Session 4
Previous: Session 3
---RECAP: The Heroes, in exchange for information of the Pagan Cave-Paintings they found, agreed to burgle a Nobleman's manor, Onan Woodsfield, and steal the Heartstone of Amaris, an amulet of great healing power. They return to their contact, Heather Green, who takes them to see her employer: Onan Woodsfield. Now read on.---
13th, Sun's Dawn, 1130AS
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The heroes are aghast. Some are worried that they were set up, some are just plain confused.
“First, let me clear a few things up.” Onan says, “Your previous task was not illegal. You were being tested, do you understand?”
The
heroes acknowledge this.
They ask about the cave-paintings, as Heather Green promised. Onan briefly studies them. It is, he says, a common piece in many Pagan writings, and goes thus:
“The
Man-Fools piled stones-on-stones, and raised the treesie roof
And
hammersaws tore the heart of the Goodsie Wood
And laughers they at
the Woodsie Lord.
When learns the Lord of this, senders he his
Beastesses to the Man-Fools,
And hammersaws their useless flesh
And builders they a house of rotting skins for he, their Hornéd Prince.”
---Yes, those familiar with “Thief: The Dark Project” will notice a blatant rip. It's a good piece, and it's for non-profit purposes, so, as I see it, where's the harm?---
Onan moves to the task at hand: He offers them a more dangerous job: He says that he is a collector, of sorts, and the item he wants can neither be bought on the Open Market, nor stolen. It is a gemstone, known as the Eye of Orion: A faceted diamond, as large as an apple, bound in gold. It is in an old, abandoned town, buried deep beneath the Harrow Hills.
The heroes groan.
---They've had experience with Harrow Hill before. It was a good adventure, involving Undead, a Haunted House, and the ghost of a wizard that didn't want to pass on.---
Woodsfield offers a substantial reward for retrieval of the Eye: a hundred thousand gold crowns. The Heroes haggle, agreeing to accept fifty-thousand, and cost-free information, should they require it.
---It is said that information is valuable, but I had no idea they'd place so high a price on the stuff!---
Woodsfield tells them that a few months ago, he sent a party of adventurers on the same task. They haven't returned.
Onan stops the Heroes as they are about to leave.
“Oh, and the Heartstone. Keep it. You'll need it.”
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Stopping only to retrieve their horses, our gallant heroes set off for the Harrow Hills. They arrive at the cave Onan spoke of, at nightfall. They opt to go inside now, while it's dark, rather than rest up and venture inside during the day. As Aurora said, “It's just not the same, doing this sort of thing in the daylight.”
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The heroes follow the cave downward. Very far downward. After a while, it seems to open up into a large cavern (Area 1). They hear the steady drip of water, a long way off. The South wall of the cavern is different from the rest: While the cavern is mostly rough, naturally formed stone, the southern wall appears to be shaped, and masoned. There is a door of rotting wood set in it.
Kenshin opts to break it down. It takes a few minutes, but after much crashing, the door finally gives way, its splintering crash echoing into the cavern beyond. If there's anything in these caverns, it probably knows they're there.
The room beyond (Area 2) is bare. Bare stone floor, bare stone walls, nothing whatsoever, except a door to the West, the South, and the North (which they entered by). They opt to venture through the south door. The room beyond (Area 3) seems as though it was once a large living area. The furnishings, however, are long-since lost to the ravages of time. There is a window-like hole in the wall, through which they can see a larger cavern, and a street.
Through the other door in Area 2, they see a staircase leading down to street level (the party breath a sigh of relief that nobody needs to jump down).
They see that most of the houses are similar in layout: almost bare, a rotten bed-frame, little of value. They decide to investigate the Northward inclination of the street.
Aurora thinks she hears something behind them, but she sees nothing amiss when she turns. One of the houses (Area 4) yields a rotten fabric pouch, with some gold in it.
As they proceed throughout the town, Aurora is becoming more unnerved. She's heard the movement behind them several times now, and she suspects they're being followed. She doesn't tell the others.
They come to a large building, probably a city hall. They are in the walled courtyard outside (Area 5). This is when the rest of the party hear the noise. They turn, and in the light of Kenshin's flaming sword, they see a shadowy figure draw back behind the gate. The party form a circle, ready to destroy the being the moment it presents a threat. The figure, discovered, advances into the light. It appears to be emaciated, with great claws on the end of arms that, like the rest of it, were once human. The beast emits a foul shriek, and darts forward to attack. At the same time, two more jump down from their hiding places on the roof of the building.
