Dramatis Personae
Alizander Carmelizzia - Human (Varisian) sorcerer
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
Oathday, 29 Neth, 4708 A.R.
The group decides to leave the chain-room and heads up the stairs into the room labeled ‘Observation’. There they encounter Livia, an unusually talkative (and perhaps half-mad) imp and former familiar of Darghentu Vheed. Livia claims to have been continuing Vheed’s work since his disappearance decades ago, and bids them enter the phobia rooms and retrieve ‘prizes’ from each for her. In return, they will find themselves cured of their insanity (of which they were unaware they were suffering from….) and she will answer for them six questions. Alizander, Jancen and Szasmir head into the phobia rooms, facing several creatures (vipers, spiders, stirges, and small fire elementals) while Tavo stays behind with Livia.
Szasmir speaks to Jancen, indicating that he knows that he carries a heavy burden (the runecurse), and that he knows of a way to be rid of the curse altogether. Jancen seems interested, and Szasmir says that he will tell him how to get rid of the curse if he will locate a person for him, a young girl he once had the pleasure to meet in Westcrown by the name of Amra Tailor. Jancen suggests that Amra may be dead, or very old, by now. Szasmir smiles and says, “Indeed, her body may have aged, but the soul remains the same.” Jancen agrees to help find her location and inform Szasmir when he finds out. Szasmir, pleased with the agreement, tells Jancen that the surest way to remove the runecurse is to turn it back on its creator by tricking them into accepting it. Szasmir says that he recalls the grey-skinned, red-haired woman who let Eliandru free referred to the elf as an ideal carrier, and believes that she may have been referring to the runecurse, in which case she could have been involved in its creation.
Meanwhile, Carlos, in disagreement with Alizander’s decision to parley with the imp, leaves the Observation room and heads further into the Knot, with Vaeden following. Carlos and Vaeden find a large cavern featuring a small lake of rank water, filthy with sewage and detritus. Carlos reads a magical aura on a small island in the middle of the lake, and succeeds in using magic to transport the item across the lake without venturing into the putrid water. Carlos and Vaeden are attacked by a elemental presence within the and Vaeden is hit by a watery appendage before the two manage to escape the room and leave the elemental behind. Carlos examines the item recovered and discovers that it is an unholy symbol of Asmodeus. As he analyses the symbol, he can feel a brooding intelligence within it, and is somehow possessed of the sure knowledge that the symbol contains a fragment of the spirit of its creator, Avengen Doskivari, the first mayor of Westcrown after the Thrune Ascendency and a powerful priest of Asmodeus. Carlos senses that he could communicate with the intelligence if desired, but quickly pockets the unholy symbol instead.
Alizander, Jancen, Szasmir and Tavo are successful in retrieving Livia’s ‘prizes’ (small gemstones) from the phobia rooms, and Livia rewards them by using magic to commune with dark powers. Jancen, Alizander, and Tavo ask her a number of questions and learn several items of information, including: that the shadow creatures stalking the streets of Westcrown were brought into existence by the breaking of an artifact called the Aohl into its twin components – the Morrowfall and the Totemrix; that the writhing chains in the room nearby hold a creature called a kyton and that it powers the Asmodean Knot by acting as a conduit to the Nessian Spiral below Aberian’s villa; that there are three fragments of Avengen Doskivari’s spirit in the Knot – a red crystal glaive, a book about a drowned adventurer, and Avengen’s unholy symbol; that the Chelish Crux (the object of their quest in the Lord-Mayor’s villa) is located in the Crux Sanctum, through the heart of the Asmodean Knot; and that one of the obstacles the party may face in retrieving the Chelish Crux is a creature called the Flawed One, which may be distracted by one or all of Avengen’s spiritual fragments. Finally, Jancen asks where he might find the woman Amra Tailor, and learns that she still lives in the Rego Sacero region of the city. Jancen gives this information to Szasmir, thus ending the deal made with the bearded devil.
Carlos and Vaeden rejoin the group at this time and the party continues its journey through the Asmodean Knot. They soon come to the heart of the Knot – a series of endless shafts stretching into oblivion above and below, with twisting stairs up and down that impossibly lead back to each other. Each circular chamber features several stone archways that are either open or sealed shut with stone masonry in random patterns, depending on when the party enters each chamber. As the group makes its way through the puzzling Knot’s Heart, they hear a raspy, female voice, “I see you managed to convince someone to set you free devil. Well, it is their mistake.”
“And who are you, anyway? Did Crosael send you? She has been far too concerned with my doings these last several weeks. I’m sure she wonders where I have been for the last two days. No matter, I shall dispose of you, learn whatever secrets you have discovered in here, and get out of this place. Crosael can put her mind at ease.”
The owner of the voice is none other than the grey-skinned, flame-haired tiefling woman spoken of by Szasmir. She attacks out of the darkness of the shaft, accompanied by a shadow companion. The party attempts to manoeuvre around the narrow steps to fight the woman and her shadow companion. Jancen decides to play the coward, and recoils from his attacker. He removes his backpack and tosses it to her, “Here, take it, you can have what we’ve found in here, just don’t kill me!”
The woman catches the backpack and slings it over her shoulder, spitting at Jancen in disgust before slashing at him with her barbed short sword. “You sniveling fool, stay there on your belly while I take care of your friends. I’ll deal with you momentarily.”
The tiefling woman dances around the confined battlefield in a dazzling display of swordplay. Finally, however, Jancen’s daring play comes to fruition. The runecurse in the backpack takes effect on the woman, and the bone devil Nyxervex steps from the fiery pit of Hell to claim its victim. The tiefling gasps in dismay, looks over her shoulder at the backpack slung over her shoulder, then to Jancen. Her screams echo up and down the infinite shaft as Nyxervex tears her into shreds before disappearing from whence he came, leaving little behind except the few items she carried.
Treasure (from Sian Daemodus)
· Spider venom (5 doses) (save Fort DC 14, frequency 1/rnd for 4 rounds, effect 1d2 Str damage, cure 1 save)
· Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds (2)
· Potion of Gaseous Form
· Potion of Invisibility
· +1 Leather Armour
· +1 Short Sword
· Masterwork Hand Crossbow (19 bolts)
· Hat of Disguise
· Bejeweled bust of Asmodeus (worth 800 gp)
Experience Awards
· Giant spiders (2) – 800 xp
· Stirges (6) – 1200 xp
· Small fire elementals (1/2 normal due to help from Szasmir) – 600 xp
· Story Award (parleying with Livia and earning her aid) – 1500 xp
· Story Award (retrieved Avengen’s unholy symbol and avoided water elemental) – 800 xp
· Sian Daemodus (tiefling woman) – 3200 xp
· Story Award (avoided runecurse by turning it back on Sian Daemodus) – 4000 xp
· Per PC (5) – 2420
Current XP Totals per PC
· Alizander, Carlos, Slavé, Vaeden – 13,555 xp each
· Tavo – 12,900 xp
· Nagiphax – 9135 xp
· Croso, Orem – 2875 xp
· Total Current Fame Points – 8
No comments:
Post a Comment