Session 36 - Scene 1 (of 9)

After finding a safe place to rest up for the night near Pembridge Manor, the group hauls the still-unconscious Krolec back to the Temple of the Sun, which Challa feels makes the most sense.  They plan to inquire with Grundelmar about who in town may have the ability to restore Krolec's leg.  Along the way, Durmindin finds a fallen branch and whittles a peg leg for Krolec, just in case they are unsuccessful.  Tiberius chooses not to go to the temple as he has some personal business to attend to in town, and wishes the others luck.

When they arrive at the temple, Grundelmar greets them but is immediately shocked by Krolec's condition.  Durmindin explains that Krolec went adventuring out on his own without waiting for the group and ran into trouble.  Challa further clarifies that the urban legends about a crocodile in the sewers is indeed true.

They then ask the dwarven priest about if it is possible to restore Krolec's leg through magic.  He responds by telling them they have come to the right place, as he is the only one in town skilled in that particular rare ritual.  He explains, however, that it is a very difficult ritual to perform and requires many components.  He and Challa agree to a price of 680 gold to perform it on Krolec.

Challa and Leigh decide that Krolec is able to contribute 350 of the gold, while the rest of them split the remainder (coming out to 66 gold each).  After they hand over the gold, Grundelmar starts to prepare for the ritual.  He explains, however, there is one more thing he needs before it will work.

In order to complete the ritual, Grundelmar will need a leg bone from one of Krolec's ancestors.  The whole ritual will take a couple of days, so they have some time to go retrieve one.

As Krolec's deity, Corellon, does not have a temple of its own in the city (instead just having a small shrine at the Moonsong Temple of Sehanine), the group decides to go directly to Krolec's family to try and locate the grave of an ancestor.  Leigh remembers briefly meeting the family back at the party celebrating the re-opening of the Tombwoods.

Session 36 - Scene 2 (of 9)

Honlor, Krolec's father, answers the door at the Jar'Bin residence.  He recognizes the group as the companions of his son, and inquires about him.  Leigh explains about Krolec's condition.  She then discusses their need for an ancestral bone to cure him.

Honlor is happy to help with his son's recovery.  He explains that although his people are long-lived, his father, Lanmor, died many years ago and is entombed in the city.  Lanmor was, in fact, one of the last buried in the old catacombs in the cliffs (which were used between the time the Tombwoods was sealed off and before the new cemetery outside of town was created).

After giving them the information, Honlor decides to head over to the temple to check on his son while the group decides their next move is to gear up and head to the catacombs in the cliffs.

Session 36 - Scene 3 (of 9)

Approaching the cave at the entrance to the catacombs in the cliffs, Leigh illuminates Challa's sword with her light spell.  They see that the cave goes in a short ways before a set of natural stairs leads down to the narrow catacomb tunnels carved into the cliffside.

Challa begins heading into the cave.  She hears a mechanical clicking noise almost immediately.  Before she can react, she is hit by large blades that emerge from either side of the cave walls.  Although the old blades are unable to penetrate her armor, she is knocked back out of the entryway.

Leigh surmises that once the city stopped using the catacombs (for structural reasons), the entrance was set up with a trap to discourage looters.

Challa instructs Sa'lid to have Snarg disable the trap.  The goblin happily goes to work, quickly disabling the blades.  When he announces that everything is safe, Challa suggests he move ahead to make sure there are no more traps.  Snarg, however, insists that Challa go ahead of him for protection.

Dubious about Snarg's abilities, Challa decides to take the lead again anyway.  She makes sure there are no traps in the rest of the cavern and heads over to the stairs.  She can see that down below the stairs is an entry chamber that contains a natural passage, two tunnels, and an altar to the Raven Queen.

The paladin heads down to examine the altar.  She lights the black candles atop it and can see an inscription written on the side of the altar.  The inscription warns that the tunnel off to the right of the room contains the burial chambers for the priests of the Raven Queen and that anyone who disturbs the area will be cursed with eternal death.

Challa decides to say a prayer to the Raven Queen to make sure they properly honor her and inform her of their intentions.  Satisfied that her prayers were well-received, she calls the others down.

Leigh immediately begins looking for traces of magic around.  She discovers the aforementioned hallway is indeed under the effects of a magical curse.  She also detects a faint sense of primordial magic coming from the natural passage, explaining to the others that it comes from the elemental chaos.

