Episode 20: 9/26/09

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/3-3
Nineve, human knight/6
Xicar, human cleric/6
Sarek, human wizard 6

We're standing over the smoldering remains of Mohrg Ondore, and we notice he has a note pinned to the inside of his jacket, along with a key.

Ondore,
You have served the Circle quite well. A pity you were not more careful. Alas, your carelessness has brought your demise early. We are still in need of you, though now, you shall serve in a much...different capacity. Your return did not go as we had hoped, but you may yet prove more valuable than we had dared dream.
Your antagonists continue to harry you, and are responsible for your current form. If you must dispose of them, do so quickly. It would be unwise to toy with them. That could draw them into the Circle's business.
When you find your mind cleared after the trauma of your rebirth in His dark Name, and capable of understanding the tasks before you, return to your ancestral manor. There, we shall contact you, no need to trouble the Circle yourself.
~Your mistress, Wanton of Nature's Pagan Forms

We collect what remains of his remains and search the cavern. We find his desk area, and it is clear that his transformation into Mohrgdom was unhinging to his mind. We find another note, along with several sketches of us, dying horrifically.

Ondore,
Do you recall the working of the ancient runes that I showed you? Of course you do. You were always so very...clever. Father Skinshaw will provide the list of proper victims for you in two days' time. Commit that list to memory and destroy it before you begin your task. Who can know how your works will shape the future? Each murder inescapably alters the destinies of us all, drawing us inexorably towards His dark designs.
The ones you sacrifice must be marked as they die, otherwise they bring little glory to His dark Name, and their souls will go to waste. You may do with any others as you please - it matters not to me. I ask only that you mark them properly, and let their deaths serve our Bleak Lord as well as your lust for murder.
~Your mistress, Wanton of Nature's Pagan Forms

There's nothing else to see here, so we climb the stairs back to the mansion basement and make our way out. As we exit the house, we notice that thousands of silent black birds are perched on all available surfaces, watching us. It's very odd, and we're uneasy, so we hurry to put some distance between us and this cursed place.

As we leave the mansion behind, the troubled sky clears and the moon illuminates the countryside - the storm seems to have vented all its wrath. Reflecting on our recent trials, we find ourselves cresting the rise overlooking the House of Lillybrook and its grounds. Suddenly there shoots through the air a resounding crack, like thunder, from the direction of that forlorn house. Turning about, we gaze as a fissure rapidly widens across the abutment of land and the antiquated structure, and much of the cliff, wavers and abruptly falls, sliding and tumbling into the churning lake below. There is a long tumultuous crashing and rumbling sound, like the voice of a thousand breaking waves - and then the deep and ominous lake closes sullenly and silently over the fragments of the House of Lillybrook.

We move on and find an abandoned farm to sleep in for the night. In the morning, we find we are all afflicted with Red Death, and Nineve has another case of Ghoul Fever. Fortunately, Xicar is able to cast Remove Disease on all of us, and we feel much better, though we still look like hell. We head back to Istivin and arrive in the afternoon. We spend the evening in the Flask and the Terrasque, a tavern on the outskirts of the city. In the morning, we approach the gates of Dura. As expected, we encounter a unit of town guards at the gate, but we slip past them.

We find ourselves in the Wealthy district. A merchant, mistaking us for common laborers, offers us 2 gp each to help him unload his fragile goods. To avoid drawing attention to ourselves, we help him out. He pays us and offers us a ride through the district. We take him up on it and find ourselves in the market district. A street urchin takes a liking to us, but Xicar puts him off. However, we manage to make our way through the district without attracting undue notice.

We next find ourselves in a poor quarter. We round a corner onto a murder scene, but we manage to slip away before being noticed by anyone. Unfortunately, we draw undue attention to ourselves while trying to leave the district, and are forced to high-tail it to the neighboring market district.

There, we spot a group of town guards up the street, but we evade their notice and exit the quarter without encountering any problems. In a civic district, we pass a paladin of Heironeous and his retinue, but fortunately he is too full of his own self-importance to notice us. We return at last to the Cabal.

We visit Mossad's office and find him hanging out with Arrad, reminiscing on old times. We give our full report. They congratulate us, but are disappointed in our lack of clues. Nonetheless, he and marten have decided to indoctrinate us into the Ritual of the Lady's Favor, in honor of our service to the Church. That evening, amidst much pomp and ceremony, we undergo the ritual and gain one action point, usable once per day! Afterwards, we show those clerics how to party!

Nineve and Sarek undergo additional rituals the next day. The following morning, an acolyte summons us to the Great Library to meet with Mossad & Advocat. They explain they've been researching the manifest I brought back. Several other crates of earth have been delivered to multiple locations around the city. Mossad would like us to investigate a warehouse and a papermill, while other agents check out other locations.

