The Sixfold Trial - Session 11: The Asmodean Knot, Part I

Dramatis Personae

Alizander Carmelizzia - Human (Varisian) sorcerer
Carlos Santiago - Half-orc (Alkenstarian) wizard
Slavé – Tiefling (in guise as a human named Jencen) rogue

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

Wealday, 28 Neth, 4708 A.R.

The party takes some time to discern the properties of the items taken from the dead elf. Alizander is shocked when he realizes that the tattered parchment he withdrew from the backpack is in fact the vehicle for a runecurse – an insidious curse that subjects the one who accepts the cursed item to some future calamity (often a hostile visitor from Hell or something equally as undesirable). The infernal text on the parchment indicates the name of an osyluth devil – one Nyxervex – as the one to carry out the curse. Alizander pockets the parchment, knowing that unless he can somehow get someone else to accept the item, this Nyxervex will come for him.

After consoling the shaken Varisian, the party continues into the Asmodean Knot. The hallways beyond the entrance are guarded by a trio of large, spine-covered hellish hounds that bray a maddening, incessant howl. The howlers send Alizander into unconsciousness before finally being dispatched. In the shadowy hallways that the howlers prowled, the party finds a collection of books focused on methods of torture (both as a means of interrogation and entertainment). One book in particular stands out for its relative newness and lavish illustrations – Drowned Jabe and His Miserable Brothers and Sisters. Jencen (Slavé) peruses the work; it tells the tale of a thief and his companions who came to the Asmodean Knot and drowned there, only to live on after death as ‘Drowned Jabe.’

The party moves deeper into the Asmodean Knot, navigating through a mind-numbing series of rooms featuring shafts and stairs that, impossibly, seem to twist and turn back upon themselves. The party narrowly avoids the undead shadow beasts that guard this bewildering place. Indeed, Tavo succeeds in bending one of the shadows to his own control, and bids it follow them as they leave the looping shafts and enter an old, forgotten prison are of the Knot. Within the prison, the party finds only one surviving inmate – a leering, rambling, somewhat insane bearded devil gone mad from years of imprisonment. Jencen is the first to spot the barbazu, and immediately thinks the runecursed parchment may be linked to the devil. Alizander (still somewhat delirious from the howlers’ braying, and increasingly distraught by the runecurse) offers the parchment to Jencen, who, in a moment of addled wits, accepts it, and thereby transfers the curse from Alizander to himself. Alizander skips happily away, eager to leave the devil behind and continue into the Knot. Jencen, realizing his error, watches as Alizander disappears down the hall, his eyes like black daggers. Tavo, Vaeden, and Carlos come down the hallway and join Jencen. They turn their attention back to the barbazu.

The devil holds and caresses a strange, red crystal glaive. He slips in and out of lucidity, one moment shouting in rage at ‘Lord Vheed’ (whom several party members recall as the former mayor of Westcrown, prior to the current Lord-Mayor Arvanxi) for some past slight, and another begging for release. The party learns that the barbazu’s name is Szasmir. Tavo, Jencen, Vaeden and Carlos debate over the wisdom of making a deal with the devil, while Alizander leaves the prison and continues downstairs, arriving in a large and dank room featuring a large pool of churning, muddy water. Alizander fires a bolt of electricity into the water and is answered by a trio of rotting, waterlogged ghouls dressed in tattered rags that burst out of the muck. The three undead creatures are followed closely by another, larger drowned man with empty, black eyes. The stench that emanates from the larger one is overpoweringly horrid. Alizander bolts from the room and runs upstairs, waving his arms and gesticulating wildly before slamming hard into the half-orc Carlos. The drowned undead quartet follows close behind.

Treasure

· Book – Drowned Jabe and His Miserable Brothers and Sisters – 400 gp (grants +2 competence bonus on Knowledge (religion) checks made on topics relating to undead)

· Handy Haversack – from session 10

· Scrolls (chill touch, command undead, ray of exhaustion, vampiric touch, false life) – from session 10

· Wand of Restoration – from session 10

· Runecursed parchment – from session 10

Experience Awards

· Howlers (3) – 2400 xp

· Shadows (2) – 1600 xp

· Total – 4000 xp

· Per PC (5) – 800 xp

Current XP Totals per PC

· Alizander, Carlos, Slavé, Vaeden – 10,455 xp each

· Tavo – 9800 xp

· Nagiphax – 9135 xp

· Croso, Orem – 2875 xp

· Total Current Fame Points – 8

The Sixfold Trial - Session 10: The Cornucopia

Dramatis Personae

Alizander Carmelizzia - Human (Varisian) sorcerer
Carlos Santiago - Half-orc (Alkenstarian) wizard
Nagiphax - Cyclops-kin rogue/barbarian
Slavé – Tiefling (disguised as a human named Jencen) rogue

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

Wealday, 28 Neth, 4708 A.R.

