The Quiet of the Tanneries

Gavril heard smothered moans and scream coming from beyond the door to the northeast.  Erevel, concerned about the guards in the tanning yard moved to ambush anyone coming in from the west.

Ursina ran up to Gavril and gave him some stout healing while Ciprian moved to the door and tried to unlock it as he heard a sensuous voice from within.

"You will die now! You are a horrible lover you bastard!"

Paullus and Armania moved to be able to see the in through the door when it opened even as Armania took more strength damage.  Gavril checked the door for traps and then picked the lock.  He opened the door to a ghastly scene.

Four tiny disembodied and bestial head covered in lashing hair and curling horns flew in air blocking the rear of the room where the man, possibly Fazar, stood over a tied and gagged man in the northeastern corner of the room wearing a ocher jerkin, belt, and boots.  Fazar had cut off an ear of the man, which now matched the other side of his head.  Fazar was wielding a scimitar and a handaxe which he was using to make additional jagged cuts and wounds.

Ciprian yelled out "It is Dahab!"

The man the party thought of as Fazar began to morph as he/she turned to the door and said seductively, "Come join your friend, I will play with all of you when I get the chance."  Standing holding the weapons was a blue-skinned creature draped in revealing attire, the humanoid fiend had a sultry gaze suggesting all manner of debased pleasures.

Ciprian identified the creature as a Pairaka Slayer, who resisted acid, dealt poison and had an ability to cause Lustful Dreams.  He then cast a haste spell on the party.  Erevel looked out the door and saw some fighting in the yard between the workers and the guards.  He then moved back toward the party waiting to get inside the small room.  Armania, again taking strength damage, attempted to cast Boneshaker at the monster but the spell failed coming out of her hands.  Paullus moved into the room and attacked the nearest flying head but his attack did not render as much damage as he thought it should.  Now the two closest tiny heads attacked Paullus and though he felt a foul humor from the bite no disease was noticed.  Ursina cast healing on Armania.

Gavril tumbled into the room, past two of the tiny heads and ended next to a Credenza and the Pairaka.  He then attacked and did little damage.  The Pairaka stared at Gavril, then flew over the credenza and unleashed two handed attacks hitting multiple times with sneak attack damage and then hit for even more with her two handed rend.

Gavril hit the floor unconscious with bleed damage.  Erevel charged into the tiny chamber and did a cleave attack against two of the tiny heads but still neither dropped.  Ciprian seeing the horror show in front of him began a Performance of Inspire Greatness on Paullus, Erevel and Gavril.  Gavril snapped back to consciousness but stay still prone on the floor.

Armania began a Summon Monster spell as she didn't want to try a targeted spell again to have it fail.  She again took Strength damage and called to Ursina for some recovery at this point.  Paullus continued fighting the tiny heads.  When the tiny head attacked they did some damage to Erevel and Paullus but neither seemed to be affected by the poison.  Ursina then used her wand to negate the Strength damage that Armania felt.

Gavril, feeling weak and unlucky tried to stay still as death on the floor. Erevel throwing caution to the wind stepped up past the tiny heads, taking attacks of Opportunity, and let loose her barrage on the Pairaka who withstood the attack and cooed softly at Erevel to join her in a depraved embrace.  She then let loose a two handed attack on Erevel and caught her with a claw and the rend.  Armania's Dire Tiger appeared in the space just vacated by Erevel and caught two heads with her claws, grappling them and doing rend damage.  One of the heads fell limp in the Tiger's claws.  Armania then fired a magic missile at a head.

Ciprian renewed his Inspire Greatness, replenishing hit point for Gavril and Erevel. Then he cast Virtuoso Performance and began a second performance against the Pairaka. Paullus then continued his attacks and killed another head.  Ursina applied healing to herself and waited to be able to reach Gavril.

Gavril lay prone still on the floor trying not to attract the Pairaka's attention.  Erevel shifted to the north and attacked with full measure, even applying a critical hit.  Armania reacted immediately to the critical with the Decapitate spell, which although not successful did cause more damage.  Ciprian identified the tiny heads as Doru Div, which had damage resistance to all but cold iron and good, resistance to acid and immunity to fire.

Armania cast another magic missile and directed the Tiger to continue attacking which it did killing another head.  Paullus shifted up where Erevel had left and attacked but he took a tremendous attack from one hand of the Pairaka, while Erevel took the attack of the other hand.

Ursina took advantage of the opening to move into the room and apply healing to Gavril, who then stood and delivered another quick attack on the Pairaka.  Ciprian entered the chamber and attacked a Doru with his cold iron dagger and the last Doru was dead.  Erevel then finished off the Pairaka as the party felt exhausted.

