Muddled Pasts - Pathfinder 3.5

Session #12, part 2 - Giant Ninja Skeletons?

continued from above:

Medea smiled and stepped out from behind the cauldron. Her hair billowed out behind her, although there was no breeze to be detected, and beneath her blindfold her smile was beautiful and terrible. As if it had been painted on, her dress hugged every curve of her lush body. She juiced the power level of her grin up as she stopped. "My price is one night with me. Now, I under-"

"Deal." This was a lead on my mother. There was never a question on whether or not I was going to make a deal once I saw her. It might be a trap, it might be something horrible, and it certainly won't be a fun romp in the sack, but there are times to do the smart thing and other times you just do what you have to do, damn the consequences.

Medea seemed almost surprised at my ready acquiescence, but then her smile turned wicked. "So be it. 3 sailors for the crown, and a night with me for the rest." I thought I heard a throaty chuckle as she moved back to her sisters, but I couldn't be sure over the thudding of my heart.

Tofa refused offers of glory and so on, insisting she wanted to save the sailors. For master Pho, they stopped the normally implacable man in his tracks by offering . . . the perfect moment. He considered it for quite some time before passing, stating that he would find such moments on his own. He then negotiated for seven sailors.

Why didn't we think of that?

Back outside, we worked down to a campfire by the beach as twilight fell. The Bletchko brothers were there with Pike Pilkey, and they stared at us like we were ghosts. "'Cor," said Pike. "We was about to give up on yas." he jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the Barnacle, which sat at anchor off the reef.

"Why? Just because you managed to get the boat off the reef in one afternoon?"

He looked at me, wide-eyed. "You been gone a week, mate."

Ah. Great. By our reckoning, we'd been in the cave for an hour or two at most. If that was really a week, then how long was the night I'd just signed up for?

----

Back on the boat (ship, ship, as I keep getting reminded) we set about various tasks. Research was done on Njall and his weapon, while I traded for a Find Object scroll from Ferin Thorne, the 'wizard' on ship. The woman had also mentioned Runelord Alaznist, a name that kept popping up. She'd been the ruler of Baklond and it was her face that was now Hollow Mountain - well, not actually her face, but . . . you get it.

Then the alarm bells started going off.

I managed to remember to cast Mage Armor this time and ran out on deck to see it covered with undead horrors. Some were just bones, some were rotting corpses, and some were HUGE. One in armor pointed to Tofa and somehow said, 'Murderer!' Others did the same. I looked over at her in confusion.

She growled and said, "How many times to you have to kill a mutinous crew, anyway?"

Bloody hell.

The other night, while meditating, I felt i had actually gained the ability to cast a spell that had up until then been beyond my powers. No time like the present. With a mutter and a flick I created a large pit on one side of the boat. A pair of skeletons fell in and made smashing sounds as they hit bottom, but the huge humanoid skeleton somehow leapt to the side. Irritated, I shifted over and cast it again, taking down another pair of undead but the big bastard leaped aside yet again. I cursed, a sound swallowed up by Trixie's song. She conjured a pair of dogs to keep it in place, and Pho tumbled by, did that ball of air thing he does, and this time it tumbled in. I moved over, breathed a sigh of relief as it made it almost out before falling back in, and tossed in one of Naffir's grenades. "Eat that, buddy."

Trixie's dogs tripped up a huge zombie, and Tofa and Londis were knocking out her former crew left and right. Pho took a nasty hit before radiating healing with a wave of some sort. Together we took down a giant minotaur skeleton before Tofa's former first mate, after nailing her with a javelin, bid us farewell for now. he dove overboard and vanished. The fight was over for us, but truly over for the unfortunate Pike Pilkey. Firendrin's owl had gotten clocked as well, but would survive.

Now all we had to worry about was why Tofa's crew had found us. Oh, and finding Njall and getting his crown. Oh, and my night with a scary powerful thing that was woman-shaped. No problem.

notes: Create Pit is a lot of fun, even if a huge skeleton made two reflex saves to stay out. The GM ruled my grenade did double-damage in the enclosed space. The group fought tremendously well together and it was fun essentially cutting the boat in half with the pits.

Session #13 - Octeober 25, 2010 - Wight or Wrong, an End to the Matter

notes: hairy session. Two fights that could have gone very, very badly, and almost did. A quick reminder that a GM can take your shiny new pit spell and make it fairly useless if he wishes. Good teamwork overcame some bad rolling, especially in the showdown at the end. We started a little late and ended a whole lot late, running about 90 minutes long. Dinner was pizza, a total sellout.

From the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:

Would bringing flowers be a good idea?

It seemed like a reasonable question, but only elicited a sign and an eye roll from Trixie. To be fair we were slogging along in an underwater cavern at the time, but still.

I'm getting ahead of myself. The day had started with us piling into the Barnacle's glass bottomed dinghy to better navigate the reef-laden waters to find both the Silver Raven and our bestest buddy Njall. The area was treacherous but with Tofa piloting and Big Dill and Sing Song rowing we were able to get around unscathed. It took us a bit of searching, including finding several other wrecks and seeing some green-skinned creatures I believe are called Saugahin we chose not to mess with, but finally we found the prow of the Raven jutting above the waves.

We also noticed a few skeletons walking along the bottom of the 20 foot deep water carrying glass ingots. Our glass ingots.

Bloody undead.

Still, they gave us an easy trail to follow, one I was able to keep with a Detect Magic cantrip (ooc - Kat won this argument with her GM hubby by bludgeoning him with the logic that since they are created by magic, skeletons always should detect as such a bit). After a while they vanished from my senses, no doubt entering a tunnel or cavern of some sort. We started to debate what to do next, but after a bit Londis and Firendrin each sipped some of their water breathing potions and jumped overboard. After a while we saw a ray of light emanate from a waterspout hole a bit further along the reef, and after we went there and dropped lines they clambered back up, reporting that there was a crevice the skeletons had continued on into.

At this point we had Trixie read the scroll we'd gotten from the ship's wizard to find Njall's sword and . . . nothing. Crap. Panicked, we moved along a bit when, just as the spell was about to run out, Trixie said 'Ooo!" and pointed to spot on the island itself. Even from where we were there was nothing to see, so it had to be underground. Underwater. Wonderful.

We geared up, anchored the boat, and sent Firendrin's wacky owl over to the Barnacle with a note saying what we'd found. Then we went over the side.

It wasn't so bad. The water was reasonably warm, we had plenty of light at our disposal, and the breathing potions worked well, albeit with the slightly discomfiting side effect of giving us tiny gills in our necks. Well, I'm assuming everyone else had them, I wasn't getting close enough to check. Especially not to the hairy, practically naked dwarf.

The trail was easy to follow as we swayed our way through the fissure without incident, pulverizing the worker skeletons when we saw them. They didn't notice us and didn't fight back. Soon we came to a large open cavern, with a steep slope upward on the opposite side of us that led above water. A number of skeletons and zombies stood guard near the breakwater. We suggested that Pho perhaps take them out with his surprising magic, but he felt they weren't worth the effort. So we began to slog across (it's damn difficult to move in water! We had a single potion of free movement, but wanted to save it for something important). Trixie summoned a dolphin, which streaked across the chamber and smashed a skeleton to tiny bits. The warrior types had pretty much moved into position when the thing that was truly missing from this tableau dropped in. Literally.

