The Infernal Syndrome - Session 25: Rumble at the Gatehouse

Dramatis Personae

Alizander Carmelizzia - Human (Varisian) sorcerer
Boecca – Half-orc inquisitor of Erastil

Carlos Santiago - Half-orc (Alkenstarian) wizard
Nagiphax – Cyclops-kin rogue/barbarian

Slavé/Jancen – Tiefling (in guise as a human) rogue/assassin

Tavo Dechirent - Human cleric of Pharasma
Vaeden Corleone - Human rogue

Toilday, 14 Calistril, 4709 A.R.

Nyxervex the bone devil uses its ability to assume invisible form to keep the Returners at a disadvantage. The Returners outnumber the osyluth by a considerable margin, however, and eventually force Nyxervex to retreat to the Rasdovain gatehouse, sealing the entrance with a magically-created wall of ice.

Repeated blows from Vaeden, Nagiphax, and Boecca eventually damage enough of the icewall that the group can enter the gatehouse. There they find several of Nyxervex’s servants – oversized lumbering lemure devils – and battle is once again joined. The fight spills over into the looted and ruined Rasdovain manor as the Returners harry the lemures from a distance. Nyxervex eventually rejoins the fight, first trying to fool the group and wear it down using an illusory projection of itself, then wading headlong into the fray once it becomes clear the illusory projection has worn out its effect. Nyxerves is gradually beaten down by the group, but alas, manages to teleport away before anyone can land a final, killing blow.

As Boecca, Vaeden, Tavo, Nagiphax, and Carlos are busy dealing with Nyxervex and the lemures in the Rasdovain gatehouse, Jancen and Alizander head to the surviving wing of Aberian Arvanxi’s manor, and come to the large black door leading off from the now-destroyed dining hall. Jancen sets of a noisy alarm when he touches the door; Alizander manages to open the locked portal with a spell. The door opens to a long stairwell leading downwards. Jancen heads down and eventually exits into an underground chamber featuring banners hanging from ceiling to floor depicting the circled crimson cross emblem of Cheliax. The tiefling’s heightened sense of vision reveals several humanoid shapes behind the banners. Before he is able to react, Jancen is attacked by the four figures – three men and a woman, all wearing fine suits of leather armour and wielding slim rapiers. Two of the rapiers slip in between the greaves of Jancen’s armour, drawing blood on their way out. Jancen winces at the pain, then steps back from the four thieves and raises his own sword in defence, claiming only to be looking for Crosael.

“Crosael,” says one of the men, “well you’re a little off track then aren’t you? She’s upstairs in the house, unless that blasted she-devil got her. With any luck she’ll get “the Dealer” too, bloody halfling. I suppose you just happened to open the door upstairs by accident did you? Better start talking berk, if you expect to get out of here alive.”

Through some skillful diplomacy, and more than a little trickery, Jancen manages to convince the thieves to let him go visit Crosael. Jancen heads back upstairs and joins Alizander, telling him that he believes they have found the entrance to the Nessian Spiral – the dungeon underneath Aberian’s manor that houses Liebdaga the Twin. As the two are talking, they are set upon by four more thieves who emerge from a second doorway into the surviving wing of the manor. As the thieves get closer, Alizander and Jancen see that they are led by a halfling – rarely seen in Cheliax except as slaves and servants. As the halfling approaches, he seems to be absently toying with a small deck of cards in his child-sized hands.

“Only two of you hmm?” says the halfling, his voice tinged with a note of sarcasm. “No matter, with any luck the osyluth has taken care of your friends by now. We’ll have you delivered to the Council soon enough.”

Treasure

· Magic longsword (properties unknown)

· Magic composite longbow (properties unknown)

· 50-foot silk rope

· Masterwork longspear (worth 152 gp)

· Magic arrows (16) (properties unknown)

Experience Awards

· Lumbering Lemures (3) – 4800 xp

· Total – 4800 xp

· Per PC (7) – 686 xp

Current XP Total per PC

· Alizander, Carlos, Slavé, Vaeden – 35,231 xp each

· Boecca – 32,476 xp

· Nagiphax, Tavo – 31,486 xp

· Total Current Fame Points – 15

Council of Thieves, Part 4: The Infernal Syndrome - Session 24: Ground Zero

Dramatis Personae

Alizander Carmelizzia - Human (Varisian) sorcerer
Boecca – Half-orc inquisitor of Erastil

Carlos Santiago - Half-orc (Alkenstarian) wizard
Nagiphax – Cyclops-kin rogue/barbarian

Slavé/Jancen – Tiefling (in guise as a human) rogue/assassin

Tavo Dechirent - Human cleric of Pharasma
Vaeden Corleone - Human rogue

Toilday, 14 Calistril, 4709 A.R.

