The Journals of Old Greyhawk and the Founding of NewHawk City
- Chapter Three

Adventure Date: March 10, 2006
Last Updated: January 6, 2009

Day 15

After the mission was provided to the adventurers, a bit more information was given. There are 3 Thieves' Guilds in the south end of the city, and 1 Assassins' Guild. On the site of the old temple of the cult, the Church of Nerull was built with 2 warehouses around it.

The adventurers decide to pool money to buy a wand of curing for quick healing in future battles. A handful of characters owe money to the communal pot as Pennyweight was the biggest contributor to the purchase of the wand.

Afterwards, the adventurers decide to ask Pennyweight's Thieves' Guildmaster, Talin Quickfinger, who controls and owns the warehouses around the Church of Nerull. He tells them that they would be traipsing around on someone's territory; that they wouldn't be impacting one his thieves' guild; but, to be careful. The smaller warehouse is owned by the Dark Bane Guild (Thieves' Guild) and they deal primarily in the spice trade. The larger warehouse is owned by the Flesh and Blood Society (Assassins' Guild), they deal with livestock and pack animals, but the adventurers are warned to never cross them.

The adventurers decide to spend the night monitoring the activities surrounding the 2 warehouses and church. The "tallies" on the east side of the spice warehouse, and the "smallies" on the west side. See maps.

Around 9:30pm (with a half moon illuminating the night sky), the "shorties" see 2 humans and 1 halfling come in and out of the spice warehouse with same amount of baggage each time. There's some traffic coming and going from the Church, but nothing pertinent. The halfling looks pointedly at the "shorties" but then continues on his way.

Meanwhile, the "tallies" notice that no activity happens around the back door of the warehouses. All they can see is some light shining through the shutters of both warehouses. "Shorties" decide to spread out, "tallies" stay put.

A patrol of city guards (4 in total) walk by around 10:00pm going northward on the street facing the church and warehouses. Pennyweight moves around the church, going eastward toward Agrona, who doesn't notice him, and continues full circle to the front of the church. He walks by Ebreck, tells him to regroup and meet in 10 minutes (around 10:45pm).

Around 10:15-10:30 pm, Xanaphia sees a carriage heading west on the street on the north side of the livestock warehouse. There are 3 people inside the warehouse (at big entrance), the carriage goes into the warehouse and there are 2 people driving it.  Carriage is a covered wagon. Ebreck notices that they are mostly humanoids, 4 men and 1 woman.

Agrona sees a scantily clad lady coming towards him from behind who says,
"Hello, man of the cloth, I need to do confession, I've been a bad girl, are you available?"
Agrona replies, "Young lady, if you would like to make a confession, and atone for your sins, come see me in the morning".
"I need to confess right now, follow me to my room", she responds.
Meanwhile, Xanaphia notices this scene building from her position behind the livestock warehouse.
Agrona tells the lady, "I have no money, sorry".
She retorts, "Thank you for wasting my time."
Agrona relents and gives her a silver piece.
"Thank you", she says, and starts walking towards Xanaphia.

11:00 pm - Pennyweight decides to do a bit of reconnaissance around the Church of Nerull and proceeds to move around the perimeter of the Church, searching for secret doors starting at the southwest corner of the Church. He is absolutely sure that he is successfully hiding in the shadows and moving silently as he moves around the perimeter - and if he doesn't say so himself, he feels like he is in the zone. However, at the northeast corner of the Church (just as he turns west), Pennyweight is grabbed on the shoulder from behind by a cloaked stranger. The stranger is a bearded human and he demands to know what Pennyweight is doing skulking around the Church, continuing to grip Pennyweight's shoulder in an iron grip. Pennyweight attempts to bluff his way out of the situation with a story that he is looking for some drunken friends. The stranger sees through the lie and notes that Pennyweight was using his thieving skills and warned him that he and his friends should not meddle where they are not wanted. The stranger releases Pennyweight and turns around - heading east and then turning the corner heading south. Pennyweight goes to see where he has gone, but the stranger appears to have vanished into thin air.

