Letter 17: Cat Got Your Tongue?

Warmest greetings,
I almost didn't manage to get this letter sent, such was the drama and tragedy that ensued in our latest adventure.

To The Warehouse

We started by returning to Pansidar where we explained what had happened. He was apologetic and was surprised that we had not been met at the harbour. We then headed to the silk warehouse that was on the receipt that we had found in Lankesh's house.
The warehouse was large, very large and two storeys high separated from its neighbours by dark, narrow alleys.

The rear entrance has a set of large double doors by which is an area of scrub and trees, the front is similar but with tall narrow windows beside the door, too high above the ground for us to see through.

We chose the rear entrance, Lucciola transformed into a large tiger and she could smell a faint acrid smell and animals inside. Kissara used her detect thoughts spell and this suggested that there were two minds inside, daydreaming. Kissara knocked on the door and she heard a dry rasping voice comment in Vudrani, "Return quickly to Leckumgee. Tell the masters what I have told you. We must act together against Kharswan."

The door was locked so Mirria burst it open1 revealing a large high-ceilinged room containing shelves of silkworm cocoons, while light streamed through large skylights. There were two obvious occupants, humans in loincloths, unarmed but well muscled. We moved into attack but the first of many misfortunes befell poor Dio, he snapped at one of the men but instead bit off part of his tongue and started to choke! I charged in but missed and my foe responded with a blow that both damaged me and left me fatigued.

To our horror a large snake, with a human face appeared from nowhere. It cast a lightning bolt which took out one of its own fighters, wounded some of us but which I fortunately managed to dodge.

I was then hit by a scorching ray along with Lucciola and I was down and fast losing consciousness.


I came round after being healed and saw one of the thugs standing by me, I stood up and got stabbed again and the blade had poison on it and that was enough for me to lose consciousness again.


I came round again as Ziyana was pouring something down my throat and again I stood to attack the nearest foe.
However there were two of them this time and I went down again, this time it looked bad

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Back From the Dead

I awoke in a temple with a strange priest collecting a large bag of coins from Lady Helena2. After the, eventually, successful encounter in the warehouse we decided to interview the various people that Lord Pansidar had suggested.

Prince Kamber

He told us that the cult has worshipped an evil goddess often taking over whole villages. The death of the royal cousin was typical of the cult. They have been known to recruit mind-flayers, rakshasas, brain moles, aboleths and nagas. The cult tends to use a cell like structure where each group knows very little about the others. The village of Leckumgee is the home to a Shrine where all the Vudrani gods are worshipped. It has an ancient legacy, a thousand years or more, dating from the first colonisation of the island. It is a spiritual pilgrimage spot. Vudrani worship has changed with time, the locals are very superstitious and see the darker beings as just the violent side of nature. The nearby jungle is both a holy and dangerous place.
We thought that Prince Kamber's information was useful and some of us were for rushing off and investigating the sinister temple but other more cautious heads were more interested in questioning the other leads Pansidar had provided us with.

Lord Mahindra

Mahindra is an elderly man with a greying beard and fatherly demeanour. He acts as a information broker, or as we would say a rumourmonger. He spoke of the headless body in the market and suggested that there were informants in the palace guard. He then suggested that some people were blaming us for the violent acts that have been happening and his sneering tone and arched eyebrows suggested to me and Mirria that he had been behind some of these rumours himself. Mirria was not best pleased by this and stormed off to the harbour to seek passage back to Absalom. He appears not believe that the Cult of the Ebon Destroyers was active in the island and all my people skills suggested that he was on the level. I left feeling that although he was not evil, he was at best a fool. Little did we know what repercussions our meeting with Lord Mahindra would cause.

Pravezak

Pravezak is a spiritual advisor and he spoke about the cult of Dhalavei and how this related to the Ebon Destroyers. It appears that the cult is strongest amongst the poorest in society. The Tiger Shrine in Leckumgee is defying the order of the Thakur and is continuing to allow worship of her.

Palace Guard Captain Harita

At first she refused to see us, but eventually she did. Something was troubling her and eventually I managed to worm out of her the fact that one of her guards was not as diligent as he could be. We persuaded her to let us see the guard , Viraj, in her presence. With Lady Helena asking the questions and Kissara probing Viraj's thoughts we managed to discover that the guard was addicted to a drug and had been visiting an illicit 'tea-house'. He he had had what he thought were visions of a snake-headed demon and the bat-headed rakshasa we knew to be Lankesh. It appears that Viraj unwittingly passed on patrol numbers, rotas and movements to Lankesh. Once she heard this Hirita gave Viraj his marching orders.

Repercussions

When we returned to our lodgings we had our second warning from the cult. Lord Mahindra's acid-burned body lay across the threshold of the building. It appeared from our checks that he had been stabbed through the heart but this had been done elsewhere as there was little blood on the stair. On the body was a short note - "This is your final warning."

It seemed we were on the right tracks - and the Cult of the Ebon Destroyers were worried!

I'll get this in the post while the others clear up the mess,
GG

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