We start with the papermill on Cliffside. The Ministry of Justice is still looking for us, so we must tread carefully. We evade guard patrols, get momentarily lost in the maze of the poor quarter, and unlock a neglected door in a market district which leads to the Cogs. With their knowledge of history, Sarek and Xicar lead us through these underground passages to the slums. We slip past the gate guards and make our way to a large papermill clinging precariously to the side of a cliff. The waterwheel running the papermill is powered by a giant waterfall. The wheel itself is a marvel of engineering at 45 feet across!

We open the door, and a mill worker tries really hard to get us to leave, but we eventually convince him to let us speak to his manager. The manager is evasive to all our questions and signals his worker-thug to attack us! The "worker" charges into Xicar, pushing him into the mill machinery! As he slams into Xicar, we recognize him is Kinto Anderhoff, the one that got away. A vision of The Trumpet appears to me. It is clear that this papermill is just a front for a group of Nerullian cultists. The workers and manager (who is a cleric) suddenly don raven masks, but Sarek blasts through them with an unnecessarily massive fireball. Figuring we've alerted everyone in the building to our presence after that display, we disable the lift and run up the stairs.

We find an office area with more stairs leading to yet a higher floor. We take a moment to rifle through the desk, but don't find anything incriminating, so we kick through the double doors leading to the main room on the floor. The Nerullian cultists are ready for us. Sarek throws down another fireball, but to his great disappointment, doesn't manage to ignite any of the machinery. Suddenly, an armored Nerullian cleric appears behind Sarek and attacks. Sarek blows out the windows with another massive fireball as Nineve falls under the cleric's curse. More cultists pour in and join the cleric as the battle shifts back into the office area. The tide of battle turns against the Nerullian dogs, and the evil cleric attempts to flee, invisible. Luckily, Sarek pegs him with an old glitterstone he must've been carrying around for 5 levels! We follow him up the stairs onto the third floor of the papermill. We finish off the ringleader cleric and most of the cultists, taking some of them prisoner. The cleric, like all the cultists, is wearing a strange raven head dress called a Reaper's Mask, which we collect for the Cabal. I find a secret passageway deeper into the cliffside, and we secure the prisoners. We regroup and heal up before heading into the natural caverns revealed behind the hidden passage.

The passage descends steeply and Xicar, Nineve, and Sarek all slip and tumble clumsily down the corridor. I manage to dodge them as they crash past me, but when Xicar's shield pops out of his hand, I jump up on it and surf down the passage like Legolas, BECAUSE I CAN! It's good to be an elf.

Thus, with varying degrees of grace, we enter a stone chamber containing 2 Filge-special acid zombies and 2 (hiding) alchemical horrors. Just as we're coming to grips with Filge's pets, a shadow appears and attacks Xicar. Sarek and Xicar dissolve the shade as Nineve and I wade through the zombies and horrors.

~Ashe

Episode 18: 8/23/09

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/3-3
Nineve, human knight/6
Sarek, human wizard/6
Xicar, human cleric/6
Haroldur, human wizard 2/cleric 4
Enoch, human sorcerer 1/monk 5

The next day we travel with the survivors from the ruins of the keep back to the hunting lodge. That evening, Vander approaches Nineve and mentions some helpful things he remembers about working with the cultists and Akasha, the leader. It seems she HATES silver! It's a strange thing to remember, but it struck him as odd and it was all he could think of.

As we're all sitting around the campfire, I notice the strange dog is hanging around the edge of our camp. It shrinks into the woods at my approach, but I leave it some food and I notice it back again a few minutes later, eating.

As we're heading off to bed, Zolara appears! She looks concerned. She says, "Your resilience and courage will see you through the trials ahead."

The Choosing:
Ashe - The Trumpet
Nineve - The Teamster
Haroldur - The Sickness
Sarek - The Tangled Briar
Xikar - The Waxworks
Enoch - The Desert

The Spread:
Paladin Teamster Cricket
Locksmith Eclipse Hidden Truth
Liar Rakshasa Survivor

Zolara interprets our reading:

"The Paladin represents strength in adversity. In this case I see one of you standing in victory over a fallen superior, perhaps an instructor or or father? The locksmith grants the keys to unlock destiny. He grants the tools but not insight as to how they may be used. One of you will unlock secrets from your past. The liar represents treacherous love, deception that pits brother against brother or father against son.

The Teamster is a driving external force that keeps you going, no matter what. The Teamster exhorts you to continue on, despite the self doubt and loss of purpose shown by the Eclipse. Elsewhere, the Rakshasa sits upon the backs of its slaves, imposing its will on them, opposing your every move, from the shadows.

The Cricket represents travel, in this case, a speedy return home. The Hidden Truth has the power to reveal secrets. I see family histories revealed in a new light to allow you to see past the obvious to the greater truth, and dark secrets hidden within."

Then, faster than you can say "Oops, forgot to mention the GRW!", she's gone.

