Costruttore di Mitologia – Shadows of the Red Scarf

“Adventurer! The Dandolo family demands your skills. You have been a loyal associate for some time, and this mission calls for trust, discretion, and loyalty. The bandits hijacking our shipments have finally crossed the line and require neutralization. Their underground hideout has been located in a disused warehouse. You are to kill the bandits (although you may wish to bring back one or two for more…enhanced…interrogation), gather information about any possible larger operation, and recover any goods you can. You will meet the rest of your team at the Lion & Fish near the warehouse and then proceed together into the hideout.  Each of you should wear the cross patee fitchy of the Dandolo family so as to be identified in the inn by the rest of your team.”

The party met at the inn and got to know each other.  Nico and Salina (whose nickname is “Fancy”) tried not to attract attention with their horns and bright red skin.  Even then, the outsiders were the subject of sideways glances and hoarse whispers. Gianna, however, approached them readily. Her no-nonsense air and rough disposition pleased both of the tieflings. Spotting Gianna, the Templar, Guido Falcone was the next to approach the group, bedecked with his bird-motif garb. Lastly, Pietro Cartaforba arrived to the table, looking bookish and bespectacled, wearing a long cloak and carrying a ledger and quill. While the stealth and combat abilities of the first four were of readily evident value to the mission, Cartaforba’s presence was questionable. He said he was asked by Francesco Dandolo to follow the rest of the party and take an official accounting of any goods that can be recovered. He is in the employ of the Dandolo family as an bookkeeper, but that is a favor to Cartaforba’s powerful uncle, the Patriarch of Venice. Sometimes, his uncle pressures Francesco to include Pietro on missions, which he does, out of deference to his position and the Church.  Gianna let slip that she was asked to ensure Pietro’s safety on the mission, as it wouldn’t reflect well on the family to have the Patriarch’s nephew die in some dank dungeon. After Guido and Pietro caught up a bit (Guido also knows the Patriarch), the party headed over to the warehouse where they quickly found a trap door that lead to an underground hideout. Gianna lit a torch, as only the teiflings could see in the dark.

They didn’t go too far before reaching a three-way fork in the corridor. They pressed forward, and as she reached the first turn, Salina spotted two zombies milling about a large room. At the other end of the line, Nico stopped right at the fork. While Salina and Guido got into position to engage the zombies, Nico bent down to pick up two articles that were on the ground. One, a small pouch, and the other a piece of red fabric. As he picked them both up, he realized the fabric was covered in blood.

The long, rectangular room smelled of stale ale and sweat, its walls lined with crates stamped with the Dandolo crest—stolen goods from their caravans. A rickety wooden table in the center held a half-eaten meal of bread and fish, swarming with flies. The floor as littered with broken weapons and bloodstains, signs of a recent struggle.

The party began to fight the two zombies while Pietro was immediately drawn to the crates.   Salina and Gianna landed a few blows while Nico used his elven cloak to sneak up on one of the zombies to backstab it. Then, Guido turned the undead.  Both zombies started to flee the party through the exit at the other end of the room. Pietro continued looking through the crates.

Rounding the corner to give chase to the two zombies running away, Nico came face to face with a third, heading into the room. The party implored Pietro to stop looking through crates and help with the combat. Pietro pleaded that he was merely looking for a weapon of some kind in the crates. After disappearing behind the stack for a bit, Pietro did come out having found (miraculously!) a sword, dagger, and light crossbow. Fortunately, all would fit nicely under his long cloak after the fight (how fortuitous!).

After they dispatched the zombie, the party began looking around the room. A crumpled note on the table read: “The ritual in the chapel must succeed—our benefactors demand power for the cause. Wear the red scarf proudly.” At that moment, they realized that all the zombies had been wearing red scarves. This was recognized by them as the signature symbol of the Society of the Red Scarf – a band of thieves and assassins that had been operating in Venice with increased brazenness in recent years.

Pietro recovered some silk from the crates to return to Dandolo, but most of the rest of the cargo was damaged or rotten. Nico checked his pouch to find it contained 10 gold pieces. Guido used his healing skill to help the wounded recover some hit points.