Jancen and Boecca manage to come to a truce of sorts, and agree to deliver Aberian to the authorities. They convince Aberian that it is in his best interest to turn himself into the dottari, and the Lord-Mayor (still in Boecca’s shackles) agrees to accompany the two Returners. Jancen has other plans in mind, however, and leads Aberian through the city and into the Rego Crua (the northern ruins), where, much to Aberian’s dismay, he is handed over to Pontia and the Order of the Scourge for questioning.

Meanwhile, Carlos scouts over the blasted ruin of the Lord-Mayor’s estate, both invisible and flying in order to avoid detection. He notices little activity, beyond several dottari guards at barricades blocking entrance on foot into ground zero, but does get a closer look at the deep crater left behind by the explosion. While in the crater, a growing sense of dread and fear builds until a panicked Carlos finds he cannot stay in the area any longer, and makes his way back to the rest of the Returners, whom he finds talking with a dottari lieutenant at one of the barricades.

Vaeden, Tavo, Nagiphax, and Alizander speak to the dottari, questioning the guards and the lieutenant about activity at the ruined estate. The dottari lieutenant is vague on details, muttering something about seeing several small, fire-shrouded devil-creatures wielding tridents entering the Rasdovain gatehouse just north of the ruin. Vaeden and Tavo sense something off about the distracted lieutenant, and determine that he may be under some sort of enchantment or compulsion. With the help of Carlos, they manage to remove the charm effect from the lieutenant, and learn that he was recently attacked and dominated by a lanky, feral-looking man who called himself as Jerusen and kept referring to the “Master of Shadows”. The Returners suspect that the Master of Shadows may be Ilnerik Sivanshin, the half-elf believed to be in possession of the Totemrix, twin to the Morrowfall and the other half of the Aohl artifact. The lieutenant is grateful to the Returners, and warns them to be on the lookout for Jerusen, who is surely aware that the lieutenant is no longer under his control. The lieutenant grants permission to the Returners to enter the area, and appoints one of the other dottari as commander of the barricade guard while he heads to a dottari guardhouse to make his report and seek protection.

Jancen and Boecca return and join the rest of the Returners at this point. Jancen and Vaeden decide to enter ground zero first and scout the area from the shadows. They avoid the raging tornadoes of fire that surround the crater, finding they give off almost no heat whatsoever until they approach within ten feet or so. The two rogues notice something lurking in the rubble as they near the still-standing east-wing of Aberian’s Folly. Unfortunately, the figure has also been watching them, and suddenly takes flight. A lithe and beautiful female form rises into the air on a pair of glistening black-feathered wings. She wields an ebony bow tinged with flecks of fire, and strikes an imposing silhouetted against the backdrop of blistering hellfire tornado and smoky night sky. The erinyes devil brings her bow to bear, and just as she readies to fire at Vaeden, Boecca lets loose an arrow from his vantage point about 200 feet away. The arrow flies true and strikes the erinyes at a critical joint where her wing meets her shoulder. Pain lances through the devil’s body, stunning her momentarily and sending her plummeting to the ground below. The rest of the party, still waiting behind the barricade, witness the event and rush into the area. The erinyes invokes the darkness and torment of hell in an effort to keep the Returners off of her, but the wound in her shoulder proves too great, and she falls under the attacks of the Returners. Before she succumbs, she manages to scream for aid from a being named Nyxervex – a name several of the Returners recall from their excursion into the Asmodean Knot several months ago. Nyxervex soon reveals himself, stepping from the Rasdovain gatehouse just north of the crater. The imposing 9-foot tall bone devil joins the battle, striking at the Returners with its skeletal claws and poisonous stinging tail.

Experience Awards

· Story award (delivering Arvanxi to the authorities) – 4800 xp

· Story award (removing enchantment from dottari lieutenant) – 3000 xp

· Isavenda (erinyes devil) – 4800 xp

· Total – 12600 xp

· Per PC (7) – 1800 xp

· Fame Points (for delivering Arvanxi to the authorities) - 1

Current XP Total per PC

· Alizander, Carlos, Slavé, Vaeden – 34,545 xp each

· Boecca – 31,790 xp

· Nagiphax, Tavo – 30,800 xp

· Total Current Fame Points – 15

Session 23: Interim

Dramatis Personae

Alizander Carmelizzia - Human (Varisian) sorcerer
Boecca – Half-orc inquisitor of Erastil

Carlos Santiago - Half-orc (Alkenstarian) wizard
Slavé/Jancen – Tiefling (in guise as a human) rogue

Tavo Dechirent - Human cleric of Pharasma
Vaeden Corleone - Human rogue

Toilday, 9 Abadius, 4709 A.R.

Boecca’s interrogation of Jancen nearly leads to blows between the two, but Jancen decides to step away from the conflict once several other party members enter the argument, deciding compromise over conflict is in his best interest at the time. Jancen gives the Morrowfall to Carlos, who begins to work out the capabilities of the artifact.