The next day, we part with Vander, Edain, and the other survivors and begin the 5 day journey to Turtleback Ferry. We're not in a hurry, so I have plenty of time to spend with the strange dog that keeps following us. We win him over after a day or so, and he starts actually traveling with our group. I'm delighted that he's traveling with us, but the next day, he seems incredibly nervous. I get the sense that he's trying to get us to take another path. Intrigued, I follow the dog and lead our group down a smaller game trail that takes a slightly circuitous route around (rather than through) a valley before rejoining the main trail at the top of the ridge. I'm feeling a little irritated at myself for allowing a flight of fancy to add 45 minutes to our hike that day. As we crest the ridge, I pause a moment to take in the surroundings. As I glance back, I spot a grey render lurking in the valley below. My original path through the valley would have taken us right into its territory! I give the dog a few appreciative pats and continue on our journey.

A few days later we arrive at the tiny hamlet of Turtleback Ferry. We all buy riding horses, practically gorge ourselves on a hearty home cooked meal, and spend a welcome night in warm beds. The next day, the dog brings me a dead chicken, and I have a slightly sticky encounter with an irate farmer. I apologize and pay him 5sp for his chicken... and he suddenly offers us some more chickens "for the road". We take him up on his offer of a few fresh eggs, and spend our last night at his house.

After a hearty farmhouse breakfast, we head out to Istivin. We travel through rural but civilized lands for a few more days and finally arrive at the city walls. We take a winding path through the lower tiers of the city and make our way to the Cabal, purchasing some badly needed fresh clothes along the way. The journey takes about two days.

We finally arrive at the Cabal and are greeted by acolytes who are happily surprised to see us. We have about an hour to get situated before we're summoned to Marten's chambers.

Marten is pretty put out at us for vanishing on him, and, more importantly, The Ministry of Justice, and specifically Justice Ironbriar are after us for questioning regarding the events at the Sawfish Boys slaughterhouse. He asks us why he SHOULDN'T just turn us in. We present our arguments, with varying degrees of success, before Nineve jumps in and actually tries to INTIMIDATE him! It's a great performance, but it was doomed from the start. Marten is none too impressed, and we are taken into custody by Legionnaires (who are polite). We are escorted to a nearby prison facility, and handed over to those authorities. They shackle us and admit us to our cells.

After a few days we are transferred to a smaller prison facility. That evening, we are taken to meet Sheriff Hemlock. The Sheriff tells us he has specifically requested our transfer here to his facility and proceeds to explain why.

Apparently, there have been a number of murders in the city of late that have our names all over them. Hemlock produces a note from the most recent murder. It is battered and written in blood. It reads "You return, and now the chase begins. I am simply what you have made me, O my masters!" Apparently it was attached to the victim with something of Sarek's. Clearly, we aren't involved, but whenever Hemlock tries to look into the murders, his investigation is inexplicably blocked by someone higher up the chain. He asks if we'd be willing to investigate for him, and of course, we're in no position to disagree.

Hemlock takes us to a lumbermill. At the bottom of the logsplitter is the nauseating mess of what used to be a person. Apparently this was the miller's wife, Cassandra Vinder. Despite the gruesome scene, this isn't the murder he's interested in.

We head upstairs and find another body. Embedded in the corpse's sleeve is Sarek's missing dagger. Carved into the corpse's chest are some sort of symbols. Sarek can't identify the symbols, but he's sure they're related to ritualistic human sacrifice. I sift to to find out some information, but I don't get much of use. We discuss the murder and its similarities to other murders in question. We are told a survivor from another attack is being held at a local sanatorium. We decide to visit the survivor at the Saintly Haven of Respite while Hemlock cleans up the lumber mill mess.

The survivor's name is Grayst Savilla. It takes some convincing, but we are eventually admitted to see him. He's a wild-eyed fellow drooling on himself. He shrieks as we approach, but Haroldur seems to calm him down. Suddenly, he starts spouting nonsense. Between thrashings and mumblings, we get "He, he, he said that the victims are the harvest of seed you have sown!" and "When the harvest is done, you shall remember him forever and, and, and". Several minutes of screaming later, we get "the Misgivings shall, they shall be his throne, and there you shall bow before him!" He then collapses to the ground and lies still. Enoch and I recognize that he's still twitching slightly as Xicar moves in to check if he needs healing. Suddenly, Grayst the Mad lunges at Xicar and bites his hand! Enoch leaps in and restrains the crazy and Xicar tries to calm him down again. He spouts more nonsense, and then Sarek stuns him with a Word of Authority. While he's out, I heal check him and determine that he is suffering from the advanced stages of ghoul fever. The friar runs into the room and starts apologizing, swearing he didn't know, and he had no idea Grayst would react so strongly. We promise not to make a fuss and leave the sanatorium.

We are reutnred to Hemlock's smaller prison facility. Haroldur manages to convince Sheriff Hemlock to allow us to stay in a large communal cell instead of our individual ones. We pass the evening discussing our leads and options: basically none.

Sarek and Haroldur are interested in doing some research at the library. Amazingly, Hemlock manages to arrange this, and the next morning we are returned to the Cabal (under supervision) to research the arcane runes found on the bodies. We discover that these runes are related to a Nerull worshiping death cult and prevent spells such as Raise Dead, Speak with Dead, etc., as well as damning the soul to Nerull's realm. We share this knowledge with Hemlock, who is disturbed by the news. When we return to our cell, we find a package from Mossad! There are of course no weapons or anything, but it does contain a few essentials - better food, spellbooks, holy symbols, etc. Tucked inside the outer packaging is a crumpled scrap of paper that reads "Hambly farm" in scrawled blood.

