I agree that the near-TPK added a an interesting level to the adventure. I just hope they manage to get Kindrasius back without any further PC death. :)
The dragon would have asked the question regarding Kindrasius's ancestry, but unfortunately, the conversation was interrupted by Kindrasius trying to escape. I didn't expect him to be so defiant of the dragon, since he was so clearly at a disadvantage. Maybe it's an error on my part, but I keep expecting a character with +29 in diplomacy to be... you know... diplomatic, yet that never seems to be the case. ;)
Now that he had recovered from the shock of being resurrected, Manius told his companions that he'd had a strange dream or feeling when he'd been unconscious and/or dead. He had felt himself surrounded by a cacophonous crowd of angry spirits, similar to those who had beset and captured Zellara on the bridge to Scarwall. Only by the great strength of his soul had he been able to keep them at bay, but he feared he had just narrowly avoided becoming trapped among the guardians of Scarwall; his very soul becoming part of the cursed essence of the dark fortress. The others mused that perhaps any mortal perishing within Scarwall's confines would face the same peril, and they worried that perhaps Trinia's soul had likewise been taken captive. Alas, they might only know once they tried to bring her back to life.
Additionally, the angels informed their summoners that they sensed that the evil aura of Scarwall had somehow lessened since the defeat of the Ashmede Devil. The companions assumed that this meant they had been successful in slaying one of the four "metaphorical chains" that allowed for Mithrodar's invulnerability.
The companions took the time to search the tower and found considerable loot within: a huge quantity of coins (mostly copper, alas, but still) within the mattress of the bed; gems that Kaeso pried out of the throne; many valuable items of jewelry or works of art from within the alcoves, as well as several potent magical items; and also a collection of talking skulls, which each spoke a single name when touched. The group figured that it could be sold to a collector who fancied the macabre. Hipazia noted that one of the skulls spoke the name "Count Andachi of Tamrivena", and recognized it as the name of the Ustalavic lord who had long ago received the "help" of Kazavon in answer to his desperate prayers to Zon-Kuthon to protect his lands from a horde of rampaging orcs (and who had later been brutally slain by Kazavon once the orcs had been defeated).
Zeeva used a Sending spell to try and contact Kindrasius, but received no answer. Although that likely meant that he was dead, the adventurers clung to the hope that their friend was still alive and merely unconscious, so they decided to look for him. They supposed that the gargoyles who laired atop the spires of Scarwall would likely have seen what had happened to Kindrasius, and they decided to capture one.
The party headed to a balcony, where they easily got the attention of a duo of gargoyles who attacked them, screeching to alert their brethren. In total, the Harrowed Company, the two angels and Kosh faced six of the large, four-armed gargoyles, but they defeated them easily. Some more gargoyles fled from the site of battle once they saw how dangerous the attackers were. After the battle, Kosh healed the few wounds that had been taken during the fight, and he restored life within the body of a gargoyle whose soul he had temporarily taken a hold of.
Upon coming back to life, the enormous gargoyle struggled fiercely to escape, but it was held tightly by Kosh and the two angels. The group bargained with it: its life in exchange for answers. The creature revealed that the black dragon had indeed taken Kindrasius's body and had brought it to its lair: a large room near the courtyard and the war tower, to the northeast of the keep. True to their word, the group let the vile creature go free and began making preparations to attack the dragon's lair and save Kindrasius.
Kindrasius woke up surrounded by darkness. His body was aching in multiple places, and the memories of the battle against the Bone Devil rushed back into his mind. Where was he? What had happened to him?
The sound of a massive creature breathing could be heard from close by, and Kindrasius sensed an enormous shape just by his side. He kept his eyes closed to pretend to still be unconscious, but after a few minutes, a deep voice addressed him in Shoanti and told him he knew he was awake. Kindrasius opened his eyes and saw two red spots glowing in the dark, and after a few moments, he became aware of the huge draconic silhouette observing him. Yet there was something odd about this dragon, the shape of its head and horns... It did not seem like a regular black dragon. Kindrasius also became aware that he had none of his equipment and weapons at hand; he only had his clothes and chain shirt left.
The dragon questioned Kindrasius, who revealed his name and that he and his companions had come to the devil's tower following an old rhyme that he claimed not to remember, one that spoke of a sword and chains. He asked the dragon to let him heal himself, but the dragon refused.
Seemingly not believing Kindrasius's lie that he had forgotten the rhyme, the dragon continued his questioning. Kindrasius answered reluctantly, annoyed that the dragon wasn't letting him heal himself. He said that he and his friends came from Korvosa, where the Queen was wearing Kazavon's fangs as her crown. The dragon growled when he heard this, and also corrected Kindrasius's assumption that Kazavon had been his master. Kindrasius revealed that his group, the Harrowed Company, had come to Scarwall in search of Mandraivus's lost sword Serithtial. He asked if the dragon would help him in finding it, but the great dark reptile coldly refused.
The dragon asked Kindrasius to describe in more details what they'd fought so far in Scarwall. Kindrasius asked again to heal himself, and the dragon denied him once more. This greatly upset Kindrasius, who then insolently told the tale of their adventure in the most boring way possible. Things quickly got out of hand then, as he did not show proper respect to his draconic captor. Kindrasius decided he wouldn't take crap from anyone, not even a huge shadow dragon who had him captive, barely alive, and weaponless; he quickly made a run for the only door visible, but alas, it led to a room with no exits: there was stored the dragon's hoard, as well as the rest of his equipment (minus his bow). Unfortunately, the Shoanti had run out of time, and the dragon breathed a cloud of soul-numbing darkness around him...
OOC: Kindrasius had to use an action point to survive, as he had woken up with only 12 hp and rolled a natural 1 on his reflex save against the breath weapon.
OOC: I was also too accommodating in describing the room to Kindrasius. It was pitch dark. He couldn't see anything. When he asked "are there any exits to the room?", I should've just replied "You don't know, you can't see anything".
Zeeva and Hipazia materialized in the ruins of Scarwall's barbican early in the morning. They had been able to flee the castle the previous day, and had spent some time since then resting and preparing at their hideout in Janderhoff. They clung to the hope that their companions were still alive, and had "merely" been captured by the fiends of Scarwall, rather than slain. If that was the case, they knew they had to come to their rescue as quickly as possible. As they were both powerful spellcasters, they had a lot of options available to then, but they doubted that they could defeat the remaining devils by themselves.
The pondered the list of their potential allies, but no obvious candidates emerged. The priests of Zon-Kuthon were powerful, but they could not trust them. They might in fact be allies of the denizens of Scarwall, and even if it weren't the case, they were probably after Queen Ileosa's crown, which the group did not want to fall into their hands. Thousand Bones might be will to help, but he was perhaps too old for such a dangerous undertaking. Hipazia knew that Toff Ornelos surely had the power to deal with these devils, but she dared not contact him, fearing that he would only seize the occasion to his advantage.
So it was that the two women decided to contact some brand new allies: using their arcane and divine magic, they summoned two Movanic Devas and an Akhana Aeon. They asked the three outsiders for their help in assaulting Scarwall for the next twelve hours. Unfortunately, they had little to pay them with, as the group's treasure had been kept in Kaeso's Portable Hole, which was now in the tower of the Ashmede Devil. But, thanks to their great skill at diplomacy, Zeeva and Hipazia were able to convince their summoned allies to help them in exchange for the hag's four Soul Jars, which would be given to them upon finding the Portable Hole.
Such a noble quest appealed to the kind nature and chivalrous demeanor of the two handsome Devas, who were named Artarius and Biltaris. The Aeon communicated only in a very indirect manner, through mysterious images, but Zeeva understood that it was willing to help them in exchange for some souls to bring back to the domain of its mistress, Pharasma. The creature did not respond clearly when Zeeva asked for its name, but she decided to name it "Kosh" for now.
The two women, the two angels, and the bizarre giant eye surrounded by four arms and a tail returned to the devils' tower. After bolstering themselves with a plethora of magical defenses, they realized that the door that Kaeso had opened the previous day was now closed and locked again. Using magic, they flew up to the tower's balcony and entered it. As Zeeva was now surrounded by an Invisibility Purge, they all saw the two Bone Devils (which were still gravely wounded from the previous day's battle) and the Ashmede Devil flying lower in the tower. They also noticed the captive forms of Manius and Kaeso, Trinia's corpse, and the loot of these three unfortunate adventurers, stacked in an alcove. Also present was another Kyton, this time a blue-skinned female, whose face bore an uncanny resemblance to Trinia's: but thankfully, Zeeva and Hipazia realized that this was merely a devilish ruse.
Another epic battle began. Artarius flew down and surrounded all allies (including Manius and Kaeso) with a Holy Aura, which would provide them tremendous protection in the moments to come. One of the Bone Devils flew up and fought Kosh, but was rendered blind by the Holy Aura when it clawed the Aeon! Kosh tried to slay it with magic, but the Devil in turn resisted. Hipazia unleashed a mighty Disintegrate on the Ashmede Devil, but missed her.
The Ashmede then uttered another terrible Blasphemy, which paralyzed some of the attackers. Thankfully, Zeeva and Artarius weren't affected at all thanks to the magic resistance of the Holy Aura. Zeeva hurried to free Hipazia from the spell's influence with Freedom of Movement.
The two Devas killed one of the Bone Devils, and Zeeva finished off the other one with her spear (blessed with holy magic). The Ashmede blasted everyone with a Chain Lightning, which did little damage to the combatants due to their magical protections, but which, unfortunately, finished off the unconscious and barely-alive Manius...
The Devas then approached the Ashmede Devil and Artarius activated his Anti-magic Field to try and prevent her from using her devastating spells. Meanwhile, Kosh grappled the Kyton and wounded it. After a brief struggle, Hipazia destroyed the chain devil with a timely Magic Missile.
The Ashmede Devil flew up, out of reach of the Anti-magic Field, and unleashed another Horrid Wilting. Thankfully, it only did relatively minor damage, and Kaeso survived it thanks to the Holy Aura. While the two angels were battling the much larger Ashmede Devil in the center of the tower, flying around her, Zeeva rushed to Kaeso's side and restored him completely with a Heal spell.
Having taken grave wounds from the Ashmede Devil, Artarius let down his anti-magic barrier, which allowed Hipazia to cast a final Disintegrate spell on their terrible foe. This time, the ray of green energy connected with the devil's body and pierced all of her defenses. With a sickening wail, the half-flesh, half-metal devil was unmade from reality...
The heroes had won at last!
The companions healed up and asked Kosh to use his power over life and death to bring Manius back to life. The big man was quite shocked to regain his senses as the spark of life was return to him by the weird and hideous outsider: he woke up with the enormous eye staring at him fixedly.
"What happened to me? What the hell is going on?" he groaned.
"Yes..." replied Kosh enigmatically.
After a few minutes, Manius and Kaeso were fully healed and had donned their clothes and armor once again. All of their equipment was accounted for. Alas, poor Trinia was still dead, but at least now her corpse was safe, and could be brought back to life at a later time. True to their word, Hipazia and Zeeva offered the hag's four soul jars as payment to the outsiders, but the angels and the aeon would still remain with them and help for several more hours. After all, they still had to find Kindrasius!
Manius awoke in a haze of pain. He was hanging from his wrists, which were shackled to the wall of the tower where the great battle had taken place. He was naked and still suffered from many bruises and wounds. Also hanging from shackles, nearby, was the unconscious form of Kaeso. In a corner of the room, he spotted Trinia's corpse, completely scorched by the Ashmede Devil's terrible magic.
An invisible presence soon became aware of Manius's awakening. A cold, sharp blade lifted his chin, and a terrible female voice filled his mind with questions in the infernal language. Trained as a Hellknight, Manius understood the tongue of devils. Although he answered truthfully when the devil asked him his name, he impudently replied "because it seemed like a nice vacation spot" when the devil asked him why he had come to her tower.
Insulted, the devil proceeded to torture Manius to try and extract some information, but the Hellknight stoically remained silent despite the terrible pain, until he passed out from the mistreatment. Not far from there, Kaeso had quietly regained his senses and observed his comrade's torment, but was able to avoid the devil's attention by pretending to still be unconscious.
It looks like I will be a player this time, and Kaeso's player will be the DM for the first time in our group (and first time DM'ing a Paizo product). But that is probably still quite a few months away.
It was indeed an epic and a frustrating fight. It could have gone better for the PCs if a few things had gone differently: mainly if Kindrasius had been able to kill the outside Bone Devil and help the others. He was very unlucky with his rolls to shoot the invisible Bone Devil: at some point, he missed five times in a row, due to the 50% concealment miss chance.
Thankfully, the players took it well, but the next game will be quite strange, if I have all 4 players around the table, and only 2 characters for them to play (one of which is my own DM-PC)...
In unrelated news, we've already begun discussing the next AP we're going to play... ;)
The Harrowed Company walked past the room where they had fought the barbed devils, after Manius and Kaeso were healed by Zeeva. A short walkway led to a strong door set in the wall of a tower that stood high above the surroundings. A cold wind blew over the top of the darkened fortress, which was decorated by eerie gargoyles. Here and there, dim lights shone in windows and murder holes. The fortress itself was strangely well preserved after centuries of abandonment.
As the group proceeded carefully forward, Hipazia noticed three invisible imps observing them from a nearby balcony. Manius activated his Mantis Helm and saw the imps as well, and also a hideous skeletal devil observing them from the top of the tower. They alerted their allies via the Telepathic Bond.
Kaeso took a few moments to unlock the door, and then the group assaulted the tower. Inside, they saw a dark-robed skeleton sitting on a throne; he was performing some kind of arcane manipulation on a mysterious cube that shone with golden light. A chain devil also stood on stairs nearby. What's more, Manius and Hipazia also noticed two more imps, another Bone Devil, and a terrible winged female devil that they recognized as an Ashmede Devil (a powerful assassin from hell), which was also the creature that Kindrasius had gotten a glimpse of in the last Harrow reading. Listening only to their courage, the companions began a battle against these devils.
(OOC: I made two mistakes early in the fight. I completely forgot about the chain devil until the third round, and I forgot about the fear aura around the Bone Devils and Nihil the entire fight.)
Manius, Kaeso and Zeeva charged inside the tower. Kaeso stabbed the skeleton on the throne, but noticed as he did so that it was merely an illusion. The imps used their magic to make disadvantageous suggestions to Kaeso (go up the tower to find treasure), Zeeva (go back home and do the dishes) and Kindrasius (throw your bow here on the balcony), but all three adventurers resisted. Trinia surrounded the three imps outside with a Glitterdust from her wand, and Kindrasius promptly killed them with holy arrows. Meanwhile, the Bone Devil atop the tower barred the party's escape route with a Wall of Ice.
The Ashmede Devil suddenly uttered a powerful dark word of Blasphemy. The entire party was paralysed and weakened by this terrible magic; Kaeso and Trinia were particularly affected, and their paralysis would last much longer. Alas, the Bone Devil inside the tower used this opportunity to assassinate the unfortunate Kaeso...
(OOC: In our group, we use action points that allow PC's to get knocked down to -1hp and stable instead of dying, once per level. But when using an action point, a PC cannot be brought back even with healing for the current fight. So Kaeso used an action to merely get knocked unconscious, but he was out for the entire fight.)
Zeeva was badly wounded by the Ashmede Devil, and Trinia and Hipazia were wounded by the Bone Devil outside the tower, which had flown down to attack the people on the bridge. Once they recovered from their paralysis, Manius and Zeeva furiously fought the devils surrounding them. The Ashmede Devil then cast a Chain Lightning spell that blasted the entire group, knocking Hipazia unconscious...
(OOC: This was technically a death, but she used an action point.)
Things were now looking bleak. Only Manius, Zeeva and Kindrasius were still operational. Manius and Zeeva were surrounded by the Ashmede Devil, Bone Devil, Chain Devil and two imps. Zeeva used some channelled energy to try to keep her friends alive, and used a Heal spell on Manius as well, as she slowly retreated toward the bridge to try and revive the paralysed Trinia. Alas, as soon as she stepped on the bridge, the Ashmede Devil made an invisible prison appear around her, preventing her from further healing her allies, and blocking Manius's escape route. Each conscious character was now by him/herself...
Outside, Kindrasius was shooting the other Bone Devil, who kept going invisible after attacking him. Thankfully, Kindrasius could pinpoint his location thanks to his acute draconic senses. He took severe wounds from the Bone Devil, but also inflicted nasty ones with his holy bow. By the grace of Pharasma, he avoided falling prey to the devil's poison. The skeletal devil regarded him strangely during the fight, realizing that Kindrasius bore many signs of blue dragon heritage... "Master?..." he asked hesitantly, perhaps sensing a resemblance to Kazavon. But in the end, the devil continued his attacks, and was able to defeat the unfortunate Kindrasius. The Bone Devil reverently took the fallen half-Shoanti, half-dragon in his arms and flew up to the top of the tower, leaving Kindrasius's holy bow forgotten on the bridge, next to Trinia and Hipazia's unmoving bodies. Meanwhile, the gargoyles of the roofs and towers nearby had come to life and were observing the fight with great attention.
Spoiler:
I decided that they didn't join the fight, as it was already brutal enough. Like vultures, they waited for both sides to weaken each other.
Manius fought valiantly, killing both imps and the kyton, and badly wounding the Bone Devil, which flew up to the tower's summit to avoid getting killed. The epic battle culminated in a showdown between Manius and the Ashmede Devil, but alas, the winged she-devil was victorious over the Hellknight, who collapsed to the floor, bleeding from many wounds.
(OOC: Yet another action point...)
Zeeva witnessed this, banging her fists impotently against the invisible walls of her cage. She did all she could: she healed herself, and brought Hipazia back into fighting form.
(OOC: I allowed this via a Breath of Life spell.)
