Shademurk: Not everything is what it simics

Session: Iskren / Rollo / Sorval / Vultha / Taurio

Xiviskir 9

The party agrees to split up after getting the reward from Eda, their purses bulging with coin.

A Lizard's Tale

Vultha decides to head out and get some information from Ojay, discovering the best place to get his crossbow upgraded: the Carpenter's Guild. Arriving there, he sees most of the employees are actual faeries, a rare sight, and he accosts the first one he comes across. The faerie introduces himself as Jilar Kanklesten. They barter for a bit, settle on a price and Vultha is redirected to the 'leader' of the guild after paying in valuable gems.
Shortly after entering the offices of the guild leader Jilar Kanklesten, Vultha discovers that the one he was talking to earlier might not have been completely truthful about either name or intend.
He does manage to get his name and project on a waiting list.
He proceeds to take Evvi Kanklesten, daughter of the guild leader, hostage after making sure all present are aware he is a dangerous individual. Eventually, Evvi is set free.
Walking into the street, he meets Azorius arrester Pharom, who managed to grab the confidence trickster and returns the precious stones Vultha paid with to their rightful owner. A brief caution for dangerous behaviour later, Vultha starts towards the Wicker Goat to meet his friends.

The Dragon and the Minotaur

Rollo took a stroll to wind up in the Wicker Goat together with Taurio, but the pair splits up shortly after entering the establishment.
Probably still reeling from the excitement of the hotel, Rollo sits in on a dice game and tries out his new set of dice. These, being loaded, get spotted by some of the other clients and, in spite of trying to bluff his way out of it, nearly get Rollo arrested for cheating. Luckily enough, he has enough coin on hand to make the patrons turn their eyes the other way. A brief musical intermezzo does little to lighten the mood, as the Dragonborn bard is all aflutter with nerves after such a close call.
Taurio, on the other hand, heads straight up to the third floor, where the off-duty Boros tend to hang out, meets Thihm in the company of Erbo and Killim, a twin pair of minotaur beat cops. he attempts to regale them with his adventures, but fails to make a huge splash, as most of the story was already known to them. It does, however, limit his spending by quite a bit, as a few pints of ale are passed his way while he makes the rounds amongst the other guardsmen sitting there.

The Acolyte's Adventure

Iskren, having claimed the mysterious stone from the hoard of the bandits, returns to their lodgings at Gellan's Mansion and has Thaya draw a bath for them. A bit of essential oil and a bottle of wine to restore the spirits are provided as well and relaxation is had.
When Iskren exits the bath though, they notice something being off. A chill, the feeling of being watched. Checking the window, they see a large arachnid leg flit by. A more thorough investigation reveals small indentations that appear to have been burned into the wall where eight legs touched it.
Disturbed, Iskren gets dressed and heads to the Wicker Goat to inform the others.

The Ideal Officer

Having been told to get a component pouch by Feather, Sorval heads to the Boros Barracks to do just that. He has a brief chat with Beorzin, a guardsman standing watch at the gate, before heading into the barracks and discovering Lisanne has been appointed to the office of Quartermaster. She, in turn, is glad to see her young friend return with gear from the fallen Emberfist. She allows him to keep the longsword the party had come across and swaps a shield for a component pouch.
Happy to have this done, Sorval goes off to see the others at the Wicker Goat.

A Gathering

With all their respective concerns attended to, the party meets in a private booth on the second floor of the Goat, swapping tales of what has befallen them. Thihm, sitting in without being asked to, merrily chats along. The presence of the minotaur reminds them to visit Eliander Fireborn, so they pay Ojay to take them to the Barracks.
Iskren has a short heart to heart with Beorzin, who offers up a large amount of alm-coins, to be distributed among the poor, a task which Beorzin implies is not seen to out here. Wheels are spinning and Iskren might just have found a way to ... improve ... on the current arrangements out here.
Eliander, once the party meets up with him, explains the situation for which he calls upon the party: a body has been found, an Izzet male, with the eyes gouged out and tongue removed, a note attached to the body and a pair of blood-stained Boros uniforms stuffed underneath. Having few people to spare, he would have the new recruits look into this. The party accepts and goes to inspect the corpse.
Sorval, examining the body, notices a poisoned wound in the chest, deducing the poison to be a slow acting one. He also sees, plainly, that this victim was the Izzet noble Vorquill, whom the party rescued from the Izzet Hotel. This puts the note ('We know who you are, you cannot escape us') at the forefront of everyone's thoughts.
Grabbing one of the assistants, they learn of the location at which the body was found and make tracks for there.