We find out where Hambly farm is and convince Hemlock to equip us. Then we head out, under guard of course, to the boondocks where Hambly farm is. On the way, we are regaled with tales of the shocking boredom of rural life by one of the guards, who is as local. The guard mentions that if anyone knows what's going on in these parts, it's Farmer Gump. At this, naturally we stop by and talk to Farmer Gump. Gump thinks it's a bit odd that he hasn't seen the Hamblys around in the past few weeks. He mentions that he warned the Hamblys not to live near the Misgivings, a local haunted house. Haroldur inquires rather directly about the Hamblys and the history of the Misgivings, an old Lillybrook homestead. After an awkward and tactless interrogation, we leave and are led to the Hambly farm.

We come to a large cornfield and are told it's the Hambly farm. The house is apparently in the center of the fields. I stand on Enoch's shoulders to orient ourselves, and then we head in the direction of the farmhouse. At one fork, we encounter a scarecrow shaking violently. We approach it and Sarek discovers that is in fact a human in the advanced stages of ghoul fever. We're about to leave the person there and move on when we're ambushed! Several scarecrow-ghouls break free of their bonds and attack us! We wade through the ghouls and manage to only lose one of the guards, even though a few do get bitten. An eerie silence falls over the cornfield. This is an unsafe place for anyone, especially unseasoned recruits. We send the remaining guards back to town with the surviving scarecrow guy and move along.

A little while later we come to another scarecrow ghoul ambush. Enoch gets five-across-the-eyes and Xicar gets paralyzed from behind, but we finish off the ghouls before they finish off him. At length, we come to the farmhouse and barn in the center of the cornfields.

The smell of death hangs heavy in the air. The barn is constructed around a 12 foot tall stone head. Inside, it is a macabre tangle of bones and animal (mostly) carcasses. Ghouls are obviously lairing here, but none of the foul beasts are occupying the place at present.

We press on to the house, where the stench of rotting death is overpowering. We move to the kitchen and find another rune-caved corpse. Before we can investigate, I hear movement in the adjacent bedroom. I hiss a warning and Enoch sees a foot climbing out the bedroom window. In a moment, we're outside, battling the foul creature on the roof of the farmhouse. I climb the pillars of the porch and find myself facing a ghast. He opens himself up for an attack so I slash him as he shoves me off the roof. He rears, calling ghouls out of the corn. Soon, I am up on the roof again, locked in battle with my sworn enemy. More ghouls climb out of the well and attempt to pull Sarek and Enoch down to the watery depths. Fortunately, they don't manage to move the unusually tall humans. Nineve, Haroldur, Xicar and Enoch battle the ghouls, and Sarek offers ranged support to me as I battle the ghast. Eventually, Sarek vaporizes the ghast and we all prevail.

Back in the house, we search for clues and find a note. It's crumpled and written in blood, like the others. It reads, "You fools! You left them unprotected! Now I will take them from you one by one, until you come to me! Who will burn next? The scholar? The Dwarf? The Sheriff?". We have a brief pow-wow and decide to return to the city to warn our friends. I sift on the body and we discover that the killer must be a mohrg.

We rush back to the city, arriving very late at night and check on Tamklar. He's fine, though he almost puts an axe through Xicar's skull for busting in on him at this time of night. We quickly explain and bustle Tamclar and his family over to Alastor Land's place. We rouse him and take them all to the Cabal for safekeeping. Then we go to Sheriff Hemlock's place.

Our stomachs sink as we find his door is open. We burst onto a gruesome scene, much like the other rune-carved corpses. Enoch fishes a letter out of the fire, while we check on the mutilated corpse of the late Sheriff Hemlock. The letter is badly burned, but I examine it and use Sift to read its original message:

"Your Honor, Lord Justice Caradoc,

It's taken me some time, but I've finally managed to determine who has been obstructing my investigations into these strange murders. I fear a sinister and calculating mind has both perpetrated these killings, and endeavored to obscure them. A dear friend, whom I hesitate to name, has brought me information and evidences that point to a horrifying possibility. If he is correct, and I fear he may be, these murders are much more than the work of a simple madman. He has brought to light the facts that my, and many other, investigations have been misdirected, denied, reassigned, and otherwise defeated by note other than the direct intervention of Lord Justice Ironbriar, Justice of Dura and 7th Justice of Istivin, capital city of The Kingdom of Caledon. I await your direction in this matter.

Your loyal servant,

~Giles Hemlock Sheriff, Whietwall, Dura, Istivin."

Of course, this pivotal evidence is merely circumstantial, as it requires a person with the ability to sift in order to decipher any meaning from the scorched and ruined scrap of parchment. Nevertheless, this could be enough to at least clear our names with the Cabal. Besides, we all decide it's not wise for us, currently prisoners, to be hanging around the murder scene of our current jailer... We rush back to the Cabal, rouse Mossad, and tell him everything.