The two women couldn't even escape with magic because of the Dimensional Lock on the castle, and the presence of many gargoyles around. These gargoyles went into hiding when the ominous sound of ponderous wings made itself heard from the other side of the tower: perhaps the black dragon? The two women heard some sound of fighting at the top of the tower.
Hipazia saw that the Ashmede Devil (who had remained invisible during the entire fight) was regenerating the wounds Manius had dealt her, and was patiently waiting just outside the force cage to finish them off. Within about a minute, the cage vanished and the two women began a new phase of this desperate battle for their lives. A Disintegrate from Hipazia missed its mark, but Zeeva was able to revive Trinia with Freedom of Movement before attacking the Ashmede with her spear, hitting a few times despite the invisibility. Trinia helped her friends with a Displacement spell and her bardic song. Hipazia wounded the Ashmede Devil with a Lightning Bolt, then another Disintegrate, which only did slight damage.
The Ashmede Devil inflicted a few wounds on Hipazia and Zeeva, but growled in frustration at their magical defences. She cast a Horrid Wilting spell that brought Trinia's doom: the poor little bard died at her friends' feet, on that bridge high above Scarwall...
Knowing that they could not defeat the Ashmede Devil, the two women finally found the way to flee: Zeeva cast a Flame Strike on the Wall of Ice that had blocked their escape route all along, melting it into a great cloud of fog. The two women dashed through the opening and back into the room where they had fought the Barbed Devils, and Hipazia quickly barred the way behind them with a Wall of Force. They had escaped with their lives, for now... but the rest of the Harrowed Company was dead or at the mercy of their enemies...
Facing this mysteriously invulnerable enemy, the group decided to flee back to a previous room, but were pursued by Mithrodar. With some difficulty, they were able to kill him again, even though he kept disappearing and regenerating his spectral wounds. Returning to the throne room, the Harrowed Company destroyed the smaller throne near which the evil presence was manifesting. Alas, despite this, Mithrodar reappeared yet again, and the group decided this time to flee even further. Only then did they seem to go beyond Mithrodar’s reach.
Kindrasius remembered an old tale about something called a “chained spirit”, a ghostly creature whose fate and power was linked to several chains that were attached to his body. The only way to truly lay this tormented soul to rest had been to sever the chains, but these chains had some kind of metaphorical meaning. In Mithrodar’s case, the group wasn’t sure what the meaning was – but they guessed that Zellara’s poem might hold some clues about this.
Downstairs, the group returned to Alimae’s room and observed that the Halfling was gone. This seemed to confirm their suspicions that she had been the hag all along. As they had gotten badly drained of energy since they had entered the castle, they decided to leave the forsaken fortress and to teleport back to Janderhoff for some rest. Indeed, sleeping in the haunted castle did not appeal to them.
(OOC: The group rises to level 12!)
Fireday, Arodus 25th, 4708
The group rested for one day in the dwarven city. Zeeva had the time to heal everyone of their attribute drains, and Hipazia identified a few mystery items whose properties weren’t known yet. Zeeva inherited Mandraivus’s silvery armor. The group also bought a wand of Lesser Restoration, since the denizens of Scarwall seemed to threaten every aspect of their abilities.
During the day, Manius was contacted to Laori, who enquired about his progress in Scarwall. He playfully teased her about coming to join him, but in truth, neither he nor anyone else in the group wanted anything to do with the priests of Zon-Kuthon.
Laori and Shadowcount Sial:
I really like Shadowcount Sial and Laori. They are very interesting characters, and I think that with the right group, they can bring a lot of fun interactions into a Curse of the Crimson Throne Campaign.
However, I've decided to not use them further in my own campaign.
My players dislike having NPC's tag along with their group even in the best of circumstances, and since these NPC's are very clearly evil, my players are, of course, even more reticent than usual. They suspect, correctly, that the priests of Zon-Kuthon mean to betray them later on. I'm fairly certain that if I have them show up in Scarwall, the PC's will simply attack them, kill and/or capture them, and take their loot.
It seems to me that Sial and Laori's goal of making a temporary alliance with the PC's to help them get a weapon that is SUPER dangerous against followers of Zon-Kuthon (so, indirectly, the Queen, but also themselves) leaves to be desired. It's way too dangerous. They know the PC's are already much more powerful than them, even before getting that uber sword. It's only going to get worse after they get it.
So, basically, the priests of Zon-Kuthon are planning on making a temporary alliance with the PC's, planning on betraying them after Ileosa is dead.
And the PC's are, at best, planning on making a temporary alliance with the priests of Zon-Kuthon, planning on betraying them after they get Serithial.
The problem, from Sial and Laori's point of view, is that the PC's betrayal will come much sooner than their own… If we follow a logical sequence of events. So their plan seems to me like a really, really long shot.
So, for my campaign, I've decided that Sial and Laori are more realistic: they know the PC's are more powerful than them, they know they don't trust them, so they've decided to wait until after the PC's destroy Ileosa, to then steal the fangs when the PC's least expect it, some time after the end of the campaign, when their guard is down and they're perhaps not all together.
Starday, Arodus 26th, 4708
High in tower cold
Upon their return to Scarwall, the party found that not much had changed. They once again entered through the front door and resumed their exploration of the first and second floors of the southern section of the fortress. They didn’t find anything interesting besides a few skeletons and zombies. Based on Zellara’s poem, they guessed that one point of interest must be at the summit of one of the keep’s three highest towers. After arguing briefly, they decided to explore the one above the section they were currently in.
They reached the keep’s third floor and found themselves in a hallway with many doors. Hearing the sound of voices behind a door, the group soon found itself in battle against two hideous green-skinned devils who were covered in long, sharp barbs. These barbed devils were able to inflict some wounds on Manius and Kaeso, as well as to sicken some members of the group with an Unholy Blight spell, but overall they perished rather quickly.
Exploring further, the companions entered a room that was filled with alchemical ingredients and fetishes seemingly belonging to a witch. They found a small halfling woman named Alimae kept captive in this room. She said that she had been captured by a great black dragon a few days before, taken from the city where she lived and brought to this scary castle, where she had become the prisoner of a foul hag. She now said that the hag was likely upstairs, using a mysterious magic crystal, and that the heroes should go and fight her.
Manius detected no chaos or lies from the Halfling, but Kindrasius, Trinia and Kaeso thought she was lying. They feared that she was in fact the hag who had changed shape and was trying to trick them. Searching the room, they found four jars plugged with red wax which contained the writhing, worm-like souls of evil creatures. Trinia and Hipazia explained that these were soul jars, containers made by Night Hags, and who could be sold for a lot of money to evil spellcasters. The group wasn’t inclined to trade in souls, but decided to take the soul jars with them to prevent the hag from using or selling them. The group decided to leave Alimae behind for now, worried that she would try to trick them, and Trinia left an Alarm spell on the door leading out of the room.
Upstairs, the group explored a number of abandoned rooms. Then, they entered an ancient banquet hall where they fought several wraiths, which had likely once been high-ranking underlings of Kazavon’s. Zeeva was lightly wounded, but otherwise the battle was easily won. During the struggle, Trinia felt her Alarm spell go off. While Kindrasius used a Ghost Sound spell to pretend that the battle was still ongoing, Kaeso received an Invisibility spell and returned downstairs to investigate, but he found the door still closed, and couldn’t see who had triggered the alarm.
Farther on the second floor, the group entered a large throne room where they faced a spectral minion who claimed to be Mithrodar, Scarwall’s castellan. After a brief exchange in which Kindrasius announced that the group had come to recover Serithtial and in which Mithrodar assured them that they would perish and that their souls would languish here for eternity, a battle erupted. Five spectres soon joined Mithrodar, from whose body were dangled four long chains. Mithrodar moved very quickly, and seemed to periodically return to his original position: on a wooden seat located near what must once have been Kazavon’s throne. He was also healing from his wounds when he reappeared like this.
Hipazia cast a Haste spell on the group and Manius drank a potion of Enlarge Person. Mithrodar struck with his long chains, but most of the time, the heroes were able to dodge the blows, or absorb them with their armors. Manius and Kaeso suffered slightly from Mithrodar’s blows, as they seem to drain part of their soul. To help Manius, who soon found himself surrounded by the pack of spectral servants, Zeeva called upon the power of Pharasma to shield the group with an aura that would protect them against energy drain.
Manius boldly cleaved all around him with his huge flail, badly wounding all the spectres, and Kindrasius finished them off with a hail of arrow from his holy undead-slaying bow. Hipazia then noticed an invisible enemy approaching behind them, as she had a See Invisible spell active. This enemy was a hideous hag whose green skin was covered with foul warts. Hipazia tried to destroy her with a Disintegrate spell, but the hag’s magical resistance protected her. The hag fired Magic Missiles at Kindrasius, who retaliated with his powerful arrows. Staggering back from the impact of the arrows, the hag was utterly destroyed when Hipazia cast a second Disintegrate spell, which finally got past her magical barriers.
The group then focused their attacks against Mithrodar, who was finally destroyed now that he was the only remaining enemy. Once the fight was over, the group took the time to catch their breath and search the room. They found a precious gem on the hag’s corpse, but before they could do more than that, they were surprised to hear a sardonic laughter coming from near the throne.
Mithrodar had reappeared, seemingly fully healed. It seemed that he would be a more difficult foe to defeat than initially expected…
Examining the emblems on the armors of Mandraivus and the dead soldiers, Kindrasius realized that they in fact belonged to the nation of Lastwall and not Tamrivena as he had initially thought. The group followed the bloody trail that Manius had seen earlier; it led them to old dusty barracks, where the group slaughtered a zombie that was feebly crawling in the middle of the room. Trinia asked Zeeva if she could use a spell to communicate with it, but the cleric explained that her magic did not work on corpses that had been transformed into undead.
Exploring further in the barracks, the group ran into an odd pair of black-leather-clad ghosts that seemed to be trying to communicate with them through gestures. One of the two was halfling-sized and had a wooden leg; the other was very tall, with long arms that went down to his knees. Both wore leather masks that were stitched shut, and seemed to be unable to communicate verbally. The group unsuccessfully tried to understand their strange pantomime. Kindrasius sent his Unseen Servant to interact with them, but nothing conclusive happened. Manius then approached the strange pair, but when they tried to touch him with their ghostly hands, it seemed suspiciously like attacks to him, and he retaliated with violence. He destroyed the taller of the two, and Kindrasius killed the halfling-sized one with holy arrows.
Unfortunately, it’s only after this brief battle that the group realized that the ghosts’ strange gestures had seriously affected the mind of some of its members. Hipazia, Kaeso and especially Manius felt dizzy and drained of some of their mental faculties. Manius was muttering creepily to himself, and even through the telepathic link he shared with some of the others.
The Harrowed Company decided to press on regardless. They explored several more abandoned rooms, barracks and storage rooms, where they fought a few animated skeletons, but nothing too dangerous for adventurers of their caliber. Eventually, they reached an ancient kitchen where the enormous ovens were strangely still warm… The group recognized the signs of a haunt building up, but they were able to destroy it with positive energy before it fully manifested. Once that was done, they were attacked by two large ash-formed humanoid creatures that came out of the walls, but dispatched them with relative ease.
Manius searched the ovens and found some charred human remains within. Kindrasius found a few half-melted items of some value in a cupboard, as well as a magical ring that nobody was able to identify. Beyond the great kitchen, the group entered a wide hallway whose murder holes showed the courtyard that Hipazia had spied on earlier through clairvoyance. Within were five more of the undead minotaurs. The group was able to destroy them all, but Kaeso was badly wounded by their axes. Zeeva expended some of her healing energy to bring the young rogue back to full health.
The companions carefully approached the entrance of Scarwall, with Kindrasius sending an Unseen Servant, clad in a filthy orc cloak and carrying a torch, ahead as a decoy. The portcullis was raised, but the heavy wooden door had closed behind the skeleton squadron. Kaeso was able to get it open using his skill at disarming devices.
Beyond Scarwall’s main door was a tunnel lined on both sides with murder holes. More such holes opened in the ceiling, surely to drop some sort of nasty substance on the citadel’s attackers. Throughout the hallway were the skeletal remains of a number of orcs. The companions prudently remained behind while the unseen servant ventured into the corridor, and promptly got shot by several large crossbow bolts from either side.
After a brief discussion, the group decided to bash their way through a side wall toward one of the side-rooms from which crossbows were fired. However, Manius soon realized that the wall was very thick, and likely a load-bearing element of the fortress. There would be no getting in that way. Instead, he decided to drink a potion of Gaseous Form, and he discreetly made his way into the leftmost room. There, he materialized and fought two skeletal minotaurs armed with greataxes and crossbows. The fight was short and simple: Manius defeated them without taking a single wound. His defenses had been bolstered previously by Trinia’s casting of a Displacement spell.
The hellknight went up a flight of stairs and found himself in a large room that was housing the mechanism that allowed one to lift and lower the two portcullis defending the entrance to Scarwall. He fought four more of the skeletal minotaurs there, again without taking a single wound. Manius was quite disappointed to discover that he faced such unworthy foes. After activating the winch to raise the portcullis and let the rest of the group in, he went down another flight of stairs and eliminated two more undead minotaurs. He then gave the signal, via a Telepathic Bond with Hipazia, Kaeso and Kindrasius, that the way was clear.
Manius then looked for a way to rejoin his companions. He went down a different set of stairs and found a hallway with more murder holes that opened into a room that he observed with the Darkvision power of his Red Mantis helm. A foul stench emanated from the room, which was littered with a large number of corpses of both orcs and humans, who had seemingly died fighting each other. Strangely, the carcasses were not centuries old as one might expect, but rather, seemed to have died mere weeks ago… Strange… Retracing his steps to look for another way to join the rest of the group, Manius heard some eerie footsteps, as if a heavy armor-clad being was walking behind a door. He ignored it and found another corridor where a bloody corpse had seemingly been dragged away.
Meanwhile, Kaeso unbarred the second door and led the way into the horrible carnage room that Manius had witnessed earlier. Kindrasius recognized that the emblems on the human corpses were those of Tamrivena, the part of Ustalav that was now known as Canterwall. It had once been ruled by Count Andachi, the unfortunate who had first been served by Kazavon, only to be betrayed and murdered by him later on. Now, one wondered if these soldiers had later been under the service of Mandraivus, and had perished against an onslaught of orcs…
Kaeso interrupted the discussion the rest of the group had about the nature of the surprisingly well-preserved bodies: he had detected, with the Deathwatch ability of his Red Mantis mask, that a large pile of bodies in the northwest corner was in fact alive… The hideous mass of human and orc corpses began shambling forth toward the group, babbling from its many mouths in the orc and Varisian languages, dragging its bulk using a mix of human and orc appendages. It screamed then with its multiple voices, a terrible shriek that seemed to rend the heroes’ very bodies. Twice it was able to scream in this way before Hipazia, Kaeso and Kindrasius destroyed it. So terrible had been the pain caused by its screams that Trinia fell to the ground, unconscious, and only saved from death at the last moment by Zeeva.
While Zeeva healed the group, Manius finally found the way to join them again, unbarring the door that led to the next room. There, the group found more corpses, including that of a man clad in full plate armor, who had seemingly made a heroic last stand against a host of orcs. Kindrasius, fearing a trick, decided to shoot arrows at it, but Trinia stopped him at the last moment; she believed she recognized the armor of Mandraivus!
Before the group investigated further, a chorus of terrible screams erupted around them, as if they were somehow plunged into the thick of the battle that had taken place here some time in the past, between orcs and humans. However, the combatants now seemed to be merely dark shapes drawn from the nightmare memories of a madman. The screams were so unnerving that they almost drove Kaeso, Manius and Trinia over the brink of madness. Only the quick actions of Zeeva, Kaeso and Trinia, channelling positive energy through spells or wands, were able to destroy the terrible haunt.
Yet before they could recover from this, the group faced yet another enemy: a ghostly form emerged from Mandraivus’s remains: at first he seemed like a noble knight, but soon he was transformed into a wicked wraith of darkness by the evil of Scarwall.
“You shall not have Serithtial!” he hissed at Manius, “She is mine and no other’s!”
Kaeso and Manius then attacked the spirit with their weapons, and Kindrasius shot it with his longbow, which was especially deadly against undead creatures. Bolstered by Trinia’s singing, they were able to slay the revenant before it could cause any serious damage. They had survived its presence for now – but had they sent the legendary hero Mandraivus to eternal rest at last? Probably not…
After restoring part of their lost sanity with healing spells and potions, the group reverently took Mandraivus’s ancient armor and bones and placed them within Kaeso’s portable hole. None of them were able to identity the property of this mysterious armor that radiated a faint aura of transmutation.
The group ended up staying one week in Janderhoff, selling their new-found treasures and getting their equipment improved by dwarven smiths, mages and priests. The group’s most expensive purchase was a Portable Hole, for which everyone chipped in. During the week, Hipazia sensed that she or some of her companions were being scryed on several times. One time, she was able to catch a glimpse of the originator: it was, thankfully, only Bishop Keppira D’Bear of the church of Pharasma. Twice, she was able to dispel the sensor, but the fourth time, the observer was able to scry on Kindrasius despite Hipazia’s best efforts.
During the week, Manius received a Sending from Laori, who asked him where he was and told him the Bone Tower was cold and lonely without him. Manius just responded with a sexy message of his own, but didn’t reveal anything. Hipazia was also contacted by Shadowcount Sial, but the tone of their communication was much more serious: the priest asked Hipazia what the group was up to, and she responded that while their goals seemed aligned at the moment, she feared that they would inevitably come to clash in the future.
Zeeva questioned the severed head of an orc they had taken from the Scarwall barbican. She learned that the orcs placed there were “holy guardians” who prevented anyone from entering or leaving the haunted keep. They served until death. The orc said that, beside the unquiet spirits of the dead, a dragon “the size of a Bulette” lived in the castle, as well as “many flying demons”.
