The Infernal Syndrome - Session 34: Cleanup

Dramatis Personae

Alfaren “Alfred” Eredel – Elf transmuter

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

Fireday, 17 Calistril, 4709 A.R.

With Liebdaga defeated and the immediate threat of devilish incursion into Westcrown mitigated, the Returners make their way back through the Nessian Spiral. The jets of steam, blasts of fire and incessant howling and hissing prevalent while the infernal duke Liebdaga the Twin – the Spiral’s engine – was alive have ceased, and the place radiates an uncomfortable, cloying silence. Zovarue the medusa rages at the party when they return to her library, as she finds herself still bound to the room, unable to leave as she had thought. She blames the Returners for keeping her imprisoned and attacks, lifting her veil and turning several of the party members to stone before they are able to act against her. With the help of the nearby kolyarut inevitable, Signatory Vaccha (and a promise to release the kolyarut inevitable from the binding effect keeping it in the Spiral), the still-mobile Returners manage to defeat the furious medusa.

Sunday, 19 Calistril, 4709 A.R.

The group takes time to recoup following the battle with Zovarue. Tavo attempts without success to free Signatory Vaccha from the Thrune binding spell, and vows to return with renewed vigour at a later date. Finally, the group exits the Nessian Spiral into the early morning hours of 19 Calistril. The city is dead quiet; the silence especially noticeable in the absence of the massive pillars of hellfire that raged only days before. A cool late-winter mist lingers in the air, seeping into the crevices and cracks in the rubble as if anticipating the coming daylight, clinging to the last vestiges of night.

As the group crosses the ruined courtyard of Aberian’s mansion, a charging shape springs out of the darkness with the speed of a wild animal. It smashes Carlos with a powerful swing of its arm before loping back into the dim mist, physically hurting the half-orc wizard and leeching his life-force. Several party members catch a glimpse of dimly-glowing orange eyes, an almost-naked, lean but tautly-muscled torso, and a feral, blood-soaked and fang-filled mouth. The Returners gather their wits quickly and mobilize against the creature and bring it down, overwhelming the slavering vampire creature with their greater numbers. Tavo makes the killing strike with the Morrowfall, burning the vampire with deadly sunlight and sending it into oblivion.

With the vampire dead, presumably the same one that had dominated the dottari lieutenant the group met at the barricade days ago, the party wastes little time examining the Mhartis gatehouse at the far end of the ruined courtyard. There they discover a small group of nearly-starved Mhartis guards, confused and disoriented as they come out of a reverie induced by the vampire’s mind-control. The guards tell them the story about how the vampire, which called itself Jerusen, terrorized the Mhartis house and killed or drove out most of the guards and servants. They tell the Returners that Jerusen referred to someone called the “Master of Shadows”, perhaps the elusive vampire Ilnerik Sivanshin, former chronicler to the Pathfinder Donatalus Bisby.

The Returners help the Mhartis guards out of the area and get them some help before finally going back to the Adventurers’ Quarter and their respective homes for some much-needed rest. Over the next several days, news of the Returners’ exploits in the Nessian Spiral and their efforts in defeating the hellish incursion into the city spread, and the group’s fame grows with it. Sascar Tilernos hosts the Returners in the Tilernos estate in the noble district, granting them a reward for her rescue and letters of writ permitting them entry into the Parego Regicona.

Still, not all is well in the city of Westcrown. Dottari and Hellknights of the Order of the Rack continue to clash and argue over jurisdiction. Shadows still stalk the night streets, joined now by the occasional errant devil that entered the city during the initial explosion at Aberian’s Folly.

Slavé is distressed to learn upon returning to the Order of the Scourge headquarters in the northern ruins – the Rego Cader – that Aberian Arvanxi escaped custody during a skirmish with a group of rogues too well-armed to be mere thugs. Pontia Runario, the local Scourge paralictor, tells Slavé of a sudden increase in resistance in the northern ruins that arose during the chaos after the explosion at the mayor’s manor. She describes guerilla soldiers armed with well-made weapons – rapiers and concealable hand crossbows – too expensive to belong to the average street-tough.