A freakin' hydra splashed down on our midst, six heads waving around as it hissed with hunger. I summoned a dolphin and it raced in to attack. That didn't go particularly well for it and there was much devouring. Trixie had about the same amount of luck with an octopus (an octopus! I'll have to speak to her about that, I found it fascinating!). The water was a red cloud around the horrible beast.

Meanwhile the others were making short work of the skeletons and zombies and moving for the hoped safety the shore would provide. There was a slight problem with that, as Trixie and I were on the wrong side of our new scaly friend for that. I was beginning to think that this was going to be a very ignoble way to die when Londis and Pho challenged it from the side. The monk glanced my way and said, "Use your dolphin to escape!" He may have said 'fool' at the end of that, I'm not sure. But it was certainly a good idea (ooc - I had no idea I could do anything with summoned creatures other than tell then to attack. I like to think I would have come up with this by myself if I'd known, but I can't guarantee that ).

One hurried casting and one wild, wild ride later, I felt my chest scrape against sand as my head broke the surface. My savior made a squeaking noise and rocketed through the water at the hydra - he deserved a better fate, but whatever. Trixie was almost right behind me, he feet moving in a magically-induced blur. Londis had taken several solid shots but was able to stagger to safety as the hydra ate nummy fish snacks. In fact, a few moments later we were all out of the water and far enough into a cavern that the hydra couldn't follow. Safety, for now.

We healed up and pushed on, heading back underwater. A short tunnel led to another shimmer of light above our heads, and we surfaced to find ourselves in a stone-lined pool filled with bones that was part of a massive cavern, at least two hundred feet long and more than half as wide. It was filled with statues and furniture made from flotsam and, well, a lot of skeletons. On the other side of the room, in front of a wall absolutely PILED HIGH with treasure of all sorts stood three figures. Even from here I could see they weren't alive. The one on the throne stood up, flaking moss and other sea crap. It seemed annoyed.

"Interlopers! How dare you come here?"

I'm not subtle. "Hi. We're here for your crown."

If an undead could splutter, this one did. "My crown! How dare you!" Then he fixed on Tofa. "Ah, the coward is here. See, Eric, I told you she'd come."

The large armored skeleton that had led the attack on our ship chuckled. "Yes, Njall, the coward is here. I ask the boon of being allowed to slay her myself and send her soul to Hel."

"Coward?" Tofa was clearly angry but just also looked somewhat in awe - later she explained that Njall was a legend among her people, the subject of the stories she listened to as a kid, and to meet him, even in this state, was a little overwhelming. "You got the treatment you deserved, you traitorous, mutinous cur! I'll take pleasure in killing you again!"

Njall stepped in again. "In my day, we had honor and pride, and we were fearsome raiders that make the whole world quake and . . ." blah blah blah. Boy, these guys just love to hear themselves talk. The three of them yelled at one another for a while more before I jumped in during a pause and asked, "So can we have the crown already? The ladies up on the mountain need it."

From the corner of his mouth Pho said, "It is surprising you are so eager for your assignation."

Firendrin laughed and said, "Yeah, it is totally gonna fall off when she's done with it."

"Please," chimed in Trixie, "it's not like he ever uses it."

Njall blew his top at our gallows humor. "What are you talking about! KILL THEM!"

before we could do anything the other figure up by him - crap, a Hecuva, if it was what I'd seen once during class - wiggled fingers and made a tossing gesture. My ears popped as a heavy blanket of silence fell over us. I was able to discern what the spell was (ooc: 25 on the spellcraft/arcana check) and realized it had dropped an area with a large radius, and that we needed to move.

of course, that's when the skeletons moved in. Oh, and the bones beneath our feet began to shudder and move as Njall waved his arms, quickly coming together into a giant dragon skeleton.

Lovely.

Since spell-casting was out of the question, I did the dumbest thing I could think of. My mage armor from the 'battle' with the hydra was still in place, which was fortunate as the skeleton I moved away from no doubt would have clobbered me otherwise. Pulling out my wand of shocking grasp, I walked right up to the bony terror and zapped the crap out of it. It howled, or at least I guess it did, because I couldn't hear anything. Pho did one of his crazy things, tattoos flaring, and the skeletons menacing us simply exploded. The dragon staggered, and as the others clambered out of the pool to meet the oncoming Eric and Njall, I dodged an attack from the monster's tail and zapped it again. Boy, will I be sorry when this wand runs out.

It was a good jolt, and the dragon rocked back and forth for a few seconds before collapsing back into a pile of bones. Outstanding. Scrambling out of the water, I quickly moved to get out of the effect of the silence spell. Once I did, I almost wished I hadn't. By Shelyn's Luscious Earlobes, I almost wished I hadn't. Ever been in a room with THREE raging barbarians? Sounds like someone's dipping a huge sack filled with badgers into a hornet's nest. Tofa was trying not to get surrounded by Eric and Njall as they screamed at one another. Njall's blade was glowing a bright blue and looked rimed with frost. He saw Londis rushing to Tofa's aid and the rest of us not far behind and snarled, "Finally someone to give me a worthy fight!" With that he waved his blade and a wall of ice basically bisected the room, cutting the rest of us off from he and Tofa - and the spellcaster, who was still up there causing problems. Eric was on our side but seemed unperturbed - a perk of being undead, I guess. He considered us and cracked a smile as he crossed weapons with Londis.

He was still smiling when I made a pit under his feet and he fell in. I heard a curse from the other side of the wall and surmised that Njall had fallen in as well, but not before Tofa yelled in pain. There might have been a way around the wall at the far side of the room, but most of us weren't close to that at all. Pho and Firendrin moved in that direction. Trixie fired an arrow at the Hecuva, watched it plink off armor, and cursed a blue streak. The sailors had taught her a few new ones.

I stepped forward as Londis took up a position poised to shove Eric back in, and looked down at the undead. To my surprise the SOB was almost out already, and I muttered something about the lack of appreciation for a well-made pit and hit him between the eyes with one of Naffir's grenades. He almost fell back in, but with a grace and agility one wouldn't have expected of him he burst out of the pit, avoiding Londis, and moved to safety. From there he pulled something from a necklace and tossed it to us - a gift from a foe. It exploded in our midst, although Trixie and I were able to avoid the worst of it (ooc: I think Trixie's reflex save is in double digits already. I rolled a 20, which made up for the sub-5 rolls I was making with everything else). Londis got creamed, though. Still, he waded right into Eric and staggered him with a mighty blow. I missed with a elemental ray, but Trixie took care of business by stepping forward and casting a healing spell - on Eric. The skeleton was in bad shape before that, but at her touch it simply crumbled to the ground with a clatter of armor and weapons.

I refrained from making comment on what Trixie's hands could do to a male.

We raced around the edge of the ice wall to see a badly battered Pho and Tofa battling with Njall and the caster at the edge of my pit. Tofa looked terrible, pale and bloody, but her face was locked in that insane battle grin she gets and she gave no quarter. Firendrin's owl was in a bloody mess behind them. I charged up the wand and went for Njall as his cleric healed him up. I thought I'd missed - for a big man or skeleton or whatever (Pho later informed us he was a wight, a particularly foul type of undead that feeds on the essence of the living) in armor he moved well, but the electricity arced from my fingers to the metal of his mail and delivered the jolt.