The Returners finish their exploration of Delvehaven, returning to the cellar level where they discover the secret lounge and several interesting artifacts still remaining there. They exit the lodge in the late afternoon, just prior to sunset, and make their way back to the Returners’ safehouse before it gets dark. There, they confer with Ailyn Ghontasavos, who is overjoyed at the success of the group in infiltrating the abandoned lodge and ridding it of most of its undesirable squatters. She gladly thanks them for the news of Bisby’s unquiet spirit and the evidence of Master Liriam’s passing before indicating that she plans on leaving for the great city of Absalom in the coming days, where she hopes to bring her case to the Pathfinder Society and return with a group to reclaim old Delvehaven. She expresses her hope that the Returners find success in retrieving the Totemrix – the shadow-half of the Aohl – from Ilnerik Sivanshin, and that they are able to merge it with the Morrowfall and put Bisby’s spirit to rest, as well as eradicating the shadow presence from Westcrown. That, she says, will cement their influence with the populace if nothing else will.

Wealday, 10 Abadius, to Sunday, 12 Calistril, 4709 A.R.

Rumours of the Returners successful infiltration of Delvehaven ripple through the city, spread in part by the supporters of the Returners. Alizander, Carlos, Tavo, Vaeden, and even Boecca are recognized on the street, especially in the Adventurers’ Quarter, where support of the Returners’ revolutionary ideals is strongest. The groups’ old friend Nagiphax reports increased patrols of both dottari and Order of the Rack Hellknights in the Adventurers’ Quarter, although she points out that the Hellknights were the more belligerent of the two, and in fact some of the dottari professed a certain respect for the Returners – after several pints of the Beer Golem tavern’s strongest oatmeal stout, on the house of course.

The party members return to a semblance of normal life during this period. Carlos begins plans for a magic and curio shop of his own, even convincing Vaeden and Boecca to return with him to Delvehaven to retrieve the remains of the model frigate in the Mariners Museum room. Alizander makes a return to Delvehaven himself, and successfully frees Mirrorskin the water elemental from its bonded state in the vanity room before dismissing it back to its home plane. Slavé, ever the black sheep of the group, dissociates himself from the Returners for a time and reports back to Pontia Runario at the Order of the Scourge headquarters. Pleased with Slavé’s observations in Delvehaven, she tests his loyalty by giving him a new task: track down and deliver justice to one Marduzi, a Hellknight armiger who was recently caught with contraband material (personal items related to the worship of Cayden Cailean). Rather than face punishment, Marduzi deserted his post and sealed his fate. Slavé tracks the deserter several blocks from the Red Duchess tavern in the Rego Crua and, after a brief exchange with his young wife, tricks Marduzi into believing he is a friend. Inviting Marduzi for a drink at the Red Duchess, Slavé delivers Hellknight retribution to the poor berk in the form of a poisoned shot of whiskey and a dirk in the back.

Toilday, 14 Calistril, 4709 A.R.

As the sun sets in Westcrown the streets grow silent. Wiscrani shutter their windows and lock the doors at night; the shadows remain an everpresent threat in the city, and fear keeps the citizenry out of the streets. Dottari patrol the main streets, carrying large halorans to light the way and keep the shadows at bay.

At mid-evening a terrible thunder tears through the city, rattling windows in their frames and knocking books from shelves. The Returners – some sharing stories at the safehouse in the Rego Sacero (Priest Sector), others at the Beer Golem tavern in the Adventurers’ Quarter – rush out into the night to witness a disturbing sight. A ball of fire and smoke rising into a mushroom-shaped cloud rises to the south, more or less directly above Lord-Mayor Aberian Arvanxi’s sprawling manor. Several party members notice something particularly unsettling – as the ball of fire and smoke rises into the sky, it seems at times almost to resemble a leering devilish face, with eyes of hellfire and teeth of white-hot ash. The initial explosion is over soon enough, but what remains behind is even more unusual. Fire pillars of fire, like stationary tornadoes of flame, spiral up into the sky around the explosion site, trailing into the dark night sky and lighting the southern view with an infernal radiance.

As knowledge of the explosion spreads, the city descends into chaos. Wiscrani rush into the streets, heedless of the dangers of wandering shadow-spawn. The Returners head toward the location of the pillars of fire as fast as they can, but the going is slow through the choked streets. Tavo gathers several of the lesser-known Returners (Sclavo, Amaya, Vitti, and so on) and sets up several first aid stations en-route to ground zero to assist citizens in need – those with broken and twisted ankles, broken bones from flying debris, and worse injuries from looters and the still-present shadow-creatures. A dottari duxotar (captain) recognizes the party and asks them to be on the lookout for the Lord-Mayor, as the dottari desire very much to question him on the explosion. The duxotar insists that if he is found that he be delivered to the dottari, as they suspect the Hellknights would transport him to Citadel Ravid, never to be seen again. The party members hear several other rumours as they make their way to the Lord-Mayor’s estate, including one that Sascar Tilernos, of House Tilernos, has gone missing since the explosion, and another that the Mhartis family home, located near Aberian’s estate, is apparently “cursed”, and perhaps the disappearance of guards and servants at the Mhartis estate has something to do with the explosion.

