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:

Session 20

THE WIZARD'S GARDEN

16 Warmshade, 4433
A few hours

Characters:

Gorr, Ranger 4
Robert the Swift, Fighter 4
Eric Withakay, Cleric 4 of Solaris
Suba-Jin the Three-Handed, Cleric 4 of Hextor
Young Joe Spruce, Druid 2
Lord Fesgate, Fighter 3 (NPC)

The Aftermath

The group was exploring the gardens of Dimorites the sorceror, overgrown with carnivorous plant creatures and other strangeness.

They headed north from the koi pond through narrow passages in the hedges. They first came across the remains of a battle: seven human corpses being picked through by a dozen of the gnarled root-men, who jumped to attention when the party arrived.

"We Mandragoras! This is our meat! You stay away!" one of them buzzed.
The group was trying to defuse the situation when Eric Withakay heard a faint, pained groan coming from the pile of bodies. One of them wasn't dead yet! While Young Joe Spruce attempted negotiations, Eric crept towards the sound to investigate.

One of the Mandragoras stood next to the body, guarding it from Eric. It seemed worried he would take its dinner.
"This is bad meat, fire-meat. If you eat it, it'll burn you!" warned Eric, and cast Light on the body.

Pandemonium erupted as the flash of light terrified the Mandragoras, who ran into the hedges with a chorus rasping cries and the shuffling of leaves. In moments, the group were alone with the corpses. They began a search and found a sack of 500 silver coins with strange markings: a woman with a crown on one side, a snake and a mask on the other, and the word Zur'Gonath. A few assorted low-value gems were found as well, and a spinel gem that seemed of decent value. All the dead men wore leather armour and had simple hand weapons. Strangely, they all had crude masks made of Papier-mâché or even twigs & leaves.

Eric assisted the groaning man who was only barely alive. After some healing magic the fellow managed to sit up and talk. He introduced himself as Joktan and asked the group what they were doing here:

"We're the backup. We just arrived, they said you would fill us in" prodded Gorr.
"With a priest of Hextor?" He looked skeptical. "Well, all right..." Joktan groaned out his tale of woe. "We got in here a few weeks ago with the magic door, from the neighbours' lot. We didn't expect all the monsters. We got pinned down in the baths and can't leave, because Petemnesthes the Lunatic has the key and nobody can find him! Sandar and Behrouz can't agree on anything, and we're being picked apart by the mirror-men!"
"What are those?"
"Didn't your mother ever tell you the story? They live on the other side of the mirror, and if you're bad they come for you. Never thought it was real... until now. They only hunt humans, that's why we wear these." He indicated his mask.

Joktan was able to walk, and offered to lead the party to his gang's hideout since they helped him. They were called Dushan's Dervishes, from the Bridge neighbourhood.

They didn't have to travel far. Back on the lawn, the party ran into a dozen armed thieves. They put their weapons down and stopped to talk once they spotted Joktan with the group. They confirmed what he'd said: the Dervishes were stuck in the gardens after their break-in went terribly wrong, and had barricaded themselves in the sorcerer's opulent bath-house.

The party offered to show them an exit and they followed along with interest to the grotto of sad black stone statues [see last session]. Robert the Swift insisted they blindfold themselves, which they were unwilling to do. After a tense moment that almost came to blows, the Dervishes shrugged and turned around, leaving the way they came.

"I never liked those guys anyway," said ME the piglet. "They're the ones who locked me in that shed in the first place."

Just to cover their bases, the group backtracked and warned Sesto's crew that others might be coming out the way they came in. Suba-Jin wrote on the wall above the stairs: "Go down the stairs, talk to the lookout, he'll get you out."

Exploring Further

The party progressed southwards toward the huge mansion (more like a palace) looming over the hedges. They entered an overgrown, scented garden, crammed with plants of every type colour & description. The trees and undergrowth obscured visibility except for a few narrow paths. The sounds of bees & tropical birds could be heard.

They immediately spotted a dark green statue of a bearded man holding a book, wearing the fine robes of a Gloaming Tower wizard. As they approached, a voice boomed: "Welcome visitors, to the manse of Issachar Dimorites!" Getting closer, they saw carvings around the base that someone had tried to scratch out: "Lord Issachar Dimorites, 4261."

They came to an artificial river of clear water running in a stone trough. Young Joe Spruce took the opportunity to look around for any plants that might be useful: he found a day-lemon tree, and harvested 15 of the fruits. When cut open they glow with a soft inner light, and are worth a few silver each. The others planted various seeds they were carrying with them.

A feline snarling from the south interrupted them. Two strange beasts emerged from the undergrowth: black & green panthers with huge bat wings and scars zig-zagging down their heads & backs. The group formed up for battle, and Joe Spruce's entangle spell caught the rear panther in its tracks. Meanwhile, Lord Fesgate was almost swallowed whole when the lead panther split almost completely in half, revealing itself to be a giant toothy mouth on legs! This one fled and the entangled one was dispatched, and the group was able to move on.

Next they came to a marble pavilion with a birdbath in the centre. Three giant butterflies flapped around, drinking from the birdbath or settling on the furniture. Suba-Jin approached and managed to distract one with a divine cherry [from back in Session 4]. The other two flew at him and he was paralyzed by the sparkling dust from their wings. One settled on him, licking his face with its poisonous tongue! The group came to Suba-Jin's rescue, shredding the butterflies with a hail of arrows & stones. After a few minutes the feeling came back into his limbs and he could move again.

The pavilion itself was held up by carved pillars. The floor was arranged into a mosaic of cavorting monsters, while the roof depicted a stern wizard launching blasts of lightning & fire from his hands and the word DIMORITES underneath.

Suba-Jin investigated the birdbath. It was dark green & yellow marble with a small jet of crystal-clear water bubbling in the center. He was the only one of the group willing to take a drink - immediately turning invisible! He bottled some of the water for later.

Outside The Mansion

The group decided to venture south, since the main structure was now very close. Passing through a narrow gap in the overgrown plants they were finally beside the huge mansion, over four stories high. They could see a wide pillared porch facing them, and another above it on the second floor. From nearby, they heard... singing?

An 8' tall blue man in voluminous robes was walking back & forth on the porch, strumming an oud and singing. His powerful baritone carried an otherworldly song, the melody and the language both alien to the group's ears. He stopped when approached and introduced himself as Marzaman of the East Wind. He said he had been summoned here to bless a wedding between Lady Lorca Dimorites and Lord Aeolus Adrestus. Something had gone wrong and the wedding could not be completed. As a result, he had been stuck here for one hundred years! 

"Look for yourselves," he indicated the grand doors behind him with a wave of his hand, holding a glittering gemstone plectrum. "Through the chapel, in the grand hall is the wedding reception. You'll see what I mean."

Who is this enigmatic blue man, and what secrets does the mansion hold?

Monsters Defeated:

1 winged panther-thing (820 xp)
2 giant butterflies (142 xp)

Treasure:

500 silver coins w/ odd markings
4 assorted small gemstones
1 nice spinel gem
15 magical day-lemons

Session 19

THE MANSION

Warmshade 15-16, 4433

Characters:

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

Late-Night Escape

Suba-Jin and Robert the Swift were deep in conversation with Sesto the stonemason in an Old Town dive bar. The poor man regretted bragging about knowing the location of the sorcerer Dimorites' mansion. Now that it was done, he feared for his own and his family's safety. Suba-Jin and Robert convinced him that the group could keep him safe for a few days. He agreed to go with them for now - partly convinced by Suba-Jin's speech, partly by the two shady types watching from the corner of the bar!

Outside, the trio hired a rickshaw and headed off into the Emerald City night. Over their shoulders, Robert spotted the two shady guys coming out of the bar and flagging down a ride of their own. Suba-Jin urged the driver to go faster. After some chatter about "official business" and a bit of money to sweeten the deal he picked up the pace. There were a few close calls on the crowded streets but the group avoided crashing and lost their tail just before Market Avenue. They rejoined the group at the Dragon's Eye and Sesto stayed with them.

In the morning the group headed up through the Boulevards district to the Cliffside gates. Sesto had some plain workman's clothes for them and they stored their adventuring gear in wheelbarrows under the work crew's regular supplies. Sesto knew all the guards, so they didn't check very closely.

Cliffside looked different in the daytime, a maze of streets hemmed in by the tall walls of nobles' estates. Every noble house wanted to be 'higher' than their peers and so over the years they had built their walls ever higher. The result was a disorienting neighbourhood with few visible landmarks. The group followed Sesto into the tunnels beneath the streets, where workmen and servants scurried to and fro out of their masters' sight. The work crew set up for the day and Sesto led the gang to their destination.

Pointing out a narrow crawlspace, he said they "would know it when they saw it" on the other side. He told the gang that the workday lasted until sunset and they shouldn't be late if they wanted to preserve their incognito.

Into the Gardens

The party passed through an old dry cistern and a few storage rooms. Climbing up some stairs they emerged into a hot, humid grotto surrounded by thick hedges. Sunlight filtered in through the canopy of leaves & vines above. The walls of plant matter swayed & twisted in unnatural, unwholesome motion.

ME (and an unrelated monke) - thanks Chris!

- In a dark grotto floored with dry leaves, faceless black humanoid statues rested in poses of mourning and supplication. The vines covering them were green and healthy.

- A building of dull grey slate was found, with a greening copper door inscribed "Pherusa Dimorites - lost beyond light." The smell of incense emanated from within, but the door was locked and they couldn't get inside.

- From an old shed, the group heard beastly snarling and sinister exhortations that seemed to echo in their minds. Opening the door revealed a tiny wild boar about 1' high. It called itself "ME," and wanted the group to indulge their darkest desires for money, sex & violence. Gorr threw it a gold coin, which it ate. ME said it could sniff out the things it wanted, and the group agreed to follow it to the promise of treasure.

Chris: "This pig is a demon, guaranteed!"

- They followed ME deeper into the hedges, through openings so narrow they had to pass slowly in single file. They came face-to-face with a pack of small humanoids that looked like anthropomorphic mandrake roots. ME was familiar with them and wanted to eat one. The mandrake men knew about ME and hated it. More than that, they wanted some fresh meat. The party offered them rations but they weren't interested. After some tense moments, the group slowly backed away and the mandrake men didn't pursue.

- ME led them deeper through the hedges to a small grotto littered with copper & brass coins. A yellow limestone shrine at the back was carved with horns, crescent moons and spiderweb motifs. Everyone recognized symbols of Nephtlys, the Imperial goddess of wealth and commerce, whose form was a combination of woman and spider.

Atop the shrine were some gold and silver coins, along with a rare electrum crescent coin worth a fair amount. While ME rooted around on the ground and ate the coppers, Robert scooped up the coinage into a sack. Thinking it might provide a benefit, Gorr decided to make an offering of 1000 silver at the wealth goddess' shrine.

On the way out, the mandrake men caught up with the group and insisted on some fresh meat. A fight was on, but the little root-creatures were dispatched swiftly.

Dungeon notes - thanks Chris!

- Following ME's lead again, the gang came to a wide lawn open to the sky. To the south, a huge two-story stone mansion - more like a palace, really - loomed above the shrubbery. A water feature to the west fed a pond with water slopping over the edge. In the center of the lawn, a few zebra-striped fish swam sluggishly in an algae-covered pond topped with an oversized statue of Nephtlys. The statue was covered in green lichen and no water flowed anymore.

Gorr fed the fish and threw a few coins in the well.

- ME urged them eastwards through some greening brass gates. A small sign read "Welcome to the Hedge Maze. Enjoy Yourself!" but someone had written over it with red paint "DON'T GET LOST." Heeding the sign, the group turned back around.

- They searched through some rubbish-filled areas and found an old statue of a woman and child covered in vines, leaning up in a corner. Gorr cut the vines off with his axe to reveal a nameplate: "Eilitheya Dimorites, 4720-"

The group planned to explore the narrow hedge passages further when we left off.

Explored Areas

Monsters Defeated:

7 mandrake-men

Treasure:

1 electrum crescent coin
15 gold
32 silver

Session 18

ESCAPE THE DOOMED MOUNTAIN!

14-15 Warmshade, 4433

Characters:

Suba-Jin, Cleric of Hextor 4
Robert the Swift, Fighter 3
Eric Withakay, Cleric of Solaris 4
Meep, Dwarf 3
Gorr, Ranger 4
Regetus Rex, Illusionist 2 (thanks Nick!)
Lord Fesgate, Fighter 3 (NPC)

A Sticky Situation

The party was stuck at the top of a mountain, in a blizzard, surrounded by hordes of the restless dead. Many plans were suggested, debated and ultimately abandoned. Disguise? Skiing? Straight-up running?

Player: "Do we really want to gamble our lives on the judgement of some racist zombies??"

It was finally determined that Regetus Rex could call in his favour from the six-armed god Karttekeza. The group was picked up from the mountaintop by the giant prismatic riding peacock Praveena and whisked home on its back. Before leaving they loaded the magical harp, mirror and all the other treasure they had found on to the animal.

Back to Viridistan

After setting them down in a quiet place on the riverside (only a few children witnessed them landing), the peacock screeched and flew away through the spaces between the worlds.

Robert the Swift headed back to the Irregulars' Barracks, where a rumour came his way. Apparently a stonemason named Sesto working in Cliffside claimed to have discovered the lost mansion of Dimorites, a powerful magician of olden days. Any adventurer who could enter this long-lost building would have his pick of the sorceror's arcane secrets.

Most of the group rested up at Seven Visions, the house of ill-repute where their contact Zvezdana Ozi had helped them out in the past. The next day they asked the sagely Zvezdana about many of the strange clues & items they'd accumulated on their trip:

- The name Yredelemnul mentioned in some old books and by Magrometh the Piper (last session) was an old alias for one of the greater demon-lords, usually called Orcus prince of the Undead!

- The magical mirror: it reflects only those of Lawful alignment.

- The giant painting that Lothos wanted: was not magical, and Zvezdana saw a different image - the same chamber, but full of human skeletons standing, walking or climbing around.

- The bronze axe which read "Execute The Weak" in the cult's writing: magical +1/+3 vs. helpless, slept, blinded, prone or otherwise disabled enemies.

- The serene golden mask: a tool of interrogation. When donned, it would catch the wearer's face with painful barbs until someone else touched them and spoke the words "I am done with him" or similar.

- The ugly wooden toothy mask: renders the wearer invisible to certain specific undead beings - most likely the Greater undead interred in Yredelemnul's shrine.

- The crystal spheres: contain a liquefied essence of time. When released, its effects are not completely predictable, but it might be possible to slow an enemy with it.

- The snow-globes: windows into alternative worlds, each slightly different from our own. Hence the differences in the condition of the fort, the weather on the mountaintop, etc.

- The golden cup shown in the painting: Zvezdana wasn't sure. It seemed to be of Elven make but even that was ambiguous and its magical properties were obscure. The group asked her to do further research, which may take a few weeks.

Some items (the masks, harp, the cult's books, etc) were too strange to sell at the Bazaar and the group didn't want such ominous items being traced back to them after the events on the mountaintop. Zvezdana said she would try to set up a meeting with "some people." She knew the party had no love for the city guard after her girls helped them during a raid (Session 15) so she was willing to go out on a limb, but once the group met these mysterious folks she wanted to be kept out of it. 

Zvezdana: *drag from cigarette* "Ey know zese types, ey em not vanting to get too friendly viff zem, understand?"

The group said they did and would await her message about such a meeting. In the meantime they sold all the mundane treasure they found in the shrine, including all the jewelry that Eric had looted from the time-locked undead.

Zvezdana had also heard the rumours about Sesto and Dimorites' mansion. She was keenly interested as well: during his lifetime, the sorceror was censured by the Gloaming Tower for dabbling in forbidden magics: Vivimancy & Necromancy, the powers of life & death. Zvezdana was willing to pay generously if books or materials on these subjects could be brought to her. After all, why bring them to the Inquisition who would only destroy the priceless knowledge forever?

Searching for Sesto

Robert the Swift & Suba-Jin spent some time at the great gates to Cliffside, trying to get acquainted with the guards. They got a description of Sesto, and came back at the end of the workday.

They followed the stonemason to the Old City where he stopped into a neighbourhood tavern for a drink. They sat down with him and struck up a conversation.

Sesto gave up the info quick. He regretted ever mentioning his discovery - he knew it was only a matter of time before some unscrupulous types grabbed him up, and then his fate was sealed! He was afraid to go home (he lived nearby) in case of endangering his family. The two adventurers told him they meant no harm and only wanted to know the path to the sorceror's mansion. Sesto said they would never find it without him - the district was full of nobles' estates with high walls which were constantly being knocked down, moved and rebuilt - not to mention a veritable maze of tunnels underneath the streets for servants. They had to keep him alive. He also demanded a fair percentage of loot recovered for the danger he had to endure.

A pair of shady types were observing the group from the shadows. Others were interested in Sesto as well...

Monsters:

none

Treasure:

A great deal of nonmagical treasure found in the fort and shrine was sold off.
Shares are as follows:

Robert the Swift: 1910 silver

Suba-Jin: 1910 silver

Regetus Rex: 1065 silver

Meep: 845 silver

Gorr: 1910 silver

Eric Withakay: 1910 silver

Experience Totals:

Robert the Swift has reached 4th level!

Regetus Rex has reached 3rd level!

Session 17

TO THE SACRED MOUNTAIN - PART II

14 Warmshade, 4433

Characters:

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

Beneath the Fort

The ruined fort was completely explored. There was nowhere to go but down. Leaving Regetus Rex to guard the painting [Nick was absent this session] the party ventured downwards through the trapdoor, descending a vertical tunnel with handholds cut into the rock. An icy wind blew up at them.

At the bottom of the tunnel, a passage ran back towards the entrance of the fort. The floor & walls were carved into screaming faces, everything was covered in a thin sheen of ice. The next door was an ominously snarling gargoyle's face - but opening it brought no ill effects. They passed through a room with ten skeletal left hands resting on tables, to a pair of great bronze doors graven with a familiar symbol:

Gorr recognized it from the pendant he took from Eralion's corpse [way back in Session 6!].

The great doors opened with a blast of icy air. Inside was the vast and bizarre temple of a strange cult. Stone pews faced a huge open pit yawning in the center - a vertical continuation of the pit in the fortress' courtyard above. 

A faint, metallic whining sound could be heard in the distance.

A statue rose behind the pit: a corpulent man-beast with the head and hooves of a goat and spreading bat wings. He raised a great whip high above his head, and pointed a talon forward imperiously. In front of the statue was an offering basin. Gorr looked inside and saw some treasures, but decided not to take them. Robert wasn't so scrupulous, looting a jewelled dagger and a ruby necklace - both looked nice & valuable.

Like this, but holding a whip

Colourful and frightening murals circled the walls, depicting bizarre and sometimes repulsive activities. A procession of demons marched, leading a rabble of people engaged in every imaginable act - eating, running, warring, fornicating, etc - a display of rampant humanity. The demon leading the charge was twin to the statue, a man-goat with bat wings. Behind him were a lizardlike being with two primate heads & tentacle-arms; a swirling pillar of eyes; a finely-dressed nobleman with a lewd expression; and a manlike entity with two heads and two serpentine tails instead of legs. 

Suba-Jin pondered what he remembered from Hextor's doctrines on demonology, and thought that the pillar of eyes was called "The Faceless Lord," and the one with twin tails was "Abraxas," but he couldn't remember any details.

Beyond the procession the murals got worse. Atrocities rendered in exacting detail: hundreds of women hanged from a single tree, forests of men impaled on pikes, etc. Strangely the victims were either humans with green, purple, blue or copper-orange skin, and a humanoid of unknown type with curving ears, thin limbs and elongated ovoid skulls. Nobody recognized these last creatures.

Player: "Of course we don't recognize them - the people here made them extinct!"
Another Player: "I'll bet those guys sucked The Most."

In one corner lay an ancient, dusty pipe organ with its keys and pipes made from bones - from small fingers up to the thighbones of some massive beast. Gorr tried looking into the pipes and saw a bit of dust and mold, cautioning the others about playing it. Eric opened it up and retrieved something stuck in the works - an odd black stone bowl and a necklace showing the same horned symbol as the door. They seemed valuable. Suba-Jin sat down to play, attempting to duplicate the harp's music upstairs [last session]. After a few tries, he got it and everyone had a brief vision: a man in red robes with a grotesque mask drawing a blueprint of the temple complex.

Deciding not to mess with the organ further, they explored a few other rooms. One was a wrecked library. After a mishap with some sort of trapped magic scroll, Suba-Jin picked up a handful of books, all written in the same runic script as everything else here. Gorr found a map, but without understanding its annotations it wasn't too useful at the moment.

In a ruined bedroom, a secret panel concealed shelf upon shelf of tiny snow globes, each one containing a miniature representation of the fortress on the mountain peak. Each was slightly different - the fortress intact in one, ruined in another, another with tiny human figures visible walking through the snow. The group took one or two and Gorr found an intact velvet glove which he tucked into his belt.

The next door was locked with no way to open it. The offering basin beside it was full of dirty water and - human teeth. Someone had a peryton fang from the last battle, and dropping it in the basin allowed the group to pass through.

The high-pitched whine got louder, now joined by a distant clatter like percussion played to no earthly rhythm.

In an embalming or preparation room, Gorr found a book with diagrams of stitching corpses together into some kind of unholy monster. Thinking some perverse nerd (ie. wizard) would pay for it, he brought it with him.

The party found multiple vast burial-chambers, huge room complexes that smelled of ancient dust with narrow passageways honeycombing through them. Hundreds of corpses, maybe thousands, were interred in these ancient crypts. The group didn't like the look of them, and skipped over these areas after a cursory look.

They did find the skeleton of a dwarf slumped up against a door. He had died of grievous injuries long ago, and was almost completely decayed. He clutched one of the snow-globes in his hand. In his backpack was a contract of mercenary service. His name was Glauron the dwarf, and he had been hired by someone named Issachar Dimorites in the year 4315.

Reading

Another nearby room held something more interesting. Eighteen huge books on pedestals. While the group investigated, Gorr found a small black jeweler's loupe. It allowed him to understand the runic writing used in this place! The group began reading over all the clues they'd found so far:

- The big books were entitled "Chronicle of the Most Consummate Church of Yredelemnul" vols 1-18. They were mostly dry history, but Suba-Jin found a note suggesting possible betrayal by someone named the Red Architect. The last entry of the last book was dated 4265. It outlined fears of the then-Emperor knowing about their activities, predicting he would soon be sending forces after them. It mentioned the existence of many other temples around the world, including one in the Range of Dissension.

- The books Suba-Jin had found in the library were mostly useless, either written in code or full of bizarre esoteric statements like "I commandeth the seventy blasphemies, I speak through the heart of the worms in the grey-black star," etc. One did mention a useful clue: a curse would fall on any who failed to leave a coin in the fountains, or who lied to the Exalted Interrogator.

- Gorr tried to interpret the runes on the old carved pendant he'd found on Eralion's corpse. It was a prayer, saying "I commend myself into your hands, Yredelemnul. Allow me to pass beyond the final gates of death, into your realm of eternal power..."

- The rusty magic bronze axe Robert found had runes too: "Execute The Weak."

Steve: "Sure! Exactly the kind of shit you stencil on the side of your F-18."

The Piper

They found a carving of a great eye covered in ice, its pupil carved into many smaller eyes of all sizes. Beneath it was a basin filled with dirty water. Thinking an offering was necessary, Suba-Jin and Gorr each threw in a coin and were magically affected. Suba-Jin gained a point of Strength, and Gorr lost a point of Wisdom. They passed on by a pair of fountains depicting a group of children vomiting, and left coins there as well to no obvious effect.

Coming around the final corner, the group saw the room shown in the painting! The golden cup and an old book rested on an altar carved with gold lettering. The same skeleton statue loomed over the whole scene. One thing was different: floating gently through the air were hundreds of blue glass spheres filled with liquid.

Before their eyes, a demon appeared in the centre of the room. Looking like an emaciated blackish-red skeleton, it had three heads and six arms. It was playing a bone flute and a drum, creating the otherworldly whistling "music" that permeated the complex!

It introduced itself as Magrometh the Piper, speaking from one of its heads not occupied with fluting. It asked if any "sons of the First Men" had come to speak with it. It explained it had been summoned here in olden days to guard this place. Its song controlled the corpses in the crypts. If it ceased playing, they would "rise from their sleep, to shamble in Yredelemnul's service once more."

"So, when will you stop playing your song?"
"When the time is right... When I am called to by Yredelemnul," responded Magrometh. "Or if a true son of the First Men should ask, then I would also cease."

The group indicated they only wanted the golden cup, which Magrometh said was a prize taken from the cult's old foes. He was not willing to give it up, even if asked nicely. This went back & forth for a while, until Robert the Swift had enough.

"Well, we want the cup. So stop playing." After a moment of Magrometh's penetrating stare, it nodded, flourished its instruments and vanished. The song ceased, and the floating spheres crashed down to the floor in a rain of glass shards and icy blue liquid. Eric managed to save two fist-sized ones for the party to keep.

The golden cup didn't look like much at first glance, covered in the dust & grime of the centuries. But was like the one in the painting, so Robert grabbed it. Worried about the dead in the crypts, the group made their way back up to ground level quickly. The blizzard was worsening outside and they needed a plan.

Eric Alone

This is when things got strange. The group decided to see if the grandfather clock would rewind time for them, the way it had sent Suba-Jin forward [last session]. The whole group agreed and together they wound the hands of the clock back twelve hours.

Eric noticed that nobody else was moving except him. Everything was frozen: his friends, the torches in their hands, even the snowflakes coming through the window were stopped in mid-air. He began to realize that he might be trapped in time for twelve hours all by himself!

Returning downstairs, he explored the room where they'd met Magrometh more carefully. Comparing it to the painting, he realized there should be another door behind the altar, and he noticed that some of the liquid from the shattered globes had drained underneath the wall in that direction. A short search opened a secret door and Eric entered a whole new section of the crypts. 

The map Gorr had found in the library showed this new area. With the eyepiece the text was translated and Eric used it to navigate:

 

Most of these rooms were barred on the outside. Each was the tomb of an undead creature just recently risen from its coffin. The time stop effect allowed Eric to enter, investigate, steal any treasure they had and then attempt to destroy them by beating on their frozen forms with his enchanted mace. It wasn't clear what effect this would have when the flow of time was resumed, but he decided to err on the side of caution when it came to the restless dead!

The Mausoleum of the Slaughterer held a powerfully-built revenant wrapped in rags, lurking on a platform above the door. Its only valuable was an ornate warmask carved into a scowling, horned face.

The Tomb of the Twin Inquisitors held two corpulent, rotted ghouls crawling with huge maggots. Even with time frozen, it took everything Eric had not to lose his lunch as he searched them. He found a platinum goblet and a small wooden box.

The Crypt of the Cloven One was totally empty, its sarcophagus unadorned. Perhaps its chosen occupant had never been buried here?

The Crypt of the Architect was lit by an ornate brass lamp. The sarcophagus was artfully carved in the shape of a great city. The Architect itself wore rich crimson robes and a horned mask. Eric took its mask and the jewelry right off its arms.

The Crypt of the Exalted Interrogator held a withered creature wrapped in rags, with glittering eyes. Eric took its emerald-studded crown.

The Tomb of the Testifier was small, holding only a yellowed corpse with no adornments. Eric found a gold chain in its coffin.

The Throne-Crypt of the Blessed Afflictor held an imposing figure in antique armour resting on a throne. It wore a crown, necklaces & bracelets and held a sceptre, all of which Eric took.

Having looted the remaining foes in the crypts and hopefully disposed of them for good, Eric assembled as much wooden debris and flammable material as he could. He piled it up at the bottom of the ladder and dropped a lit torch on it, hoping the fire would start when time resumed and keep the dead in the crypts from climbing up after them. After this he tried to rest for a while. It was cold and his sleep was troubled by strange & unsettling dreams, but he succeeded in memorizing spells.

The Risen Dead

When the flow of time resumed Eric filled everyone in on what had happened. They decided to brave the blizzard in the dark and loaded up Gorr's sled with all their treasure.

At the entrance to the fort, they were greeted by a chilling sight: the snow outside was beginning to swarm with skeletons! Scores, maybe even hundreds of the restless dead only now beginning to crawl up from their ancient resting places beneath the mountain snows. The group ducked back inside, wondering how they could possibly escape this time...

*****

Monsters defeated: 

it is unclear

Treasures:

Jewelled dagger
Ruby necklace
Onyx bowl
Necklace with Horned Sigil
Satin glove
Book with diagrams of corpses

Loupe of translation

Some snow-globes

Gold goblet

2 glass spheres of strange liquid

Blessed Afflictor's crown, jewelry & sceptre
Testifier's gold chain
Exalted Interrogator's emerald crown
Red architect's mask & jewelry
Slaughterer's mask
Twin Inquisitors' platinum goblet

Twin Inquisitors' wooden box

Session 16

TO THE SACRED MOUNTAIN

1-14 Warmshade, 4433

Characters:

Gorr, Ranger 4
Robert the Swift, Fighter 3
Suba-Jin, Cleric of Hextor 4
Eric Withakay, Cleric of Solaris 4
Regetus Rex, Illusionist 2
Lord Fesgate, Fighter 3 (NPC)

A Mysterious Missive

At the Veterans' Association, Robert the Swift received a strange letter. The one-armed barman and inveterate gossip Primoz said that "some knife-ear" had brought it the night before. The rest of the group, staying at The Dragon's Eye Inn (a local hot-spot) were handed a similar letter by the tough-looking proprietor, Patchey. 

It read thusly:

*****

Comrades,

I hope this missive finds you well, and the adventuring life hasn’t left you worse for wear. My thanks for your show of support during my testing. I hope you understand that I had no time for socializing. Indeed, my admission to the Gloaming Tower has opened up such paths of arcane knowledge that I am unable to pursue an opportunity that came my way recently.

A new colleague at the Tower is obsessed with some ancient once-lost treasure. She just heard a rumour from the Starrcrag Mountains, and is hiring mercenaries to search for some ancient relic or other. Knowing my adventuring past, she offered me a place in the expedition. Instead I pass this information on to you.

What I know is this:

The village of Mishell is between the Starrcrag Mountains and the Missing Memory Marshes. It can be reached in about two weeks if you take a boat upriver. The rumour comes from a man named Tjaard, a mountaineer of some kind. Find him, learn what he knows and claim the items.

The treasure itself is two pieces: The first is a large oil painting. The second is an item depicted in the painting itself. She didn’t elaborate on this point.

She is planning to send at least one group of mercenaries to claim this prize. I would advise swiftness if you intend to win it for yourself.

My colleague is completely obsessed. I get the distinct impression that recovering just one item or the other would be insufficient for her purposes. I will pay your group four thousand silver for the recovery of the painting and the other item, whatever it turns out to be. I will contact you six weeks from now in the same manner as today, and I hope to hear happy news.

Ever Yours,
Lothos

*****

After some debate the group decided a trip to the mountains was more agreeable than venturing into the undercity to breathe in more poison gas. Before leaving town, Regetus Rex borrowed some money from his friends to pay off his debts to a street vendor. While way too drunk he had spent 200 silver pieces on exotic stuffed birds, which now adorned his room at the Dragon's Eye.

They paid for passage up the River Leander through the Elsenwood on a grain barge staffed by sullen Ghinoran workers. The river was crowded with boats to & from the capital carrying all manner of trade goods. The Imperial Navy kept the major shipping routes safe, and the river trip was mostly boring. They stopped in Caer Cadwen, the ancient fortress turned provincial capital, but didn't get into any trouble.

Finally disembarking in the village of Smale, they took horses through the hills and avoided the marshes. They were rumoured to be prowled by an enormous electric eel which destroyed boats and fried the passengers with its lightning.

The hills had an agreeable, summery climate after the relentless heat of Viridistan. Gradually the weather got cooler as they approached the Starrcrag Mountains until they found Mishell in the foothills. The peaks above were covered in snow, but in the valleys were vineyards tended by dwarves, the source of the wine which was the village's only export.

Mishell was small, built by & for the dwarves. The party posted up in the cramped, smoky, low-ceilinged tavern. They met the publican Rollo and spoke to him for a while, bought a round for the locals and waited. Tjaard showed up at the end of the day. He turned out to be a dwarf who did odd jobs, working for the loggers or miners up in the mountains or, rarely, as a guide for travellers who came to the region.

Tjaard said that a few months ago, he had been separated from his friends in a storm on the mountain and wandered into a ruined fort. Inside he found a painting on the wall that showed him holding a golden cup. Filled with superstitious dread, he had run all the way down the mountain, barely making it back alive. Nobody believed his story, but some weeks later an elf had come to town and seemed very interested in the tale. He hadn't thought about it much since then.

He was willing to lead the party to the fort, but a storm was brewing on the mountaintop. The group decided to leave first thing in the morning, hoping to get up & down before the storm got really bad. They paid Tjaard to guide them up the mountain and set out. The sky was overcast and it got painfully cold quickly. Most of the party had never seen snow in their lives, and they were all thankful for the winter gear they brought with them. 

Halfway up the group came upon a gruesome scene in the deep snow. A small camp of loggers had been attacked. Each man was slain by animal bites or gored by horns, and their hearts ripped from their chests! There were plenty of signs of battle and bloodstains, but no tracks leading away. Tjaard was distraught - these dwarves & men were all known to him. The group helped themselves to a few bits of gear and progressed up the mountain. 

The snow began to fall faster & heavier.

The Fort

At the mountain's summit, on a plateau of jagged rocks & snow lay the old fortress. Once three floors or higher, it was barely more than one story now, its ceiling all fallen in. It looked like a round pillbox with snowdrifts piled up around it. Tjaard left them there, heading back down the mountain to seek shelter from the worsening storm and await their return. He was too afraid to enter a second time.

Inside the fort, the group found a great deal of strangeness. The walls were covered in archaic runic script that no-one had ever seen before. Soft harp music emanated from somewhere.

A vast pit covered in a rusted metal grate yawned in the center of the hall. The bottom was too far down to see.

The preserved head of a deer was mounted on one wall. Rex took the eyes, which were glass spheres filled with cold blue liquid. 

An old grandfather clock was still ticking, although its time was inaccurate. Suba-Jin tried messing with the hands by turning them forward an hour and vanished from everyone's sight! One hour later he reappeared, not realizing what had happened - as if he had been sent forward through time.

An old mirror rested against one wall, it seemed to function normally to Suba-Jin and nobody else messed with it.

Rex opened an enormous book on a lectern. It was inscribed in varying inks, varying handwriting. It was a list of names & dates. The latest entries were from a few hundred years ago, and the names were recognizable. The last name written down was Kayin Davtyan - 6 Blackmoon 4265 BCCC. Other names logged in the book around that time are familiar-sounding, from all over the Empire.

Towards the end of the book, it uses the common calendar beginning around the year 4000. Before that were groups of years named after people: Vincachius 1-30, Carpathia 1-49, Arnolliac 1-3, Carnithrax 1-80, etc. Turning to the beginning of the book, Rex found a strange calendar system which began at 0 and counted up to 5000 at least! What could it mean? The book obviously held many more secrets, but it was too heavy to carry so the group left it where it was for now.

[DM's note -- Year 0 BCCC is the official creation date of the world by most religions (ie. 4400 years ago). I added more detail here than I described during the session, because I didn't want to look it up in the middle of the game. Good researching, Nick!]

They found a harp, the source of the strange music. Nobody was playing it, the music simply emanated from it.

In the same room was the painting they sought. It showed the whole party standing in a small room before a crude stone altar adorned with skulls. Suba-Jin and Eric were holding fist-sized spheres of glowing glass, while Robert was in the center drinking from an ornate golden cup. A grey skeletal statue loomed over them, and light shone down from above. Two doorways could be seen in the background, leading into darkness. 

They removed the 6'x4' painting from its frame and rolled it up.

In three glass display cases they found an old book, a golden mask and a rusty bronze axe. They all showed as magical, so the cases were smashed & looted. In the same room was a heavy stone trapdoor in the floor. They left it alone for the moment.

On the upper floors they found a room of strange torture devices and some dormitories. These were investigated and a crude wooden mask was found, filled with real human teeth. The thing was ugly and smelled bad, but they kept it.

One room on the upper floor was inaccessible except by rope. Gorr snuck up to take a look, and found a flock of sleeping creatures. Hideous hybrids with the heads of stags and the bodies of huge birds - Perytons! One creature was larger than the other and looked different. Where a stag's rack of antlers would be, this demon had a strange organic candelabra with seven black candles, each burning with a supernatural green flame.

A plan of attack was devised, and the group assaulted the perytons from both sides. Rex's colour spray spells were used to devastating effect. The party sustained a few injuries but killed all four of the perytons. The candelabra-headed one was a tougher opponent, and seemed almost impossible to injure. When a few of its candles were knocked off its head it decided to cut and run, flying out of a hole in the ceiling and into the blizzard. During the battle, Robert found the rusty axe quite useful - it seemed to be especially powerful against the blinded creatures.

The lumberjacks' missing hearts were found here - sizzling on a fire in the center of the room! Rex threw snow onto it to bank down the heat, and the hearts were tossed outside into the snow. Underneath the group found a few gems, which they pocketed.

With the beasts slain, the party considered their next move. The snow outside fell heavier and heavier, and there seemed no way to go except - down!

*****

Monsters:

4 Perytons (980 xp)

Treasure:

old book
serene golden mask
ugly wooden mask
rusted magical axe
3 greenish-black candles
1 smoky quartz
1 emerald
mysterious painting