Our Strange Aeons campaign will be using the expanded fear, sanity, and corruption rules from Horror Adventures and a variant on the Hero Point rules which I posted HERE. We are also using Flaws (1 Flaw taken at first level gets you an extra Feat) and Drawbacks as optional. All characters use a 20-point buy for ability scores.
Of interesting note, several players chose to have their characters made up partially or totally by someone else. They entered the game having no idea what their characters were or what they could do. It made for a very interesting first session!
Oh, and before I forget:
If you are one of my players, you can read all you like as you already played all the stuff written here, obviously. ;)
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Session the First:
(Part One)
Five people and a cat stood in an unfamiliar alley while all around them was a wall of sickly yellow fog, tumbling through the canyon of crumbling, gray brick walls like a flash flood. Ahead of them, the alley split to the left and right. Behind them, from the silent swell of mist, emerged the sound of footsteps—slow, but somehow keeping pace with the careening and aggressive wave.
The man in armor drew his sword, while the others tried to get their bearings. The alley walls were sagging and nearly blotted out the twilight sky. The two paths diverged greatly with one route curving uphill, while the other recklessly descended. Behind, the yellow fog and the relentless sound of pursuit grew closer.
A woman with different coloured eyes prepared to cast a spell as the armored man took a defensive stance. The others were confused and continued to question what action they should take while the cat arched her back, fluffed her fur, and hissed. The mist parted mere steps behind them. A mask of gray rags emerged, strips of something fleshier than fabric worming and constricting across a body that was almost humanlike—but too lean, and far too flexible. Gauzy gray ribbons reached out like tendrils, each grasping for less doubtful flesh to claim.
A woman wearing glasses ran away, while another woman moved in and stabbed it with a rapier, while another woman wearing the same clothes as the rapier wielder ran off, followed by the cat. The creature slashed at the woman who stabbed it, even though she had done no noticeable damage. The tattered form used what looked like a massive razor blade, and cut deeply, blood splattering on the cobblestones.
The creature’s nature fouled the air around it, causing those who were still near to feel uneasy. The strange eyed woman cast a spell which diminished the fear and used her eyes to weaken the creatures will. The man in armor struck the creature with his sword and opened a nasty wound on it. He moved between the creature and the others and said, “Go! I’ll hold him back!”
The others fled except for the woman who struck the creature with the rapier, who struck again before retreating. The creature then turned its attention solely on the man in armor, dropping its razor and attacking with its claws. It ripped the man in armor apart, blood spraying everywhere. As the blood splattered against the walls of the alley, they formed the word “ME”.
The cat found a place to hide as the tattered figure continued its pursuit. The dead man’s mouth opened and said the word “ME”, echoing through the alleys. As they fled, one of the women encountered the creature, even though she had been running away from it. It tore her to bits, and the blood splatter formed the word “UP”. Her corpse spoke the words “UP ME” as the creature continued. The voice was not hers.
The woman who struck it with the rapier turned the corner and ran right into the creature. The cat ran after these women, as they smelled familiar to her. She charged in and tried to defend her only remaining person. The cat managed to claw it twice, but like her person left no noticeable marks. It then proceeded to kill the woman, her blood splattering after multiple slashes and gouges. The blood formed the word “Save” and the odd voice now spoke the words “Me Up Save!”
The cat ran back into hiding as did the two remaining women. The footsteps reverberated through the fog and it located the woman with the odd eyes and killed her, but no new word came forth. It then hunted down and found the woman in glasses and began to attack her. She tried to fight back but was unable to strike the monster and the tattered creature tore her apart. This time the blood formed the word “Wake” and the words “Me Up Save Wake!” were spoken by the voice.
The cat realized it was “Wake UP! Save me!” and that they were in the Dreamlands. She exerted her power and told the rest of the party to wake up, returning them to the waking world. The cat decided to keep her intellect intact as she woke as something was obviously very amiss. The world of the alleys and fog faded out…
…and the party awoke in another nightmare. The five people groggily regained consciousness in grimy cells in a dungeon they didn’t recognize without their weapons or equipment. Each had a bloody nose, but that is the only injury they each sustained. The woman who wore the eyeglasses was in a cell all alone without her spectacles, while the one with the odd eyes was with one of the women who had used the rapier on the creature. She couldn’t tell if it was the same woman or not as she and the fourth woman looked alike. The lone man, who had been in armour, was with the second of these look-alike women in a third cell. The two cells could see the lone woman without her eyeglasses in her cell, but not into each other’s.
“Wake up, damn it!” a man on a table screamed, his panic cutting through the claustrophobic near dark. Bars separated them from the stranger, a struggling human with split lips and skin covered in a mapwork of fresh red lines. Heavy ropes lashed the man to a splintery worktable.
Another figure, unsettlingly thin and wearing a blood-smeared doctor’s coat, circled the table casually— stopping every so often to scrutinize one of the man’s wounds or select a different object from a sideboard of shiny blades. She was spinning one blade of a broken pair of pruning shears. With careless cruelty, the doctor drew the blade across the bound man’s bare thigh, releasing a tortured wail.
The man who had the armor in the dream tried the door to his cell, but it was locked. The strange eyed woman got the gaze of the woman and tried to use charm person on the doctor but it had no effect. She then tried to engage the doctor in conversation but was told, “to wait her turn.” The doctor then began contemplating what to do to her victim next.
One of the identical women in the cell with the muscled man noticed a key ring on the doctor’s belt. She made noise trying to get the doctor’s attention and the doctor grew frustrated. She whirled around to face the prisoner making the ruckus and the doctor’s face transformed into an exact duplicate of the her and her duplicate. She said, “Quiet!” before reverting to her original form and turning back to her victim.
The odd eyed woman recognized the doctor as a doppelganger, a creature capable of changing her appearance and immune to some spells. She cast disguise self to make herself look like the doctor and told her that “I can do that to!” As she turned to look, the man on the table kicked out with a leg he got free and slammed her into the cell bars where the two women were held. They grabbed at her and tried to get the keys. They got them before she shook them free and they worked at opening their cell door.
The doctor turned to attack them and her hands turned into claws. She attacked the even-eyed woman in the now open cell and opened a nasty gash on her chest. The freed women threw the keys to the near-sighted woman across the hall and she opened her cell door. The twin moved past the doppelganger with a swift movement and went to the table and picked up a fork.
The near-sighted woman opened her cell and moved to free the last two prisoners. The woman in that cell tried to unlock the door with an improvised hair pin but failed. The odd-eyed woman cast a daze spell and stopped the doppelganger from acting. As the fork wielding woman attacked, the near-sighted woman freed the last two. The freed prisoners went to the table and picked up weapons. The odd-eyed woman kept the doppelganger dazed as they group moved into position to fight.
The two identical women moved into flanking position on the doppelganger with the second with a half shear and the man moved in and struck her hard with his fist enhanced with holy power. The doppelganger managed to throw off the dazing as the near-sighted woman freed the man on the table. Realizing that she was in trouble, the doctor tried to flee. The fork wielding woman managed to get a nasty strike to the neck with the fork, killing the monster.
The muscled man from the dream tended the tortured man on the table, who passed out as his wounds were tended to. They began searching the area and they found that one wall was collapsed and there was an empty furnace. They determined that bodies were disposed of in the furnace and as they checked, a distant rumble shook the building and dust trickled down from the ceiling. They found most of the gear they had in the dream in sacks by the furnace. The warrior’s shield and tabard had the holy symbol of Iomedae on them. They found a masterwork viol among the discarded clothing and junk as well without a bow.
The more expensive parts of their gear they found in sacks by the only remaining door out of the place. As they went through their gear (including eyeglasses) they used a mirror to get what they looked like. None of them had any memory of who they were or how they came to be there together. The two people they assumed were twin sisters began bickering over who got to carry what gear and the money.
Lacking memory of their names, the one with glasses came up with a simple naming system for group. Alpha was the man (or “Muscles” as one of the twins called him), Beta was the money carrying twin, Gamma was the other twin (or “My-face” as Beta called her), Delta was the attractive woman with different coloured eyes, and Omega was the near-sighted woman. Now fully equipped and as healed as they could be, they proceed out of the dungeon to get help.
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Session the First:
(Part Two)
They entered what appeared to be a cellar of some sort. A broad chute extended diagonally through one of the half-crumbled stone walls. Beneath it lay heaped more than a dozen mutilated humanoid bodies. Nearby, a flight of rickety, wooden steps climbed toward the high ceiling. The smell of rot and decay in the room was nearly overwhelming, and the buzz of flies hanged in the air. Over in an alcove opposite the chute and corpse pile was a small cage in which the cat from the dream stared out at the group.
The twins unlocked the cage, but the cat waited until it looked like it was her choice as to when she was leaving the cage to get up and join the rest of the group. Alpha was the least affectionate or attentive to the cat, so she rubbed up against him more that the others. They decided to refer to her as “Miffens” for the time being.
Omega and Alpha managed to determine that the bodies were about sixteen hours dead and had been tore apart by claws. Many of them were dressed in the same type of uniforms as the doctor doppelganger. The stairs led to a blocked passage of rubble, leaving no exit. They checked for secret passages but finding none they got tables from the dungeon/furnace room and broke them up to place over the bodies to get access to the chute without touching the corpses.
Miffens rode on Alpha up to the chute then she took an end of a silk rope up the chute in her mouth. Then she used her claws to tie the rope in place then knotted it before sending it down the chute to aid the others. Omega commented, “There is something very unusual about this cat.” The group made it up to the top and brought the unconscious man with them. They found themselves in some sort of empty storage shed.
Outside the shed they found trampled flowerbeds smeared and squashed across a muddy courtyard. On all sides, stark gray walls climbed toward a narrow gap of sunless sky. They found a single door to their right; all other exits were gone. They sent Beta up the wall to look out over to see what could be seen. She found that they were in a building with at least one courtyard that they were in. They were surrounded by the same yellow mists from their dream. She came down and they decided to try the door.
The cat listened at the door and heard someone down a hall. She indicated this to the best of her non-verbal ability. Omega picked Miffens up to check gender, to much protest from the cat. They cautiously opened the door and moved inside, Alpha in the lead. Down the hall from where they entered was a makeshift barrier and guards who challenged them immediately. They called for their Captain, a man named Vaustin York. He refused to let them pass as he and the guards were suspicious that the party might be doppelgangers. The appearance of Beta and Gamma brought concern, but they were most concerned about Delta. They told Delta that she didn’t look quite like “her”; Delta’s facial features were “not quite right”, she” didn’t have a white streak in “her” hair as Delta did, and the eyes were reversed.
This led to more confusion, but finally got that they were in Briarstone Asylum and that they might be willing to consider the party truthful if they brought three doppelganger bodies to them. Otherwise they couldn’t risk infiltration. They would take the wounded man, since they could determine if he wasn’t truly unconscious. The party agreed and then went up the hallway to where the doppelgangers were supposed to be as indicated by the guards.
The cat listened at the next door and she scratched at the door, indicating something was in there. They opened the door and they found iron boilers with their pipes piercing the walls and ceiling. Shadows and rust filled the narrow gaps between the cold tanks. The cat sensed something “unnatural” and she growled. Low-level light in a cone came out from underneath the boilers and moved across the floor.
Beta threw a dagger under the boilers and hit something. Three massive rats came out with a smaller creature that had glowing eyes and tentacles around its mouth. Alpha and Miffens moved in and the combination of his sword and her claw killed the strange monstrosity dead. One rat bit both Alpha and Miffens each. Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omega attacked, killing one and wounding another. Alpha killed the two remaining rats easily.
Alpha determined the creature was a zoog, a monster from the Dreamlands which are opposed by cats on that plane. Miffens claimed the kill of the zoog for her people and then checked out the space under the boiler. She rolled out two unused sunrods and dragged out a potion. Omega determined the potion was cure light wounds. They gave the potion to Gamma to heal her up before moving on.
They then came across two storage rooms which they searched. The cat brought out a hammer, a lantern, and three winter blankets from the first room. As she searched the second room, she startled four giant centipedes. Alpha and Beta moved in and killed one each, Beta killed a second one and the last one was killed by Miffens. She then continued her search and pulled out 10 feet of chain, two more winter blankets, a set of manacles, and a tarnished silver necklace.
Continuing, they came to an office where the walls between the hall and the office had largely collapsed, exposing debris-cluttered desks, toppled lockers, and several bodies that almost looked human. One was alive, an elderly grandmotherly figure begging for help. Miffens sniffed closely and determined it wasn’t a human. “Cursed beast!” the figure snarled and turned into a male doppelganger that promptly attacked.
Delta hit with her crossbow for a nasty hit. The doppelganger hit Alpha with his claw as Omega hit with her rapier, piercing its side. Gamma moved in and pierced its heart, killing it. They then searched the rubble and found a wooden holy symbol of Pharasma, a small steel mirror, and a pair of gaudy red leather boots with cat skin lining that royally offended Miffens. Omega also found a masterwork silver dagger in a locker full of what looked like grass-stained hunter’s clothes.
The hallway was getting quite cluttered with rubble and it eventually became blocked entirely between two doors and there was a body in the rubble. As Miffens and Alpha moved up, the corpse animated and began to try and attack them. The corpse clawed Miffens and then Alpha hit the corpse with his sword. Then the body exploded, and the rotting viscera reached out and began to entangle them. Alpha killed the head and Miffens took out the hand. Gamma got bound up by the entrails.
The remaining clawed hand attacked Gamma with a small slice and then Beta finished it off. The viscera settled down and the party—after a moment of pause—continued to uncover the doors. They found a freshwater pearl necklace on what was left of the corpse and then they finished clearing the rubble.
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I’ll be introducing each character after each of the first six session summaries to get people familiar with their stats. Names will come later, obviously. First let’s start with the most unusual character, my sister’s Dreamlands Cat!
Name ????? (Miffens) (Player: Tanya Roy)
Female dreamlands cat unchained rogue (prowler) 1 (Pathfinder Unchained 20, Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos 10, 82)
N Tiny magical beast
Hero Points 1
Init +3; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +6
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Defense
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AC 16, touch 16, flat-footed 12 (+3 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 size)
hp 10 (1d8+2)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +2; +2 trait bonus vs. fear and emotion effects
Defensive Abilities land on your feat, nine lives
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +5 (1d3-3), 2 claws +5 (1d2-3)
Space 2½ ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks prowling strike, sneak attack (unchained) +1d6
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Statistics
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Str 4, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 17
Base Atk +0; CMB +1; CMD 9 (13 vs. trip)
Feats Dodge, Skill Focus (Bluff), Weapon Finesse
Traits enduring stoicism, orphaned, solitary, strength foretold
Flaws Spell vulnerability
Skills Acrobatics +7 (+14 to avoid provoking AoO), Bluff +10, Climb +11, Diplomacy +3 (+1 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Disable Device +5, Escape Artist +11, Intimidate +8, Perception +6, Perform (sing) +7, Sense Motive +2 (+0 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Sleight of Hand +7, Stealth +19, Survival +7, Swim +7; Racial Modifiers +4 Climb, +4 Escape Artist, +4 Stealth
Languages Cat, Common, Varisian
SQ Dreamlands travel, moon jump, pride
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Special Abilities
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Dreamlands Travel (Su) Sense nearby Gates of Slumber within 1 mile radius at will.
Land on Your Feat (Ex) Treat any fall as if it were 20 ft. less than the actual distance of the fall.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in dim light, distinguishing color and detail.
Moon Jump (2/night) (Su) While in the Dreamlands jump to the moon up to twice a night.
Nine Lives (9 lives) (Su) Self resurrect up to eight times.
Pride -2 to diplomacy and sense motive vs. those who threaten, accuse, or challenge you, until they apologize
Prowling Strike (Ex) Enter an exit adjacent creature's spae without provoking an AoO.
Scent (Ex) Detect opponents within 15+ ft. by sense of smell.
Sneak Attack (Unchained) +1d6 Attacks deal extra dam if flank foe or if foe is flat-footed.
Realizing something had gone wrong though unable to determine what that was, the cat retained her intellect on returning to the waking world to deal with whatever threat was present. Even though her pulse was pounding in her ears when she awoke in the asylum, she felt strangely nonplussed. She recognized that the situation she found herself in was horrific, but she refused to let that fear control her. It didn’t feel like it was worth worrying over too much. She knew that when she faced unspeakable forces, keeping her cool would keep her alive.
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Session the Second:
When they finished clearing away the rubble, they managed to open a door into what appeared to be a sizable laundry. Three figures were chained in a large alcove on the opposite wall. One was a human in stained yellow sheets wrapped around him like robes and a flame shaped chalk mark on his forehead, a female human corpse with an arm stripped of flesh, and a humanoid figure eating the corpse, stripping meat off with its teeth. Omega identified it as a ghoul, an undead obsessed with devouring dead flesh.
Alpha decided to destroy the undead abomination and managed to dispatch it quickly, though not without receiving a nasty bite. Miffens sniffed the surviving human and confirmed with a brip that it was a human and not a doppelganger. They tried talking to the person who was chained up, but all they could get out of him were the words, “praise,” “words fail,” and “Zandalus sees!” They found a strange eye with an x-shaped pupil that followed them when they looked at it in the pockets of the dead woman, but otherwise found noting else.
They freed the shackled man and escorted him to the guards who held him. They then moved farther into the laundry through another door. In the next room they found several wide tables and gigantic washbasins. The place looked as though it was re-purposed as a failed surgery, with at least one table heaped with remains while corpses lay discarded in corners. A stained sheet was hanged between two of the basins, dividing the room roughly in half. A lantern shone on the far side and projected the silhouette of a doppelganger on it.
Miffens sneaked up to the curtain but could not see any doppelganger on the other side. She did detect a ghoul in the last basin and saw a body on a table against the back wall. She went back and reported as best she could that something was up, and the party proceeded cautiously. They killed the ghoul with minimal effort and began inspecting the area. When they prodded the body on the table with a rapier, the body moaned as if in great pain. But Miffens hissed indicating it wasn’t human. The body got up off the table and revealed herself to be a doppelganger and struck out with her dagger.
Alpha flanked with Miffens and Gamma, as Omega took a nasty wound from the dagger. The party finished off the doppelganger with a flurry of rapier, longsword, and claw attacks. They searched the area and found a fancy backpack with extra dimensional spaces in it. Within they found some money, a magic pearl (which became a cat toy), as well as a phylactery. They also found a large six-foot mirror, but left it as having no value to them.
They collected up the three doppelganger bodies and returned them to the guards. With that proof the guards were willing to give them a chance, though they would still be under watch and hand to surrender their weapons. They escorted the party to meet the leader of the survivors in the chapel of Pharasma. Improvised pallets were clustered beneath sculpted divinities, and cooking fires burned beneath cracked windows in the chapel. Panes of violet and blue stained-glass formed spiraling patterns between prison-like bars, while dozens of candles flickered from modest alcove shrines. The shrines were dedicated to several gods beyond Pharasma, including Abadar, Desna, Erastil, Gozreh, Iomedae, Irori, Sarenrae, Shelyn, and even a modest donation box beneath the symbols of Asmodeus and Zon-Kuthon.
