The Spider Wasp Chronicles Chapter 11: The handkerchief mystery
Time is not on the side of our adventurers. The party decides to split up. Kobo, Anor, and Sul escort Angela with all haste to Greenwood forest to meet up with Princess Kereniel. Oshanda and Kyle head towards Silverbrook to discover the identity of the owner of the handkerchief that Anor found in Niso’s Black Coliseum. Lacking muscle, Oshanda sends her familiar Felicia to find Lars. The barbarian meets the black half-elven sorceress-cum-mindbender and the sexy human bard on the road to Silverbrook.
Along the way they encounter a knight in shining armor being escorted by four squires. The more heraldic one of them introduces Sir Osis, an evil-vanquishing warrior who has recently emptied out a lair full of undead. The herald warns them about Silverbrook, describing the inhabitants of the village as treacherous. Oshanda reads the herald’s mind to discover that he is actually from Silverbrook just as he surprises them by creating a blinding flash. Combat ensues. Kyle and Oshanda attempt their usual strategy of holding/charming person but the herald manages to dispel the magic. Sir Osis charges at the barbarian as two of the squires provide crossbow cover fire and the fourth engages Kyle with his sword. The sorceress, (ab)using her new polymorph spell, turns into a red dragon and chars the living crap out of the herald. Lars is locked in a heated battle with Sir Osis, both dealing ridiculous amounts of damage to the other. Kyle magically holds his opponent and executes him cleanly. Oshanda the dragon grabs a crossbowman, flies up to the skies, and lets go. Lars defeats Sir Osis, Kyle resuscitates two of the corpses as his zombies, and the remaining crossbowman, Charles, is magically dominated to act as their guide in Silverbrook.
When they reach the village they stock up on potions and poisons. Killing seems to be the town trade. The adventurers look for the seamstress, and they are told to meet her at the Severed Hand (Silverbrook’s only inn) later that evening. In the small but lively inn the trio meet Leveret, an extremely handsome and social traveling musician who is also a little freaked out by the mood of the town. The seamstress arrives with her brother and after some questioning she reveals that the patterns in the handkerchief belong to the house of Redtail. Lord Redtail has two sons “in service.” One of them operates locally. The other one has work around the country of Iro. His name is Bern. *cue dramatic music*
The seamstress and her brother touch Kyle and Oshanda, who immediately fall asleep. Lars, being a strong barbarian, manages to throw off the poison in his drink. The inn goes quiet. The seamstress’ brother draws a crossbow and points it at Lars. Following a heated exchange of words, a bolt in the barbarian’s chest manages to calm him down, even if the poisoned tip has, once again, no effect. The adventurers are taken to an interrogation room via a portal which closes behind them. The interrogator, unsatisfied with the answers he receives, threatens them with torture. After a slippery escape from their bonds they easily bring down the interrogator. He is carrying nothing but a small book titled “the book of riddles.”
Our heroes advance through the only door in the room and find themselves in a large circular chamber with all kinds of junk and objects around the walls. In the middle of the room is a large silver bowl. As they read the riddles in the book, a human materializes and attacks them with his sword. He is quickly decapitated. Stumped, the trio realizes the true stakes of the situation as the human resuscitates and another one appears. While Lars keeps them at bay Kyle and Oshanda search the room for answers. Solving the riddles on their own (very impressively, I must say), they place a broom, a sponge, a die, and wind from a fan in the bowl, which lights up and reveals a hidden door.
In the next room they are greeted by 8 automaton statues. Oshanda sends her invisible servant to open the door on the other side, but it opens to a bricked wall. After a silly arithmetic error following an otherwise correct interpretation of the riddle, the characters touch the 5th automaton, which comes to life. Between the three of them they manage to bring it down quite easily and earn themselves the fist-sized amethyst encrusted on its forehead, although the damage toll is perhaps a little understated. The 6th automaton does not animate upon contact, and it’s only after they decide to push it that they find a secret passageway. Before going down they kill another automaton for the prize, but the amount of damage received dissuades them from getting too rich.
The next room is lit by 5 flames in the ceiling. In front of them lies a large floor full of tiles of different designs: tree, fire, rock, metal, star, etc. Solving the last riddle, Kyle decides to try and jump across by stepping only on the tiles with a moon design on them. A failed balance check followed by quick reflexes lets our heroes know that stepping on the wrong tile will result in a potentially poisonous dart headed in their direction. At the same time the 5 flames come to life as fire bats and attack Kyle. This ends up being only a minor hindrance, as Kyle manages not to burst into flame. Rather than dealing with the balance act, Oshanda casts fly on Lars and gets him to ferry the other two across to the other side.
Stepping through the door, they now find themselves outdoors in the middle of a marsh, where they immediately become locked in battle with a darktentacle. The darktentacle eliminates the threat of the barbarian by magically charming him (sucks when they do it to you, huh?) as it inches its way towards Kyle and Oshanda, whipping its vicious tentacles at them. On the verge of death, Oshanda transforms into a dragon, grabs Kyle, and finds cover in the clouds. Oshanda casts fly on the barbarian as Kyle charms him and convinces him to follow them. As Lars escapes the dark tentacle tries to catch him by the ankle but he is able to kick off the effort.
A final scuffle with a few Silverbrook rogues leaves our heroes battle-weary just as the sun is rising. Although the information was not easy to come by, we now know that Bern is the owner of the handkerchief, the one our adventurers found in Lord Nobu’s office. What does that mean? And where will the adventure take us next?