The next few moments were hazy, and I'm not sure what happened but Tofa finally delivered a killing blow. Njall went down and his cleric immediately crumbled into dust. Around his body formed a golden glow, and we could see the image of of a young Northerner flanked by a pair of devastatingly beautiful warrior women clad in shimmering mail. He started to rise, but turned to Tofa first. "You have freed me, and I am grateful. The legend of the brave warriors of the north shall carry on in your name, and you were truly a worthy foe. You fought with great honor, and so I find you deserving of Hidarga. Wield it well." And poof, he was gone.

Tofa grabbed the two-handed blade with a sense of triumph, which turned to horror as the runes on the blade flared for a moment before the whole thing slowly crumbled to dust. Before anyone could react her broadsword, the one taken from Nuallia, began to glow as several runes etched themselves into the blade.

"Hmm," mused Trixie. "No wonder there were so many differing stories about what the blade looked like." She looked up at the back wall. "Wow. That's a lot of treasure." She and Londis grinned.

"Yeah," I said absentmindedly. "So, if not flowers, maybe some sort of sweetmeats? Or fruit?"

notes: really touch and go in that fight at the end. Tofa got touched by the wight and lost a level, but we do have a restoration potion somewhere. Bad rolling had us in big trouble and the room being split was a tactical nightmare, but Pho's healing waves were a huge help, as was Firendrin casting hexes galore behind the scene. I'm very interested to see how my INCREDIBLY greedy partymates figure out how to screw Amieko out of her share of the found plunder.

Session #14 - November 1, 2010 - She Never Calls, Never Writes

notes: Missing Firendrin's player, this was a somewhat subdued session as we tied up loose ends with the mission. The question was how we'd manage to keep most of the insane amount of coinage we'd found . . . never underestimate creativity fueled by greed. Dinner was a crazy ravioli lasagne by Laura which was also DELICIOUS.

From the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:

It's a little scary when your party handles a creature like a hydra almost as a nuisance. When we first encountered it there was a pitched battle - forewarned and prepared, I almost felt bad for the thing as we clobbered it in savage fashion before Tofa, armed with Haldarga, charged in to finish it off. She, Londis and Pho swam out to begin working with the Barnacle on the salvage aspect of the mission - the rest of us stayed busy hauling stuff or, in my case, identifying the bloody hell out of the passel of magical crap we found. Magically speaking, I was on fire. Some nice stuff, too. A load of scrolls Firendrin was fairly drooling over for himself and that spooky not-owl, a necklace of fireballs with a pair of charges left, a nice lesser rod of extend spell, and a host of other small items. Oh, and the crown we were sent for, which was something I would have given my eyeteeth for, once I figured out what it did. Guh.

We ended up filling 10 chests with just coins, most of it copper. Trixie and Londis, thinking ahead to our return to Sandport, filled three of the chests with gold and then covered the top with a layer of coppers. I was too preoccupied with my upcoming assignation to care. Soon enough, it was time to go.

We headed up minus Londis, who wanted to bring the Captain with him later. At the cave the ladies were waiting, and seemed both happy and surprised to see us. I tossed them the crown. "Deal's a deal."

"Indeed, indeed," cackled the Crone. She pointed to Firendrin. "You, you bargained for knowledge. Come forward, little chickie, and get your reward."

Firendrin stepped up to the cauldron and peered in. I couldn't see any change, but he started to spasm after a bit and his eyes rolled up, showing only the whites. With a groan he fell over sideways and crashed to the floor, the rise and fall of his chest the only proof he was still alive.

"You, little one." The Crone smiled at Trixie. "You wished a way to escape those who follow you." She thrust her hands into the bubbling goop and, after rummaging around a bit, pulled out a human skull. After wiping away some . . . stuff, she urged Trixie forward and handing it to her. "When you are in trouble break this skull and call my name, and I will come to your aid. This is only good for a single use."

Trixie nodded, then creased her brow. "Fine, fine. "What's your name?"

"Ah, we didn't bargain for that knowledge, little one." She cackled and spat in the fire. "Perhaps you'd like to make another deal?"

Trixie shook her head. "We'll figure it out." I nodded, thinking of the sage in Sandport. We'd figure it out.

Pho stepped forward. "Thirteen sailors, was our deal."

Medea nodded, waved her hands. Animals of all sorts started trooping in from everywhere. They shouldn't have all fit in the cave, but they did. "Choose, then."

Pho produced some colorful sand and performed some sort of ritual. Without looking up he pointed to his number of prisoners, and with a bit of a sour expression the Ladies nodded. Tofa chose her three as well before I did the same, being told they'd revert to 'their repulsive natural forms' once they left the cavern.

And then it was my turn. Medea bade me forward, her half-lidded eyes filled with amusement. "Our deal then, Grezzalik. Come see what you have bargained a night with me for."

I edged up to the cauldron, the contents of which smelled like a combination of the underside of a latrine and the inside of a tannery mixed with week-old fish guts. The smoke above it twisted and twisted before taking shape as a window of some sort, allowing me to peak in at . . . my mother.

Shamara sat with a happy but glazed look on her face, draped in finery and looking more beautiful than I remembered. next to her sat a tall elf with white hair and a stern face. He seemed bored and restless, and I pegged him as a warrior, a creature of action. Around them was a scene of some sort of ball but something . . . wasn't right. Spriggans and satyrs danced and capered but the other elves in attendance looked gaunt and almost haggard. The hall was clearly ruled over by a striking elf that could be none other than a queen, and held an air of menace, dark and foreboding.

"That's Queen Roswyn," Medea whispered in my ear, and I gave a small gasp. I'd read about her, a creature of almost immeasurable power, the Ruler of the Fellnight Realm. It was a stretch of Shadow and the Faewild that overlapped one another, and how to get there was merely speculation.

"Your mother was here, Grezzalik. Her ship wrecked not too far away and she managed to make it to shore." Her breath was causing my body to go crazy even while her words chilled me to the bone. "She spent some time here as livestock before the elf came and freed her."

I blinked. "Freed her?"

"Well, bargained for her, just as you bargained for this knowledge. Not in the same manner, of course." Her lips brushed my neck and I shivered. "Have you not seen Loric Tinvilldien before, Grezzalik? Your father?"

I started but stayed quiet, examining the elf in the vision before me again. At once I could see in his face some of the features I carried. I'd always been so obsessed with finding my mother that I'd spent little time wondering about my father . . . the image wavered and faded from view. That was fine.

I'd remember.

"So, you'll need to find a gateway." She smiled. "Another bargain, perhaps?"

I shook my head. "Let's settle up."

She took my hand as the Crone dropped the crown into the cauldron and muttered, "The Crown of the Redeemed King. Two more to find, two more to go." What that meant I had no idea, but in the meantime Medea walked me into the back of the cave which was clearly not the back of the cave, bringing us to an opulent villa equipped with all matters of delight one could imagine. And for the first few hours, it was fun, erotic, and enjoyable. Medea was an eager and able hostess, and our antics in the ridiculously large bed were amazing.

Then the snakes came out, and got weird. I think they came out of her hair, but once they started biting things got blurry for me and the rest of the time I can't recall.