They were taken to a beautiful woman with long dark hair and hetero-chromatic eyes, exactly like Delta only her amber eye was on the left and the green on the right. Indeed, they looked very similar to each other, though it wasn’t an exact duplicate and the survivor leader did not have a white streak in her hair. She was as surprised as the party about this; indeed, she and Delta could be sisters. She introduced herself as Winter Klaczka, priestess of Pharasma. She had been raised in the cathedral in Caliphas and had been left there by poor farmers some twenty-two years before; she knew nothing of any other family and the farmers had moved on long before she could contact them. She couldn’t say whether she and Delta were related or not. She told them they were in an asylum and that something dreadful had happened in the last week, but they were not sure exactly what.
Winter asked them to help with tending the survivors while she saw to some other affairs. She gave them some healing that she had available and then listed out some chores they could help with before leaving them for a while. She warned them off heading down the corridor heading east as something rather disturbing was growing on the wall there. She then excused herself and went about her tasks.
Alpha treated a boy with bite wounds all over his body named Bates Yopchick and was able get them properly dressed. Miffens comforted a woman named Airwynn Savoia who had a broken arm, purring and rubbing against the non-damaged arm.
Delta used her mesmerist abilities to charm a patient named Loic Ulsohnen who was very agitated. It was then very easy for her to persuade him to take his medication, getting gratitude from the nurse, Naysa Walika, who has been trying to calm him down. Naysa told Delta that, “she was very much like her sister!” Delta corrected her that the relationship with Winter was not certain, though Naysa shrugged and said it seemed very likely to her.
Afterwards, the group worked together to make food out of the scrounged rations, and Miffens stopped them from ruining it by pointing out some things with her paws and warding off the wrong choices with a hiss and a swat. The meal was very good and raised morale among the survivors considerably. Alpha set Airwynn’s arm properly and saw the group as real assets.
Winter came over to them and brought them some bowls of onion broth and dried venison. In a drafty corner around a small fire, she gladly answered the questions of the party. From Winter they learned that they were in Briarstone Asylum, a hospice stuck on a rock sitting in the Danver River. It was a sanitarium where the doctors here endeavored to treat and learn more about diseases of the mind. Winter was a sister of Maiden’s Choir Cathedral in Caliphas. She and her associates were helping a Royal Accuser investigate strangeness in Thrushmoor.
The Royal Accusers, Beta and Gamma seemed to know for some reason, were secretive agents of the Ustalavic crown warranted to enforce laws and exact justice without regard for the nation’s baroque hierarchy of titles and rank. They had a reputation for harsh justice, acting on matters of national importance, and quietly ending noble dynasties. Their mention made the twins nervous, though why they could not say. When the party asked about their own identities, Winter apologized for not having a clue. She told them they wouldn’t be the first people to have lost themselves there.
When they asked about leaving, Winter told them it was as if the outside world had turned against them. The hospice was surrounded by some repulsive vapor and the weather beyond was worse—thunder like laughter, rain like blood. And there were shapes that scampered and flapped within, vague forms that knew when they slept.
The head of the asylum was a Doctor Eliege Losandro. Winter met her only once and she seemed like a capable administrator… but then the revolt happened. A patient led an uprising that was somewhat like a religious movement. Most of the northern halls were now held by robed patients like the one the party rescued from the laundry who call themselves Apostles in Orpiment. Those they’d encountered were fanatically devoted to a patient named Ulver Zandalus.
When asked about the doppelgangers and monsters, Winter was at a loss. Wherever they came from, they apparently emerged soon after the revolt. What was strange was that some of the patients and asylum staff said that, in the nights before the uprising, they had nightmares of exactly the sorts of things that were now stalking the halls.
When they asked about thing growing on the wall down the hall, Winter hesitated and told them they just left it alone, but it would have to be dealt with if they were to escape out the main entrance, which was her plan. She plead with the party to deal with it and check the main entrance. They agreed and she thanked them.
The party rested for the evening to get completely healed and refreshed for the next day’s challenge, sleeping in the chapel with the other survivors. They headed down the hall and pulled back the curtain that the survivors had placed there. They found a gigantic eye gazing from the center of a fungus-like wall, with faint sobs coming from it. They had Miffens paw at it, but it just seemed like a sticky, wet eye. Beta prodded it with a rapier and the eye formed fang teeth in the pupil which then bit her. After attacking, the eye-mouth screamed, “Who am I become?” in three overlapping, drowned-sounding voices, then cried a 1-pint tear of ammonia. Then they remembered the large mirror back in the laundry. They hauled it to the wall and forced the eye to look at itself. The eye and fungus quietly withered away and revealed a door.
They went back to the chapel and healed up before proceeding east, where they found the main admitting hall. White tile, spider-webbed with cracks, lined the walls of the cathedral-like hall. A prominent, oval desk faced staunch double doors, while hard benches and portraits of somber doctors lined the walls. Regal stairs ascended toward a second floor, but rubble had crushed the upper flights, blocking passage. Lofty windows, gridded by bars, revealed yellow mist seething just beyond.
Miffens went to a door opposite the door they entered from but couldn’t hear anything on the other side. She scratched at the door so Alpha tried to open it; it was apparently barred from the other side. Not wanting to invade a safe place and possibly get into a fight with people who had successfully warded off an attack, the party left the door alone even though none could hear anything from the other side.
They went to the double doors that led further into the asylum and listened. Gamma heard what sounded like the faint movement of small creatures scuttling about. Alpha opened the door onto a large chamber. Sagging shelves—held together by dust and an extensive system of rolling ladders—circled a library of husky, dull-looking tomes. At the room’s center moped a heavily worn table surrounded by uncomfortable chairs. A chandelier of iron vines dangled above. The scents of leather and old paper pervaded the high-ceilinged space, but so did a distinct bestial musk.
As they entered the library, shrieks erupted from the tops of the shelves. Three very small creatures that resembled rats with human faces and hand gibbered at each other from their high perches in a strange language. Omega recognized them as ratlings, cruel and vicious creatures that can feed on children and elderly folk. They also had a penchant for stealing bits of magic writing and objects when they could get their filthy little hands on them, explaining their presence in the library.
Beta moved in and threw a dagger at one and hit one with a nasty strike that caused the ratling to squeal but didn’t kill it. One of them called out and a swarm of rats poured out of the cracks behind the shelves and charged toward the party. Omega struck at the swarm with her rapier but skewered only a couple of rats. The rats began biting Alpha, Omega, and Beta, the only party members in the room. Beta and Omega were overcome with nausea and had to flee the room while Alpha killed some more of the vermin.
Miffens charged in and scaled a bookshelf to get at the ratlings, but as soon as she got to one it squealed, disappeared and reappeared over on another book shelf. Gamma moved in and tried to avoid the rat swarm, throwing a dagger into the same ratling Beta had hit. Delta put one ratling under a hypnotic stare and fired a crossbow bolt at it without success. The ratlings threw books at the cat and the knight as the swarm tried to overwhelm Alpha and Gamma.
Alpha killed a few more rats before moving into a better defensive position. Miffens continued to pursue the ratlings as Gamma ran out of the room to follow her sister. Delta cast sleep and caused a third of the massive swarm to fall asleep. The ratlings threw books at the cat, which petrified them more than any of the others. Miffens fled the field of battle and Alpha managed to kill enough rats to cause another third of the swarm to flee. He then drew his bow and moved behind some shelves. Delta put the rest of the swarm to sleep, and the party reengaged.
The ratlings were now very nervous and chittered back and forth to each other in what Omega recognized as Aklo. Omega drank an extract of expeditious receipt ran back to the survivors to request a warhammer or something. They provided her with three maces and a warhammer. Alpha got beaned by a book as he took aim with his bow. Miffens jumped between shelves and knocked a ratling off the shelf to the floor, right by the returned Delta and Gamma. Gamma killed it with a single thrust of her rapier.
Alpha got a precise shot in with his longbow, skewering it and causing its corpse to be pinned to the wall. The last ratling held up her hands and surrendered as Omega, Gamma, and Delta killed off the sleeping rats with the borrowed weapons.
The second character will be our resident paladin! He is…a tad different. ;)
Name ????? (Alpha) (Player: Iain Fyffe)
Male human (Varisian) paladin (oath against corruption, combat medic, ghost hunter, tempered champion) 2 (Knights of the Inner Sea, Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures 123, Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic 60, Weapon Master's Handbook 7)
LG Medium humanoid (human)
Hero Points 1
Init +0; Senses Perception +2
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Defense
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AC 17, touch 10, flat-footed 17 (+5 armor, +2 shield)
hp 23 (2d10+3)
Sanity 41, threshhold 2, edge 20
Fort +4, Ref +0, Will +5 (+2 trait bonus vs. emotion and fear effects); +1 trait bonus vs. spell effects from evil creatures
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)
Melee mwk longsword +6 (1d8+2/19-20)
Ranged longbow +2 (1d8/×3)
Special Attacks ghostly smite, smite evil 1/day (+2 attack and AC, +2 damage)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 2nd; concentration +4)
. . 1/day—light
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Statistics
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Str 15, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 14
Base Atk +2; CMB +4; CMD 14
Feats Combat Expertise, Combat Stamina, Weapon Focus (longsword)
Traits chosen of iomedae, disillusioned, driven by guilt, searing beacon
Flaws spell vulnerability
Skills Acrobatics -6 (-10 to jump), Heal +7, Knowledge (arcana) +6, Knowledge (history) +6, Knowledge (nobility) +7, Knowledge (religion) +7, Sense Motive +6; Racial Modifiers +1 Knowledge (nobility), +1 Knowledge (religion)
Languages Common, Skald, Varisian
SQ bitter, careful healer, combat expertise, comprehensive education, dress wounds, hero points, lay on hands 3/day (1d6), weapon focus
Other Gear scale mail, heavy wooden shield, arrows (20), longbow, mwk longsword, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, hip flask, holy text (The Acts of Iomedae), mess kit, silk rope (50 ft.), soap, trail rations (5), wooden holy symbol of Iomedae, 22 gp, 9 sp
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Special Abilities
--------------------
Bitter Heal 1 less point when receiving healing from an ally’s class feature, spell, or sla.
Careful Healer (2 HP/day) (Ex) No AoO when stabilize/treat poison & long term care heals +0 (divide among healed).
Combat Expertise +/-1 Bonus to AC in exchange for an equal penalty to attack.
Combat Expertise [Combat Trick] Ignore penalty from Combat Expertise for stamina spent.
Comprehensive Education All knowledge skills are class skills, +1 racial bonus for knowledge skils from classes.
Dress Wounds (1/day) (Su) Can treat deadly wounds as full rd action on an ally, but Hp only last 5 min.
Ghostly Smite (Su) Smite Evil is ghost touch instead of bypassing DRs
Hero Points Hero Points can be spent at any time to grant a variety of bonuses.
Lay on Hands (1d6 hit points, 3/day) (Su) As a standard action (swift on self), touch channels positive energy and applies mercies.
Smite Evil (1/day) (Su) +2 to hit, +2 to damage, +2 deflection bonus to AC when used.
Weapon Focus [Combat Trick] 2 stamina points to gain Weapon Focus bonus on another weapon for 1 rd.
--------------------
Code of Conduct:
• I will never willingly commit an evil act. (Such as murder, torture, or the casting an evil spell.)
• I will not use actions that I know will harm an innocent, or through inaction cause an innocent immediate harm when I know my action could reasonably prevent it. (This tenet doesn’t force you to take action against possible harm to innocents or to sacrifice your life and potential to attempt to protect an innocent. However, if the risk of sacrifice of your life would guarantee the safety of others, then you must take that risk.)
• I will act with honor, never cheating, lying, or taking advantage of others.
• I will respect the lawful authority of the legitimate ruler or leadership in whichever land I may be, following their laws unless they violate a higher tenet.
• I am the first into battle, and the last to leave it.
• I will not be taken prisoner by my free will. I will not surrender those under my command.
• I will never abandon a companion, though I will honor sacrifice freely given.
• I will guard the honor of my fellows, both in thought and deed, and I will have faith in them.
• When in doubt, I may force my enemies to surrender, but I am responsible for their lives.
• I will never refuse a challenge from an equal. I will give honor to worthy enemies, and contempt to the rest.
• I will suffer death before dishonor.
• I will hunt aberrations and will not allow them to roam freely or harm others. I will destroy them if I can, or banish them if I cannot.
• I will learn the weight of my sword. Without my heart to guide it, it is worthless—my strength is not in my sword, but in my heart. If I lose my sword, I have lost a tool. If I betray my heart, I have died.
• I will have faith in the Inheritor. I will channel her strength through my body. I will shine in her legion, and I will not tarnish her glory through base actions.
• I will be temperate in my actions and moderate in my behavior. I will strive to emulate Iomedae’s perfection.
Awakening without a memory, the paladin of Iomedae had a lingering feeling that he had taken part in something outside the normal bounds of his morals. He sees his present condition as a chance to redeem himself.
You may have noticed that the Paladin is second level. They levellled up after the second session. So here is the Paladin at first level and the cat at second!
Name ????? (Alpha) (Player: Iain Fyffe)
Male human (Varisian) paladin (oath against corruption, combat medic, ghost hunter, tempered champion) 1
LG Medium humanoid (human)
Hero Points 1
Init +0; Senses Perception +2
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Defense
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AC 17, touch 10, flat-footed 17 (+5 armor, +2 shield)
hp 11 (1d10+1)
Sanity 41, threshhold 2, edge 20
Fort +3, Ref +0, Will +4 (+2 trait bonus vs. emotion and fear effects); +1 trait bonus vs. spell effects from evil creatures
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Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)
Melee mwk longsword +5 (1d8+2/19-20)
Ranged longbow +1 (1d8/×3)
Special Attacks ghostly smite, smite evil 1/day (+2 attack and AC, +2 damage)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +4)
. . 1/day—light
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 15, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 14
Base Atk +1; CMB +3; CMD 13
Feats Combat Expertise, Combat Stamina, Weapon Focus (longsword)
Traits chosen of iomedae, disillusioned, driven by guilt, searing beacon
Flaws spell vulnerability (Divination)
Skills Acrobatics -6 (-10 to jump), Heal +6, Knowledge (arcana) +5, Knowledge (history) +5, Knowledge (nobility) +6, Knowledge (religion) +6, Sense Motive +6; Racial Modifiers +1 Knowledge (nobility), +1 Knowledge (religion)
Languages Common, Skald, Varisian
SQ bitter, careful healer, combat expertise, comprehensive education, hero points, weapon focus
Other Gear scale mail, heavy wooden shield, arrows (20), longbow, mwk longsword, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, hip flask, holy text (The Acts of Iomedae), mess kit, silk rope (50 ft.), soap, trail rations (5), wooden holy symbol of Iomedae, 22 gp, 9 sp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Bitter Heal 1 less point when receiving healing from an ally’s class feature, spell, or sla.
Careful Healer (2 HP/day) (Ex) No AoO when stabilize/treat poison & long term care heals +0 (divide among healed).
Combat Expertise [Combat Trick] Ignore penalty from Combat Expertise for stamina spent.
Comprehensive Education All knowledge skills are class skills, +1 racial bonus for knowledge skills from classes.
Ghostly Smite (Su) Smite Evil is ghost touch instead of bypassing DRs
Hero Points Hero Points can be spent at any time to grant a variety of bonuses.
Smite Evil (1/day) (Su) +2 to hit, +2 to damage, +2 deflection bonus to AC when used.
Weapon Focus [Combat Trick] 2 stamina points to gain Weapon Focus bonus on another weapon for 1 rd.
.
Name ????? (Miffens)
Female dreamlands cat unchained rogue (prowler) 1/sorcerer 1
N Tiny magical beast
Hero Points 1
Init +3; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +6
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Defense
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AC 16, touch 16, flat-footed 12 (+3 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 size)
hp 15 (2 HD; 1d6+1d8+4)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +4; +2 trait bonus vs. fear and emotion effects
Defensive Abilities land on your feat, nine lives
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +5 (1d3-3), 2 claws +5 (1d2-3)
Space 2½ ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks prowling strike, sneak attack (unchained) +1d6
Bloodline Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +4)
. . 6/day—lullaby
Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 1st; concentration +4)
. . 1st (4/day)—burning hands (DC 14), magic missile
. . 0 (at will)—acid splash, disrupt undead, mage hand, prestidigitation
. . Bloodline Dreamspun
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Statistics
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Str 4, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 17
Base Atk +0; CMB +1; CMD 9 (13 vs. trip)
Feats Dodge, Eschew Materials, Skill Focus (Bluff), Weapon Finesse
Traits enduring stoicism, orphaned, solitary, strength foretold
Flaws spell vulnerability (Illusion)
Skills Acrobatics +7 (+7 to avoid provoking AoO), Bluff +10, Climb +11, Diplomacy +3 (+1 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Disable Device +6, Escape Artist +12, Intimidate +8, Knowledge (arcana) +5, Perception +6, Perform (sing) +8, Sense Motive +2 (+0 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Sleight of Hand +8, Stealth +19, Survival +7, Swim +7; Racial Modifiers +4 Climb, +4 Escape Artist, +4 Stealth
Languages Cat, Common, Varisian
SQ dreamlands travel, hero points, moon jump, pride
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Special Abilities
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Dreamlands Travel (Su) Sense nearby Gates of Slumber within 1 mile radius at will.
Dreamspun When you cast a spell at a single creature, gain +1/2 spell level AC and saves vs. that creature for 1r.
Eschew Materials Cast spells without materials, if component cost is 1 gp or less.
Hero Points Hero Points can be spent at any time to grant a variety of bonuses.
Land on Your Feat (Ex) Treat any fall as if it were 20 ft. less than the actual distance of the fall.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in dim light, distinguishing color and detail.
Lullaby (6/day) (Sp) As lullaby but no concentration and penalty is -4.
Moon Jump (2/night) (Su) While in the Dreamlands jump to the moon up to twice a night.
Nine Lives (9 lives) (Su) Self resurrect up to eight times.
Pride -2 to diplomacy and sense motive vs. those who threaten, accuse, or challenge you, until they apologize
Prowling Strike (Ex) Enter an exit adjacent creature's spae without provoking an AoO.
Scent (Ex) Detect opponents within 15+ ft. by sense of smell.
Session the Third (part one):
The group investigated the now secure library to see what they could find. They found it to have a good collection of medical journals and local histories, but little else. They took their ratling captive and the borrowed bludgeoning weapons to Winter and told her of what the had encountered. As they discussed how to hold the ratling securely until Winter could prepare a comprehend languages spell, Miffens left and came back with the cage the party had found her in. It was floating behind her, carried by a cloudy hand and moved where her tail pointed. Winter commented that they had a very unusual cat.
