Session 17: Dark Stars' Comeback

Mid moved across the inn toward the current band performing on stage. As they appeared to be finishing a set, Mid used her feylike charm to convince them to let her band have a go. The current band, a mix of gnomes and goblins named the Half-Pints, happily agreed, nearly mesmerized by Mid’s charm.

As Mid was working over the Half-Pints, Clancy chatted up Rhorog about the identity of the person in the booth he had telepathically communicated with earlier. Rhorog seemed reluctant to talk about him but eventually revealed that he was Lord Strahd, the emissary of the Night Queen on Tortuga and a powerful vampire.

The party got settled on stage. As the audience in the Den waited expectantly, Mid announced that they were the Dark Stars from Oerth and they were here for a comeback. They also loudly insulted the Guardians of the Veil which earned quite a few cheers. Then they opened with a stunning rock ballad that had everyone off their seats. Some of the party weren’t very musically inclined, but Mid’s performance easily masked in unevenness in rhythm or beat. After a long set, the Dark Stars were cheered off the stage and offered a variety of free drinks. The party caroused for a bit longer. Clancy inquired with the bartender, a bugbear by the name of Ugg, As they sipped their drinks, a party of several drow entered the Den, causing many of the patrons to stop what they were doing and look up expectantly. One of the drow headed over to the bar, while the remainder looked about the room disparagingly. The leader of the drow was clearly an older stately woman in priestly garb who met the gaze of all in the room with cool indifference. The drow were then invited up to one of the private booths upstairs. Clancy transformed his familiar into a spider to spy on their conversation. The drow were met by a hobgoblin named Gragim who appeared to be the proprietor of the Den. He explained that the dresium sale would be in three days, after all parties for the auction had arrived. When asked who would be bidding, Gragim explained that Lord Strahd, a party of illithids, and a third more eclectic party would be participating.

The party decided it would be best to get some rest. They checked in with Ugg who recommended that if they wanted security and comfort, they should check into the Bug House. The party headed out into the mostly empty streets. They noticed that there were flyers all about advertising something called the “Bloodfest” in the arena adjacent to the Den. It was scheduled for two days from now.

As the party passed through an alleyway on their way to the Bug House, they were suddenly ambushed by a group of thugs who appeared both in front of and behind them. The thugs noted that they had been splashing the cash in the Den and said they wanted a cut. And by a cut, they meant everything the party had on them. After it was clear that diplomacy would be no avail, Clancy began casting a spell and everything burst into action. Although the thugs outnumbers the party by more than two to one, they were no match for the experience, skill, and raw power of the PCs and with most of their number down, either dead or unconscious, the rest of the thugs quickly fled back the way they had come.

The party, hardly scratched from their encounter, proceeded to the Bug House. They found a lovely inn packed in between the ramshackle buildings. Its sign oddly said the Queen’s House rather than the Bug House, but it was certainly the right address. Entering the inn, the party quickly discovered that the inn was managed by what appeared to be a small hive of Thri-Kreen who were bustling about. The proprietor spoke to the party telepathically, welcoming them to the Queen’s House and asking how long they would like to stay. After settling up with her, the party proceeded to their individual rooms where they all had a good night’s sleep, followed by a hearty breakfast served by the Thri-Kreen servants.

Curious about the Bloodfest, the party stopped by the arena before heading back to the Den. They were introduced to a grizzly dwarf named Clanga, who apparently ran the Bloodfest. It was a gladitorial bout. Clanga was curious if they PCs would be interested in signing up as he was short on participants. There were three main competitions. The main event was a three round solo gladiator vs. solo gladiator tournament. The other two events were a three round group battle (limit of four) against savage beasts and a solo battle against savage beasts. The purses for winning each competition were significant. Zhang offered to sign up for the main event, despite some concerns by his party members. PPP, Terlis, Kiki, and Riya signed up for the group fight against monsters. Clanga seemed mighty relieved that he would be able to field full competitions for the Bloodfest and asked the party to come back tomorrow morning.

The party then headed back to the den for more reconnaissance. They had barely entered the door before Rhorog shuffled up to them again. He explained that there was good money to be made with more fights like last night and that the current reigning champion had agreed to fight the winner if Zhang and Riya would first fight each other for the honor. Zhang](/characters/zhang/) and Riya agreed and Rhorog, howling with excitement, encouraged them to be back by evening for the main event.

Seeing nothing else of interest, the party decided that they needed to get in with Gragim in order to learn more about the auction of presumably the Grevious Wound’s dresium. They decided to head down to the lower docks and see if they could deal with the “trouble” they had heard mentioned, hoping that it might put them in good favor with Gragim. Before leaving, Clancy telepathically communicated with Gragim and told him they would be back to talk more when they had dealt with his problem.

The party proceeded to the entrance to the lower docks which was being guarded by a group of orcs with the familiar red fang insignia. using his eldritch powers, Clancy gave himself the appearance of Gragim and insisted that he needed to escort the party to the lower docks. The guards were initially suspicious and not particularly friendly. Apparently, although Gragim might pay their bills, they were not used to taking orders from their employer but rather from their commander, in this case a female orcish warrior named Commander Neega. However, after a bit if intimidation, they finally relented to open the door and let the party pass below.

The party headed down a series of switchback stairs built directly into the cliff-face of the asteroid. As they neared the bottom, they could see the lower docks, eerily quiet and empty. Part of the docks stuck out of a giant cavern, but most of the docks were contained within this cavern. Numerous warehouses lined the streets and the party could see entrances to smaller caves further back that were presumably used for storage.

The party investigated the streets, looking for any signs of a disturbance or tracks. Soon they came upon a trail of blood and followed it back to a large splattering of blood near the edge of the docks. As Terlis bent down to examine the blood more closely, the party heard a growling sound behind them. A large almost doglike creature stood 50 feet away. Its mouth was a round hole of sharp teeth out fo which licked an impossibly long tongue. Its hide was covered in plates of natural armor. It made a strange howling sound and charged toward the party.