The Underground

At the scene of the crime, a bit of sleuthing gets the group to a trapdoor, which in turn leads to an unnatural cavern. Within, the party find both traps and enemies. A hatch that explodes when opened is their first mistake, an unspotted water-trap their second. A third problem lies in the elimination of a massive gas spore, leaving a great many of their number poisoned. Then, they are set upon by three simic hybrids, creatures that were probably once elves, but their forms warped and altered through biomancy. A brief, yet violent struggle ensues, leaving the party injured, but victorious, with a tunnel leading deeper into the earth ahead, the noise of running water coming from it, and a fistful of treasure added to their inventory.

Shademurk: The Hotel Basement

Session: Taurio/Rollo/Iskren/Vultha/Sorval

Xiviskir 7

Commander, 

my friends have gone on an investigation of the haunted house beyond the walls of the town, 

I would like to ask for assistance on their behalf. 

Forces are at work to prevent us from going there, including an ambush within the walls.

It is unsightly for me to leave them to these troubles, but my duties have called me elsewhere. 

Kind regards,

Amyas

Xiviskir 8

I was notified of your arrival here and am pleased to see you all so hale. 

Allow me to bestow upon you the boon of teardrops, so that you may discover the secrets of this place and return to us safely. ~Pierakor "Feather" az Vinrenn D'rav 

We find our heroes after their heroic struggles against magical upholstery, with the liberated prisoners in tow, being called by a glowing light that pours through the very paintings that hang all around the top floor of the hotel. Upon arriving at the lounge, they spy the radiant form of a Boros Firemane Angel. This Angel, known to the pair of Boros guildsmen as Feather, speaks to the party words of praise and comfort, assuring them their deeds here would be told to those responsible for the progression in the ranks of their respective guilds. She also passes the group a handful of Teardrops, powerful crystalized mana spheres that can be ingested in order to ward off wounds and fatigue.

The party then set off to truly liberate their charges and delivers them to a Boros patrol that happens to be passing by. Some discussion as to the treatment of the newly released later, the party heads back in. Taking some time to spy out their situation, the party discovered a staircase leading down as a more stealthy way of getting to the basement. Arriving there, they found the corpse of a missing Emberfist, which they stripped of valuables after defeating a glibbery mass of corpse-dwelling maggots.

Iskren's investigation of the basement yielded the location of a secret door, which was promptly used to access an abandoned resting chamber. Opening one of the doors, they get ambushed by a couple of bandits. One of these, a spellcaster known as Sanbalet, relents after facing the brunt of a quick counter by the party, instead convincing the party of releasing him in exchange for an airship.

Or at least, partially convince, as suspicion to his motives still exists, so the party ties him up while they seek out the 'key' to operate the airship, said to be in the barred room next to Sanbalet's quarters.

To the sheer surprise of nobody, it turned out that the rogue was lying, sending the party to face off against a group of skeletal opponents, including an ancient alchemist. Try as the undead might though, the cohesion of the group proves too much and soon they die their final death.

The quarters of the undead provide little of use, though they do contain a decent chunk of treasure and valuables. 

After checking off the potential threat to their rear, namely killing Sanbalet, the party sets itself down for resting, only to be ambushed minutes later by a part of the bandit group that was hiding behind a secret door. 

The combat that ensued saw the death of all the attackers and the party rejoiced in having access to the further cave system.