As the group comes closer to ground zero, both Slavé (as Jancen) and Boecca notice someone watching them from a dark side alley. Before they can react, the figure steps into the light and reveals itself to be the Lord-Mayor. Aberian is in terrible condition – his clothes are filthy and torn, blood cakes his head and hands and stains his clothes, and his expression is one of fear and terror. He beckons the party closer, moving back into the alley to stay hidden.

“I must warn you of something of dire importance. I know you don’t believe me, but I tell you the truth when I say that I love this city. I haven’t been the best mayor, and those who hate me have reason to, but what’s happening up the hill will ruin everything. You’ve doubtless heard the rumours – that there’s a devil imprisoned under my home and its infernal power is the source of my manor’s extravagances. Those rumours are correct. The devil’s name is Liebdaga the Twin – he’s an infernal duke from Avernus, and the House of Thrune put him there. But now something’s gone wrong. I caught my majordomo, that bitch Crosael, trying to steal the contract that details the conditions of Liebdaga’s imprisonment from a hidden safe in my chambers, and now the ruins of my home are crawling with devils, thugs, diabolists, and worse. Seems Crosael’s more than she appeared – not only is she actually a damnable tiefling, but she’s been working for the Council of Thieves all this time!”

Aberian begs the party to venture into the dungeon under his ruined manor – a place called the Nessian Spiral – and keep Liebdaga the Twin from escaping. The party learns that Aberian has a copy of the contract consigning Liebdaga the Twin to the dungeons under Aberian’s manor – a place called the Nessian Spiral – and that he is willing to sign partial ownership of the contract over to them. Aberian insists that this should grant the party a bit of leverage against Liebdaga when they confront him, and they might even be able to use their ownership of the contract to bypass some guardians and traps in the Nessian Spiral. He points out a clause that states: “The undersigned shall be considered bound by this contract, and shall be granted access to the Nessian Spiral’s workings should the need for repairs or adjustments arise.” The contract mentions a method of shutting down the infernal engine within the Nessian Spiral safely – somewhere in the Spiral are five cooling pools, where waters from the River Styx are drawn in from the Great Beyond to regulate the infernal energies drawn off of the pit fiend, and in the event of a cataclysmic failure, the flow of the waters from the Styx can be shut off with the application of a device called a Stygian Keyrod once kept by the Spiral’s Keepers. Shutting off this flow of unholy water should throttle the engine’s energy output, and while this could cause the engine to falter and fail, it is a much preferred solution than the destruction of the engine and release of its occupant. The contract itself closes with a notation that “This contract remains binding and legal for all perpetuity so long as the consigned component of the infernal engine be a viable source of power, as witnessed here by Signatory Vaccha, Kolyarut of the Scriptures of Adamantine.”

Aberian says he knows little of the Nessian Spiral, save that it is maintained by a group of tieflings that live in indentured servitude in the dungeon known as the “Spiral’s Keepers”, though Aberian prefers to call them “tunnel rats”. The tunnel rats currently serving there are the fourth generation, and Aberian remembers when Thrune agents arrived to install them and take the old ones away. He recalls the tiefling priest who Thrune selected to be the commander of the keepers – Veladness, a dark-eyed, evil-looking mongrel with glowing spidery stripes along with sides of his head and whose grating voice sent chills down the mayor’s spine. Aberian left details of shipments of food and supplies to the tieflings to his majordomo, Crosael.

As the Lord-Mayor makes ready to depart, Boecca steps in to stop him, insisting that he tell the dottari the same story he told them. Jancen tells Boecca to let him go, and Aberian turns tail and attempts to run. Boecca casts a hold person spell, freezing the Lord-Mayor in place, while Jancen rushes up to him and drags him into a nearby building. Alizander watches, carefully weighing his options and wondering whether he should assist in capturing the Lord-Mayor or let him go.

