The Crimson Echo IC

[Inspectre]

(I will assume that Aliani will bring up the rear, and Dalen will allow Miz and Silas to proceed ahead of him towards the boat.)

It's clear that the children don't have much belongings at all, as only a few move to dig a few coppers hidden out of small hiding places, and not much else save for a few small personal effects. They one and all have pretty much the clothes on their backs and that's about it.

"You're going to get us in trouble."

The halfling girl promises as way of good-bye after Aliani asks the group of children to stay there while they all go outside to deal with Lamm. Still, dealing with the children slows Aliani a bit, and so he ends up bringing up the rear of the group as it makes its way down the catwalk out to Lamm’s boat.

Darvin's thrush returns a minute after being sent off to report "three down below, three up on the ship".

Coming around the side of the Fishery on the walkway that snakes around to the boat, the group sees that the scouting report is true - there are three people standing on top of the boat's rickety deck, waiting for them. Gaedren Lamm, some platinum blond man in studded leather armor who was probably Brendan of Brendan's Blackguards, and someone that Aliani and Dalen both recognize - Cykan! Lamm himself also seemed different from how each of the group remembers him as well - although still old and withered, he held himself differently. Less hunched over, eyes more focused, and with an air of danger about him that wasn't there before.

"So this is the group that was making such a ruckus a minute ago. Well well well . . . if it isn't Silas, the man who sold his own daughter for a vial of Shiver. Afraid I'm fresh out at the moment, but I'm sure we could work something out if you need a fix. And little Miz! You're looking well for a dead 'un. Afraid I don't have time to catch up with you tonight poppet, I've got a city to destroy. As for you two . . . I don't recognize either of you."

Lamm waves a dismissive hand at both Aliani and Dalen.

"So what, you two both do-gooders just here for moral support after my two old friends told you a sob story about how ol' Gaedren wronged them? Come here to avenge some loved one? Well I don't have time to play right now, I've got places to be. So do the job you got paid for, Blackguard, and deal with these louts."

Gaedren grumbles, slapping a vial of something filled with a pus-colored liquid up against Brendan's chest. Miz recognizes it for what it is immediately having seen it before - a vial of Shudder. The hired thug leader looks down skeptically at the offered vial, then shrugs and grabs it off of Gaedren, pops off the cork, and reads off of the small paper tag attached to the vial while biting into his thumb and dribbling a few drops of his blood into the vial (clearly following the instructions on the tag).

“Bound by blood, the pact is forged. Bound by soul, the door is opened. Offer me your strength, and I shall offer You my flesh. Grant me the power to exterminate my enemies!”

And then without another moment’s hesitation, Brendan downs the vial's contents with a grimace of disgust. For a moment nothing seems to happen . . . then the screaming starts.

Shudder Musical Theme

“YEEEEAAAAARRRRGHHHHH!!!!”

Brendan howls, falling to his knees and clawing at his right eye as it goes from clear, to blood-shot, to bright red and swelling with excess blood. But when the eye bursts a moment later, it’s not blood that rushes through the man’s fingers and down the side of his face, but a viscous ink-colored liquid. Brendan’s screams immediately turns to mad laughter as the veins on his neck bulge, black lines standing out against his otherwise pale skin, and a nimbus of dark energy flares up around him.

“HAHAHAHAHA! FOOLS! BLIND MEN! DO YOU NOT SEE!? DO YOU NOT COMPREHEND!?”

Brendan shouts as he rises back up to his feet, and then further upward, floating up into the air as if dragged there by an unseen hand.

“THE BLEEDING EYE TURNS ITS GAZE TOWARDS KORVOSA! AND THIS CITY! SHALL! BURN!!!!”

Brendan waves his hand casually, and a dark wave of energy lashes out from the man, slamming into the catwalk that winds its way around the boat and shattering it. What starts as a simple collapse of a few boards near the boat turns into a wave of destruction that races back along the catwalk, destroying the entire structure all the way back to the shore.

Deprived of its support for all these long years, the old boat lists heavily. Cykan slides across its width, grabbing the edge and dropping some sort of stone into the water off the side of the boat. The water there immediately begins to bubble and roil, and amazingly the boat begins to level off again, and drift out towards the middle of the river. It should continue to sink and eventually settle onto the river bottom, but somehow the rickety thing continues to float off – well, that was certainly new! Lamm maintains his footing, leaning over the side chortling at you all and waving good-bye as your already fragile footing collapses beneath you.

(Please make a Reflex Save DC 15. Dalen gets a +2 bonus, and Aliani gets a +5 bonus, due to them being further back along the catwalk and thus having more time to react to the catwalk’s destruction. If you succeed, you may choose the exact square within the orange area that you land in, otherwise roll a d4 for across (left to right) and a d10 (top to bottom) to determine where in the water you end up in. You get your first round of actions now. Due to all of the debris from the catwalk in the water, you get a +5 bonus to Swim checks so long as you have a hand free to grab a piece of driftwood and cannot drown – should you even end up in the water. If you make the Reflex save, and choose to land on the walkway just above the water’s surface that the thugs are standing on, you may do so, but must make a DC 10 Acrobatics check or start your turn prone – you do not take any falling damage, however, regardless of whether you land on the walkway or in the water. If in a water square adjacent to the walkway or rowboat, you may pull yourself out of the water onto dry “land” as a Move action that provokes attacks of opportunity as per normal movement from a threatened square. Thugs are obviously standing on solid ground, the shark is cutting through the water, and Brendan is about 15' up in the air at this moment.)

Spoiler: Map

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