The sailors, returned to human form, hailed their rescuers as heroes. I wasn't part of that, as I awoke in the dark, empty cave wrapped in a snakeskin and covered with bites. My robes were tossed carelessly nearby, and I shrugged into them with a groan and headed out.

The trip down the mountain was uneventful, and I found the ship still salvaging nearby. I was met with curious stares and wide eyes - it had been 4 days. Oh well. At least I wasn't pregnant.

Pho and Londis had some sort of stand off over the Inquistor's plan to give the Captain to the Ladies - as he was still here I could surmise Pho won. Back in Sandport Trixie successfully conned Amieko's beancounters into letting us take the three chests with the goad for our shares. Not sure how I feel about that. Right now, I'm just glad to be back in a bed that doesn't move up and down with the tide.

Notes: no game this week, as the GMs away on business. I suppose I'm a little concerned about Grezz's memory loss via medea but what could possibly go wrong? heh heh hehe yipes yipes yipes

Interlude: All Hallows Eve

Ahh yes, look at the brave heroes all tucked into their cozy beds, pockets full of coin, and not a care in the world. Trixie, oh beautiful, desirable Trixie, how I long for your fiery embrace. The way you move is intoxicating, even lying there the rise and fall of your chest sears my brain! Of course, soon, ever so soon, you she recognize my greatness, be drawn to me, and join my pack, where you shall be mine....forever.

A soft grating sound is heard as a gaunt figure climbs down the wall of the Rusty Dragon, abandoning its nighttime perch. Inside the window a certain halfling lies asleep, comfortably wrapped in blissful slumber.

The figure wanders away down the street, humming an old Varisian nursery rhyme:

Mumble Mumble Scarecrow
Alone in the Maze
Sleeping in the daytime
A stitched man he stays

But when the moon she rises
Up Mumble Gets
He shakes his hands at first
And moves his feet the next

And when the dog is snoring
And when you’re fast asleep
Mumble Mumble Scarecrow
Will find you good to eat

Session #15 November 15, 2010 - Sandport is Truly a Damsel in Distress

notes: on to a new super creepy story arc. It would be easier to pity poor Trixie if she hadn't given Grezz such a steady stream of abuse the entire session. Firendrin's choice of taking knowledge in exchange for helping recover the crown seems to have turned out well so far, as he gained a few skills (and would have had more if he hadn't boned some rolls). Now we're into something darker and presumably undead-ier. Dinner, after a crock pot malfunction KO'd a pot roast, was (damn tasty) rotisserie chicken and twice-cooked baked potatoes (why were they twice cooked? because I didn't cook 'em long enough the first time. Hiyo!!!!).

From the Journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:

For someone who's trying to keep a low profile, I'm not doing that great a job.

Okay, it's hard to do so in Sandport, where we're treated like heroes. But after we got back from the salvage job it was hard to walk around town without someone pointing or hailing us or wanting to shake our hands. I needed some time to do some research - I'd had enough time on the voyage to give Hadarga a thorough examination and told Tofa everything the blade could currently do, in addition to managing to retrain myself to swap one spell out for another. Ah, Color Spray, i thank you for nursing me through the early days of my wandering career, but I know your limitations and had no choice. The wand we have can't cast shocking grasp forever, so I learned it myself. Zap. Zap Zap Zap!

It was a long voyage.

I manged to scrape together enough money - we made an obscene amount from the job (OOC: 2250gp each) and I had some lying around - to lay in an order for a Cauldron of Brewing. I toyed with the idea of getting some sort of protective item or even a magic weapon of some sort, but it wasn't enough for anything really good. I had about a thousand other things I wanted to do but an invite from Amieko reminded us of a mistake we'd made, a while ago. Ugh.

Back when we'd first stopped the goblins from ruining the festival an actor named Cerdric had approached us and negotiated for the rights to the story. At the time 10 gold each sounded like an awful lot of money, and so we'd agreed and given him the story after taking out Nuallia. At worst we figured he'd make something silly and it would vanish shortly thereafter.

Nah. huge hit. So we joined Amieko and Ethrem Valdemars in a private box and watched the . . . whatever it was. Let's just say some creative license was taken - liberally. Right before the show ended we were joined by the Sheriff, who had a grim tale to tell. Sandport was in trouble again.

This time it was murders, the second having just taken place at a lumber mill owned by . . . the ing Scarnettis. Wonderful. A pair of lovers had been gruesomely slaughtered while the foreman was home for dinner by something we quickly determined wasn't human. The slashing wounds on the male victim, Banny Hasker, reeked of the grave. The female was the very same young lady who'd tried to seduce me, Katrina Vinder (see! I KNEW she was trouble!). As best as we could determine, something came out of the river under the mill's pier and attacked. Banny was torn up by talons and staked to a wall, with a sehedron rune carved into his chest. Katrina had evidently fought back and wounded the thing with a handaxe before being thrown into the saw . . . yeah, it was as gruesome as one might imagine.

oh, there was one other thing - a note left for Trixie - yes, our Trixie - scrawled in blood on a torn shirt. The completely freaked halfling gave it to me after she'd read it:
Quite. We were then told of a triple murder that had taken place a few days earlier outside of town with similar results - dead men with sehedron runes craved into them and festering slashes elsewhere. We were told of a survivor behind held in a sanitarium, and we agreed we needed to see him after we talked to Ebor Thorn, the missing manager of the mill.

He was being held in town and wasn't particularly forthcoming at first. He admitted he knew Harker was messing around with Vinder, but it took some special threatening by Londis (he cast a silence spell and pulled out surgical tools, which loosened Thorn's tongue quickly) to get the truth. Harker was skimming from Scarnetti, not a good idea at all given the ruthlessness of the bastard, but Thorn had just looked the other way. he didn't know anything about the murders other than being the person who walked in and found them. Not much help there.

With the sanitarium too far a walk at this time of night a few of us went to the after party, wherein a shaken Trixie had a good deal to drink, got into a verbal catfight with the actress portraying her, and then started fooling around with the actor playing me - weird. She left with someone at some point as Tofa and I kept things a little calmer, but was bright and chipper the next morning when we headed out.

The Saintly Haven of Respite was an odd building in the middle of nowhere, and soon after we were ushered in Firendren vanished to no doubt cause some sort of trouble. he returned while we were talking to Doctor Habe dressed in a doctor's coat and stethoscope he'd gotten from somewhere.

He's an odd one.

Eventually Habe took us to one Grayve Sevilla, strapped to a table in the basement and reeking of corrupted flesh. Firendren quickly identified the man in the late stages of ghoul fever, and he looked helpless until he caught sight of Trixie. His eyes lit up, and his previously unintelligible babble became crystal clear - "You! He said you'd visit! The Lordship was right, he's always right! He said, oh, I must remember, I must remember, he wants me to deliver this message, oh yes yes! if you can get over your misgivings soon and join the Pack he has something wonderful to show you! yes! His Lordship!"

Then he died.

Then he un-died, bursting his bonds and charging us as a horrific ghoul. We put him down quickly and then turned on Habe, who admitted he'd known what was wrong with him but simply had to study him! Londis had a talk with him and the filthy rich bastard agreed to pay for a number of rituals and potions that will hopefully not be necessary.

