In which our heroes ...
Orhan 5 Day 60 TE 6051
While we devved up a level one of the six keys of Issa was stolen. (The
key of life.) It was stolen by a vampire aided by demons. All the temples
of Issa and even the people who like them, need to go find this crazy
thing. So we start heading back to Haalkitaine to see if they left any
clues during the theft. The first night, Haeraan has a dream about it.
He gets and image of a corral, except the fencing is bone instead of wood.
In the middle is a giant white skull. Around it are people dressed in
black and zombies and skeletons. The skull in the middle has glowing red
eyes. From teh skull eminates a dark and foreboding smell of graves.
Haeraan thinks perhaps the catacombs under the city will be useful to
explore. We'll require royal permission, but what the heck.
Orhan 1 Day 10 TE 6052
Arriving in Haalkitaine, we visit the temple of Issa. Interrogating the
witnesses, we find that they fled towards the palace, so the royal catacombs
seems likely.
We dither a bit about whether or not the catacombs are a red herring.
There was a vampire and he controlled some demons. He probably has some
undead minions. We speculate for a while on the dream and think of what
you'd used bone corrals for? We ask for a hall pass from Issa. The High
Priestess sends us aparchment asking for Royal Cooperation in this matter.
We decide to go for it.
We ask for permission, but end up needing to wait until tomorrow so the
official can talk to the king. Imre goes to look for stuff in the library.
Oathar goes to the business permit office and gets lot's of forms and
handouts.
Orhan 1 Day 11 TE 6052
We get a one time pass, will be assigned some guards, and can not go
into the most recent wing.
We go down and blow a bunch of rolls. Haeraan does use detect enemies
to see if anything is in the new wing, but we find nothing. Suddenly,
D. catches the scent of something bad. She starts detecting traps and
starts heading down a windy side passage. She gets to an area that opens
up into a chamber with some dirt scattered about on the floor along with
decaying weeds and swamp grass. Oathar thinks it's not a magic ritual.
D does some tracking and thinks some equipement or something was set up
here. Imre thinks it smells like home.
Seems like it would have been difficult to drag a coffin in there with
no one noticing, but probably possible.
We move on down the catacombs. D detects another bad smell. D hears some
running water. It turns out to be some leaking sewers. We head back into
the catacombs after noting the location if we ever need to use the secret
sewer route into the catacombs.
Some people notice a glint of metal down a side passage. We investigate.
We come to a big metal vault door with gold inlay. It's an Imperial Burial
Vault. Oathar declares it power free. Imre thinks it's covered with Arcane
magic. All are confused. We decide not to desecrate the tomb. We take
some swamp grass samples and stuff. We are told to take the sample to
the temple of Iloura.
We go there and speak to the lone priestess. We ask her if she could
tell us whatever she can about it. She definatively identifies the grass
as swamp grass. Sadly, we knew that. It's a couple months old, from the
past growing season, sometime this summer. The dirt is swamp dirt. The
wood seems to be local. We decide to go.
We go to the Seer, Tivo of Haalkataine, and give hims the stuff, and
tell him we wish to locate the personages associated with this. He whips
out the ol' crystal ball. The ball goes cloudy. He peers into it. He says,
"I see... I see a carpet of green. Rising out of it, I see a wall
of white. All around is water. I see the wings of a bat. Behind it all,
I see, blackness." He also sees the setting sun. He tells us to go
west.
Orhan 1 Day 36 TE 6052
We head west for many days. We arrive at the swamp. At the edge of the
swamp is a big black obelisk. Now we've seen these things on both the
south and east edges. Haeraan tries for a dream, but gets the same thing.
Rising up out of the swamp we find a giant white bone wall. On one side,
there is a big skull. 20 feet high, quarter mile wide. Bah!
Seeing the massive edifice of evil necromancy, we look to Imre for guidance.
Oathar sends his raven to scout it out. There's a kill in the center with
holes that form the shape of a face. Lot's of two legged things wandering
around. After a while, we notice three black cloaked figures head up to
the main gate. The bone gate turns into a skeleton and steps to the left.
They go in. The skeleton turns itself back into a gate.
The three black cloaked guys come out again after some time of dithering.
They head to the north. We quickly discuss grabbing them. Let's go off
and try and ambush the three guys. Oathar's raven provides targeting information
so we can set up an ambush. Sadly, the same raven gives away our position.
So we attack. They are all mage types, so they go down in terrible pain
in the first round. We cover people up with metal and stuff, covering
them with metal so hopefully, they can't cast on us while we question
them.
We cast the CIRCLE OF TRUTH, and start questioning. James is heading
home to the hills of the north. His family lives there? He just came from
the Citadel of the Destroyer where his purpose was to learn more about
necromancy and the black arts from the servants of the destroyer, who
is a god. (Yeah right.) The destroyer is served by many minions, of which
hundreds are in the citadel with zombies and skeletons unnumbered. Also
a bunch of necromancers and other practitioners. The Destroyer's name
is Asarak by the way. He studied under the Mistress of Pain and the Butcher.
He expects to travel about 35 days before he is missed at home. There
are over a hundred such students there even now. The citadel has been
there about a year.
To get into the citadel, you need only speak the phrase, "In the
name of the Destroyer." When you register for classes, you must pass
an examination. There are four or five instructors. He describes the mistress
of pain and it is clearly not Xin. (Black hair, white forelock, pale skin,
bone dagger.) Oh yeah, and some winged demons were there too.
They have some pouches with fingers and things. A few loose coins. One
has a wand. It's a wand of animate dead with 20 charges. We destroy it.
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