While they were making sense of the note, the other two zombies returned, and, after a short fight during which Nico fired a magic missile, the party dispatched them, too. After the fight, Nico took the red scarves off the zombies, and the party could see that the path ahead forked into two corridors. As some zombies came from that direction, the party decided to turn back and go to the first crossroads to follow a different path. Pietro lit a second torch for the party.

Fancy was walking point, so she listened to see if she could hear anything down either corridor.  She could hear faint shuffling to the north but nothing to the south, so they party decided to head southward.

At the end of a long hallway, they came to another staircase. Following it up, they discovered another trap door in the warehouse that neighbored the one through which they initially entered.

While the party was looking at that, Nico slipped into a dark room they had bypassed to inspect the crates he found there. He stealthily snuck in and, finding the room empty, pried open a crate to find some gold pieces. As he did this, however, one of the many shadows in the room began to move on its own and flew at him. Slamming into him, Nico found himself not only wounded but also exhausted.

He shouted for help.

The rest of the party charged into the room.  It seemed to them at first that Nico was wildly fighting the air, but as Pietro’s torch moved around, they could see that one of the shadows did not shift as the light source moved. It was as if Nico was fighting with a living shadow!

Fancy shot a crossbow bolt at the creature, but it went straight through it!

Gianna quickly switched her sword for the magical hand axe she carries, as she could tell from what just happened that these creatures could only be hit by magical weapons. Guido, being a cleric, also knew this to be the case. He also knew that, contrary to appearances, these shadow creatures are not undead and cannot be turned.

Pietro attempted to distract the creature by waving his torch and calling to it, asking it what it wanted. The creature glared eyelessly back at Pietro. It didn’t make a sound, but Pietro felt a wave of feeling of pure, malevolent hatred penetrate his soul.

Only Gianna and Guido had magical weapons, so they confronted the creature while the rest of the party retreated out of the room.  After a short fight, they killed the creature, and the party began to search the crates. In them, they found 20 magical crossbow bolts (which Fancy and Pietro divided between themselves) and a small magical hammer, which was taken by Nico.

They also found a locked door. Fancy listened but couldn’t hear anything on the other side. Nico cast knock and opened it.  

The small room was a treasure vault for the Red Scarves, its walls lined with shelves holding stolen goods. A single lantern flickered on a shelf, casting eerie shadows. The air was stale, and the floor was stained with dried blood.  A letter on a shelf read: “The Red Scarf will topple Venice—Byzantium pays well for chaos. Use the ritual to summon our ally.”  They also found a locked chest that contained 100 gold pieces, a dagger +1 (Nico took the dagger and gave Fancy the hammer), and a healing potion which was drunk by Guido.

The party proceeded north from the crossroads. The corridor opened into a larger 25’x30’ chamber with a smaller 15’x20’ room in its center, raised on a 5’ stone platform (accessible by steps). The outer room was littered with debris—broken crates, shattered glass, and bloodstains—suggesting a fight. They accessed the inner room by opening a heavy wooden door to find that it contained a makeshift altar with a red scarf draped over it, smeared with ash and blood and three more Red Scarf zombies.

The party fought and killed all the zombies. On the altar, a ritual scroll (partially burned) read: “Invoke the Shadow Lord to crush our foes—sacrifice three lives in the chapel.” Fancy found a small pouch under the altar which contained 20 gp and a Ruby Pendant.

Nico, who had taken to scouting ahead with this Elven Cloak, noticed claw marks on the walls as he approached a room with two alcoves. In each alcove was a stone statue, and there were three zombies milling about. One of the shadow creatures near the base of the statues noticed Nico and immediately attacked. A fight ensued during which Pietro surprised the rest of the party with his swordsmanship. During the fight, Guido was exhausted by one of the shadows.

This chamber was the site of the Red Scarves’ failed ritual, its air heavy with the stench of death and dark energy. A large pentagram was carved into the floor, stained with blood and ash, surrounded by melted candles. Two 10’x10’ alcoves in the northern and western walls held stone statues of hooded figures, their hands clutching red scarves. The statues’ eyes seemed to glow faintly with a malevolent light.  A ritual book near the pentagram read: “The Society of the Red Scarf serves chaos—Venice will fall to our masters.”