Oh, of course they will. Sandport's in trouble again, and they're looking to us. So we'll consult with the town Sage and try to find this thing before it finds Trixie.

And I thought Foxglove was bad.

Kassegore said:

Ahh yes, look at the brave heroes all tucked into their cozy beds, pockets full of coin, and not a care in the world.

Click to expand...

Not a care in the world? Is there anyone more paranoid than Grezz?

Session #16 - November 22, 2010 - Extra Helpings of the Creepy

Notes: Lots of scrambling around as we remain a step behind the killer but draw ever closer. I came in with slew of ideas on who the murderer might be and they all pretty much seem completely wrong at this point. Good ideas from all corners helped put us on the right track. Well, that and people dying gruesomely. Dinner was Laura's delicious Chicken-bacon pie and Kat's yummy cream cheese crumble. oh, and the kids' Halloween candy was pillaged. Alas, no session this week as the GM has family in town.

From the journal of Grezzalik M'rethen:

Hmmm. Yes. Well.

Okay, this has gotten creepy, brutal, and bloody. The entire town is on edge and we find ourselves off in the southern farmlands stepping up be Big Damn Heroes AGAIN. But by Shelyn's Hands, I'm more worried than usual. And that's saying a lot.

Broderick Quint, the sage we'd been talking to, gave us some useful info about ghouls, ghasts, and other nasty things (have I mentioned things seem to be pointing in that direction? Seriously, what is with this town?). I had some theories about the late Deverin/Chopper affair and also the kid who'd knocked up Nuallia and then bailed, but they didn't pan out. My question about why they kept carving the entire Sehedron rune instead of just the one for necromancy also went unanswered.

From there we managed to pretty much completely freak out Alma, Deverin's daughter and the baker friend of Trixie's. Trixie shooed us out and managed to get some info from her, but we also forgot to tell Alma to keep the news under her bonnet. Oops. We also received invites to Shalue's wedding to Beldin, up in one of the Elven cities. A chance to get more info on my mother? Maybe.

We'd talked the Father into casting a Speak to Dead ritual for us, and we debated a while what and whom to ask. With only two questions we needed to be specific. We settled on Mortwell, the leader of the three con men who'd been slaughtered at the abandoned farm outside of town, and on a pair of questions that should yield the most info. With the body on ice at the guardhouse, we headed over to gather it and bring it to the church.

We got delayed.

A runner found us and took us to the theater, where we were lead to a grisly discovery - Trixie was dead. Not our Trixie, thank Shelyn, but Penniel Sorn, the actress who'd been playing her in the blasted show. She and Trix had had words after the party - I believe Trixie had told her 'there are no small roles, only bad actresses,' and there was no love lost between them. Still, I doubt Trixie would have wished this on her worst enemy, and in fact she took one look at the scene and headed outside to be sick.

how to describe it? Penniel's room was in shambles and she was horribly mangled - face torn off, fingers amputated, and so on. The digits, in fact, has been used to compose another message for Trixie, written in blood across the wall:

Yeah. Creepy, right? Somehow none of the other actors heard any of this happening, which leads me to believe we might have a spellcaster involved. We did finally get a physical description - a tall, gaunt man wearing a blue demon mask and a long purple jacket. The wounds had that same foul stench to them we'd encountered before, and indeed the blood trail we found proved to be useless and the bloodhounds whined and shied away from the scent. Wonderful. Evidently met up with Penniel while the actors had been out drinking and came back with her.

Thoroughly frustrated, we gathered up the shaken Trixie and headed over to do the ritual, desperate for some sort of lead we could follow. We dithered over the wording on the questions, tinkering until we felt comfortable we'd get the most info possible. The first we asked was "Tell us everything you know about the being that killed you."

In a droning voice Mortwell filled in some gaps. He and his partners showed up to answer a note that offered them a great deal of money. The physical description was a match to the person who killed the pseudo-Trixie, expect this time the mask was of several pieces of tanned brown skin - perhaps human - sewn together. He'd attacked them with a straight razor and despite being outnumbered four to one he quickly overpowered them all - Mortwell referred to him as a 'terrible man.' After taking Grayst and hanging him from a hook so he'd have to watch everything, the attacker tied them up, tortured them craved the sehedron into their chests, and finally killed them. Our second question asked him who'd brought the note - we were figuring Jubral, the local crime lord, might have been mixed up in this somehow - but he said it was a farmer named Rogers Crosby.

A farmer. That made no sense until we headed over to the guardhouse to share what we'd learned and found a very rattled and somewhat inebriated Farmer Grump in their hands. After we calmed him down somewhat we managed to get his story, which was that the farmers down south had noticed something was amiss and gone en masse to the old Hambley farm, where they were attacked and mauled by what he called 'walking scarecrows.' They attcked the farmers and fell on the stricken, eating them, eating the dogs, eating everything. He was the only one to escape. They'd come out of the corn and as far as he knew they'd gotten everyone, including that ranger Belden.

.

We asked, he mentioned that Rogers Crosby sometimes served as a worker over at Misgivings - Londis immediately picked up on that, as we'd heard it from Grayst when he was reciting his Lordship's message to Trixie - and we discovered that it was the locals' name for a manor - the Foxglove Manor.

Trixie somehow got paler.

Turns out some of the farmers had been working at the place as Aldrin Foxglove tried to rebuild it. Grump had some vague recollection of why it was called Misgivings, but not enough info. We needed to head out regardless, and we were given 4 guardsmen and mounts.

Tofa had an idea, a brilliant idea, as we stopped by Ethram Valdemar's place on the way to the farms. Indeed old Ethram was exactly the person who could help us, telling us the sordid story of Aldrin's grandfather Vorol, who vanished years ago after his wife Cassandra died under mysterious circumstances. Aldrin's father, Travos, had a wife who, while at the manor, went insane. Travos then killed her and burned the servants' quarters down, with some of them still in there. Aldrin and his sister survived and were raised in Corvosa by other members of the family. An almost speechless Trixie said she'd noticed nothing weird while out there and in fact had a wonderful time. the place was only about half restored but she'd had no sense of dread while there. I wondered, to myself, if the mentioned rose petals in the mural of her hadn't been painted with blood . . . ugh. And so it seemed be were dealing with some sort of evil granddaddy monster. Whether or not Aldrin was a willing or unwilling accomplice remained to be seen.

We headed toward the farm first. After a while a pair of the scarecrows came out and attacked us, and indeed they were ghouls. We took them down, but the mostly green guardsmen were terrified (I wasn't thrilled myself). Further on we saw far too many scarecrows grouped together, and when Tofa and Londis hit them with arrows they reacted unlike a shirt stuffed with straw ought to. Several charged us then, catching some of us by surprise. I summoned a dog that took one down and tore it to shreds, but another one clawed Trixie before I could do anything and she locked in place, affected by the poison Broderick had warned us about.