Oathday, Arodus 24th, 4708
Zellara’s doom
Eight days later, the group returned to Scarwall. The barbican was mostly as they had left it, except that the orc corpses were gone. Zeeva and Hipazia noticed the tracks of a great “Bulette-sized reptile” in the area, which seemed to have taken away the corpses.
Hipazia used a spell of Clairvoyance and observed a forlorn courtyard at the center of the citadel. After a brief deliberation, the group decided to enter Scarwall via the main gate instead of approaching by the lake, by air or by teleportation.
“It’s more polite that way,” stated Manius.
Wary of the sinister, gargoyle-decorated, 400-foot-long bridge that radiated necromancy to Hipazia’s scrutiny, Trinia summoned a badger and told it to run across the bridge. The animal obeyed despite its misgivings, and was able to traverse all the way to the castle gate without getting harmed.
The companions carefully followed after the animal. After about thirty seconds, an eldritch wind started blowing around Kaeso, and eerie spirits began floating around him as a surge of necromantic magic flared all around him. Zellara’s ghostly form was drawn out of the Harrow Deck the young rogue carried. Despite her struggle, she was dragged kicking and screaming by the crowd of spirits into the bridge… as if she got absorbed by the residual evil that suffused the Scarwall. The Harrowed Company tried to save her, but it was in vain: none of their weapons could affect the spectral abductors.
Feeling a sense of urgency more than ever, knowing they had to get Zellara back, the heroes pressed on. When they reached the middle of the bridge, the gates of the castle opened and a group of armored skeletons marched to oppose them and defend their domain. At the head of the group rode a skeletal knight astride a skeletal horse. He bore a long lance adorned with mummified heads. The knight began charging toward the group, but when he reached them, he was quickly destroyed by Manius and Zeeva. Kindrasius killed the horse with similar ease with his holy undead-bane bow, while Hipazia obliterated the foot soldiers with a mighty Fireball bolstered by her newly-bought Rod of Empower.
The bold adventurers diligently looted the corpses of the long-dead warriors before pressing on toward the now-gaping entrance of castle Scarwall.
C'est une bonne idee. Quand on avait joue cette aventure, on avait retrouve les prisonniers dans les cavernes des hommes-lezards. Ils etaient en beaucoup plus piteux etats que dans ton aventure. Je sais pas si c'est mon MD qui est sadique, ou si c'est comme ca dans l'aventure. :)
The following day, the adventurers prepared themselves to brave the dangers of Scarwall. They were all quite nervous, especially Trinia. Zeeva summoned a great Heroes’ Feast, and thankfully, this divine banquet steeled the heroes’ nerves against the threats that awaited them. The group decided that they would begin their exploration by the barbican, the only structure on their side of the lake. They mused that perhaps some orcs laired there, and that they could get more up-to-date information regarding Scarwall than the legends that Trinia had told them.
Indeed, they were right: a small group of orcs guarded the barbican. Ironically, Kaeso had been musing that very morning that he had never fought an orc before. The western part of the barbican had fallen completely in ruins, but the eastern gatehouse still stood, and the orcs had built a wooden annex to it. As the group approached, the orc sentinels standing atop the battlements growled some war-cries and began shooting arrows at them.
Kaeso rushed the wall and tried to climb up, but alas, the crumbling bricks kept giving way under his limbs, and he was unable to make the ascension. Meanwhile, Kindrasius affected some of the orc archers with a Confusion spell, but it only caused one of them to babble incoherently. The Shoanti than began shooting arrows, proving his superiority in ranged combat compared to the orcs. He severely wounded one and killed another. With a roar, the chief of the tribe, a hulking brute with a face smeared with white ashes, jumped down from the ramparts and attacked Kaeso. The nimble rogue dodged the attack and drank a potion to become invisible. Roaring furiously, the chief brandished his ice-covered greatsword in the air before rushing Kindrasius. The dragon-blooded archer severely wounded the brute with several arrows before being slashed by the magical ice sword. Kindrasius retreated before the raging orc, and shot several more arrows at him, thankfully killing him before suffering more attacks.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group approached from another angle. Hipazia blasted the archers on the ramparts with a Fireball while Trinia sang to bolster her allies. Manius rushed past the gatehouse and found an entrance at the back, in the wooden section. He had dodged the arrows of two orcs shooting from murder holes along the way. The interior of the wooden section was dark and smelled truly foul. Lighting a torch, Manius quickly explored the orc hovel before being attacked by the two guardians of the gatehouse: two more brutish orcs that brandished sharp two-handed axes. A brief and violent battle followed: Manius sustained a few nasty wounds, but killed both orcs. Those creatures were tough and did not die easily: clearly, they weren’t regular run-of-the-mill orcs.
Manius cursed when darkness once again formed around him: his second victim had fallen on the torch he had discarded on the floor to wield his two-handed flail. Fumbling in the dark, he lit a second torch just before realizing he could’ve used the magic of his Red Mantis helmet to see in the dark in the first place.
During this time, outside, Zeeva had cast an Air Walk spell and ascended to the top section of the battlements, where she fought one of the orcs. She suffered several wounds, but was able to skewer the fiend to death with her longspear.
Hipazia had used her own magic to transport herself, Kaeso, Trinia and Kindrasius to another section of the ramparts. After passing through a room decorated with a huge stuffed snake, the group found the last two orcs, who were about to go down to the ground floor via a ladder. The conclusion of the battle took place there. Kindrasius got badly wounded by an axe, but both orcs were slain rather quickly.
The group took the time to search the place and found several magical items on the orcs. They found no secret doors, despite using magic to bolster their search. Zeeva used her powers to try and question the soul of the orc leader, but alas, he resisted the attempt.
Realizing they were now laden with a great burden of armor and weapons from recently defeated enemies, the group decided to go sell some of their precious spoils of war in Janderhoff. Hipazia teleported to the dwarven city along with Kindrasius, Trinia and Zeeva. In the mean time, Kaeso and Manius stayed behind in the cavern with the two horses.
=========================
SKELETONS OF SCARWALL
=========================
Toilday, Arodus 15th, 4708
A journey through shadow
Kindrasius and Manius had stayed up late into the night and discussed the meaning of Zellara’s poem and her Harrowing. The following morning, Kindrasius discreetly visited Thousand Bones to wish him good-bye and to buy some potions of Lesser Restoration. He then returned to the group’s tent, where they got ready to leave the Kallow Mounds in secrecy using an Elixir of Shadewalking they had found on Cinnabar, a potent potion that would enable them to hasten the journey to Scarwall by traveling through the Shadow Plane. They also brought two horses with them: Manius’s great black warhorse “Cocotte” and Kindrasius’s mount as well. The elixir didn’t have the power to enable them to bring any more targets than that.
The Shadow Plane was a sinister world where everything was black and white, the edges of shapes were blurry and dark things wiggled in the dark. It was like a parody of the world of Golarion. Everything was more menacing, and yet less than its counterpart in the real world. Hipazia explained that distances were lesser in this place, which would enable them to cover the 320-mile journey in a single day instead of over two weeks, as it would have taken them using conventional methods of travel.
Using her great knowledge of geography and of the other planes, the young wizardess led the group reliably in the right direction, also allowing them to avoid any serious danger that would be posed by the Shadow Plane’s denizens. It was evening when the effects of the potion finally wore off, not long after the group reached its destination: Scarwall!
The fortress was a sinister place that was obviously haunted and forsaken. It stood on a small island in the center of a dark lake. A single bridge led to the entrance of Scarwall; the citadel seemed in surprisingly good condition given its centuries-long abandonment, but the barbican that guarded the closer side of the bridge, close to which the adventurers now stood, was almost completely in ruins. The surroundings of the castle were dismal and seemed to be devoid of most life forms except carrion birds and withered dead trees.
The group was tired from its journey through the shadow world, so they located a cave hidden from sight from Scarwall, and spent the night there, keeping double watches all the while. During the third watch, Hipazia sensed that someone was scrying on Manius. Using her tremendous mastery of divination magic, she was able to reverse the scrying and catch a glimpse of its originator: it was, of course, Shadowcount Sial. The white-haired priest’s eyes widened briefly in surprise, and then he aborted the connection with a scowl. He now knew that the Harrowed Company had no intention of cooperating with him.
Very nice. In my campaign, I ended up downplaying the "Shoanti are going to war" element, since I was worried that it would alienate my players. There was already enough animosity with Krojun. I am relieved they didn't do anything rash, like attacking him (or using Dominate Person). :)
Sorry, I must confess that I haven't read your Age of Worms updates in the past few weeks. :(
But I am planning to get to them eventually. ;)
Some things I changed in "A History of Ashes":
- Only one Boneslayer from the Skoan-Quah accompanied the group, since it's already a 6-person group, and my players don't really like having NPCs tagging along on their adventures.
- I foreshadowed Shadowcount Sial in earlier adventures, to try to make his appearance less "random".
- I replaced the Temple of the Moon encounter with parts of the adventure "Curse of the Riven Sky", for the following reasons:
a) I found these encounters more interesting.
b) They made a link to the Rise of the Runelords campaign, which Kindrasius's player (who was my player in RotRL) appreciated.
c) It gave a bit more experience and treasure to the PC's, which is the 4th adventure is lacking.
- I changed Cindermaw's tactics to make him less annoying to fight: he tried to swallow them almost right away. Otherwise, I was worried that the encounter would have been too confusing.
- I changed the final encounter to take place in the Skoan-Quah camp instead of the Sklar-Quah camp for these reasons:
a) I like the Skoan-Quah better and wanted to bring them back in the story.
b) On the part of the Red Mantis, attacking the Sklar-Quah camp seemed like SUCH a bad tactical move... That I couldn't justify it. So I decided that, feeling they couldn't deal with the PC's directly, they decided to get rid of the Skoan-Quah in the PC's absence, to prevent them from speaking to the ancestors (in my game, the Sun Shaman can't talk to the ancestors by himself, he needs the Skoan-Quah to make a bridge to teh spirit world. To me, it seems that speaking with the spirits is really the Skoan-Quah's "thing", and I feel the adventure as written kind of robbed them of that). But they miscalculated (mostly due to Hipazia's uncanny ability to f*** up Cinnabar's scrying attempts) and attacked too late, so the PC's were able to defend the village.
At the start of the adventure, I was worried that my players would complain strongly about the Shoanti chained quests, but I was pleasantly surprised: they were really good sports and did them *almost* without complaining.
As for Skeletons of Scarwall, I also really like this adventure. Unfortunately, though, I think it will face the following challenges for our group:
- The players tend to be kind of jaded, so I'm pretty sure we will totally NOT have the "sinister, scary atmosphere" that would be best suited for this adventure around the table, no matter how much effort I put into it.
- It's quite combat-intensive, so I am worried that Kindrasius's player, might get bored by so many fights.
- The players (as I feared from the very start of the campaign, yet was unable to avoid despite my best efforts) decided to completely ditch the Zon-Kuthon priests (no matter how friendly and cooperative I made them), so now I'm struggling to see how to bring them back into the story as something more interesting and meaningful than a "speedbump" encounter in the middle of the 5th adventure where the PC's will run into them in the middle of Scarwall and just go "Oh no, not those guys... let's kill them!" Because the thing with my players is that they dislike having NPC's tagging along with them even in the best conditions, but when those NPC's are *evil* and worship the god of their new arch-nemesis, then it's completely out of the question (which I can't really disagree with - they are right not to trust them - but it's just that it would make the adventure so much more fun if they did).
Height: 6’4”. Weight: 160 lbs, Age: 24, Hair: Black, Eyes: Green.
This tall and thin man has long black hair and is dressed in dark, patched-up studded leather armor. He wears a black tricorn hat and a black cloak with a hood.
Main equipment: Holy longbow +1 [+2 str], Mithral chainshirt +2, Masterwork earthbreaker, Flask of curses, Bag of Holding Type 1, Cloak of resistance +1, Ring of protection +2, Headband of charisma +2, Belt of dexterity/constitution +2.
Skills: Acrobatics 16, Appraise 6, Bluff 18, Climb 5, Diplomacy 15, Disable Device 22, Disguise 11, Escape Artist 11, Intimidate 18, Knowledge: Dungeoneering 6, Knowledge: Local 6, Perception: 14, Perform: Dance 9, Sense Motive 13, Sleight of Hand 17, Stealth 19, Swim 5, Use Magical Device 18.
Languages: Common, Shoanti, Varisian, Sylvan.
Main equipment: Mithral chain shirt +4, Rapier +1, Composite shortbow +1 (+1 str), Ring of protection +1, Cloak of resistance +2, Kukri +1, Red mantis mask, Belt of dexterity/constitution +2, Headband of charisma +2.
Main equipment: Quarterstaff (bonded item), Spellbook, Cloak of resistance +1, Bracers of armor +2, Ring of protection +1, Pearl of power (level 1), Belt of dexterity +2, Headband of intellect +2 (Knowledge: Dungeoneering), Amulet of natural armor +1.
Main equipment: Hellknight armor +3, Heavy Flail +1, Ring of Feather Falling, Amulet of natural armor +1, Cloak of resistance +2, Ring of protection +1, Boots of striding and springing, Red Mantis helm, Belt of strength +2.
Height: 5’6”. Weight: 130 lbs, Age: 25, Hair: Black, Eyes: Brown, Date of birth: Abadius 25th, 4683.
This attractive woman has pale skin and long jet-black hair. It is clear that she is of noble birth from the elegance of her gestures and speech. It is also obvious that she lived some traumatic events in her past, judging by the haunted look that often comes over her sad, dark eyes.
Feats: Selective Channeling, Extra Channeling, Power Attack, Weapon focus (longspear), Toughness, Scribe Scroll, Dodge.
Traits: Love Lost (orphaned), Rich Parents.
Main equipment: Breastplate +1, Longspear +1, Light Crossbow, Headband of wisdom +2, Cloak of resistance +3, Handy haversack, Belt of constitution +4, Ring of protection +2.
Here are the results of the Harrow Reading that Zellara did for the characters.
The Chosen:
- Kindrasius: The Queen Mother. (A strange female monster made partly of gray skin and partly of metal; her right arm ends in a sharp scythe blade).
- Kaeso: The Carnival. (A crowd of couples dancing happily together at a fancy ball, but at the center of this celebration stands Death itself…)
- Hipazia: The Lost. (A worm of monstrous proportions with spikes coming out of its foul flesh and a strangely human face)
- Manius: The Winged Serpent. (A great black-scaled dragon).
- Zeeva: The Publican. (A skeleton clad in armor and whose skull is wreathed in flames)
Kindrasius
Past: The Wanderer, the Rabbit Prince and the Marriage.
Present: The Trumpet, the Joke and the Dance.
Future: The Twin, the Empty Throne and the Juggler.
Zellara’s interpretation:
“For your present, the Trumpet and the Dance are in opposition. One represents your courage, and your desire to solve all the world’s problems by yourself, but the Dance indicates that everyone and everything has its place… And that sometimes you can’t do everything by yourself. You might receive help from people you wouldn’t expect.”
“In your future, I see some trickery... Your plans will face a setback as you make your move against someone who is not who you think it is.”
------------
Manius
Past: The Mute Hag, the Midwife and the Desert.
Present: The Liar, the Winged Serpent and the Demon Lantern.
Future: The Hidden Truth, the Tyrant and the Inquisitor.
Zellara’s interpretation:
“The Winged Serpent comes again in your reading: you are destined to fight this deadly black dragon, although the cards indicate that its powers might not be those that you could expect…”
“The Hidden Truth: you will make a tremendous discovery in Scarwall… I am sure this card indicates Serithtial itself. Hmm… I also see the Tyrant, Kazavon himself, in your future, and an “Inquisitor” opposing your goals… Could this be one of the Hellknights?”
------------
Kaeso
Past: The Hidden Truth, the Joke and the Foreign Trader.
Present: The Teamster, the Mountain Man and the Rakshasa.
Future: The Desert, the Liar and the Empty Throne.
Zellara’s interpretation:
“In your reading, I see a difficult obstacle… Surely Scarwall… And within it, there is an entity that controls others… That keeps them as slaves. Their servitude is what gives it power. As long as they are its slaves, it cannot be defeated.”
“Your future is clearly outlined here: the desert represents a difficult journey through a dangerous place: reaching Scarwall in the orc-infested Hold of Belkzen, and the Empty Throne represents the restless dead who will oppose you… Hmm… To be clearer, you should be very careful when you are in a place that was once a throne, or a place of power within Scarwall. You will be especially in danger there.”
------------
Hipazia
Past: The Keep, the Tyrant and the Fiend.
Present: The Avalanche, the Lost and the Wanderer.
Future: The Carnival, the Big Sky and the Tangled Briar.
Zellara’s interpretation:
“Scarwall’s past is strongly present in your reading: the Keep represents Scarwall itself, and how it was taken from the grasp of Kazavon – the Tyrant. Yet the Fiend is the truly strong card in this placement: it is a True Match, and we should be reminded that Kazavon was NOT truly slain...
“The rest of your reading revolves around this “Lost” card that you picked for as your chosen card. This hideous monster, wracked in pain, who lives alone in the darkness. He was cursed for his misdeeds.”
“In your future, I see this strange dance that Kaeso also glimpsed as his chosen card. Be very careful not to let yourself become enthralled, entangled, by the seductive music, otherwise you will become a pawn of death, just like the other dancers.”
------------
Zeeva
Past: The Desert, the Empty Throne and the Fiend.
Present: The Joke, the Twin and the Juggler.
Future: The Dance, the Unicorn and the Vision.
Zellara’s interpretation:
“In your reading reading, the menace of Kazavon, who was never truly slain, looms like a shadow despite his defeat, his “empty throne”.”
“I sense another group on a similar quest such as yours… Hmm… Perhaps the Priests of Zon-Kuthon. I sense an obstacle ahead in your quest that will not be surmountable without their help. Yet I also see that among them there is one who relies too much on his ability to manipulate the future, and that he will come to regret it at some point.”
