A Study in Crimson - 03/07/2024 - Archie’s Extracts

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A New Horror in the Dawnlands

I was a member of an adventuring party hired by the City Watch to investigate a reported missing person. Adventurers were called in as our Watch liaison suspected the incident might best be handled by adventurers on accounts of something unordinary to do with the matter (usually inferring something magical and/or cultish).

The preacher Julius Mapleseed, a follower of Shaundakul, who was renting a room in Graveside, was; something of a red herring, and also an unfortunate victim.

The Dawn Market stall owner of The Cornucopia, Annie Bach, was the reported missing person, and sadly a similar victim of what we are told are a group called Hekrati.

A male of tiefling resemblance, and likely warlock, going by the alias ‘Killech’ was responsible for the physical kidnapping of both the preacher and market trader.

An undesirable, but hopefully worthwhile deal was negotiated with Killech. The deal was for Information useful to the Watch, traded against safe passage out of the Dawnlands for Killech. Whilst we adventurers would have preferred to apprehend Killech and gather his information through interrogation, Killech argued that he would be killed by his employers if he were captured, so he negotiated to trade all that he knew about his employers and the fate of the two victims he kidnapped for his safe passage out of the city. Reluctantly, we agreed to the deal.

Killech informed us that he was involved with eight kidnappings in total. The locations for dropping off his victims for his employers; he provided. Only Annie Bach was a requested name from his employers - other victims were seemingly randomly chosen for ease of apprehending.
Killech’s employers, who he claims to only have interacted with through an intermediary, are a fiendish organisation he claims to be called Hekrati. Their symbol has been given to the City Watch. Killech claims that Hekrati have used the kidnapped victims as part of a sacrificial ritual. Killech further claims that his recent two victims are likely dead already, as are the others.
Teleportation to Port Ffirst was provided to Killech in exchange for his information, and he was witnessed boarding a ship leaving the Dawnlands.

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The Watch Hired Investigation Party

Dr. Archie Halturh (myself) - I found myself to be, and not unusually so, the eldest member of the party. However, I also seemed to be one of the more experienced adventurers in the group, which is beginning to also not be unusual for me. Have I really been in Kantas that long?
It was a pleasure to work with and get to know the more junior members of the Adventuring Community. Although some are questioningly perhaps far too junior, no matter how rapid their species’ maturation rate is…

Egg - The young aarakocra has aged considerably since Mendal first described meeting him. Mendal was pleased to hear his gifted silver tipped arrows are being used.
Egg has a young person’s straightforward view on justice, which at one point made it challenging for him to cooperate with the party’s deal with a criminal to offset one crime in order to better prevent a bigger crime. I hope this experience will not leave the young adventurer jaded, his sense of justice is commendable.

Erron - A human male like myself, Erron showed himself to have a good head for investigation both at the preacher’s place of rest, and the shopkeeper’s. Fortune appeared to deteriorate for the unlucky man during the later stages of our investigation, when we encountered Killech. Erron had intended to blend in as a customer in the jewellery shop where Killech was spotted. I didn’t think Erron’s behaviour marked him out, but Killech, Erron reported later, felt watched.
I understand that Erron, Fern and Pyrin very recently had an experience with a fiend, a demon I believe. Perhaps Killech’s demonic features put Erron on edge?

Fernleaf - A new wizard in the adventuring ranks, and indeed within the Wizard club. Marvellous! I didn’t catch which school of magic my new lizardfolk friend favours in particular, but her grasp of the Misty Step spell, as she copied it from my spellbook suggested to me that she may have a preference for conjuration. If so, I must introduce Fern to Lolli, who may have a spellbook full of conjuration spells, as a conjuror herself.

Pyrin - The aarakocra, junior investigator provided the party with both a keen investigative eye, and also a keen insightful one. My eyes, I would say, are tuned towards reading and discovery, but sadly rather blind towards observing deception. So, it was beneficial to have Pyrin in the team.
I was pleased to have enhanced Pyrin’s investigative talents with the spell Skill Empowerment during the day. I hope Pyrin found the magical empowerment of his keen investigative talents to be a window towards his future investigative competency, if he stays on path towards becoming a professional investigator.

Tayz - With the experienced, life-defending cleric of Horus in the party, we had a trio of aarakocras, and a variety of ages between them. Despite not receiving from Tayz what my friend Kavel describes as a ‘magical stimulant’ feather, I nevertheless felt reassured of my survival during the mission with Tayz’s presence in the team, and reassured of the survival of the other team members.

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Musical Learning

As I wait for my clone to mature, I shall take up the viol. I have long meant to learn a musical instrument. Perhaps a study break from adventuring to learn a musical instrument is best advised while the clone is not yet ready?

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