The Infernal Syndrome - Session 30: A New Friend

Dramatis Personae

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

Carlos Santiago - Half-orc (Alkenstarian) evoker

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

Tavo Dechirent - Human cleric of Pharasma
Alfaren “Alfred” Eredel – Elf transmuter

Oathday, 16 Calistril, 4709 A.R.

While Boecca dallies with a succubus elsewhere in the Spiral, the other Returners continue on, finding a second cooling chamber much the same as the first. This one, however, is populated by a gaggle of mischievous steam mephits who flit about the room, and within the pool of Stygian water float a number of bloated, decapitated bodies.

Tavo and Alizander lead the assault on the steam mephits in the second cooling chamber; most of the creatures fall as Tavo channels life-draining negative energy in the name of Pharasma. With the mephits eradicated, Jancen and Carlos get to work shutting the cooling chamber down by manipulating the crystal valve. Tavo examines the bodies floating in the pool of Stygian water and suspects that the decapitations were performed after their deaths. All of the bodies wear Wiscrani finery, suggesting they come from wealthier families. Telltale signs suggest that the victims were drained of life-energy somehow. The absence of bite marks do not point to vampire predation, and the fact that the bodies were decapitated after death suggests that the Stygian water wasn’t the cause of death, as they would likely have been decapitated prior to being placed in the water. The cause of the victims’ death remains a mystery for now.

Once the cooling chamber is shut down, Carlos attempts to aid Tavo’s investigation by casting detect undead, suspecting the presence of some variety of life-draining undead creature. Curiously, his first several attempts to cast the spell fail, as if they were countered somehow. The spell does eventually succeed, but Carlos does not detect the presence of any undead within the spell’s range.

The party continues past the second chamber into a curving hallway much the same as the one that led from the first cooling chamber. About halfway down the hallway they encounter the shambling corpse of Dargentu Vheed, former mayor of Westcrown. Vheed’s corpse is a hideous thing, his flesh hanging in tatters, his entrails spilling onto the floor, and his eyesockets empty black holes. Vheed spouts a litany of curses at the Returners, bemoaning their intrusion upon his domain, demanding they give him their magic, and inquiring as to the whereabouts of his favourite plaything, the twisted vulpinal Jezeletrix. The Returners mete out destruction on the former Lord-Mayor of Westcrown with a vengeance. The undead Dargentu Vheed attempts to absorb and recast many of the spells visited upon him. Alas, it is not enough, and the lich-shade falls under the Returners’ onslaught, nevermore to burden the city of Westcrown.

Meanwhile, Boecca attempts to elude the succubus vixen by heading down the tunnel she came from. He finds himself in a well-appointed cavern, hung heavy with fine silk brocade, strewn with jewels and heady with exotic, Abyss-touched perfumes and incense. The head of a tiefling, perhaps Veladness, the tunnel rat leader Lord-Mayor Aberian Arvanxi alluded to, is pinned to the headboard of a bed with a finely wrought stiletto. Several bodies lie in another corner, all dressed in noble finery. One of them, a woman, moves slightly in her bonds.

The succubus strides slowly into the room, her long legs glistening with oils, her black hair framing her almost angelic face. The dirty, unkempt tiefling tunnel rats follow close behind, obedient to the succubus’ whim.

“Come now, I can sense you in my bedchamber. No need to hide from me. Have you come for my playthings?” She glances at the nobles in the corner. “Really, there is no need for this to end in bloodshed. As you can see you are sorely outnumbered. These tieflings are brutish, and uneducated, but they know their way around a blade. Of course, the one whose head you see on the bed, the one who summoned me, presumed too much. I killed him for his insolence; he was a disgrace to our goddess, the great Nocticula.”

“But I digress. Please, show yourself; as I say this need not end in bloodshed. Indeed, I may be able to help you in some way, if you only tell me why you are here. All I ask for in return is some companionship. I have been rather bored, and was considering another foray into the city. But such a trip is unnecessary with you here.”

Mesmerized by the succubus great beauty and honeyed tongue, Boecca does reveal himself. He talks with the succubus, called Joraviah, and through their conversation comes to learn that she possesses one of the objects the Returners are looking for – the Stygian Keyrod. She pulls it from under the mattress on her bed; the keyrod is a two-foot long, rod-like device shaped like a weird twisting knot of metal branches and coils.

“This is what you were looking for?” says Joraviah. “Oh my, I’ve been using it for something else.”