“The card of the Dance indicates that we will need to part company in the future, though its placement in your reading hints that we will meet again.”
It was very late in the night when the companions approached their tent, but Hipazia, Trinia and the worshippers of Zon-Kuthon had been waiting for them. The oath that the group had given the Sklar-Quah stipulated that they were forbidden from speaking of what the Sun Shaman had told them to those not of the tribe. Kaeso and Kindrasius remained very evasive when questioned by Shadowcount Sial about the ritual: they merely said that the queen possessed a powerful artifact that required another artifact to destroy it. They said weren’t sure what it was or where to find it: they would sleep on it and consult Pharasma the following day.
Shadowcount Sial fixed them with unblinking dark eyes… had he believed their lie?
Later, all six members of the Harrowed Company regrouped in their tent, where Zellara reappeared and did another Harrow reading specifically for Hipazia. Once she was gone, and before getting ready to sleep, the group had Hipazia cast a Telepathic Bond on herself, Trinia, Kindrasius and Manius. Then, the two men brought the two women up to speed via telepathy. This way of proceeding soothed Manius’s sense of honor: “Technically, we’re not cheating,” he pointed out. “We’re not actually speaking.”
Trinia proved her worth as a master bard by giving more information to the rest of the group: she knew that Kazavon had been a chosen of Zon-Kuthon, in addition to being a warlord and a gigantic blue dragon. She gazed uneasily at Kindrasius, suspicious of his link to the dreaded monster of legend…
She also informed the group that Kazavon had first appeared as a mercenary captain in service of a young nobleman called Count Andachi of Tamrivena, from the land of Ustalav, around seven hundred years ago. For centuries, the county of Tamrivena had been assaulted by orcs coming from the Hold of Belkzen to the west, but the territory had always been heroically defended by its powerful orders of knights, and the valiant counts leading them.
Unfortunately, young Count Andachi possessed none of the courage or battle prowess of his ancestors. Unable to fight off the orcs by his own means, he had struck a bargain with Zon-Kuthon for the protection of his lands. The mighty Kazavon had appeared not long after, seemingly as a coincidence, but it would later be revealed that he had in fact been an envoy of the Midnight Lord.
For some time, Kazavon served Count Andachi well: he slaughtered countless orcs, and drove them back far into the Hold of Belkzen, where he established his own impregnable fortress of Scarwall. Alas, some time later, he turned against Andachi, murdering him, as well as countless soldiers and knights of valor, undoing all the good he had done by destroying the orcs. Kazavon had ruled for many years, threatening the lands all around, repelling the attacks of human and orc armies alike. He ruled with an iron fist and committed horrible tortures on his captured enemies. It was only by the courage, skill and prowess of Mandraivus, the hero of Lastwall, and a gathered band of heroes, that the despot had finally been slain.
Kindrasius decided that the following day, they would use the Elixir of Shadewalking they had found on Cinnabar to travel to Scarwall in secret: he did not wish for Shadowcount Sial to accompany them and put their mission in jeopardy. He suspected that the priest had goals that were in conflict with the group’s.
That night, the ceremony to speak with the ancestor of the Sun Shaman, which was the goal of the group’s entire series of trials in the Cinderlands, finally look place. Thousand Bones, Ash Dancer, the Sun Shaman, Krojun and the four new members of the Sklar-Quah (Kaeso, Zeeva, Manius and Kindrasius) went together to where the Sklar-Quah ancestors’ remains were being kept. None other was allowed to come, including Hipazia, Trinia and the followers of Zon-Kuthon.
It was a fairly complex ritual that involved sitting around a fire, decorating one’s body with ritualistic paint, smoking holy herbs, chanting, humming and holding hands. Although it was very unusual for the ex-tshamek adventurers, the herbs soothed their senses and opened their minds. After some time, they became aware of translucent spirits appearing all around them. Most of them were strangers, seemingly of Shoanti origins, but a few of them could be recognized as the adventurers’ loved ones who had passed away: Miss Edelbark, Kindrasius’s foster mother/lover; Manius’s mother; Zeeva’s parents and her brother Aldern (barely recognizable as a horrific undead monster).
Kaeso was also sad to see his father, who had mysteriously disappeared during his childhood. A body had been found after he had stolen an extremely valuable necklace from the Fordyce family one evening, but young Kaeso had always clung to the hope that it had been a mere decoy planted by his father to elude pursuit. Now, alas, he had confirmation that his father was no more. The spirit approached Kaeso, started a gesture to place his hand on his shoulder, then thought better of it, as he was now incorporeal.
“Son,” he said in a voice from beyond the grave, “you’re now a grown man. Not bad with the blade, either, from what I’ve heard. Listen, my boy. You’ve got to avenge me… from the b~~&% who backstabbed me.”
Kaeso felt a lump in his throat, but was able to ask: “The Countess?”
“Yes… I’ve heard that nowadays she goes by the name Vimanda… Find her for me, Kaeso… Kill her… and get back the necklace! It should be yours, now…”
Vimanda… That horrible woman again… the one who kidnapped little children and who had tortured Kaeso and Kindrasius below Arkona Manor…
Another familiar spirit came to join the companions: Zellara. Unlike the others, who finally faded back into the spirit world, Zellara remained and even sat down, cross-legged, among the group. Thousand Bones and Ash Dancer noticed, with some surprise, that this spirit had an unusually strong tie to the real world.
“Yeah, she’s an old friend of ours,” said Kaeso.
For some time, the Sun Shaman spoke with one of his ancestors, a gaunt old man. He then related what he had heard to the Harrowed Company. Several hundred years ago, long before the coming of the Chelaxians in Varisia, his ancestor had been contacted by a powerful hero from a land to the east, a man named Mandraivus. This knight was gathering a group of powerful and pure-hearted individual from various places in Golarion to oppose a monstrous tyrant named Kazavon, who ruled from his sinister fortress of Scarwall in the lands between Varisia and Ustalav, to the east.
The Sun Shaman’s ancestor agreed to help Mandraivus; along with other heroes, they were able to infiltrate Scarwall and, after an epic battle that cost the lives of many of them, defeated Kazavon, who turned out in fact to be an extremely powerful blue dragon. So mighty was this monster that he was nearly immune to all forms of attack, except Mandraivus’s sword, Serithtial, a blade forged by Iomedae, the goddess of justice.
And yet, even once he was slain by Serithtial, Kazavon’s body kept trying to come back to life. The only way the heroes were able to prevent his resurrection was to separate seven key parts of its body: Mandraivus asked seven of his remaining companions to each take one of the seven body parts and bring it, in utmost secrecy, to a safe place where it would be watched over, hopefully forever. None of the seven were to tell the others where they were going, not even to Mandraivus himself.
The Sun Shaman’s ancestor was task to handle Kazavon’s fangs, which he brought back to a holy site that was in fact the pyramid atop of which Castle Korvosa now stood. For many years, the wise old shaman watched over the dark relic, only informing his son and his most trusted disciples of the evil that he had placed within a secret chamber under the pyramid. Then, for several generations, the wise and powerful shamans of the following generations watched over this artifact of great evil. But alas, as everyone knew, three hundred years ago, the armies of Cheliax had driven them away, leaving no-one to watch over the “Midnight Fangs”, nor to even remember their existence or their location.
This story rang true to the characters: when he heard about Kazavon, this terribly evil blue dragon, Kindrasius somehow knew he had a link to him. It was his voice he had heard in his head among the numerous other voices during his years of insanity: the most terrible voice of them all… And he was sure that it was Kazavon’s spirit that had also tormented Salvator through nightmares, and had inspired him to draw those dreadful paintings, especially that one of the man standing before a field of impaled victims, removing the skin of his hands and revealing blue scales beneath.
Kazavon…
The essence of the monstrous dragon had touched the souls of Kindrasius, Salvator and seemingly those other artists who had committed suicide, and whose skulls Laori Vaus had collected during her stay in Korvosa…
And now, it seemed that a fragment of Kazavon’s soul actually lived within Ileosa, who surely had somehow found the Midnight Fangs below her husband’s castle… And had obtained this source of immense power…
The Sun Shaman nodded wisely when the adventurers mentioned this possibility. Ileosa’s survival of Commandant Endrin’s attack: how fast she had regenerated from receiving an arrow through the neck, totally resembled the tales regarding Kazavon’s near-invulnerability. What’s more, he mused that someone with two souls would become extremely powerful. While the shamans of old had been strong enough to resist the influence of the Midnight Fangs, the weak mind of a petty young queen had likely not had the same defences… and now, her mean and vain mind had likely been corrupted into a form of evil a thousand times fouler. With Kazavon’s powers at her disposal, there was no stopping her…
… except perhaps for the one thing that had once, long ago, laid Kazavon low: Serithtial.
As far as the Sun Shaman knew, when his ancestor had left Scarwall along with the six others who carried the six other parts of Kazavon’s body, Mandraivus had remained behind with a handful of warriors to hold the citadel. But legend said that one of the many hordes of orcs who lived in this dreadful land called the Hold of Belkzen had attacked Scarwall not long afterwards… Although most of these orcs had seemingly perished, Mandraivus and his men had never been heard from again, either. And Scarwall had been a haunted, cursed and avoided place since then. None of those who had entered it in the centuries since Kazavon’s fall had returned…
The way forward seemed dangerous, but clear to the Harrowed Company: they would travel to Scarwall and try to claim Serithtial, which seemed their best hope of defeating Queen Ileosa.
Zellara informed the group that she had heard songs about the sacred blade of Mandraivus in the spirit world, even though Mandraivus’s soul itself had never traveled to Pharasma’s realm. She sang in a clear voice:
”Fate of steel—Serithtial
Her cage for years sustained
Four enthralled in lost Scarwall;
Undead to keep her chained.
A spirit first, red war his thirst
Still stands at post of old;
A second foe, infernal soul
Waits high in tower cold.
In kennel’s grime third bides his time
Then vents his killing breath.
And on a stone ’mid ash and bone,
The final dreams of death.
The spirits worn and battletorn
And locked in their damnation,
The chained one’s hold at last grows old
And ushers in salvation.
Yet hope remains amid the chains
When blade’s stone cage has crumbled,
Friends to dread and the death of the dead,
Keys to Kazavon humbled.”
Zellara then once again gave a Harrow Reading to the companions, explaining that their very souls would be in danger in sinister Scarwall. The cards marked with the star would be key to their survival.
Then, with the help of Thousand Bones and Ash Dancer who created a bridge between the Harrowed Company and the Spirit World, each of the four companions was blessed by Zellara in a way they had never been before: their weapon or armor was imbued with special powers to fight the spirits of the haunted castle.
The following day was rather grim, and consisted mostly of cleaning up the village and burying the dead Skoan-Quah. The adventurers lent whatever help they could. They noticed that Manius seemed quite joyful, despite the fact that he seemed, strangely enough, in even worse shape than the night before. Some mysterious scratches had appeared at several places on his body; perhaps they were the fingernail marks of a certain elven woman… Zeeva sighed and healed him properly.
The group questioned the Cinderlander, who became enthralled by Hipazia’s enchantment magic. They learned that he had been hired by the Red Mantis in Kaer Maga, as he was one of the best guides to the Cinderlands. He had worked with them for the past few weeks. He confirmed that Cinnabar had been in charge of them and had been scrying on the group.
His hatred for the Shoanti came from the fact that his entire village, including his family, had been slaughtered by Shoanti warriors some years ago. The members of the Harrowed Company listened with nothing but jaded sarcasm for his plight. Once his tale was finished, Hipazia cancelled her enchantment and prepared to hand him over to the Shoanti to be executed. The Cinderlander kept a brave face despite his impeding doom, and Hipazia toyed with him, mentioning that she would raise him back as an undead to prevent him from joining his loved ones in the afterlife. She was only bluffing, but she enjoyed sensing his fear through telepathy. Once she was done toying with him, she handed him over to the Skoan-Quah, who had him executed in front of the entire village.
Once that was done, Zeeva questioned the spirit of Cinnabar and learned that there were around thirty Red Mantis assassins left in Korvosa, and that their leader was called Mistress Kayltanya. She asked Cinnabar to clarify her dying words, and the assassin explained that she had been raised among the Red Mantis, but lacked the cruelty and killer instinct that her mother had hoped to see in her. Because of this, Cinnabar had been cursed since her childhood to be forced to kill at least one person every week. The horrible experience had driven all emotion from her soul, and she had become a dispassionate killer. But during all those years, she had been a prisoner of that curse, seeking only to escape. Only death had freed her.
Once again, this sad tale was met with detached cynicism on the part of the members of the Harrowed Company. Further questions informed them that Queen Ileosa had indeed become much more powerful since she had begun wearing the Crown of Fangs. Two mages of the Acadamae were among her main allies: Togomor (the new Seneschal) and Professor Karpangram. To the group’s relief, Lord Toff Ornelos, rumored to be an extremely powerful wizard, was not among the queen’s allies (at least, not to Cinnabar’s knowledge).
During the rest of the day, Zeeva and Hipazia contacted several of the group’s allies with Sending spells:
- Ziria Fordyce was doing well; her family was slowly returning to the city now that the plague was over, and she mentioned that they were on the rise under the new order.
- Hipazia’s family members were still at the Leroung estate in Harse, prudently staying out of Korvosa for now. They seemed safe for the moment.
- Blackjack and Nicklod were still part of the rebellion, along with Cressida Kroft (now stripped of her military rank and working in the shadows), Bishop Keppira D’Bear, Ishani Dhatri, Grau Soldado and Amin Jalento among others. Sadly, the beautiful golden-haired and long-legged paladin Poss had seemingly been captured by the Gray Maidens, and was most likely being indoctrinated…
During the day, Krojun approached Hipazia and courted her. The beautiful young noblewoman humored him politely, but she had no desire to interact with him in any way. She took her duty as a member of the Leroung family very seriously, and knew she was expected to marry someone from the Chelaxian nobility. Although she already had eyes on the throne of Korvosa, if she ever obtained it, she wanted a cultured and refined husband to rule at her side.
Trinia was similarly rebuffed by Kaeso. The young woman felt miserable that the handsome young man, who had a reputation for “doing it with anything that moves” had judged her un-shag-worthy… She spent the rest of the day sulking.
Kindrasius, who still harboured a hope of one day winning over Zeeva’s heart, introduced the dark priestess of Pharasma to his mother, Ash-Dancer. The old Shoanti woman seemed to respect the priestess of death, and the feeling was mutual.
Later, when questioned about their presence in the Shoanti camp, Laori explained to Kindrasius that Shadowcount Sial had powers of prescience and divination. He had somehow known that the Harrowed Company would find useful information in this place, and had brought her here to help out. However, Laori confided that she didn’t like Sial so much, as he was very secretive and kept her in the dark on several issues. She warned Kindrasius that he should not trust him too much.
Zeeva rushed to heal Manius, and stopped the blood flow just in time to prevent him from dying. He had come very close to becoming Cinnabar’s last victim. All around, Thousand Bones, Ash Dancer and a few other healers were also using the last bits of magical energy left at their disposal to heal the most wounded among the Skoan-Quah. The battle had taken a deadly toll on the tribe: around one third of its members had been slain, including Chief One-Life. The adventurers of the Harrowed Company heard this with stoic demeanours, while within their minds, they were making not-so-witty observations about the irony of the chief’s name, especially since Thousand Bones indicated that his wishes had been to remain with the spirits after death, and not to be resurrected.
The companions took some time to loot their enemies and distributed their most valuable magical items amongst themselves. They also kept a close eye on the captive Cinderlander, who was at risk of being murdered by vengeful Shoanti.
The Harrowed Company, along with Krojun, the Sun Shaman and the other warriors of the Sklar-Quah, had saved the village. Without them, the Skoan-Quah of the Kallow Mounds would likely have been slaughtered by the Red Mantis, although after giving them a very difficult opposition. Around thirty Red Mantis assassins and a similar number of gargoyles had died.
Shadowcount Sial invited the adventurers to spend the night in the Bone Tower, but only Manius accepted the offer. They took the Cinderlander with them, and secured him with chains. Laori and Sial then began preparing the man for the following day’s questioning, which meant that they basically tortured him out of spite, making sure to hurt him but to keep him alive and conscious. Manius took interest in the proceedings and could not prevent himself from testing his newest Hellknight power: with a mere touch of his finger, the unfortunate Cinderlander was wracked with terrible pain. The man was tough and endured it as well as any mortal could hope to, but he still spent a very unpleasant couple of hours. The two priests of Zon-Kuthon seemed very interested in Manius’s ability to cause pain with a mere touch.
“You swine…” panted the Cinderlander. “You are Chelaxians… why… are you helping these savages?”
But unfortunately, his question remained unanswered by anything other than more torture.
Once the entertainment was over, Laori accompanied the (still very badly wounded) Manius to his room and helped him out of his armor. She swooned over his impressive physique and his many battle-scars, which she traced with her delicate fingers. One thing led to another, and the two found themselves spending the night together, a night of passion filled with both pleasure and pain…
Meanwhile, the other members of the Harrowed Company rested carefully in a large tent that had been assigned to them, setting watches in case any Red Mantis were still in the area, but they were, thankfully, undisturbed during the entire night.
It took three days to travel from Flameford back to the Kallow Mounds, the territory of the Skoan-Quah, Kindrasius’s birth tribe. Besides the Sun Shaman himself, Krojun and three thundercallers also accompanied their new brothers and sisters of the Harrowed Company. The group approached the Kallow Mounds late on the third day, but soon became aware that something was amiss: there were cries and sounds of battle being carried by the wind coming from the Skoan-Quah village. The glow of fires revealed many humanoid shapes fighting on the ground, with a large number of flying creatures hovering over the tents, and periodically diving down to attack! Over the din of battle came two noticeable noises: the roar of Wicked-Claws the dragonne that was the defender of the village, and some eerie screams that reminded the characters of Jolistina’s screaming bolts.