Sensing the natural passage could be dangerous, the group decides to head straight into the northern tunnel.  

The group follows the tunnel along, with Challa in the lead, for a couple hundred yards.  Along the way, they see various tombs in the sides of the walls.  Some are marked with names and/or dates, but others seem to have long been worn away.  Durmindin is surprised to see that the oldest remains are nearest the entrance, having expected the opposite.

Eventually, they come to a fork in the passage.  Deciding to take the leftmost route, Challa quickly finds herself at another fork.  It starts to dawn on her that the catacombs could be quite large and they have no real idea where Lanmor's remains are.  

The group decides to head back out and go get more information from Honlor before going in deeper.  As they leave, Durmindin suggests they reset the trap, just in case.

Snarg, as instructed, resets the trap.  He asks his master if they should add such a trap to their room at the inn.  Sa'lid, in jest, suggests that Snarg can work on that once they are done.

Session 36 - Scene 4 (of 9)

When the group arrives back at the Jar'Bin house, they find the door answered this time by Krolec's mother, Lunor.  When they inquire after Honlor, she explains he is still at the temple.  Challa feels a little foolish they didn't think of that before heading over.

Challa briefly explains they are looking for Lanmor's tomb and asks if Lunor knows where it is.  She doesn't have a clear memory of where he was buried except that it was "somewhere towards the back".  The group thanks her, and heads over to the Temple of the Sun.

Once there, they find Honlor watching on as Grundelmar is hard at work with his ritual.  The elf expresses surprise they are back already with the bone, but Challa is forced to admit they need more information.

Honlor explains that he does not remember the exact way to Lanmor's grave, only that the catacombs were rather busy with people that day because they were filling the last ten graves before officially closing the catacombs.  He does remember the graves where at the end of the catacombs, and that the catacombs had many winding passages but that they mostly all led to the same place.  Most importantly, however, he remembers the last ten graves were honored with a plaque so Lanmor's grave will be clearly marked.

Although less information than they were hoping for, the group is satisfied they will at least be able to identify the remains when they reach them.  Challa thanks Honlor and they all head back out to the cliffs.

Session 36 - Scene 5 (of 9)

As they start to head back into the catacombs, Snarg is dispatched again to disable the trap.  Challa notices this time, however, that Snarg is putting some of the components of the trap into his pockets.  When she calls him out on it, he explains to Sa'lid that he was retrieving them to use for the trap he was instructed to build for their inn room.  

Sa'lid calmly explains to the goblin that he was being facetious and that he does not want any traps added to their room's door.  As Snarg puts the components back, Sa'lid clearly finds the situation mildly humorous, but Challa is not amused in the slightest.

The group heads back in and takes the same path they did last time.  At the second fork, they head left down another passageway for a couple hundred yards, passing many graves, before Challa stops them.  She can detect something up ahead.

The paladin advances the group slowly.  She spots a small cave off to the side of the passage just past an area where where another side tunnel connects to the one they are traveling down.  There appears to be a large cave bear sleeping in it.  The tunnel continues on a short distance then stops at a dead end.

The group wonders if this is the end of the catacombs where Lanmor is buried.  As Leigh is the stealthiest, she elects to sneak up and check.  

Heading down the passage, she does not spot any plaque.  Leigh does, however, spot the cave bear stirring.  It looks directly at her and starts to get up.  She quickly runs back down the hall and back to protection behind Challa and the others.

Durmindin summons his spirit companion into the hall just outside the cave, just in case the bear decides to come out.  Challa and Sa'lid hold back in anticipation.  Challa can hear some movement back in the cave, but nothing emerges.

Leigh suggests to the others that as the plaque was not there, they should leave the bear alone and head back down one of the other passages.  Durmindin concurs, stating the bear most likely went back to sleep and will continue hibernating as long as they leave him alone.

Challa agrees, and begins heading the group back up the other passage the tunnel connected with.  As they head along, they spot a much more fanciful grave than the others along one wall.  It has a large mural of a temple painted above it; Durmindin notices it contains both symbols of Pelor and the Raven Queen.

Leigh identifies the remains as those of Enrigas, a famous engineer who helped plan many of the famous buildings of the city.  Enrigas' most famous work was said to be an underground temple known as the Temple of Light and Darkness, said to be located below these very catacombs.

