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[Fireday, 7 Arodus 4708 A.R. continued]
Having managed to
save Eldritch from a brutish band of four-armed gargoyles, the Harrowed Heroes
regroup. They decide to continue with
their original plan of resting through the day and night on the roof of the
star-shaped tower, under the watchful gaze of the carving of Zon-Kuthon, the
Midnight Lord. Lorien finally awakens
from his trance to find himself bruised and manacled, but the others fill him
in on what happened. The chill wind and
drizzle make it an uncomfortable place to spend twenty-four hours, but Yraelzin
observes it may be safer camping on Castle Scarwall than in it.
[Starday, 8 Arodus
4708 A.R.]
In the morning, as
the others prepare by pouring over old spellbooks and sending prayers skyward,
The Reckoner is checking over his equipment when he suddenly hears a voice in
his head. Surely another sending
spell, but this one is not from an ally in Korvosa: it’s from Shadowcount
Sial! In the clipped aristocratic tones
of Nidalese Taldane, Sial says “Know this, you ignorant thug. Serithtial is mine, and you opened the
way with your primitive hammer! I said
you would regret defying me.” The
Reckoner doesn’t bother to reply, but shares the message with his allies. Yraelzin’s outrage over the breaking of the
alliance he negotiated days earlier again comes to the fore, but the others
hope that Sial was either lying or could still be found within the castle. The Reckoner decides trying to smash a hole
in the roof but finds something he’s never encountered before: even his
adamantine battle-maul only scratches the surface of the tower’s magically-reinforced
marble!
Hours of laborious work might conceivably still open a way, but the group decide to instead return below to the entrance to the donjon where The Reckoner’s hammer smashed in the sealed doors but multiple arcane wards nonetheless barred passage. Knowing the wards could be easily bypassed by a devotee of Zon-Kuthon leads Anorak to believe there may be credence to Sial’s boast. He observes that, in theory, the repulsion ward could be nullified by a sufficiently powerful counterspell, even if the pain ward would remain in place. He, Lorien, and Yraelzin try again and again until finally Yraelzin succeeds. It seems the only way forward is to endure the terrible wracking pains of the second ward, so the Harrowed Heroes—even a very reluctant Eldritch and Yraelzin--bravely push into the donjon proper.
Tiled in blood-red
marble and featuring an altar resembling a skull opposite a ten-foot-diameter
white marble pool, the donjon’s foyer is an imposing sight. As they use ever-dwindling healing magicks to
assuage the pain of entry, the Harrowed Heroes see the water in the pool begin
to churn and thrash. Suddenly, a massive
creature made of blood-red water manifests and attacks! The Reckoner easily dodges its blows (with a
little help from a magically-produced illusion), and soon returns the elemental
to a state of dormancy. A search of the
room turns up bits of fresh incense and specks of blood—signs that, recently,
someone performed a ritual in the chamber.
A pair of doors
lead off the chamber. One door leads to
a long corridor with several other doors branching off it, but The Reckoner
finds no traces of recent passage down it.
The group decide to instead try the westernmost door, and here they find
recently-made scratches and chips in the corridor and realise it leads to
another, smaller entrance to the donjon.
This door too had obviously once-been sealed, but now stands smashed
open—from the inside! The group
hypothesise that Shadowcount Sial and his bodyguard may have entered through
the door The Reckoner smashed down, explored a portion of the donjon, and then
broke their way out through the smaller door.
Indeed, confirmation seems to come from tracks leading to a parapet that
suddenly stop—a clue that, perhaps, escape from Scarwall through magical flight
or teleportation was accomplished.
With the tracks
leading to a dead end, the group is out of leads. They decide to return to the donjon (again
suffering the pains of entry) while discussing whether or not their quest to
save Korvosa can be successful if Serithtial is gone. One chamber in the donjon features partially
collapsed cabinets, a circular black rug caked with long-dried gore, and, most
curiously, a reddish-skinned, undead giant of some type—but one obviously
destroyed and completely inanimate. Passing by stairs leading downward, the
group reach another chamber that is incredibly dark—even Yraelzin’s best magic
can adjust it only to a shadowy gloom. A
ten-foot-tall humanoid figure stands motionless deeper in the room. Here, a statue of Zon-Kuthon represented as a
cloaked humanoid with a skull for a head and a spiked chain dangling from its
eye sockets stands in front of a wide-open secret door.
Having spent the
better part of a week in Scarwall, the Harrowed Heroes’ caution, preparation,
and ingenuity have allowed them to triumph in every battle. But will their victories prove pyrrhic if Serithtial
is already gone?
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GM Commentary
The notable event in this session was the discovery that Serithtial had been found by Shadowcount Sial (as mentioned in some earlier commentaries, I assigned a small random chance of it happening each in-game day, and the PCs luck was against them!). Although the players were worried, as GM I was secretly at the time not concerned at all--they tromping through all of the encounters and winning battles pretty easily. It turns out, however, that having Serithtial would indeed have been pretty handy . . .
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