They explore and clear out the depths of the basement, eventually discovering a small airship and a large dock behind it, putting some truth to Sanbalet's claims by their own hand, though the dock is empty... for now.

Xiviskir 9

The targets have proven themselves to be dangerous enough to foil Sanbalet's smuggling operation. 

Requesting back-up from our brethren.

We shall reclaim what is ours yet.

Leaving behind the hotel, they return to Shademurk proper in order to brief the mayor, Eda Oweland, of their success.  She seems suitably impressed by the deeds of the party, hands them 200 gold as reward for their deeds and informs them of Eliander Fireborn's request for their presence.

 

Planeswalkers

From the office of Gellan Primeground,
a brief analysis of beings with great power that are seen specifically around the Shademurk.


It has been noted that various entities of great power have visited Shademurk (and in some cases went through to visit the rest of the plane).
Some of these beings are a danger to Ravnica as a whole, some act as protectors against whatever would cause harm. They themselves seek to be called Planeswalkers, ascended beings that can freely move between worlds. Amongst their ranks, we can be certain of two of Ravnican birth.

Here follows what is known:

Ariff, the Stone Shaper

A powerful user of earth-related magic, known to have dealings with the Gruul and Izzet.

Notable achievements: helped build the Transguild Promenade.

Domain: Earth / Building

Dakkon Blackblade

Wields an ancient blade from which he derives his name. Seemed to be searching for something. 

Notable activity: slew three rotworms in a single fight.

Domain: War / Travel

The Daughter of the Woods

A fey being that came to our plane to commune with Mat'Selesnya.

If seen, please report to Enezesku.

Domain: Forests / Wilderness

Evril of Benelia

A lady knight of dubious morals. Showed interest in our guild, but eventually vanished.

Notable feats: saved a family from a burning building. Asked to be paid afterwards.

Submitted a bill to the Boros for the slaying of a colossal dreadmaw, stating her to be

a paladin of the holy order of Serra.

Domain: War / Vengeance

Freyalise of Llanowar

Known to be a patron of the forests, has a fiery temper that belies her meek appearance.

Notable feats: summoned Ulasht, the Hate Seed to protect the wild.

Domain: Nature / Growth

Geyadrone Dihada

Information lacking. Highly dangerous.

Proceed with caution if encountered. 

Domain: ??? (worship - mainly power)

The Wanderer

A very upright warrior, said to strive to aid the downtrodden.

Notable feats: led an uprising from the guildless in order to secure them food.

Was remarkably successful, but was brought to our fold by the charities we established.

Domain: Justice / Equality

Illayu, Dawn's Blade 

A former soldier from the Boros Legion, Illayu lived a charmed life. It is said he caught the eye of the Parun Razia and was blessed with the power to protect other worlds.

Notable feats: led a band of heroes to slay Cisarzim

Domain: Bravery / Protection against evil

Jared Carthelion, Shadow Mage

Came to our world on wings of fire. Recovered in the care of the Azorius guild.

Notable feats: fought Rakdos in single combat to a draw. Was noted to go drinking after.

Domain: Knowledge / Druidic

Leshrac, Walker of the Night

Highly dangerous and unstable. Could be a powerful ally, could be a terrible enemy.

Disinclined to allow surveillance. Paranoid.

Domain: Night / Fire

Sandruu, Keeper of Lore

A mighty minotaur, most unlike those that we are used to dealing with.

Spent a lot of time learning about our culture and habits. 

Appeared to seek an item of great worth, but seemed unable to find it here.

Domain: Questing / Knowledge

Sanghyun, the Queen Eternal

Appears as a lady all decked out in ivory and green silks. Our research has shown that this appearance is an illusion. It did not bring forth a conclusion as to her true form.

Domain: Wealth / Trade

Ysa, the Revenant

A former member of our ranks, Ysa's family was removed from the records as her very unlife goes against the Syndicate. Said to be a master of necromantic arts, to be terminated on sight.

Noted and to be followed up on: has had contact with an individual named 'Sengir'

Domain: Heretical bypassing of the Guildpact