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 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

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