After placing the ratling in the cage, they proceeded back to the admissions area and checked the main doors. The doors were difficult to open due to swelling into their frame. The cat kept scratching and the doors and meowing as if she wanted out. The group assembled every one of the guards they could and as a group they pushed the doors open. Enough to squeeze through.
As soon as the opened the door a bilious fog spilled into the room, vaporous tendrils clinging to the chamber’s fringes. Alpha glimpsed vague, bulbous masses moving deeper in the mist and heard what sounds like the faint churning of a distant but gigantic stomach. At this point, they closed the door. The mist that has entered the chamber dissipated rapidly and they went back to report the bad news to Winter.
Winter expressed her disappointment but not surprise. She recommended that the party head through the library next and find Doctor Eliege Losandro’s office and see if they could find the head administrator or at least some information that could help the survivors escape. Winter tended their wounds and helped eliminate diseases picked up from rat bites before they proceeded.
They passed through the double doors at the north end of the library and entered an L-shaped hallway with several doors leading off from it. The cat discovered a mucus trail that led from some doors down the westward length to a door to the east and wanted to follow that; she was overruled by the rest of the party going to the first door to the right and disgruntling her somewhat. She even conjured another mage hand and got it to point to the door she wanted to check to no avail.
Alpha opened the first door on the right (after a final, disdainful meow) and entered an office. The room’s sagging ceiling rested largely upon a pair of sturdy bookshelves. A desk and set of chairs skirted the edge of a sizable fissure in the floor. Out of the fissure came four massive rats and yet another ratling.
Miffens made some odd growling sounds and strange movements with her paws and tail. A bolt of white energy shot from her tail into the ratling. Beta threw a dagger right into the heart of a dire rat, killing it. Alpha charged the ratling but missed with a wide swing of his sword. The ratling cast magic missile into the paladin as Gamma threw a dagger into a second dire rat. Delta cast sleep and knocked out two of the remaining rats.
Miffens moved in by the paladin’s feet and struck a sleeping rat, but only managed to wake it up. Beta threw another dagger and managed to kill the one Miffens had wounded. Out of the fissure emerged a mass of rats, smaller in size than the one summoned in the library but still dangerous. Omega moved in but narrowly missed the wounded dire rat. Alpha killed off the other wounded dire rat with a thrust through its skull.
Delta managed to cast hideous laughter on the ratling, causing him to roll on the floor in high pitched laughter. Miffens cast burning hands and damaged the dire rat, swarm, and ratling. Delta killed off the last dire rat as the rats began to overwhelm Alpha. In response, the paladin swapped out his sword for the borrowed mace and smashed the rats off his body and crushed several others with a sweeping blow.
Delta put the rat swarm to sleep and Miffens pounced over the swarm onto the ratling, slicing it with her claw. Beta moved in passed the swarm to help with the ratling and struck a nasty wound to the ratling’s side as Alpha crushed the remaining rats in the swarm. The ratling got up and took another wound from the cat before he rushed to the fissure and fled.
They found a tunnel through the wall into the library, but otherwise found nothing of value. The party moved on to the door next to the room they just cleared and found the mucus trail led from that door. Alpha opened the door to the office, which would’ve looked like a typical physician’s office if it weren’t for the preponderance of grotesque anatomical sketches, most depicting traumas and deformities of the head and brain. A sturdy display case stood open and completely empty.
They searched the room for information and found in a desk drawer a worn, rust-colored notebook belonging to a Doctor Arosh Chawaar, who pursued new treatments for hydrocephalus. Many of these notes bore marginalia from the doctor’s sister, Doctor Anya Chawaar of Katheer. Alpha determined that it was valuable, though its worth was hard to determine. Though the legitimacy of the notes would take months to verify, most medical institutions or scholars of medicine might pay a significant sum for the notebook.
They checked the room across the hall from Doctor Chawaar’s office and found a ruined lounge. The ceiling of this room had collapsed, crushing a table and well-worn couch. Miffens moved into the room to search for information and valuables and found a pale hand sticking out of the rubble. It took them ten minutes to get the crushed woman’s body out of the wreckage. Miffens rifled through her pockets and found a capped syringe with a potion of some sort in it. Miffens took it to Omega who identified it as an inject-able alchemical potion of cure moderate wounds. Seeing how the paladin was badly hurt, Omega went over and injected Alpha with it and closed most of his wounds.
They decided to follow the direction of the mucus trail, starting with the door that Miffens wanted them to search first. Two desks were crammed into the crowded office. More space had been dedicated to filing cabinets, bookshelves, and stacks of loose research than room for occupants. Despite the cramped nature of the office, there was enough room for two junior doctors to work closely here, evidenced by the two bodies slumped over the desks.
They investigated the corpses and found that they had their skulls crushed by blows from behind. Alpha was able to determine even more: the doctor’s legs had been savaged, as if by something small but vicious. The blows to the head seem to have been made by small claws, digging into the base of the skulls. Miffens held up a claw to the wound and they found it was bigger than a cats’ claw, though still small.
Investigating the office, they determined the doctor’s names were Gondar and Lantz. Omega found a thick yew wand etched with the symbol of Sarenrae hidden in the back of the eastern desk. Delta and Omega determined that it was a wand of bless. A piece of twine was wrapped around it, connecting to a note that read, “Mr. Lantz, this is a place of science, not faith. Please keep your religion at home.”
Since they were identifying magic items, they determined that Miffen’s pearl was a pearl of power, useless to the group. They decided to give it to Winter in return for the help she was giving them. They moved on to the last door before the corridor was blocked with rubble, the end of the mucus trail. Listening at the door, Beta heard what sounded like a preserved fetal pig slapping against the floor, though very faintly. Alpha used the wand of bless on the party and they opened the door.
A once-handsome wood conference table sat marred by the partially toppled southwest walls of the conference room. Between heaps of collapsed stone, a closet door still stood. A deformed humanoid creature covered in slime moved to defend the open closet from the party. The closet was filled with a collection of floating, aberrant brains, spinal columns, and dissections.
Alpha, Beta, and Gamma moved in to flank the creature and Miffens cast an acid splash on it. The creature bit Gamma in the leg and locked on to her. Beta skewered it with her rapier yet didn’t seem to do any damage. Delta tried to place it under her power, but it was apparently undead. Using a special power she had against undead, Delta managed to daze the creature. Omega identified it as a pickled punk, a form of undead made from deformed fetuses preserved in jars.
Gamma shook the creature free and damaged it with her rapier. Alpha used his mace and smushed the foul creature, causing to erupt in a mass of fleshy slush. They went to the closet and Delta created a false image of herself behind a second punk while Beta hit it with a dagger. Delta then dazed it, and Miffens hit it with a disrupt undead. Alpha moved in and crushed it.
In the closet the punks had created a sort of nest from lab coats and the remains of Doctor Chawaar himself. They searched the lab coats and the body of Doctor Chawaar and found six flasks of alchemist fire on his body. It appeared he had come here to try and destroy the punks but had failed miserably.
Session the Third (part two):
They headed to the door at the northern end of the corridor and found a nameplate that read “Administrator Eliege Losandro.” They listened but heard nothing. Opening the door revealed cathedral-like windows of an opulent, two-story office with yellow fog roiling against the glass. The ground floor featured overstuffed furnishings, elegant side tables, and an altarlike desk of dark marble. A delicate spiral staircase and balcony of dark iron rose to a lofty library overhead. Both floors’ fixtures framed the lake of blood spread across the room’s center, apparently from the kneeling figure of a woman at the pools heart. Doctor Eliege Losandro knelt with her back straight, her mouth gaping at the ceiling. From her soundlessly screaming mouth an unsteady torrent of coloured mist spurted like a fountain of gritty sludge.
Alpha cast bless on the party before they proceeded into the room, then went up to the edge of the blood pool and called out to Losandro, checking to see if she could respond to him but he got no response. Alpha determined that with the blood loss, she should be dead or undead, but was in fact still alive. Avoiding the blood pool, they began to study the papers and books in the office in hopes of determining what had happened.
Omega found a set of six small but powerful images sketched with coal upon torn parchment and set in fine frames. They depicted eerie vistas of an endless, empty city under a sky of whirling mist. In the corner of each, a delicate copperplate recorded a year from 4708 to 4715 and the name Ulver Zandalus. As Omega studied the images, she found that they felt familiar, finding them quite like the city from the shared nightmare they experienced at the adventure’s beginning.
They found some magic auras emerging from a locked drawer in her main desk. The twins tried their hands at opening the lock but failed. Omega borrowed their lock picks and managed to open it. Inside they found Losandro’s journal, a concise record of her daily duties and observations. In addition, they uncovered some magical talismans, candles, scrolls, and alchemical items.
Delta began trying to read her aura as Omega perused Losandro’s journal. Delta determined that she was no longer a person and now was some form of otherworldly nature. Omega found it to be largely mundane—filled with notes from staff meetings and interviews with the families of would-be patients— but in entries written during the last year, the names Haserton Lowls and Count Lowls appeared with increasing regularity. Omega recognized that both names referred to Count Haserton Pragmus Lowls IV, ruler of the County of Versex in Ustalav.
The final entries proved to be of particular interest; apparently the members of their party had been committed to the asylum without any record of their committal. They had been associates of Count Lowls and had been committed for a form of group amnesia in return for the lending of The Chain of Nights, a book that might help Losandro with a cure for Zandalus and others with dream disorders. Omega used the information from the journal and Delta’s aura reading to determine that Losandro had been transformed into an oneirogen.
Oneirogens were once normal mortals who suffered a rare but terrible curse. Within them lies a sliver-sized tear between planes, a crack hardly larger than a pinprick that destroys everything they once were in an endless deluge of planar power. Omega warned them that getting too close could result in them falling asleep and being sucked into Losandro’s tortured dreams. The party began looking at the other items and books, and Beta recognized several books as being popular among those who study mental powers and psychic phenomena.
Miffens realized that the breach would work as a gate of slumber, so she hocked up a hair ball on the journal to distract the group. She then rushed Losandro and passed through the gate. As Miffens passed through the gate of slumber, she got a flash of memory. She was being petted and spoken to by Gamma in the vision, and Gamma was calling her, “Luna.” With her name now recovered, Luna checked over Losandro and found her to be the same in the Dreamlands as in the Material world. They were in an alley in the same city where the strange shared nightmare was set.
Luna heard footsteps coming, so she passed back into the material world into the hallway leading to the administrator’s office. Realizing that Losandro was lost, Luna decided to put the poor woman out of her misery. She ran in and with two carefully placed claws and a bite, killed the oneirogen. The mists coming from her stopped. She searched the body and found a ring of keys, which she took over to the paladin.
The party determined that The Chain of Nights was not present in the office. They proceeded to go out the remaining door and found a five-foot-wide corridor heading east, with doors on either side and ending in another door. They went to the first door on the right and Luna heard something on the other side of the door and hissed. As the others got ready to open the door, Luna cast mage hand and used it to open the door.
The handles of dozens of drawers frowned from the faces of numerous matching cabinets. Many of the drawers were open and their contents—volumes’ worth of stray parchments—blanketed the floor. In the center of this chaos was a female Apostle in Orpiment, who attacked as soon as she saw them. Delta fired a crossbow bolt but missed as Beta and Gamma moved into the room with Luna. Alpha stepped in and killed the woman with a single strike with his sword.
The party determined that this was the patient records room. They began searching the documents and after a while they found a series of relatively new patient files. They all had notes about group amnesia and no committal papers. From the descriptions, they found their names: the paladin was Avarel Henrican, the mesmerist (Delta) was named Evelyn Kazallin, and the investigator (Omega) was Myfanwy Potter (Pronounced Mih-VON-Wee). The twins were also there, but there was a bit of debate before it was decided that Gamma was the one who played the medium in their cons and so could be identified as Bettina Purcel and her sister (Beta) was Belinda. Luna then scratched her name on the floor with a claw and meowed until Evelyn called her Luna and she purred.
They tried the keys with a locked door in the room and found one that fit. The walls of the crowded room were covered by filing cabinets, except for one space where a battered old painting of a somber, towering structure was hanged. Evelyn found a small brass latch behind the painting and opened it up to find a hollow in the wall. Inside were Administrator Losandro’s extensive records on a variety of interesting psychological cases she’d observed and treated over the years, with the case of Ulver Zandalus being most extensive. There was also a tiny lock-box and a sword in a crimson scabbard. The pommel was sculpted in the shape of a cardinal and an etched gold band bore the name Red Destiny. They determined it was magical and gave it to Bettina Purcel to use.
They opened the lock-box with another key on the chain and found some gold, pearls, and a calling card for the services of the Thrushmoor offices of the Sleepless Detective Agency that prominently bears an accusatory eye. Bettina knew that the Sleepless Agency was a private company based in Ustalav that provided discrete security and investigative services across Avistan. Why she knew as much as she did, they couldn’t say, but there was a general suspicion. Bettina and Belinda had mixed feelings about them, as did Myfanwy.
They went back in the hall and Luna heard a large room with people in it. They opened it up and found racks cluttered with boxes and sprawling collections of haphazard junk in a dusty storage room. Three Apostles of Orpiment were there: two scoured the room for dubious “valuables,” while the other had become fixated on tutoring a class of mismatched dolls. The apostles attacked first with one getting a nasty hit upside Avarel’s head with a crowbar.
Evelyn brought one under her influence and caused two to fall asleep. Belinda moved in to flank as Luna came in and clawed one of the sleeping apostles severely, waking it up. Avarel Struck with his longsword, but it was only a scratch. Bettina moved in and killed one with her new sword. Myfanwy and Luna struck as the woken apostle stood up waking up the other sleeping apostle.
Evelyn dazed one of the apostles as Belinda and Luna attacked ineffectively. Avarel badly wounded another apostle and Myfanwy finished it off with her rapier. Evelyn dazed the last remaining apostle and Belinda finished it off. They searched the place for any more personal items but found nothing. Luna only found two vials of silversheen and an oil of align weapon. They checked the next door in the hall, and found it led to a room completely full of rubble.
The last door at the end of the hall was locked and as they studied it, Luna, Evelyn, and Myfanwy noticed beads of blood between some of the door’s boards. It also bulged slightly back into the hall. They made the decision not to try and open the door and went back towards the admission hall to find another way forward.
Next up is the charlatan Belinda Purcel, played by Alyson Fyffe!
Belinda Purcel
Female human (Ulfen) unchained rogue (charlatan) 1 (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Combat 72, Pathfinder Unchained 20)
N Medium humanoid (human)
Hero Points 1
Init +2; Senses Perception +6
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Defense
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AC 13, touch 12, flat-footed 11 (+1 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 8 (1d8)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +4; +1 trait bonus vs. aberrations
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger +2 (1d4/19-20) or
. . rapier +2 (1d6/18-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack (unchained) +1d6
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD 12
Feats Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Weapon Finesse
Traits foe of the strange, resilient, worldly
Skills Acrobatics +6, Appraise +6, Bluff +7, Climb +4, Diplomacy +7, Disable Device +6, Disguise +7, Escape Artist +6, Intimidate +7, Knowledge (local) +6, Perception +6, Sense Motive +6, Sleight of Hand +6, Stealth +6
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald, Varisian
SQ hero points, natural born liar
Other Gear padded armor, dagger (2), rapier, backpack, belt pouch, grappling hook, manacles, mirror, signet ring, silk rope (50 ft.), thieves' tools, 177 gp
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Special Abilities
--------------------
Hero Points Hero Points can be spent at any time to grant a variety of bonuses.
Natural Born Liar (Ex) Creatures deceived by Bluff check take a -2 penalty vs. your Bluff checks for 24 hours.
Belinda awoke feeling emboldened after the terrifying nightmare. Instead of being frightened by the bizarre creatures from her nightmares, these experiences steeled her against these startling alien beings. She knew that she fell victim to strange circumstances and loathsome forces, but she refused to give in to a creeping sense of helplessness. Instead, she vowed to fight back against whoever or whatever was responsible for her situation. The creatures of her nightmares wouldn’t hold fear over her head. She would take the fight to them.
And here is Belinda at 2nd level:
Belinda Purcel
Female human (Ulfen) unchained rogue (charlatan) 2
N Medium humanoid (human)
Hero Points 1
Init +2; Senses Perception +7
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Defense
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AC 13, touch 12, flat-footed 11 (+1 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 15 (2d8)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +4; +1 trait bonus vs. aberrations
Defensive Abilities evasion
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 dagger +4 (1d4+1/19-20) or
. . rapier +3 (1d6/18-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack (unchained) +1d6
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +1; CMB +1; CMD 13
Feats Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Weapon Finesse
Traits foe of the strange, resilient, worldly
Skills Acrobatics +7, Appraise +7, Bluff +8, Climb +5, Diplomacy +8, Disable Device +7, Disguise +8, Escape Artist +7, Intimidate +8, Knowledge (local) +7, Perception +7, Sense Motive +7, Sleight of Hand +7, Stealth +7
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald, Varisian
SQ hero points, natural born liar, rogue talent (fast stealth)
Other Gear padded armor, dagger (2), +1 dagger, rapier, backpack, belt pouch, grappling hook, manacles, mirror, signet ring, silk rope (50 ft.), thieves' tools, 177 gp
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Special Abilities
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Fast Stealth (Ex) Move at full speed while using the Stealth skill at no penalty.
Hero Points Hero Points can be spent at any time to grant a variety of bonuses.
Natural Born Liar (Ex) Creatures deceived by Bluff check take a -2 penalty vs. your Bluff checks for 24 hours.
Session the Fourth (part one):
The last door at the end of the hall was locked and as they studied it, Luna, Evelyn, and Myfanwy noticed beads of blood between some of the door’s boards. It also bulged slightly back into the hall. They made the decision not to try and open the door and went back towards the admission hall to find another way forward.
They decided to go back to the chapel to rest and heal up before proceeding. Winter helped heal them up before they settled down for the evening. In the morning (the 25th of Arodus) Winter cast comprehend languages so they could talk to the ratling. She called herself Jenny Two-tails—because of the two handsome tails she sported—and that she and the ratlings lived in warrens deep beneath Briarstone Isle. The recent tremors opened small fissures that allowed them up into the asylum looking for magic but further tremors has sealed off those tunnels, stranding them in the small spaces beneath the building.
She offered to help the party as they required in exchange for sparing her life. The party agreed conditionally but did promise her that they would not kill her if she did not summon rat swarms or harmed anyone in the shelter. Jenny agreed and the party then returned to the admitting hall. They moved down the wide hall to the east and listened at a door on the north wall. Hearing nothing, they opened the door on a collapsed storage room, with the western wall having collapsed into another room; that room was the one that had its door barred that led to the admissions hall.