“Well, I guess you can have it. But if it’s that important to you, surely you’d be willing to part with something in return?”

Boecca agrees that of course such an exchange would only be fitting. He agrees to pay Joraviah 2000 gold, and willingly accepts something she refers to as “the angel’s gift”. Boecca receives a long, lingering kiss from Joraviah, one that seems to go on forever. He feels himself falling suddenly from a great height, through layers of earth and fire into a blinding white light. Joraviah’s voice fills his head like a mantra, seeping into every crevice in his brain and coursing through every vein. He awakens suddenly; Joraviah stands before him. Curiously, her dark red leather corset is on the floor. She is naked, smiling.

“That will do Boecca. Now, go back and find your friends. Don’t bring them here. You help them find whatever it is they’re looking for, and go back to the city. We’ll see each other again, I promise.”

Treasure

· From Dargentu Vheed

o Ring of protection +3 (worth 9000 gp)

o Ring of wizardry I (worth 10,000 gp)

· From Joraviah

o Stygian Keyrod (value unknown)

Experience Awards

· Steam mephits (6) – 4800 xp

· Dargentu Vheed, lich shade – 6400 xp

· Story Award (deactivating cooling chamber #2) – 1600 xp

· Story Award (negotiating with Joriavah) – 10,000 xp

· Total – 22,800 xp

· Per PC (6) – 3800 xp

Current XP Total per PC

· Alizander, Carlos, Slavé – 53,335 xp each

· Alfred – 50,800 xp

· Boecca – 50,580 xp

· Tavo – 49,590 xp

· Nagiphax – 31,657 xp

· Damien Hellbent (cohort) – 22,360

· Total Current Fame Points – 15

The Infernal Syndrome - Session 29: Bloody Fox in the Darkness

Dramatis Personae

Alfaren "Alfred" Eredel - Elf transmuter

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

Carlos Santiago - Half-orc (Alkenstarian) evoker

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

Tavo Dechirent - Human cleric of Pharasma

Wealday, 15 Calistril, 4709 A.R.

As Alizander and Boecca attempt to calm the increasingly agitated Dargentu Vheed, Jancen advances towards the area where he believes the invisible vulpinal to be located. Steeling his nerves, he leaps in her general direction, intent on subduing the vulpinal before she loses the few shreds of sanity keeping her from attacking the group. He misses and becomes visible; the vulpinal howls in rage, a keening, cat-like yowl that sends tremors down the spine. She paws at Jancen with her filthy claws, and at her touch Jancen is overcome with debilitating pain that wracks his already frail body with agony. He doubles over and falls to the ground, consumed with only the pain coursing through his muscles and bones.

Boecca hurries in with calming words magnified by powerful magicks. The vulpinal visibly calms, but her darting, feral eyes reveal the anguish and rage that lurks just underneath. Tavo comes forward with Boecca, speaking to the vulpinal in a measured voice, explaining that he has divine energies from the goddess Pharasma herself that can help her escape the pain she is suffering. Tavo retrieves a scroll from his pack and starts a droning prayer to the goddess of death and rebirth. The diving healing energy of the prayer washes over the vulpinal; her perpetual snarl relaxes, and her eyes suddenly fill with tears.

“How can this be?” says the vulpinal. “So many years I have spent here; how many has it been? Who are you? I am called Jezeletrix, how can I ever repay you?”

Even as Jezeletrix speaks, the Returners can see that the brief flash of colour in her eyes begins to fade, and her glossy, silky fur clumps into mats and tangles before their very eyes. Before she lapses fully into pain-wracked insanity again, Boecca insists that they will save her, and asks if she will permit them to bind her and remove her from the cavern. With her last sane breath, Jezeletrix agrees, extending her arms for Boecca’s manacles. She falls comatose soon after, a small, lifeless heap on the filthy cavern floor. Alizander easily hoists Jezeletrix’s small body onto his shoulders, and the Returners head back to the safehouse and convene with Janiven and Arael.

Once back, they describe their trials in the Nessian Spiral. Arael and Janiven express regret at the loss of Vaeden, and introduce the party to Vaeden’s lifelong mentor, the elf wizard Alfaren, referred to by friends as Alfred. By way of introduction, the aloof elf inclines his head ever so slightly to the party, and requests to join the Returners’ in a slow, measured voice.