Amongst the bones, Leigh spots a scroll case.  She immediately checks it for traces of magic, but finds it not to be magical in nature.  She grabs the case to examine it, and is very interested to see that it is identified as containing blueprints of some kind.  Wanting to save the plans for posterity, she puts it in her backpack.

Sa'lid is a bit put off that the group continues to hassle Snarg about taking things, but Leigh is committing grave robbery.  Leigh responds by explaining her intention to take the blueprints to an archivist so they can be copied, then she will return the original back to the grave once the copy is made.  She feels the plans are important for the history of the town.

Session 36 - Scene 6 (of 9)

Following the passageway deeper and deeper into the catacombs, the group continues to pass by many graves and several side passages with dead ends.

After a short amount of time, they come upon another small cave off to the side of one of the hallways.  Challa peers in, but spots nothing.

However, hidden in the shadows are two shadowhunter bats.  As they emerge, Challa shouts to the others.

Just as the bats move in to attack Challa, Leigh blasts one of them with her magic missile.  The other bat manages to slash Challa with his tail.

Durmindin attempts to use his wrath of winter spell, but it doesn't affect the creature.  Sa'lid has better luck, blasting one of the bats with an explosive pyre.  Challa follows it up with an astral thunder attack and Leigh with another magic missile.

The bats continue to slash at Challa, but her superior armor gives her ample protection.  The bats' thick hides give them equal protection against another of Durmindin's wrath of winter spells.

Durmindin's bad luck appears to be catching, as Sa'lid fails to hit with an energy strobe and Challa's bolstering strike is fended off.  Only Leigh manages to be successful, blasting the bat with another magic missile.

The bats claw into Challa, this time piercing her armor.

The shaman summons yet another cold blast, finally hitting one of the bats.  Its cold corpse crashes to the ground.

Sa'lid and Challa both attempt to attack the remaining bat, but miss.  From further back in the narrow tunnel, Leigh is forced to wait until that bat moves into position.  When it does, she blasts it with another magic missile.

Despite the arcane attack hitting it, the monster is able to slash through Challa's armor with its piercing tail.

The wilden summons forth another wrath of winter, blasting the bat back with icy winds.  Sa'lid and Challa both miss in their attempts to follow up the attack, and this time even Leigh has no luck hitting the creature.

The bat creature attacks again, continuing to hit Challa.  Durmindin attacks back with another wrath of winter; small icicles begin to form on the tips of the creature's wings just as Sa'lid's energy strobe of force blasts them off when it hits the monster.

Challa attacks back with her axe again, continuing to miss.  Leigh, however, finds her rhythm again and hit with her attack.

As the paladin fends off another attack by the bat, Durmindin tries to finish it off with his wrath of winter, but this time his spell fails him.  In the end, it is Sa'lid's fiery energy strobe that kills it.

Session 36 - Scene 7 (of 9)

With the creatures dead, everyone sits down to rest for a minute.  Challa, thinking of Krolec, forcefully commands everyone to stop and rest and not go scouting off ahead.

As they rest, Leigh looks around the cave.  Nothing of interest is found except for many remains of small bones from the animals the bats had been feasting on.  She does notice one set of bones is much larger than the others, but pays it no attention.

Satisfied they are ready to continue, Challa resumes leading the group deeper into the catacombs.  After passing through a couple of intersections, they eventually start down a long, straight tunnel.

Challa's mental powers detect some creatures are up ahead.  Everyone readies their weapons.

As they continue slowly down the hallway, they see that it ends in a large cavern area where a natural wall splits the cave into two directions.

After making sure there are no traps, Challa and Leigh elect to step over to the left cave entrance while Sa'lid and Durmindin take the right.  Snarg holds back to the middle of the cave wall.

When they approach the cave entrances, the group can see a family nest of dire wolverines is inside.  The animals immediately start after the group.  Challa is able to fend two of them off, while Sa'lid is bitten by one.

Sa'lid, not wanting to be in melee with the beasts, uses his sorcerous spell to fly himself and Durmindin over the wolverines to the back of the cavern.  As they head over, Challa questions the tactic as it actually puts them more in harm's way than they were.

Once they land, Durmindin summons his spirit companion for protection and strikes out at one of the wolverines with his thunder bear's warning.

Back over at the cavern entrance, Challa chops into one of the beasts with her valorous smite then uses her divine sanction on one of the wolverines heading for Sa'lid.