Ciprian and Ursina started to ask about healing but Armania quickly spoke up.

"Check on Dahab, make sure he is still alive."

Ciprian moved over to the slumped figure, untied his restraints and removed the gag.

"Are you alright?" Ciprian calmly asked the man.

"What was that thing? I wondered why Fazar had turned on me!" Dahab shakily answered.

"We were send by the Hyena Princess Njano to rescue you," Armania added as she entered the chamber.

"I am glad you got here in time.  I was afraid I was going to die.  What was that monster, she seemed very powerful."

"That was some kind of Div, a Pairaka.  We are not sure why she was here or what she was doing," Ciprian responded.  "Right now we need some healing and you could use some also.  Give us some time to restore our health."

Ciprian began the Path of Glory spell once again and the party spent the next few minutes recovering their strength.  Then they began searching the body of the Pairaka finding some magic items and a set of keys.  A magical suit of Lamellar Leather armor was found under the bed.  Erevel headed to the door to the tannery yard and found the whole yard empty except for a few bodies of workers.

Gavril headed to the only unopened door in the room and found it locked but not trapped.  He was convinced to try the keys and found one that opened the door.  The storage room was filled with trimmed and rolled leather ready to be picked up by customers or shipped out to foreign buyers as indicated by the tags on the products.  Additional doors led to the south and west.  The west door led to the tannery yard and the southern door was not locked.  It led to a room filled long shelves holding various tools, dyes, and chemicals necessary for operating a successful and productive tannery.  Another door led to the south which opened into a room of hides stored here after they were stripped of fur and gore in the yard but before they were brined.

The group next searched the body of the Sorcerer and found additional magic items and the dead guards had some MW weapons and a few magic items.  This led the party to the final three rooms north of the dining hall.  The first was the bedroom previously viewed by Armania.  The room had two beds and footlockers.  The only items were male and female personal effects although 68 gold pieces were found in the footlockers.  The next room was not locked and contained a pair of simple but well made desks which stood against opposite walls. Two sturdy metal boxes etched with a repeating pattern and each featuring a hefty lock were bolted to the stone floor nearby.

"I am going to try the keys on these locks also," Gavril stated.

"Make sure to check for traps first," Ursina suggested.

Finding no traps Gavril found the correct key for each lock.  The first box contained 1296 gold, the second box was more interesting.  It held a silk purse containing 90 gold, a thin wooden box with 25 platinum pieces, a magic arrow of slaying, magic bracers, a potion of remove disease, another unknown potion, a teak wand, a garnet carved into the shape of an eagle in flight worth 130 gold, and a coral bracelet worth 100 gold.

"Should we really be ransacking this building?" Armania asked.

"I think these are spoils of the kidnapping," Ciprian answered.  He was studying the mass of papers on the desks. The past year worth of sales records and shipping receipts covered the desks. There was a recent item in the books mentioning that a few weeks ago, all of the ocher leather was sold at a significant loss.

"I don't care why, we just need some more cash," was Gavril's answer.

Turning to Dahab, Armania asked, "What do you know about Fazar?  Or at least what were you told?"

"A few weeks ago Salir announced he would take some time off to visit relatives in Katapesh. He left orders to his crew that his cousin Fazar would arrive on the day of his departure to run things in his absence. Fazar appeared at the tannery on that day and in the next few days he had seduced me, with caring words and presents. I never suspected any treachery.  He was asking a lot of questions about the Princess but I thought it was just a new lover's interest in my work." Dahab explained at length.

"All the leathers were sold, at a loss.  Did this Fazar even know how to make leather?" Ciprian mused.

Gavril was headed to the final unexplored room, a simple bedroom that contained a studiously made  bed, a wooden footlocker, and a simple writing desk. There was nothing in or on the desk and the footlocker was empty.

Ciprian had entered the customer shop and was studying the leathers which he found of questionable quality, nothing like the items that Dahab had been gifted.  He also grabbed the dagger from the sales woman who had stabbed him.

"We should figure out how to get out of here without being seen.  Dahab just to let you know, we are being followed in the streets" Ciprian began seeing that it was late afternoon.

"Being followed in Okeno is a sign of importance," Dahab offered.

"Well, we don't really want to be seen leaving this tannery given what has happened," Ciprian replied.

Armania teleported to the inn with Dahab, Ursina, Gavril and Paullus.  Ciprian and Erevel used a dimension door to exit to the north about two thirds of the way to the inn.  They then walked unconcerned the rest of the way and joined up with the rest of the party for a nights rest.  Tomorrow they would talk with the Hyena Princess once again.

DM's Notes: The party earned 12,267 XP for the battle in the tannery.