~Ashe

Episode 8: 7/19/08

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/2-2
Haroldur, human cleric/4
Nineve Floret, human knight/4
Sarek, human wizard/4

We rest and recuperate somewhat in the fountain room. Everyone but me decides to sample the nutritive orange goo, and in the morning they all seem to be feeling better than expected, although Nineve's ghoul fever seems to be worsening. We go back to the sarcophagus chamber, and Alastor, in a rare moment of clarity, convinces us to explore the ruin more thoroughly before heading back to Diamond Lake. We rotate the sarcophagus towards the indigo hallway, which I discover is not actually another levitating platform to another area - it's just a deadly trap! I disable it and find 2 pouches among the crushed bone fragments containing:

35 pp
a ruby (200 gp)

We rotate the sarcophagus again to the green hallway, and the depression lowered slightly and started glowing. We hear a low rumble and a faint skittering sound. Moments later, a living geyser of beetles erupts from the depression and swarms towards Nineve! Sarek vaporizes the beetle swarm immediately, but just as the smoke clears, 2 copper clockwork horrors climb out of the hole and attack Nineve, followed by the biggest bombardier beetle I've ever seen. Within seconds, an electrum horror also joins the fray! The battle is pitched, and sprays of acid fill the air, but finally, the last beetle goes down. Through the Wanderer, Haroldur finds a wand of invisibility lodged in a beetle's carapace. After checking for traps, we head down the shaft.

The platform glides to a halt and we are in a small antechamber surrounded by disapproving-looking bas-reliefs. Suddenly, we are surrounded by yet more beetles! Haroldur detonates a wave of negative energy, and we quickly prevail against the vermin. Afterwards, Haroldur finds a glitterstone.

We inspect a small chamber to the right and discover the remains of 3 humans among a huge beetle nest, seemingly made of the dried orange goo. On them, we find:

3 CLW potions
a string of stone beads
a ring with a feather motif

Hezzrak is especially interested in the beetles, claiming their diet of nutritive orange goo makes them particularly delectable. He stuffs beetles into his mouth by the fistfull, smacking and crunching as he extols their virtues as a snack food. He pesters me for a sack so that he can take some "to go"... I find an empty pouch and toss it in his direction. He seems disappointed that it's not big enough to hold all the beetles he wants, but I explain that we'll very likely have to come back this way, so he can pick up more on the way out. Within seconds he has stuffed the pouch to overflowing with the writhing beetles, and is messily gorging himself. I try not to watch.

The next chamber contains a powerful-looking statue of a warrior, and several stone slabs. On one of the slabs, a humanoid figure lies in repose under a shroud. A large bombardier beetle appears to be sleeping at the foot of the statue. Upon entering the room, Sarek and Nineve suddenly decide that this is a good place for a quick rest, but Haroldur is immediately suspicious and thinks some sort of magical aura is present in the room. He doesn't like the look of this room and wants us to leave immediately, but I insist we check on the shrouded figure. Closer examination reveals him to have been a seeker, long since dead, who has been carefully laid to rest. We leave him in peace and move on.

We pass some fully looted alcoves, where we stash what's left of Alastor, and continue down some stairs. We come upon a low-ceilinged room filled with ankle-deep water and inactive clockwork horrors. As we pick our way through the room, I notice some of the horrors are starting to show flashing lights. We brace for impact. The horrors spring to life! Electricity arcs dangerously across the room, and Haroldur goes down!

As I look for a path through the constructs to him, I catch a glimpse of a mechanical humanoid pinned under a broken pillar, watching me. I fight my way over to it, and it seems to be beckoning for help. However, it is obviously pinned beneath the several ton weight of the fallen pillar. It starts making noises at me that sound like language, but I don't understand any of it. It clutches at my leg, but I try to explain that I'll try to help free it as soon as we've dealt with the clockwork horror threat. I clamor over the column and pour a healing potion down Haroldur's (now conscious) throat.

Just as I move on to join Nineve's attack, I hear Hezzrak fall. He must've eaten too many beetles right before battle! I rush to his aid, but just as I arrive, Sarek casts Baleful Transposition and Hezzrak suddenly blinks away and appears on the floor in front of the wizard. In his place is a copper clockwork horror (previously menacing Sarek), which I quickly dispatch.

Head-Injury Nineve accidentally brains herself with her own mace, while surrounded by clockwork horrors! Haroldur heals her just in time. The fight is long and brutal, but we eventually prevail. With the Wanderer, Haroldur finds a pair of Goggles of Foe Seeing.

