SOTDL CAMPAIGN DIARY: TEMPLE OF SHADOWS PT 2, 04/25/2017

The Heroes:

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

The heroes find the hidden lever that opens the wall in the cellar that leads to a stair leading down.  The strange, green mist eerily flows up the stairs from below.  The heroes descend, followed by Inquisitor Randolfus and his enchanted box.  They find a room filled with the green mist that seems to be emanating from a stone object that appears to be broken and laying in the center of the room.  The room is thick  with the mist which burns the lungs.  Mathias braves the fumes and picks up the pieces of the object, which has strange runes engraved upon it’s stone surface.  Inquisitor Randofus calls it the Enigma Stone and tells Mathias to place it within the enchanted box.  Despite the Enigma Stone being much larger than the box, when Mathias places it above the opening, the box draws the pieces of the stone in and Randolfus seals it.  This stops the mist from forming and allows the air to clear after a few minutes.  Randolfus then proclaims that he must take the box to secure it, but asks that the newly deputized heroes (Kane the Mighty!) to continue onward and stop the cultists from completing whatever vile ritual they have in progress.  The inquisitor then departs.

Below where the stone was laying, a large section of floor is painted with the same stylized demonic head symbol that the heroes have seen in various places now, and tattooed on the backs of peoples necks, like the Master Dreen’s daughter Candace and Delia.  On the walls hang two tapestries depicting humans and either demons or devils performing unspeakable sexual acts, such that even briefly studying them damaged Mathias’ mind a bit.

There are also two hallways leading off in opposite directions and a large set of double doors with an elaborate set of locks.  The heroes check out both passages and find two rooms.  The first is smoke filled and has several women in various degrees of undress and apparently high on whatever substance they are smoking from the hookas in the room.  The woman try to lure them in, and though Kane tries to question them about how to get through the big door, the only useful information they impart is that beyond the doors is where they’ve been taken to “give blood” by the nobles.  In the other room the group finds a library with all manner of books on various subjects, but in particular some demonology books and they find some incantations with demonology spells, including one to summon demons.  They take the incantations and go back to the large double doors.

Kane uses his lock picking skills to open the complex lock and upon opening the double doors the heroes find a circular room with a large well in the center.  Bodies of cultists and the eel-headed creatures known as “hoods” that they encountered up in the manor lay about the chamber as if they fought each other.  These hoods also bear the amulet of the vampire called Lucretia and were apparently fighting these cultists for some reason.  Another large door leads out of this room, but before the heroes could check it, a creature that resembles a giant blob of black tar emerges from the well and attacks them.  The fight is difficult as the creature’s body seems to splatter and absorb much of the damage the do to it, and also seems to corrode armor and weapons, but Mathias eventually charges the creature with his shield and smashes the thing back into the well, causing it to fall and splatter along the bottom.

The heroes open the large door and find an even larger chamber beyond dominated by a circular recessed area that has a dead body laying upon a demonic summoning symbol.  Standing above the body, enshrouded in shadows and yet still horrifying to behold is a demon.  Outside the summoning circle the heroes recognize the nobleman called Katandramus, who was conversing with the demon when they entered.  The noble holds a metallic sphere that glows.  All around the chamber, dead cultists lay, their bodies damaged in horrendous ways, apparently victim to the demon.  When the heroes enter, the demon moves to attack and they respond in kind.  They try to get to Katandramus, but the nobleman, apparently well-versed in the arcane ways, opens a magical portal and disappears, commanding the demon to destroy the interlopers.  The demon gleefully complies, attacking with pseudopods and magic.  The heroes, now having encountered many horrors, are better prepared to deal with the abomination and after a few minutes of trading attacks with it, they manage to put the demon down.  They inspect the body from which it emerged and find that it is Candace Dreen, who was possessed by a demon that apparently was helped out by Katandramus. 

Now left in a chamber of death and gore, the heroes must decide what to do next.

End of session.