Gardeners of the White Rose 2

We left our party ridding back to town with the rest of the Gardeners of the White Rose. Since fourteen people showing up on horseback at a secret hideout turns your secret hideout into a plain old out Janiven suggest that the party return animals to the stable from which they were borrowed. The party agreed.

Arriving at the stable they found the horse trader being berated by a well dressed gentleman. This turned out to be the one and only Thesing Umbero Ulvauno, “Westcrown’s best tenor!” or so he would have you believe. Gregory being a patron of the arts, at least the art of knowing everything about everyone, knew that that Thesing was not Westcrown’s best tenor but a rising start all the same.

Gregory wisely kept his mouth shut, not that he could get a word in edgewise as Thesing had turned is attention to the “horse thieves” who had just returned with the horses he needed for that evenings production. Malory turned on the charm though and was able to calm Thesing. Thesing, mistaking politeness for flirting, invited both Malory and Korva to see him at the opera that evening. They accepted. Gregory and Blugav were left to fend for themselves.

Returning to the abandoned shrine of Aroden that acts as the Gardener’s hideout they were given a formal introduction to Areal. He thanked them profusely and offered to make them any potion he could at cost as thanks. He added that the Gardeners are planning on laying low for the time being but he hopes that the party will continue on with the organization.
Afterwards the party milled around a bit chit chatting with the other members of the Gardeners. Fiosa, a young Halfling house servant and follower of Iomedae, mentioned to Korva that she would like to show the party a crypt that she found beneath the hideout. After much discussion the party decided to check out the crypt the next day. Tonight was for Opera. That was only half true. The night was for Opera but only for Malory and Korva. Bulgav and Gregory did not have tickets, money for tickets or really any interest in seeing some asshole sing for Westcrown’s 1%.

Earlier Gregory had started a bit of a friendship with Yakapulio a strange gnome, Gardener, bookie and part time pimp at the Bruised Eel Tavern. The Bruised Eel is a hub of the underground night racing scene. Under the cover of darkness night runners run from one tavern to another racing their competition, fighting off shadow beats and dodging the town guard. It pays well and people love to gamble on it. Yakapulio thought that Gregory had the right set of skills to make for a good night runner and the bar was in need of a new two man team. The last group never made it to the final bar. No one knows if it was the guard or the shadow beats that got to them.

Gregory and Bulgav, always up for a challenge, set out into the night along with their competition…and then realized that they didn’t know where they were going. Luckily for them their competition had a sun rod out and they could follow them. Gregory and Bulgav chuckled to themselves knowingly. With that torch the guard will catch them on a curfew violation for sure. Why would anyone use a torch at night in this city? Why would….uhhh what’s that sound.

Afterward as Gregory and Bulgav stood over the corpse of a…uhh…is this a shadow beast? Neither of them knew what a shadow beast looks like. Neither of them were willing to stick around and find out. A few twists and turns later and they made it safely to the finish. Inside they found the competition cooling their heels at the bar, dividing up their winnings. They weren’t unrewarded. Second place gets food, drink and a place by the fire to sleep.

The next morning Gregory and Blugav arrived at the shrine of Aroden to find Korva with her admonishing face on and Malory with her ashamed face on. After brief a talk/lecture they followed Fiosa to the crypts. Gregory quickly realized that what seemed to be a sarcophagus actually the key to opening a hidden door. Leaving Fiosa behind they headed in.

The crypt opened to a long narrow changer with a raised dais on either side of the hall. As the party entered several skeletons rattled their way to life. Bulgav, Gregory and Korva found that their slashing weapons did not have the usual effect on these skeletons. Fortunately 0 level ray spells and turning undead do and the skeletons were soon vanquished.

Each dais has a door leading out. The party chose the door to the right, because everyone knows left choices are wrong choices, and found them themselves in a small sanctuary. The walls of this room were filled with murals of Aroden and his works. In the center of the room was a deep pool a statue of Aroden at its foot. Two locked doors lead off to the south.

Korva cast light upon a rock and threw it into the pool. This illuminated thousands of keys lying at the bottom of the pool. Malory cast detect magic and found that but one of the keys was magical. Not one to hesitate Bulgav dove into the pool and in one great dive proved why he should take the sea as his favored terrain, even though this is an urban campaign. We left the party with Bulgav victoriously clutching the magic key gasping for breath at the edge of the pool.