The Returners are approached by citizens on the street daily – requesting assistance with annoying neighbours, money to help rescue a failing business, healing for a dying mother, help escaping the city of Westcrown. Some Wiscrani exhibit resentment towards the Returners, blaming them for the recent turmoil, wishing for a return to days when the ever-present dottari, Hellknights, and Asmodean priests kept order and routine, even if it was with an iron fist.

Treasure

· From Zovarue

o Wand of make whole (CL 10^th, 16 charges) (worth 2400 gp)

o +1 Mithral dagger (worth 1250 gp)

o Headband of alluring charisma +2 (worth 2000 gp)

o Amulet of natural armour +1 (worth 1000 gp)

· From Jerusen

o Masterwork hand crossbow (worth 200 gp)

o 10 +1 crossbow bolts (poisoned with medium spider venom) (worth 950 gp total)

o Amulet of natural armour +1 (worth 1000 gp)

o Cloak of resistance +1 (worth 500 gp)

o Ring of protection +1 (worth 1000 gp)

· From House Tilernos

o 5000 gp for the return of their daughter, Sascar Tilernos (see session 31)

o Letters of writ permitting entry into the Parego Regicona

Experience Awards

· Jerusen, feral vampire – 6400 xp

· Story Award (defeating Ilnerik Sivanshin’s thrall and putting a stop to his influence in the Aberian Folly ruins) – 4000 xp

· Story Award (saving the Mhartis guards and solving the mystery of the invasion into the Mhartis house) – 6000 xp

· Total – 16,400 xp

· Per PC (5) – 3,280 xp

· Fame Points (for defeating Liebdaga the Twin and ending the threat to the city) - 2

Current XP Total per PC

· Carlos, Slavé – 73,355 xp each

· Alfred – 74,800 xp

· Boecca – 74,580 xp

· Tavo – 73,590 xp

· Alizander – 56,935 xp

· Total Current Fame Points – 20

The Infernal Syndrome - Session 33: Liebdaga the Twin

Dramatis Personae

Alfaren “Alfred” Eredel – Elf transmuter

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

Oathday, 16 Calistril, 4709 A.R.

After regrouping in the Hall of Hellscapes, the Returners move on with a still-comatose Alizander in tow. Soon after they leave the Hall the group is set upon by an unknown assailant – a silent, brawny half-orc wearing little more than a pair of short, loose-fitting breeches. The half-orc attacks without explanation, wielding no weapons but his hands and feet. The half-orc makes a brave show against the Returners, but woefully underestimated the might of the champions of Westcrown, and is summarily dispatched by the group. Boecca calls upon the divine help of Erastil to determine some details of the dead assailant, learning that his name was Zol, and that he worked as a professional assassin. The Returners deduce that he was likely sent by the Council of Thieves, likely the usurper group led by Eccardian and Chammady Drovenge, considering that several of the thieves guarding the ruins upstairs had escaped.

The group returns to the Gallery of Burning Lovers, where the fiery minotaur statue still guards the way beyond. Boecca steps into the room bearing the rune-etched iron ring, the rest of the Returners gathered near him. With the ring in their possession, the Returners are permitted through the door without resistance from the burning guardian. Through the door they find another stairway leading downward, spiraling out of sight. Following it, they pass through another iron doorway into a round chamber featuring a lone guardian standing beside a small ebony table, upon which rests a cracked crystal ball. The figure, a humanoid being of polished metal and complex clockwork gears, rises to its full seven-foot height, layers of dust falling from its green cloak as it stands at attention.