Staying safe behind Challa, Leigh blasts one of the animals with her magic missile.

The wolverines bite at Challa and Sa'lid.  One of them manages to pierce Challa's armor while the two on Sa'lid easily tear into him.

Once again forced into melee, Sa'lid opts to take out his dagger and stab at the wolverine.  Unused to such battle, he misses badly.  Durmindin has much better luck, however, hitting with his spirit renewal strike.

Challa summons forth a hallowed circle as Leigh decides to head over to the other cavern entrance.  She positions herself to blast both wolverines on Sa'lid with her burning hands spell.

Back across the cavern, the two wolverines tear into Challa, knocking her to the ground.  Sa'lid is bit again as well.

Feeling desperate, the sorcerer attempts to cast a spell.  But before he can get it off, the wolverines jump at him, knocking him to the ground as they continue to bite.

Durmindin summons forth a healing wind to help his bloody companion then blasts one of the wolverines with his wrath of winter.  Leigh finishes the animal off with an acid arrow.

Back over near the entrance, Challa manages to get herself off the ground and makes an ardent vow before cutting into one of the beasts with her astral thunder attack.

Sa'lid manages to get up and fend off another attack by the remaining wolverine on him.  The sorcerer moves himself back then blasts the creature with his moon and stars spell, killing it.

The wolverines attacking Challa have better luck, hitting her once.  She responds by blessing her weapon then cutting deep into the beast with a righteous smite.  Leigh attacks the other wolverine with a magic missile.

The wolverines continue biting into Challa, both managing to draw blood.  Sa'lid tries to help out with his swirling stars spell, but fails.

Durmindin calls forth his wrath of winter again, killing one of the animals with his icy blast.  Challa finishes off the other with a bolstering strike that nearly cuts the beast in half.

Session 36 - Scene 8 (of 9)

Once again, everyone takes a moment to rest and examine their surroundings.  The cave clearly has no plaques or graves and is not what they are looking for.  Leigh is also dismayed to find no treasure or magical items here – just another pile of small animal bones.  She does notice, however, that the corpses of the wolverines do look just like the larger bones found back at the bat cave.

Challa leads everyone back up the passageway and they try another of the side passages.  As they follow it, they come upon a well-decorated tomb with a large plate.  A marker identifies it as the remains of St. Martin.

Using her knowledge of history, Leigh explains that St. Martin was a former high priest of Erathis who championed the church's focus on healing and providing to the poor.  According to legend, anyone leaving a small container of water here overnight will find it transformed into a healing potion in the morning.  However, the legend also states this works for a man but once every cycle of the moon.

Challa and Leigh both decide to leave a small container of water on the plate, hoping they will end up with two healing potions, or perhaps only one; Leigh isn't 100% sure how to interpret the legend.

The group decides to continue ahead.  They skip a side passage and head straight ahead.  Challa notices some large mushrooms ahead; the entire passageway seems filled with fungus.

Leigh identifies the fungus as doomspores – capable of releasing a deadly cloud of poisonous spores if disturbed.  Challa decides the group should avoid that way.

The group heads back and takes the other passage.  After traveling a short distance, they see a full room carved off to one side.  It appears to contain many works of art, some coins, and other treasures.  Leigh ascertains the area is not magic and appears to be an offering room for the dead.

As soon as she realizes the room is filled with valuables, Challa turns a close eye to Snarg to make sure he doesn't get anywhere near it.  She makes sure to tell everyone to avoid the room.

However, Challa is upset to see that Snarg already seems to have something extra in one of his pockets.  Though he hasn't reached the treasure room, clearly he has taken something while they have been in the catacombs.

She confronts the goblin, who feigns ignorance and wonders aloud why everyone is so interested in his pockets all the time.  When she commands him to produce whatever he has, he looks to his master for guidance.

Sa'lid, however, is tired of Challa's accusations.  He refuses to compel Snarg to turn out his pockets and tells Challa it is most likely just some animal bones the goblin picked up for his "animal skull collection".

Challa is unconvinced and gets upset with Sa'lid.  She pointedly tells Durmindin and Leigh that she cannot continue associating herself with someone who blatantly breaks the law.

Sa'lid, calm as ever, states very clearly that he has broken no laws nor does she have any proof that Snarg has done anything wrong.  He once again states that the group's morals are rather inconsistent and the rules seem to only apply for certain members; he clearly insinuates he believes Challa is being self-righteous and hypocritical about the whole affair.