Moving through the collapsed wall they found a long desk, several chairs, a sideboard, and numerous once-stately landscape paintings all barricading the door of a conference room. Six masked bodies littered the ground. Avarel inspected the bodies and found they had been beaten to death in the same manner but with various blunt implements, including bricks and broom sticks. Their heads were wrapped with different materials but all in the same manner with the same knot on the ropes tying the masks on. Avarel and Myfanwy determined that they were all killed and masked by the same person, with others holding them while this individual murdered them, one by one.
Luna found one of the bodies was wearing a suit of padded armor and holding a sap. She also found two thunderstones and a golden ring. The ornately carved ring rapidly became a cat toy before it was confiscated by the rest of the party. They then proceeded further down the hallway to a mass of rubble. To the north, a slender hallway led to two doors, going east and west and to the south were a set of double doors.
They went to the double doors and opened a room filled with inviting furnishings, a hearth ready for a fire, artwork populated by picnicking families, and a mansion-shaped cage with colorful taxidermic birds inside; it was the sort of room one would find in a country estate. Large windows looked out onto yellow mist. A battered corpse was impaled on the antlers of a stuffed elk head hung above the hearth.
Luna ran up and jumped up on the window sill to look out; he couldn’t see much except what appeared to be a garden path, winding out into the mist and leading to a door into another part of the asylum. Avarel and Myfanwy moved in to look at the body and found a second one on the ground near the desk. Both wore yellow sheets as robes with chalk marks on their foreheads: Apostles in Orpiment. The one on the antlers looked as though he had been thrown there while the one on the ground looked as if he had been smashed into the floor multiple times.
As they inspected the bodies, the taxidermic birds began to chirp pleasantly. Luna began splitting her attention from the window to the birds. Evelyn (Evie) cast detect magic but found no sign of magic auras on the birds, though she did find some on the two cultists. Belinda poked one of the birds with her rapier, and Bettina threw a dagger at one, but the cage deflected the blow. The birds’ song changed into a shrill, mechanical-sounding klaxon.
Avarel shrugged off a presence that passed through him and he charged over to begin smashing the cage as Luna used an acid splash on the cage to no effect. Belinda and Bettina continued to try and skewer the birds with a rapier and a short sword. Luna made a spectacular leap and missed the cage, landed on her feet, then proceeded to wash her face. The spirt passed through Bettina and she shrugged it off. Evie determined that they were dealing with a haunt focused on the bird cage. It had to be destroyed.
Bettina and Belinda finally destroyed two birds between them. As they did so, Belinda was levitated ten feet into the air. Avarel smashed the cage and destroyed the birds and haunt. Belinda immediately fell but landed on her feet, taking no damage. With the cage destroyed, the haunt dissipated, and the birds’ shrieking came to an end.
They searched the bodies and found some potions of cure light wounds and amulets of natural armor. Luna then claimed one of the comfy chairs as hers. She didn’t get to rest long as the party decided to check on the other doors to the north. The door to the east was a five-foot-wide corridor that headed east then turned north.
The western door opened onto another courtyard, with high asylum walls hedging in the spacious garden. Only thin breaths of sickly fog seeped in from overheard, though beyond it was just as thick as ever. Misty wisps slipped between leafless trees and simple benches, giving the impression of silent beasts prowling through the garden.
They decided to check the narrow corridor and found it led to a dead end filled with rubble. Backtracking they decided to check out the courtyard to see if there was into the next section of the asylum. They followed along a path that was close to the eastern walls of the courtyard. Luna waited until they were out of sight before sighing and running out into the rain and hid beneath Bettina’s cloak.
When they were fifty feet along the path Bettina shouted out in surprise and turned to look up into the air. A lanky ebony humanoid with bat-like wings, horns, and a long prehensile tail swooped down and grabbed Evie. The creature lacked a face, its head smooth and without eyes or mouth. Bettina swung her sword and managed to get a solid hit against the monster, but it still flew away with Evie in its claws.
Evie calmed her emotions and cast hideous laughter on the creature, causing it to glide to the ground and collapse in spasms of silent laughter. Avarel and Belinda charged over to help Evie and as the creature hit the ground, Evie broke free and got out of the way. Myfanwy and Belinda hit it with their rapiers as Bettina moved in carrying Luna. Avarel, Luna, and Belinda finished the creature off.
Myfanwy identified it as a nightgaunt, a creature from the Dreamlands that feeds off strong emotions. It would have tortured Evie to death in order to feed. An explosive peel of thunder shook the area, deafening Avarel, Evie, and Luna for a short period of time. They decided to get on with what they were doing as quickly as possible. They headed back over to the wall and found an entrance into the next section of the asylum completely blocked with rubble.
They continued following the path, dealing with continual thunder blasts as they went. They came to a sturdy wooden shed leaning against the courtyard wall. The door was unlocked. Inside they found a few gardening tools and a wooden staircase that descended into darkness. The brittle wooden stairs descended twenty feet along a stone wall, but then stopped while the wall itself continued down another fifteen feet, but then it fell away, along with any evidence of a worked floor. Even the sides of the subterranean chamber gave way, leaving the lowest steps and mortared bricks hanging exposed in a vast, airy expanse.
Avarel cast light on a piece of rubble and tossed it into the void. It traveled down and became a tiny point of light. Evie calculated that it was a good two hundred feet down based on the length of the fall and the time of the returning sound. But as it hit, a tremor shook the asylum and Belinda fell off the steps, falling all the way down. She managed to grab pieces of rubble and the like and managed to survive but was severely hurt.
As Belinda hit, a much bigger tremor was set off. The party called out and Belinda feebly replied. Amazed at her survival, they began figuring out how much rope they needed to perform a rescue. Belinda lay injured and unable to move on a floor composed of leathery, flesh-like segments beneath a blanket of rubble and ancient stone. She seemed to be lying on a creature so massive that one section filled the entire “floor” of the chamber.
Luna snuck a cure light wounds potion out of the party’s supplies. She then snuck away, found a Gate of Slumber and slipped through the Dreamlands to get safely down to Belinda. The party couldn’t see how she had done this and were quite stunned. Belinda took the potion, but given the situation decided not to move around even though she had been healed somewhat.
The party went back to Winter to see if they could assemble enough rope, as they were short. Winter and the guards didn’t have enough rope, but they did have enough bed sheets to tie them together for the length. It took a great deal of effort and many interruptions and close calls due to thunder rolls as they pulled her out. It took a full half hour to get Belinda out of the pit.
Based on Belinda’s description, Myfanwy was able to determine that it was a sleeping bhole, a colossal worm so vast that they are all but impossible to see completely from tip to tale. She speculated that it was magically held and that it was having some disturbing dreams. They decided to go to the library and see if they could find anything out about how the bhole got there.
Myfanwy started the research on the history of Briarstone and any tales of strange occurrences with Avarel, Belinda, and Evie helping her. Bettina aided by taking a book to the waiting room where the chirping birds had been and opening it in the comfy chair so that Luna would come with her and sit on the book and not disturb the rest of the researchers.
They discovered that Briarstone Asylum was founded in 4585 with the support of Count Haserton Lowls I and Rozenport’s Sincomakti School of Sciences. The asylum devoted itself to the treatment of patients with mental diseases and those in need of psychological care. Its staff also pursued humane, nonmagical treatments of such disorders. With the exception of restraints, most physical and surgical treatment methods were phased out at Briarstone over a century ago.
Briarstone was originally intended to be a fort, positioned to protect Thrushmoor and trade along the Danver River from pirates sailing Lake Encarthan. The fort’s construction began in 4315 and was plagued by accidents, culminating in the death of its overseer, Captain Anoch Atherton. Construction on the fort was halted and rumors spread that Briarstone Isle was haunted. To expunge the taint of urban legends, Count Haserton Lowls I convinced the church of Pharasma to perform a successful, island-wide exorcism in 4584.
Captain Anoch Atherton didn’t die in a construction accident. The overseer of Fort Briar’s construction disappeared, only to be discovered a week later, his entrails strewn across the site. After Atherton’s death, work halted on the fort’s construction, but locals still reported seeing lights in the deserted, half-constructed structure. Rumors attributed the tragedy to the Briarstone Witch and claimed that she’d curse or kill any who trespassed upon her home.
Folklore attributed many disappearances and spates of bad luck in the Thrushmoor region to the Briarstone Witch, an elusive crone said to inhabit Briarstone Isle. The first reports of the Briarstone Witch dated to the early 4000s, soon after the founding of Thrushmoor by a congregation of psychopomp-worshiping homesteaders. These tales attributed many good works to the witch and presented her as a figure who helped the settlers survive their hard, early years. Some tales referred to the witch’s servant, called the Tatterman.
Session the Fourth (part two):
Discovery of a reference to the Tatterman, the strange creature that had stalked them in their shared dream, startled the researchers. They decided to do more digging after resting for the night. They colletected Bettina and Luna and returned to the chapel to rest before setting back out to the library to continue where they left off, now looking for a connection between the bhole, the Briarstone witch, and the Tatterman.
They discovered that the Briarstone Witch was not a legend. She was a Kellid interested in lesser-known cults and occult knowledge. As she shared her esoteric knowledge with Thrushmoor’s settlers, she joined them, and as she exhibited her power, she eventually came to lead them. However, in 4050, the report of a Pharasmin inquisitor accused the people of Thrushmoor of engaging in “perverted rites in mockery of Pharasma and her servants’ names.”
Encouraged by the Briarstone Witch, the people of Thrushmoor split from both the church and the national government. When emissaries of the state marched to retake control of the town, they found the entire population had disappeared. Although a few gruesome stains marked buildings across the empty town, no other evidence of the people was ever found. The unsettling event became known as the Thrushmoor Vanishing and hundreds of years passed before Thrushmoor was resettled.
They found a partial journal of the daughter of one of Thrushmoor’s homesteaders which held an account of life in the town. She referred to the Briarstone Witch as Mother Ariadnah and noted her sitting in council with other town leaders: Father Gierde, Father Weavewood, and Mother Zandalus. The precocious youth directly asked about the Tatterman. While her parents fearfully hushed her, Ariadnah told her not to be afraid, saying that “The Tatterman is only a dream, and a dream can’t hurt a good girl like you.”
The name Zandalus indicated that an ancestor of Ulver Zandalus was most likely a part of the Thrushmoor Vanishing. The name Ariadnah was what was necessary to finish the research, however. There was a legend that a group of Sarkorian druids locked a bhole—an ancient servant of Shub Niggurath, the Lord of the Woods—in temporal stasis by a rite conducted by them and their allies ages ago. The bhole is what attracted a woman named Ariadnah to Briarstone Isle in the first place, so many centuries ago. Her research into occult matters and Shub-Niggurath tied it together.
Their research complete, the party discussed clearing the rubble or following the garden path out of the sitting room to get into the next wing of the asylum. With no good estimate on how long it would take to clear away the rubble, they decided to use the door and the garden path. They slept back at the chapel and then proceeded to head out to the garden path. (Arodus 28th)
Opening the door, they found rustic flagstones creating a path through a bed of wilted flowers and shrubs, the foliage shriveled as if drowned by the surrounding sea of dense yellow fog. Though the unnatural mist muffled every motion, a sound like the flapping of giant wings split through the fog bank, causing it to swirl as if seeking escape.
Belinda went out to the door and found it was locked. As she did so, a mass of pale, headless things like wormy bats with too many limbs burrowed forth from the ground and begin flopping and snuffling impotently. The writhing, many-winged worms had no heads other than pairs of large nostrils that made a constant, droning snorting. Belinda fled back towards the rest of the party as the swarm rose up and took to the air.
Myfanwy threw alchemist’s fire to Belinda, but she missed it and it fell at her feet and exploded. She fled the swarm and closed the door. Unfortunately, the individual creatures squeezed under the small gap at the bottom of the door and continued to attack. Luna cast burning hands on the swarm, and Evie used the wand of bless on the party.
Myfanwy threw another flask of alchemist’s fire, while Belinda and Bettina backed away. Avarel went to Bettina and used lay on hands to heal her burns and cuts. Luna cast another burning hands before the swarm engulfed Luna and Myfanwy. Evie put the swarm to sleep as Myfanwy and Luna left the swarm. They then got several alchemist’s fires ready.
Myfanwy, Belinda, Bettina, and Avarel threw alchemist’s fire at the swarm with three hitting and Avarel’s hitting the far wall. Fortunately, the three flasks were enough to kill off the rest of the swarm. Evie had heard of something referred to as “indescribable swarms” that seemed to fit the mold, but due to the weird nature, there wasn’t any easy way to identify them.
They went back out and the rain had stopped. The fog seemed much thicker than before. Evie got tripped by the fog as she carried Luna across to the door. She didn’t fall on the cat, which was what was important. Evie held Luna up to the lock and she used her claws to open the lock. Avarel opened the door and the party moved across the opening and into the east wing of the asylum. As the party entered, Belinda got tripped by the fog and fell behind.
Pale paint peeled like scabs from the walls of the spacious chamber. A bent desk guarded a broad hall stretching away to the north, while curtained frames shrouded the room’s eastern quarter. The place smelled intensely of rubbing alcohol. A light glowed through the curtains, as if from a lit lantern, but the faint lantern light didn’t flicker as it should’ve, being cold and weirdly paralyzed.
Slopping out from a pile of dirty gauze, two grotesque oozes of diseased matter immediately crawled toward the party. Like some taut, red pustules ready to burst, these mobile wounds scuttled on bristles of slick hairs. Luna cast magic missile into one and decided to keep her distance. Myfanwy moved in and struck with her rapier, as Bettina threw a dagger. Bettina got up and came in as one of the oozes struck Myfanwy, injuring her and exposing her to leprosy.
Luna cast another magic missile and Avarel and Myfanwy struck the oozes; then Myfanwy moved back. Bettina and Belinda threw daggers, causing one to pop in a explosive burst of acid and filth, spraying Belinda and Avarel. Belinda fell unconscious and contracted leprosy. Luna cast acid splash to not effect. Avarel killed the last and absorbed the remaining explosion himself. Avarel then tended to Belinda with his last bit of lay on hands.
Now for Belinda’s twin sister, Bettina Purcel, played by Abby Fyffe!
Bettina Purcel
Female human (Ulfen) unchained rogue (false medium) 1 (Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures 123, Pathfinder Unchained 20)
N Medium humanoid (human)
Hero Points 1
Init +2; Senses Perception +6
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Defense
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AC 13, touch 12, flat-footed 11 (+1 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 8 (1d8)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +4
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger +2 (1d4/19-20) or
. . rapier +2 (1d6/18-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack (unchained) +1d6
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD 12
Feats Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Weapon Finesse
Traits formerly mind-swapped, resilient, worldly
Skills Acrobatics +6, Appraise +6, Bluff +7 (+8 in dim light or darkness), Climb +4, Diplomacy +7, Disable Device +6, Disguise +7 (+8 in dim light or darkness), Escape Artist +6, Intimidate +7, Knowledge (local) +6, Perception +6, Sense Motive +6, Sleight of Hand +6 (+7 in dim light or darkness), Stealth +6
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald, Varisian
SQ dim the lights +1, hero points
Other Gear padded armor, dagger (2), rapier, belt pouch, fraudulent medium's kit, manacles, mirror, signet ring, thieves' tools
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Special Abilities
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Dim the Lights +1 In dim light or darkness, gain a bonus to bluff, disguise and sleight of hand
Bettina awoke with a strange sensation beyond the frightening experience of extensive memory loss. Full recollections of the experience—like so many others—had been wiped from her mind, but at some point in her past Bettina’s mind had been swapped with that of a yithian, an alien being from beyond time and space. She didn’t remember details of her experiences wandering the yithians’ peculiar city in a foreign body—and even worried whether this might be some strange hallucination—but every so often, a flash of insight would strike her as a result of this experience. Bettina knew that she could rely on these alien flashbacks during her investigations, as it gave her greater perspective into an otherwise confusing world.
And here she is at 2nd level!
Bettina Purcel
Female human (Ulfen) unchained rogue (false medium) 2
N Medium humanoid (human)
Hero Points 1
Init +2; Senses Perception +7
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Defense
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AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+1 armor, +2 Dex, +1 natural)
hp 16 (2d8)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +4
Defensive Abilities evasion
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger +3 (1d4/19-20) or
. . Red Destiny +5 (1d6+2/19-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack (unchained) +1d6
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +1; CMB +1; CMD 13
Feats Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Weapon Finesse
Traits formerly mind-swapped, resilient, worldly
Skills Acrobatics +7, Appraise +7, Bluff +8 (+9 in dim light or darkness, +10 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Climb +5, Diplomacy +8, Disable Device +7, Disguise +8 (+9 in dim light or darkness), Escape Artist +7 (+9 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Intimidate +8, Knowledge (local) +7, Perception +7, Sense Motive +7, Sleight of Hand +7 (+8 in dim light or darkness, +9 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Stealth +7
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald, Varisian
SQ dim the lights +1, false sensitivity, hero points
Other Gear padded armor, amulet of natural armor +1, dagger (2), rapier, Red Destiny (+2 short sword), belt pouch, fraudulent medium's kit, manacles, mirror, signet ring, thieves' tools
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Special Abilities
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Dim the Lights +1 In dim light or darkness, gain a bonus to bluff, disguise and sleight of hand
False Sensitivity (Ex) Fake the use of occult skill unlocks.
For the record, use of two Hero Points kept Belinda from becoming the first casualty of the campaign. That was quite a fall onto a bhole for a second level character! :)
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The Eldritch Scoundrel in the party that I'm running through it threw a thunderstone down the hole. I was so tempted have the Bhole chew its way up and surprise the hell out of them :) (but I didn't)...
It will be fun when ..
Session the Fifth (part one):
With their wounds tended to for the moment, they investigated the light source behind the curtain. They found a lit lantern whose flame didn’t flicker. Luna lifted it with a mage hand, but it immediately went out. She nudged it towards Avarel and pointed at it with her tail. He nudged it back towards her, so she nudged it back towards him as a game. They re-lit it, but it burned normally with the little oil left. After wasting more time than was necessary investigating the weird effect, the party moved on.
They moved up the northern hall until they found the spot where the cave-in cut off the corridor from the second courtyard. They found a ghoul trying to dig through it and Bettina quickly dispatched the creature. With that now safely eliminated, they then investigated the four doors between the caved in corridor and the entry room.
All four led to patient rooms, each identical with only a few differences. The first they came to had a human-shaped mass of carnage covering the bed, and the window was broken. Searching revealed a gold signet ring with a holly-and-hawk emblem. Belinda recognized it as the symbol of the Millair family of Redleaf Lake.
The second was marked as “Brenton and Debis’s Room.” The party remembered there was a traumatized child named Brenton back at the chapel. They found some toy wooden knights in the bed sheets and decided to return them to Brenton.
