Citadel's Shadow II, Session 8 was a session of the Citadel's Shadow II campaign, played on Jan. 25, 2019 (UTC) (Jan. 24, 2019 for some participants).
Personnel[]
Game Master[]
- GM: played by Michael Lee Viviano
Player Characters[]
- Fern the Siegemaster: inventive fox-person student played by Rail Runner
- Juan de Fulmando: sword-wielding human alchemist played by Alden Loveshade
Non-Player Characters[]
- Jinxi: androgynous jester with poppet Jack
Events[]
1742[]
Ulthrane 12 (Landsday) (continued): Fern the Siegemaster and Juan de Fulmando were ready for Fern to open the now unlocked door at Packer's Cave. The heavy door took some effort, but creaked open. Cool musty air with the stench of rat-stink hit them in the face. The lantern caught a brief glimpse of movement, then they hear scuttling off towards the distance; it sounded like rats.
They saw a "boxy thing" on the rails. They also saw a door to the right. As they moved forward with Juan in front, the stones under his feet feel inward. He fell face forward, but managed to grab the rails and hold himself at floor level. The stones on the floor in between the rails, which were about a yard apart, sunk down a fraction of an inch, revealing small blades in between the cracks. Fern examined the trap, and almost poked herself.
They approached the door to the right, they thought they saw movement by the cart, possibly rats. Fern checked the door, while looking near the cart Juan saw a bit of bone that looked a lot bigger than a rat's. Fern tried seeing if the door was trapped, and it rattled. Juan approached the bone by the mine cart, and found it had shreds of tan leather on it with smaller bones and the remains of a boot. In the cart, he saw rats eating a body. Some rats got on him, and he scraped them off with his sword, although one rat bit him on his right cheek. The remains appeared to be dwarf-sized, and included bits of beard. They believed they had found Vilburd Gruskin or "Packer," brother of Hanna Gruskin.
Fern used locksmithing tools to unlock the door. There were shelives and a number of barrels inside, and Juan recognized the smell of whiskey. There were several dead rats lying on the floor, and even some floating in some opened barrels. The shelves were stacked with some packages of cooking ingredients, generally torn open. There was also some stacked linens, now soiled.
Someone said, "Halloo?" which seemed to be coming from the cave entrance. The person seemed to talk to themselves. Juan warned Jinxi about where not to step, but Jinxi tripped and cartwheeled over the rails, avoiding the trap. Juan introduced himself and Fern to the person who seemed androgynous and said their name was Jinxi. Jinxi was dressed as a jester might, and had a "talking" puppet (apparently through ventriloquism) called "Jack." When asked about the missing Giles, proprietor of the Witch on a Stick, Jinxi said they had been "thrown out of there once and went halfway across the street." Jinxi said their "last gig just dried up and I was kinda looking for a place."
Fern found a set of keys on the dwarven body in the mine cart. Checking, Fern learned the keys fit the lock on the shack door and the chest inside, further evidence the body was Vilburd. Otherwise, the group left the bones where they lay, Continuing on ahead, they found that the tracks continued, but there was also a side track to the left. They then heard squeaking around the corner, which sounded like more rats. (Citadel's Shadow II adventure 2019 01 24)