Pennyweight gathers the party together and recounts the details of this encounter and lets the group know that they have been spotted doing this surveillance. Pennyweight guessed the stranger was a high level thief or assassin from his appearance and his ability to spot Pennyweight and then seem to disappear into the night.

Around 11:30, the adventurers entered the sewers through the south-east entrance past the livestock warehouse. During the search, they find nothing of consequence, pipes leading away from sewers are fairly dry underneath the spice warehouse, but there's more liquid in the pipes near the church and livestock warehouse. Around 2am, they come out of the sewers at the north-west entrance and find a rat trying to keep up with them. Nuria has a connection with it, decides to keep it and name it "Smokey" due to her colouring. She climbs into Nuria's robe pocket and the adventurers decide to head to their respective homes.

Day 16

After resting for most of the day, the adventurers decide to explore the sewers again. Around 9pm, Agrona asks Caledan what the name of the cult was. He's told it was called "The Cult of the Horn of Doom". Very ominous indeed.

The adventurers get into the sewers through the south-east entrance. Triple "H" and Pennyweight (who are the only two who can fit into the pipes) crawl into the pipes under the spice warehouse to see where it will lead them. About 20 ft in, Pennyweight sees that the pipes slope upward almost vertically, and it looks to be about 40 to 60 ft in height. Pennyweight attempts to climb the pipes, but falls down twice. Triple "H" heals him both times. At the third attempt, he succeeds and finds himself in a washroom, about 10 x 20 ft room, with 2 stalls. Triple "H" senses no evil at this time. They realize that they're on the second floor of the warehouse. Pennyweight opens the door to hallway, it's empty and looks to be about 15 ft in length with a door at the end. Pennyweight checks that door, and opens it to a bigger hallway with two doors on the right side, steps through using the lantern for light. Opens the first of the two doors, finds another hallway of sorts with two doors, but on either side this time. Checks the left side door, hears voices on the other side, sounds like a lot of people. Checks the right side door, hears nothing. Heads back and goes through other door in previous hallway. Finds a storage room for some spices, mainly higher prices items. Right door in second hallway leads to same storage room.

10:00 pm - They head back to the sewers to report back to the rest of the group. Both climb down vertical pipe without incident.

Decide to go through pipes on the other side, leading toward the Church of Nerull, which is pyramid-shaped.

Pennyweight and Triple "H" decide to take the pipe that leads downward using Pennyweight's 50 ft rope. After about 60 ft, they reach bottom. It's flat, level, dry and very dark. They notice that there's a puddle of black ooze, almost slime-like, in the middle of the floor within the room. With all the brilliance in the world, Triple "H" sets fire to it with a match to see what happens. It turns out it was a puddle of oil, which burns heavy, and it becomes very smoky in the room. Coughing, Triple "H" pulls himself back up the pipe. Unfortunately, Pennyweight succumbs to the smoke and needs to be hauled to safety by Triple "H". They decide to leave the sewers and quit for the night.

Day 17

Each adventurer decides to go in separate directions to drum up more information about the Temple and its inner workings.

Nuria goes to City Hall to procure the floor plans for the Temple of Nerull and finds out that some pages have been ripped out. The plans that weren't ripped out shows the normal look of a 3-level building with a basement. It shows that there are two other pipes connected underneath (that the adventurers didn't know about. The pages that have been ripped out were located after the normal layout.

Agrona goes to his Head Cleric (Caledan) for any other additional information about the Temple. There's a rumour that there's a torture chamber underneath and that there are about 200 followers. There is no other additional information at this time.

Ebreck and Pennyweight decide to go to the local watering hole (Black Stallion), to chat up the locals. It's pretty noisy, with lots of screaming and yelling, and Ebreck feels right at home. They both notice a half-orc, who notices them in turn, and points to his buddies (who are human). There is a dark man who is with the half-orc, and he notices Pennyweight. He suspiciously looks like the man who accosted him two nights before.

Triple "H" goes to Paladin House to find Troy to update him on the situation so far and to gather a little more information if possible. There is great evil surrounding the temple. Trevor, the head priest of the church, is evil but not a fanatic. He's reasonable to speak to under normal circumstances, the primary reason he was allowed to establish his church. There are about 25 priests in the church, few novices, fair amount of medium and few really experienced.

