Ardenas holds up one finger, then digs in his pack.

"I kept his ashes, or most of them, wrapped up in his cloak.  If you have the means to interrogate him through them..."

"It seems the more we investigate, the deeper the nefarious scheme goes. I guess maybe some direction in finding the mastermind would be greatly appreciated, Suleman."

"Ardenas has the closest we have gotten to a lead. Every time we find a new name in the demon shop's ledger, we find some messed up person thinking they can take a shortcut to deal with their problems."
This message was last updated by the GM at 20:32, Tue 07 May.

In reply to Ales Konstantin (msg # 586):

"Such as....wait, what was the latest line we need to check out?"

Suleiman looked at the ashes.
- A necromancy specialist is needed here. Maybe a Reconstruct Spell will be helpful, too. Alas, I'm not that kind of investigator... But I am pretty much sure the Mage Guild should have one. I would recommend visiting them unless you already did that.



- I assume the names were buyers. Have you got a clue about the supplier?

"The shop was outside the world, proper -- at one point the main room had two doors leading onto different streets, a hundred yards or so away on the outside, and no more than fifteen yards apart on the inside.  It seemed to be inside other buildings where there was no room for it, and appeared in different places at different times.  At one point, we saw a customer use a door that didn't even led to Northport.

"There was also a pentagram in a back room and at one point Sederic chased a demon into that; we have reason to believe the shop was supported and likely supplied by demons direct from Hell."

for refreshment on some of this, especially for those who's characters were there with other players:

Hunting for a specialty shop:
link to a message in this game
and what went on with Sederic in the pentagram room:
link to a message in this game

In reply to Ardenas Barehand (msg # 589):

- Very interesting, indeed! May I inquire if the construction of such extradimensional premises is a habit of this town or it is as unusual for locals as for me?
- Also I heard something about sigils found on the roofs in several places. Can I see one of those? How many sigils were there and in what places?
- I assume you did not show the ashes to a Mage Guild specialist, maybe it is time to visit the Guild?

In reply to Suleiman (msg # 591):

Aoife is happy to hand him the remaining tile...

"There were quite a few more, spread around in a pentagram, but we broke them as we understood they could be used even if in different locations.

I am not aware of other extra-dimensional premises, and I suspect strongly it was not a local who constructed it."

2GM: Does the sigil tell anything to Suleiman?



- So you say that if we mark the locations of the sigils on the town map, the shape will be a pentagram, right? And what was in the center of the pentagram - a building or anything else?

Aoife shows him the map. I believe it is earlier in this thread...

In reply to Aoife (msg # 594):

OOC: I scanned the thread and found a lot of mentioning of the map but no picture nor link. Nothing in the Game Map menu too.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:12, Wed 08 May.

OCC:

I have problems loading graphics onto this site; additionally all of these threads are group 0,
 I gave up trying to subdivide all the PC and NPCs by group, and you can only load 1 map per group.
I do not have a definitive map of the city in fine detail; nor of most of the undercity,
 but have procedurally generated a lot of it around setpieces as needed.
The city is something like 4x6 miles, and would be poster sized if I tried to lay it out to scale.

So - theater of the mind for the most part.  I had tried years ago to show clips of the dungeon that were 30' sections but it was really impractical.


What this group has is a somewhat battered table sized map of the city that is a few years out of date,
with pins and string stuck into it that show where certain entries in their ledger were mentioned.
The business of the roof tiles were all listed as favors to install them at set locations, much as petty favors
were performed to elicit chaos.  Only a few entries of exchange involved contracts for souls, some customers of
the shop paid cash, many did 'favors'

In reply to Narrator (msg # 596):

OOC:
What is in the center of the pentagram?
Has the party visited all the locations marked by sigils?

In reply to Suleiman (msg # 597):

The center of the pentagram seemed to be an ordinary square in Artisan, where small craftsmen hawk their wares in open stalls.

The only tiles they did not collect were from a roof in central Artisan, possibly on the clock tower there.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:26, Thu 09 May.

In reply to Narrator (msg # 598):

- Effendi Mancini, what shell we do next? Maybe visiting the clock tower in central Artisan and then the center of the pentagram? And beforehand I would recommend to visit the Mage Guild for a proper specialist in necromancy and knowledge spells.

"I would be less concerned about the broken pattern and more worried about the new shop."

Mancini seems intrigued. "What new shop, Benny?"

In reply to Mancini (msg # 601):

"This one I have been telling you about- this ledger is a little weird, but I swear that that woodcut I showed you that is only visible when Kalimais not in the room."


see message 520
link to a message in this game
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:53, Thu 09 May.

In reply to Benny Morales (msg # 602):

"You suggesting that they reopened the shop?"

"I think he is", Mancini said, sighing. "Just our abysmal luck."

Mancini thought for a minute before saying, "Could we permanently expell the demon shop of horrors from our realm? And if so, would the mage's guild be willing to help us with a feat this big?"
This message was last updated by the GM at 21:09, Fri 10 May.

Ardenas stands silent, contemplating this revelation.

In reply to Ardenas Barehand (msg # 605):

"I mean, this looks like it isn't just a vendor, more a craftsman of some kind, only infernal."

In reply to Benny Morales (msg # 606):

- Let's talk to the "craftsman" then, - Suleiman suggested. - Maybe he will be useful!

"I recall some of the goods in that shop were multiple items, just alike -- if this is the source of those, there will be more than one craftsman, to produce items in volume."

In reply to Suleiman (msg # 607):

"Any ideas how to find him?"