Leigh and Durmindin stay out of the argument, saying nothing.  Challa notes to Sa'lid that this is his "final warning", but he is unconcerned.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Challa wants to finish their mission to help Krolec.  Continuing ahead, she leads the group to the end of the passage, where they find the graves and the plaque.

Challa approaches the grave and gives a prayer to Lanmor, explaining they are taking his bone to restore his grandson.  She then takes the bone and puts it in her backpack.

Near the back, Snarg asks his master if it is OK for them to take bones now.  Sa'lid responds that apparently only certain people in the group are allowed to steal from the dead.  He further explains that Snarg is only to take animal bones.  Snarg starts to make a comment suggesting he may need to put something back if that is the case, but Sa'lid cuts him off, explaining it is better just to keep quiet about it.

Sessopm 36 - Scene 9 (of 9)

With the bone recovered, the group heads back to the Temple of the Sun and hands it over to Grundelmar.  He is happy to be able to complete his ritual.

The priest goes on to explain it will take another or so to complete the ritual and allow Krolec to heal.  When Leigh asks how difficult the ritual will be on Krolec or if there will be any side effects, Grundelmar merely states that with any luck, Krolec will survive the procedure.

Before they leave, Grundelmar mentions a note came for her and Krolec several weeks back, but since he hasn't seem them recently its just been sitting on his desk.

When he retrieves it, Leigh sees that it is from the artist, Honoria Mellnor.  It reads, "Krolec and Leigh,
I am making progress on the restoration of the item we discussed.  Per your warning, I am starting to get the idea that I am being watched, and that someone has been entering my studio in my absence.  I am afraid of what might come next.  Remember always, the king of the skies looks west out over his sacred charges.  Honoria"

Leigh has to stop and think for a while to remember what it might be about.  After a moment, she vaguely recollects that she and Krolec stopped by Honoria's art studio the previous month, just before they started looking into Schlomo's operation.

She recalls that Krolec spotted a painted out figure in the Ruddiger family portrait and Honoria was going to look at restoring it.  The last line, "Remember always, the king of the skies looks west out over his sacred charges" means nothing to her however.

Session 36 - Session Notes

First of all - just a note that I'm a week late in posting this again.  This is from the session we had on Fri, July 9th.

This is the smallest number of people we've had at a sesison yet.  Six months or so ago, my problem was in trying to manage all the different people that wanted to play in the campaign.  Now, I may even end up facing a player shortage soon.

The Challa player has to pick up her husband from work on Friday nights now, so she may have to just quit coming.  Combine that with the Tiberius player's tendency to get stuck working late and the Krolec player's tendency to be out of town for the weekend to visit his in-laws, and I'm left with only 3 players that seem to be reliable these days.  One peice of good news though, Scrag may finally wake up from him coma next week as the kid that plays him finally got his driver's license so he can come to the games again, assuming he's not busy with high school stuff.

Anyhow, down to the session itself.  This session was another in the series of exploration-type sessions, but it managed to keep the combat a little quicker/less deadly, work in a trap, and have at least some character interaction.  Plus, I got to end with a mystery.

When I found out the Krolec player couldn't make it, I figured the quest for the leg bone would make things just challenging enough to provide a consequence for Krolec's actions, but without getting things too bogged down.  It also gave me a chance to use the cliffside catacombs I had planned out previously.

Krolec's grandfather, Lanmor, was created by me based on "lawnmower".  It was actually derived during the session as an in-joke because someone misheard Honlor's name as "lawnmower".

The trap at the mouth of the cave was something of a letdown because it didn't manage to actually hit and was quickly disabled.  It did provide for humor later, though, with Snarg.  I rather like being able to use Snarg for a comic relief NPC.  It's also gotten the Sa'lid player to interact a lot more in the game - Silas was rather dull and nearly laconic, while Sa'lid manages to have a personality and interacts a fair bit with the others, even subtly arguing with them at points.

The "primordial magic" Leigh sensed at the mouth of the cave had to do with a large pool of water down that passage containing a water elemental.  Since they never travelled that way, the encounter was skipped.  That was the only one, however.