Later that night, under cover of darkness in the old shrine to the dead god Aroden, the Returners, along with Janiven, Arael the cleric of Iomedae, and their new member Alfred, join hands in a night-long vigil over the comatose form of the celestial vulpinal Jezeletrix. The group inscribes arcane sigils in circles around the vulpinal, burn rare incense and other, less-than-legal substances, whisper prayers to whatever god or power they choose, and utter words of magic. By morning, their efforts have worked. Jezeletrix wakens from her coma to find the bone-twisting pain gone, the years of abuse and torture suffered under Dargentu Vheed only memories now. Somehow, the Returners managed to mend her broken soul, and bring her back from the brink.

The fox-like vulpinal tells her story, of the years she spent as Dargentu Vheed’s plaything, research subject, torture victim, and bootlick. She tells the party that she spent at least two decades in the Nessian Spiral, most of the time a pain-wracked haze in the lightless cavern in which they found her. Occasionally she would venture into the complex, when her hunger was too great for rats and grubs to satisfy. She describes several features of interest to the party – a pair of vats filled with blood, with numerous tubes and pipes. She recalls Vheed referring to the device as the capacitor, a machine that stored the energies siphoned from the pit fiend at the centre of the spiral, then disbursed it as necessary to the house and Asmodean Knot above. She describes a series of five cooling chambers – huge pools that somehow conditioned and leeched the taint of the pit fiend’s influence from the energies drawn from him before feeding it to the capacitors.

Finally, she remembers Vheed speaking numerous times of the potential for disaster if the engine was to ever fail, saying that a malfunction could result in a feedback loop, feeding the infernal energies back into Liebdaga the Twin to the point that the pit fiend could rend his prison like confetti and unleash hellfire upon the city. She recalls he carried a rod he called the Stygian Rod, which he explained could be used to shut down the cooling chambers and capacitors in the event of a malfunction.

Jezeletrix thanks the Returners profusely and offers her eternal gratitude and service. She insists on remaining at the safehouse to recover and assist the party in its efforts to save Westcrown from the evil cloud it has suffered under for the last 70 years.

Oathday, 16 Calistril, 4709 A.R.

The Returners make their way back to the Nessian Spiral late in the afternoon. On their way to the site, a number of panicked Wiscrani citizens mill about the dottari barricade barring entrance to ground zero. The Returners discover that the six dottari guards stationed at the barricade have been killed. An investigation by Tavo reveals their bodies to be nearly drained of blood, and each is covered with numerous gory bite wounds. The party recalls the dominated dottari lieutenant they met at the barricade two days ago, but agree that the pit fiend within the Nessian Spiral is the greater threat for the time being. The vampire Ilnerik and whatever spawn he has in the city will have to wait.

The Returners continue where they left off in the Nessian Spiral. Much is as they left it the night before, although the bodies of the Council thieves and Avahzi Serafian appear to have been moved or examined in their absence. The party moves deeper into the complex. As they make their way closer to what they assume to be the heart of the Spiral, the malfunctioning of the engine becomes more apparent. They find the capacitor room – a room containing two large vats full of some blood-like substance. Errant bolts of electricity arc randomly through the room, and the tremors and rumblings felt earlier in the complex become more pronounced. Incessant shrieks and howls reverberate throughout the Spiral. Later, the party comes across the first cooling chamber – a circular room dominated by a massive pool of roiling dark water. Jancen and Carlos discover a crystalline valve on the wall (which appears to have a slot for a rod of some sort) and, after a good ten minutes of work, just barely manage to rotate the valve. As they do so, the errant jets of steam and fire in this cooling chamber cease, and the boiling pool soon dies down. The two adventurers decide to collect some of the water, and after closer inspection, believe it may be drawn directly from the River Styx. With this knowledge, Jancen and Carlos take extra special care of the vials of Stygian water in their possession.

Meanwhile, Alizander, Boecca, Alfred, and Tavo continue past the first cooling chamber. They discover two storage rooms that contain a group of steam mephits. The mephits waste little time attacking those who disturbed their steam play, and are summarily defeated. Boecca, recalling a secret door discovered earlier on in the complex, doubles back to check it out.

Boecca creeps invisibly down the rough tunnel behind the secret door until it opens into a larger chamber rank with mould, body odour, and rotten food. Several filthy mattresses lay haphazard in the room, which is occupied by a group of sorry-looking tieflings – a group Boecca assumes to be the ‘tunnel rats’ referred to by Lord-Mayor Aberian Arvanxi. As he scans the room, Boecca gets a strong scent of perfume – an intoxicating, musty aroma from another tunnel just to his left. Soon, a raven-haired, green-eyed beauty exits the tunnel. The woman wears nothing; her pearly skin glows luminescent in firelight. Despite her stunning beauty and lack of attire, Boecca’s eyes are drawn elsewhere – the pair of black bat-wings that extend from the woman’s back.

