The Rougtero Incident Session 10

After parting ways with the Neptunian High Priest, the party decides to meet with Ortiel de’Leigh the Raite High Priest who is Corbin de’Leigh’s brother (they come from a long, wealthy, and influential elvish line from before the arrival of humans in Rougtero). Ortiel is unaware of the Hirudo who have taken control of the council, and believes that Corbin’s family likely just left to get some space from Corbin due to his overbearing character. The party reveals the fact that the Hirudo are on the council, started the ritual, and kidnapped Corbin’s family. They also discuss Corbin’s affliction, and the possible ways of communicating with him to attempt to locate his family. They also discuss the fish sickness with Ortiel and tell him about the cure they developed. Ortiel tells the party about the body pits that have been used to store those afflicted by the fish sickness to prevent rats, disease, and other afflictions from their nearly-dead bodies from affecting the other two thirds of the population (the fact that such a thing was hinted at, but this was the first explicit mention). Ortiel resolves to bring forward an emergency resolution to implement the cure on an industrial scale at the next meeting in the morning. In addition, he met that night with Corbin to inform him that Spice would cast Shared Missive with him before the council meeting, so the party could communicate with him without fear of spying. That night, before the meeting, the party is met by the a view of fire coming from the body pits, with the smell of burning flesh on the air. They sprint towards the scene, only to see their new allies, Rodger Isaacs and Pollipipos Bakas using magic to smother the fire with dirt and water respectively. Granger also helps with his water magic. After investigating the scene, the party discovered that an unknown individual spread a barrel of oil over a small corner of the bodies in the pit, then lit them on fire with a non-magical fire source. Only a few hundred individuals ended up burnt to an extent that their bodies were beyond easy recovery, but even then, with an intensive magical reconstruction effort in the wake of this disaster, it isn’t unlikely that this event will result in no casualties. Side note, the party got very lucky here. This event was meant to happen far earlier in the campaign, but was set back due to multiple factors (and mistakes on my part), to the point that the party was able to by shear luck recruit the two best people for preventing a tragedy in this case: a powerful Anubian who, due to his great power and devotion, has the ability to sense when a gravesite is being desecrated nearby, and the most powerful Neptunian in the city and his water magics. After the fire was dealt with, the party went to sleep. The next morning, the party awoke to ten more barricades having been erected overnight, and then attended the city hall meeting where they spoke with Corbin and discovered that his family was being kept in a barrow one met outside of the city by members of RUINS. Additionally, the city council passed the effort to organize a mass effort to heal the fish sickness unanimously since some of their own members had been afflicted. The party also revealed most of their recent discoveries to the council, besides the things which would put the Hirudo on their trail. During this, they mentioned that the four elements of elemental magic in the ritual were all cast by the same individual, suggesting that it must have been a powerful elementalist. The head of the adventurer’s guild, Chairon Tarvaq, (one of the members mind controlled by the Hirudo, in a seeming act of defiance), pointed this out, then mused to himself “I wonder where one could find such a powerful mage”, while glancing at Scavien Lumiterge. The party seemed to not pick up on how Chairon would be privy to Scavien’s involvement to the point that he’d be willing to openly imply it. Afterwards, the party left the meeting and then met with the Knights of Hanlon to see if they would accompany Zora to the barrow. Unfortunately, they had been charged by Hanlon to track down the person responsible for torching the body pit. However, they did inform the party that Hanlon was impressed with their progress and wished to provide them a blessing. After speaking with Hanlon (who is still floating, superimposed upon the sky), Granger and Spice receive a blessing which cleanses them of the effects of the ritual. Zora doesn’t need such a blessing because he was not present for the ritual and arrived afterwards. He also would likely not be given one due to his connections to the demonic.

Side note on Hanlon for lore reasons: Hanlon is the individual who occupied Anubis’s position amongst the 13 before Anubis ascended and before death as a concept existed. He was the god who embodied the domains of immortality, eternity, and charity, but was deposed when Anubis ascended and created Death. Rather than sinking to the level of the demons he so despised, he swallowed his pride and begged Isis to make him a servitor. This process of being deposed from godhood along with being made a servitor of another god stripped him of the vast majority of his power. He still remains powerful by servitor standards; he just isn’t anywhere near the power of an actual god.