Session 2
Previous: Session 1
---RECAP: The Heroes of Hoden made their way back to Isenia, delivered a mysterious letter from an equally mysterious benefactor, and took a copy of it. They investigated an attack on a Noble's manor, and eradicated a tribe of savage marauders. In the process of doing so, they took the letter to several places, to try to get it translated.
I must warn you in advance, I was rather annoyed by the conduct of a certain player during this adventure. If my tone is a tad more spicy than usual, that's the reason. Consider thyself warned.---
11th, Sun's Dawn, 1130AS
Kenshin decides to take the letter, and the cave-paintings, to the local Abbey, to see if the monks can shed any light on their meaning.
---Ye Gods! I had intended to make the letter a sort of mini-game, to allow other players a chance to get involved. Here we have:
A Magic-User, student of the Arcane, who would have experience with languages.
A Cleric, who will certainly have experience with languages of Faith.
A Rogue, with a “Read Languages” skill!
But, Kenshin can't read it, so obviously nobody else can. So, let's keep it hush-hush by taking it to everyone in town. * rolls eyes *---
The party are taken to the Scribarium of the Abbey, where a Brother Columbanus takes their letter and paintings, saying that he will do his utmost to have it finished.
The Heroes, then, decide to look for work around Hoden.
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After lengthy debate, they decide to see if there are any contracts going at the Guild of Warriors, where Kenshin is a member.
Kenshin approaches the Guild-Steward. He seems most offended when the Steward addresses him as “Associate”, his Guild-ranking.
“I am an experienced Warrior, and Veteran of several wars!” he indignantly exclaims.
“Quite. And were any of those Guild contracts?” responds the Steward.
Kenshin swallows his pride, for now, and asks about a contract. There is only one contract of note, just now. The son of Widow Vabaas has disappeared. A fairly simple operation is required: Get him back.
The Steward tells them the Widow's address, the Heroes travel there to question her. She says that her son was taken by “a man, who appeared from nowhere!” while playing with his friends in the streets by Marketgate. This was a day ago. Another woman bursts into the house, utterly inconsolable with tears. Her child, too, has been taken, in the same manner, barely five minutes ago!
The Heroes rush out, hoping to pursue the kidnapper.
It's been raining of late, and the kidnapper left some fairly clear tracks, leading into the forest. Following the tracks, they come across a wounded man, dressed in raw hides. His arm is mangled, as though blasted off.
He greets them in a strange-sounding dialect:
“Comes you finishes me off, Hammer-Scum? Makes it quickers, then. Snapper-snap.”
This puzzles the party. Kenshin tells his that he knows nothing of these “Hammers” the man speaks of. They offer to take him back to Hoden.
He vigorously shakes his head. “The Stone-on-Stones not goodsie. Keeps me with the Green.”
They decide to cast a healing spell, at any rate. They ask who wounded him. He tells them that a “Hammer-shaman”, carrying a “man-young”blasted him out of his way with magic, and ran to the north-west.
The party follow this direction, and come to an abandoned church. Only an outline of it's outer walls remain, and the interior floor is littered with rubble and the like. The Heroes discover two sets of staircases, leading down.
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The Heroes make their way down the stairs, and come into a bare room (Area 1). The walls and floor are made of stone slabs, and apart from the rotting door to the north, the room is bare.
Aurora is uneasy. “Guys,” she says, “I think we're being watched.”
The door leads into a stone corridor, with a moth-eaten and faded red carpet going down the middle of the hallway. The faded murals on the wall depict saints and angels, identifying the place as a former place of the Isenian Church. There is a door down the narrow corridor to the North, and another one to the nearest wall. Kenshin opts for the latter.
This room (Area 2) seems to be a dining room. There is a table and chair made of rough, untreated wood, and a door in the north-eastern corner, leading to a kitchen and pantry (Area 3 and 4) of similar furnishings. There is a door to the North of the Kitchen.
The heroes open the door, and see a corridor to the east, leading to a southbound corner. There are two doors along the northern wall. As they march down the corridor, the floor beneath Aurora's feet opens up, dropping her into a shallow, bespiked pit.
---This scenario, for those that haven't recognised it, was originally the work of Shamus Young, for use in his Mordan campaign. I've taken it and adapted it. These trapdoor-pit traps were designed to target the third person in the marching order. Not that the players worked it out, or even thought to wonder about it.---
Cerridwen skitters on the edge of the pit, just managing to keep herself from falling in as well. She edges around the side of the pit, while Aurora clambers out. Kenshin tells the group to investigate the corridor, to see where it leads
---My my, isn't Kenshin doing an awful lot of decision-making in this adventure. For someone with the second-lowest Charisma, he's really acting like the Group Leader – This would be all fine and well, except that he shouldn't be.---
The corridor heads a way southward, before turning to the West. On the wall facing North is an old, worn painting. Two doors are set into the western wall, one to the west, and another two on the south wall.
The Heroes examine the painting. They suspect a trap, so Dorian slashes the canvass. He finds a small hole, leading to what looks like a hollow area which houses a spring-loaded crossbow trap. If activated, the bolt would have flown through the canvass, and into a target further down the corridor. Dorian removes the bolt, and cuts the bow-string.
The door beside the painting leads to another room (area 5), spartan except for a wooden box mounted to the wall – holding the crossbow trap. There is nothing else of note in this room.
The door further west opens up into what would have been a dormitory. The bedframes are long-since rotted into disrepair, and there is what looks like a pile of compost in the middle of the room. As the Heroes enter, the heap moves, forming a rough humanoid shape, and launches an attack.