After the fight was over, they noticed a small room off to the side, sealed behind rusted iron bars. Inside, two skeletons (not undead) lie slumped against the wall, their clothes tattered but bearing the Dandolo crest—they were caravan guards captured by the Red Scarves. Debris litters the floor, including broken shackles and scraps of cloth.  They forced their way into the cell, and on the bodies, they found a ring of protection and a Dandolo Signet.  Gianna took the ring of protection, and Pietro took the signet to return to the Dandolos.

The party barricaded themselves in this area to rest for an hour so Nico and Guido would no longer be affected by the exhaustion penalties. During the rest, however, Nico tried to pick pocket the pendant from Fancy, who caught him in the act and gave him a slap. Nico played it off as a joke.

They continued deeper into the complex. The corridors became wider but more confusing in their layout. They found their way to a furnished room in two parts. The lower part was a dining area with two round tables, each set with plates of rotting food, and a large counter with stools. The counter had alchemical tools—vials, a mortar and pestle, and a small burner—suggesting the Red Scarves dabbled in alchemy.  The upper part was a raised platform and held an immense barrel of ale and shelving with more alchemical supplies, including dried herbs and a vial of black liquid.  A journal on the counter read: “The Red Scarf grows stronger—our alchemical poisons will aid the Doge’s fall.”  While investigating the herbs and vials on the shelves, Nico noticed another shadow creature, and the party immediately attacked, defeating it without too much trouble.   Nico took the herbs and vial of poison.

Continuing through the maze of corridors, the party was ambushed by another shadow creature, and Gianna was exhausted by its touch during the fight.

Pressing on to the end of the hallway, they encountered a branch in the corridor with both the northern and southern paths making a large octagon shape, with a room in the middle.  The large chamber, accessed via the western entrance of the octagonal corridor, was a ritual preparation area turned battlefield. The floor was stained with blood, and broken ritual tools like candles and knives are scattered about. A large stone altar in the center was carved with the Red Scarf symbol—a red scarf draped over a dagger. The walls were blackened with soot, and the air hummed with dark energy.

After killing the zombies, the party found a ritual knife on the altar which had an inscription: “For the Red Scarf’s triumph—kill the Doge, burn Venice” (subtle, right?). A hidden compartment in the altar contained 60 gp and a Gem of Brightness (3 charges: light, blinding flash, or dispel darkness).

On taking stock of the situation, the party realized that they had explored the entire complex except for one place – the forked path where they turned back after the first battle with the zombies. They retraced their steps and found a room with a barricaded door.

They busted down the door to find a room which served as the Red Scarves’ living quarters, containing six crude beds, three locked chests (Nico/Salina’s thief skills to open), and personal belongings scattered about—clothing, daggers, and red scarves. A barricade of crates and tables blocks the entrance, behind which hides the lone surviving Red Scarf member, trembling in fear.  Nico snuck up behind him while Fancy engaged in flattery and persuasion. He said his name was Lorenzo Rosso and told them that he was kidnapped by the Society of the Red Scarf, which was hired by Byzantium to disrupt Venice. They tried to summon a Shadow Lord, but it killed them all and turned them into monsters.  She used ESP to hear his thoughts, and she knew that he was mostly telling the truth, but that he wasn’t a prisoner – he was a Red Scarf himself. When she was done with her questioning, Nico incapacitated him, and they bound him to take him back to the Dandolos.

Inside the three boxes, they found 80 gp, a sword +1, and a potion of speed. Gianna took the sword, and Pietro took the potion.

Upon returning to the Dandolos, the party was rewarded 50gp each. They returned the silk and handed in the clues and their prisoner. It is now evident that the caravan thefts were no mere acts of banditry but part of a larger plot by the Society of the Red Scarf to overthrow the Doge and destabilize Venice at the behest of one of its chief rivals.

The party has earned the confidence of Francesco Dandolo, the patriarch of the Dandolo family. He has promised to give them another important task soon.