The third room held three figures laying dead. Two wearing yellow robes lay slumped on the floor, having suffered repeated vicious blows to the face. A third—an old man easily in his eighties and wearing a light cloth dressing gown—had fallen back across the bed. He was dead but had a satisfied smirk on his face and still gripped a sturdy leather boot with blood on its heel. The boot’s partner lay on the floor nearby. Belinda identified the boots as being of exceptionally high quality from Angier’s—a famed shop that held the royal warrant for leatherworking.
The final room was collapsed, but no one seemed to have been in the room when the collapse occurred. Proceeding down the hall to the north again, they came to a door on their left before the hallway continued and opened into a large chamber. Myfanwy and Luna listened at the door and heard some movement but not near the door.
They opened the door and found a long room, with chipped white paint peeling from the battered frames of a row of twelve identical beds. Dingy white curtains separated each bed. The northern most bed had a man strapped down to it, thrashing and crying out, apparently having a nightmare. As the party approached, he screamed, “No! Not again!”, “Keep away!”, “I don’t want anything from you!”, and “Get away from me, bastard!”, in an increasingly panicked voice. Luna jumped onto his chest. He then shrieked and ceased thrashing. Bettina, Luna, and Myfanwy noticed a wisp of yellow vapor escape along with his final breath. It was obvious to them that he was dead. Luna batted at the wisp as it dissipated.
One minute later, though, he convulsed again. Luna jumped off as the man snarled and bit at her; the man has been turned into a ghoul. Avarel killed the ghoul with a couple of thrusts of his sword. They searched the room and found that most of the useful supplies had already been stripped from the room, but a straitjacket and a hoodwink cowl sat in the corner of the room.
They headed through the second door and entered the large chamber at the end of the hallway. Worn old chairs and small tables set with the scattered pieces of simple games lay scattered throughout the room. A serving hatch in the north wall opened into a darkened space beyond. Vast glass windows dominated the eastern walls, beyond which a jaundiced kaleidoscope swirled hypnotically. A coppery smell permeated the room, and to the west stood a wall of red.
By the windows sat a woman staring out with her back to the party in a wheelchair. Under her a stream of what appeared to be blood flowed from her to the red wall to the west. Avarel approached the woman and found her to be rotund old person in a faded housecoat sitting in her wheelchair and facing the eastern windows. A gaping wound covered her chest, gore pooling and streaming away from her.
Bettina decided to investigate the red wall and stood in front of it. A massive wave of gore rose out of the stream and pushed Bettina into the wall, engulfing her in a mass of blood. She was able to draw in a full breath before being engulfed and was able to work her way out and pulled herself to the side, covered in blood. Luna moved around the old lady and got to Bettina and used prestidigitation to clean her up.
Avarel pushed over the old lady to try and disrupt the haunt but got swept along with another wave of gore. The same wave set the old woman upright. The wave of gore swept Avarel right into the same flooded corridor that Bettina fell into. He was able to work his way out as well and got cleaned up by Luna.
Avarel determined that her heart seemed to have exploded, something that he recognized as a phrase used by some physicians to describe a heart attack. He theorized that perhaps her fear of having her heart explode was what caused the haunt. They disrupted the haunt allowing passage across the room. The serving hatch was apparently for drug dispensing, so Luna decided to sneak in and see what she could find.
She found a drug dispensary with three Apostles of Orpiment, cowering and drugged out of her mind. Luna sneaked out and then Evie crawled in and managed to place sleep spells on them. They then manacled them to keep them from harming the party as they looted the place for drugs. They found various hallucinogenic drugs and opiates. They gave a dose of a hallucinogenic to the old woman; her body collapsed, and the blood and gore dissipated.
They now saw a short hallway ending in a door with another door to the north. They decided to leave the Apostles to detox and opened the first door down the short corridor to the west. Racks of cleaning supplies and bins of stained laundry stewed there, filling the close space with a unique, acrid reek. The body of an orderly with several wounds and some gathered equipment lay there. They found some magic items and potions to help them and then checked the door at the end of the hall.
They found it locked but were able to open it with the keys on the key chain and found the corridor with the administrator’s office and the records halls. Heading back, they passed through double doors out of the large chamber where the old woman was and found a room filled with supernatural darkness. Avarel tried casting light but was unable to penetrate the blackness.
As Avarel moved into the room, he felt something bite him. Unable to see, he couldn’t strike. Avarel could clearly hear sobs, which included pleas like “Brenton?! Wake up, Brenton!” and “Brenton, the lamp went out!” Realizing that this was most likely Debis, Brenton’s brother, they decided to head back to the chapel and see if Brenton knew which lantern Brenton was mentioning.
Evie gave the toy knights to Brenton in return for the shadow lantern that he held. They then got Winter to heal them and then they rested for the night. Luna had a strange dream in which she saw herself pass by and head back down to the cellar where they woke up. There was a brief flash and the she woke up. Evie and Winter also had a strange dream in which they saw themselves staring down at their own sleeping bodies.
Unable to interpret the meaning of the dreams, they investigated the cellar, but found everything exactly as they had left. They decided to just keep going and deal with Debis. They took the lantern back to the darkened room and the darkness vanished immediately. The tatters of Debis’ bedclothes and the scraps of his extensive charcoal drawings had formed a frail, new body with a dire rat’s skull on top. Avarel recognized it as an attic whisperer, which immediately burst into relieved sobs at the sight of the shadow lantern. The departing spirit of Debis Lieklan manifested as a disembodied, luminous hand that touched the lantern then vanished as the attic whisperer collapsed and was destroyed.
They checked out the door that seemed to lead into a staff office between the dispensary and the hall where Debis’ spirit was located. They searched the desks and found a book wrapped in butcher’s paper that bore the handwritten word “confiscated.” Inside was a Taldan quarto titled Her Majesty’s Honorable Nightcap by Charent. Perusal proved it to be a rather licentious work, which Belinda stored away.
Left with only one way forward, the party decided to proceed cautiously. Luna and Myfanwy heard many people in a vast chamber beyond. Evie disguised herself as an Apostle of Orpiment and then opened the door just enough to allow her to enter.
The gigantic space might have once been a cafeteria or assembly hall. It had become a village of a savage tribe. Wildly burning braziers stood amid yellow tents and scrap structures. Portions of the western and northern walls had collapsed, but ramshackle barricades had risen to surround them. To the east, two sets of wide stairs climbed to the floor above. Around the stairs nearly a dozen bodies hanged crucified upon the walls, dried crimson streaks below them, sacks cinched around their heads. Tendrils of yellow mist creeped throughout the entire space, wisps endlessly lapping and fondling the bizarre encampment.
Four guards and several survivors looked up and stared at Evie, trying to figure out who she was. Everyone was wearing something yellow, and Evie estimated twenty to thirty people all together. She also noticed that many didn’t wear the emblem of the Apostles of Orpiment, cowed by the thugs wandering between the tents.
Evie tried to get the guards to follow her to get some “good drugs” she had found. The guards glanced at her and then they moved on, accepting her as an Apostle. Evie asked the people about Ulver Zandalus, but the people just nodded and kept quiet and the guards became suspicious. A group of fifteen began to follow her with various weapons. Evie slipped out of the room, dropped the disguise, and waited with the rest of the party.
The group followed her out and surrounded the party, looking at them with suspicious eyes. Before things could escalate, a man in the coat of a Briarstone doctor emerged and demanded the cultists stand down. He loudly declared, “Good! More come to gaze beyond, to serve the orpiment! Welcome, friends!” He approached with open arms and empty hands. As soon as he was close enough, he desperately whispered, “Nod and follow me if you want to live.” The party nodded and followed him to the northeastern corner of the room.
He introduced himself as Doctor Wren Elbourne. He studied and treated diseases of the mind. He only started working at Briarstone two week before. Myfanwy thought she recognized the name Wren Elbourne from the records rooms, but she couldn’t recall details. Apparently he was left alone by the Apostles as he was able to tend wounds and keep people reasonably healthy.
Evie asked about Zandalus and Elbourne told them that Zandalus kept himself and a few truly devoted followers in the remaining rooms up the stairs. Most of the second floor had collapsed, however, and there wasn’t much up there but ruins. When asking about the guards, Elbourne said there was always four guards around, but up to twenty can be called up at any time.
When asked about what was going on, Elbourne said that Zandalus found some way to breach the border between dreaming and wakefulness. The fog was a result; it was like spillover from whatever dream realm he was tapped into. The Tatterman was some sort of nightmare made real, a dream servant of Zandalus. That the Tatterman was working for Zandalus caused most of the survivors in the camp to be very reluctant to challenge the authority of Zandalus or his followers, the Apostles in Orpiment.
Elbourne told them that most of the people there were not there for serious mental problems, but that the really serious cases all seemed to have fallen into service of Zandalus, the worst being the Bag Lady. Her real name was Aggra Loomis, and she was one of the asylum’s only truly dangerous patients. She killed nine men in Rozenport over forty years before. They called them the Bag Lady murders, since she always wrapped up her victim’s faces. Apparently she passed between prisons and hospitals, but finally ended up at Briarstone. Though old, Elbourne said she was still strong as a devil.
Elbourne warned the party that by clearing the path between the settlement and the chapel, the survivors in the chapel were now in danger. The only reason the Apostles hadn’t attacked in force was because there was no clear path. Now there was. It was quickly agreed that Zandalus and his thugs as well as the mist had to be dealt with if they were all to survive. Elbourne had an idea on how this could be accomplished.
Zandalus’ most devoted acolytes were oneirogens, fully functioning ones unlike Administrator Losandro. Most stayed locked away with him upstairs, but at least one watched over the northwestern tower. Elbourne believed he was alone. He might be able to be intimidated into revealing some secrets, possibly even the method to get rid of the mist. Once it was gone, Zandalus might be easier to handle.
He warned them of dangers to the northwest, ghouls and the like, but having not gone that way he couldn’t give them any more information. The party agreed that it seemed as good a plan as any and headed toward the doors leading west.
Session the Fifth (part two):
They opened the doors on a large room. A row of fireplaces stood among heaps of barrel-sized pots and cooking implements in this ruin of a kitchen. Numerous doors led to the south, east, and west, while multiple corners of the L-shaped room had collapsed. A line of large rocks deliberately cordoned off the westernmost door. Everyone noticed that in the cordoned off area there was a cauldron rattling over the kitchen’s cold westernmost fireplace. Although its lid was clattering as if some boiling brew were within, the large pot appeared empty.
They figured it was a haunt and that it blocked the westernmost door. They decided to check out other rooms. Luna and Myfanwy heard two to six people on the other side of the door. They opened the door on a smaller room. Sizable cracks split the surface of the south wall, allowing the smoke of several small cooking fires to escape. Several doors exited the room, but two at the south end of the room had been blocked by a waist-high heap of debris.
Six Apostles in Orpiment were there in what appeared to have been made into a makeshift kitchen. They looked nervous, and as two of the Apostles cooked the reason why became apparent: ghouls were pounding on the doors that were blockaded, trying to get it. After a while, the ghouls gave up and left. Evie approached one of the cooks, and upon asking about the haunt in the kitchen. The cook said that as soon as any creature comes close, the cauldron overturned and a vaporous, spectral image of a lean man’s sobbing face poured forth, filling the area and then dissolving.
She said that the image was that of the head cook, Calabren Runnelstaub. His body was buried in the rubble in the kitchen. Evie postulated that putting the body to rest might end the haunt. They returned to the kitchen and carefully took three hours to exhume the head cook’s body. They returned to the chapel and asked Winter to properly bury the body in the first courtyard they had come to. Winter agreed and performed the ritual. They also brought Winter up to speed on the fact that they might have a way to end the mists, but the Apostles now had a clear path to the chapel and that she should prepare for the attack.
They returned to the kitchen and found the cauldron was no longer rattling. They proceeded through the western door and found an antechamber leading outside. The door in the north wall of the room was open to the outside grounds, and as such the room was filled with sickly yellow mist. As Myfanwy closed the door, a large multiple limbed amphibian came out of the mists and attacked.
Bettina managed to get in a good strike with Red Destiny before the creature gave out a blood curdling howl. Belinda and Myfanwy were dazed by it, but the rest of the group were unaffected. Luna recognized it as a voonith, a creature from the deep dreaming and scratched out the word on the floor. Luna, Evie, and Avarel charged in and flanked with Bettina, striking hard. The voonith bit Avarel and pulled him to the ground, while it used its many claw attacks to badly wound Luna. Luna hissed and struck with a claw, claw bite and shredded it.
They waited for the mists to dissipate completely before heading south along a narrow corridor and listened at the door it led to. They heard nothing and opened on another corridor that kept going south before widening up. Paint chips the color of eggshells covered the floor of these halls. Many of the walls were cracked and sagged, causing numerous doors to lean awkwardly in their broken frames. Luna and Myfanwy heard ghouls coming from the east, where open doors led to the large courtyard near the Administrator’s office.
Myfanwy was able to get a strike in as they moved into attack, but otherwise the five ghouls had the advantage. Belinda got heavily clawed as the others moved in to fight. Avarel killed one and moved in to strike a second one. Avarel, Belinda, and Bettina got clawed and bit. But Bettina and Luna killed another two. Evie managed to cast daze on one of the final two. Avarel killed the dazed one as Myfanwy took a vicious claw. Bettina, Luna, Evie, and Avarel teamed up to finish off the last ghoul.
Myfanwy noticed that one wall in the hall was unstable. Instead of heading down the hall, they decided to go out into the courtyard to make sure all the ghouls there were finished. As they moved through the mists, they glimpsed a unicorn trotting around the courtyard. They traveled around the paths until they came to a southern dead end where a body lay on a pile of rubble.
As they approached the unicorn emerged from the mists and attacked Avarel with a goring charge with its horn, taking the paladin down. Luna and Belinda moved in to strike as Bettina hit with her sword, gouging its flank. They realized they were fighting a dream creature haunt protecting the corpse, which explained why the body had not been eaten by the ghouls. Evie used the wand of bless as the unicorn kicked Belinda into unconsciousness. It kicked Bettina and missed Myvanwy with its horn. Luna then finished it off.
They stabilized Avarel and Belinda then searched the body to find a ring of sustenance. They took Avarel, Belinda, and the body back to Winter for healing and another burial respectively.
Here is Myfanwy (pronounced Mi-FAWN-wii) Potter, our half-elf investigator, played by Sean Dunphy:
Myfanwy Potter
Female half-elf investigator (empiricist) 1 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide 30, 100)
LN Medium humanoid (elf, human)
Hero Points 1
Init +5; Senses low-light vision; Perception +12
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Defense
--------------------
AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+2 armor, +3 Dex)
hp 9 (1d8+1)
Sanity 39, threshhold 3, edge 19
Fort +1, Ref +5, Will +4; +2 racial bonus vs. illusion spells and effects
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Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee rapier +3 (1d6-1/18-20)
Investigator (Empiricist) Extracts Prepared (CL 1st; concentration +4)
1st—expeditious retreat
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 8, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 17, Wis 14, Cha 8
Base Atk +0; CMB -1; CMD 12
Feats Open Minded, Skill Focus (Perception), Weapon Finesse
Traits elven reflexes, lepidstadt scar (ustalav), methodical mind (arcana, history, planes; arcana, history, planes, planes), wisdom in the flesh
Flaws nearsighted
Skills Acrobatics +1, Appraise +1, Bluff -3, Climb -3, Craft (alchemy) +7 (+8 to create alchemical items), Craft (sketching) +7, Diplomacy -3, Disable Device +8, Disguise -3, Escape Artist +1, Fly +1, Heal +0, Intimidate -3, Knowledge (arcana) +8, Knowledge (history) +8, Knowledge (planes) +8, Linguistics +7, Perception +12, Ride +1, Sense Motive +1, Spellcraft +7, Stealth +7, Survival +0, Swim +6, Use Magic Device +7; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Common, Draconic, Elven, Jistka, Varisian, Vudrani
SQ alchemy (alchemy crafting +1), arcane training, dreamer, elf blood, hero points, inspiration (4/day), meticulous, trapfinding +1
Other Gear leather armor, rapier, alchemy crafting kit, backpack, chalk, charcoal (5), eyeglasses, ink, inkpen (3), investigator starting formula book, journal, scholar's outfit, silver tiger pendant (worth 5 gp), 4 gp, 5 sp, 9 cp
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Special Abilities
--------------------
Dreamer +2 to save vs. illusion. In lucid dreams treat Cha as 2 higher.
Meticulous -2 on all untrained skill checks
Open Minded Gain 1 skill point per level.
When Myfanwy awoke with nothing but hazy memories, she began carefully cataloging her thoughts to determine the reasons for her condition and where she might have been. This comforted her, and she knew deep down that she had always relied on her ordered mind and pragmatic approach to face challenges. Myfanwy uses this focus and sensibility to her advantage as she investigated her dire situation.
And here are her stats at 2nd and 3rd level (the party levelled up last session):
Myfanwy Potter
Female half-elf investigator (empiricist) 2
LN Medium humanoid (elf, human)
Hero Points 1
Init +5; Senses low-light vision; Perception +13
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Defense
--------------------
[b]AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+2 armor, +3 Dex)
hp 15 (2d8+2)
Sanity 39, threshhold 3, edge 19
Fort +1, Ref +6, Will +5; +2 racial bonus vs. illusion spells and effects
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee rapier +4 (1d6-1/18-20)
Investigator (Empiricist) Extracts Prepared (CL 2nd; concentration +5)
1st —cure light wounds, expeditious retreat, shield
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 8, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 17, Wis 14, Cha 8
Base Atk +1; CMB +0; CMD 13
Feats Open Minded, Skill Focus (Perception), Weapon Finesse
Traits elven reflexes, lepidstadt scar (ustalav), methodical mind (arcana, history, planes; arcana, history, planes, planes), wisdom in the flesh
Flaws nearsighted
Skills Acrobatics +1, Appraise +1, Bluff -3, Climb -3, Craft (alchemy) +8 (+10 to create alchemical items), Craft (sketching) +8, Diplomacy -3 (+1 to gather information (You can use your Intelligence Modifier instead of Charisma)), Disable Device +6, Disguise -3, Escape Artist +1, Fly +1, Heal +0, Intimidate -3, Knowledge (arcana) +9, Knowledge (geography) +7, Knowledge (history) +9, Knowledge (local) +7, Knowledge (nature) +7, Knowledge (planes) +9, Knowledge (religion) +7, Linguistics +8, Perception +13, Ride +1, Sense Motive +1, Spellcraft +7, Stealth +7, Survival +0, Swim +7, Use Magic Device +7; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Common, Draconic, Elven, Jistka, Skald, Varisian, Vudrani
SQ alchemy (alchemy crafting +2), arcane training[APG], ceaseless observation, dreamer, elf blood, hero points, inspiration (4/day), meticulous, trapfinding +1
Other Gear leather armor, rapier, handy haversack, alchemy crafting kit, backpack, chalk, charcoal (5), eyeglasses, ink, inkpen (3), investigator starting formula book, journal, scholar's outfit, silver tiger pendant (worth 5 gp), 4 gp, 5 sp, 9 cp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Dreamer +2 to save vs. illusion. In lucid dreams treat Cha as 2 higher.