The clockwork being bows, introduces itself as Signatory Vaccha, and requests that the “carrier of the contract” present himself for inspection. Jancen does so, and Signatory Vaccha examines the contract retrieved from the Lord-Mayor. Satisfied, it nods and steps aside, permitting passage through the chamber. The party speaks with the being for a time, learning that in the chamber beyond the party will encounter a final guardian referred to as “the Librarian”, and that they might be able to negotiate safe passage without fighting the Librarian if they can both convince the Librarian that they are agents of the current mayor of Westcrown and display proof that they should be in the Nessian Spiral with knowledge of the dungeon and its workings.

Moving on, the Returners next enter the library, a pleasantly warm chamber lined with bookshelves heavy with tomes, featuring tables laden with alchemical gear, crafting tools, and other laboratory devices. Standing at one of the tables is a feminine figure – presumably the Librarian – wearing salmon-coloured breeches and an intricately embroidered bodice. A mass of snakes writhes atop her head, and as she turns to face the party they note a black veil obscuring her face. The Returners speak with the Librarian for some time – she keeps her face veiled throughout – seeming to convince her that they are in the Nessian Spiral on the Lord-Mayor’s orders (by showing her the contract). Over time they discover that the Librarian, who calls herself Zovarue, has been bound to this room for as long as the Nessian Spiral has existed, acting as advisor and crafter of magical items to the first two mayors in residence. Zovarue seems eager to help the party on their quest against Liebdaga the Twin, believing that her binding will be destroyed with the complete shutdown of the Spiral. She explains that following the shutdown of the five cooling chambers above, there are two more steps necessary to stop the engine for good: the destruction of the physical structure of the infernal cage housing the engine, and finally the destruction or dismissal of the engine itself – the pit fiend Liebdaga the Twin.

Several party members stay and speak with Zovarue for a time. Jancen and Alfred discover (without her knowledge) that the medusa has her own secret designs on the rule of Westcrown, and catch a brief glimpse of her own personal list of laws and statutes. Finally, the party decides to head back to Signatory Vaccha’s chamber and rest for their final showdown with Liebdaga the Twin.

Fireday, 17 Calistril, 4709 A.R.

The party moves on, bolstered by their diplomatic encounters with the denizens of the Nessian Spiral. They encounter a series of locks blocking the entrance to the Infernal Engine chamber, and manage to bypass these by interpreting the password-inscriptions on each door. Finally, the party enters the Infernal Engine chamber.

A fifty-foot-high domed ceiling rises above the massive room, the air of which is blisteringly hot. An immense, fiery pentagram, inlaid in the floor with strange glowing gems and metals, reaches out to touch the walls. Suspended in the centre of the room by seven immense chains is a ten-foot-diameter adamantine cage. Crimson crystal ribs extend up from the walls to the ceiling above where they connect to pillars of what looks like crystallized blood that descend down to surround the centre of the room and the dangling cage therein. A discordant humming fills the air of the room, causing everything to vibrate and shake. Every few seconds, a blast of heat washes over the room as a wreath of fire washes over the cage and then slithers like fiery lightning up along the chains to be absorbed by the blood-red crystal ribs.

Within the adamantine cage is a large flickering form, a deep red pit fiend forced into a fetal position, whose body seems only partially physical – alternating between flesh and fire and smoke with rapid fluctuations. As the party enters the room, the cage shakes and rattles in place. An instant later, the cage lurches into life, sprouting three smaller chains with which it can smash and grab foes. The larger chains lashing it to the walls of the chamber extend and retract, allowing the cage to move as if of its own free will around the room. The battle against the cage and Liebdaga himself is long and treacherous. Boecca is nearly crushed by the massive chains whipping back and forth from the cage. Luckily, with the Talisman of the Twin in their possession, the Returners manage to cause Liebdaga such distress that when the cage is finally destroyed and the devil freed, it takes of the pit fiend’s willpower to act against the party. Finally, inevitably, the one-time duke of Avernus is put to the sword once and for all, and the Infernal Engine shutdown.

