Several days later Anneka and Anderson received a call from a fellow Order member, one Frederick Walker, seeking Anneka’s expertise at a crime scene near the Thames. Joining Mr. Walker at the scene revealed a ritual gone wrong, with the remains of perhaps five individuals smeared across the basement summoning area.
Although the clues in the basement were insufficient to determine the specifics of the ritual, there was a tome, handwritten, containing notes in cipher and a great deal of magical formulae. Evidence upstairs indicated that somebody had escaped from the slaughter, but the tracks quickly led into the city streets where any hope of following was lost.
Anneka and Anderson returned to her home where she attempted to break the cipher on the tome but made little progress. As evening came the pair returned to the crime scene in hopes of finding an overlooked code book to help break the cipher. Though their search turned up fruitless they were on hand to hear a bloodcurdling scream in the nearby area. Racing to the scene they found a grisly sight as some sort of creature was feeding on the corpse of one of the area’s transients. The ensuing fight drove off the creature but gave the pair precious little clues as to what they were up against.
The next day was spent attempting to break the cipher once more, even going so far as to attempt to cross match with the Trojan history they had rescued the week prior. As evening rolled around there was precious little progress and the pair decided to go back to the area and try to confront the creature again. Their plan worked and another battle with the monster ensued before its injuries drove it back off into the water. Though they were unable to defeat the creature they did stop it from feeding that night and were able to collect a contaminated sample of the creature’s blood.
The following day Anneka used the blood sample to set about creating an enchanted item to defeat the creature with while in the evening Anderson sought out Mr Walker’s help in confronting the creature, this time using fire against the aquatic beast. Though there was some difficulty with the improvised firebombs the pair were able to harm the creature significantly and drive it off again, forcing it to be unable to feed once more.
The fourth night Anderson, Anneka, and Walker, armed with firebombs and the enchanted weapon, laid a final trap for the creature. The battle was well fought and brutal the creature finally attempting to flee but being subdued the in the process. With the aid of Anneka’s magic they were able to run it down in the river and dispatch the creature.
Taking it back to The Den they identified the creature as a Deep Spawn, a creature of water and darkness. With this knowledge Anneka was able to extrapolate the meaning of the magical formulae and, with Anderson’s help, over the next couple of weeks they broke the cipher on the ritual text. The author was clearly magically trained but was using incomplete ritual instructions and had been using trial and error to complete the ritual, resulting in a summoning that did not bind the Deep Spawn.
The pair now wonder if this is related to the Cult of Kar’Krados or is an entirely different source of forbidden magic…