The catacombs themselves were based almost completely on the Roman Randanini Catacombs, with a couple of simplifications by me to make them have less dead ends.  The underground temple map that Leigh found is actually taken directly from the Via Latina Catacomb.  I also have plans to use a third set of Roman catacombs - Villa Torlonia - for the catacombs below the lower sewers (the area where Krolec saw the wight).  The maps I used for all three originally came from the web site of the International Catacomb Society.

One funny note - the catacombs in the adventure have open tombs, like one sees from catacombs in a movie.  A couple of the players were a little confused why they weren't sealed with plaster or anything.  The reason, of course, is that I based it off of what I saw in movies and it never occurred to me they should be sealed.

I have to confess - one thing I didn't quite get with the session was why they went back to try and get more information about where exactly the tomb was.  A couple of them seemed genuinely surprised the NPCs didn't have a shortcut map for them to use.  To me, its kind of a "well, duh, that's the premise for the adventure; just roll with it for Christ's sake".  

Sometimes I wish players would try and be less "self-aware" with their PCs and just roll with things for the sake of genre convention.  The same problem comes up time and time again - I make it very clear something is just a facade for the sake of keeping the game moving, and they insist on having their characters act more post-moderny.

I liked that they left the sleeping bear sleep and avoided an attack.  I also like that Leigh gleefully steals the blueprints from one tomb then when she's called on it by Sa'lid makes the lame excuse that she'll put it back once its been archived.  "Lawful Good" only comes into play, it seems, when someone else wants to break a law - the LG characters rarely allow themselves to be inconvenienced by their own morality.  I absolutely loved how the Sa'lid character kept calling them out on their hypocrisy - it's only too bad the Krolec player wasn't there, as his characters tend to be the most self-righteous hypocrits of all.

The combats in the catacombs were difficult for the PCs because I only made the catacombs one square wide.  This was countered by the fact the battles weren't all that difficult of opponents.  The pack of ferocious wolverines encounter was inspired by Napoleon Dynamite.

The big argument over Snarg was unanticipated.  Again, it was another case of being a little too concerned about "reacting realistically" instead of just going with the flow (that Snarg is clearly meant to be helpful, but occasionally a hindrance and a source of comic relief).  Though in this case, some of it was also the Challa player wanting to set up an "out" for her PC to quit the group if she has to stop coming.  For the record, snarg had a hand bone with a ring on it in his pocket.  

The Honoria Mellnor note finally came back into play after many months (it was even a month in-game).  I kept mentioning it as something the group still needed to follow up on, but no one paid it much attention.  And they suddenly stopped hanging out at Grundelmar's temple, so it took forever even to get the note introduced.

I'm curious to see what happens next session with that.  Knowing how bad the group can be with mysteries, I'm hoping it won't be too painful.  However, at this point, I don't think they even got the clue that the last line in the note is meant to be some kind of clue to them written in code (they clearly have no knowledge of noir-type mysteries).

Session 37 - Cast of Characters

Sir Krolec Jar'bin - Elven Ranger
Dame Challa Kri - Kalashtar Paladin
Dame Leigh - Eladrin Wizard
Sir Tiberius Enchilada - Human Warlord
Sir Durmindin - Wilding Shaman
Scrag Graveborn - Half-Orc Warden
Sa'lid Dra'lah - Human Sorcerer

Session 37 - Scene 1 (of 9)

Yesterday...

After getting out of the sewers, Tiberius decides to leave it to the others to get Krolec back to the temple while he takes care of some personal business, including paying a call on Silas' poor widow, Lady Abigail.  He finds the widow oddly indifferent towards his overtures and decides that his time would be better spent with good drink.

Tiberius heads over to the Lucky Gnome Taphouse, deciding the bar may be a bit of a dive but he enjoys its "character".  Just as he's starting to remember it's about time to follow up on his connection with Slippery Pete, his contact from the docks enters and spots him.

The dock worker heads over to Tiberius and greets him.  He inquires about the item Tiberius needed Pete to transport.  Tiberius responds that he's still working on obtaining the item – having run into unexpected delays.

The worker nods agreeably, and cautions Tiberius that when he does get a hold of the item to be careful with it around the docks area.  The man goes on to explain that in addition to the annoying increase in wharf rats lately, there have been a lot of burglaries in the area.

Something about the rats reminds Tiberius of something, but he can't remember what.  But he notes it seems odd to him.  

