The Creepy Crawl Chronicles - Sessions 34 & 35

Session 34 Attendants:
Greed – Lvl 5 Homanculus
Rael – Lvl 6 Thief/Werewolf
Vlad Draculastein – Lvl 4 Dampyr
Tarvinir – Lvl 5 Magic User

Henching:
Ritzy – Lvl 5 Homanculus
Arongoth of Hogendaus – Lvl 6 Cleric/Vegetable

Gold Acquired: 800 GP payoff from Professor Scarabus for being an accessory for the undead axe murder of the composer/mage Phillipe Von Zann.

800EXP / 5 players = 160 EXP

Session 35 Attendants:
Greed – Lvl 5 Homanculus
Rael – Lvl 6 Thief/Werewolf
Vlad Draculastein – Lvl 4 Dampyr
Tarvinir – Lvl 5 Magic User
Arongoth of Hogendaus – Lvl 6 Cleric/Vegetable

Henching:
Ritzy – Lvl 5 Homanculus

No combat or cash in, but a lot of contacts made around Kroenenburg the last couple of days:

Lew Kelp of Kelp’s Apothecary down on the dock front. If asked where Arongoth got the Mandrake Powder he’ll deny ever having met you.

Adolphus Gunn from the Shrine of St. Heironymus, who hipped you to the existence of Krenshaw’s Powder and some info about Isengrim the Werewolf King.

The nice people at the Hostel of St. Gwenivere took care of Vlad until his case of the sewer pukes were cured.

Gertrude Getz, a widow and owner of Getz, Havram, & Felderman’s, a bookseller in the market district that deals in bad romance novels and good poetry. A point of contact for the Occluded College. Also a big poetry fan.

The clerk at the Shrine of St. Eumenides, where students go to make offerings for good grades.

Knowledge that the pub called “The Moment of Clarity” is a front for the Occluded College of Mages, where you met Hiram Voss. Tarvenir has presented the late Heinrich Howel’s spellbook cover and wand, and is under consideration for membership. This will entail an entry fee of 90 gp, an annual fee of 110, which will entitle you to research and magic item identification in exchange for the same from other members, and writing scholarly papers on your own discoveries.

Greed got a box from a desperate seeming old salt who foamed at the mouth and fainted when Greed tried to stop him from hobbling away. As yet unopened.

Rael got whacked with a broom and chased off by a washerwoman, but eventually obtained the makings of a disguise to pass as one of the city’s ragamuffin street urchin/guides. Tarvinir bought a nice sturdy travelling coat and looks less scholarly. Whether that will throw the town constabulary off their trail for the shocking murder of Von Zann remains to be seen.

Whilst paying for the Von Zann job, Professor Scarabus has given you a large sealed envelope with the words “For Dr. Friedrich” and an address on it.

Commentary:

These two entries were a couple of those runnin' errands, makin' contacts, pickin' up plot leads kinda sessions that inevitably happen in campaign play. A lot of NPC's made up on the fly to serve as DM's handpuppets for conveying information. 

Rael and Tarvinir made the drop off of the violin case at the residence of Philippe Von Zann, and were dismayed a couple days later to hear about the mage/composer being hacked to death by a pair of floating skeletal arms that popped out of a violin case with a hatchet. They were even more dismayed to hear that the local constabulary was looking for a couple people who matched their description who'd been observed dropping off the case at Von Zann's place. 

(This supernatural assassin was an old monster from the 2nd. Edition Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume 1 called a Dread. I'd had Scarabus pull the old Dread in the violin case trick before, back in the Wardicon campaign when I first introduced him and he was doing an Avengers (as in Steed & Peel) style murder list on his former colleagues.) 

Handy and horrifying.

Arongoth found a source to feed his growing (in a couple of senses) mandrake root habit. This time in concentrated, powdered form. 

And speaking of dubiously obtained and possibly dangerous powders, the green powder that Morgus the Malevolent's money mummy coughed up to turn Arongoth's entourage of undead against him was identified as Krenshaw's powder, which is a vile concoction that can either wrest control of animated corpses or just make them murderously free willed, depending on how it's formulated. There will be more on this in later Chronicles.

Vlad either suffered some infected bites or fell in the sewer (I don't rightly recall.) during last session's visit to the wererats and came down with a nasty case of something gastrointestinal. He convalesced at a hostel run by the order of St. Gwenivere. 

Tarvinir followed the trail of breadcrumbs I laid down with the spellbook cover and wand they found in the spider wolf's lair, and worked his way toward induction into the Occluded College. This was made a bit more difficult from having to keep a low profile thanks to his involvement in the Von Zann atrocity, but he managed to make some connections and grab onto one of my plot coupons. 

And finally, in a Lovecraftian twist, Greed the homanculous was accosted in the street as he took the air in front the inn they were staying at by a wild eyed old sailor who handed him a macguffin mysterious wooden box and promptly expired as he staggered away. 

Just what all these plot hooks are attached to we shall see in subsequent entries. Stay tuned.