“The tshamek devil!” growled Krojun as he launched his horse at a gallop toward the Kallow Mounds, soon to be followed by everyone else.
As the group approached, they saw that the warriors of the Skoan-Quah were facing a large number of Red Mantis assassins and foul gargoyles. They were fighting bravely, but they seemed about to be overwhelmed – the arrival of the adventurers and their Sklar-Quah brothers could not have been timelier! As they got closer, the heroes also recognized the familiar silhouette of Shadowcount Sial’s Bone Tower standing beyond the tents, on the other side of the village.
The Harrowed Company hurried toward the left side of the village, to come to the aid of several Skoan-Quah, while Krojun, the Sun Shaman (now in the form of a huge fire elemental) and the thundercallers went to help to the right. A Shoanti man and a Shoanti woman were fighting four gargoyles, while a familiar-looking, pale-skinned woman was kneeling next to the body of an old Shoanti woman who had collapsed to the ground. Manius and Kaeso were the first ones to come to their aid. The Hellknight rode atop his great warhorse, sowing destruction with his heavy flail, while Kaeso rushed one enemy after the other, striking deadly surprise attacks with devastating effects. Both men were empowered with the magic of Zellara’s Harrow, which made them even more dangerous than usual. As they saved the Shoanti from the gargoyles, they realized that the pale-skinned woman was none other than Laori Vaus, who was using her healing magic to keep Kindrasius’s mother (who had been badly wounded by the Red Mantis) alive.
“Hi guys!” exclaimed the elf cheerfully, as if she were unaware of the battle raging on around her.
Hipazia came to the aid of the warriors and blasted a gargoyle with Scorching Rays. Manius and Zeeva then went to the aid of a woman who was trying to defend her children against another foursome of gargoyles. Hipazia aided them with a powerful Lightning Bolt that nearly killed two of the monsters. Kindrasius and Trinia aided the rest of the group with bardic magic and deadly arrows. The gargoyles tried to kill Hipazia, but she was well-defended by Manius and Zeeva, who finished off these foul creatures.
Meanwhile, Kaeso headed deeper into the village, and ran into Thousand Bones, Shadowcount Sial and Asyra fighting side-by-side against a large group of Red Mantis and gargoyles. Many enemies already lay defeated at their feet, and it seemed that, although they had slain many, they had expended most of their spells and were about to get overwhelmed. Farther beyond them, Kaeso caught glimpses of Chief One-Life and the dragonne Wicked-Claws fighting more enemies, with more of the Skoan-Quah warriors helping them.
As Kaeso approached, he also noticed an unshaven Chelaxian who aimed a repeating crossbow at Thousand Bones. He had a cougar pet at his side, and Kaeso understood that this was the infamous “Cinderlander” who had killed so many Shoanti. Striking suddenly, Kaeso nearly killed one of the Red Mantis assassins with one blow. He was then surrounded by two of the assassins, but was so agile that he could avoid their deadliest attacks and only suffered superficial wounds.
Soon, the rest of the Harrowed Company came to his aid. Manius and Zeeva were ambushed by two more Red Mantis assassins that had been hiding behind a tent, but were only lightly wounded. A big battle took place against the Red Mantis. Thousand Bones and the worshippers of Zon-Kuthon seemed quite relieved to see the adventurers come to aid them. Manius struck mighty blows and felled several enemies, but he was severely wounded by the Cinderlander’s screaming bolts. Thankfully, he kept on fighting despite the blood loss and the unnerving sound of the projectiles. He felt extremely focused in this fight, as he had foreseen it in Zellara’s Harrow reading.
Finally, Hipazia was able to paralyze the Cinderlander with a spell while the rest of the group killed the Red Mantis. Kaeso rushed the hunter’s cougar and killed it in one shot. Manius, badly bleeding, approached the Cinderlander atop his horse and removed the crossbow from his unmoving hands. It’s only then that the Cinderlander escaped the paralysis, but he was now defenceless and surrounded. There was no mercy to be had for him, as Kindrasius sought vengeance for the countless Shoanti he had killed, and shot several arrows at him. Kaeso finished off the Cinderlander, but as soon as the man fell, Hipazia and Zeeva rushed to stem his blood flow, wanting to keep him prisoner. Laori followed them eagerly, already taking out her torture implements and volunteering to question him.
Once the Cinderlander was stabilized and manacled, Zeeva and Thousand Bones performed some quick healing of everyone. Kindrasius found himself standing close to Shadowcount Sial, and the white-haired man fixed him with his dark eyes and smiled grimly.
“Our paths cross again, as was foretold…” said the priest.
Alas, the adventurers had little time to catch their breath, as their final set of opponents approached. The tall red-haired woman that Hipazia had seen by scrying and Kaeso had seen during the Harrow reading made her appearance, with four more Red Mantis assassins at her side, as well as two giant praying mantises of a blood-red color.
Cinnabar eyed the companions with cold eyes devoid of any emotion. “The Harrowed Company… we meet at last. If you hadn’t been so damned hard to catch, all these savages wouldn’t have needed to die. But now, it’s too late. Your final hour has come at last. I’ll enjoy killing you, especially you, Lady Leroung, who kept disrupting my scrying. Your blood will soon flow on my swords…” and she showed her two long serrated blades, which were already slick with the blood of many unfortunate members of the Skoan-Quah clan.
“Not if I disintegrate you first, my dear!” spat Hipazia as she began weaving the magic of her most destructive spell…
Manius and Kaeso were the first two to act: they charged ahead and each of them quickly killed one of the giant praying mantises. Both summoned insects disappeared in a haze of blood-red gas. Then, the two adventurers were each ganged up on by two assassins. Kaeso was able to evade their attacks with his uncanny dexterity, but poor Manius was badly wounded despite his magical armor. Cinnabar used some kind of magic to become invisible, and Hipazia cursed, halting her casting mid-way and casting a spell to see invisibility instead.
“Watch out, Manius, she’s coming for you!” she called out.
Meanwhile, Shadowcount Sial, Asyra, Laori and Thousand Bones were fighting more gargoyles that had swooped down from the skies to harass them. Zeeva joined Manius and wounded one of the Red Mantis assassins with her spear. Kindrasius shot his powerful arrows from further back, while Trinia bolstered everyone’s attacks with her bardic magic.
Alas, Cinnabar used invisibility and the distraction provided by one of her underlings to strike terrible blows on Manius. The mighty Hellknight had taken too many wounds and was now bleeding from many places. It was too much, even for him. He collapsed from his horse…
“Nooo!!” exclaimed Zeeva.
The priestess of Pharasma and Kaeso kept on fighting the remaining assassins with the help of Kindrasius. Hipazia tried to disintegrate Cinnabar, but alas, the agile leader of the Red Mantis avoided the deadly spell twice, and it had no effect.
Suddenly, Cinnabar winced in pain as Zeeva wounded her, but then she exclaimed: “Behold, priestess, the power of Achaekek, assassin of the gods!” And with that, she transformed into a gigantic praying mantis and struck Zeeva with her sharp appendages. Zeeva and Cinnabar fought for a while, giver of life versus giver of death, while the rest of the group killed the rest of the Red Mantis assassins.
Finally, as Cinnabar was the last enemy standing, her thick insect’s shell was pierced by Zeeva’s mighty magical spear. Blood poured out of the wound and the insect-woman let out a keening wail. As life left her and her magic failed, she reverted back to her human form. She had been impaled completely by the strength of Zeeva’s blow.
The cold cruelty had finally left her eyes, and was replaced by what seemed like gratitude and relief as she gazed at Zeeva in her last moments of life. “I’m free now, mother…” she muttered before dying.
The adventurers took most of the day to rest from the ordeal of the Trial of the Totems in their tent at Flameford. When they finally emerged late in the day, their new brothers and sisters of the Sklar-Quah held a great feast in their honor. Gone was their status of tshamek, now they were truly received as members of the tribe. Kindrasius and Trinia told stories of their past adventures, especially regarding their encounter against Cindermaw. Krojun, drunk, approached Manius and offered a rematch of Sredna, only to be beaten again. Kaeso was approached by a beautiful bald Shoanti woman who made advances at him. She insisted, however, that he shave his hair if they were to get together – he politely refused the offer.
Things seemed to be going quite well now, and the heroes’ status had not only granted them the Sun Shaman’s promise that he would travel with them to the Kallow Mounds to reveal the secrets of the ancestors, but now the Sklar-Quah’s plans of attacking Korvosa had been abandoned: clearly, some tshamek were capable of great honor, and there was hope for peace with them after all.
During the day, Hipazia was able to not only notice that Trinia was being scried on, but she caught a glimpse of the originator of the spell: a tall red-haired young woman dressed all in blood-read leather - clearly a member of the Red Mantis, and probably the infamous “Cinnabar” that a captive assassin had told them about in the Acropolis. Cinnabar was furious that Hipazia had thwarted her spell, and she cut the connection abruptly
(OOC: Hipazia’s player realized during this game that, as a diviner, Hipazia could not only sense scrying, but also get a vision of the person scrying in the area… We had not noticed that this was possible until then.)
At the second sunrise, Krojun came to check up on the group. The companions watched him warily as he observed their status with a critical eye. He snickered derisively when he saw that Kaeso’s totem had fallen and cracked. He then showed favouritism by praising Hipazia on her patience and resolve, despite the fact that her totem was in much worse shape than Kaeso’s. Krojun nodded with respect to Manius and Kindrasius, who were holding their totems without showing any sign of fatigue. Likewise, he was impressed that “mere women” like Zeeva and Trinia had made it this far.
Krojun then announced to the group that they were to bring their totems up to the second level. The companions wearily lifted the totems with aching arms and painfully brought them even higher up into a new set of six holes. Krojun then departed, and the second day of “torture” began.
It was long.
It was boring…
Kindrasius and Trinia didn’t have the energy to keep on telling stories anymore. Zeeva had cast Lesser Restoration on herself to fight off the fatigue, and Kaeso, Kindrasius and Hipazia drank potions for a similar effect. Only Manius and Trinia had to endure the fatigue on top of everything else. Trinia felt especially tired. Zeeva hadn’t had the chance to learn new spells, so it was Hipazia’s turn to shield everyone from the heat of the sun with the wand of Endure Elements that Thousand Bones had given them.
Trinia was so tired that she almost fell asleep standing up. She had a fatigue-induced vision of a pool of water, seeing her own reflection as an aurochs, and feeling that she was the guardian of the Cinderlands and had nothing to fear of predators.
Later, in the afternoon, Kindrasius alerted the rest of the group: he had noticed that some strange things were moving on the ground. It soon became apparent that what looked like shark fins moving along the rocky soil, were the tips of six monstrous Bulettes who had detected some prey!
Soon, the six creatures ascended Bolt Rock two by two and a brutal fight began. Kaeso and Kindrasius shot arrows at them and Hipazia blasted the monsters with two Fireballs and a newly-learned Disintegrate spell. Zeeva had her spear ready and skewered a Bulette as it charged her, killing the monster instantly! Manius and Trinia switched spots so the Hellknight would be closer to the fight. While the small blonde bard hung back and used her bardic magic to help everyone, holding Manius’s totem upright, the powerful warrior was beset by several Bulettes, and ended up killing four of them by himself! Zeeva was badly wounded, but finally, the last of the monsters was killed by Kaeso’s arrows.
Things had gone pretty well all in all: the group had survived a terribly dangerous encounter. Alas, in the tumult of battle, Trinia and Zeeva’s totems had been knocked to the ground, and Trinia’s had shattered in several places. She had, alas, been eliminated from the trial. She walked back toward Flameford, but met a group of Sklar-Quah riders along the way who had come to check up on the group. They were extremely impressed with the slaughter of six Bulettes!
The five remaining contestants continued their boring task of holding the totems in place. Eventually, night fell. They were all tired, so very tired…
Some time during the night, Hipazia’s totem fell again, and just as she had feared, it broke. She had come so close… but she had to get down from Bolt Rock and walk back to Flameford to go join Trinia in her tent. At least she got a few hours of well-deserved rest while the rest of the group was still stuck on Bolt Rock.
Oathday, Arodus 10th, 4708
The sun rose.
Four silhouettes stood atop Bolt Rock, each of them triumphantly still holding a huge totem upright.
Manius, Kaeso, Zeeva and Kindrasius had all endured the two-day-long Trial of the Totems!
The Sun Shaman and several members of the Sklar-Quah had come to Bolt Rock just at sunrise to witness the end of the ritual. With a warm smile, the old shaman congratulated the four champions and welcomed them all within the tribe of the Sklar-Quah!
The companions were woken up before dawn by the Sun Shaman. The Trial of the Totems was to take place today. The old Shoanti guided the Harrowed Company in the pre-dawn darkness on a 20-minute hike to a nearby two-tiered plateau called Bolt Rock.
The Sun Shaman showed the companions six large stone totems that were lying horizontally at the foot of the ramp leading up to the first level of the hill. They were ten feet long, quite wide, with a round bottom, and glowed faintly in the dark. The shaman explained that, at sunrise, the group would have one hour to bring them up to the first plateau, where they would be set in holes in the ground. Each companion would have to keep one totem upright until the next sunrise, when all totems would then be carried to the second plateau for another full day of keeping the totems upright. This was indeed to be a test of strength, endurance, willpower and patience.
The adventurers thought of several ways of making the trial easier, from filling the holes with sand to help keep the totems upright, to erecting magical walls to hold the totems or at least shelter them from the wind, but the sun shaman indicated that such shenanigans would disqualify them. Likewise, he informed the participants that they could be seen from Flameford, even at night, thanks to the glowing property of the totems.
Manius briefly inspected the ground nearby and noted the presence of various animals, but knew that Bulettes (monstrously large predators also called “land sharks”) roamed the region…
Sunrise soon came, and the companions began the arduous task of bringing the totems up to the first level. The things were, thankfully, hollow, which meant that they weren’t quite as heavy as anticipated, yet they were also more fragile. Still, the things were so ponderous that Hipazia couldn’t even make hers budge at all. Manius was able to lift one and move slowly around. Kindrasius and Zeeva were able to do this as well, but even more slowly than Manius. As a group effort, all totems were brought up and placed in vertical positions, and then one person was put in charge of keeping each one upright. The Sun Shaman wished everyone good luck and departed.
Then began the waiting. Time seemed to stretch endlessly; hours seemed unbearably long under the sun and at the mercy of the relentless wind. Thankfully, everyone was protected by Zeeva’s Endure Elements spells, and the cleric was able to conjure more food and water for everyone. Keeping the totems upright wasn’t that difficult most of the time, but required vigilance, as sudden gusts of win risked toppling them over.
Kindrasius and Trinia took turns telling tales, trying to pass the time and to keep the group’s morale high. Manius grimly endured the trial, reminding himself that these were just two unpleasant days to go through in order to save Korvosa. Hipazia tried to empty her mind and meditate to make time go faster. Kaeso was probably the one who suffered the most from boredom. This was like sheer torture for him, and he hated the Sklar-Quah with a passion for forcing the group to go through this stupid ritual. He didn’t give a damn about joining their stupid tribe anyway…
A few times during the day, there were a few close calls when a person’s totem almost fell to the ground, but most of the time, a second person was able to come and help to keep it upright. Only once did Hipazia’s totem fall to the ground, getting slightly damaged. The others helped her set it back up. The Sun Shaman had explained that if a totem fell, as long as it didn’t completely shatter and was quickly placed back in an upright position, the person could keep going with the trial.
After what seemed like an eternity, the sun went down and night fell. The companions were still waiting, standing next to their totems. Their muscles were aching: their arms, from holding the totems; their legs, from standing up all day. They even took quick turns for “bathroom breaks”, but alas, there was little privacy to be had in this place…
As people got more tired, holding the totems upright got more and more difficult. Kaeso and Trinia also dropped their totems once each, and Hipazia’s fell a second time. Hers was now starting to show serious damage. She worried that it would not survive a third fall…
The following day, Ahalak brought the group to the area where Cindermaw was known to roam. Dunes dotted the country side, but the guide warned the adventurers that they were no natural formations: rather, they had been created by Cindermaw’s constant burrowing. The group searched for the gigantic worm for several hours with the help of spells of flying, but did not locate it.
Starday, Arodus 5th, 4708
Cindermaw
The following morning, Cindermaw finally detected the group’s treading into its domain. It circled them, periodically surfacing from the ground like a great burrowing whale. The group set into motion their plan to recreate Skurak’s legend: Kindrasius and Manius were the two who volunteered to get eaten by the gigantic monster. Meanwhile, Trinia and Ahalak fled the area with everyone’s horses, while Zeeva, Akram, Hipazia and Kaeso hovered in the air thanks to various magic spells, waiting on standby to witness the feat of courage of their allies, and to lend a hand if needed.
Manius and Kindrasius awaited the great worm’s approach, making loud noises to attract its attention. They had been protected from acid by spells and potions. The enormous worm finally burst from the ground near them, and now they felt the heat that emanated from it and saw the inferno burning inside its maw: that was something they had not anticipated, and they only barely had time to drink fire-protection potions before the monster breathed a cone of flames on them. It would have grievously burned them if they hadn’t been protected.
The two men courageously taunted the monster so it would swallow them. It eventually did so, a painful process that nearly killed the unfortunate Kindrasius. It was a terrible experience to be in the suffocating innards of the creature, but at least the two men could see where they were: some burning stones that might have once been a magical portal to a place of fire still burned within its digestive system. The two heroes immediately began furiously digging into the worm’s belly to escape with their lives: Manius, with Kaeso’s kukri, and Kindrasius with his draconic claws. They both made it out, escaping the worms’ stomach on opposite sides of the furious beast. But now, badly wounded and covered in slime, they were still adjacent to this terrible monster. Safety was not a sure thing at all, and both heroes realized that they hadn’t actually planned this far ahead: now what?