Treasure:

- From session 22: Whisperlash, +2 defending mithral rapier (worth 4160 gp); Hand of the Pharoah of Nagas (as luckstone, worth 10,000 gp), 5 ancient treaties (750 gp - 150 gp each)

· From the Delvehaven Tavern

o Elven spirit wine (4 bottles, 4600 A.R. vintage) (worth 700 gp total – 175 gp each)

o Potions of cure moderate wounds (2) (worth 300 gp – 150 gp each)

o Potions of lesser restoration (2) (worth 300 gp – 150 gp each)

o Potion of levitate (worth 150 gp)

o Potions of mage armour (2) (worth 50 gp – 25 gp each)

o Potion of protection from arrows (worth 150 gp)

o Potion of reduce person (worth 25 gp)

· From the Private Lounge

o Pre-Thrune Chelish banner (worth 75 gp)

o Oil of daylight (worth 375 gp)

o Scroll of sending (worth 562 gp)

o Scroll of lesser invulnerability (worth 350 gp)

o Talisman of the Orc Mother’s Fury (worth 6000 gp)

Experience Awards

· Haunt – Bisby’s bickering – 2400 xp

· Story Award (releasing Mirrorskin – Alizander) – 2400 xp

· Story Award (returning to Delvehaven and retrieving frigate model – Carlos, Boecca, Vaeden) – 2400 xp

· Story Award (assassinating Marduzi, the Hellknight defector – Slavé) – 2400 xp

· Story Award (setting up first aid stations following explosion at Aberian’s Folly – Tavo) – 2400 xp

· Total – 12000 xp

· Per PC (6) – 2000 xp each

· Fame Points (for successfully infiltrating Delvehaven) - 2

Current XP Total per PC

· Alizander, Carlos, Slavé, Vaeden – 32,745 xp each

· Boecca – 29,990 xp

· Tavo – 27,410 xp

· Total Current Fame Points – 14

What Lies in Dust - Session 22: Delvehaven, Part V

Dramatis Personae

Alizander Carmelizzia - Human (Varisian) sorcerer
Boecca – Half-orc inquisitor of Erastil

Carlos Santiago - Half-orc (Alkenstarian) wizard
Slavé/Jancen – Tiefling (in guise as a human) rogue

Tavo Dechirent - Human cleric of Pharasma
Vaeden Corleone - Human rogue

Toilday, 9 Abadius, 4709 A.R.

Vaeden is the first to react, and strides confidently into the room to confront the cloaked figure. As he crosses the threshold, he catches something out of the corner of his eye – another figure in the room, clinging to the high ceiling like a spider. Vaeden calls back to the rest of the group to let them know there is another enemy in the room before advancing on the cloaked figure. Vaeden holds a string of garlic bulbs before him as he advances. The cloaked figure recoils from the garlic, averting his red-glowing eyes from the hated substance and brandishing his barbed short sword in defense.

The vampire spawn on the ceiling spits a curse at Vaeden and orders him to step away from Master Jair. Vaeden ignores the undead thrall’s compelling voice and continues to rebuke the cloaked vampire – Jair. Jair, meanwhile, steps away from the repellant garlic and invokes a prayer to Norgorber, the Keeper of Secrets: “By Norgorber’s will, the world shall evermore be hidden from you, its secrets forever dark.” Vaeden senses a dark shroud covering his eyes and is struck utterly blind.

Carlos pulls out the scroll of sunburst from its case and shouts for everyone to get out of the room and behind cover. Before the vampires are able to react, he reads the words on the scroll. The letters flare into brightness as he reads each word. As he finishes the scroll, the illuminated letters grow more brilliant, until the brightness seems to coalesce into a single blinding bead of intense light and heat. Jair and the vampire thrall look on in dismay as the bead travels into the room. The bead reaches the far corner of the room and seems to implode upon itself, growing suddenly dark before exploding into a supernova of blinding, burning light. As the Returners eyes readjust to the dim light of the vault, all that remains of Jair and the vampire thrall are two human-shaped piles of grey ash. Jair’s short sword, chain shirt, and golden unholy symbol of Norgorber lay on the floor near the ash.

Jancen, meanwhile, continues exploring the vault at the end of the hallway, and retrieves several other items from small plinths in the circular room. These include a mithral rapier identified as “Whisperlash, the dueling sword of Baron Augustine II, the Cold Veteran of Oppara”, a well-preserved, five-fingered, long-nailed mummy’s hand identified as “Hand of the Pharoah of Nagas, Osirion”, and an exquisite chess set of alabaster, ebony, and mother of pearl identified as a chess set gifted from Taldor to Cheliax in 4315 AR. As Jancen is examining the finds, he sees a figure coalesce out of red mist nearby. Luckily, Jancen imbibed a potion of invisibility before advancing into the vault and remains unseen by the figure – a ragged-looking vampire thrall.

The thrall spends several moments in the vault, looking for evidence of the one who managed to retrieve the Morrowfall and stop its erratic bursts of light. Jancen quietly makes his way back up the hallway. Meanwhile, Alizander leaves the room with the remains of Jair and his thrall, and makes his way towards the vault. As he rounds the corner he notices the thrall heading back down the hallway. The battle ensues once more, and Boecca, Vaeden, Tavo, and Carlos rush toward the vault as they hear Alizander in combat. As the fight against the single vampire spawn continues, two doorways to either side of the stairway leading back up to the cellar open to reveal two more vampire spawn, and another vampire leader – this one broad-chested and wearing little more than short breaches and an extensive array of swirling, maze-like tattoos. The vampire steps out of the door opened by his vampire thrall and fires two shots from a massive repeating crossbow at Carlos and Alizander. The brutish vampire spits a wad of sticky, clotted blood when he sees Alizander: “Filthy Varisian, you’ll be the first to feel my teeth tearing into your flesh; I’ll suck you drier than an Andoran spinster.”