“I am rather bored,” the bat-winged woman says to the tieflings in the cavern. “Perhaps I will venture into the city and bring back some entertainment; you lot are a bit too filthy for my liking….”

Suddenly the woman glances in Boecca’s direction, as if sensing his presence.

“Wait, I sense something. A smell I recall. Hobgobin? Orc? There’s someone here!”

Treasure

· From the Nessian Spiral – The Spiral Walk

o Crystal tubes (6) (worth 600 gp – 100 gp each)

o Vials of Stygian water (value unknown)

Experience Awards

· Story Award (capturing and saving Jezeletrix) – 19,200 xp

· Steam mephits (4) – 3200 xp

· Story Award (deactivating cooling chamber #1) – 1600 xp

· Total – 24,000 xp

· Per PC (6) – 4000 xp

Current XP Total per PC

· Alizander, Carlos, Slavé – 49,535 xp each

· Alfred – 47,000 xp

· Boecca – 46,780 xp

· Tavo – 45,790 xp

· Nagiphax – 31,657 xp

· Damien Hellbent (cohort) – 22,360

· Total Current Fame Points – 15

The Infernal Syndrome - Session 28: Routing the Council Usurpers

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/assassin

Tavo Dechirent - Human cleric of Pharasma
Vaeden Corleone - Human rogue (and Damien Hellbent, cohort)

Wealday, 15 Calistril, 4709 A.R.

Alas, Vaeden’s wits do not save him against the diabolist Avahzi Serafian. Under a spell of invisibility, Vaeden avoids the swipes and thrusts of the Council thieves’ rapiers and perches precariously in the corner of one of the small prison cells lining the hallway. The Council thieves are loath to enter the cells themselves, piled as they are with the fresh bodies of their comrades who failed to make it further into the Nessian Spiral. But Vaeden is unable to avoid the diabolist’s invocations to the archdevil Mammon. Time and time again she bathes the hallway in waves of vile, life-draining energy. Vaeden’s cohort, Damien Hellbent, manages to break through the two-inch wall of stone blocking the door to the hallway and valiantly attempts to save his leader, but he is too late, and both Vaeden and Hellbent fall under the diabolist’s relentless plague of death.

Avahzi’s imp companion, Novankia, continues to harry Tavo and Boecca in the main room, diving and weaving through the air and avoiding the shadows under Tavo’s control. Novankia casts a spell over Tavo, convincing him that it is in his best interest to send the shadows after the frightening half-orc (Boecca) nearby. Boecca suffers several draining hits from the incorporeal shadows before Tavo breaks the devilish imp’s mind control. As the two try to eradicate the persistent Novankia, Tavo manages to have a few shouted words with a bound thief that Hellbent discovered in the storage room just off the main chamber. In between dodging attacks from Novankia, he cuts the thief’s bonds and learns that his name is Jalki, and that he was bound by the other thieves because it was discovered he was a spy for the Council loyalists. Jalki claims that Avahzi and the other thieves in the Nessian Spiral are part of a splinter group intent on usurping control of the Council from the powerful Drovenge and Eberigo families that currently control it. This information confirms what the Returners learned from Crosael in the ruins upstairs. Jalki manages to escape from the Nessian Spiral while Tavo and Boecca are busy fighting with Novankia and Avahzi.

Alizander and Jancen continue down the other side of the complex, exploring the den of the cerberi. There they find two heavy, reinforced iron chests. Carlos isn’t far behind, but gets waylaid by one of the Council thieves who hid in an armoury off of the main hallway. As Carlos steps into the room, the craven thief stabs at him with a rapier. Carlos recoils in horror; the sudden movement beside him causes him to conjure a hemispherical shield of force almost without thinking, bending the thief’s foil almost to the point of breaking. Carlos retreats, while Jancen moves in and begins harrying the thief with his crossbow, eventually bringing him down.

Finally, the battle is over. Avahzi Serafian and her retinue of Council thieves are defeated. Tavo provides some healing to Damien Hellbent, but can do little for Vaeden Corleone, last surviving scion of House Davion, who fell whilst defending his comrades against the hell-fed power of the elven diabolist, Avahzi Serafian. Damien gathers up the body of his mentor and bids farewell to the Returners for now.

