- Anton Loyalar: Oeridian Paladin of Heironeous
- Coppyr:
Halfing Monk
- Eli
Pendar: Flannish Cleric of Pholtus
- Tharn:
Dwarf barbarian of the Fireforge clan
The heroes search the area the zombies were inhabiting and
find a couple of storerooms that have been in recent use, filled with fresh
supplies, weapons and armor. They search
more of the area and find a torture chamber with blood drippings that seem to
lead to a wall. Eli finds a secret door
and a passage behind the wall. Before
investigating that, they proceed through a large door through a room to another
large door and find an ogre within. The
ogre threatens them until they don the cultist cloaks they found in one of the
storerooms. They try to get the now
confused ogre to open the door leading out of his room, but he refuses saying
the Master told him to open the door for no one but him. The heroes get tired of dealing with the
simple-minded oaf and attack, killing him and taking the key that he had tied
to his…body.
Behind the door they find a prison with two cages. Within
one is the wizard Spugnois and a gnome.
In the other is an emaciated, bearded human man. They let the prisoners out and find that they
have all been tortured and are in no shape to travel. They do learn that the bearded one is Sir
Thomas Tabert, one of the knights that was assigned to guard Prince Thrommel
and went missing at the same time the prince did.
The heroes decide to explore the hidden passage, fearing a
wounded person may have been dragged in there.
Within they find tunnels that lead to an ancient crypt, and within are
several ghouls gnawing on bones. Anton’s
light gives the group away and the ghouls attack, greatly desiring fresh
meat. The heroes fight in the cramped
tunnel believing it to protect them from being surrounded by the ghouls, but
the creatures surprise them by climbing the walls and ceiling to get to
them. But the heroes are still able to
defeat the creatures. They explore the
crypt, but find nothing but old caskets and another tunnel. They follow the tunnel which leads to the
ghoul’s nest, where they find several valuables.
Returning to the prison, they decide to take the prisoners
out of the moat house and back to Hommlet to get them proper care. They take Sir Thomas to Burne and the mage
takes the man and tells Rufus to summon Canon Terjon immediately. He urges the heroes to continue to clear out
the moathouse.
The heroes take the other wounded ones back to the Welcome
Wench.
Session ends.
After Session Cinematic Interlude
The
following occurs after the heroes leave the moat house dungeons. During
this interlude, your character's actions are on DM auto-pilot. You will
resume control after these events unfold.
Zert moves through the hallway, passing the bandits and
mercenaries that have been recruited by the master over the last several
months. Humans, thankfully, not the demi-human scum that are quartered in
the other part of their hide-out. Zert’s destination is his master’s
chambers and when he arrives at the door, he looks himself over to ensure he is
presentable. Lareth is a stickler for appearances and Zert learned the
hard way that if he did not present himself properly the master would be more difficult
to deal with than he already was. “The master;” Zert hated calling
him that, but Lareth insisted. Zert’s true loyalty was to a higher being,
a MUCH higher being, but Lareth was in charge here, as deemed by the one closer
to his TRUE master, so he has to go with it.
A slight rap on
the door and a soft voice from behind it beckons the warrior in.
The well-lit
chamber was well furnished, much more so than the soldier’s quarters or any
other part of the dungeon. The master stood before his mirror, where he
normally stood, admiring himself. He was tall, slender in build, but Zert
knew that this belied the master’s strength. His long, white hair flowed
down his back in stark contrast to his purple silk shirt. The master’s
skin was very dark, almost perfectly black, as was typical of his kind.
“Well?”
Zert
straightened himself and looked at the master’s reflection where he was being
gazed upon by the unnerving lavender eyes. “I just returned from the
ogre’s room and found him dead. The zombies have been destroyed as well
and it appears the group responsible also went into the crypt and killed the
ghouls. This is a formidable group, master.
