Shalelu chose to accompany us to Magnimar. We arrived in the morning, and asked around on the dock to get a recommendation on where to stay. We were told that it would be best to go to Ordellia, the primary non-human district. We also learned a bit about the geography of the city; the most remarkable feature is the Irespan, the remains of one end of a giant bridge that extends out from the city 300 feet above the water.
As we made our way through the city, we came upon a Varisian encampment, filled with tents, children playing, and women in colorful clothing. Further on, we saw a brothel called The Shucked Oyster, which resembled a manor house, or was perhaps converted from one. We also came to a park, which contained a spring, and had a statue of a woman. There was no plaque or engraving to identify the subject of the statue.
We came to a spherical building made of glass and metal, resembling a diving helmet. Outside was a gnome named Nireed Wadincoast. He greeted us, and welcomed us to the Aquaretum, an aquarium featuring a variety of sea creatures that he had collected on his expeditions. He offered us a tour of the establishment for 1 silver piece each. We accepted, and saw a number of strange sea creatures, including reefclaws, eel-like creatures with sharp claws. Nireed also told us the story of the Vydrarch. The Vydrarch was a twin-serpent-headed sea creature who lived off the coast of Magnimar. It was eventually slain by a paladin named Alcaydian Indros.
As we left the Aquaretum, Nireed recommended that we eat lunch at a tavern called The Pig, located in Beacon’s Point. We did so, and while we were there, we overheard people discussing a recent spate of murders occurring in Magnimar, which were just like the ones that happened in Sandpoint. People were found slain in gruesome ways, with a Sihedron symbol carved on their torsos.
We found our way to Ordellia, and booked ourselves some rooms at The Rose and Rake Inn, which is located right next to the Rose and Rake Theater.
We then headed to the district of Naos, located in the wealthy area of Magnimar. It was 6 o’clock in the evening by the time we arrived, so we ate dinner at a restaurant called the Rag and Garter. This is a themed restaurant in which the servers dress as vagrants, to allow the upper class folk to feel like they are mingling with the lower class.
After dinner, we went to Aldern Foxglove’s townhouse. We saw that the windows were boarded up, but there was light showing through on the second floor. We knocked on the door, but no one answered. We unlocked the door using the key. As we did this, three Hellknights walked by, and eyed us with suspicion, but they seemed satisfied when we showed them that we possessed the key. The Hellknights are law enforcers from Cheliax, who have a presence in Magnimar.
When we entered the house, we encountered Iesha Foxglove, much to our surprise. She then called down her husband Aldern, who introduced us to Iesha, and welcomed us in and offered us dinner. As we were sitting at the dinner table, we mentioned that we were investigating the recent murders, at which point the two of them attacked us. During the fight, their human disguises melted away, revealing them to be faceless stalkers. Unfortunately, the slashing weapons wielded by Shalelu and Devin had no effect on the creatures, even after Devin cast Magic Weapon on his scimitar. Fortunately, Ash and Gulnyr had bludgeoning weapons that were able to damage them. After one of the faceless stalkers was killed, the other fled the house into the alleyway, but Gulnyr chased it down and killed it.
We then investigated the third floor. We found a fireplace, whose mantelpiece had two carvings of lions. The left lion had a keyhole in its mouth, which we were able to unlock using the key with the lion motif. This opened a secret compartment containing some platinum pieces, the deed to Foxglove Manor, and a ledger. The ledger contained a number of entries labeled “Iesha’s trip to Absalom”, and there were payments of 200 GP per week to “B7” delivered to the sawmill.
We spent the night in this townhouse. During the night, we heard the sound of children outside singing a song about “mumble mumble scarecrow”. The last line of the song ended with the word “eat”, and when this word was sung, we thought we also heard a voice saying this word coming from the third floor inside the house.
The next morning, we went to Seven’s Sawmill on Kyver’s Islet. Kyver’s Islet is a small island that stands in the Yondabakari River, right between Ordellia and the main part of Magnimar, and is mostly occupied by loud industrial operations.
We entered the sawmill at the ground floor, and encountered a few workers, who suggested that we leave a note for the mill manager in his office above. We then proceeded up the stairs, entering at each floor in turn. At the next floor was a room with some equipment, and no one present. On the next floor was a storeroom, with openings in the ceiling and collection chutes leading down from them. There were four thin, malnourished workers in this room, and one of them told us to leave our note with him, but we declined and continued upwards. Finally, we came to a floor with a number of workbenches and woodworking tools, and piles of sawdust. There was a door leading to the mill manager’s office. Two workers were present. Gulnyr tried to open the office door, but it was locked. One of the workers left to fetch the town guard. We started to leave, but on the way down the stairs we were attacked by a number of cultists. Four of the mill workers joined the fight as well, and we heard them saying they would put us through the logsplitters.
During the fight, the mill manager, a magistrate named Judge Ironbriar, came down from upstairs to join the attack. At one point, he summoned a large spider-like creature against us. Eventually, Devin was struck down, and one of the workers started to carry him towards one of the wood chippers. Ash took gaseous form to move past other enemies to get into the room with the wood chippers, and managed to stop the enemy carrying Devin. Shortly after this, Ash was knocked out, and another enemy tried to put her into a wood chipper, but Shalelu saved her. We barely managed to defeat all of the enemies and survive.
We searched the manager’s office. The walls of this room were decorated with the stretched out skin of human faces. We found pamphlets, books, and paintings. Among the books were a wizard’s spellbook, a book of fairy tales of creatures known as the Tane, a ledger, and an enciphered journal. The ledger revealed that Ironbriar had received payment from someone known as the Red Mantis. The ceiling of the office had a trap door, which led to a room containing a desk, quills and paper, and three ravens. This seemed to be a room for sending messenger birds.
After leaving the sawmill, we went to the Abadarian temple to turn ourselves in, with evidence of the magistrate’s guilt. We were jailed for three days, after which Lord-Mayor Grobaras met with us, and we told him everything we knew. He told us that Ironbriar had been the victim of a charm spell placed upon him by Xanesha. He told us that Ironbriar had visited Xanesha many times at the Shadowclock, a ruin beneath the Irespan. Grobaras then offered a deal for us to destroy Xanesha.