BellRow Troubleshooters

logged by opifera and feydras

After our adventurers returned from the hellish cave beneath Captain’s they welcomed a few weeks of rest. But those weeks of rest may have not been as restful as they had hoped. During the first week, Opifera had hoped to increase her fencing skills, and Ano happily stepped up for an office duel. (Note: He had been bragging for weeks about how he’s never been injured.) Ano struck Opifera’s hoove. Stung by the pain, Opifera returned with a wild swing accidentally lopping off Ano’s hand in one neat blow. “AGGGRRRHHHHH!”
She stared in disbelief at the bloody hand on the floor. “AGHHH! Get sister Helga!” the gobber screamed.
“I’m so sorry, Ano…I didn’t mean to…” Opifera moved to pick up his hand.
“GO GET HER NOW!”
Stepping into the room Sister Helga appeared and shook her head in surprise. “I’m sorry I can only stop the bleeding. The hand, perhaps Apu can fix.”
After considerable effort tracking him down Apu complained he had enough to do regrowing his own hand. Possibly he could get to it in the next week. Feeling awful about the accident Opifera takes Ano down to Cruicible Alley and hires a healer to regrow the hand paying a tidy sum in the process. This doesn’t quiet, but at least lessens Ano’s grumbling. The healer cautions that it will be weeks before the hand can be used again and in the meantime it will probably itch fiercely.
Meanwhile Sister Helga stops by more and more frequently impatiently looking for the oft absent mage Apu. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I really do want to find Inquisitor Greyvine.” When she tracks him down he is not excited about tracking down the missing Morrowan without fully armed backup from the guild. Apu reminds Sister Helga that Greyvine disappeared tracking down Thamarite cultists. The first attempt fails as Helga is unable to gather enough guild members to satisfy the mage. The BRT has built up a steady stream of clients in recent weeks, due mostly to the highly public part they played in extinguishing the den of the Forgotten One cultists. With all the jobs the guildmembers are rarely onsite together.
Due to the taxing nature of his location incantation a week passes before Apu is able to attempt the difficult spell again. Opifera and the one-handed Ano agree to accompany Helga and the mage. Apu suggests waiting for others but noone is available so he leads the way from Dicers across to Captain’s Isle and over an hour later they end up in the Captain’s Prow district only a handful of blocks where they last met with Greyvine at the Toadstool. Apu stops abruptly in the middle of the street “She’s here.”
Looking around Opifera asks “Can you see her?”
Ano shakes his head “No, but she is less than ten feet away, directly beneath us.”
Looking around for a way to get beneath street level Ano finds a nearby sewer grate and begins to strip.
“What are you doing Ano!? You’re not going down there by yourself, you only have one hand!” Opifera protests.
“Don’t you worry, this is what I do: I sneak. Unless you want to go stomping down there and alert whatever is lurking of your presence, be my guest. Help me lift this grate.”
Opifera hesitates. “How will we know you’re all right?”
“If I’m not back in thirty minutes, come on down.”
Somewhat satisfied, Opifera gives Ano a hand with the grate. Before he slips out of sight Apu reaches down and touches him uttering a few strange words. With the aid of the Apu’s spell the gobber can now see the heat patterns radiating from the raw sewage tunnels.
Sister Helga looks around nervously. “I really hope Sister Greyvine is okay.”
Opifera turns to Apu, “I really don’t like sending him down there by himself.” Apu shrugs. “What choice do we have when you’re the only one who can fight?” The minutes pass by slowly. Ano returns within fifteen. “There is are at least two gobbers down there but I didn’t get far enough in to see Greyvine.”
Apu frowns and with one long word turns himself to air. His scouting, enhanced by the same blurry heat vision confirms the two gobbers and recognizes a human shape where his divination tells him Greyvine should be. He returns to the surface.
“Well, let’s go.” Opifera starts, raring for a fight. A muted argument errupts. Apu and Ano, both with only one hand, are nervous about poking into dark tunnels looking for trouble with only one capable warrior. Opifera is insulted that anyone should think she can’t handle two gobbers and Sister Helga points out convincingly this may be their only chance at rescuing Inquisitor Greyvine. The two women prove the most persuasive and the four BellRow Troubleshooters light a lantern and climb down the narrow hole into the narrow sewage tunnel.
The sewers reek with the stench of onion, rotting meat, and excrement. With Opifera in the lead, their approach did not go unnoticed. Thirty feet ahead the sewers opened up into the circular room Ano and Apu had scouted but they find it empty. “They’re not here.” Opifera whispers back to Ano. She pushes on chosing the left of the two tunnels and only takes a couple steps before a large dreg charges her shrieking, bared steel in hand. Opifera dodges the vicious thing’s first blow and swings back striking it’s left leg. Behind her, more cries come as two goblinsized dregs drop from the ceiling in front of Ano, Apu and Sister Helga. One swings wildly at the lantern and the other drops on top of Ano clawing and ripping at him savagely. Ano sweeps out his pistol and in one fluid motion plants it into the beast and pulls the trigger. The shot’s impact sends the thing smashing against the wall and reeling in delight. Ano skitters back unnerved. With a gesture Sister Helga casts a tanglefoot spell which trips the other dreg as the large dreg swings again at Opifera. She ducks with an easy grace and strikes the hard into the creatures arm. Again Opifera and the large dreg clash and her skill proves the better. She hits the thing in the chest so hard it knocks it to the ground unconscious but smiling happily. Opifera pulls her blade back to swing again but Sister Helga interupts her shouting “It’s Pauline Greyvine! Don’t kill her!”
Dancing back and forth, Ano continued his fight with the mad dregg, while the tanglefoot dregg suddenly attacked the mad one, protecting Ano. Apu smiled smugly.