“Tell me
something that isn’t obvious, fool! Of course they are formidable; how
else could they have survived the assassin and still not be deterred by his
attack. This group is different. Driven. My pets report that
they have a fledgling knight, a priest of the light, a dishonored dwarf and an
off-world halfling, all of no small skill. We we will need to stop
underestimating them. Alert the agents in Hommlet to enact Phase Two
tonight.”
“Tonight,
Master? But, we’re not ready, we haven’t collected nearly enough for the
Temple…”
“TONIGHT,
Zert. I have tolerated their interference long enough. The Mistress,
and her children, demand retribution.”
Zert sees a big,
ugly black spider crawl over the master’s shoulder and stare at him with its
multiple bulbous eyes. He could see movement all over the room’s shadowy
corners, on the ceiling and walls, and under the bed’s covers, as more the
creatures lingered near their THEIR master. Zert gulped nervously.
“And I will have
my revenge. Irichi was one of my favorite pets. They will pay for
murdering her.”
Zert responds,
“Yes, master.”
“And Zert,”
Lareth adds, “alert the guards in the event these fools survive the night.
Zert waited a
moment to see if there were any further instructions, but only silence
followed. “Very well, master, we will enact Phase Two as you
command.” And with that, Zert gently shakes a spider off his boot and
backs out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Lareth continues
to admire himself in the mirror, but even more importantly, he admires the
image of his Mistress, which appears to him in the same glass, silently
summoned by her servant. “What is your
report, Lareth of Alzierarkakhan, son of Mahreen?” Her voice was as
smooth as a spider’s silk and just hearing it in his mind sent shivers of
excitement through his being. “Mistress Lolth,
I am proceeding ahead of schedule. The fools at the Temple are taking too
long and our operations here are being jeopardized by overzealous
adventurers. It is only a matter of time before they convince the Vicount
to take action.”
The smooth voice
responds, “I trust your judgment Lareth, my beautiful servant, my Favored
One. You serve me as no other. Ensure the Old One understands that
my interests will not be delayed due to the incompetence of his minions.”
“I shall, Mistress
Lolth.” Her image dissipates and Lareth is left with only his countenance
remaining in the mirror. He retires to his bed to alleviate the lust that
his mistress left burning within him.
…
Terjon
hastens his step behind the tall, burly Rufus. He doesn’t like the
warrior, but he recognized the stability that he and the insufferable Burne
brings to Hommlet. Rufus interrupted a service that the Canon was
holding, which irriated him to no end. The people of this town needed his
guidance if they were to continue to hold to the Path of St. Cuthbert, and
continue feeding his offering coffers. But the matter seemed of great
importance, as Burne and Rufus dislike Terjon as much as he them, so to summon
him thusly was unusual.
The two waded through the
townfolk undergoing militia training and proceed up the path to Burne and
Rufus' tower, entering and climbing the steps the meeting room. Therein
they find Burne and the individual that Rufus mentioned that needed Terjon’s
attentions. In addition, others from the council were in the room.
“I was under the impression
that I was to tend to an injured man, not that we were having a council
meeting.”
Burne was at the meeting
table with the others, including the village elder that leads the
council. He responds to Terjon, gesturing to the man on a cot being
tended to by Burne’s servants. “You are, but the man in question is of
significance to all of us. This is Sir Thomas Tabert, one of the men
abducted with Prince Thrommel.”
Terjon raises an eyebrow,
nods and then goes to the injured man to administer St Cuthbert’s blessings of
healing upon him. When he’s finished he returns to the council, who are
talking amongst themselves, and says, “Tabert’s condition is poor, but he’ll
live provided he gets rest and food and water.” The priest joins the
others at the table. “So, does he know where the prince is?”
Rufus says, “No,
unfortunately he says he’s been moved around to various outposts and is
blindfolded every time, so he doesn’t know where he’s been. He does,
however, believe that the old Temple of Elemental Evil is reoccupied and is in
the process of rebuilding its forces. If that’s truly the case then we
need to inform the Vicount immediately. If Prince Thrommel is being held
anywhere, it’s the most likely place.”