With the immediate danger behind us, Nineve and I work together to free the mechanical construct. He cycles through several strange languages before he finally says "hello" in Elven. I respond and he seems pleased to have discovered that I speak "the slaves' tongue"! We converse briefly and I try to get a handle on who he is and how long he's been here. He tells me his name is 31E37, and he seems to be an Imperium relic, trapped down here for thousands of years! I don't have time to give him a brief history of modern civilization, but I stress to him that elves are NOT a slave race, and if we ever were, it was so long ago that even our sages don't remember it! 31E (as I've taken to calling him) wants to be taken to the nearest Imperium terminus. Sarek (who can speak to him in Draconic) and I explain to him that any Imperium terminus we find will be nothing more than a ruin. Understandably, the idea that the civilization that created him has been utter destroyed millenia ago is slow to sink in. We tell him we may not be able to get him to a terminus, but he should come with us anyway, since it's better than being stuck down here. 31E is badly damaged, and his left arm and leg have been completely crushed and destroyed. Also, important sections of his memory seem to be damaged or missing. As I lift him to a standing position, he grabs a clockwork beetle from his crushed remains and attaches it to his torso. He says he knows it's important, but he can't remember why.

While Sarek and I are chatting up the construct, the rest of the party loots the bodies. They find an orange lantern like the ones in the sarcophagus room among the debris, along with:

an Imperium-era silver chalice with lapis inlay
a potion of Fox's Cunning
a metal coffer containing gold bars worth 700gp
a fragment of a marble relief, obviously similar to the type covering the walls of this ruin
a pair of Brute Gauntlets
a pair of clockwork wings (31E says they're not his)

We retrieve Alastor and go back to the fountain room to rest, with Nineve carrying the charred Seeker, and 31E leaning heavily on me like a crutch. Haroldur grumbles that we're collecting a "circus of cripples". I shoot him a nasty glance, but truthfully, he's right.

We all (except the construct) partake of the nutritious orange goo, and in the morning everyone is feeling surprisingly fresh. Nineve even seems to be recovering from her ghoul fever. Alastor is still delirious with agony, so we elect to leave him in this room near the water and goo paste where he'll be safe while we explore the rest of the cairn. I explain this to him as best I can and leave him a note to the same effect, in case he comes out of his delirium briefly while we're gone and starts to panic.

We head back to the sarcophagus room and try to find a way deeper into the cairn. We determine the only way left to go is up. At Haroldur's suggestion, I put on the ring with the feather motif we found earlier and climb up the chain that suspends the blue lantern. After a grueling 80-foot ascent, I find a narrow corridor leading off into the darkness. I lower my troll gut rope and haul everyone else up. It's a good thing I'm feeling so much stronger these days.

We proceed cautiously down the corridor, which ends in a huge stone face twisted in a terrible scream that blocks the entire passage. A quick glance around reveals deep scratches in the walls leading to the ledge. Haroldur doesn't like the looks of this at all, and we quickly decide the rest of the party should wait at the bottom while I disarm the face.

After everyone is safely down the shaft, I approach the face again, carefully looking for clues to disarm the inevitable trap. I venture slightly deeper and step on a large slab, identical to the others, and hear a "click". The face's eyes glow in a hypnotic pattern, flashing indigo, blue, yellow, and orange, and I am momentarily transfixed as a strong gust of wind starts blowing me backwards towards the ledge. I fervently hope this unidentified ring we found is really a Ring of Featherfall...

Fortunately, it is. I am blown off the ledge and float harmlessly down to the floor. It's actually quite pleasant. After some brief discussion, we decide to light the unlight lanterns, which just happen to be the indigo, blue, yellow, and orange ones. Somewhere in the distance, my keen elven ears detect the faint strains of a "puzzle solved" sound...

After 10 minutes, the gusting trap finally stops. I climb back up the 80 foot chain and this time when I approach the face, it slides quietly into the floor, revealing blackness beyond. I turn around and head back to the ledge to lower the rope, when I just barely catch the faint sound of stealthily running footsteps coming up behind me. I turn around just in time to get a face full of ghoul! As the foul undead slams into me, I jump off the ledge and start to float down. In a moment, I break the grapple and send the ghoul plummeting to its (re?)death. As I finish my descent, Haroldur congratulates me on a ghoul well killed, and uses the Wanderer to discover a Gem of Life-Drinking on its dessicated body.

I tell the party that I think the way is now clear, and I begin what I hope will be my final ascent up the chain. Once at the top, I check for more ghouls and, finding none, haul up my companions. Everyone is pleased that I got them tickets to the gun show.

We continue down the corridor and pass the face without incident, but we leave 31E37 on the other side so he can let us back out if we run into a dead end.

Past the face, the corridor opens to a large, dimly lit chamber. A robed figure appears at the end of the room, seemingly delighted to have found a way out of this prison at last. However, we can all sense he's hiding something from us. Immediately suspicious, Haroldur casts Silence on himself as we are all charged by ghouls. It's an ambush!

The image of the Snakebite appears to Sarek, and he gains the ability to Sneak Attack temporarily! Unfortunately, I don't have time to admire my little protege, as he is immediately attacked and paralyzed by a hidden ghoul! Moments later, Haroldur suffers the same fate.