Thankfully, Manius still had in his pack the group’s last flying potion that they had received from Zoarth. He quickly drank it, flew up, located Kindrasius (who was drinking a healing potion and whose life was flashing in front of his eyes as Cindermaw was turning around to finish him off) and dove down, grabbing hold of his Shoanti companion and heroically lifting him in the air and flying off into the distance, only narrowly escaping Cindermaw’s deadly jaw!
They had done it! Manius and Kindrasius had replicated Skurak’s legend: they had been swallowed by the terrible Cindermaw, one of the deadliest creatures of the Storval Plateau, and they both lived to tell the tale!
And of course, Akram the truthspeaker had seen it all.
Once they were at a safe distance from Cindermaw, the Harrowed Company regrouped and Zeeva healed the wounded. Ahalak then announced that he would guide the heroes to Flameford: this was one of the more traditional Sklar-Quah camps, and it was the home of one of their Sun Shamans, who were the descendants of the spiritual leaders of the Shoanti who had lived in what was now Korvosa.
Moonday, Arodus 7th, 4708
Tshamek no more
After two more days of traveling, the group was approached by a group of Sklar-Quah burn-riders, courageous horse riders who had taught their mounts not to fear fire. They fiercely informed the tshamek that they were trespassing on their lands, but Kindrasius and Akram were able to convince them to escort them to the camp of Flameford. In the village, the group received a very tense welcome from the tshamek-hating Sklar-Quah tribesmen. Thankfully, the chief of the tribe, Ready-Klar, and the Sun Shaman, were reasonable enough to listen to Kindrasius and Akram. The group’s “friend” Krojun was also present at the camp, and listened with barely contained anger.
When Akram told the courageous deed of Kindrasius and Manius’s exploit against Cindermaw, several of the Sklar-Quah seemed astonished and sceptical, but none dared to challenge the words of a truth-speaker. The Sun Shaman and Chief Ready-Klar deliberated on this in a tent for one hour, during which the group felt the tension of many Sklar-Quah warriors on them. Krojun watched them balefully, with crossed arms. Kindrasius approached him and tried to men fences, but his words had the opposite effect of what he intended to do, and he ended up angering the hot-tempered Krojun even more.
Finally, the two leaders of the community emerged from the tent and gestured for the tshamek to approach the bonfire at the center of the village. Then, one by one, the Sun Shaman asked for the companions to say their names. He then announced that they were tshamek no more, and were to be considered Shoanti, free to roam the Sklar-Quah’s lands as they willed, as long as they respected the tribe’s peace and tradition. Many of the tribesmen seemed very upset by this, but again, none dared to challenge the Sun Shaman’s decision.
The group was offered the village’s hospitality, and a yurt to rest from their journey. Akram, however, bade good-bye to the group, saying that tradition forbade him from sharing a sunrise with the Sklar-Quah. He would return to his people, and Ahalak generously volunteered to escort him there.
Once they were in their yurt with the Sun Shaman, the groups explained to him the situation with Ileosa’s crown and their need to get information from the Sklar-Quah’s ancestors. Alas, there was yet one more obstacle in their way: the Sun Shaman stated that such information was only for the ears of the Sklar-Quah, and although the members of the Harrowed Company were no longer considered tshamek, neither were they members of his tribe. When she heard this, Zeeva lost her temper for the first time since her companions had met her. She began cursing the Sun Shaman in a mixture of the Chelaxian tongue and broken Shoanti, berating him for denying them such information after all that they had been through. The old man watched her with a somewhat amused expression and proposed a compromise: if they could pass the Trial of the Totems, then they would be judged worthy of becoming honorary members of the Sklar-Quah and would be eligible to hear the secrets.
Not knowing what this trial consisted of, but seeing they had little choice, the adventurers reluctantly agreed. The Sun Shaman refused to say more about the trial, but told the heroes that they should rest, for it would start just before sunrise the following day. Hipazia once again used the subterfuge of her magic, and read the mind of one of the Sklar-Quah tribesmen, seeing that the Trial of the Totems consisted of holding heavy stone totems on a nearby rise for two straight days with no water or food, and at the mercy of any local predator that came along.
The companions spent the night in Zoarth’s castle. Hipazia did not sleep well, as she had a very difficult time maintaining her mental control over Bran-Fir due to the presence of the devils in his soul. In the morning, Zeeva sent the possessed Frost Giant into the Abyss with a Plane Shift spell. The group figured that the best way to get rid of this evil was to send it to a place of greater evil.
After saying their good-byes to Zoarth and the members of the Lyrune-Quah, the Harrowed Company continued its journey through the Cinderlands, this time heading toward the feeding grounds of Cindermaw. Ahalak still led them, and old Akram accompanied them. Zeeva kept him almost constantly protected with a Shield Other spell, as the group feared that if the old shaman died, their quest would come to an end. They especially feared a surprise attack from the Red Mantis, but thankfully, none came. Only local predators presented some danger, and although the vicious creatures of the Storval Plateau would be considered a deadly challenge to most groups of hunters or adventurers, the Harrowed Company was now so powerful that these encounters were not even worth mentioning in their chronicles.
Once again, the travel through the arid wasteland was made much easier thanks to the protection and sustenance provided by Zeeva’s magic. With his hat’s brim kept low over his brow and his cloak furling in the wind, Kindrasius did not feel much at home in this place, even though he knew it was the place of his birth. He spent some time conversing with Akram, learning some stories of his people. The old truthspeaker asked many questions of the tshamek as well, especially from Manius, who was the strangest of them all. Even though the Order of the Nail had for mission to bring order among the savages, Manius remained polite with the primitive shaman, knowing that his cooperation was vital for the success of their quest.
That evening, the group took shelter in old ruins where crawled many scarabs that glowed with various colors. These things were called jewel beetles. During the first watch, Kaeso and Trinia were alerted by the approach of a massive enemy. Trinia hid the group with an illusion spell while Kaeso woke everyone quietly. Soon, a huge bipedal monster called a Red Reaver made its way through the illusion, and roared as it attacked the group. Even though they weren’t protected by their armor, Zeeva and Manius courageously attacked it in melee, while the others shot the creature with spells and arrows. Zeeva was badly wounded, but Manius struck powerful blows on the Reaver, almost killing it. Finally, it was Kaeso, who approached from behind and struck from the shadows, that killed the creature with his rapier.
Further up the ramp, the companions encountered another group of hill giant warriors who had breached the wall of the citadel and who were fighting one of its last guardians: an air elemental that was soon overcome by their brutal attacks. The leader of this group was a grim stone giant whose plate armor was decorated with the severed heads of Shoanti and orcs. A furious battle ensued between these invaders and the Harrowed Company; in the end, the adventurers prevailed, but some, especially Kaeso, had been wounded in the fight.
As Zeeva was healing everyone, the group examined their surroundings: the castle was beautifully furnished with art and fineries, whose elegance was in stark contrast with the primitive attackers. The group ventured deeper inside the structure, hearing the sounds of battle ahead. They were approached by a black cat through which spoke the voice of the master of the keep. He asked the companions to investigate some danger on the lower level: someone was endangering the magical pillar that supported the weight of the entire castle.
The group ventured down some mist-filled stairs and entered a large room that was also shrouded in mist; even the walls, floor and ceiling seemed as if they were carved into a cloud. In the center of this space was a large pillar of mist that, impossibly, seemed to provide support for the citadel. Although it would normally be impervious to normal weapons, it was currently being slowly destroyed by an unlikely creature: a massive blue humanoid insect that wielded an ice-covered spear. Some members of the group recognized this as an Ice Devil, a dangerous foe indeed. Near the creature was a haggard frost giant who seemed only vaguely aware of his surroundings, but Hipazia and Zeeva understood that there was a link between him and the devil.
Ignoring this insight for now, the group decided to take advantage of the giant’s vacant expression and attack the devil while it was busy hacking at the pillar. Unfortunately, that did not yield the expected results: Kindrasius’s arrows and Hipazia’s Scorching Rays completely failed to harm the fiend, and when Manius approached it, he was overcome with fear and fled up the stairs. Zeeva, Kindrasius and Hipazia all failed to remove this unnatural fear from him. Trinia tried to trip the Hellknight with her whip, but he simply bolted past her, unhindered, and his unstoppable flight merely tore the weapon from Trinia’s grasp. The Ice Devil looked over his shoulder and telepathically warned the foolish mortals not to interfere with him, but did not attack. Finally, Hipazia used a Dominate Person spell to force the frost giant to absorb the Ice Devil back inside of him. Taking a few moments to read her new minion’s thoughts, she understood that he was called Bran-Fir and had always been possessed by devils. He had been cast out of his birth tribe and had later become adopted by the hill giants of the Jurn tribe.
Let’s see your cats save you from this!
The group went back upstairs and were joined by Manius. The massive warrior sheepishly gave Trinia her whip back. The cat thanked the companions for their good work and led them where they were now most needed: a huge hall at the center of which stood the gigantic bust of a heroic and wise-looking bearded man. Perched at the summit of this grandiose tribute to himself was a white-bearded and robed Cloud Giant who was using a barrage of spells to defend his life from the assault of several hill giants led by an armored hill giant woman with a tattooed shaved head. This impressive female warrior was riding an enormous triceratops. On raised galleries on either side of this great hall stood several Shoanti warrior-women who were shooting arrows at the hill giants.
The Harrowed Company found itself fighting the giantess astride the triceratops. The massive dinosaur nearly trampled several of them to death, and the giantess struck Kindrasius with her sword, but the group was able to slay both of these dangerous foes. Both of them fell to Kindrasius’s rain of arrows. Meanwhile, Hipazia had directed Bran-Fir to unleash his Ice Devil on the other hill giants. Once their leader was dead, the remaining hill giants were swiftly slain by the devil, the Shoanti archers, the Cloud Giant mage and the adventurers.
The Cloud Giant cheered loudly as the last enemy fell, and he levitated down to the floor. He introduced himself as Zoarth and thanked the Harrowed Company for their help. They learned that he was a mage who lived alone in this castle, with his cats. Once, a female giant had lived here with him, but she was now gone. There seemed to be a sad story tied to this, but Zoarth said no more. He wasn’t sure why these hill giants had raided his castle; all he wanted was to be left here in peace to do his alchemical experiments.
The Lyrune-Quah warrior-women approached the characters warily at first, with their tamed wolves at their sides, but they warmed visibly when they noticed that the heroes wore the mark of Desna on their hands. Just as the group had suspected, the Lyrune-Quah had fled the temple of the moon when it had become aware of the approaching band of marauding giants, and had sought shelter in the citadel of their ally Zoarth. Apparently, the most violent giant tribes of the mountains had been on a rampage since the defeat of Lord Mokmurian, who had been their master until very recently. This mighty Stone Giant wizard had apparently been slain by a group of human adventurers earlier in the summer. Zoarth now spoke of an even greater danger to the north, in the Kodar Mountains, which worried him and other giants, but waved it aside and told the adventurers that they surely had a mission of their own already, and that they shouldn't concern themselves with this.
Zoarth later opened a massive door at the end of the hall, behind which the rest of the Lyrune-Quah tribe had been hiding from the attackers: mostly children and the elderly. Among them was Akram, the tribe’s truthspeaker, who was intrigued when the adventurers approached him with their request to witness one of them being devoured by Cindermaw. Although this seemed like madness to him, he accepted to come with them, as a gesture of thanks for the help they had provided his tribe, and out of respect for the mark of his goddess, Desna, which was on their hands. Akram was surprised, though, that Manius had not received this blessing. The Hellknight began to explain that he had been occupied at the time; the old Shoanti watched him with an intense expression and seemed very intrigued by him, and took him to the side to hear his whole story.
Looting their enemies, the group found that the giantess’s sword bore runes in the language of giants which said: "let's see your cats save you from this." Zoarth was astounded by this message: it seemed to be personally directed at him (his many cats had by now entered the hall and come to surround their master and climb on him), yet he couldn’t imagine anyone wishing him harm like this.
As a gesture of thanks, Zoarth later rewarded the adventurers with many potions of his own making. Zeeva interrogated the dead spirit of the giantess by magic and learned that she had been sent by Grunf, the leader of the Jurn tribe, specifically to kill Zoarth. These orders had in turn come from Grunf’s new mistress, a mysterious and powerful giantess who somehow wanted Zoarth dead…
“How could anyone not like me?” wondered Zoarth as he absently stroked a cat’s fur with a gentle finger.
WARNING: spoilers for "Curse of the Riven Sky" ahead! I inserted part of that adventure into "A History of Ashes". If you want to avoid any spoilers for "Curse of the Riven Sky", please skip this post and the next two. Once you reach "Fireday, Arodus 4th, 4708", it should be safe to continue reading.
The next day, the group followed a wide trail that led up the flank of the mountain. It was relatively easy to climb, and they still saw tracks of the Lyrune-Quah and giants ahead of them. After some time, the group encountered a band of hill giants, ogres and giant wolves, which they attacked. The enemies were assaulted by powerful magic: Confusion cast by Kindrasius, Fireball cast by Hipazia and Flame Strike cast by Zeeva. Manius and Kaeso fought in melee, and Trinia even managed to trip a giant with her whip. Some of the giants and ogres fought each other or maimed themselves due to the confusion effect. All in all, it was an easy victory for the heroes of Korvosa.
Further up the path, the group passed through a bank of thick clouds, and then emerged at the summit of the mountain, where a brass ramp led up to a castle that was floating on a cloud: most likely the residence of cloud giants. Alas, the citadel was besieged by a larger group of hill giants. The companions left Ahalak and the horses at the bottom of the ramp and hurried up to help the denizens of the castle. The ascension was made especially difficult due to some violent shocks that frequently resounded through the structure. Hipazia, Manius and Zeeva lost their footing and nearly plummeted to the ground far below, but each managed to catch the edge of the path at the last moment.
Then, a muscular, bare-chested giant approached the group. He wore a thick leather helmet and mask, and his hands were covered with massive adamantine gauntlets: those were the instruments that had breached the wall of the citadel earlier. The colossus grunted a brief laugh before engaging the group, but he was also easily defeated, in large part due to Kindrasius’s Hideous Laughter spell.
Once the storm had passed, Krojun and Tamar parted ways with the Harrowed Company. A bitter exchange had taken place between Kindrasius and Krojun, in which Kindrasius had outlined his group’s plan to join the Sklar-Quah in order to find out more information about the demon that was allegedly controlling Queen Ileosa. He was very confident and confrontational in his statements to Krojun, even raising his voice so loud that the rest of the group feared that he would awaken the Havero again. There seemed to be little love lost between the two headstrong Shoanti, so an alliance between the adventurers and the Sklar-Quah seemed unlikely at this point despite the recent fight against the Havero.
Later, Shadowcount Sial also parted ways with the group. He said they would meet again soon, and asked Zeeva to contact him by magic once they had spoken with the ancestor of the Sklar-Quah. The party spent the night in a ruined building of the acropolis.
(The characters rise to level 10!)
Toilday, Arodus 1st, 4708
The following day, the group journeyed closer to the mountains. Ahalak led them toward a place he knew to be often inhabited by one of the sub-clans of the Lyrune-Quah at this time of the year. Along the way, Zeeva and Manius received more training on the rudiments of the Shoanti language from Kindrasius.
Early in the evening, the group reached an ancient tower decorated with the symbol of Desna. It was majestic in beauty, but unfortunately, nobody from the Clan of the Moon was present. Ahalak, Manius and Kindrasius saw tracks on the ground indicating that a large group of humans, probably members of the Lyrune-Quah, had recently traveled from there to the mountains. It seemed that a few dozen giants had followed them not long after. The Harrowed Company decided to follow these tracks up the mountain the following day, and spent the night in the Temple of the Moon.
Zeeva, Trinia and Kindrasius healed everyone’s wounds. Krojun and Tamar were panting, and as the rush of adrenaline that had come with their battle-lust faded, they were gripped by a profound sadness at the loss of their comrades, and a deep shame at having been saved by tshamek. They grudgingly thanked the Harrowed Company for their help, but it was clear they still didn’t consider them friends.
Using her magic, Zeeva contacted Manius and learned that he was with Shadowcount Sial and Asyra in the Bone Tower, which had been erected not far from the Acropolis. Even though the group’s initial plan had been to stay in the green shaft room quietly, Kaeso soon grew impatient and decided to explore the area. He discovered that two tunnels which led to other parts of the complex had caved in. After disabling another door that led into the pool room, he found an old shrine decorated with the statue of a beautiful mermaid. He then spent some time removing the gems that adorned her tail with his dagger.
Meanwhile, the others examined a room whose walls were covered with Thassilonian runes. Trinia read them and translated for the others: the Thrallkeepers had summoned a powerful creature from beyond the stars, an alien monstrosity called a Havero. It had the shape of a colossal sphere of flesh from which emerged countless tentacles. Clearly, this was the creature that slumbered in the pool.
After about 45 minutes, Hipazia and Zeeva realized that Trinia’s reading was getting them nowhere, so they shook her from the trance she had become a victim of while reading the magical runes. After dispelling the hypnotism trap, Hipazia continued reading thanks to Kindrasius’s wand of Tongues, and surmised that the Thrallkeepers had most likely been exterminated by the Havero, for the writings were suspiciously incomplete. She believed that the Havero was mostly asleep, and that the tentacles’ movements were just its most basic reflexes as it was gradually waking up. Most likely, the “earthquakes” the group had felt earlier had just been of the creature’s massive body moving around as the noises they made disturbed its rest. From what she understood, if they had to fight the Havero itself, not just its half-asleep tentacles, they would be in terrible danger…
Thankfully, the tentacles seemed to have gone back to a dormant state for now. The Harrowed Company and the two Sklar-Quah warriors hurried past the pool room and rejoined Ahalak in the room with the horses near the entrance. They waited quietly for a few hours, and finally, the emberstorm abated and it became safe to go outside. It was horribly hot and the thick smoke made it difficult to breathe, but it was surely less dangerous than being stuck in the ruins with the slumbering Havero. A few hundred yards away, they could see the shape of the Bone Tower, which they hadn’t noticed earlier in their hurry to escape the approaching emberstorm.