Treasure

· From Zol

o Potion of barkskin +4 (2) (worth 300 gp total)

o Belt of physical might +2 (Str/Con) (worth 5000 gp)

o Bracers of armour +1 (worth 500 gp)

o Ring of protection +2 (worth 4000 gp)

Experience Awards

· Zol, Council of Thieves’ assassin – 9600 xp

· Story Award (bypass the burning guardian) – 4800 xp

· Story Award (negotiate passage from Signatory Vaccha) – 19,200 xp

· Story Award (negotiate passage from Zovarue, medusa librarian) – 9600 xp

· Liebdaga’s Cage (Infernal Engine shutdown stage two) – 4800 xp

· Liebdaga the Twin (Infernal Engine shutdown stage three) – 19,200 xp

· Total – 67,200 xp

· Per PC (5) – 13,440 xp

Current XP Total per PC

· Carlos, Slavé – 74,055 xp each

· Alfred – 71,520 xp

· Boecca – 71,300 xp

· Tavo – 70,310 xp

· Alizander – 56,935 xp

· Total Current Fame Points – 18

The Infernal Syndrome - Session 32: From Hell

Dramatis Personae

Alfaren “Alfred” Eredel – Elf transmuter

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

Oathday, 16 Calistril, 4709 A.R.

Jancen accepts the gargoyles’ offer and samples the tender, raw hearts. Alas, his unpracticed palate is unable to discern an appreciable difference in the flavour of virgin’s vs. trollop’s heart. Nonetheless, the seemingly verbose gargoyles are impressed by his effort. Jancen trades words with the creatures for a time, then offers the group a drink of his waterskin, which he claims holds the finest of hell’s nectars. The lead gargoyle takes a cup of the dark liquid with gusto, downs it in one mighty quaff. The Stygian water takes effect immediately, and the gargoyle doubles over in pain as the vile liquid sends its tendrils into the deepest recesses of the gargoyle’s mind, erasing memory and knowledge. The party springs to the attack at this, eventually bringing the group of gargoyles to defeat.

Once the gargoyles have been dealt with, a cursory investigation reveals the cityscape of Dis to be an elaborate illusion – a mirage created to comfort the pit fiend imprisoned in the Nessian Spiral, according to Vheed’s scrawls earlier in the complex.

The Returners venture deeper into the Spiral, winding ever downward in a clockwise corkscrew pattern. They pass through a long hall of mirrors reflecting terrible hellscapes; avoiding looking directly at any of the mirrors as they do so. Alizander, unfortunately, becomes mesmerized by a vision he witnesses in one of the mirrors. Before the group can tear him away, the Varisian sorcerer’s eyes grow wide in terror and he collapses into a heap, still breathing, but comatose. Unable to rouse the sorcerer, the group sits him in a corner of the room and promises to return for him.

Continuing on, each successive room in the Nessian Spiral represents some sort of hellish environment: a fire-blasted desert marked by long lines of fresh souls newly arrived in Hell; a vast underground mine patrolled by blue-tinged drake-like behirs and burning devils wielding glittering barbed whips; and finally a wide garden of metallic trees bearing brass-coloured fruit, where gaps in the densely packed trees reveal glimpses of bestial couplings between devils and the damned.

The Returners face challenges in each of these rooms: massive black-feathered bird-head creatures in the Avernus desert; a slave-master behir that compels Tavo, Jancen, Carlos, and Alfred to take up heavy picks and get to work; and finally a towering stone statue of a minotaur wreathed in flames. The minotaur blocks the only exit from the grove of metallic trees. Taking a defensive posture, the minotaur announces in a rumbling voice that none may pass without the iron ring. Guessing that the hall of mirrors they bypassed earlier is the only area they haven’t searched closely, the Returners head back in an effort to find the iron ring demanded by the burning guardian.

