swirling cold mist and scent of ozone. They stuttered to life, but both noted they lacked a pulse and were now cold to the touch- and Pepper's abilities to detect undead were going haywire. Not wanting to face the statue, they tried leaving and reentering the room to find the scene began anew. Pepper began trying to pick the lock on the large door while the rest of the group fanned out. Examining the court they began to recognize several distinct figures matching to carved statues they had encountered in a mysterious barrow outside of Yonwell. The court was distracted when the door the party came into opened and nothing began to fill the space, drawing apparent fear and anger from the court. At this moment Pepper succeeded in picking the lock and the scene faded away again, this time a singular corridor lay beyond. 

At the end of the corridor, the group found they were at the top of the cylinder pit from before, and saw the sloshing cerulean light still high above them, but found that amongst lattice metalwork atop the cylinder stood a familiar face wielding a familiar ghoulish sword- Destrian Rumboldt. 

The party met with him cautiously and he revealed that he had stolen the cursed blade and fed it to his demon patron, Gorebold the Devourer, but that the blade was more powerful than they had thought and now Gorebold and the spirit in the blade were locked in mutual combat, causing their abilities to go haywire and probably causing the various issues seen in town. Destrian had gained some small ability to tap into Gorebold's magic and had been feeding people to Gorebold, harvesting them in an attempt to give the demon an upper-hand in the death struggle with the cursed blade. He wasn't sure of who would win the struggle, but that it wouldn't be long before one of the two powers consumed the other and they were free - and much more powerful. Using his limited ability to tap into Gorebold's vast knowledge and power, Destrian told the party that if they retrieved The Greatest Joke from the lost Starmoore Academy and returned it to him then he might be able to supplant both the blade and the demon. 

Starmoore Academy, like the city of Starmoore itself, lay in the wastes north of Honorwatch where the Castledemon still sat amongst the remains of the once great city. However, Destrian reveals that the Academy untethered itself to try and save it, and was now lost between realms- but still accessible by mirrorways that had been used by the Academy's wizards. He suggested the tower of the mysterious wizard of the Ranger's Guild that was rumored to be just north of Yonwell- up in the mountains.

Destrian went on to reveal the dungeon around them was a construct of the demon and the blade, and of some of his own memories that still remained. He offers to point the party to the Library of Spiders where Gorebold's memories were constructed but they declined and asked instead for help escaping the dungeon. Unsure of what he could do, Destrian said he would try a joke and the party suddenly disappeared- and exploded out of shrieking- dying donkeys in the livestock market in town.  

Session 3

Putting themselves back together, the party decided they needed to retrieve the joke and rid the town of the blade and Gorebold, as well as to discover a way to fix Pepper and Stratford- if they could, who now appeared certainly to be undead themselves and were deteriorating, slowly. Already they had lost their sense of taste and at the current rate they would lose a permanent HP every week until finally succumbing to undeath. 

They struck out to the wizard's tower, only knowing where it was vaguely located in the mountains. Previously, they had caught glimpses of a shimmer in the mountains and they decided that must have something to do with the tower itself. The group was cautious, however, as these mountains were famously dangerous and housed drakes as well as the hordes of handwolves that had been said to be created by this mysterious wizard. They hired a man at arms along the way to guard the animals and made it to the mountains before too long. 

Once in the mountains however, they were sent running into hiding amongst snowy trees and pines as a griffon screeched and plummeted to the ground nearby- with an enormous pale-scaled drake landing atop it and tearing into it, unaware of the party. Stratford Slee, as a member of the Hunter's Pact, was compelled to slay the beast and the party couldn't restrain him as he sprang into action. They watched in horror as he crept up to the drake and clambered up its back, striking quickly as the creature roared and lightning shot from its maw. It beat its wings and took flight, but Stratford wasn't able to keep grasp and fell- luckily into a pile of snow. The drake roared again and flew off towards the peaks of the mountains, leaving the party incredulous at Stratford Slee's sheer ability- and luck. 

Proceeding up the mountains they made camp for the night and found the shimmer in the morning, following it they were lead up a switchback trail to a small plateau seemingly cut into the shape of a triangle. The tower itself was enchanted, and the party spent much of the day arranging themselves on the plateau in different variations trying to understand the magic on it (the tower becomes invisible to the largest concentration of people, they eventually solved this by sending one person around while the group stayed on the other side but they have yet to realize exactly what the trick to the tower was). During the puzzling out of the tower, a group of handwolves was heard and made their way to the plateau, all clad in mismatched human attire and eager for a fight. Stratford and Pepper distracted them and enabled Olga, Stratford, and the man at arms and animals to enter the tower where they found a small tavern room. 

Searching around quickly for a way to help their comrades trapped outside the tower, they found three hidden buttons underneath the bar and pressed them all- causing three things to happen. One: the tower became visible. Two: a gargoyle dropped from the tower and began slaughtering wolves indiscriminately- and trying to kill Pepper and Alma. Three: the tavern room went dark and then relit, but where there had been three there were now six as each member in the room discovered an equal doppelganger. 

Distracting the gargoyle with fighting more handwolves, Pepper and Alma burst into the tavern room to find the Olgas grappling and punching one another repeatedly in the mouth as the Stratford pair were at the door. Pepper was able to sense the undead Stratford and they slew the doppelganger, while the Olgas continued their death struggle until eventually (pure luck) the party killed the doppelganger. A lengthy contract argument over pay and how that works with doppelgangers began with their man at arms and his doppelganger until eventually one of the pair revealed a dagger and stabbed the other to death, solving the contract negotiation. Now the party was secured in the small tavern room with a door leading to a small bunkroom and another yet unexplored.