A frantic battle is joined. One of the creatures clamps two clawed hands around Aurora's throat, and begins to gnaw at her face, while Kenshin runs through and slices the first with a deft stroke of his flaming katana. Dorian comes to Aurora's aid, and the Cleric brings her Holy Mace of Disruption to bear on the last.
---This battle took a higher toll than I had anticipated! Most of the party was severely wounded after this battle. But, I had achieved the intended effect: Showing the player only a glimpse of a foe is often scarier than the foe itself.---
Inside, the City Hall (Area 6) is much like the cottages: Tumbled-down, rotten, almost bare. The top floor, however, has the bones of many bodies. Beside one is an old journal, still in (relatively) good nick. Only one entry is readable. It appears hastily scrawled.
“Barred the doors. Women and children here. They won't take us alive. Sent for help.
They are coming.”
Grimly, the heroes proceed southward. Through a small alley between two cottages, and through a narrow passage in the cavern, they come to another part of the town. There are a few cottages and a high wall, surrounding a low house. Southward, down the street (Area 7), they see what looks like a transparent figure, back turned to them, making a warding gesture with his arms, like he is fending off an attacker.
Cerridwen calls out to him. He turns, and launches a bolt of magic, screaming incoherently while doing so. Cerridwen looses a fireball, and Dorian's magickal sword finishes the ghost off.
They choose to investigate the walled house (Area 8). The room, as they are used to by now, is bare, except for a large carpet in the centre of the room. Rolling back the decaying fabric, the heroes discover a trap-door set in the floor. It leads to what appears to be an underground workshop (Area 9). The walls are adorned with murals depicting the glyph of the keyhole. Kenshin brings out the letter. The symbol at the foot of the letter matches the murals. They find another scrap of parchment on the worktop.
“Brother, the arrangements are made to evacuate. Our position here is compromised. Some of our brethren have fallen to the Forsaken Ones already! The Eye is secure, for even without our protection, nobody who ventures here would leave alive.”
The door to the East leads to a barrack-like room (Area 10). There is a plaque on the wall. Dorian tries to decipher the writing.
“Highest Sealed Portal
To the Watcher: Hold aloft the Ancient Stone, and the Door will Open.
Beware he that does not sleep.
Glory to Sena. Glory to Custodes”
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Kenshin recognises the symbol on the pendant. He encountered it in the Land of Valor, a year ago.
---Valor was the setting of the last campaign I ran. It was a pseudo-technological Utopian/Dystopian society. Suffice to say, Kenshin had an interesting time.---
The room beyond (Area 11) has the door depicted in the Plaque set in the far Western wall. The heroes decide that they can do little here, and choose to investigate some of the other houses in the town.
The house they've looked in seems mostly bare. They can, however smell the whiff of a burned-out campfire. In another room (Area 12), they see this fireplace, and a figure, huddled in a corner of the room. They call out, and the figure turns. He is alive, but is in such a state of terror that he drops dead there and then. The party surmise that he is one of the adventurers Onan sent earlier.
They find the other two in a room to the South (Area 13). They are dead. As Kenshin moves in to check their pockets (“They may have the pendant we need”), a pair of Haunts appear. It seems that those who die in this place may return as Undead. A short battle ensues, and the Heroes vanquish the two Haunts with a fireball.
They proceed down the staircase, and out onto another street (Area 14). As they investigate the cottages here, They are attacked by another of the Forsaken Ones. This one, however, seems to appear from thin air! As the battle goes on, it exhibits stranger powers: One round, it turns invisible, only to attack from another angle with throwing knives.
It takes great effort, but the Heroes destroy it. They discover a signet ring on its finger, bearing the sign of the Keyhole, and a pendant ,matching the one on the Plaque, around it's neck. They take both back to the Sealed Door.
Holding the pendant aloft, they see a beam of white light emerge from the door's symbol, striking the amulet, and returning with a green hue. They step into a strange corridor: Unlike the architecture encountered previously, this corridor is entirely metal. It is strange, they note, that it is free of corrosion.
They come across another room at the end of the corridor (Area 15). At the far end of the room is a tall pedestal. The Eye is suspended in the air above it. In front of the pedestal is a statue, made from stone and metal. It has the shape of a man, and the chest-plate bears the Valorite sigil. Tentatively, our heroes take a step inside. A great gout of steam erupts from the back of the statue, and it jerks into life, its eyes glowing like coals from the pits of Hell. It raises it's fists and lumbers towards the adventurers.
---Mark, at this point, had to catch a bus home. We agreed to finish this climatic conflict at the next session---
Continued in Session 5