In a brave and desperate attempt to save them, Nineve activates her Test of Mettle ability, and taunts all the ghouls into attacking her. They swarm her and she fights valiantly, but is soon paralyzed by their blows. I rush in to save her as Haroldur and then Sarek shake off their paralysis, and we narrowly manage to keep her alive as we pick the foul beasts off one by one.

Suddenly, the robed figure reappears, snatching Haroldur's holy symbol from his neck, and declares that he is Ulavant! While he may have once been the revered Seeker known as Ulavant, his features are twisted and pallid - he has clearly become a ghast. Hezzrak Suggests that his "big brother" is coming, so Ulavant had better get a magic circle of protection up, stat! This buys us the time we need to finish off the last of the ghouls before he realizes he's been duped.

Enraged, Ulavant seizes Nineve, paralyzing her easily, and threatens to kill her unless we free him. A look of brave resignation tinged with regret passes over her eyes as his fingers tighten around her throat. Without thinking, I instantly agree to his demands. He says he takes my word as a Keeper (oops) and releases Nineve, dropping her body to the floor. Haroldur immediately charges him. It's an intense couple of seconds, but the rest of the party manages to take him down while I drag Nineve a safe distance from the threat. She recovers just in time to see him go down.

Standing over Ulavant's ghastly corpse, we take a moment to collect ourselves and ponder the significance of our actions here. I think we're going to need more than one Sending to explain this one...

~Ashe

Episode 7: 5/24/08

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/1-2
Haroldur, human cleric/3
Nineve Floret, human knight/3
Sarek, human wizard/3

Zolara interprets our Harrow reading:

"Ancient secrets influence events that have brought you to this point, but hidden danger threatens as well. Strange runes guide your path. Unshakable loyalty binds inseparable companions. Someone you seek still lives, but is pinned beneath an 8-pointed star, and is held by another will entirely. Fire first and darkness after. A group, once coherent, is now lost in madness and forever waiting in the dark to share their curse."

In Diamond Lake, Brolan and Lazare become research buddies, as both are interested in the Whispering Cairn stuff. Lazare hands over his findings, along with Brolan and Sarek's interpretation of Alastor's notes:

The cairns are reputed to be the final resting places of ancient warriors known as the Storm Kings who ruled a great empire long before the Imperium. The Whispering Cairn itself is and intricate grave that is thousands of years old.

All of the known Cairns share a similar architecture: wide, tall corridors constructed from strange white stone blocks of massive size leading to a central tomb chamber. These cairns have long ago been throughly looted, and whatever defenses were once in place have been defeated. However, local legends persist, insisting that unexplored chambers with undiscovered treasures from a bygone era remain hidden within the cairns, awaiting someone clever or brave enough to claim them.

The Whispering Cairn itself is one of the larger tombs, known locally for the eerie sounds that whisper within the entrance and corridor of the cairn. It has gained a sinister reputation around Diamond Lake, with many claiming that it is haunted or filled with still active, deadly traps. The last recorded expedition to the Whispering Cairn was some 60 years ago, lead by Ulavant.

Alastor had been studying Ulavant's notes for several years during his retirement in Kolbenburg, and learned several things of great interest. Through his research, Ulavant had come to believe that the Storm Kings had gone to great lengths to hide the tombs of their fallen warriors. Most warriors were interred in tombs with several false burial chambers and dead ends to mislead would-be tomb robbers. The truly important tombs of their greatest warriors were concealed so well that none have ever been found. Ulavant believed that some of the more prominent Storm King tombs were linked to these important tombs, providing the only means of access. Ulavant theorized that the true burial chamber within the lesser tomb also contained whatever method the Storm Kings used to link the tombs together, most likely some variety of portal.

Moreover, Ulavant had come to be convinced that the tomb known locally as the Whispering Cairn was one of these lesser tombs linked to a greater burial site. The prospect of locating one of these greater tombs, un-plundered for countless years became an obsession for both Ulavant and Alastor.

Lazare asks us to please pass along any additional information we find on our expedition to the Cairn. I agree to take judicious notes.

Haroldur shops around and acquires a butler's outfit for his new thrall, whom he fusses over and calls "Jeeves". I purchase 3 horses for the party, and food. We make preparations to head out, but Nineve seems to have contracted ghoul fever. Haroldur does what he can for her.

On the way out of town, Hezzrak tells us not to trust Lazare, and that he threatened to eat him! I ask dryly if that was a telepathic threat. Hezzrak says he's surprised I didn't hear Lazare, because he sure did... I tell Hezzrak that I bet he hears a lot of things that I don't.

We hit bad weather on the way, but eventually make it to the Whispering Cairn without incident, even though we are now deep in ogre country. Nineve is clearly ill with ghoul fever, but insists we press on. It's been drizzling all day and we arrive at the Cairn just before nightfall. I find a secluded copse to tether our horses, and we move into the cave-like entrance of the Cairn. Once inside, I realize this is a mistake, as we are clearly in the ogre's lair. With nowhere else to go, we continue into the Cairn, scaling the makeshift barrier of logs and detritus that blocks the passage.