Thankfully, for Alizander, the tattooed vampire’s threats do not come true, and the Returners defeat the remaining vampires lurking in Delvehaven’s vault. They follow the vampires’ retreating mist-forms to their nearby crypts – hastily established in the old Delvehaven mausoleum. Under Tavo’s advice and instructions, the party drives a wooden stake through the body of each vampire and grisly remove each vampire’s head in order ensure that none of them will return to haunt the halls of the old lodge ever again.

With the vampires destroyed, Jancen finally makes himself known once again. The group quickly searches the rest of the vault level, discovering several ancient treaties in one of the rooms. Boecca, new to the group and unused to Jancen’s devious methods and habit of striking out on his own, confronts the limping rogue, demanding to know where he was and if he had to do anything with the bursts of light suddenly ceasing.

Treasure:

· From Vahnwynne Malkistra’s body (elven vampire)

o 2^nd Wooden stake +1 (worth 1150 gp)

o +1 leather armour (worth 580 gp)

· From Father Jair

o +1 chain shirt (worth 625 gp)

o Short sword +1 (worth 1155 gp)

o Wand of inflict moderate wounds

o Masterwork hand crossbow (200 gp)

o 10 poisoned crossbow bolts (poison not yet identified)

o Gold unholy symbol of Norgorber (worth 200 gp)

o Master Liriam’s wayfinder (worth 250 gp)

· From The Mazeflesh Man

o Repeating heavy crossbow +1 (worth 1350 gp)

o 20 bolts (worth 1 gp)

o Golembane scarab (worth 1250 gp)

· From the Amber Arca (vault)

o Whisperlash, mithral rapier (magical, properties currently unknown)

o Hand of the Pharoah of Nagas (magical, properties currently unknown)

o Taldoran chess set (worth 3500 gp)

o The Morrowfall (minor artifact, properties currently unknown)

· From the Chamber of Treaties (values currently unknown)

o Treaty – Declaration of Haliad I, ca. 4138 AR

o Treaty – letter from Count Andachi, ca. 4042 AR

o Treaty – Minkai declaration of war, ca. 3616 AR

o Treaty – letter from Shadowcount Thenris IV of Nidal, ca. 4577 AR

o Treaty – Taldoran peace treaty, ca. 2133 AR

Experience Awards

· Father Jair, vampire cleric of Norgorber – 3200 xp

· The Mazeflesh Man, vampire fighter – 3200 xp

· Vampire spawn (4) – 4600 xp

· Story Award (securing the Morrowfall) – 9700 xp

· Total – 20,700 xp

· Per PC (6) – 3450 xp each

Current XP Total per PC

· Alizander, Carlos, Slavé, Vaeden – 30,745 xp each

· Boecca – 27,990 xp

· Tavo – 25,410 xp

· Total Current Fame Points – 12

What Lies in Dust - Session 21: Delvehaven, Part IV

Dramatis Personae

Alizander Carmelizzia - Human (Varisian) sorcerer
Boecca – Half-orc inquisitor of Erastil

Carlos Santiago - Half-orc (Alkenstarian) wizard
Slavé/Jancen – Tiefling (in guise as a human) rogue
Vaeden Corleone - Human rogue

Toilday, 9 Abadius, 4709 A.R.

The Returners continue their exploration of Delvehaven, fighting their way past two shadow mastiffs before making their way downstairs into the cellar level. Tavo decides to stand guard at the top of the stairway while the rest of the group continues on. Jancen scouts ahead, gliding silently through the darkened hallways of the long-empty but once opulent lower level. As the main group makes its way downstairs, dim light filters through the hall, casting dancing shadows across the dust-choked flagstone. Jancen continues scouting the hallway, peering first into Delvehaven’s insect museum, then a small wine cellar and tavern.

Vaeden, meanwhile, heads in another direction and scouts another room featuring a upraised stage with a gold, green, and magenta mosaic in the form of an intricate glyph of a road vanishing into the horizon.