Burne shakes his head at
that. “I was there when the coalition of priests and mages locked the
place down. Powerful rituals were used to places wards on the temple to
ensure that nobody could ever enter, or leave that structure. There is no
way that anyone could have re-entered, short of divine intervention.”
“Unless they burrowed their
way in,” Oster states matter-of-factly. They’ve had a decade. We should
have finished them off when we had the chance.”
The elf druid Jaroo adds,
“That is something that had not been considered. The temple may be
warded, but the grounds were not. It would not be difficult to burrow
below the temple. Although they still may not be able to enter, they could
potentially draw power from it from below…”
The large man named Otis
speaks up. “We were fools not to hunt down every last one of them.
We were satisfied with locking up their demon and trapping her inside the
temple. But the true threat was with whoever managed to make contact with
the elemental princes and summon her to begin with. We should have known
this would come back to haunt us.”
The room burst out in
discussion, with those defending and others condemning the decisions made and
the actions taken during the Battle of Emridy Meadows and the following Seige
of the Temple of Elemental Evil. Burne smacked his staff against the side
of the table to bring the meeting back to order. “Regardless of what
could or should have been done, the issue is the present and future, not the
past. We have a chance to find and save Prince Thrommel and to shut down
this cult once and for all. I suggest we contact the Vicount and begin
planning…”
Burne stopped short when he
heard a gurgled shout from the other side of the room. Sir Thomas Tabert
was sitting up and with his left hand he strangled one of Burne’s servants who
was attempting to feed him. Dead, the servant is tossed to the side and
Tabert stands. His stance is awkward, as though he were not in control of
his actions, and indeed, Burne and Terjon could see the tell-tale signs of
possession in the knight’s eyes, which were completely black. Everyone at
the table rose quickly, and those who were armed drew their weapons, while
those with magical skill called to mind their magic. A tense silence
overtook the room for a moment until Terjon broke it by shouting, “Begone
demon, lest I call upon St Cuthbert to cast you back into the Abyss to answer
to your unholy masters!”
The awkwardly standing
knight cocked his head to one side and opened his mouth much wider than was
possible. The cracking of bone and sinew was heard as his jaw distended
and a horrid voice, clearly not that of Sir Thomas, issued forth. “My patience
has borne fruit for many of the architects’ of the demise of my plans sit here
now in my view. You were indeed foolish not to seek out my many minions,
but doing so would have been an impossibility, for they are legion and
growing. But, know this now, fools; I work not alone in this endeavor, but
have powerful allies and together we shall restore the might of the Temple of
Elemental Evil, and the Elder Elemental Eye shall rise to destroy your Cuthbert
and the other so-called gods he surrounds himself with. A new order shall
rise, and we shall reshape this world in Our image!”
No sooner than the last
word was spoken than Burne let loose with a spell designed to hold the
possessed knight in a grip of magical force to allow Terjon to perform an
exorcism. But the knight gestured off-handedly and the spell dissipates.
Terjon raises his holy symbol and fills the room with the brilliance of his
faith. The knight hisses and vomits forth a flood of spiders, which hit
Terjon, knocking him off his feet and distracting him as he tries to free
himself from the bites of the thousands of spiders carpeting him. The
warriors move to act, but before they can get to the knight, he raises his head
upward, emitting an awful, unearthly moan.
Outside the tower, the
people of Hommlet that are out and about hear the moan and look over to Burne’s
tower. Above it, a mass of black clouds billow forth from a singular
point and extend outward to blanket the tower in their black shadow. From
the clouds a powerful bolt of green lightning bursts forth and strikes the
structure, causing the stone and wood to explode violently outward in a
brilliant flash. Momentarily stunned, the people shake off the flash from
their vision and look back to the tower to see it has become a smoking
ruin. The black clouds collapse upon themselves once again and the
evening sky resumes it’s cool, autumn clarity.
