Session 5 The Lighthouse Reaper
Exiting Crowswood Place, the party is instantly drenched by heavy rain. Guy walks with a smug expression as his large hat collects the rain. That is until he tips his hat and soaks his backside. Behind Crowswood Place, a black and white aarakocra with an orange crest appears to be working on a hot air balloon. Tuperk beckons the party, recognising them as the adventurers headed to Westpoint Lighthouse. He requests the party bring him pteranodon wing leather as it is resistant to the decay of the Miasma and perfect for the balloon. In exchange, Guy persuades Tuperk to offer the party free transport for life.
A twenty minute walk west allows the party to become more familiar with Oscar, the youngest member of the Commission. He and Bantonio bond over a shared love of pastries while Guy and Blythe make a secret wager.
“I’m not an expert on theatre, but the conventions of tragedy dictate that Oscar is going to die.”
“Oscar. Stay close to me!”
Guy and Blythe bet on Oscar’s demise.
Westpoint Lighthouse
Arriving at Westpoint Lighthouse, the party can see monstrous shadows feasting at the top of the lighthouse. The beacon is switched off and the windows appear to be smeared with a strange miasmic growth. One of the windows has been smashed. Four stories below, the body of an elderly dwarf lies dead on his back in a pool of blood and glass shards. Bantonio freezes, realising that the lighthouse keeper was pushed through the window. Traumatic memories flash before his eyes. While Firien tries to comfort Bantonio, Blythe investigates the body.
Despite the cavity in the dwarf’s chest, picked clean by the pteranodons, Blythe is able to determine that the keeper has been dead less than a week. This is consistent with the outage report first raised four days ago. The keeper’s back has been broken, presumably by the fall. Taking out her magnifying glass, Blythe also finds a silver band on the keeper’s ring finger, indicating he was married or perhaps bereaved. Blythe takes her investigation inside and the party follows stealthily. Gomruss must keep his booming voice in check as they enter.
Blythe’s eyes are instantly drawn to the fireplace where a framed portrait sits on the mantelpiece. The keeper and a young black-haired dwarf are dressed for fishing. The keeper beams with delight while the teenager seems uninterested. Opening the frame, Blythe discovers handwriting on the back of the portrait: Kurt and Silas, Little Nox, 994.4.7. Blythe also finds an address book, bound by a small padlock. However, she is unable to find the key.
Also on the mantelpiece is a sealed letter. Surprisingly, the seal comes adrift when Blythe takes hold of it. The letter appears to be the last will and testament of Kurt Beckonhand. Silas is notably absent from the will. Upon closer inspection, some of the numbers in the will have been blotted with ink. Embers in the hearth illuminate scraps of burned parchment that seem to bear the same handwriting as the will. They read: testament and to my son.
“I suspect foul play.”
Blythe to herself.
While Blythe investigates the fireplace, Firien discovers a trapdoor leading to the lighthouse’s underground generator, still switched on. Meanwhile, Bantonio unlocks the chest in Kurt’s bedroom. Praying for forgiveness, Bantonio opens Kurt’s diary and discovers evidence of the keeper’s strained relationship with his son. Blythe berates Guy for disturbing the crime scene in his search for loot. Guy replaces the expensive music box on the bookshelf and instead finds a curious romance novel concerning the myth that all merfolk are female. He hands the novel to Gomruss to keep him occupied.
Satisfied they can investigate no further, the party hatches a plan to lure the pteranodons from the lighthouse. The pteranodons swarm at the sound of Gomruss’ declaration. Hoping to protect Oscar, Firien and Bantonio stay at his side, giving two pteranodons the opportunity to shower each of them with vomit! While Firien and Bantonio are able to weather the effects, Oscar coughs and splutters. Firien summons the might of the tempest to blast both pteranodons to smithereens with a thunderwave.
Guy narrowly escapes a pteranodon’s bite. He slashes clumsily at the aberration with his rapier, chopping the feathers off his own hat. Blythe is grievously wounded by another pteranodon’s bite but retaliates quickly and decisively, slaying her attacker with two precise arrows. Seeing his new friend in distress, Oscar rubs his glowing hands together and yells a healing word to Blythe!
“Stay hard!”
Oscar heals Blythe.
Purple energy erupts from Gomruss’ palm and the shards of glass beneath the lighthouse launch at Bantonio’s attacker. The pteranodon is torn to shreds, felled by a thousand cuts. This gives Bantonio the opportunity he needs to leap up and deprive the last pteranodon of its head. It is now the head of a much larger pteranodon pokes through the smashed window above. It screeches in anger, unable to fit through the metal window frame. Thinking fast, Firien points at the aberration and shatters the windows. Shards of glass rain down from above and the boss pteranodon slinks back into the lighthouse, severely wounded. Blythe scolds Firien for completely destroying the crime scene.
With no other option, the party climb the spiral staircase to face the boss pteranodon head on. Reaching the top, they find the pteranodon pacing about its nest of miasmic growth, apparently gorging itself on the decay. It turns to attack the party and its hulking body knocks a switch on a nearby control panel. The lighthouse beacon powers on, blinding all but Firien as it begins to turn. The light from the beacon singes the miasmic growth and the fleshy fungi contract like disturbed anemone.
Oscar is the first to act, unleashing a sacred flame through squinted eyes. The pteranodon thrashes its head, only angered further by the attack. Blythe focuses their senses. With eyes shut tight, she feels the vibrations of the pteranodon’s approaching footsteps and looses two arrows. The arrows skewer the aberration’s bulging eyes and it collapses with a harrowing screech. Eyes now turn to Oscar as he switches off the beacon; he has revealed his divine abilities. While the others harvest the leather they need from the pteranodons, Firien pulls Oscar aside. Bantonio, beginning to understand, eavesdrops on the conversation.
“Do they know?”
“Adelaide knows. I joined the Commission cos I want to adventure! Besides, there are far better people for the job than me…”
“If that’s how you feel, maybe you should speak with Aura. I’ll come with you if you want.”
Firien to Oscar.
With shattered glass littering the floor, Blythe is unable to determine anything further from the crime scene, though she does find traces of blood on several glass shards which she carefully presses between the pages of her notebook. Convinced the key to Kurt’s address book may have been eaten by the pteranodons, the party searches the bodies as they strip them of their leather. Blythe eventually finds the key under Kurt’s bed.
“You mean we’ve been elbow deep in pteranodon guts for no reason?”
Firien dismayed by the unimaginative hiding place.
Blythe discovers a cipher at the back of the address book, showing corresponding numbers and letters. She pockets the address book along with Kurt’s will and considers that the beacon was turned off when they arrived. Given the pteranodon’s aversion to light, someone may have switched off the beacon after his death, allowing the pteranodons to roost. Firien and Bantonio lay Kurt to rest in the generator room, then the party sets off once again for Crowswood Place.