It was a brutal fight. We lost one of the guards as a ghoul claw torn his throat open, but in the end we eliminated 5 of the foul creatures with nobody suffering a bite. Examination of the hanging scarecrows proved them to be the missing farmers, left up there suffering from ghoul fever and likely to turn soon. We killed the ones that were too far gone, but found two that had a chance. One was Belden, and several of us were adamant that Shalue's fiancee get one of the two cure disease potions he had. The other one we manacled and tied to a horse, to ride back to town with the guards. i'd hoped Belden might be able to stay and fight beside us, but he was suffering heavily what the fever had done to him. It wasn't until after he'd gone that i remembered the restoration potion we had. It might have been enough to get him up and running, but too late now. At least we probably saved the lives of the other three guardsmen by sending them back. Now, we just had to worry about saving ours.

Session #17 - December 6th, 2010 - House Party!

Notes: we forged on despite missing Tofa's player. Lots of good saving throws, good roleplaying, and good outside the box thinking - a very fun session as we tried to discover whether or not trixie's boyfriend is indeed the crazed ghast we're seeking (my money is on the grandfather). No game this Monday but we've rescheduled for Friday instead.

From the journal of Grezzalik M'rethen:

We edged up to the barn, expecting trouble. Trixie rode Shotzie up one side and Firendrin sent his owl up the other and thus we knew things lurked within. Said things were ghouls and a dire ghoul, and we took care of them with some summoned help from Trixie and Londis being able to resist their horrible bites. Aside from a pile of bones there was nothing else there, and the house had long since been destroyed. there was another message for Trixie but it was a older one, urging her to take the fever, the first of his gifts. The creep must have conscripted a poet since then. Firendrin wanted to torch the place - lately he's wanted to burn everything. We're keeping the flint and steel away from him.

With the afternoon speeding along we moved up to the manor house. Trixie remember some of it, and a trip around the grounds proved it to be right along a 300 foot cliff. She and I scouted some of the first floor windows and came across a curious sight. In one room the dust was disturbed in a path between a desk, a fireplace, and a crib - actively disturbed. As we watched saw a ghost named Laurie who either was old Vorol's daughter or wanted to throw Vorol's daughter off the cliff - and at that moment, for a second, I really wanted to throw Trixie off. I mean, I relly really wanted to see her flailing as she dropped to ger doom and the rocky crags below. I looked at her and saw she wanted to do the same exact thing to me. Then the moment passed, and we went from dangerous to merely awkward.

"Uhm, maybe I'll just detect magic on the place," I stammered.

"Yeah, good idea," she said, fiddling with Shotzie's harness.

I cast the cantrip and rocked back on my heels as the WHOLE DAMN PLACE lit up like the noonday sun. The entire building reeked of necromancy. Wonderful. We headed back to tell the others and I saw Londis starting to wiggle his fingers like he always does when he casts a spell, and I said, "Nooo-"

Too late. His eyes went wide, then rolled back in his head before he keeled over backwards. He was out of it for a few minutes. When he came to we tossed around ideas on how to go in. I was leery of the front door and eyed the attic gable.

'How about up there? Maybe we can go in that way, if Trix -"

Trixie was already up there on Shotzie securing a rope, and moment later we were all inside. Most of the rooms were either being renovated or housing materials to be used - and all had laid dormant for a while. Finally we heard a woman crying and a shriek from a corner room. Londis peered in and then closed the door, shaking his head. "it's a revenant," he said. "A creature powered by the need to extract revenge."

I stuck out my lower lip. "In this place, she'd probably be of use to us. Maybe go seek out and attack the one we're looking for."

"Fine. But who goes in there?"

(OOC: because Grezz grew up pretty much ignored, I've been downplaying his high charisma. Now that he's getting out an about some and having success I'm letting him actually play up to his strengths a bit) "I'll do it," I said. "Just get me out if there's trouble."

That earned me dubious looks. Edging into the largish room I saw a gaunt, haggard, obviously dead noblewoman in front of a mirror, looking downward. her nails were ragged and black, and she was sobbing quietly. then she looked up into the mirror and shrieked in anguish again, collapsing into heavy sobs and muttering about other women. When she wound down the whole process started up again.

"Hello? Miss? Hi, I'm Grezz and I'd like to help you."

Nothing. Completely obsessed with her reflection in the mirror. I looked around, spotted a dusty old blanket. I grabbed it and, whispering a short prayer to Shelyn, dropped it over the mirror.

The effect was instantaneous. She leaped to her feet and yelled, "Alderin Foxglove, I'll be in your arms again soon!"

She did not do this in a sexy way. Indeed, she rushed past me like I wasn't there and tore through the door, scattering my friends as well. We took off after her, hoping she'd lead us to our target and perhaps mess him up a bit for us.

We got as far as the master bedroom before all hell broke loose. We were right behind her when Tofa suddenly screamed and went into that crazy frenzy thing she does with the whites of the eyes and ravens swarming around everywhere. Her target was Trixie and she drilled her with Hardarga before the bard could get her gecko to carry her up to the ceiling, out of harm's way. Tofa was calling her every name in the book and I moved forward to try something but Firendrin beat me to it, dazing her long enough for Londis to step forward. I thought he was going to slap manacles on her - he's big with the manacles - but instead he cast Protection from Evil, and that snapped her right out of it. Abashed, she said the spirit of someone named Cassandra had taken her over and wanted her to kill 'that slut.' We also got to see the infamous Trixie mural and I must say, if it's accurate she's even more impressive than one would imagine.

Trixie found a hidden box, of course, but couldn't get it open. We tucked it away and headed to the main hall, which was loaded with windows containing sehidron runes, and stuffed animals along with various mounted heads including a harpy, a monkey, and some squidlike creature, to name a few. One, a sorry looking manticore, suddenly reared back and nailed me with a blast of fire. I went over, immediately out. Someone healed me (and somehow I got wet) but the damn fire wouldn't go out, and I could smell my skin sizzling as the painful flames charred my body. Just when it seemed like I couldn't take any more I realized the flames weren't real and they vanished, leaving me close to death (OOC: very close - the initial attack took me from my full 16 hits to -6). Under a rug we found some sort of toxic mold that was also a trap - this place is horrible.

Now we have a staircase down in front of us, no doubt containing some Foxglovian horror waiting for us. Why again didn't I take my money and retire young again? (Answer - because I no longer have any money, having spent all of it on a cauldron of brewing!)

More notes: trixie and Grezz made 5th level, and with expanded arcana as my feat I'll pick up 3 new 2nd level spells - scorching ray, from my bloodline; summon 2; and either web, stone call, levitate, or something else. I'm trading out summon 1 for floating disk and getting protection from evil for my additional 1st level spell. Oh, and I'll have my 4 year old roll my hit die, since both my wife and I are incapable of rolling over a 2 for me.

Session #18 - December 20, 2010 - I Hate this Effing House

notes: 4 year old daughter rolled me a 6 for my hits, the little darling. That increased my hits by half - the life of a sorcerer with a 10 Con. We had a full crew on hand for the endless evil of the damn manor house. At least the place is an equal opportunity attacker, going after everyone at different times. I'm bitching, but this has been an extremely fun and challenging mission as we unravel the mystery of what the blue hell is going on. No WAY I get everything that happened right.

From the journal of Grezzalik M'rethen:

I looked down the dark stairwell. "But if we go down there now, whatever's waiting for us might still be screwed up from the revenant."

Lots of shaking heads. "But if we go back up, we can make sure there's nothing behind us." That was Londis. "Also, we can find things." Now lots of nods. Outvoted again. So up we went.