Boecca faces each mirror in turn, viewing images of his own torture in different hellish landscapes – reflections of the various layers of Hell - at the hands of a towering pit fiend with a horribly scarred belly. Boecca resists the feelings of despair, hopelessness, nausea, lethargy, bloodlust, greed, homesickness, oppression, insignificance, and greed that threaten to overcome him as he gazes into each frightening visage to retrieve an object revealed behind each of the mirrors. In one, he finds an iron ring, etched with infernal runes. In another, he finds a heavy adamantine talisman – the Talisman of the Twin mentioned by Crosael.

Treasure

· From Nessian Spiral – The Hall of Toil

o +2 Heavy picks (5) (worth 20,770 gp)

· From Nessian Spiral – The Route to Hell

o Talisman of the Twin (value unknown)

o Rune-etched iron ring (non-magical, value unknown)

o Rod of Splendour (worth 12,500 gp)

o Bag of Holding type IV (worth 5000 gp)

o Staff of Swarming Insects (worth 11,400 gp)

o +2 Returning mithral trident (worth 10,000 gp)

o Minor ring of cold resistance (worth 6000 gp)

o Rope of entanglement (worth 10,500 gp)

o 30,000 sp (worth 3,000 gp)

o 19,400 gp

o 1360 pp (worth 13,600 gp)

Experience Awards

· Gargoyles (6) – 7200 xp

· Achaierais (4) – 6400 xp

· Behir – 4800 xp

· Total – 18,400 xp

· Per PC (5) – 3680 xp

Current XP Total per PC

· Carlos, Slavé – 60,615 xp each

· Alfred – 58,080 xp

· Boecca – 57,860 xp

· Alizander – 56,935 xp

· Tavo – 56,870 xp

· Total Current Fame Points – 18

The Infernal Syndrome - Session 31: Into the Heart of the Nessian Spiral

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

Oathday, 16 Calistril, 4709 A.R.

While Carlos, Alizander, Alfred, Tavo, and Jancen examine Vheed’s drawings and scrawls and determine some of the Nessian Spiral’s inner workings, Boecca makes his way back to the group, trying to come to terms with what happened with Joraviah. He finds the rest of the Returners and presents the Stygian Keyrod. Jancen and the other Returners ask Boecca where he retrieved the object. The half-orc’s hesitant response puts everyone on edge; Jancen in particular finds Boecca’s story that he single-handedly wrested the object from a group of tiefling tunnel rats suspicious. After several tense minutes of questioning that nearly comes to blows between Jancen and Boecca, the half-orc breaks down and admits that he was given the object by a beautiful, angelic creature with silken wings sprouting from her back. Tavo, Alfred, and Alizander quickly deduce that Boecca ran afoul of a demonic succubus from his description, and from his praise of the creature believe he is somehow love-struck with the creature.

Upon admission of his deed, Boecca doubles over in pain. He hears Joraviah’s voice in his head, admonishing him for his insolence and cursing his weak half-orc blood. Now under her full control, Boecca unleashes an attack upon his friends. Jancen fires a crossbow bolt at Boecca, and the others quickly join in, attempting to subdue the half-orc and determine a way to remove the succubus’ taint from their companion.

As the fight to subdue Boecca rages on, Joraviah herself joins the battle, her calm, alluring demeanour given way to a righteous indignation at the Returners’. Joraviah screams prayers to the goddess Nocticula to rain destruction on the Returners; she tears her profane gift from Boecca in a fit of rage, stunning the love-sick half-orc and sending him into emotional anguish as a result. The Returners respond by firing spells and arrows in her direction. Joraviah gets close enough to Alizander to reach out and strike him, feeding upon his lifeforce and bolstering her own. Ultimately, the battle turns in the Returners’ favour, and Joraviah falls, her body dissolving as her diminished soul is called back to the Abyss from whence it came.

