Session 22

A TRADE IS MADE, AND FURTHER GARDENING

Warmshade 18-20, 4433
About a day and a half passed during the session.

Characters:

Gorr, ranger 4
Robert the Swift, fighter 4
Suba-Jin the Three-Handed, cleric of Hextor 4
Young Joe Spruce, druid 2
Xénos, spy 1
Lord Fesgate, fighter 3 (NPC)

The Hand Off

Eric Withakay was resting up after his brush with death. In the meantime, the group met up with a Viridian named Xénos, a distant contact of their old companion Two-Faced Humphrey.

After getting a letter from Lothos at the Dragon's Eye Inn [last session], the group debated their next move. Should they inform the Inquisition, or lead them astray? Finally they left a message scheduling a meet with Lothos the next day at a nearby dive bar amusingly called Cold Beer. At 9 bells the group sat down in the taproom smelling of coffee & local brews. The proprietor Dirman Green-Hand bustled between tables, telling stories & laughing with his customers as he delivered their drinks.

A cloaked figure sat down near them, garbed & masked as a priest of Nephtlys. He introduced himself as Daetris and seemed to be elven. After confirming that the group had recovered the treasures from the sacred mountain [a few sessions ago] he passed along an envelope and left as quickly as he arrived.

In the letter, Lothos asked them to meet at sunset in the center of the Bridge district, in a beer hall called Metod's where the exchange would take place. Meanwhile, Xénos tailed Daetris back to the Street of the Gods and into Nephtlys' temple, a great black stone sphere. Inside were many priests all dressed & masked alike, making it impossible to tell who was who.

Suba-Jin & Gorr went to Seven Visions and asked Zvezdana to identify his strange metal weapon [obtained last session] and get a history lesson. 

They gleaned a few clues:

- Demonology in the Empire has a long history. It has come in & out of favour over the years with the ruling classes and the sorcerors of the Gloaming Tower. Currently it is suppressed by the Inquisition who attempt to block magic-users' political power at every turn. Still, it is never clear what the nobility are up to, especially since every Viridian Emperor is usually a powerful sorceror - Emperor Hautulin Seheitt being no exception!

- The monster with two ape-like heads and tentacles for arms is the demon lord Ahmon-Ibor. The last time it appeared in the mortal realm was a battle called The Demon Siege, a millennium ago: Tharbrian raiders and hosts from the City-State of the Invincible Overlord were stopped by the Imperial Legion assisted by Gloaming Tower wizards. They summoned a horde of demons led by Ahmon-Ibor, who so devastated the enemy that the City-State resumed paying its tribute and the Tharbrian hordes never again rose to challenge Imperial dominion.

Ahmon-Ibor

That evening, the group walked through the poverty-stricken slums on the Bridge. They almost collided with an ugly old crone pushing an evil-smelling cart of ancient jars, but let her pass on by without incident.

The centre of the Bridge was a wide-open square with no buildings across its entire 200' width. Hustlers, gang members, drug addicts, panhandlers, mutants & other lowlifes clustered around the area under the uneasy peace enforced by the vicious Bridge Gangs.

Metod's was a loud, dim beer hall frequented by poor Tharbrians. Long trestle tables ran the length of two floors. Songs & clanging cups rang out from the already-drunk patrons. The group posted up in a back corner and ordered a few strong brews - the local favourite "Centaur Melter" was particularly potent!

After half an hour, the party was joined by a group of four armed elves. The leader wore chainmail and a holy symbol of Nephtlys. After some curt greetings and a few questions (which Robert declined to answer) they got down to business, paying the agreed sum and a bonus. Suba-Jin also sold off the two glass globes filled with liquid time essence.

Before departing, the elves' leader relayed a rumour heard from Targnol port: a distant contact named Komang who put the group onto the robbery of Philotheos Sten's mansion [way back in session 2!] had been found dead in the gulf, his body horribly beaten & scarred. Whoever did it had clearly tortured him beforehand. Who knows what this means?

The sound of a brawl beginning downstairs could be heard and both groups decided to make their exit.

Back To The Mansion

The next morning, the group met Sesto and shuffled into Cliffside with his crew. They resumed exploring the gardens surrounding Issachar Dimorites' mansion.

They battled a large pack of mandragoras in the garden passages. After striking down many and entangling the rest they interrogated the survivors, demanding treasure in exchange for their lives. The mandragoras pointed to their statue: a broken & defaced noblewoman holding a child, garlanded with flowers. Gorr searched it and found a silver necklace with a peridot gem under the garlands. One prisoner led the group to a root-choked sinkhole in the ground, indicating more treasure was down below before Robert shooed it away.

