Mawar Adventures Episode 02

Clues from the Ciphered Scroll and the people of Hamri lead Ryu, Trok, Wazir, and Kaleho to Azar the Lost, whose Blood Knife murders end after a dawn fight at Shark’s Dock.

Timeline

• Aug 03, 1747 DR, evening: Wazir presents the decoded The Ciphered Scroll to Ryu, Trok, and Kaleho at the Leviathan Inn in Hamri.
• Aug 04, 1747 DR: The party searches Airion’s tower in the North Cliffs, discovering older stonework beneath the ruined watchtower, then traces its recent occupant through Hamri’s informants, uncovering evidence that Azar the Lost was living in hiding, likely tied to deaths among gatza addicts in the Drowned Flats, and seeking to purchase a lead-lined box from the smith Ovina on Shark’s Dock.
• Aug 05, 1747 DR: The party confronts Azar on Shark’s Dock, defeating him in a tense fight after he refuses to parley. After the fight, the party stabilizes Azar and contains the dockside chaos, hears Azar’s full tale, and clears his lair in the Splinters.
• Aug 06, 1747 DR: Wazir identifies the recovered knife and brass bowl.
• Aug 09, 1747 DR: Azar the Lost leaves Hamri with Benat for the lizardfolk village.

Cast of Characters

• Jaeson (he/him, Mawaran human): cliffside watcher and local gossip.
• Samar (sah-MAHR; she/her, Mawaran human): orphan informant in the Drowned Flats.
• Reliah (reh-LEE-ah; she/her, Mawaran human): orphan informant in the Drowned Flats.
• Orden (he/him, Mawaran human): dockside watcher.
• Benat (he/him, salt lizardfolk): lizardfolk liaison and teller of local history.
• Ovina (she/her, dwarf): Mawaran smith.
• Sulfi’s servant: household intermediary.
• Yaz (he/him, Mawaran human): old ocean watcher.
• Azar the Lost (he/him, Mawaran human): old man grieving his lost wife, corrupted by Gazankoa.
• Sefa (she/her, Mawaran human): poor older gatza addict found dead in Azar’s lair.
• Gazankoa (elder elemental): voice or power named in the scroll.
• Nadine (she/her, Mawaran human): Azar’s dead wife.
• Nimessa (she/her, marid elemental): marid summoned through Airion’s Ring of Elemental Binding.
• Airion (he/him, human): ancient wizard and Mistspeaker.
• Sulfi (she/her, Mawaran human): wealthy shipbuilding magnate on Glitter Cliff.

Places

• Hamri (town in the Mawar Confederacy, the Mawakel Peninsula): coastal port town whose inns, docks, markets, informants, and harbor politics frame most of the investigation into Azar’s murders. Session context includes: the Leviathan Inn, the Drowned Flats, fish market, Ovina’s smithy, Glitter Cliff, Shark’s Dock, Yaz’s tower, and Azar’s lair in the Splinters.
• North Cliffs (coastal cliff in the Mawakel Peninsula, the Northwest Coast): coastal cliffs across Hamri’s sheltered bay where Airion’s ruined tower stands above the old sea cave. Session context includes: Airion’s ruined tower, older stonework beneath the watchtower ruin, sea cave, and shallow flooded chamber.
• Mendin (town in the Mawar Confederacy): a Mawaran coastal town mentioned in the ciphered scroll.

Narrative

At the Leviathan, Wazir finally lays out what he has learned from The Ciphered Scroll. Its author, later identified as Azar, sought to restore his dead wife Nadine. To do so, he experimented on vulnerable people whose bodies filled with water, and eventually sought clues from the legends of Airion the Mistspeaker, leading to summoning a marid, Nimessa, and making sacrifices to Gazankoa. Ryu, Trok, Kaleho, and Wazir debate resurrection lore, gatza visions, and Airion’s ruined tower in the North Cliffs above the old sea cave before agreeing to rest and investigate the tower in the morning.

