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[Starday, 8 Arodus 4708 A.R. continued]
Hundreds of miles
away from Scarwall, in the independent city of Ilsurian, the summit of leaders
from across Varisia is about to conclude.
The delegates have assembled to sign a mutual defence pact containing
the terms negotiated over recent days.
But Goldcape, suspicious that the document could be an infernal magical
contract like that The Reckoner and Anorak had their spy in Old Korvosa sign,
decides to first check if its magical.
The document isn’t magical, but she is surprised to learn that something
under the table radiates a powerful aura. She crouches down to see what it is and
realises there’s an arcane pentagram drawn in dried blood on the underside of
the table! Overlord Cromarcky of
Riddleport follows suit but, untutored in magic, thinks it’s some kind of
magical charming sigil to make the delegates more pliable. He draws his sword and starts shouting about
treachery. The delegates start to argue
amongst themselves as the pentagram glows brighter and brighter before the
table suddenly splits down the middle to reveal a seven-foot-tall monster
bristling with barbs from the tip of its lashing tail to the serrated features
of its fang-filled visage. Goldcape was
right about Infernal powers at work—just not in the way she anticipated!
The summit has
been saved with no casualties among the delegates, but a puzzling fact remains:
who drew the summoning pentagram, and will they strike again?
Meanwhile, back in
the damp and gloomy fastness named Castle Scarwall, the rest of the Harrowed
Heroes continue their search for a way to break the curse that somehow fuels
Queen Ileosa’s newfound invulnerability.
As Yraelzin, Anorak, and The Reckoner discuss how to proceed, all three
are startled to see that Lorien has walked up to the statue of Zon-Kuthon and
embraced it! His holy symbol of Cayden
Cailean begins to scorch before the others pull him away, realising he must be
entranced again. When the battle-priest
continues trying to embrace the statue, the others decide they have no choice
but to bind him with chains and manacles.
Eldritch offers his unwelcome opinion that they should just throw Lorien
down the stairs. The Reckoner asks
Yraelzin to drag Lorien around as they explore, but he refuses, citing the
half-orc’s weight and his own burdensome possessions. With a sigh, The Reckoner agrees to do it
himself, though before long Anorak conjures a floating disk of magical force to
carry Lorien.
The decision is
made to explore what lies beyond the (already open) secret door behind the
statue. The Reckoner’s grasp of
architecture leaves him confident that the group has passed beyond the donjon
and into the star-shaped tower. Here,
they find multiple prison cells with adamantine manacles embedded in the walls,
a staircase to a small chamber on what must be the roof (where the
nonfunctional phase door should lead), and another staircase below. The group decide to backtrack out of the Star
Tower and search the rest of the donjon.
Unfortunately, there’s little of interest: a row of small chambers that
probably served as monastic cells, a crumbling common room, and what looks to
be a larder full of glass jars of murky liquid on shelves. But as everyone turns to leave, The Reckoner
is suddenly struck with an overwhelming desire to unscrew the lid of one of the
jars and pull out the human kidney pickled within. Just as he’s about to take a bite, the
compulsion suddenly fades, and he throws the mess away in disgust.
Returning to the
Star Tower, the group decide to see where the staircase below leads. The walls and floor of the chamber they reach
have a strange organic texture, appearing almost like black mummified flesh
streaked with glistening swaths of ancient blood. Four pillars carved to look like coils of
entwined arteries and spinal cords support the ceiling, with nails and surgical
tools embedded in these pillars at key and painful-looking positions. But perhaps most notable is the
ten-foot-diameter open shaft in the middle of the chamber, entirely filled with
thick bluish mist! Anorak drops multiple
pebbles into the shaft and never hears them hit bottom. He speculates that the mist is a sort of
magical loop, traversable only by those with clear and focussed minds—perhaps a
sort of prison of eternally falling! The
Reckoner, however, seems very intrigued and speculates it could instead be a portal
to someplace else. He seems poised to
enter, but Anorak persuades him to leave it for another time—there’s still a
lot of the castle to investigate, after all.
After climbing
back up the stairs and returning to the donjon, the group descend another
staircase. Here, a long corridor leads
to a massive set of doors. On the other
side, a vast chamber is floored in gray slate and supported by thick pillars of
obsidian. Torches mounted on the pillars
burn, yet their flames are strangely dim, barely lighting the cathedral-like
space. White pinpoints of light seem to
dance in the eye sockets of each skull that decorates the pillars and thick
black curtains hang from the chamber’s walls.
To the northwest, a tall statue of a skull-headed man dressed in dark
robes stands behind a black marble altar, on which lies heaped mounds of ashes,
bits of bone, and a single skull, its teeth and eye sockets set with glittering
gemstones. Jagged, barbed chains dangle
from the statue’s eye sockets. As
Anorak’s enchanted eyes detect magical auras under the mounds of ash, Yraelzin
whispers an ominous observation: “We have entered a shrine to the Midnight Lord
. . .”
-------------------------------------
GM Commentary
We got another entry this session in the subplot with Goldcape attending a summit of Varisian leaders in Ilsurian to try to form an alliance against Runelord Karzoug's armies. It was a funny stroke of pure luck that they detected the summoning circle early (with Cromarcky rolling a natural 1 to mis-identify it). The resulting battle was pretty exciting, as each of the NPCs had their actual stats and equipment (from other sources) and most were either under-leveled or not at all designed for combat. The players running them had to be pretty inventive sometimes. Still, the result of the summit ends up being pretty important, as it leads to a massive "Battle of Magnimar" which would play out in my "Roots of Golarion" campaign and also had implications for my subsequent AP, Second Darkness.
Back in the main plotline, Lorien's player was absent again, so as usual I had to come up with a good explanation. This one put a bit of a burden on the other PCs, but nobody ever said adventuring would be easy!
I don't remember off-hand where the shaft of bluish mist went to. I think it might have descended down to the underground caverns where the gugs lived and Serithtial was originally to be found on an island in an underground lake. I do remember the PCs never backtracked or got there, anyway.