The companions considered fleeing from whatever monstrosity lurked within the dark pool, but the Sklar-Quah warriors were locked in combat already, and the Harrowed Company sought to gain their approval; so they decided to risk their lives to help them. Three of Krojun’s Thundercallers had already been gripped by the tentacles and dragged down below the surface. Krojun and his three remaining warriors fought valiantly against insurmountable odds.
Trinia, Hipazia and Zeeva levitated up the shaft of green light to join Kaeso and Kindrasius, who had already waded into battle to help the Shoantis in melee. Using his earthbreaker, Kindrasius struck with greater power than usual thanks to the magic of the Harrow. The tentacles were very resilient, but could be disabled if enough force was applied. Hipazia assumed that the monster they were facing was a kraken. Zeeva joined the two men and attacked with her spear. Trinia used her music and her magic to bolster the rest of the group, but was too far away to use her healing spells on the wounded Sklar-Quah. Hipazia blasted the tentacles with ice, fire, lightning and sheer arcane power.
But as the heroes and the Shoanti destroyed tentacle after tentacle, a seemingly endless quantity of the sickly green appendages emerged from the pool…
All four members of the Sklar-Quah fought furiously, gripped by a barbaric rage. Krojun destroyed several tentacles by himself, but alas, two more of his warriors lost their lives in the battle: one was dragged below the surface, and the other was torn apart by two tentacles.
During a brief lull in the battle, Zeeva and Hipazia directed the others toward the room with the green light shaft: they believed that the monster had initially been awoken by noise, and that if they could remain quiet, it might return to a dormant state. Everyone, including Krojun and the other remaining warrior, Tamar, rushed into the room. Kaeso was the last to enter, and he used his thief’s skills to disable the mechanism that triggered the door’s opening.
Meanwhile, Kindrasius, Kaeso, Hipazia, Zeeva and Trinia explored the lower level of the Acropolis. No traps or magic could be detected in the round room at the base of the shaft, nor in the wide hallway that opened to the north of it. However, Trinia noticed that part of the wall in this corridor was of a different color, and further investigation showed that it was a big stone block that had been moved some time in the past. It wasn’t clear how this block could be moved, though. While the party examined the area, a third earthquake shook the ground.
The group then entered a large room decorated with stars and symbols of Desna: the blue butterfly. Near the middle of it, a big stone sphere stood suspended on three metallic rods which hovered in the thin air. It radiated strong divination and the rods had an aura of transmutation. Kaeso and Kindrasius investigated the device. Nothing happened when they touched the sphere. It was decorated with shapes of islands, seas, rivers and mountains. Sadly, none of them, not even the knowledgeable Hipazia, recognized that this sphere represented Golarion itself.
Kindrasius pressed a button on one of the rods, which got pushed away by the weight of the stone sphere that suddenly came free; lacking support, the heavy globe crashed to the ground, getting cracked and causing a thunderous noise to reverberate throughout the area. Immediately after that, a fourth earthquake shook the ground: it was stronger than any before it.
Kaeso clapped sarcastically at Kindrasius’s blunder. He then investigated the sphere and understood how to activate it: he touched it and thought of the starry sky, and suddenly vanished, finding himself suspended in space, surrounded by the glittering lights of distant stars. Below him hovered the enormous but very distant globe that looked like this sphere with its seas and land masses. It was an exhilarating experience, and as Kaeso waved his hands toward the sphere, he noticed that a blue butterfly now adorned his left hand: the Spherewalker’s Mark! Thinking of the Acropolis, Kaeso returned outside the sphere, where he explained to his companions what he had done. Each of them then replicated the experience, and now each sported that blue butterfly on their left hand. Their senses felt heightened from having a blessing of Desna placed on them.
Heading back to the pillar of light, the group saw globs of red liquid gently floating down the shaft, to form a pool of blood on the ring of blue stone at its bottom. They called out to Manius, but he didn’t answer. They spoke with Ahalak through the mental link: he was safe, but heard shouts coming from downstairs. It seemed that Krojun and his men were fighting something.
Kindrasius and Kaeso levitated back up the pillar of green light, and saw that Manius, Sial and Asyra were gone; so were the corpses of the Red Mantis, although there was a huge amount of blood on the ground. The huge stone “door” leading to the pool room stood open, and from beyond came the sounds of a furious battle: Krojun and his men were battling several tentacles that emerged from dark pool. Kindrasius immediately recognized this scene as the one from his Harrow vision, and he felt himself empowered by Zellara’s magic…
Trinia brought the captive assassin back to consciousness; Kindrasius tried to question him peacefully, but the man only remained silent. He also resisted Hipazia’s Detect Thoughts spell; the diviner did manage to read Asyra’s thoughts, though, but she recoiled in disgust, as the chain devil was vividly picturing the disturbing tortures she would like to perform on the captured Red Mantis. So it seemed that the best course of action was to question the assassin “the hard way”. Manius and the worshippers of Zon-Kuthon offered to take care of it. The others decided to let them go about their grim business, but had no wish to witness it, so they all floated down the well of green light.
Manius was no stranger to torture: it was a frequent practice among the Hellknights, who often had to extract the truth from criminals by force. The interrogation room beneath the Black Bulwark had an extensive collection of “information-extraction devices”. Shadowcount Sial opened a satchel he was carrying, which held a “travelling torturer’s kit”, a collection of light tools that would allow him to perform his dark deeds on whatever unlucky victims he found.
“That’s a nice set of tools you’ve got there, Shadowcount,” said Manius.
“Why, thank you. I have more sophisticated devices back in the Bone Tower, but these will have to do for now, I suppose.”
And so the priest of Zon-Kuthon began his abominable torture of the Red Mantis assassin, helped by Asyra and Manius. He was very skilled. It only took a few minutes before the stoic assassin began screaming in pain. Another earthquake shook the ground; it seemed stronger than the previous ones. But then, the assassin answered Sial’s questions.
His team had been sent to the Acropolis to kill the Harrowed Company. His leader, Cinnabar, had been scrying on them and had overheard that they were headed here. She would soon come to finish the job. They answered to Mistress Kayltanya, the leader of the Red Mantis in Korvosa, whose base of operations was in Castle Korvosa.
Before more questions could be asked, though, the stone door leading to the pool room suddenly opened, and two large, viscous green tentacles writhed on the other side. They emerged from the dark pool and had seemingly triggered the door’s opening.
Shadowcount Sial gasped in fear: “The Havero… So they were successful in conjuring it after all! It must have been in the dark pool all along…”
Manius and Asyra each attacked one tentacle and wounded it, but they got struck back, hard. Manius was caught by one of the tentacles, and despite his great strength, he was unable to free himself. Realizing that they were in dire straits, Shadowcount Sial used another scroll and touched Manius and Asyra. They vanished and suddenly reappeared in a sinister room decorated with torture devices and symbols of Zon-Kuthon (a skull with chains coming out of its eyes). A stairway led up, and a large stone door stood in a nearby wall. Around them, four dusty mummies lurched to life and approached Manius with hunger in their small glowing eyes.
“The master has returned…” they hissed. “He brings new life with him…”
“This Hellknight is not to be harmed,” ordered Sial, and the undead backed away from Manius.
“Are we in the Bone Tower?” asked Manius.
“Yes, it’s located not too far from the Acropolis.”
“Can we go back to help my friends?”
“As I understand it, there’s currently an emberstorm all around us. The tower is protected from it, but it would be unwise to leave the premises at this time.”
“Can you contact them by magic, then?” asked Manius hopefully.
“I’m afraid that such magic is not available to me at this time. We must trust that they will be resourceful enough to escape this predicament on their own.”
“Otherwise, you might need to consider plan C, master,” said Asyra with a disturbing smile.
The companions were quite surprised to find Shadowcount Sial and Asyra in this unlikely place. Sial explained that he had left Korvosa once it became clear that Queen Ileosa’s power and evil was growing; he sought a way to oppose her. His initial plan had led him here, where the ancient Thassilonian order known as the Thrallkeepers had perfected a variety of summoning rituals. He had been hoping that he could use one of them to conjure something that could defeat Queen Ileosa, but alas, his search had been in vain: many of the writings had been destroyed, and those few that were left were now too incomplete to be usable. In particular, the Thrallkeepers had planned on summoning an immensely powerful creature from the darkness between the stars, but there was no writing describing how to finish their ritual, so it was impossible to replicate it. Shadowcount Sial mused that their attempt might have been interrupted by the great cataclysm that had brought the end of the Thassilonian Empire itself.
“So it seems that I must now consider my plan B…” said the white-haired priest.
“What’s plan B?” asked Kindrasius.
“You are,” replied Sial with a dark grin as he looked at each member of the Harrowed Company.
Shadowcount Sial reminded everyone that they now lived in the Age of Lost Omens: the death of Aroden, the god of humanity, about a hundred years ago, had brought an end to an era during which prophecy could be relied on. The events that many oracles had foretold for centuries had been revealed as lies and false dreams when that great god had died, and many of these seers had perished at their own hands, driven mad by the shock of that realization. Now, in current times, very few had the wisdom, the knowledge, and the power to catch glimpses of the future. Shadowcount Sial claimed to be one of these few. He saw several paths of light that the Harrowed Company could follow; most were dim and led to their demise, but one glowed brighter, and would lead them to victory over Queen Ileosa. It required that they form an alliance with the Sklar-Quah, as they had already guessed. He also saw that his own destiny was intertwined with that of the Harrowed Company: he would need them, and they would need him. If they cooperated, they would both reach their goals.
The conversation was suddenly interrupted by a telepathic message from Ahalak (who shared a Telepathic Bond with Hipazia, Kaeso and Kindrasius). He informed the others that Krojun and his men had entered the Acropolis and were leaving their horses with him before going down the stairs. The companions acknowledged him, but chose to ignore the Shoanti for now. Instead, they searched the nearby rooms. One of them had a statue of Lissala (the goddess of Runes and Knowledge), an idol that was half-woman and half-snake, with a Sihedron rune instead of a head; it was made of gold and jade. Sial explained that the worship of this goddess had ended with the fall of Thassilon. Trinia used her magic to read the Thassilonian runes on the walls: they extolled the virtues of Runelord Karzoug, allegedly the wisest of the seven Runelords who ruled over Thassilon ten thousand years ago.
During their exploration, the ground shook as if by a small earthquake. That seemed strange.
The group studied the shaft of green light and noticed that it had an effect of Feather Fall, allowing users to safely float to the lower level of the complex, 70 feet below. Sial found a secret compartment under the statue of Lissala: a large copper ring that could be fitted over the well of green light, with several metal wedges that could be placed on it, making forms with their shadows on the ceiling. Kaeso found the correct placement for these wedges, which showed a map of the large complex.
Kaeso, Hipazia and Manius then went down the shaft, but before the others could join them, four Red Mantis assassins suddenly appeared: they had been hiding in the shadowy recesses of the ceiling. It was quite unbelievable that nobody had noticed them until now, but it was probably caused by the contrast between the focused bright light of the well and the shadows in the rest of the room. The heroes reacted quickly: Kindrasius shot one of the assassins and Asyra struck another one with two chains that grew from her wrists into weapons. Trinia sang to bolster her allies’ attacks, but was unable to cast a spell due to the disturbance of a nearby assassin. Zeeva was severely wounded, but killed one of the Red Mantis with a thrust of her spear in his throat.
Once again, the ground briefly shook as if by a small earthquake…
Kaeso and Hipazia suddenly appeared to help their comrades, having been transported by Hipazia’s Dimension Door. Manius climbed the rope he had previously attached to the nearby statue of Lissala and also joined the fight. He killed two of the remaining assassins, but the fourth one stabbed Zeeva several times. She fell to the ground, dead! Her companions watched in horror, as their cleric’s life had never been threatened so suddenly and violently before. Kindrasius roared in rage and attacked the Red Mantis with a bite, having transformed into his half-dragon form. Shadowcount Sial rushed to Zeeva’s side and quickly read a scroll that allowed him to breathe a new life into her. She woke up as if by a traumatic rush of adrenaline and let out of a horrible scream of pain, but at least she was alive. Meanwhile, Trinia tripped Zeeva’s assassin with her whip, and Kaeso struck the villain fatally with his rapier and his kukri.
It had been a quick and brutal fight. Zeeva stabilized one of the unconscious Red Mantis assassins to take him prisoner. All the others were killed. Manius had slain one so thoroughly that his mantis helm was badly damaged, one of its antennae hanging askew. The group looted them while Trinia helped Zeeva to heal herself. Zeeva thanked Shadowcount Sial for saving her life, but she then shuddered as she remembered the terrible pain that had brought her back. She would never forget the torment of Zon-Kuthon’s touch. Asyra watched her silently with her eerie red eyes and just the hint of a smile on her lips. Manius wondered about their new allies and tried to detect some Chaos in them, but only found some in Kaeso and Trinia.
The first day of the quest to win the approval of the Sklar-Quah, traveling in the desolate landscape of the Cinderlands, was made easier and safer thanks to Zeeva’s magic (protecting against the heat and providing food and water) and Ahalak’s guidance. Hipazia felt like she was being scried on, as she would again almost every day of the journey. Most of the time, she was able to dispel the sensors, but she and her companions were left wondering who kept on observing them like this.
Kindrasius launched a discussion about the fate of the Shoanti. He spoke of an optimistic view of the future when the Harrowed Company would defeat Queen Ileosa and take control of Korvosa and its holdings as benevolent rulers, with perhaps Hipazia or Zeeva on the Crimson Throne. He voiced his desire that the Shoanti be given some of the lush and fertile land south of the Storval Rise. That only seemed fair to the rest of the group; the least enthusiastic person was, of course, Manius, who has a member of the Order of the Nail had vowed to protect civilization from “savages”.
Fireday, Erastus 27th, 4708
The second day did not start well for Hipazia: as she was getting dressed in her tent at dawn, she was bitten by a large red snake that had curled up in her boot during the night. Thankfully, she survived the venom and was able to quickly slay the creature with a barrage of Magic Missiles. But again, she wondered: was this only a coincidence, or had this snake been placed there by some animal-controlling villain that was spying on the group from afar?
Starday, Erastus 28th, 4708
Around mid-day, the group was attacked by six vicious acid-spitting giant insects called ankhegs as they travelled through a rocky canyon. Ahalak was almost devoured by one of the monsters, getting saved at the last moment by Trinia’s healing touch. Manius also nearly lost his beloved black warhorse during the fight. Thankfully, other than that, the group was able to defeat the creatures with relative ease.
Sunday, Erastus 29th, 4708
On the fourth day of traveling to the Acropolis of the Thrallkeepers, the group found the decomposed head of a Shoanti hunter left as a warning to all others of his kin. Ahalak cursed the devil tshamek that was otherwise known as the Cinderlander: legend had it that he was the ghost of a Chelaxian general whose army had been slaughtered by the Shoanti, and who was now prowling the Cinderlands, slaying lone Shoanti hunters in an attempt to avenge his fallen men. Trinia was very worried by this scary tale.
The group noticed that they were being followed. Using her magic, Hipazia brought most of the Harrowed Company with her to confront the strangers. Once they appeared on the hilltop, the adventurers realized that their mysterious observers were the group of Sklar-Quah warriors that were led by Krojun. The big Shoanti explained that they had followed the tshamek for several days, curious to see what kind of trouble they would get themselves into. The group felt that they didn’t have particularly nasty intentions toward them (something that Hipazia confirmed with another Detect Thoughts spell). When they mentioned the Cinderlander, Krojun growled and said he disagreed with Ahalak: he had caught glimpses of the Cinderlander and believed him to be a living man, just a very cunning and stealthy one. He vowed that he would one day catch him, and kill him.
Kindrasius pondered whether the group could try to find the Cinderlander in an attempt to get in the Sklar-Quah’s good graces. Manius concentrated on the “savages” and did not detect any chaos in them, but noticed that Kaeso, Trinia and Ahalak were all of a chaotic nature.
Moonday, Erastus 30th, 4708
The Acropolis of the Thrallkeepers
The following morning, Zeeva used her magic to speak with the skull of the Cinderlander’s victim. She learned that he had been killed by surprise, but that the Cinderlander indeed seemed to be a Chelaxian man using a crossbow and screaming bolts (like Jolistina). He had a firepelt cougar as a pet. Once she was done, Ahalak performed a Skoan-Quah ritual to put that hunter’s spirit to rest.
Later that morning, the group saw a dragon flying over the Wyvern Mountains, which were now quite close. Not long after that, Ahalak worriedly pointed to the dark clouds gathering to the northeast. An emberstorm was coming, a wave of fire that burned everything on the plains. They had to hurry to reach the Acropolis of the Thrallkeepers and take refuge before the coming of the emberstorm!
Fortunately, the group made it in time. The Acropolis was a set of ancient Thassilonian ruins. They entered the largest and most well-preserved building. A wide stairway passed next to a large side- room where the group left their horses. Ahalak remained behind to watch over them. Hipazia kept a Telepathic Bond with him, in case he got into trouble.
Further down into the ruins, the Harrowed Company found an enormous room with a huge pool of cold, dark and murky water at its center. The black granite walls were decorated with ancient Thassilonian runes. The companions searched this main room, but found nothing magical or dangerous. They chose not to investigate the water. Trinia was worried that this place was dangerous. Kaeso examined a large slab of stone and discovered that it was an unusual door: when he touched the seven-pointed star engraved on it, it slid into the ceiling, revealing a smaller room at the center of which was a well from which emerged a pillar of green light. The rest of the group remained in the pool room, wary of the green light, but Kaeso entered and began to examine it. As he did so, another door/slab in the far wall opened, and two familiar silhouettes emerged from it: Shadowcount Sial and his bodyguard Asyra. For once, Asyra was not wearing heavy robes: her body was only covered in chains. Her devilish nature was now plainly evident, with glowing red eyes and unusually gray skin. Shadowcount Sial smiled confidently at the group: for some reason, he did not seem surprised at all to find them in this unlikely place…
Exactly, as you say, it was fortuitous that they conveniently went along the lines of the adventure of their own initiative! I still find the adventure quite railroady, unfortunately. So far, the players haven't complained much (they're being very cooperative with me), but I fear it may start later in the adventure. We'll see.