As the man has no more information about the rat problem, Tiberius decides to take the conversation in a different direction.  He brings up Vargas, and cautions the man that Vargas has been working with the authorities; a situation which requires something to be done.  While the man says he would not personally be involved in such a situation, he knows such information has a way of "slipping out" and is certain the problem will take care of itself.  Tiberius suggests that perhaps Vargas' body would satiate the hunger of the wharf rat population.

And with that, Tiberius decides to take his leave and head home.  He notes to himself to be careful that the rest of the group not find out about his conversation, as he's quite sure Krolec would not approve.

Session 37 - Scene 2 (of 9)

Today...

Scrag suddenly wakens, staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling and finding himself in an unfamiliar bed.  Looking around, he finds himself in a large room with many beds.  Lying in the next bed over is Zena.  Scrag determines he somehow ended up in the local sanitarium.

He starts to get himself out of bed, but finds himself a little weak.  As he falters, one of the female attendants rushes over and helps steady him.  She cautions him about getting up too fast.

Scrag asks the attendant how long he's been recuperating there.  She explains his friends dropped him off almost three weeks ago and that he was in a coma from a heavy trauma to the head.

A bit shocked by the revelation, Scrag lies back down to rest while the attendant gets him some juice.  He asks her about his friends, but she can only say she hasn't seen them in the past few days.  Scrag decides he will head out and look for them once he feels better.

Session 37 - Scene 3 (of 9)

At the exact same moment Scrag awakens from his coma in the sanitarium, Krolec awakens from his in the temple.  Finding himself with Grundelmar and his father looking over him, Krolec tries to recall the last thing he can remember, but only comes up with a blurring memory of a swarm of teeth coming at him.

Honlor asks Krolec how he feels.  He explains to Krolec about the crocodile attack and his friends bringing him back to the temple.  Grundelmar further explains the ritual he used to restore Krolec's leg, noting that he's glad he survived the process.

Krolec gets up and immediately begins trying out his restored leg.  It seems to be exactly identical to the one he had before the attack.

Satisfied that Krolec is all right, Honlor decides to head back to the family home.  He informs Krolec he will tell Krolec's mother and sister that Krolec is all right.  Krolec notes that he will come by sometime soon to see them all.

Once his father leaves, Krolec asks the priest about the rest of the group.  Grundelmar can only respond that he hasn't seen them since they dropped off the bone, but assures Krolec they planned to stop by today.  

The dwarf then suggests perhaps the group was looking into that strange note.  When Krolec asks for more information, Grundelmar explains about the note Honoria left for him and Leigh.  The ranger recalls she was looking into the Ruddiger family portrait for them and wonders if anything has gone wrong.

Session 37 - Scene 4 (of 9)

A short time later, the group arrives at the temple.  Because of the confrontation yesterday, Sa'lid has elected to leave Snarg back at the inn for today.

Before anyone can discuss anything else, Challa brings up the subject of Snarg again.  She doesn't want him around, and finds his presence offensive.  She boldly states either Snarg goes or she does.

Despite their friendship, Tiberius feels Challa is being a bit melodramatic about Snarg's petty thievery (or suspected thievery, as it was).  Durmindin agrees, noting that he sees an opportunity for them to impress good qualities on the goblin and mold him into a positive member of society.

Krolec notes that he hasn't been around the goblin much, but something about the creature bothers him.  

Sa'lid notes that he left him at the inn today to let things calm down, but Challa suggests that doing so simply leaves the inn open to Snarg's whims with no oversight.  Sa'lid dismisses the remark.

Krolec is more bothered by Sa'lid's attitude than the goblin.  He presses Sa'lid about the man's feelings towards protecting the innocent.  Sa'lid responds that the innocent often come under the negative effects of outside forces and that his culture believes it is part of the natural order of the strong surviving.

Tiberius finds the hypocrisy of the group a bit much.  He pointedly notes that for all the current hand-wringing and self-righteousness over the goblin, the group itself has committed far more heinous crimes recently – including starting a crime wave, trafficking in stolen goods, tomb robbery, prostitution, kidnapping, assault, and frying a horse in the public square.  Not to mention Al's attempted regicide.

Durmindin once again backs Tiberius up, noting that Snarg is useful and has protected them.  Leigh manages to keep out of the conversation, trying to stay neutral, but does note that she only borrowed the map from the tomb.  Challa, for her part, also notes that she never actually performed prostitution; it was just an undercover persona.