The fight over the four BRT stared at the horribly disfigured Sister Greyvine.
“We need to take her with us.” Sister Helga breaks the silence.
“And do what with her?” Opifera asks. “What could do this to her? Do you know Apu?”
Gravely he looked at her. “Maybe…” he mutters. “There’s nothing I can do for her, but perhaps the Church of Morrow can.”
They drag the unconscious remnant of the Greyvine out of the sewers and to the nearby Morrowan Church of the Waters. After a brief meeting with Father Ronolvo they are directed back to the Morrowan cathedral on Dicers. It was there that the inquisitor kept her office. At the cathedral Sister Helga introduces Apu and Opifera to Prelate Daltry and the Morrowan nods a curt welcome to the gobber before turning his attention to the horrible figure that was Pauline Greyvine. The Prelate discusses the situation at length with Apu and defers to his occult knowledge. It is Apu’s theory that Inquisitor Greyvine was forced to eat of the flesh of the Forgotten Ones and that is what decomposed and mutated her body into this. Daltry takes her into custody and at Apu’s stern urging binds and confines her thoroughly. He sends out the call to awaken the church’s divine and arcane healers to attend to her. Opifera, Sister Helga, Apu and Ano slink back to the BRT guildhouse and collapse in exhaustion. Before long though Opifera stands and decides she and Helga need a strong drink. Hardly protesting Sister Helga allows herself to be led from bar to bar and the two soon lose themselves in alcohol, seldom having to buy any drinks themselves.

When morning rolls around Sister Helga is still drunk. “Oh, my head.” “That just means you need to do it more often!” Opifera smiles cheerfully. But the spirit is forced as the four make their back to the church to discuss what will happen to Inquisitor Greyvine. Sister Helga clutches her head attempting to hide her pain but is eyed by the Prelate.
Ano intervenes. “Sister Helga, weren’t you going to take me on the grand tour?” The two walk off together through the church and away from the other priests.
Apu follows a worried Prelate Daltry to the basement. Opifera was right behind them. “Apu only.” One of the priests tries to interpose himself in front of the satyr.
“Well, you see father, I prefer not to let my party out of my sight. If you would like Apu to accompany you, I’m coming as well.”
Prelate Daltry pauses to consider, then nods to the priest and continues down the hall. While Apu and the priest discuss Sister Greyvine’s condition, Opifera notices the guards have their hands on their swords the entire time, eying Apu. She steps back defensively, but they ignore her. When Apu and the Prelate finish their discussion Opifera trails behind so she can keep her eyes on the suspicious guards. They don’t take any hostile action but Opifera is growing wary of this church business.
Before the BRT leaves the church the Prelate corners Ano aside for a brief, but intense conversation and the gobber leaves Daltry’s office head hanging and eager to get away from the church.

That night the tension at the guildhouse is cut in the usual way. Once the drinks start flowing Ano challenges Opifera to a drinking contest and Toad joins in. “Come on sister, it’ll be fun,” Opifera attempts to convince Helga out for another night of carousing.
“I’ll never go out again with you after last night!” the Sister responds.
“We’ll see about that” Opifera promises.
At the Swiggling Pig Ano announces “Let’s see who can hold the most liquor. Who ever passes out first losses.” The game goes on for hours and empty bottles litter the table alongside greasy bowls of fried pork. The contest is close but Opifera is the first to pass out. She later claims in her defense it was because she had just been out drinking the night before. Toad put up a valiant effort but was next to fall, leaving our one-handed gobber the victor and a royal richer. Of course he was the only one conscious to pay the bar tab.

The next week goes by fairly uneventfully. Fabrizio returns to the guildhouse to check in and evades Opifera’s questions about his wherebouts. He scowls in disgust at the stupidity of Ano’s lost hand. Still, he stays for dinner and is readying to leave when a knock at the door interupts the group. Opening the door a large bald man, armed with blade and pistol walks in carrying a large duffel sack. He introduces himself as Dorian and tells them Mr. Jackery has another job for them if they are interested. This one pays, and pays well. “And all you have to do is kill a few dozen of your old friends.”

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Other events in the city during the three weeks between the end of the last story arc and the end of this week’s adventure…

Interludes – mostly between session 10 & 11

Week 1 events

• city watch storms the caverns and collapses the cultist den causing significant damage to the street level buildings
• various underworld groups are stirred up beneath Captain’s Isle
  • a string of murders followed including a watch captain on Captains
  • Forgotten One artifacts begin appearing on the blackmarket for high prices
• At Sister Helga’s urging Apu casts seeker to locate the missing Inquisitor Greyvine
  • Apu gets a bearing north but the hunt is aborted due to lack of available guildmembers

Week 2 events

• major turf war errupts on Hospice
  • starts on the west end but spills into center making the island especially dangerous to travel on
  • Killbride and Waernuk are the main factions
  • the Church requires supplies to be delivered and Helga asks the BRT for help doing this
  • mission is successful and the BRT is paid $300 for job but are encouraged to donate it to cause. Some do, some don’t.
• Apu recasts seeker and with Sister Helga leads Opifera and Ano to Captains
  • Events recounted above

Week 3 events

• increase in Kalapuran presence on island
• Hospice war continues –
  • lots of gun battles and collateral damage
  • trollkin gang is dominating
  • Kilbride gets pushed nearly off the island
• Greyvine is not recovering under intense care
  • cure insanity only calms her temporarily and allows her to sleep
  • normally doesn’t sleep without magic but instead flails against anyone near her
  • she is kept in Suspended Animation by Apu who checks on her every few days to be sure her mutation/degradation has halted
• skilled mages from the church examine and experiment on Greyvine attempting to cure her but have no success.