Meticulous -2 on all untrained skill checks
Open Minded Gain 1 skill point per level.
.
Myfanwy Potter
Female half-elf investigator (empiricist) 3
LN Medium humanoid (elf, human)
Hero Points 1
Init +5; Senses low-light vision; Perception +14
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Defense
--------------------
AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+2 armor, +3 Dex)
hp 24 (3d8+3)
Sanity 39, threshhold 3, edge 19
Fort +2, Ref +6, Will +5; +2 racial bonus vs. illusion spells and effects
Defensive Abilities trap sense +1
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee rapier +6 (1d6-1/18-20)
Investigator (Empiricist) Extracts Prepared (CL 3rd; concentration +6)
. . 1st—comprehend languages, cure light wounds, expeditious retreat, shield
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 8, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 17, Wis 14, Cha 8
Base Atk +2; CMB +1; CMD 14
Feats Open Minded, Skill Focus (Perception), Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (rapier)
Traits elven reflexes, lepidstadt scar (ustalav), methodical mind (arcana, history, planes; arcana, history, planes, planes), wisdom in the flesh
Flaws nearsighted
Skills Acrobatics +1, Appraise +1, Bluff -3, Climb -3, Craft (alchemy) +9 (+12 to create alchemical items), Craft (sketching) +9, Diplomacy -3 (+1 to gather information (You can use your Intelligence Modifier instead of Charisma)), Disable Device +9, Disguise -3, Escape Artist +1, Fly +1, Heal +6, Intimidate -3, Knowledge (arcana) +10, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +7, Knowledge (geography) +7, Knowledge (history) +10, Knowledge (local) +7, Knowledge (nature) +8, Knowledge (planes) +10, Knowledge (religion) +7, Linguistics +9, Perception +14, Ride +1, Sense Motive +1, Spellcraft +7, Stealth +7, Survival +0, Swim +8, Use Magic Device +7; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Aklo, Common, Draconic, Elven, Jistka, Skald, Varisian, Vudrani
SQ alchemy (alchemy crafting +3), arcane training[APG], ceaseless observation, dreamer, elf blood, hero points, inspiration (4/day), investigator talent (expanded inspiration[ACG]), keen recollection, meticulous, trapfinding +1
Other Gear leather armor, rapier, handy haversack, alchemy crafting kit, backpack, chalk, charcoal (5), eyeglasses, ink, inkpen (3), investigator starting formula book, journal, scholar's outfit, silver tiger pendant (worth 5 gp), 4 gp, 5 sp, 9 cp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Dreamer +2 to save vs. illusion. In lucid dreams treat Cha as 2 higher.
Meticulous -2 on all untrained skill checks
Open Minded Gain 1 skill point per level.
Here are Avarel, Belinda, Bettina, and Luna's 3rd level stats:
Avarel Henrican
Male human (Varisian) paladin (oath against corruption, combat medic, ghost hunter, tempered champion) 3
LG Medium humanoid (human)
Hero Points 1
Init +0; Senses Perception +2
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Defense
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AC 18, touch 10, flat-footed 18 (+5 armor, +3 shield)
hp 29 (3d10+5)
Sanity 41, threshhold 2, edge 20
Fort +4, Ref +1, Will +7 (+2 trait bonus vs. emotion and fear effects); +4 sacred bonus against spells and effects from aberrations, +1 trait bonus vs. spell effects from evil creatures
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)
Melee mwk cold iron longsword +7 (1d8+2/19-20)
Ranged longbow +3 (1d8/×3)
Special Attacks ghostly smite, smite evil 1/day (+2 attack and AC, +3 damage)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 3rd; concentration +5)
. . 1/day—light
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 15, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 14
Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 15
Feats Combat Expertise, Combat Stamina, Iron Will, Weapon Focus (longsword)
Traits chosen of iomedae, disillusioned, driven by guilt, searing beacon
Flaws spell vulnerability
Skills Acrobatics -5 (-9 to jump), Heal +8, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Knowledge (history) +7, Knowledge (nobility) +8, Knowledge (religion) +8, Sense Motive +6; Racial Modifiers +1 Knowledge (nobility), +1 Knowledge (religion)
Languages Common, Skald, Varisian
SQ aura of purity, bitter, careful healer, combat expertise, comprehensive education, dress wounds, hero points, lay on hands 3/day (1d6), mercy (shaken), swift healer, weapon focus
Combat Gear potion of bull's strength, antitoxin (3); Other Gear scale mail, +1 heavy wooden shield, arrows (20), longbow, mwk cold iron longsword, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, hip flask, holy text (The Acts of Iomedae), mess kit, silk rope (50 ft.), soap, trail rations (5), wooden holy symbol of Iomedae, 22 gp, 9 sp
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Special Abilities
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Aura of Purity +4/+1 (10' radius) (Su) Gain a bonus on saves vs. spells/effects from aberrations, allies in range gain lesser bonus.
Bitter Heal 1 less point when receiving healing from an ally’s class feature, spell, or sla.
Careful Healer (3 HP/day) (Ex) No AoO when stabilize/treat poison & long term care heals +0 (divide among healed).
Comprehensive Education All knowledge skills are class skills, +1 racial bonus for knowledge skils from classes.
Dress Wounds (1/day) (Su) Can treat deadly wounds as full rd action on an ally, but Hp only last 5 min.
Ghostly Smite (Su) Smite Evil is ghost touch instead of bypassing DRs
Lay on Hands (1d6 hit points, 3/day) (Su) As a standard action (swift on self), touch channels positive energy and applies mercies.
Mercy (Shaken) (Su) When you use your lay on hands ability, it also removes the shaken condition.
Smite Evil (1/day) (Su) +2 to hit, +3 to damage, +2 deflection bonus to AC when used.
Swift Healer (Ex) Can use Heal to provide first aid or treat poison as a swift action.
--------------------
Belinda Purcel
Female human (Ulfen) unchained rogue (charlatan) 3
N Medium humanoid (human)
Hero Points 1
Init +2; Senses Perception +8
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Defense
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AC 14, touch 13, flat-footed 11 (+1 armor, +2 Dex, +1 dodge)
hp 18 (3d8)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +5; +1 trait bonus vs. aberrations
Defensive Abilities evasion
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Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger +4 (1d4/19-20) or
. . rapier +4 (1d6+2/18-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack (unchained) +2d6
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 10, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +2; CMB +2; CMD 15
Feats Dodge, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Weapon Finesse
Traits foe of the strange, resilient, worldly
Skills Acrobatics +8, Appraise +8, Bluff +9, Climb +6, Diplomacy +9, Disable Device +8, Disguise +9, Escape Artist +8, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (local) +8, Perception +8, Sense Motive +8, Sleight of Hand +8, Stealth +8
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald, Varisian
SQ hero points, natural born liar, rogue talents (fast stealth, rumormonger)
Other Gear padded armor, dagger (2), rapier, backpack, belt pouch, grappling hook, manacles, mirror, signet ring, silk rope (50 ft.), thieves' tools, 177 gp
--------------------
Special Abilities
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Natural Born Liar (Ex) Creatures deceived by Bluff check take a -2 penalty vs. your Bluff checks for 24 hours.
Rumormonger (3/week) (Ex) Use a bluff check to start a rumor in small town or larger settlement over a week.
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Bettina Purcel
Female human (Ulfen) unchained rogue (false medium) 3
N Medium humanoid (human)
Hero Points 1
Init +2; Senses Perception +8
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Defense
--------------------
AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+1 armor, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 natural)
hp 24 (3d8)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +5
Defensive Abilities evasion
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Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger +4 (1d4/19-20) or
. . rapier +4 (1d6/18-20) or
. . red destiny +6 (1d6+4/19-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack (unchained) +2d6
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 10, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +2; CMB +2; CMD 15
Feats Dodge, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Weapon Finesse
Traits formerly mind-swapped, resilient, worldly
Skills Acrobatics +8, Appraise +8, Bluff +9 (+10 in dim light or darkness, +11 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Climb +6, Diplomacy +9, Disable Device +8, Disguise +9 (+10 in dim light or darkness), Escape Artist +8 (+10 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Intimidate +9, Knowledge (local) +8, Perception +8, Sense Motive +8, Sleight of Hand +8 (+9 in dim light or darkness, +10 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Stealth +8
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald, Varisian
SQ dim the lights +1, false sensitivity, haunting presence (10 feet), hero points
Other Gear padded armor, red destiny, dagger (2), rapier, amulet of natural armor +1, belt pouch, fraudulent medium's kit, manacles, mirror, signet ring, thieves' tools
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Dim the Lights +1 In dim light or darkness, gain a bonus to bluff, disguise and sleight of hand
False Sensitivity (Ex) Fake the use of occult skill unlocks
Haunting Presence (10 feet) (Ex) In dim light or darkness, emulate dancing lights, ghost sound, silent image, or ventriloquism with Bluff
--------------------
Luna
Female dreamlands cat unchained rogue (prowler) 2/sorcerer 1
N Tiny magical beast
Hero Points 1
Init +3; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +8
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Defense
--------------------
AC 16, touch 16, flat-footed 12 (+3 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 size)
hp 23 (3 HD; 1d6+2d8+6)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +2, Ref +6, Will +4; +2 trait bonus vs. fear and emotion effects
Defensive Abilities evasion, land on your feat, nine lives
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Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +6 (1d3-3), 2 claws +6 (1d2-3)
Space 2½ ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks prowling strike, sneak attack (unchained) +2d6
Bloodline Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +4)
. . 6/day—lullaby
Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 1st; concentration +4)
. . 1st (4/day)—burning hands (DC 14), magic missile
. . 0 (at will)—acid splash, disrupt undead, mage hand, prestidigitation
. . Bloodline Dreamspun
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 4, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 17
Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 10 (14 vs. trip)
Feats Accomplished Sneak Attacker, Dodge, Eschew Materials, Skill Focus (Bluff), Weapon Finesse
Traits enduring stoicism, orphaned, solitary, strength foretold
Flaws spell vulnerability
Skills Acrobatics +8 (+9 to avoid provoking AoO), Bluff +10, Climb +11, Diplomacy +3 (+1 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Disable Device +7, Escape Artist +13, Intimidate +8, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Perception +8, Perform (sing) +9, Sense Motive +2 (+0 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Sleight of Hand +9, Stealth +21, Survival +7, Swim +7; Racial Modifiers +4 Climb, +4 Escape Artist, +4 Stealth
Languages Cat, Common, Varisian
SQ dreamlands travel, hero points, moon jump, pride, rogue talent (fast stealth)
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Dreamlands Travel (Su) Sense nearby Gates of Slumber within 1 mile radius at will.
Land on Your Feat (Ex) Treat any fall as if it were 20 ft. less than the actual distance of the fall.
Lullaby (6/day) (Sp) As lullaby but no concentration and penalty is -4.
Moon Jump (2/night) (Su) While in the Dreamlands jump to the moon up to twice a night.
Nine Lives (9 lives) (Su) Self resurrect up to eight times.
Pride -2 to diplomacy and sense motive vs. those who threaten, accuse, or challenge you, until they apologize
Prowling Strike (Ex) Enter an exit adjacent creature's spae without provoking an AoO.
Session the Sixth:
Winter healed the party again and they rested overnight before going out and burying the body they returned with. They then travelled back through the Apostles’ “village” and went back to where they encountered the ghouls. They moved into the hallway and went to the first door, where Myfanwy listened and indicated that four individuals were moving around. Avarel opened the door onto a chamber.
Multiple tables and chairs had been shattered and rebuilt into cages along the east wall, while a crate and an upended bed fitted with harnesses stood against the north. In the cages were corpses and strapped to the upright bed was a living person. Four ghouls were in the chamber; three moved to attack while the fourth ran over to the man strapped to the bed.
As this was happening, the unstable wall across the corridor from the door fell over, smashing down on Myfanwy, Evie, and Belinda. Myfanwy managed to avoid most of the stones, but Belinda and Evie were knocked prone. Four more ghouls emerged from behind the fallen wall, having apparently pushed it over. Myfanwy drew her rapier and stabbed one as Luna cast disrupt undead on the same one. Evie cast hide from undead on herself and then moved out of the melee.
The ghouls moved in, but did a little damage to Bettina and Myfanwy, and severely clawed Belinda. Avarel struck two ghouls, killing one outright. Belinda kipped up and drove her rapier right though its head as Myfanwy did the same to the one she was fighting. That ghoul kept moving, but now as a puppet of Evie. This creeped everyone out even more than the ghouls.
Evie used her puppet to tear a third ghoul in the hall apart before falling over dead. Avarel and Bettina got struck by the ghouls, as the one next to the bound man called out for the party to leave or he would bite out the man’s throat. Avarel killed the two ghouls attacking him and moved closer to the hostage and the ghoul threatening him. Belinda killed the last ghoul in the hall as Myfanwy moved into the room next to Avarel.
Evie moved into the room and placed the last ghoul under her hypnotic stare and cast sleep on the ghoul, causing it to pass out. Bettina picked up Luna and moved into the room. Luna and Avarel moved into position next to the ghoul. The man strapped to the bed warned them that the “thing in the crate is not what it appears to be.” Bettina went over and lifted the crate and a cute puppy, barked and wagged its tail. Bettina hugged and petted the puppy, much to Luna’s disgust and ire. She went over and sniffed at the dog which cowered behind Bettina. Luna hissed and attacked even though her senses said it was a dog. In fact, that just added to her desire to strike.
Avarel killed the ghoul with one solid strike with his sword as Evie asked the man about the puppy. He said he saw it change shape before the ghouls placed the crate over it. Myfanwy stated that there were small creatures that could shape-change, but what this one was couldn’t be determined. When Luna struck the dog, her claw seemed to do no damage whatsoever. The puppy then gazed at each of the members of the group and managed to spook Belinda.
The “dog” then attacked Bettina, but only scraped her. It then transformed into a creature with a stout canine torso topping a slimy mass resembling an earthworm. Disgusting veins dangled from its face. Avarel attacked it and barely scratched it with a solid hit with his sword. Myfanwy recognized it as an esipil, a type of extraplanar being known as a sahkil. They were creatures who worked to undermine the efforts of the psychopomps. Evie used the wand to cast bless on the group as Bettina released the esipil and Luna struck in concert with Bettina to kill the creature.
Luna purred in delight.
Luna and Myfanwy took the man they rescued, Ilki Volost, back to Winter and the chapel. They healed a bit before returning to the area. Avarel found a magic shield which he swapped out for his own. He then worked on healing Belinda’s wounds. When Myfanwy and Luna got back and Avarel finished up, they headed down the hall and decided to check another door to make sure nothing was behind them before approaching the northwest tower. They listened at the door and heard five individuals moving about and the sounds of sloppy eating. They used the wand of bless as Avarel worked with each wounded party member to bind their wounds for the upcoming fight. Avarel then opened one door while Belinda and Luna moved to the second door to open the door after combat began.
They saw a large chamber with cracked, river-green tiles covering the walls and floors of a communal shower in wavering patterns. Dry metal spouts jutted from several walls, overlooking grates in the tile floor. A sizable portion of the floor dropped into a shallow pool, filled with something other than water: a vile stew of corpses and blood. The smell of rot and copper filled the air in this room. Three alcoves, providing minimal privacy, ran along the south wall. In the center, a simple chair had been transformed into a gruesome throne covered with draped viscera and gnawed bones.
Four ghouls moved to attack the group while a fifth with one hand lopped off and worn tied to a bit of twine around his neck. Avarel moved in and killed a ghoul with a single strike, cutting the head off the undead monstrosity. Belinda opened the door carefully to avoid attracting notice and let Luna into the room, allowing her to sneak attack one with a claw.
The ghouls attacked and Luna came close to being paralyzed as the one wearing his hand moved forward to attack Bettina. As he approached them, Myfanwy and Avarel became sickened by the horrible stench. That was when they realized they were dealing with a one handed ghast. Avarel, Belinda, Bettina, and Luna managed to kill another two ghouls swiftly.
The new shield kept Avarel from getting hit by a claw and the ghast hit Bettina with his claw, a slashing blow across her arm. Belinda charged in and became sickened by the stink of the ghast and missed with her rapier. Luna moved in to flank and attack the ghoul as Bettina killed the ghast. The ghoul failed to hit Avarel two more times because of the shield and he responded with a strike that clove the ghoul in twain.
Badly wounded, they retreated to the chapel for healing and rest again, before proceeding to the tower. After an uneventful rest, they returned to the hallway again and passed a large stairway going up which was choked with rubble. They came to a door to the tower and they listened carefully, hearing ghouls on the other side. They used the wand of bless and then Avarel opened the door.
The base room of the tower was fifty feet across with arched buttresses holding up the upper floors. A row of wicker rocking chairs faces the room’s tall windows, staring into the mist licking the outside of the glass. A heap of broken planks lay in one corner, the wreckage of a wooden stairwell that still partially clung to the wall above. Five ghouls dressed in tattered patient gowns circled the room, their noses and tongues raised high.
Luna jumped up onto Avarel’s back and waited for the paladin to enter the room. As Avarel walked in, Luna struck from hiding and slashed at one of the ghouls. The ghouls attacked with one claw striking and another being blocked by the shield. Bettina, Belinda, and Myfanwy moved in to flanking positions with each other and Luna. Belinda managed to kill one as Evie moved to the door and tried to daze a ghoul but was unable to do so.
Avarel and Luna killed one each, but the remaining ghouls put some severe wounds on the paladin. Myfanwy, Bettina, and Belinda struck with their rapiers and short sword, killing one and damaging the last. Avarel hit and killed the last one with a quick thrust. He then used lay on hands on himself to heal up some of his wounds.
Luna jumped on one of the wicker chairs and curled up. Since the stairs were gone, they requested Luna climb up the wall studs to where the stairs began bringing up a knotted rope with her. She agreed and tied off the rope, allowing the party to climb up. Myfanwy slipped and fell on her butt on her first and second tries. As she fumbled about, Luna went up the rest of the stairs and scouted out the tower room.
The room was as wide as the room below with broken windows looking out across a sea of churning saffron fog. Inside, dusty crates of every size crowded the room. In the center knelt a vague, humanoid figure which seemed to be the source of the unnaturally coloured fog. Luna hid and waited for the rest of the group to arrive.