Janiven and Arael provide the group with several healing and restorative potions, unsure of what they might face if they are successful in gaining entry into the Asmodean Knot while at the Lord-Mayor’s party.

Alizander, Carlos, Nagiphax, Slavé (as Jencen), Tavo, Vaeden, and the rest of the main players in The Six Trials of Larazod arrive at the Lord-Mayor’s party in full costume, and are ushered into the monstrous villa’s main hall, where they are introduced to the Wiscrani elite. The party – called The Cornucopia – unfolds in a series of six decadent courses, featuring ever-more exotic dishes and increasingly intoxicating wines and spirits. The group trades gossip with several of Westcrown’s most decorated citizens, including members of the nobility (the shrewd Eirtein Oberigo, the lush Sascar Tilernos, and the beautiful but dangerous-looking Chammady Drovenge), General Vourne (the Commander of the Gemcrown Fleet, based out of Egorian), Crosael Rasdovain (the Lord-Mayor’s most knowledgeable majordomo) and the Lord-Mayor Aberian Arvanxi himself. From these individuals the party learns several important pieces of information, including:

· that the rumours of the Lord-Mayor’s villa being powered by an imprisoned pit fiend in the dungeons below the manor (the so-called Nessian Spiral) are purportedly true, and that the pit fiend was a gift from House Thrune to the first Lord-Mayor (of the Thrune-era) 70 years ago;

· that the Lord-Mayor is concerned by the minor glitches and troubles he has been experiencing with the powered lights, running hot water, and fireplaces in his villa of late;

· that the wine and narcotics being served at the party are especially potent and that if they wish to remain sensible by the party’s end they should pace themselves and eat with caution;

· that Crosael is concerned about one of the newer hires – a servant by the name of Sian who’s been missing for two days now along with a valuable bust of Asmodeus;

· that the Asmodean Knot is said to be a pocket dimension that is accessible from a special mirror hidden somewhere in the house, and that it is likely guarded by devils and shadowy undead; and

· that Sascar believes the stories that Aberian Arvanxi has a sick, deformed son locked in the attic.

As the 40 or so patrons of the Cornucopia partake of the final course and reach a state of orgiastic, inebriated oblivion, the Returners head surreptitiously upstairs and begin looking for the entrance to the Asmodean Knot (Vaeden ensures that Calseinica, his costar in The Six Trials of Larazod, is safely asleep in her room before heading out). It doesn’t take them long to find the special mirror located in a secret room in the attic. Merely touching the metallic surface of the mirrors whisks the party-members into a long, corridor paneled in an unusual, polished grey wood – the entrance to the Asmodean Knot. At their feet in the hallway is the corpse of what appears to be an elven man wearing old, tattered wizarding robes. Alizander picks up the dead elf's backpack and begins rooting through it for clues and information.

Treasure

· Potions of Cure Serious Wounds (6) – from Janiven and Arael

· Potions of Lesser Restoration (6) – from Janiven and Arael

· Backpack (unidentified, moderate conjuration) – from dead elf

· Pearl (unidentified, strong transmutation) – from dead elf

· Scrolls (5 – unidentified, all radiate necromancy) – from dead elf

· Wand (unidentified, moderate conjuration) – from dead elf

· Tattered parchment (non-magical, not yet examined) – from dead elf

Experience Awards

· Learning Gossip (Lord-Mayor Aberian Arvanxi) – 800 xp

· Learning Gossip (Crosael Simiin Radovain) – 800 xp

· Learning Gossip (General Vourne) – 800 xp

· Learning Gossip (Eirtein Oberigo) – 800 xp

· Learning Gossip (Sascar Tilernos) – 800 xp

· Finding entrance to the Asmodean Knot – 3400 xp

· Total – 7400 xp

· Per PC (6) – 1200 xp

Current XP Totals Per PC (after session 9)

· Alizander, Carlos, Slavé, Vaeden – 9655 xp each

· Nagiphax – 9135 xp

· Tavo – 9000 xp

· Croso, Orem – 2875 xp

· Total Current Fame Points - 8

The Sixfold Trial - Session 9: The Six Trials of Larazod

Dramatis Personae

Alizander Carmelizzia - Human (Varisian) sorcerer
Carlos Santiago - Half-orc (Alkenstarian) wizard
Nagiphax - Cyclops-kin rogue
Slavé – Tiefling (appears human) rogue

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

Moonday, 26 Neth, 4708 A.R.