During the struggle, Kenshin sets the thing on fire with his sword. This does not appear to slow it down, however, as it grapples Kenshin, drawing it into the writing mass of roots and fibres that makes up it's torso. Kenshin realises, to his horror, that he had misplaced his old Ring of Fire-Protection, and is thus damaged
---Mark pointed out that, although he didn't have it on his sheet, Kenshin did receive the ring during the first campaign. He claimed that, as the GM had lost the up-to-date character sheet (the one used at present was copied from a 5th-level Kenshin's sheet), I should let it slide. I pointed out that Mark was the one that copied the sheet, and the Ring wasn't on the 5th-level sheet either, which he also copied out. Therefore, Kenshin had lost it.---
After a grueling combat, the plant-creature is defeated. The heroes are badly wounded, and partake of their healing potions and the Cleric's spells. They decide to investigate the northernmost west-facing door in the corridor.
---It occurs to me, now, just how random our heroes' style of exploration is. Rather than investigate what they come across, they would have their characters nip back and forth through an entire castle, to investigate a door they didn't go through on the ground floor, then back to the 3rd floor, for another door, then to the 2nd, then the top, and so on. They must be pretty tired after a large Dungeon.---
There is a foul smell emanating from this room (Area 7), even before the door is opened. Once opened, however, the smell is far worse, as the heroes see that several slabs have been lifted, and a latrine hole dug. They quickly close the door.
They open the door just south of this one (Area 8). It appears to be a long-since ruined bedroom, probably belonging to a Priest. The trappings are laden with dust and rot, but the Heroes find a small, gold, crucifix pendant by the bed.
The group decides to investigate the door on the eastern wall of the corridor – as Dorian puts it “The Important-Looking Door”. It leads to a vestibule-type area (Area 9), which has a wide faded-red carpet leading from this door to the one on the opposite wall.
They open the door, to reveal what looks like a Ritual area. Three stone slabs are arranged in the centre of the room, with a stone chalice between all three. The short stairs to the east lead to a raised area with a desk and bookshelf. On two of the three slabs lie the boys the Heroes were searching for. Cerridwen fears they are dead, but it is revealed that they are in a trance-like state.
A voice rings out as they enter: “Halt, intruders. Not one step further.” There is nobody else in the room that could have made the voice, so the adventurers rightly assume the wizard's invisible.
Kenshin demands an explanation. The wizard, Luquor Paulem, tells them:
“An ancient power is rising. I have seen it. A dark force from ages past is gaining power, and will destroy all we have done unless I act soon. You know that of which I speak. Pagan magicks are gathering. The homes of the Nobility are destroyed, and Hoden does nothing! It is up to me to end this.”
“But why children?” Kenshin asks.
“They must be sacrificed, if I am to have the power to contain this evil.” the voice intones “This would be a mercy, compared to the Horrors that would befall them if I did nothing. But I could use some help. I need one more - ”
Kenshin demands that Luquor show himself. Then, he says, they will negotiate. A haze appears in the air at the top of the stairs, and Luquor appears. He is a tall blond-haired man, with a short beard. His brown robes are ill-fitting, and contrast the fine quality of his short staff, made of a dark wood and topped with Ivory.
Kenshin advances, ready to draw his sword and strike. Luquor, recognising the threat, points his staff and utters a word. Kenshin freezes to the spot, held.
Aurora and Dorian moves in to attack, while Cerridwen moves the children out of harm's way. Luquor launches several Magic Missiles, and casts a Mirror Image spell. Cerridwen calls for everyone to get down, and looses a fireball from her enchanted ring at the wizard. The ball consumes man, robe, and staff, leaving nothing but charred bones and a smell of brimstone.
---Y'ouch! Natural 20, and maximum damage! I'd forgotten about that ring of spell-storage!---
The heroes search the room, and find a certificate of membership to Hoden's Guild of Mages in Paulem's name. They take it, and the various books on the shelves (mostly tomes of extraplanar research and the like). They choose to investigate the side-rooms (Areas 11 and 12), and find a few hundred gold crowns. They then investigate the last few doors in the main corridor (Areas 13 and 14), and find another hundred crowns.
Lastly, they search the door at the end of the narrow corridor from Area 1. They find a similar room, with stairs leading up to the surface, and a chopping block with firewood. They leave for Hoden.
They take the Children to the Mages' guild, hoping that the wizards would be able to do something about their comatose state. They then donate the books to the Guild (earning great favour in the process – books are expensive things!), and ask about Luquor.
They discover that Leofine was expelled from the Guild for his unethical practices and “unhealthy interest in the Dark Arts”.
Kenshin decides that “Lord Hoden must know of this atrocity”.
--- “Atrocity” seems to be Kenshin's favourite word – he's said it so often, of late.---
They are stopped at the door of Hoden's throne room by an aide, who tells them that Lord Hoden is holding Court, and will not be seeing any other visitors for the time being. Kenshin demands to be let through, threatening the aide. This, understandably, annoys the aide, who warns them that if they do not leave, he shall call the Guard.
Kenshin moves to attack, but thinks better of it. Frustrated, Kenshin decides that the party leave.
--- Y'what?! I wasn't expecting this! He's supposed to be Lawful! Fortunatly, Mark had a rather bad spell of bad luck this session, and the attack roll was a natural 1. To save the embarrisment, I ruled that Kenshin thought better of it.---
This wraps up session 2. Continued in Session 3.