Xanaphia goes to Druid's Gate to speak with Aquilla. She receives the same information that Triple "H" does, but mentions that she's happy that there's a balance of good vs. evil within the city.

Ebreck and Pennyweight feel watched by the dark man, who is about 6'2", bearded, wears dark clothing. A barmaid brings two drinks to their table sent by the half-orc and the dark man. Ebreck and Pennyweight send two drinks to them as thanks. All drink their respective drinks. Ebreck and Pennyweight decide to introduce themselves and vice versa. The dark man's name is Gregory and the half-orc is Gash who says, "Welcome to my Master's establishment". Gregory reminds Pennyweight to heed his previous warning. Ebreck and Pennyweight thank them again for the drinks. Before they leave Gregory says, "Drink not too harsh for the dwarf?". They leave.

Pennyweight goes to his Thieves' Guild for same reason as the others returned. Assassin's Guild (known as the Flesh and Blood Society) owns the Black Stallion and the master assassin is Andre Carmine. The Black Stallion is linked to livestock warehouse. Gregory is the counselor/lieutenant/advisor of Andre. Gash is an enforcer with a half-brother, who is a half-ogre, named Slash. Andre is also the owner of the Shacktown Farm in the north end of the city.

Day 18

The adventurers decide to infiltrate the spice warehouse (Dark Bane Guild). Triple "H" and Pennyweight will go through the sewer entrance to the 2nd floor, Ebreck and Nuria will go through the back door, and Xanaphia and Agrona will go through the front door. As they're approaching the warehouse, they notice that there's quite a lot of activity around the Church. More and more people, dressed in cloaks, are going into it. The adventurers decide to change the game plan, and infiltrate the Church instead.

Nuria casts a sleep spell on 4 people heading towards the Church, the group binds them up and steal their cloaks. Only need 4 since Pennyweight and Triple "H" will go through the sewers. This way the group can map out the Church interior a little more easily.

Xanaphia, Ebreck, Nuria and Agrona don the cloaks and proceed to the Church with the throng of people shuffling forward. Once inside, they notice that they're in an antechamber where there are 2 priests greeting the newcomers. Through another set of doors, they see the worshipping area where some are chanting in a semi-circle around the altar in the back. Nuria casts disguise self to bluff the group's way to the staircase. They head downstairs to see where they end up.

Meanwhile, Triple "H" and Pennyweight head down to the sewers and decide to go through upper pipes located underneath the Church to see where that takes them. Pennyweight climbs up, pulls up Triple "H", and end up in a washroom, about 20 x 30 ft. They can hear faint chanting coming from the other side of the door. Pennyweight opens the door a crack and sees the worshippers chanting around the altar. Figure they've made it to the main level of the Church and since it's so busy, they decide to go back down the pipes, all the way down, and go to the room where the oil was. When they get down to the "oil" room, they notice that most of it was burned off in the fire. Pennyweight heads to the door and hears very faint chanting. Opens the door and sees a hallway, faintly lit, with a dead end on the right side, but it keeps going on the left side. Decide to search the dead end first and finds a secret door with a poison needle on it. Opens the door carefully and finds a circular room with bars in front leading up. They both hear faint screaming coming from above.

Nuria, Xanaphia, Ebreck and Agrona make their way downstairs, end up in a hallway with 5 doors, 2 on either side and one straight in front. They hear faint screaming coming from the room directly in front of them. Nuria knocks on that door, hears someone say, "Just a sec". Door opens and the group sees several devices of pain and death, with an iron maiden straight in front at the back wall with a corpse still attached to it, there are two priests in the room and a smooth rack. The two priests realize that the group aren't what they seem (new victims to be tortured). One priest tries to grab Ebreck and a battle ensues.

Battle with 2 priests in torture room

Find nothing of value, strip them down and put them into the torture machines.

Xanaphia discovers a secret door behind the iron maiden. She opens the door and sees two figures heading up the metal bars. Weapon at the ready, she realizes that they are Pennyweight and Triple "H". The group converge and share news.


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