The party backtracks to Joraviah’s den. Jancen and other party members negotiate with the near-feral tiefling caretakers, convincing them that they are absolved of their duties and free to leave the Nessian Spiral. The Returners find the near-comatose Sascar Tilernos, daughter of House Tilernos, tied up in Joraviah’s den. They free the noblewoman and escort her out of the Nessian Spiral and the ruins of Aberian’s estate, where a crowd of citizens and dottari have gathered. The crowd cheers as the Returners appear, pointing to the clear sky behind the party, devoid of the frightening pillars of fire now that the cooling chambers have been disabled. The party takes the time to deliver Sascar to the dottari and accept her invitation to visit her estate in the near future before heading back into the Nessian Spiral.

Back in the Nessian Spiral, the Returners move quickly through the remaining three cooling chambers, dealing with a Stygian-tainted water elemental trapped in one and deactivating each chamber using the Stygian Keyrod along the way. Finally, the party comes to a mirror-smooth red door – the entrance to the Nessian Spiral’s containment area, according to Vheed’s drawings found earlier in the complex.

With a touch, the door opens to a wide flight of black stone stairs, leading down to a stone archway. The Returners pass through the archway to behold an incongruous sight – a ten-foot-wide, thirty-foot-long banquet table floating in the air five feet above a black cobblestone plaza in the middle of a bustling city under some sort of martial law, as armies of devils dressed in iron march to and fro through the streets along the plaza’s edges. The sky above is red with dark clouds, while the surrounding cityscape is composed of sharp iron towers and spires – a view obscured only to the south of the table, where a churning wall of fire blocks the only street leading away from the plaza.

Seated around the table, locked in a heated argument as they feast on a banquet of victuals too terrible to repeat, are six diabolic horned creatures seemingly carved from a deep ochre-coloured stone. While the creatures argue and eat with all the grace and decorum of high-society aristocrats, their craggy visages and fiendish wings betray their bestial natures.

“Ah, we have visitors,” rumbles one of the creatures. “Come, do join us please. It has been some time since we had newcomers to debate with. You have arrived at just the right moment. Our discussion has progressed from the politics of Dis to a somewhat more vulgar, but infinitely more interesting subject: whether or not one can actually taste the difference between a virgin’s and a trollop’s heart.”

“Grick here prefers the trollop’s heart, and insists that it has a quality of earth and iron much more preferable than the virgin’s heart. I must confess, I don’t notice the difference myself, but Grick has always been a connoisseur of such things. Perhaps you can settle the argument for us? Here we have the finest quality in heart-of-virgin; one plucked from a boy only three days past his thirteenth birthday. And to compare, a slightly withered, yet no less tasty, example from an old crone – and trollop of the highest order – from a city called Westcrown, recently delivered to us by a very cooperative barbazu named Saszmir.”

Treasure

· From Joraviah

o +1 Studded leather armour (worth 595 gp)

o +1 Frost hand crossbow (worth 4200 gp)

· From Nessian Spiral – Joraviah’s Den

o +1 Keen mithral dagger (worth 4250 gp)

o Jewelry and silks (worth 2000 gp)

· From Nessian Spiral – Ruined Workroom

o Lyre of Building (worth 6500 gp)

Experience Awards

· Joraviah – xp was factored into session 30 story award

· Story Award (freeing Sascar Tilernos) – 7200 xp

· Story Award (deactivating remaining cooling chambers) – 4800 xp

· Story Award (deactivating the Infernal Capacitors) – 4800 xp

· Stygian Water Elemental – 4800 xp

· Total – 21,600 xp

· Per PC (6) – 3600 xp

· Fame Point (for saving Sascar Tilernos and getting her out of the Nessian Spiral) – 1

· Fame Points (for deactivating the Pillars of Fire) - 2

Current XP Total per PC

· Alizander, Carlos, Slavé – 56,935 xp each

· Alfred – 54,400 xp

· Boecca – 54,180 xp

· Tavo – 53,190 xp

· Nagiphax – 31,657 xp

· Damien Hellbent (cohort) – 22,360

· Total Current Fame Points – 18

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