From farther down the corridor we can hear angry, inarticulate roaring. It sounds as if the creature is chained in some way. Since it isn't an immediate threat, I spend a few minutes to look around while the rest of my companions struggle to surmount the pile of logs. I find a green leather quiver and 4 usable arrows among the refuse littering the floor, clearly the work of my people. Just as Nineve makes it over the logs, the wailing creature breaks free and comes barreling around the corner.

A degenerate ogre stands before us, it's milky blind eyes rolling in their sockets as python-thick arms shake with rage. Nineve and I rush in to meet the new threat. The rest of the party joins in as they scramble over the obstacle. At the beginning of combats, the Hidden Truth appears to me, and I am granted extra insight about our foe. The only insight I need, however, is the fact that this particular degenerate ogre is suddenly, inexplicably seized with a fit of allergies, and we beat it down quickly. At the end of combats, Haroldur receives the vision of the Wanderer, and finds value others may have overlooked. This time, he finds a magic buckler.

Soon, a pair of ogres enter the Cairn and lumber into view. Hezzrak suggests the larger ogre is the star of the metropolitan ballet. Thus distracted, we defeat his companion easily. However, the would-be ballerina proves more challenging. Just before he knocks me out, he impales Nineve on his massive bailing hook! Fortunately, we pull through. Just as we're healing up, Haroldur gets shot in the back - it's Zasalamel!

He again begins listing off crimes we don't recognize, except "consorting with devils", which Hezzrak takes exception to. In response, Hezzrak blasts a Scorching Ray into Zasalamel's chest. Jeeves the butler ghoul is utterly destroyed, much to Haroldur's dismay. At length, Sarek exploits a loophole in the fabric of the multiverse and banishes the Justice Archon with a darkbolt, blasting him into the past (or is it the future?). Haroldur carefully retrieves the butler outfit.

We turn our attentions back to the degenerate ogre. We find he was chained to a mysterious stone object. Upon closer inspection, we determine it was part of a transportation apparatus, and is covered with mysterious ancient runes. I take rubbings of the runes to show Lazare, Brolan, and the Cabal later. Sarek is fairly certain the base of the sculpture bears the name "Zosiel".

Moving on, we find ogre-vandalized mosaics and bas-reliefs surrounding a marble dais. Haroldur cleans them off with a Create Water. While Haroldur is washing the walls, I search the disgusting ogre bedchamber opposite the marble dais area. I find:

a marble index finger from a statue
an elven armband
a lantern with violet glass panes
9gp
15sp
assorted ancient clockwork pieces

Once the mosaic is clean, I make a detailed sketch of it for posterity.

Continuing down the stairs, we enter a large central chamber with several passageways branching off from it radially. The passageways are distinguished by different colored lanterns. In the blue lantern hallway, we find a skeleton. I determine he died from falling damage.

The center of the room contains a sarcophagus. The marble finger i found earlier clearly was at one time attached to the sculpture. It is wearing an ornamented disc around its neck, and I take a rubbing of it. Then, we carefully open the lid of the sarcophagus. A blast of wind knocks us back and coalesces into a whirlwind humanoid shape, which of course attacks us. Nineve lands the killing blow, to Hezzrak's infinite frustration, and the creature dissipates.

Closer inspection of the sarcophagus reveals that it appears to rotate. We rotate it one position (to the yellow passageway), and an elevator appears! We enter it after some ridiculous "safety" debate with Head-Injury Nineve, and take a ride down to a new chamber. More carvings cover the walls. At the end of the hallway, a faint light flickers. As we advance towards the light, we smell the odor of burning flesh. Soon, we notice the source of light - a burning corpse which rises from its resting place and advances on us menacingly.

Nineve receives the vision of the Rakshasa, and feels more resilient and willful. With the distance closed, we notice the foe is actually a smoldering body bearing the 8-pointed star of the Seekers of Wee Jas. The body appears to be being controlled by a flaming effigy. Haroldur separates the effigy from its victim, and Hezzrak finally lands the killing blow, after several misses.

We heal up the charred (but living) body and find that he's Alastor Land! After a brief explanation, we take him with us.

The next room contains a brown mold, which Sarek dispatches. Hezzrak is perched atop one of several clockwork horrors, which appear to be inactive. In the center of the room is a large gray fixture with fountains on either side - one flowing with water and the other an orange sludge, which I determine to be nutritive. I take a vial of it for further analysis. Suddenly, the clockwork horrors spring to life, startling Hezzrak.

They start making high-pitched whirring noises, and then unleash a barrage of electrical attacks! The horrific beetle-like robots attack with deadly accuracy, slinging darts, arcs of electricity, and buzzing circular saws. Ash falls under the weight of a particularly well-placed dart. Hezzrak rains corrosive acid on them from above as the rest of the party hacks away at their tough metal exteriors.

At length, they fall to our might. With the aid of the Wanderer, Haroldur finds a golden amulet and some magical oil. We are all feeling stronger from our experiences and decide to rest in this chamber before continuing on.

~Ashe