After the feast, Thousand Bones and Ash Dancer brought the companions to the cairns where were buried some of the ancestors of the Sklar-Quah from the time of their exile to the Cinderlands. After a long ritual, however, the spirits of the Sklar-Quah categorically refused to reveal anything regarding Ileosa’s crown: they wanted nothing to do with the descendants of those who had stolen their land and who had murdered their families. They seemed to feel little more love for Kindrasius: an estranged Skoan-Quah with cursed dragon blood in his veins…
The Harrowed Company understandably felt quite disheartened by this turn of events… Had they traveled all this way for nothing? Discussing with Ash Dancer and Thousand Bones, the best course of action seemed to be to befriend the Sklar-Quah, but that seemed like an impossible task…
The group then went to see Krojun and the other Sklar-Quah. Kaeso and Kindrasius tried to reason with them, explaining that the war against Korvosa would bring nothing good, but the Sklar-Quah would not be swayed. The adventurers also offered their group’s services against the enemies of the Sklar-Quah such as the giants and the orcs, to prove their good intentions, but again they got rebuffed: accepting the help of tshamek would make the Sklar-Quah appear weak.
Hipazia, however, gleaned some useful information from the exchange via a Detect Thoughts spell. She discovered that Krojun was in fact much more intrigued by the strangers than he let on. Most of all, he was curious about Manius, this mysterious warrior who wore such a strange armor, and who had bested him at his own game. The noblewoman was also surprised to discover that Krojun, this enormous barbarian whom she had glimpsed in Zellara’s latest Harrow reading, felt strong emotions for her despite his stoic demeanour. He found her quite attractive and longed to touch her hair of soft gold…
Within the thoughts of one of Krojun’s companions, she heard mention of a certain Skurak, who had once been accepted into the Sklar-Quah after a feat of heroism. Feeling that this might be the seed of a plan, Hipazia later mentioned this to Thousand Bones, who told the group the legend of Skurak, a warrior of the Sklar-Quah who had been cast out of his clan long ago after killing his brother. He had later redeemed himself by being voluntarily eaten by Cindermaw the Clan-Eater, a gigantic worm that was one of the deadliest predators of the Cinderlands. After cutting himself free from the worm’s entrails with a knife, Skurak had journeyed back to the lands of the Sklar-Quah, where he had been accepted back into his tribe.
The group then started to put together a bold plan to gain the acceptance of the Sklar-Quah. What they finally ended up with was rather convoluted, but seemed like their best hope: they would first travel to the Acropolis of the Thrallkeepers, an ancient Thassilonian ruin where they would get the mark of Desna from a stone globe. This would flag them as allies of another tribe of Shoanti, the nomadic Lyrune-Quah (“Clan of the Moon”) who often traveled near the Wyvern Mountains. Among them, they would find a Truth-Speaker who would bear witness to their survival of Cindermaw’s bite. They would then journey with this Truth-Speaker to the Sklar-Quah, where they would hopefully be accepted within their ranks, and then would come back with a Sun Shaman (one of the spiritual leaders of the Sklar-Quah) back to the Kallow Mounds to speak with the Sklar-Quah ancestors and learn about Ileosa’s crown.
… whew!
The group really didn’t feel confident that this complex scheme would work, but it was their best option at the time, so they decided to go along with it…
Oathday, Erastus 26th, 4708
The following morning, the group said farewell to the Skoan-Quah and left the village. Thousand Bones had given them some potions, wands and magical war paint to help them in their journey. What’s more, Ahalak would be traveling with them as a guide. They heard nothing from Krojun and his peers: they had already left the camp before they woke up.
Spoiler:
I offered the group to take the 4 Boneslayers with them, but they found that it would make too big a group, so they preferred to take only Ahalak with them. I didn’t push the issue, since the group is bound to get bigger in the next adventure.
The Harrowed Company arrived at the Kallow Mounds, the main settlement of the Skoan-Quah (Clan of the Skull), Kindrasius’s tribe. Although he still remembered almost nothing of his childhood in this place, due to a trauma he had suffered as a teenager, Kindrasius (known as Bagas-Tawoga among his people) felt that the place was somehow familiar. Most the Skoan-Quah regarded the tshamek (the word for strangers in Shoanti) with a mix of curiosity and apprehension. Many of them had never actually seen a tshamek before.
The travelers were welcomed by their old friend Thousand Bones, as well as by One-Life (the chief of the Skoan-Quah) and Ash Dancer, an aged shaman who turned out to be none other than Kindrasius’s mother. A wingless dragonne also rested on a nearby hill, ready to defend the Shoanti village. Although few of the villagers recognized Kindrasius, the strangers were well received in the village, as Ahalak and Thousand Bones had told the clan about their heroic actions in recovering Gaekhen’s remains.
While the others were led to a tent they could use to rest and refresh themselves, Kindrasius spent some time with his mother. As the Shoanti are made hard by their tough way of living, both remained quite stoic and unemotional in each other’s presence. Ash Dancer touched her son’s shoulders and hands, noticing the signs of his draconic heritage. She nodded and informed him that his father, Sagwiva, also had the blood of the blue dragons running in his veins. But Kindrasius had never shown signs of having inherited it as a child. On the Storval Plateau, blue dragons were vicious monsters, and the human mixed-breeds who bore their blood in their veins were generally shunned by the Shoanti.
Kindrasius had disappeared during his rite of manhood, in which he had ventured into a cave inhabited by the spirits. Not long after his disappearance, his father had gone in search of him, but had never returned either. Despite trying to reach them with her magic, Ash Dancer had never heard back from them since today. Kindrasius now supposed that he had perhaps heard his mother’s voice within the deranged chorus haunting his shattered mind, but had never paid it attention. Only in recent months, through his adventures within the Harrowed Company, had his sanity begun to return.
Meanwhile, the others explained to Thousand Bones in greater detail the reason for their journey: they needed more information about that sinister crown that seemed to give Queen Ileosa so much power. Thousand Bones guessed that it was indeed some ancient evil that the Shoanti had once guarded, however, he said that it had been another clan, the warlike Sklar-Quah, who had been watching over it before the Chelaxians drove them away from the region, three hundred years ago. He offered to speak with the spirits of the Sklar-Quah ancestors that night, in the presence of the Harrowed Company.
Suddenly, the discussion was interrupted by angry shouts from outside. The companions followed Thousand Bones out of the tent and saw that a group of seven Shoanti had recently arrived. They appeared quite different from the Skoan-Quah, who in general looked much like Kindrasius: tall, thin and long-haired. The newcomers were more muscular and had all shaved their heads. The largest of them was a towering giant of a man who wielded an earthbreaker over his shoulder as he growled at Chief One-Life in the Shoanti tongue. Not far from him lay the covered body of Berak, a fallen warrior, which they had brought to be buried alongside their ancestors in the cairns watched over by the Skoan-Quah.
Thousand Bones briefly described these warriors as members of the Sklar-Quah (“Sun Clan”), the most warlike and xenophobic of the seven quahs (“tribes”) of the Shoanti. The biggest of them was called Krojun Eats-What-He-Kills.
“Why do the Skoan-Quah harbor tshamek trespassers?” demanded Krojun in a menacing voice.
“Tell me, Krojun,” replied Thousand Bones as Chief One-Life struggled to find an answer, “when did the Sklar-Quah become judges of who trespasses on the Kallow Mounds where the ashes of our fathers lie?”
“You change the question, Thousand Bones,” replied the hulking warrior with a sneer. “These ones bring trouble to the Cinderlands, and you know it. The coming days shall reveal to us all who is right about them.”
“Perhaps. But not today, and not here. Would you have word of Berak’s burial tainted by bloodshed get back to your Sun Shaman?”
Krojun paused, the cords in his neck straining, but then he exhaled and grinned. “You misunderstand me, Thousand Bones. My grief has wounded my words. But see to it that no tshamek defiles our memories here.”
Kindrasius then challenged Krojun to a duel to prove that the tshamek were not as weak as he implied. So Manius (who needed to have the conversation translated to him by Hipazia) found himself “volunteered” for a game of Sredna against Krojun. The two large men got down on all fours and a strap of leather was tied behind their heads. For several long moments, they glared and cursed at each other in their respective languages, and then they began to pull back harder and harder on the leather cord, struggling against the rising pain that it was causing at the back of their skulls. The Shoanti had gathered in a circle around them; sadly for Kaeso, none of them wanted to bet on the outcome of the match.
Finally, after a long struggle, Manius emerged victorious in this challenge. Krojun roared and flailed around in the dirt as the Hellknight got back to his feet. Then, the big barbarian stood up and grinned at Manius. “You pull like an aurochs dam in heat, little tshamek. Well done!”
“What did he say?” asked Manius.
“He just called you a cow…” replied Kaeso.
This was the group’s first encounter with the warlike Sklar-Quah; once Krojun was out of earshot, Thousand Bones worriedly informed the Harrowed Company that the Sklar-Quah were planning to wage war against Korvosa, having heard about the city’s weakened state after the riots and the plague. They saw it as their chance to finally reclaim the lands that had once been there, despite the protests of Thousand Bones and the other peace-loving Skoan-Quah, who were looked down upon as being weak and of dishonouring the legacy of their ancestors by making deals with the tshamek.
The companions noticed mixed reactions in the village after the Sredna match. Some of the Shoanti were disappointed that one of their heroes had been bested by a tshamek, but others were glad that the bully Krojun had finally been beaten.
That evening, the group shared a great meal with the Skoan-Quah around a bonfire. Kindrasius, Kaeso and Trinia traded stories with the natives, and they also danced with them. Zeeva remained much quieter, preferring to speak with Thousand Bones. She had earlier accompanied him to visit the cairn where Gaekhen had been placed to rest.
Height: 6’4”. Weight: 160 lbs, Age: 24, Hair: Black, Eyes: Green.
This tall and thin man has long black hair and is dressed in dark, patched-up studded leather armor. He wears a black tricorn hat and a black cloak with a hood.
Main equipment: Holy longbow +1 [+2 str], Mithral chainshirt +1, Masterwork earthbreaker, Wand of Cure Light Wounds (21 charges), Flask of curses, Bag of Holding Type 1, Wand of Tongues (11 charges), Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds (30 charges), Cloak of resistance +1, Ring of protection +2, Headband of charisma +2.
Main equipment: Quarterstaff (bonded item), Spellbook, Cloak of resistance +1, Bracers of armor +2, Ring of protection +1, Pearl of power (level 1), Belt of dexterity +2, Headband of intellect +2 (Knowledge: Dungeoneering), Amulet of natural armor +1.
Main equipment: Hellknight armor +3, Heavy Flail +1, Ring of Feather Falling, Amulet of natural armor +1, Cloak of resistance +2, Ring of protection +1, Boots of striding and springing, Red Mantis helm, Belt of strength +2.
Height: 5’6”. Weight: 130 lbs, Age: 25, Hair: Black, Eyes: Brown, Date of birth: Abadius 25th, 4683.
This attractive woman has pale skin and long jet-black hair. It is clear that she is of noble birth from the elegance of her gestures and speech. It is also obvious that she lived some traumatic events in her past, judging by the haunted look that often comes over her sad, dark eyes.
Feats: Selective Channeling, Extra Channeling, Power Attack, Weapon focus (longspear), Toughness, Scribe Scroll.
Traits: Love Lost (orphaned), Rich Parents.
Main equipment: Breastplate +1, Longspear +1, Light Crossbow, Headband of wisdom +2, Cloak of resistance +3, Handy haversack, Belt of constitution +4, Ring of protection +2.
The companions stayed in Janderhoff for a week, resting from their recent ordeals, and trading with the dwarves for more powerful weapons, armors and items to add to their arsenal. Now and then, Hipazia felt that she or someone close to her was the target of scrying, but she was able to dispel these magical sensors. Zeeva and Hipazia used their magic to stay in contact with other allies and acquaintances. They learned that Ziria Fordyce (Kaeso’s young flame) was safely at her family’s estate in Palin’s Cove and had not been indoctrinated into the Gray Maidens. Serrian Jeggare had retrieved Marguerite’s body in Harse and vowed that someone would pay for what had happened to her.
A response from Nicklod Starweather bore great news indeed: with the help of Blackjack and Lady Zenderholm, he had been able to free Field Marshal Kroft from below Longacre Building, saving her from becoming another Gray Maiden! They were now all part of the growing resistance.
One day, Kindrasius was approached by a mysterious person who turned out to be in fact none other than Trinia Sabor in disguise. The beautiful young artist told him about her recent adventures since they had parted company: she had helped defend a town from bandits, and had joined a group of dwarves who explored dangerous caves. She was now more of an adventurer than before, and moved as she was by Kindrasius’ tale of how bad things had become in Korvosa, she asked to join the Harrowed Company in their journey to the Cinderlands.
(OOC: Trinia is now Kindrasius’s cohort.)
One evening, Zellara appeared once again in front of the heroes and gave them another reading of the Harrow. Now was a time for battle, and strength would be a necessary attribute. The ghostly woman sensed that the Harrowed Company had grown very strong indeed. Everyone got a reading from her; in general, Zellara made a parallel between the characters’ recent exile from Korvosa and the flight of the Shoanti when they were driven out of their lands by the Chelaxians centuries ago. Once again, the companions each drew a special card and saw a glimpse of what lay in their future:
Kaeso: the Fiend. A beautiful red-haired woman in a Red Mantis outfit…
Hipazia: the Paladin. A massive Shoanti warrior.
Kindrasius: the Cyclone. A monstrous mass of dark tentacles emerging from water.
Zeeva: the Bear. An enormous sand worm devouring a tiny humanoid figure.
Manius: The Forge (his personal card from the very first harrowing) A rugged man with a repeating crossbow in his hands.
Wealday, Erastus 25th, 4708
The Cinderlands
Finally came the time for the Harrowed Company to resume their quest. They said their good-byes to Seneschal Kalepopolis, Heldrin, Mouse and Halvara, who would remain in Janderhoff, as well as to Laori and Salvator, who were headed to Kaer Maga (the dwarven city was most certainly not to their liking).
After a day’s journey north, the companions reached the foot of the Storval Rise and they made their way to its top with many Dimension Door spells cast by Hipazia. The following day, they journeyed through the arid wasteland of the Cinderlands. Thankfully, they were protected from the heat and thirst by Zeeva’s divine magic, but they still disliked the wind and dust. They saw the exotic fauna and flora around them, as well as ruins of huge ancient Thassilonian monuments, half-buried in the dirt. This was by far the most exotic journey any of them remembered taking (even counting Kindrasius, since he did not recall his childhood years in this place).
Near the end of the day, they were approached by a group of wary Shoanti in a rocky valley. One of them was Ahalak, a warrior of Thousand Bones’s troop they had met in Korvosa earlier. He was pleased to recognize Kindrasius (a.k.a. Bagas-Tawoga among the Shoanti), as well as the helpful Tshamek he traveled with. “Thousand Bones said you would come,” he said with a smile in the Shoanti tongue. Hipazia, Kaeso and Trinia understood that language and were able to have a conversation with the natives, but Manius and Zeeva felt a bit left out. Kaeso told them a few simple phrases, but when Manius informed Ahalak that he had three testicles, the Shoanti’s confused look and Kaeso’s sudden burst of laughter caused the Hellknight to realize he had been duped…
=========================
A HISTORY OF ASHES
=========================
Moonday, Erastus 16th, 4708
Janderhoff
The Harrowed Company and their friends traveled for another day toward Janderhoff. Kaeso felt much worse than usual: he was wracked with guilt at having killed the highly-desirable and high-born Lady Marguerite Jeggare. Hipazia was also sad because of the death of the young woman, but saw it from a more rational stance. She observed that Queen Ileosa seemed to be systematically going after Korvosa’s most attractive young women, enslaving and mutilating them.
Thirsty for revenge, Kaeso asked Zeeva to scribe a scroll of Sending so that he could talk directly to Queen Ileosa. He sent this message to the monarch: ”I know what you did to train your Gray Maidens. I’m going to kill you, fatass. I’ll raise you as my pet zombie.”. The queen replied to him with: ”When you get tired of running and hiding, come play with me, little mouse. Meow.”
The companions also discussed the role of other powerful characters in Korvosa, especially the masters of the Acadamae. They already knew that Togomor had ties to the cult of Urgathoa and that Professor Karpangram was linked to the treatment of Gray Maidens, but they wondered if, and how, Lord Toff Ornelos was involved with the queen’s nefarious schemes.
The group finally reached an agreement about Elvira’s fate: Zeeva used a Plane Shift spell to send her to heaven in the hopes that a benevolent spirit would take pity on her and cure her affliction. Hipazia placed a note on her explaining her condition. Zeeva later used her magic to send messages to the three powerful clerics they knew in Korvosa: Lady Zenderholm, Archbanker Tuttle and Bishop Keppira: ”We have the following: Seneschal with us, proof that the queen is true evil, the Gray Maidens are captured tortured souls. Beware the queen.” She received a reply from each: Lady Zenderholm was now in hiding and had been contacted by Blackjack for a specific mission. Bishop Keppira was offering shelter in the Gray District for enemies of the crown. Archbanker Tuttle remained neutral in light of recent events, his main goal being the well-being of his church and of Korvosan citizens, regardless of who sat on the Crimson Throne.
At the end of the day, the companions finally reached the dwarven city of Janderhoff, where they found some discreet shelter thanks to Heldrin’s connections.
Posts