As Jancen and Vaeden sneak through the cellar, Alizander, Carlos, and Boecca enter the insect museum. The glass display cases lining the walls of the room are generally smashed; their former contents of desiccated and artfully-mounted specimens strewn about the floor. Most impressive are the larger, giant-sized vermin on display. Dog-sized ants, man-sized spiders, and even a horse-sized scorpion are mounted in threatening postures, although in each case, the immense preserved monster is badly damaged and, in some cases, in pieces. As the three walk about the room, they each feel a disquieting presence. Boecca, in particular, gets the sensation of sudden hunger pangs combined with an unmistakable desire to feed on the flesh and drink the blood of his companions. Ashamed by the overwhelming sensation, and worried that he may be falling under the influence of some unholy force, Boecca pulls out a small vial of holy water and a pinch of silver dust and consecrates the area in the name of Erastil. As he releases the fine silver dust into the air, the hundreds of vermin in the room suddenly lurch into violent life as phantasmal legs, wings, and heads reattach in a single sudden storm of hungry ghost bugs. An instant later, the verminous storm collapses on itself in a cannibalistic orgy, the phantasmal creatures tearing themselves apart and feeding on each other. As the storm of ghostly bugs flies and crawls through Boecca, Carlos, and Alizander, they each receive the sickening vision of feasting on human and half-orc blood and flesh. Wounds appear on their arms and legs that look like bit marks left by decidedly human (and half-orc) teeth, and each of the companions feels himself growing fuller, as if their bellies were distended with flesh chewed from the bodies of their friends. The phantasmal storm of insects disappears as quickly as it began, leaving the companions in a temporary state of shock. Boecca is particularly affected, and doubles over in nausea and shame at the implications of what happened.

Vaeden hears the commotion and returns to his friends in the insect museum, but finds them unwilling to discuss what happened. Jancen, meanwhile, continues scouting ahead of the party, and arrives at a reading room containing the ominous skeletal remains of several individuals – one seated in a velvet sofa, the others a mess of bones in the centre of the room. Carefully looking into the room, he notices something scrawled in crude lettering on the wall opposite the seated skeleton: “He who steals from me dies by my hand.” The grisly pile of skeletal remnants heaped in a mound in the centre of the room seems to testify to this threat. Jancen calls the rest of the Returners over at this point.

The party decides to attempt a séance with the spirit of the reclining skeleton. They open the Chelish Crux and retrieve their last remaining grave candle. Khazrae Kuelata, the severed erinyes head residing within the Crux, is surprisingly quiet and lucid at the time, and tells the party that she believes the skeleton to be the remains of the famous Pathfinder, Donatalus Bisby. As the grave candle is lit, the room seems to darken apart from the single flickering flame. A cold halo surrounds the skeleton, but before the group is able to commune with its spirit, the skull levitates into the air, shouting, “Thieves, thieves, thieves in my house! You did not heed my warning. Now you suffer the consequences!”

A pair of incorporeal shadows rises from the mound of skeletal remains in the centre of the room and attacks the Returners. Bisby’s skull joins the fray, using its latent magical power to send a heart-stopping haunt at Alizander – a vision of his dead wife, rotting and decomposed, floating towards him with his death in her eyes. Alizander feels a stabbing pain in his chest at the vision of his lost love, but manages to shake the vision off. He tosses the Khazrae’s severed head at Bisby’s skull before capturing it in a sack. The rest of the party defeats the undead shadows, and the skull seems to cease its frantic and insane babbling. Alizander opens the bag; it is initially dismissive of the party’s attempts to communicate with it, but becomes much more cooperative after Alizander identifies himself as a Pathfinder.

The essence of Bisby’s spirit, through his animated skull, is able to fill in several holes in the story the party has already learned of his trials following the retrieval of the Aohl. He fears his companion, Ilnerik Sivanshin, stole part of the Aohl and fled to Nidal to sell it there. Bisby explains how the Aohl, once its two components were separated, no longer had countering forces to keep them in check. The portion Ilnerik left behind was called the Morrowfall and depicted an eagle’s head, the representation of a long-dead sun cult, the name of whose god has fallen into obscurity. This portion grew unstable over the week that followed Ilnerik’s departure, periodically emitting blinding and searing blasts of sunlight so that the Pathfinders were forced to secure it in a deep vault below, both for its security and to prevent the blasts of light from hurting anyone. Bisby tells the Returners that the entrance to the vault is in the Summoning Chamber nearby, and that to open the way, one must spell out the words “Behold the Amber Arca” on the red door.

He also warns the party that it seems likely that the other half of the Aohl, the Totemrix, had a similar building of power. Bisby knows that this portion of the Aohl is the counterpart of the golden eagle – the long-dead demon lord of shadows Vyriavaxus – and he fears that the Totemrix, with its power uncontested by the Morrowfall, may have worked a most unholy transformation on his old friend Ilnerik. He confides as well that “dark spirits” have recently passed through these halls, and that even now he can feel their intrusions in the vault below, beyond his reach. Worse, these “dark spirits” have in them a hideous familiarity – Bisby worries that his friend Ilnerik is behind their appearance, and that they seek to destroy the Morrowfall, which even now works to oppose the Totemrix. With the Morrowfall’s destruction, who knows what shadowy growth and vile magic the keeper of the Totemrix might unleash?

Soon, Bisby feels his lucidity fading. His final act is to thank the Returners for the few minutes of sanity they have given him, after which his skull fades back into silence.