On each level there was a large room overlooking the cliffs with large stained glass windows. We walked into the one on the upper floor and dammit, I felt the same feeling come over me that I did downstairs right before the manicore attacked. Thsi time I saw a scene play out in front of me, of Travor Foxglove's wife Cyrallie charging into this room with a torch, intent on clobbering him with it. He made a pass with hand and the fire flared out of control, burning her horribly, and then she continued right through the window, beginning a descent to the craggy surf some 300 feet below.

Taking that jump seemed like an AWESOME idea to me because, dammit, I was on fire! But Londis wouldn't let me! That bastard grabbed me and held me in place, and then Trixie started doing a dance and . . . wow, that's a really interesting thing she can do with her hips and . . .

I snapped out of it and sheepishly convinced Londis to put me down. After telling them what I'd seen, we checked out the room. There was a book by an arch-wizard named Sorocco about the Lich of Carrion Hill - pretty creepy stuff. Then Firendrin broke out the stained glass, which had been of two godlike looking people.

Moving along, we found a study that featured a nice painting of a bullfight, a couple of scrolls we could use (Lightning Bolt and Keen Edge), and charts that Tofa was extremely interested in. Firendrin also has his turn to freak out, babbling about a laughing, possibly insane man mired in bitter disappointment for getting married.

back on the 2nd floor, we checked out the room under the one that had make me freak out. it had the big stained glass windows as well, these showing 5 creatures - a scorpion; a vampire; a death's head moth; a familiar looking plant; and a spider. Something about them nagged at me, and I closed my eyes and tried to figure it out.

the sound of shattering glass interrupted my line of though as Firendrin broke out the windows again. Not sure why. He does like destruction, though. Tofa stuck her head out to take a gander then popped back in, surprised. "Hey, there's two more sets of stained glass windows below us, one above the other."

We crowed around, but it was too sharp and angle to see. Wordlessly I looked at Trixie, who scowled and threw up her hands. "Fine." Within seconds she and Shotsie were zipping down the wall as if it were level ground. When she came back in and got settled she gave us a description.

'There's the level below us - that has glass with creatures as well. Something made of smoke; a treant; a roc; a thing with lady front parts and a lion in the back; and some sort of nasty looking squid. Below that which is below ground level, there's two images - one of a gaunt, dead looking guy drinking something that just looks horrible, and smoke going into a 6-sided box." She paused. "I hate this place."

Something clicked in my head. "I get it. I get it!" the others looked at me expectantly. "I remember, from a class. The first two glasses were of dark deities of some sort. The next five - those are a components list for a ritual - scorpion venom, vampire's breath, tongue from a death-moth, belladonna, and, oh, I forget what comes from the spider."

"Okay, so?" I'm not even sure who that was, as my mind was racing.

"So, the next set was of creatures that had to be killed for more components - all long-lived. The last one is the end of the ritual - the caster drinks the vile concoction, and . . ." I trailed off in horror.

"And what?"

"And he or she becomes a Lich. That's what the last panel is about - it's a phylactery." At a blank stare I said, "It's what Lichs hide their essence in. You can kill the body, but it'll just regenerate unless you get the phylactery as well."

Trixie looked a little pale for a moment, then started digging through her pack. Producing the box she'd found int he bedroom she said, "It's looked like this, except it had runes on it and this is bare. What's that mean?"

I shook my head. "I'm not sure. But I'd say that Vorol tried to become a Lich and possibly succeeded. We're going to have to find out."

In silence we moved on to another room, one covered in an ugly blue mold much like what we'd found under the carpet downstairs. I suggested using some acid to get rid of it, but Londis pulled out a vial of holy water and it washed the stuff away like a stream of water removing dust. Interesting. Tofa had a vision of Cassandra running with her child in her arms as the servants behind them turned into blue mold and crumbled. the little girl asked if they were going to be okay before things went black.

The we found the gallery. I'll try to make it simple - it was filled with portraits of the Foxgloves. Then it got cold and they changed. Here's what happened and to whom.

Vorol - Exploded with growths of the blue mold we'd just eliminated.
Cassandra, his wife, and Lorrie, their daughter - turned into the blue mold, then crumbled.
Travor - a huge slit appeared in his throat and gushed blood
Cyrallie, his wife - charred, then broken and battered
Aldrerin - turned into a ghoul or something like it
Zeba, his sister - head splits wide open, as if thrown off cliff (aha!)
Sendili - another sister - darkens a little with frost, but that's all

important things there, but also important was that the paintings then exploded with blue mold and I felt it burn down into my lungs. Firendrin confirmed that I had the same thing he did. Bloody hell. The big thing we learned was the existence of Sendili, the other sister. Was that the one supposedly sent away? Why didn't she show a death as well?

the next room was a bedroom, and Firendrin was treated to the vision of Travor slitting his own throat. He managed to resist the compulsion to do the same. We needed to be done with this place.

Back on the main floor, we had more wacky stuff go on. A scarf did/didn't try to attack Londis, who was then forced into dance with Iesla, Alderin's wife and our friendly revenant when someone ::cough cough:: played a piano. FINALLY we were ready to go downstairs.

Ina kitchen we heard chittering through cracks in a wall, and sure enough swarms of rats soon followed. Firendrim and I handled them with burning and lightning hands respectively, then we pushed a table on its side and against the wall to contain them until Trixie could summon some spiders to go in there and clean house.

There was nothing else of interest on that level aside from the glass, so down we went, following a trail of destruction and sprung traps courtesy of the revenant. We entered a room with a book on a pedestal, a steamer trunk, and the final two images, one of which began to shimmer and move as we entered. Tofa's eyes rolled up like they had upstairs when she lost it and tried to make halfling paste out of Trixie, but this time the bard touched her arm and she snapped out of it (Tofa boned her save, but Trixie's player used the very cool daily Lucky Halfling feat to make another saving throw for her with Trixie's sick bonuses, saving her). meanwhile Firendrin smashed the glass yet again.

"Oh! Oh!" Tofa was excited. "What I saw! This Vorol, he was drinking the potion, he was trying to be a lich, but his wife came in and saw what he was doing. She smashed the box, the whatever you called it, Grezz, then ran off to save her daughter. Oh, and then she, oh."

I licked my lips. "She ruined the ritual. He failed, and that's where this blue crap came from."

Trixie asked, "What happened to all the power he'd built up?"

"Not sure. Judging by the way this place radiates necromancy, it's possible it went into the building." Grimly I added, "When we leave, this place has to be burned to the ground."

Trixie eyed the trunk. "Well, let's check that out first." She started to head over.

"Wait," I said. "Why not let me open it my mage hand first?"

"It might be trapped," said Londis. "A fireball or something like it would be incredibly deadly here."

"True, but -" that was a far as I got before Trixie reached the trunk, which suddenly reared up, showed immense teeth, and pulled her right off her gecko, swallowing her whole. We sprang into action, but the thing slurped up Shotsie as well. Horrible sounds came from within. I unleashed a scorching ray and the thing sizzled, but Firendrin stepped forward and touched it, murmuring something. His fingers almost stuck, but the thing's eyes fluttered shut and it slumped to the ground, still pulsing. Shotsie, half in and half out, looked terrible. Londis stepped up and absolutely smashed whatever it was, and we carved our way into it to pull out an extremely battered Trixie. She'd managed to heal Shotsie in the nic kof time and we got her back up and patched as well. Inside we found 3 arrows I didn't have time to ID. but I knew two out of three potions - bloodblock and antiplague. Important stuff.