Evie approached the figure carefully ad tried to speak with him. The figure didn’t respond, so they accepted that he had been fully transformed into an oneirogen and was no longer truly alive. With no ability to save it or communicate, they decided to put the oneirogen out of his misery. Bettina threw a dagger at the creature but missed and landed the blade right next to the cat, who glared at Bettina. Avarel used his longbow and managed to get a glancing hit.
Luna moved in and was able to avoid falling asleep from the mists, clawing for a little scratch. As they attacked, the mists spewing from it began to slow. The oneirogen approached Evie and Avarel to attack the paladin. They managed to avoid falling asleep as Avarel got slammed. Belinda approached and fell asleep. Myfanwy struck with her rapier, managed to resist the mists, and stabbed through its shoulder.
Avarel drew his sword and cut the oneirogen down. As the battle finished, the mist outside the windows looked lighter. While the surrounding region was still awash in the deadly fog, much of the immediate area appeared to clear, which made the party realize that destroying the other oneirogens could potentially eliminate the threat of the mysterious fog and allow escape from the asylum.
They journeyed back to the chapel and informed Winter about the source of the mists and what they would have to do to get free. She healed them and they rested again before heading back to the Apostle’s encampment. It was now the 1st of Rova, and the supplies were running out. Winter encouraged them to hurray.
They encountered four guards blocking the way up the stairs to where the oneirogens and Zandalus were located. Evie tried to convince the guards that the group were there to end the conflict between the Apostles and the survivors in the chapel. Unfortunately, her argument was not very convincing and the guards attacked. Only one came close to hitting, and it was blocked by Avarel’s shield.
Luna moved in and struck from the shadows as Myfanwy struck the one with her rapier. Evie used the wand of bless on the group before the guards attacked again. Luna got badly hit with a crowbar and vindictively killed her attacker with her claws. Belinda killed one that she was flanking with Bettina and Avarel got in a glancing blow on another. Bettina moved around the battle and circled in to run another one through. Myfanwy and Luna finished off the last one standing. They then proceeded up the stairs.
The wide flight of stairs rose to a chamber that had almost entirely collapsed upon itself. Shattered pieces of wall and ceiling timbers, knotted like broken fingers, slumped precariously. Despite the chamber’s near ruin, several tables, chairs, and bedrolls lay about the room. A hall choked with fog could be seen through a gap in the wall to the north. Four Apostles stood up from the table and demanded that the group leave immediately. When the party didn’t, they moved to attack.
Behind them an old woman rose from her pallet and shrieked at them to “keep it down,” but swiftly switched to “drive out the nonbelievers!” before coming to the attack. Luna snuck in and struck with a claw before they all moved in and attacked Avarel to no effect. Avarel hit with a glancing blow only, as did Myfanwy. One hit Belinda as she moved into position, rattling her head so she missed. The old woman—Aggra “Bag Lady” Loomis—charged in and attacked Avarel; his shield saved him yet again.
Bettina moved in and killed one of the Apostles. Evie cast charm person on the “Bag Lady”, but she was able to resist. The Apostles managed to badly hurt Avarel with their crowbars, making the party very concerned. Luna struck but didn’t take one down. Avarel managed to strike Loomis with a powerful blow to her arms while healing himself in the battle.
Myfanwy and Belinda took another Apostle down as Loomis took another nasty scratch from Luna as she went after Avarel with a sack. Belinda saw the attack coming and struck the Bag Lady through the heart, killing her. Evie cast sleep on the last two Apostles and managed to render them both unconscious. They healed themselves up and tied up the surviving Apostles.
They found a few baubles including bracers of armor and a battered harrow deck. The harrow deck was interesting as The Foreign Trader card depicted a veiled figure in yellow bearing an armful of misshapen rubies, revealing that it was a variant deck. They then readied themselves for the next fight, and proceeded on.
A now for the final member of our troupe, the rather strange and enigmatic (which is saying a lot in this campaign), Evelyn “Evie” Kazallin, played by Jacen Groves!
Evelyn Kazallin
Female changeling mesmerist (spirit walker) 1 (Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Coven 7, Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 4 29, Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures 38, 97)
NG Medium humanoid (changeling)
Hero Points 1
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +5
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Defense
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AC 13, touch 10, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor)
hp 7 (1d8-1)
Sanity 46, threshhold 5, edge 23
Fort +0, Ref +2, Will +3; +2 bonus vs. fear effects, +1 trait bonus vs. spell effects from evil creatures
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee whip -1 (1d3-1 nonlethal)
Ranged light crossbow +0 (1d8/19-20)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (15 ft. with whip)
Special Attacks bold stare (psychic inception), hypnotic stare (-2), mesmerist tricks 6/day (false flanker, psychosomatic surge), painful stare (+1 or +1d6+1)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +6)
. . 1/day—dancing lights, detect magic, disguise self, pass without trace
Mesmerist (Spirit Walker) Spells Known (CL 1st; concentration +6)
. . 1st (3/day)—charm person (DC 17), sleep (DC 17)
. . 0 (at will)—daze (DC 16), message, prestidigitation, unwitting ally (DC 16)
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Statistics
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Str 8, Dex 10, Con 8, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 20
Base Atk +0; CMB -1; CMD 9
Feats Glimpse Beyond, Spell Focus (enchantment)
Traits creative manipulator, deathtouched, driven by guilt, mediator
Flaws disinherited
Skills Bluff +9 (+7 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check, +11 vs. creatures sexually attracted to her), Diplomacy +10 (+8 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check, +12 to use the hypnotism skill unlock), Disguise +5 (+3 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Intimidate +9 (+7 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Knowledge (dungeoneering) +6 (+8 to identify vulnerabilities and powers of aberrations, this check can be made untrained), Knowledge (religion) +6 (+8 to identify vulnerabilities and powers of undead, this check can be made untrained), Perception +5, Perform (act) +9 (+7 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Perform (stage magic) +9 (+7 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Sense Motive +5, Sleight of Hand +3, Use Magic Device +9 (+7 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check); Racial Modifiers +2 Bluff vs. creatures sexually attracted to her
Languages Common, Elven, Skald, Varisian
SQ hero points, hypnotism (diplomacy), prognostication (sense motive), read aura (perception), undead inception, vain
Other Gear studded leather, light crossbow, whip, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, entertainer's outfit, flint and steel, hypnotist's locket, ink, inkpen, stationery, trail rations (5), waterskin, 9 gp, 9 sp
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Special Abilities
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Glimpse Beyond +2 to save vs. fear, bonuses to ID certain monsters.
Hypnotic Stare (-2, 30 feet) (Su) As swift action, target creature takes penalty on Will saves.
Hypnotism (Diplomacy, 1/day) Use power of suggestion to alter subject's mind or recover memories.
Mesmerist Tricks (130 feet, 6/day) (Su) Implant hypnotic bond with allies. granting edge vs. foes.
Painful Stare (+1 or +1d6+1, 1/round) (Su) As a free action, hyp. stare target takes extra precision dam from a hit.
Prognostication (Sense Motive, 1/day) You are skilled in means of folk divination.
Read Aura (Perception, 1/day) Read the psychic impressions left on objects or in places.
Undead Inception (Su) You can affect undead with your hypnotic stare.
Vain -2 to Cha checks for 24h after failing an opposed Cha check
Evie awoke with no memories but feeling a great deal of shame and guilt for some forgotten activities. Determined to make amends, she is determined to fight against the forces that prey upon good people. She sees this as a chance at true redemption.
And here she is at 2nd and 3rd level:
Evelyn Kazallin
Female changeling mesmerist (spirit walker) 2
NG Medium humanoid (changeling)
Hero Points 1
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +6
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Defense
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AC 13, touch 10, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor)
hp 13 (2d8-2)
Sanity 46, threshhold 5, edge 23
Fort +0, Ref +3, Will +9; +2 bonus vs. fear effects, +1 trait bonus vs. spell effects from evil creatures
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee whip +0 (1d3-1 nonlethal)
Ranged light crossbow +2 (1d8/19-20)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (15 ft. with whip)
Special Attacks bold stare (psychic inception), hypnotic stare (-2), mesmerist tricks 6/day (false flanker, psychosomatic surge), painful stare (+1 or +1d6+1)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 2nd; concentration +7)
. . 1/day—dancing lights, detect magic, disguise self, pass without trace
Mesmerist (Spirit Walker) Spells Known (CL 2nd; concentration +7)
. . 1st (4/day)—charm person (DC 17), hideous laughter (DC 17), sleep (DC 17)
. . 0 (at will)—daze (DC 16), detect magic, message, prestidigitation, unwitting ally (DC 16)
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Statistics
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Str 8, Dex 10, Con 8, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 20
Base Atk +1; CMB +0; CMD 10
Feats Glimpse Beyond, Spell Focus (enchantment)
Traits creative manipulator, deathtouched, driven by guilt, mediator
Flaws disinherited
Skills Bluff +10 (+8 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check, +12 vs. creatures sexually attracted to her), Diplomacy +11 (+9 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check, +13 to use the hypnotism skill unlock), Disguise +5 (+3 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Intimidate +10 (+8 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Knowledge (dungeoneering) +7 (+9 to identify vulnerabilities and powers of aberrations, this check can be made untrained), Knowledge (religion) +7 (+9 to identify vulnerabilities and powers of undead, this check can be made untrained), Perception +6, Perform (act) +10 (+8 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Perform (stage magic) +10 (+8 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Sense Motive +6, Sleight of Hand +4, Use Magic Device +10 (+8 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check); Racial Modifiers +2 Bluff vs. creatures sexually attracted to her
Languages Common, Elven, Skald, Varisian
SQ hero points, hypnotism (diplomacy), prognostication (sense motive), read aura (perception), undead inception, vain
Other Gear studded leather, light crossbow, whip, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, entertainer's outfit, flint and steel, hypnotist's locket, ink, inkpen, stationery, trail rations (5), waterskin, 9 gp, 9 sp
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Special Abilities
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Glimpse Beyond +2 to save vs. fear, bonuses to ID certain monsters.
Hypnotic Stare (-2, 30 feet) (Su) As swift action, target creature takes penalty on Will saves.
Hypnotism (Diplomacy, 1/day) Use power of suggestion to alter subject's mind or recover memories.
Mesmerist Tricks (130 feet, 6/day) (Su) Implant hypnotic bond with allies. granting edge vs. foes.
Painful Stare (+1 or +1d6+1, 1/round) (Su) As a free action, hyp. stare target takes extra precision dam from a hit.
Prognostication (Sense Motive, 1/day) You are skilled in means of folk divination.
Psychic Inception (Su) Hypnotic stare can affect creatures that are mindless or immune to mind-affecting effects.
Read Aura (Perception, 1/day) Read the psychic impressions left on objects or in places.
Undead Inception (Su) You can affect undead with your hypnotic stare.
Vain -2 to Cha checks for 24h after failing an opposed Cha check
.
Evelyn Kazallin
Female changeling mesmerist (spirit walker) 3
NG Medium humanoid (changeling)
Hero Points 1
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +7
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Defense
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AC 13, touch 10, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor)
hp 18 (3d8-2)
Sanity 46, threshhold 5, edge 23
Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +9; +2 bonus vs. fear effects, +1 trait bonus vs. spell effects from evil creatures
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee whip +1 (1d3-1 nonlethal)
Ranged light crossbow +2 (1d8/19-20)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (15 ft. with whip)
Special Attacks bold stare (psychic inception[OA]), hypnotic stare (-2), mesmerist tricks 6/day (false flanker, psychosomatic surge), painful stare (+1 or +1d6+1)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 3rd; concentration +8)
. . 1/day—dancing lights, detect magic, disguise self, pass without trace
Mesmerist (Spirit Walker) Spells Known (CL 3rd; concentration +8)
. . 1st (5/day)—charm person (DC 17), hide from undead (DC 16), hideous laughter (DC 17), sleep (DC 17)
. . 0 (at will)—daze (DC 16), detect magic, detect psychic significance[OA], message, prestidigitation, unwitting ally[APG] (DC 16)
--------------------
Statistics
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Str 8, Dex 10, Con 8, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 20
Base Atk +2; CMB +1; CMD 11
Feats Glimpse Beyond, Intimidating Glance[OA], Spell Focus (enchantment)
Traits creative manipulator, deathtouched, driven by guilt, mediator
Flaws disinherited
Skills Bluff +11 (+9 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check, +13 vs. creatures sexually attracted to her), Diplomacy +12 (+10 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check, +14 to use the hypnotism skill unlock), Disguise +5 (+3 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Intimidate +11 (+9 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8 (+10 to identify vulnerabilities and powers of aberrations, this check can be made untrained), Knowledge (religion) +8 (+10 to identify vulnerabilities and powers of undead, this check can be made untrained), Perception +7, Perform (act) +11 (+9 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Perform (stage magic) +11 (+9 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Sense Motive +7, Sleight of Hand +4, Use Magic Device +11 (+9 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check); Racial Modifiers +2 Bluff vs. creatures sexually attracted to her
Languages Common, Elven, Skald, Varisian
SQ continued animation, hero points, hypnotism (diplomacy), prognostication (sense motive), read aura (perception), undead inception, vain
Other Gear studded leather, light crossbow, whip, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, entertainer's outfit, flint and steel, hypnotist's locket, ink, inkpen, stationery, trail rations (5), waterskin, 9 gp, 9 sp
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Special Abilities
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Continued Animation (humanoids, 6 hp, 1 round, 1/day, DC 16) (Su) You can animate a fallen target of your hypnotic stare.
Glimpse Beyond +2 to save vs. fear, bonuses to ID certain monsters.
Hypnotic Stare (-2, 30 feet) (Su) As swift action, target creature takes penalty on Will saves.
Hypnotism (Diplomacy, 1/day) Use power of suggestion to alter subject's mind or recover memories.
Intimidating Glance You can attempt to demoralize the target of your hypnotic stare as a swift action.
Mesmerist Tricks (130 feet, 6/day) (Su) Implant hypnotic bond with allies. granting edge vs. foes.
Painful Stare (+1 or +1d6+1, 1/round) (Su) As a free action, hyp. stare target takes extra precision dam from a hit.
Prognostication (Sense Motive, 1/day) You are skilled in means of folk divination.
Psychic Inception (Su) Hypnotic stare can affect creatures that are mindless or immune to mind-affecting effects.
Read Aura (Perception, 1/day) Read the psychic impressions left on objects or in places.
Undead Inception (Su) You can affect undead with your hypnotic stare.
Vain -2 to Cha checks for 24h after failing an opposed Cha check
Session the Seventh:
As they began to proceed, they discussed their injured state. As a result, the group decided to retreat to the shelter of the chapel and heal up. As they passed through the halls, they were assaulted by a crazed Apostle in Orpiment brandishing a chair leg. She swung hard and hit Avarel on the head, knocking him unconscious. Belinda moved in and flanked with Myfanwy and killed the Apostle easily. Evie checked on Avarel and then the group dragged him back to the chapel.
Winter healed them again but warned them that the survivors were almost out of food. If they couldn’t escape from the asylum quickly, things were going to get dire. They headed out again on the morning of Rova the 2nd and just before they reached the Apostle encampment the group encountered a strange mist with an acrid smell and claws.
It slashed at Avarel and opened bleeding wounds on him. It then drained Avarel’s blood, the mist turning a bright red. Myfanwy recognized it a vampiric mist, an aberration that feeds on blood. Luna cast burning hands to limited effect. Avarel and Bettina cut the mist, injuring it, Belinda threw her magic dagger and missed. Evie cast daze on it as Belinda picked up her dagger. Luna fired off a second burning hands spell from her ears. Avarel and Luna continued to hack at the monster until it collapsed.
They finally returned to the ruined upper floor and passed through a ruined wall into a room with cracked pillars bent at broken angles supporting a sagging ceiling. While most of the walls looked ready to fall apart, the northern wall had done so, creating a massive gap open to the strange weather beyond. Three oneirogens sat in the room, spouting the foul yellow mists which flowed out to surround the asylum. Opposite the gap, the wall in the best repair was laden with parchment pages covered in stark lines of coal and chalk.
Myfanwy and Luna noticed that even though there was no wind, the sketches on the wall next to them were fluttering as if moved by an nonexistent breeze. Myfanwy, Belinda, and Bettina moved into flanks and struck at one of the oneirogens. The remaining oneirogens moved in and began swinging their fists before Avarel strode in and swung wide, missing because of the thick mist surrounding each creature.
Myfanwy managed to kill one oneirogen with a thrust through the neck. Bettina got slammed hard by another, getting battered and bruised. Luna, Avarel, and Bettina managed to finish off the last two. Surprisingly, no one fell victim to the sleep effect, and they felt much more confident going forward. Evie then went up to the wall and began studying the strangely moving sketches.
Evie found some writing on the back of some of the sketches. They appeared to be a text of some sort, but all out of order and with no page numbers or references. Reassembling them into a book would take some effort.
They proceeded down a hallway headed west. Comprising multiple toppled cells, the chamber looked as though it could collapse at any moment. Thousands of parchment scraps covered the walls, as if to plaster the countless cracks. The flickering of dozens of candles illuminated the artwork’s subject matter: innumerable forlorn, surreal landscapes stretching into bleak infinities. The multitude of visions transformed the room into a threshold of nightmares.
A gaunt man with a ponytail of long and exceptionally straight white hair sat cross-legged upon the pallet. He wore multiple patients’ gowns that had been shredded and stitched to create a layered robe. His arms and much of his chest were exposed, revealing lines of charcoal and yellow chalk that streaked his flesh, the most prominent of which appeared to be a yellow flame on his forehead.
Upon spotting the group, Ulver Zandalus’s eyes went wide and his mouth fell open. A voice like a tempest wind hissing over broken glass sheered from his split, motionless lips—as though something other than Zandalus himself spoke from inside his body. “You’re supposed to be dead. I already killed you. Why aren’t you dead?!” With that Zandalus yanked upward, as if a puppet on invisible strings, and moved to attack.
Evie used the wand of bless on the group while asking Zandalus why he tried to kill them in the Dreamlands. Zandalus made a mind thrust attack on Avarel, but he shook off most of the effects as Luna moved into position to attack. The party flanked Zandalus as he drank a potion and then used ray of enfeeblement on Avarel. Luna clawed and bit at Zandalus along with a glancing blow from Avarel’s sword.
Zandalus drank a potion of invisibility and vanished, then cast a magic missile into Avarel. Luna used her nose to locate Zandalus and then hit him with a magic missile. Luna then began pointing with her tail to help the others. Even so, they found it difficult to locate and strike him. Yet another magic missile hit Avarel and Luna responded again in kind.
Avarel healed himself somewhat through his faith and successfully struck Zandalus despite the invisibility. Zandalus appeared as he swung his mace into Avarel’s face, laying out the paladin. Luna moved in and used her claws and bite to cut Zandalus’ femoral artery as Evie shot him right between the eyes with her crossbow, killing him.