The actors are paraded through the streets of Westcrown, from the Parego Spera to a barge on the eastern shore which ferries them across the River Adivian to the Parego Regicona, the fortress island that houses the nobles and elite of Wiscrani society.

The troupe is transported with much fanfare to the Nightshade Theatre, a colossal theatre dressed in Egorian black and red; Lord-Mayor Arvanxi’s most recent architectural paean in honour of excess and extravagance. At four o’clock sharp, Robahl Nonon welcomes the audience, Visbarontess Delour sings an aria introducing the Six Trials of Larazod, and the curtain rises.

The actors proceed through the seven acts of the play, enduring ever more dangerous and deadly trials as the show progresses. The plot and background of the play are as follows:

Larazod receives a vision from Asmodeus in which the dark god unveils a prominent Chelish magistrate—the sinister Paraduke Montigny Haanderthan – as a traitor to Cheliax, who has compacted with demonic powers and plans to bring the worship of Asmodeus to a sharp and brutal end. Burning with unholy justice and diabolical purpose, Larazod, along with his stalwart companions, sets out to expose the highly placed traitor Haanderthan. They are greatly overmatched, as Larazod is a minor scion of a piddling noble house whose influence lies tattered in the wake of Thrune's seizure of power in Cheliax. Undaunted, Larazod vows a smoldering blood oath to Asmodeus to see the traitor fall before Haanderthan's actions bring the dark glory of Cheliax low.

Larazod's actions swiftly bring him to the attention of the Paraduke, who has the young tiefling scooped up in the crushing grasp of the law and brought before his dark tribunal for questioning. There, a dire confrontation ensues wherein Larazod reveals his vision and heaps accusations upon Haanderthan in full view of a well-attended tribunal session. Outrage and scandal threaten to topple the order of things, and Larazod's enemies grow in number. Only one high-placed member of the tribunal takes his part—a beautiful daughter of House Sarini and rival of Haanderthan named Ilsandra. A sultry love affair between Ilsandra and Larazod develops as the pair seeks to topple the treacherous Haanderthan.

Haanderthan, using the awesome influence granted a man of his stature, forces Larazod to undergo six trials to prove the truth of his accusations, stating, "If Asmodeus truly granted you this vision, then his almighty black hand shall shield you from dismemberment and disembowelment in the trials we've planned. Surely your faith does not waver?" Larazod agrees to the trials, blasting the magistrate with unholy oaths to see his foolish plans undone.

The trials follow. Combat with foul beasts and grievous tortures leaves Larazod and his companions brutally maimed both in body and soul. At its climax, though, Larazod emerges unharmed and is vindicated as Asmodeus himself drags the nefarious magistrate to Hell.

The party survives the deadly play – suffering through torture and self-mutilation, immersion within an acid-filled statue of a vast serpent, and battle with demon-spawn and skeletal beasts – to the great amusement of Lord-Mayor Aberian Arvanxi and his fawning audience of nobles. Arvanxi thanks the troupe before their exit, and tells them to expect formal invitations to a party to celebrate the success of the once-banned play at his villa in the coming days. The troupe makes its way back to the Limehouse theatre in the Spera, arriving soon before nightfall. Thesing leaves early (clearly perturbed by the party’s popularity), and Delour makes her exit excusing her need for beauty rest. After several bottles of Robahl’s best vintage, Vaeden and Calseinica explore their budding relationship further. The other party members celebrate the success of the play well into the early morning hours, returning to the Adventurers’ Quarter only after the sun has risen over Westcrown once more.

Treasure

· Payment after completing the Six Trials of Larazod - 1500 gp per PC

Experience Awards

· Act II – Trial by Torture - 800 xp

· Act III – Trial by Pleasure - 1200 xp

· Act IV – Trial in the Belly of the Beast - 1200 xp

· Act V – The Birthing Trial (5 lemures) - 2000 xp

· Act VI – Trial by Combat and Love (2 troll skeletons) - 1600 xp

· Story Award (surviving the Six Trials of Larazod) - 4000 xp

· Total - 10,800 xp

· Per PC (6) - 1800 xp

· Fame Points (based on Popularity points garnered) - 3

Current XP Totals Per PC (after session 9)

· Alizander, Carlos, Slavé, Vaeden – 8455 xp each

· Nagiphax – 7935 xp

· Tavo – 7795 xp

· Croso, Orem – 2875 xp

· Total Current Fame Points - 8