The Returners take several moments to search the room before leaving and loot several items from Bisby’s skeleton (deciding the old Pathfinder would not be overly upset, especially if the items help them reunite the two halves of the Aohl). Jancen is the first to head back down the hall. As he rounds the corner to the hall leading to the Summoning Chamber, a figure springs from the darkness in front of him – a lithe, white-haired elf woman wielding what appears to be two wooden stakes. As she charges toward him, Jancen catches a glimpse of her brilliant red eyes and sharp, gleaming canines before raising his sword in defense. Jancen avoids her initial attack and retreats down the hallway. The elven vampire follows and calls a vampire thrall to her aid.

The elven vampire and her thrall are eventually defeated. As the elven vampire falls, she looks into the face of Boecca. For a moment her large, almond-shaped eyes lose their red glow, and Boecca imagines he can see something other than hate and malice in them. “Please”, she says in a cold, flinty voice, “deliver me from this shame….” The vampire’s physical body dissipates into a blood-tinged mist at that point, and floats down the hallway, through the double doors leading to the Summoning Chamber. One of her wooden stakes lies on the floor in front of Boecca, as if enticing him to follow and finish the deed.

The party follows the retreating mist and enters the Summoning Chamber. Using the password provided by Bisby, they open the secret portal leading downstairs to the vault. There, they face a massive dark hall, once barred by three separate layers of huge vault doors of stone, each now forced apart and hanging askew. Just past the doors are large piles of rubble on which numerous mirrors have been affixed, their reflective surfaces aiming towards the end of the hall. A bright light radiates from the far end of the hall, its energy building and pulsing every few moments. Believing this to be the Morrowfall, Jancen begins advancing down the hallway. The rest of the party heads down another hallway to the west, towards another set of double doors – perhaps the final retreat of the mist-form of the defeated vampire.

As Jancen passes the last broken vault door, the bright light becomes even brighter, and a searing blast fires down the corridor just to the right, narrowly missing him. He runs toward the light as it starts to build again, this time releasing an explosion of blinding light. Jancen closes his eyes just in time, but the intense light still leaves his skin red and blistering. He reaches the end of the hall as the nimbus of light begins to pulsate yet again. As he puts his hand on the source of light, it instantly diminishes, leaving the area shrouded in utter darkness. Jancen is momentarily blinded as the light disappears, but can feel the rough shape of an avian head in his hand – the Morrowfall.

Vaeden, Alizander, Carlos, and Boecca open the double doors to a chamber lined with shelves filled with scorched and burned books and scrolls. In the centre of the room is a coffin. Standing over the coffin is a dark, cloaked figure holding a wooden stake in its hand. The figure plunges the stake into the body of the elven vampire lying in repose within the coffin, slowly turns around, and rises to face the Returners.

Treasure:

· From the Hall of Armour

o +1 full plate +1 (worth 1325 gp)

o +1 light fortification breastplate (worth 2175 gp)

o Masterwork chain shirt (Tian Xia style) with facemask (worth 300 gp)

· From Bisby’s Final Resting Place

o 6 vials of strange dye

o Manticore spike chopsticks (worth 15 gp)

o Bloodstones (6) (worth 300 gp total / 50 gp each)

o Masterwork bolas (worth 152 gp)

o Silver signet whistle (worth 60 gp)

o Golden bell carved with Thassilonian runes (worth 450 gp)

o Ring of swimming (worth 1250 gp)

o Cowardly crouching cloak (worth 900 gp)

o Lens of detection (worth 1750 gp)

o +1 leather armour (worth 580 gp)

o Ring of protection +2 (worth 4000 gp)

o Animal-bane light crossbow +1 (worth 4170 gp)

o Efficient quiver (worth 900 gp)

o Mithral-headed crossbow bolts (60, in quiver) (worth 1500 gp / 25 gp per bolt)

o Javelins of lightning (2, in quiver) (worth 1500 gp / 750 gp each)

o Wayfinder (worth 250 gp)

o Dusty rose prism ioun stone (worth 2500 gp)

· From Vahnwynne Malkistra (elven vampire)

o Wooden stake +1 (worth 1150 gp)

Experience Awards

· Shadow mastiffs (2) – 3200 xp

· Haunt – verminous cannibal storm – 2400 xp

· Shadows (2) – 1600 xp

· Bisby’s skull – 2400 xp

· Hellcat door trap (bypassed) – 3200 xp

· Vahnwynne Malkistra – 3200 xp

· Weakened vampire spawn – 1200 xp

· Story Award (speaking with Bisby’s spirit) – 6000 xp

· Total – 23,200 xp

· Per PC (5) – 4640 xp each

Current XP Total per PC

· Alizander, Carlos, Slavé, Vaeden – 27,295 xp each

· Boecca – 24,540 xp

· Tavo – 21,960 xp