The group climbed down and began exploring the tunnels beneath the gardens. They investigated an unfinished tunnel with a bricked-up doorway, and met a group of 12 plant-women searching through the rubble of a storage room. They claimed that Issachar was their master and demanded to know the group's purpose here. The party's excuses fell on deaf ears. After protesting their good intentions, the plant-women gave them something else to do: their mistress Eilitheya (one of Issachar's wives) was a prisoner of Dushan's Dervishes. If the group could free her from captivity, the strange women would be grateful.

In a tunnel smelling of decay & rotting meat, they were set upon by surprise. A blur of white limbs & flesh struck down Lord Fesgate before anybody could react! It was a mountain of corpses raised into foul unlife, striking with its poorly-assembled limbs in all directions. Suba-Jin attempted to banish it with Hextor's power but the creature was too strong. A tense pitched battle was waged with Gorr and Robert swinging their axes and Joe Spruce throwing holy water while Xénos dragged Lord Fesgate to safety. With a deafening crash and a blast of smoke, Suba-Jin drew his Dragoon and blasted the abomination (only four shots left...). With a ringing in their ears the party saw it collapse under their assault into its component parts.

The group shook off the sense of doom that the undead monstrosity had induced (+1 fear point). Searching its disgusting lair revealed a heavy golden disk stamped with the word "DIMORITES". With one of their number badly hurt they decided to withdraw. On their way out they encountered another pack of mandragoras in the shadowed statue-garden, between them and the exit... 

A gentle word of caution from your DM:

I obviously use some well-known monsters, magic items, etc. in this campaign. Still, few things are as they seem. Don't assume that well-mined gaming tropes and old familiar D&D standbys will be the same in this campaign world. If you don't focus your attention on the clues you get at the table you may go astray and reach the wrong conclusions! Players to PM me the phrase "Fifth Head of Cerberus" will receive 300 bonus xp for reading this. [expired] Carry on!

 

Monsters Defeated:

9 mandragoras (351 xp)
1 mass of corpses (1060 xp)

Treasure Obtained:

silver peridot necklace
golden disk

Treasure Sold Off:

strange magic painting & golden cup (300 gold)
2 crystal spheres of time essence (80 gold)

Robert: 63 gold, 3 silver
Suba-Jin: 63 gold, 3 silver
Gorr: 63 gold, 3 silver
Regetus: 42 gold, 2 silver
Meep: 21 gold, 1 silver
Eric Withakay: 63 gold, 3 silver

Eric Withakay has reached 5th level!
Lord Fesgate has reached 4th level!

Session 21

DEATH IN THE GARDENS
Warmshade 16-18, 4433

Characters:

Gorr, Ranger 4
Robert the Swift, Fighter 4
Suba-Jin the Three-Handed, cleric of Hextor 4
Eric Withakay, Cleric of Solaris 4
Lord Fesgate, Fighter 3 (NPC)

The Mansion

The group entered Dimorites Mansion though huge granite doors. Inside they found a huge chapel to 137 Undivided - the entire Imperial pantheon. Lamps and censers remained perpetually lit, filling the room with faint light and spicy smells. A huge painting of the 11 gods graced the ceiling. A great stone hand stood at the back, in front of another painting of a terrible battle: Viridian armies with wizards & demons fought against armies of Tharbrians and the Invincible Overlord's troops. A two-headed, tentacled demon towered over the scene.

There were ten pillars in the room, each carved with a hand making a peculiar sign:
a closed fist, palm foreward
middle finger
the horns

full hand palm-out

bottom 2 fingers folded, facing down

index finger pointing up
thumb & index in a circle, backhanded
V for victory
thumb across palm, outwards

thumb tucked in, backhand

Suba-Jin tried to touch them in an order that might correspond to the gods on the ceiling mural. After the first four (V, fist, bottom 2 fingers folded, horns) the censers emitted a purple gas which sapped the group's strength! He tried again, touching another four (thumb & index circle, pointing, thumb across palm out, thumb tucked in backhand), but it drew the same mists and he fled the room. 

The group moved on. The other chapel door was locked so they walked along the porch, looking for other entrances.

In a small garden clearing beside the porch, they spotted several makeshift graves but decided not to investigate. The next clearing held a few dead bodies that looked like Dushan's Dervishes. Their armour & weapons lay scattered around. Robert & Eric went down to search the bodies when Eric began acting strangely, yelling that he was "sinking" and frantically pulling off his chainmail. While Robert puzzled over this, a shambling plant creature emerged from the undergrowth!

Its initial attack caught Eric unprepared. The plant slapped him with a tendril, enveloping his face in a cloud of pollen. He began to choke as he fled. Lord Fesgate and Robert fought it up-close while a barrage of missile attacks from Gorr and Suba-Jin ended it. After a slow poison spell, Eric's breathing wasn't getting any worse, but it wasn't getting better either. He could barely stand.