The next morning, the group climbs to Airion’s ruined tower in the North Cliffs, above the sea cave, and finds evidence that someone has surreptitiously been living there. The tower proves older than the surrounding watchtower ruin, and its interior throws them into a convincing water realm where Wazir, Trok, and Kaleho contend with the sensation of drowning, swimming, and being trapped in a bubble of force. While the illusion fades back to a shallow flooded chamber, it leaves the party shaken and wondering about the connection to Azar the Lost.

Seeking more information, the party fans out across Hamri for local witnesses. Ryu and Trok speak with Jaeson, while the others inquire with Samar and Reliah in the Drowned Flats and Orden by the docks. Their accounts build a profile of a worn older man who appeared in recent weeks, had been living in or near the tower, left fish remains and the smell of gatza, may connect to the Drowned Flats deaths, and had been asking around about lead. After a morning of chasing rumors, the party reconvenes at the market before lunch.

Around midday, the party regroups at the fish market and learns from Benat that Airion’s tower belongs to a much older magical history around Hamri and its water-linked extraplanar weak spots. The party splits again: Kaleho and Trok visit Ovina, who admits that the old man paid with a valuable gold-and-sapphire ring for a sealed, lead-lined box, and Wazir and Ryu climb to Glitter Cliff to ask Sulfi about the phantom boat. Sulfi declines to meet directly, but her servant reports that she knows of no strange ship and wants any such vessel reported for proper fees and duties.

In the late afternoon, the party regroups at Shark’s Dock. Wazir tests the dismantled ring and the lead-lined box at Ovina’s shop; the group theorizes that the lead-lined box may be a way to contain the strange magical knife associated with Azar. Ryu and Trok speak with Yaz after dark about the living ocean and the Splinters, and the group returns to the Leviathan to plan. They decide that one person will approach Azar when he comes to collect the box in the morning, while the others remain hidden near the dock.

At dawn, the party waits around Shark’s Dock while Ryu watches the harbor and spots the phantom boat coming in fast from the north. Azar arrives in oilskin cloaks, collects the lead-lined box from Ovina, and tries to walk back to the dock without answering Ryu’s questions about the tower, the deaths, and the Sentient Ocean. Invisible Wazir whispers Nadine’s name through a coin, Azar reveals himself and insists Gazankoa is helping him save his family, and Ryu realizes the invitation onto the boat is a trap as weapons come out.

The failed parley turns violent as Azar throws black tentacles across Shark’s Dock and runs for the phantom boat while his drowned servant rises from the vessel. Ryu and Wazir are crushed and restrained by the tentacles, Trok drags Azar into the water, Kaleho lands punishing crossbow shots, and the lead-lined box is dropped in the boat as the party tries to push the vessel out of Azar’s reach. Azar’s Armor of Agathys knocks Trok unconscious, Ryu’s healing spirit brings him back, Wazir’s shatter strips away the cold armor, and Azar’s lightning kills a bystander before Trok’s crocodile-shaped Eldritch Maul strikes finally break the tentacles and drop Azar unconscious; Kaleho then kills the drowned servant.

Afterward, Wazir heals Azar and the group binds him while they recover from the fight, calm Shark’s Dock, tend the woman killed by Azar’s lightning, and hear Azar’s full tale. Azar had lost Nadine, become hooked on gatza, and heard Gazankoa speak through the Blood Knife. He believed that killing people in the right way, with their blood replaced by water, would restore his family. That evening, the party searches the Splinters, quickly destroys two more drowned zombies, and finds Sefa dead in the lair. From the lair, they recover three annotated books from Airion’s library, a brass bowl, and scattered coins that are paid as restitution to Sefa and the families of the dead who can be found. On Aug 6, Wazir identifies the Blood Knife, now locked in the lead-lined box, as a mystery beyond his magic, and the brass bowl as a bowl of commanding water elementals that must be filled with fresh ocean water and used immediately. A few days later, on Aug 9, Azar leaves south with Benat to heal before returning to make amends to Hamri.

Combat

• Dockside Fight at Shark’s Dock: Azar the Lost, drowned servant. Azar rejects the parley at Shark’s Dock, fights with black tentacles, cold armor, lightning, and a drowned servant, and is knocked unconscious by Trok while Kaleho kills the servant.