In the next room there was a spiraling staircase heading down - trixie had a vision of an insane Alderin ripping up flagstones and digging to uncover it - and emitting the foul stench we were all too used to by now. If only we had several thousand gallons of cheap liquor with us to pump down there and ignite . . .

Session #19 - December 27, 2010 - But What's Confusing You is the Nature of my Game

notes: FINALLY. The bloody end. Pretty damn challenging, as our tanks got pummeled and mind-controlled and almost turned into mold and chomped on by giant evil ghoul bats - and I won't even mention what happened to Trixie - yet. Lots of fun.

From the journal of Grezzalik M'rethen:

So. there was a staircase before us, reeking of putrid undead and really reinforcing the fact that I hated this house. Of course I slipped and pretty much bounced down the stairs, but before my friends could laugh at me we were beset by ghouls yet again. One clawed me and while it hurt, I was happy for my elvish blood as the paralysis didn't set in. Firendren took a nasty bite and confirmed that he'd contracted ghoul fever - I wasn't too wild about the way he was eying the pouch at my belt that held the lone remaining Cure Disease potion. One of the ghouls had a chunk of statue in his head from the study upstairs, a angel's wing, and Tofa recognized him as one of the servants. So there was a good chance Alderin or whoever was running the show brained this guy and then dragged him down here, still alive, to be ghoulified by something with an absolutely huge bite - I mean, like 18 inches across. There was a sound like something huge breathing, but the tang of salt water in the air led me to believe it was something else.

We trudged on through sandstone passageways, finding an empty chamber piled with gnawed bones, but no more freaking ghouls. Soon we arrived at the source of the breathing sound, a massive cavern. The center was filled with rising and falling sea water, and a narrow ledge circled around to a set of stone doors. Leery of the water and concerned it might be something more than it appeared to be, Londis threw one of the ghoul bodies in it. That served to alert the speedy little goblin ghouls that were on guard of our presence and a battle raged, briefly. Choosing to scale down a ledge rather than go the long way around we made it level to the doors, and thus we went to face our foe.

What follows is a conglomeration of recollections collected from my stalwart companions, as some of us were in better position to see certain things. As we drew closer to the doors and could hear a man weeping inside - Trixie and Tofa thought it sounded like Alderin - the bard suddenly stopped short about 30 feet away.

I cocked an eyebrow and whispered, "What's wrong?"

She growled something in Goblin and shook her head. "Shotsie won't get any closer. Something's got her spooked."

"Okay. You going to dismount?"

She looked at me as if I were insane. "No! I trust her judgement."

Meanwhile Londis and Tofa, having overruled my suggestion of just summoning something and letting it run wild in there, had reached the doors in hope of talking with whatever was inside. It was . . . Alderin. Well, the ghoul version of Alderin, with a huge black hole in his chest. At his feet were the remains of Iesha, who still clutched the pulped remains of his heart. The room was some sort of necromantic lab or study, and in addition to the two large ghouls chowing away on some remains there was a patch of horrific looking mold over the remains of Vorol's broken phylactry - this was the place Tofa had seen in her vision, where Cassandra had been an unsung hero and prevented Vorol's ascension to Lichdom.

Alderin wept at a table covered with knicknacks and mementos of Trixie, most likely bought from CMOT Dibbler. Upon spying Tofa he sobbed, "You must help me, it isn't my fault! The Hurter is coming, he's coming! He -"

Alderin's eyes rolled back in his head and he donned an evil grin. "Ah, the heroes. How fitting you shall be here to see how this plays out." Then Alderin was back, begging again. "Please save me, please! They made me do those things, the Brothers of the Seven, and . . . "

He broke off again, a third voice now speaking with mocking tones as he put on a mask made of human skin and pulled out a wicked looking straight razor. "Your deaths will be so useful to us,of course. They will further demoralize Sandpoint, and the effect -"

At this point Trixie yelled something - I can't remember what - and the creature shot out the door with inhuman speed, pausing to slash at Tofa and call her something derogatory. "Ah, my darling!", it said, and whatever Trixie was going to do or say was pre-empted by Shotsie freaking the hell right out and bolting back the way we came. She hung on, barely. I summoned an ant and it gave the thing a pretty good shot, almost trapping it with its pincers. Londis started battling with the ghouls as the thing bit Tofa, eliciting a snarl from her that turned to a yelp as it took on her appearance.

I tossed a pit underneath it, but the son of a bitch leaped away with grace. My ant - a big ant, mind you - grabbed the nearest ghoul and chomped it but good, taking it for a ride to the bottom of the pit. A horrible crunching sound ensued. Sorry, ant.

Unbeknown to me, the patch of mold on the wall in the room did something to Tofa that (as she told us later) made her convinced that it had stolen her shadow and that she needed to go get it back. had I known i could have stopped her, but she's usually yelling about something in battle anyway so it's hard to tell. my concern was with Trixie as Shotsie had chosen an escape route poorly and got her close enough to the Skinsaw bastard to allow him to grab her, pluck her off the gecko, and lick her - ugh. Trixie went rigid immediately, obviously paralyzed. I summoned another ant and it gave the prick a good bite, but failed to grab him. Firendrin had his owl drop a vial of holy water on Alderin or whomever he was - that seemed quite effective, but as badly battered as he was the thing started sauntering away with Trixie under his arm, crooning sweet promises to her. My ant followed and hit it again, and as our foe finally looked annoyed Firendrin sent a healing hex through his owl that almost made the bastard explode before it shuddered and collapsed to the ledge, vanquished.

Happily, Trixie did not slide into the water. I wasn't quick enough to keep Tofa from touching the evil mold, but I gave her the Cure disease potion in time to keep her from suffering the same fate as Cassandra, as her arm was already beginning to turn into blue mold. We managed to destroy the mold with fire and acid, but it started to regrow immediately. We needed a holy man for this. Looks like I'll be making a trip to Windsong Abbey - no doubt Pho will find this most surprising.

We found some stuff here and more in a cave inhabited by a giant dire ghoul bat that was probably the main ghoul maker and damn near killed both Tofa and Londis - it took a last second charging spear strike from Londis to save the barbarian after my final spell, a lightning ray of decent power, went wide and high. Oops.

We stumbled back into town just before dark, some of us carrying phage, some ghoul fever, some both, and the few people that saw us and heard our weary assurances that it was over viewed us as if we'd just descended from the heavens. With Alderin's ghoulish head and an incriminating letter mentioning his involvement both before and after being ghoulified we had all the proof we needed - and confirmation that we'd stopped some sort of evil by those corrupting the Sehidron yet again. It seems Nuallia was only the tip of the iceberg. Looks like we might need to make a visit to Alderin's townhouse in Magnidaar soon, as more hints may be there. Normally I'd be concerned about returning home, but after what I've been through lately I almost want to see the Scarnettis try something.

Well, almost. I'd really just like some time to identify what we've found and maybe make a potion or three once my cauldron arrives. Something tells me that something will come up, though. Something always does.