The group retreated to the pavilion with the magical fountain (from last session). There they found a pair of giant butterflies who guarded their favourite hangout jealously. The butterflies were destroyed by a wave of missile attacks and a burning hands spell (Suba-Jin's gift from his patron god Hextor) but not before a cloud of glittering pollen had poisoned everyone seriously. The group was in rough shape!

Drinking from the magic fountain didn't cure Eric, but it did slow two of the other party members. There was nothing for it, and the group tried to get out so they could have Eric's condition cured. They hustled out of the gardens, barely pausing to speak with a giant talking worm with a fucked-up voice that called itself Germander.

They dragged Eric through the tunnels under the streets and back to Sesto's work crew. Seeing the dire state the group was in, Sesto lent them a few of his wheelbarrows and agreed to meet them later at the Dragon's Eye. They ran through the streets of Cliffside, hoping against hope... but it wasn't to be. Eric was dead before they reached the district gates.

(In all the confusion, the group forgot about ME! the piglet. Where did he end up?)

Back In The City

Eric Withakay was dead. They decided to visit the battle-dome of Hextor, to see if Suba-Jin could arrange to have him raised to life again. They were granted an audience with Maral Saqqaf, one of the higher-ranked priests in the temple. He said this thing was possible, but only Patriarch Dumitrescu could accomplish it. To command the Patriarch's time, a sizeable sacrifice was required: 7,500 silver pieces' worth!

The group asked for a few days to get the money together. Robert, Suba-Jin and Lord Fesgate headed to the Night Wolf Inn to retrieve some treasure.

While that was happening, Gorr took care of Eric's body - mainly by having several big tattoos commissioned in the rest of the group's likenesses! He also spoke to Sesto who came to stay at the Dragon's Eye Inn that night. The stonemason wanted 10% of the party's take going forward as a finder's fee & for helping them past the guards. Gorr gave him 50 silver and he seemed happy with it. 

[Chris, remind me how much Gorr wants to spend on the tattoos. It's going to cost 70-120 coins depending on the tattoo's workmanship. You pick how good they should be: dockside sailor quality will be brass coins, okay bazaar-grade is copper, good quality costs silver, top-tier gold]

At the Night Wolf Inn, the group spoke with the affable concierge James Everbleed. He was sad to hear about Eric's passing but hoped they could bring him back. Suba-Jin asked about the strange demon they had seen in the painting earlier, but he didn't know anything about it. Lord Fesgate joined the guild, got the black wolf tattoo and felt pretty good about it. 

The trio stayed in Room IV: Restful Seas. A small wooden cabana rested on a wooden raft, beached on a grey sandbar amidst an endless turquoise ocean. Copper & blue clouds drifted in a burning pink sky. Hammocks were strung between the palm trees. On the bedside table, Suba-Jin found a strange item. After some fiddling, it produced a deafening BANG! and a hole in a nearby palm tree. After this display, he took it for his own:

With this odd item and thousands of coins in hand, the trio prepared to leave. On their way out, James told them to make a point of returning on Midsummer's Day, almost two months from now. The Inn was going to have a garden party and all guild members, as well as interested non-members, were invited.

Back in Viridistan, the group spent 7,500 silver on holy oils, incense, candles, fatted calves & other sacrificial items for the church of Hextor. With everything prepared, the steely-eyed Patriarch Dumitrescu made his appearance, a hale man in his '50s. After much pomp, he cast the fearsome magick and Eric rose to life.

The group helped Eric walk back to the Dragon's Eye and ran into an aristocrat, lost in side-streets. Suba-Jin and Robert offered to escort him back to Hightown. After a run-in with some injured city guards that Suba-Jin helped with some cure magic, they delivered the man (Theodosio by name) to his family's estate. By way of thanks, he gave them his gold-capped walking stick, and the pair resolved to split the money from it two ways.

Back at the Dragon's Eye, the proprietor "Patchey" had a letter for the group written in a careful elven hand:

"Friends,

I hope your recent adventures haven't been too taxing. My sources have reported a great disaster in the Starrcrag Mountains and I can't help but fear for you. Surely you succeeded in retrieving the items asked for? If so please leave a message with the barkeep. I will send further instructions.

-Lothos"

Roughly 2 days passed during this session.

Monsters Defeated:

2 giant butterflies
1 ambulatory spore-plant

Treasure Gained:

gold-tipped walking stick

**LAST 3 SESSIONS SUMMARY**

Treasure Traded In:

5 gems: 4 small assorted & 1 larger spinel (530 sp total)
1 electrum crescent (250 sp)
gold-tipped walking stick (320 sp - Robert & Suba-Jin split it)
Suba-Jin couldn't find anyone who wanted to buy his monster trophies

Loot & Cost of Living:

Gorr:  -29 sp
Eric:  -5 sp
Suba-Jin:  178 sp
Robert:  170 sp
Meep:  -31 sp
Young Joe Spruce:  10 sp

Experience: