SOTDL CAMPAIGN DIARY: TEMPLE OF SHADOWS PT. 1, 4/18/17

The Heroes:

• Ecna Lubma: dwarf priest grudgebearer
• Gruntbelly: dwarf magician sorcerer
• Kane: human warrior fighter
• Mathias: jotun jotun juggernaut

The heroes entered the Purse district as night fell and the strange green mist that hangs over the ground makes this part of town look like it is dead and haunted by spirits.  They move down the main strip towards the Katandramus House when they encounter a group of citizens that appear to have been wounded, but on closer inspection, they are covered in blood and gore of their victims.  The heroes attack the citizens-turned-zombies and two more appear from another street, attracted by the sound of battle.  The heroes manage to put the zombies down for good when Master Dreen opens his manor door and bids them to enter quickly. 

Inside Dreen’s home, the heroes catch their breath as Dreen tells of how he was awakened by the sound of an explosion and looked out his window to see the strange lights and mist coming from the Katandramus House.  Then people emerged from the house and began attacking on the street, seemingly infected with some kind of disease that turns them into ravenous, walking dead creatures.  The heroes question Dreen about his daughter and, sadly, he replies that the day after they brought her back to him, she ran away with her beau – a commoner lad named Phinneas – to elope.  He hasn’t seen her since. No mention of her state of possession.  The heroes ask about Inquisitor Randolfus and Dreen says that he arrived with a brute squad and told the people to stay in their homes while he and his men take care of the situation.  That was earlier in the afternoon and he hasn’t come out of the Katandramus House since.  The heroes tell Dreen that they will go find the Inquisitor and help him solve this situation and Dreen says that the people of the Purse district, the town council and the mayor will all be indebted to them if they can do so. 

The heroes leave the manor and go to the Katandramus House, finding dead brute squad along the way, killed by bite wounds, but also each one was stabbed in the head – probably to keep them from rising as a ravenous walking dead creature.  They find the doors to the house wide open and they enter in time to hear a loud, authoritative voice shouting, “Stay back, foul demons of the night!  You’ll not feast upon my soul this night!!!”  The heroes go investigate the sound and find Inquisitor Randolfus at the end of the hall shouting into a doorway.  The Inquisitor carries a lead box that glows brightly.  He sees the heroes and tells them to keep back, seemingly believing them to be cultists, but he succumbs to his wounds and faints.  The heroes go to see if they can help him, but are attacked by strange dwarf-like men wearing oversized hooded cloaks.  These men fight the heroes and when they are killed, the heroes find that they are not men at all but dwarf bodies with a dome of liquid for a head with eel-like creatures swimming within the domes. The eels are killed after the bodies drop.  In their studies, the heroes had heard about a cult that operated in the Empire cities to the south of the Shield Mountains and this cult created creatures such as this to act as spies and assassins, and were called “hoods.”  Upon inspecting the bodies, the heroes find that they both hoods have an amulet bearing a thorned rose.  They recognize this as the symbol that Ecna recently told them about when he was recounting various grudges he had studied when going through Stohk Ironbrow’s vault of grudges.  One of the grudge books had an offense documented about a grudgebearer priest that had found a dwarven outpost slaughtered and wherein he encountered a female humanoid with white hair and pale skin.  The woman had drained the blood of the occupants of the outpost and the priest and his men managed to drive her off.  His description of her included an amulet she wore with the same thorned rose symbol.  He called her the Lady of Sighs and Sorrows.  So, somehow, these two hoods were both affiliated with an ancient vampire and a cult operating out of the empire.  What they are doing here is a mystery.

The heroes revive the inquisitor and upon healing him they learn that he speaks very loudly, even in his weakened state.  He tells them that he had been investigating cult activities in Crossings for months and had long suspected the noble Katandramus as being a ringleader in a cult called the Brotherhood of Shadows, but the noble was powerful, had many influences in town and had confounded his attempts.  The inquisitor bided his time and this incident afforded him the opportunity to get to Katandramus.  He had learned that the cult was attempting a series of rituals using powerful relics and had prepared an enchanted box with which to contain such evil power.  He entered the district that morning ready to arrest Katandramus and his cultists, however, he and his men had been attacked by the zombies and also two creatures of shadow that block the way into the cellar form which the mist emanates.  The heroes mention the symbol of the Lady of Sighs and Sorrow and fear crosses the inquisitors face as he asks if Lucretia is here as well?  The heroes explain the hoods attack and Randolfus is now even more determined to get into the cellar, so he follows the group down and they encounter the two shadows, which attack and attempt to drain the heroes’ souls, but are ultimately destroyed with the aid of Randolfus’ enchanted box.

The heroes catch their breath before and consider how to get through the false wall that the mist is filtering through.

End of Session