Moving on, Jancen discovers a well-concealed secret door in the small room containing the iron chests. He opens the door and views a narrow, rough-hewn and low-ceilinged passageway beyond. The air wafting from the tunnel is moist, foetid, and rank with the scent of dog and feral animal. Jancen explores the tunnel under a spell of invisibility, and discovers that it opens into a larger cavern, although the ceiling still rises only four feet from the floor, forcing him to crouch uncomfortably. Squatting in a crude and filthy nest in the cavern is a feral-looking creature – a small humanoid with the figure of a woman but the features and fur of a red fox. The creature mutters to herself in several languages, Jancen picks out a few words in Infernal, Celestial, and Common, including several references to Dargentu Vheed, whom the fox creature refers to alternately as ‘sir’, ‘master’, and ‘devil-kissing degenerate’. Her ears perk up suddenly, and she begins sniffing the air. At first Jancen fears she has notice him, then the fox creature snatches a rat as it scurries across the floor and begins tearing into it with her tiny but razor-sharp teeth.

Jancen makes his way back to the other Returners and explains what he saw. From the description, Alizander believes the creature to be a vulpinal agathion, a bipedal race with animal-features from the plane of Nirvana. The creature’s actions strike him as odd, however, as his knowledge of the planes suggest that the vulpinals are a goodly and regal race. As the Returners talk it over, they come to believe that something terrible must have befallen the vulpinal in the cave for it to have become so feral and insane. Alizander and Boecca both express a desire to help the creature, and the party makes its way into the cavern to confront the vulpinal.

Jancen goes in first, invisibly, and situates himself nearby the vulpinal’s nest to observe the proceedings. Alizander comes in next, holding a light source before him, followed by the half-orc Boecca. Jancen notes that as the light source becomes evident, the vulpinal becomes very alert. She mutters an incantation and becomes invisible. Moments later, Jancen hears her utter another incantation nearby, and the image of a middle-aged man with a black beard and black robes appears near the nest, stooped over in the cramped cave. The bearded man’s features twitch nervously, his eyes dart to and fro, and a small rivulet of frothy saliva dribbles from the side of his mouth.

“Who goes there? Who dares intrude upon the home of the Lord-Mayor of Westcrown? Can you not see that I am busy? Impudence! Insolence! If I discover you are responsible for the tremors and rumblings in my home I will have you drawn and quartered. No, that’s too quick, better to soften you up first.”

Treasure

· From the Nessian Spiral - Treasury

o +1 Dwarven waraxe (worth 1165 gp)

o Wand of quench (11 charges) (worth 1237 gp)

o Clay golem manual (worth 6000 gp)

o 2400 gp

· From the Council Thieves

o Potion of cure moderate wounds (6) (worth 900 gp total)

o Leather armour +1 (8) (worth 4640 gp total)

o Masterwork rapier (8) (worth 1280 gp total)

o Masterwork hand crossbow (8) (worth 1600 total)

o Coins and jewelry (worth 2400 gp)

· From Avahzi Serafian

o +1 Shortspear (worth 1150 gp)

o Scroll of sending (worth 700 gp)

o Wand of cure moderate wounds (15 charges) (worth 675 gp)

o Wand of spiritual weapon (6 charges) (worth 270 gp)

o Masterwork breastplate (worth 175 gp)

o Light steel shield (worth 4 gp)

o Headband of inspired wisdom +2 (worth 2000 gp)

o Phylactery of negative energy channeling (worth 5500 gp)

o Gold unholy symbol of Mammon (worth 120 gp)

o Leather pouch containing unidentified herb

Experience Awards

· Council thieves (5) – 4000 xp

· Avahzi Serafian and Novankia – 4800 xp

· Story Award (permitting Jalki, a deep-cover agent of the Council loyalists, to escape) – 3200 xp

· Story Award (killing off Aberten Vittershins, Avahzi Serafian, and other agents of the Council usurpers) – 4800 xp

· Total – 16800 xp

· Per PC (6) – 2800 xp (including Vaeden)

· Cohort (Hellbent) – 2000 xp

Current XP Total per PC

· Alizander, Carlos, Slavé, Vaeden – 45,535 xp each

· Boecca – 42,780 xp

· Tavo – 41,790 xp

· Nagiphax – 31,657 xp

· Damien Hellbent (cohort) – 22,360

· Total Current Fame Points – 15

The Sixfold Trial - Session 13: The Asmodean Knot, Part III

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