As Zandalus fell, his wounds and orifices began spewing clouds of thick, yellow smoke; Myfanwy stabilized Avarel. They began dragging the knight out to the room with the sketches, at which point a familiar figure—the shadowy, gaunt murderer from their communal dream—stepped forth from the mist. The sickly fog clung to him and many of his tatters fluttered freely and dissolved into mist. The Tatterman moved to attack them immediately, intent on completing the job he couldn’t in dreams.
The group decided to flee.
Dragging Avarel as a group to so as they could keep running. They made a good start, getting back to the Apostle’s settlement and screamed “Run!” before heading south, the Tatterman right on their heels. They gained some ground, but Myfanwy slipped and fell, slowing them up and losing the ground they gained. They putt all their effort and managed to get a few doors between them and the monster. They fled back to the chapel, calling on Winter for help.
Winter healed them as fast as she could, and then the group headed back towards where they came from and ran into the Tatterman in the main entry hall. Evie used the wand of bless before they moved in to combat. Avarel cast light onto his sword, turning it into a blazing beacon. They got hit with his fear aura and Myfanwy was spooked by it, but she was bolstered by Evie.
The Tatterman cast sleep on Avarel, but he was able to resist. He charged the creature and hit the second aura, that was more intense. He persevered and struck true—but did little damage—as Bettina moved around to provide a flank along with Luna. Evie used her stare and managed to cast hideous laughter on the Tatterman, causing him to fall to the ground emitting a truly horrible sound, like low-pitch growl resonating over broken glass.
The group moved in and began striking at the fallen nightmare. Belinda used a silver dagger they found as a weapon. Bettina used some oil of align weapon to make Red Destiny a good weapon and make her strikes more effective. Luna then used mage hand to apply silversheen on Avarel’s longsword and Avarel hit hard into the Tatterman’s arm. Bettina then finished him off with one last solid thrust. The Tatterman’s body then dissipated in a yellow fog.
The group reported back to Winter that the Tatterman had been defeated and that they were going back to see what else might be in Zandalus’ quarters. They assured the now freed Apostles and their fellow inmates that all was well and that Winter Klaczka would be along soon to tend to them. They then proceeded upstairs and began collecting the sketches and searched the pallet that Zandalus had been on.
They found several small items and a book titled The Chain of Nights. Among the book’s numerous elaborate medical sketches of the brain, depictions of pressure points and chakras, meditative mantras, and methods of achieving lucid dreaming were spells and arcane rituals devoted to breaching the boundaries of dreams. Myfanwy found a ritual to rid a subject of all nightmares but could backfire horribly and turn the subject into an oneirogen, which was apparently had happened.
They used the time waiting for the mists to dissipate to reassemble the sketches/book to create a book of extended summoning keyed to chaotic alignment. It took the ladies and the cat one hour to reassemble the book. Once it was clear that the mist was gone, many of the former patients raced onto the grounds, reveling in the return of a familiar sky and dawning sun. Winter and her survivors, as well as Elbourne, quickly rose up to lead the refugees and provided critical medical attention.
They freed the Apostles they had manacled in the dispensary as they had successfully detoxified; the smell in there was no pleasant, however. Luna noticed that many of the sketches they got from Zandalus’ quarters were actually of the same city and she had a flash of memory. She tried to distract the others so she could go and enter the Dreamlands to research it, but Evie and Avarel wouldn’t be distracted. Luna was unimpressed.
As they coordinated their efforts with the survivors, some of the inmates and orderlies pointed out that Wren Elbourne was not actually a doctor, but a patient. Elbourne was sent to the asylum by family in Ardeal, secondarily for treatment of his “self-abuse and refusal to wed,” but primarily because of the embarrassments his defiant bachelorhood threatened to bring upon his family. While Briarstone didn’t usually accept patients for dubious reasons, the Elbournes’ donations were enough for the sanitarium to accept Wren for a several month-long retreat. Elbourne had stripped the coat off a dead doctor during the uprising, lying to make himself seem more useful. Since he helped a lot of people under the doctor facade, none of the survivors seemed to mind.
Free of the asylum, the party followed the road in front of the asylum to a dock on the southern end of the island. A boat remained tied to the pier, though it was too small for everyone to board at the same time. York offered to go along on the first trip to Thrushmoor, and then row the boat back to Briarstone Isle to ferry the remaining survivors off the island in as many trips as would be needed. Avarel, Luna, Bettina, Belinda, Evie, Myfanwy, Winter and four other survivors went with York in the boat, moving towards Thrushmoor.
We've finished the first volume of the AP: In Search of Sanity!
As such, the members of the party leveled up to 4th:
Avarel Henrican
Male human (Varisian) paladin (oath against corruption, combat medic, ghost hunter, tempered champion) 4
LG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +0; Senses Perception +2
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Defense
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AC 18, touch 10, flat-footed 18 (+5 armor, +3 shield)
hp 39 (4d10+7)
Sanity 41, threshhold 2, edge 20
Fort +5, Ref +1, Will +8 (+2 trait bonus vs. emotion and fear effects); +4 sacred bonus against spells and effects from aberrations, +1 trait bonus vs. spell effects from evil creatures
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)
Melee mwk cold iron longsword +9 (1d8+5/19-20)
Ranged longbow +4 (1d8/×3)
Special Attacks channel positive energy 2/day (DC 14, 2d6), ghostly smite, smite evil 2/day (+2 attack and AC, +4 damage)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; concentration +6)
. . 1/day—light
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Statistics
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Str 16, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 14
Base Atk +4; CMB +7; CMD 17
Feats Combat Expertise, Combat Stamina, Iron Will, Weapon Focus (longsword), Weapon Specialization (longsword)
Traits chosen of Iomedae, disillusioned, driven by guilt, searing beacon
Flaws spell vulnerability
Skills Acrobatics -5 (-9 to jump), Heal +9, Knowledge (arcana) +8, Knowledge (history) +8, Knowledge (nobility) +9, Knowledge (religion) +9, Sense Motive +6; Racial Modifiers +1 Knowledge (nobility), +1 Knowledge (religion)
Languages Common, Skald, Varisian
SQ aura of purity, bitter, careful healer, combat expertise, comprehensive education, divine weapon specialization, dress wounds, hero points, lay on hands 4/day (2d6), mercy (shaken), swift healer, weapon focus, weapon specialization
Combat Gear potion of bull's strength, antitoxin (3); Other Gear scale mail, +1 heavy wooden shield, arrows (20), longbow, mwk cold iron longsword, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, hip flask, holy text (The Acts of Iomedae), mess kit, silk rope (50 ft.), soap, trail rations (5), wooden holy symbol of Iomedae, 22 gp, 9 sp
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Special Abilities
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Aura of Purity +4/+1 (10' radius) (Su) Gain a bonus on saves vs. spells/effects from aberrations, allies in range gain lesser bonus.
Bitter Heal 1 less point when receiving healing from an ally’s class feature, spell, or sla.
Careful Healer (4 HP/day) (Ex) No AoO when stabilize/treat poison & long term care heals +0 (divide among healed).
Combat Expertise +/-2 Bonus to AC in exchange for an equal penalty to attack.
Combat Expertise [Combat Trick] Ignore penalty from Combat Expertise for stamina spent.
Comprehensive Education All knowledge skills are class skills, +1 racial bonus for knowledge skils from classes.
Divine Weapon Specialization (Ex) Gain increased weapon damage with deity's favored weapon, as Sacred Weapon.
Dress Wounds (1/day) (Su) Can treat deadly wounds as full rd action on an ally, but Hp only last 5 min.
Ghostly Smite (Su) Smite Evil is ghost touch instead of bypassing DRs
Lay on Hands (2d6 hit points, 4/day) (Su) As a standard action (swift on self), touch channels positive energy and applies mercies.
Mercy (Shaken) (Su) When you use your lay on hands ability, it also removes the shaken condition.
Paladin Channel Positive Energy 2d6 (2/day, DC 14) (Su) Positive energy heals the living and harms the undead; negative has the reverse effect.
Smite Evil (2/day) (Su) +2 to hit, +4 to damage, +2 deflection bonus to AC when used.
Swift Healer (Ex) Can use Heal to provide first aid or treat poison as a swift action.
Weapon Focus [Combat Trick] 2 stamina points to gain Weapon Focus bonus on another weapon for 1 rd.
Weapon Specialization [Combat Trick] 2 stamina points to apply Weapon Specialization to another weapon.
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Belinda Purcel
Female human (Ulfen) unchained rogue (charlatan) 4
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +9
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Defense
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AC 14, touch 13, flat-footed 11 (+1 armor, +2 Dex, +1 dodge)
hp 21 (4d8)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +5; +1 trait bonus vs. aberrations
Defensive Abilities evasion, uncanny dodge
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)
Melee dagger +5 (1d4/19-20) or
. . rapier +6 (1d6+2/18-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack (unchained) +2d6
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +3; CMB +3; CMD 16
Feats Dodge, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (rapier)
Traits foe of the strange, resilient, worldly
Skills Acrobatics +6 (+2 to jump), Appraise +9, Bluff +10, Climb +4, Diplomacy +10, Disable Device +6, Disguise +10, Escape Artist +6, Intimidate +10, Knowledge (local) +9, Perception +9, Sense Motive +9, Sleight of Hand +6, Stealth +6
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald, Varisian
SQ debilitating injury: bewildered, debilitating injury: disoriented, debilitating injury: hampered, hero points, natural born liar, rogue talents (fast stealth, rumormonger, weapon training)
Other Gear padded armor, dagger (2), rapier, bag of holding i, backpack, belt pouch, grappling hook, manacles, mirror, signet ring, silk rope (50 ft.), thieves' tools, 177 gp
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Special Abilities
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Debilitating Injury: Bewildered -2/-4 (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage takes AC pen (more vs. striker) for 1 rd.
Debilitating Injury: Disoriented -2/-4 (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage takes attack pen (more vs. striker) for 1 rd.
Debilitating Injury: Hampered (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage has speed halved (and can't 5 ft step) for 1 rd.
Fast Stealth (Ex) Move at full speed while using the Stealth skill at no penalty.
Natural Born Liar (Ex) Creatures deceived by Bluff check take a -2 penalty vs. your Bluff checks for 24 hours.
Rumormonger (3/week) (Ex) Use a bluff check to start a rumor in small town or larger settlement over a week.
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Bettina Purcel
Female human (Ulfen) unchained rogue (false medium) 4
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +9
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Defense
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AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+1 armor, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 natural)
hp 31 (4d8)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +5
Defensive Abilities evasion, uncanny dodge
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger +5 (1d4/19-20) or
. . rapier +5 (1d6/18-20) or
. . red destiny +7 (1d6+4/19-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack (unchained) +2d6
Rogue (Unchained) Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; concentration +7)
. . At will—ghost sound
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +3; CMB +3; CMD 16
Feats Dodge, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Weapon Finesse
Traits formerly mind-swapped, resilient, worldly
Skills Acrobatics +9, Appraise +9, Bluff +10 (+12 in dim light or darkness, +12 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Climb +7, Diplomacy +10, Disable Device +9, Disguise +10 (+12 in dim light or darkness), Escape Artist +9 (+11 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Intimidate +10, Knowledge (local) +9, Perception +9, Sense Motive +9, Sleight of Hand +9 (+11 in dim light or darkness, +11 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Stealth +9
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald, Varisian
SQ debilitating injury: bewildered, debilitating injury: disoriented, debilitating injury: hampered, dim the lights +2, false sensitivity, haunting presence (10 feet), hero points, rogue talent (minor magic)
Other Gear padded armor, red destiny, dagger (2), rapier, amulet of natural armor +1, belt pouch, fraudulent medium's kit, manacles, mirror, signet ring, thieves' tools
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Special Abilities
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Dim the Lights +2 In dim light or darkness, gain a bonus to bluff, disguise and sleight of hand
False Sensitivity (Ex) Fake the use of occult skill unlocks
Haunting Presence (10 feet) (Ex) In dim light or darkness, emulate dancing lights, ghost sound, silent image, or ventriloquism with Bluff
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Evelyn Kazallin
Female changeling mesmerist (spirit walker) 4
NG Medium humanoid (changeling)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +8
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Defense
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AC 14, touch 11, flat-footed 14 (+3 armor, +1 deflection)
hp 23 (4d8-2)
Sanity 47, threshhold 5, edge 23
Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +11; +2 bonus vs. fear effects, +1 trait bonus vs. spell effects from evil creatures
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee whip +2 (1d3-1 nonlethal)
Ranged light crossbow +3 (1d8/19-20)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (15 ft. with whip)
Special Attacks bold stare (psychic inception), hypnotic stare (-2), mesmerist tricks 7/day (false flanker, mesmeric mirror, psychosomatic surge), painful stare (+2 or +1d6+2)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; concentration +9)
. . 1/day—dancing lights, detect magic, disguise self, pass without trace
Mesmerist (Spirit Walker) Spells Known (CL 4th; concentration +9)
. . 2nd (2/day)—command undead (DC 17), silence (DC 17)
. . 1st (5/day)—charm person (DC 17), hide from undead (DC 16), hideous laughter (DC 17), sleep (DC 17)
. . 0 (at will)—daze (DC 16), detect magic, detect psychic significance, message, prestidigitation, unwitting ally (DC 16)
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Statistics
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Str 8, Dex 10, Con 8, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 21
Base Atk +3; CMB +2; CMD 13
Feats Glimpse Beyond, Intimidating Glance, Spell Focus (enchantment)
Traits creative manipulator, deathtouched, driven by guilt, mediator
Flaws disinherited
Skills Bluff +12 (+10 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check, +14 vs. creatures sexually attracted to her), Diplomacy +13 (+11 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check, +15 to use the hypnotism skill unlock), Disguise +5 (+3 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Intimidate +12 (+10 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8 (+10 to identify vulnerabilities and powers of aberrations, this check can be made untrained), Knowledge (religion) +8 (+10 to identify vulnerabilities and powers of undead, this check can be made untrained), Perception +8, Perform (act) +12 (+10 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Perform (stage magic) +12 (+10 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Sense Motive +8, Sleight of Hand +6, Use Magic Device +12 (+10 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check); Racial Modifiers +2 Bluff vs. creatures sexually attracted to her
Languages Common, Elven, Skald, Varisian
SQ continued animation, hero points, hypnotism (diplomacy), prognostication (sense motive), read aura (perception), undead inception, vain
Combat Gear wand of bless (CL 2nd, 8 charges), wand of command (CL 2nd, 38 charges); Other Gear studded leather, light crossbow, whip, cloak of resistance +1, ring of protection +1, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, entertainer's outfit, flint and steel, hypnotist's locket, ink, inkpen, stationery[UE], trail rations (5), waterskin, 9 gp, 9 sp
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Special Abilities
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Continued Animation (humanoids, 8 hp, 2 rounds, 1/day, DC 17) (Su) You can animate a fallen target of your hypnotic stare.
Glimpse Beyond +2 to save vs. fear, bonuses to ID certain monsters.
Hypnotic Stare (-2, 30 feet) (Su) As swift action, target creature takes penalty on Will saves.
Hypnotism (Diplomacy, 1/day) Use power of suggestion to alter subject's mind or recover memories.
Intimidating Glance You can attempt to demoralize the target of your hypnotic stare as a swift action.
Mesmerist Tricks (140 feet, 7/day) (Su) Implant hypnotic bond with allies. granting edge vs. foes.
Painful Stare (+2 or +1d6+2, 1/round) (Su) As a free action, hyp. stare target takes extra precision dam from a hit.
Prognostication (Sense Motive, 1/day) You are skilled in means of folk divination.
Psychic Inception (Su) Hypnotic stare can affect creatures that are mindless or immune to mind-affecting effects.
Read Aura (Perception, 1/day) Read the psychic impressions left on objects or in places.
Spell Focus (Enchantment) Spells from one school of magic have +1 to their save DC.
Undead Inception (Su) You can affect undead with your hypnotic stare.
Vain -2 to Cha checks for 24h after failing an opposed Cha check
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Luna
Female dreamlands cat unchained rogue (prowler) 3/sorcerer 1
N Tiny magical beast
Init +3; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +9
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Defense
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AC 16, touch 16, flat-footed 12 (+3 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 size)
hp 29 (4 HD; 1d6+3d8+8)
Sanity 45, threshhold 4, edge 22
Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +5; +2 trait bonus vs. fear and emotion effects
Defensive Abilities evasion, land on your feat, nine lives, slinking leap +1
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +7 (1d3-3), 2 claws +7 (1d2+3)
Space 2½ ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks prowling strike, sneak attack (unchained) +2d6
Bloodline Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +5)
. . 7/day—lullaby
Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 1st; concentration +5)
. . 1st (4/day)—burning hands (DC 15), magic missile
. . 0 (at will)—acid splash, disrupt undead, mage hand, prestidigitation
. . Bloodline Dreamspun
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Statistics
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Str 4, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 18
Base Atk +2; CMB +3; CMD 11 (15 vs. trip)
Feats Accomplished Sneak Attacker, Dodge, Eschew Materials, Skill Focus (Bluff), Weapon Finesse
Traits enduring stoicism, orphaned, solitary, strength foretold
Flaws spell vulnerability
Skills Acrobatics +10 (+11 to avoid provoking AoO), Bluff +14 (+15 to feint and create distraction to hide), Climb +11, Diplomacy +4 (+2 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Disable Device +8, Escape Artist +14, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Perception +9, Perform (sing) +11, Sense Motive +2 (+0 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Sleight of Hand +10, Stealth +22, Survival +7, Swim +7; Racial Modifiers +4 Climb, +4 Escape Artist, +4 Stealth
Languages Cat, Common, Varisian
SQ dreamlands travel, hero points, moon jump, pride, rogue talent (fast stealth)
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Special Abilities
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Dreamlands Travel (Su) Sense nearby Gates of Slumber within 1 mile radius at will.
Dreamspun When you cast a spell at a single creature, gain +1/2 spell level AC and saves vs. that creature for 1r.
Fast Stealth (Ex) Move at full speed while using the Stealth skill at no penalty.
Land on Your Feat (Ex) Treat any fall as if it were 20 ft. less than the actual distance of the fall.
Lullaby (7/day) (Sp) As lullaby but no concentration and penalty is -4.
Moon Jump (2/night) (Su) While in the Dreamlands jump to the moon up to twice a night.
Nine Lives (9 lives) (Su) Self resurrect up to eight times.
Pride -2 to diplomacy and sense motive vs. those who threaten, accuse, or challenge you, until they apologize
Prowling Strike (Ex) Enter an exit adjacent creature's spae without provoking an AoO.
Scent (Ex) Detect opponents within 15+ ft. by sense of smell.
Slinking Leap +1 (1/round) (Ex) If you would provoke an AoO and using Acrobatics or prowling strike, make Bluff check to create distraction to hide as a free action.
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Myfanwy Potter
Female half-elf investigator (empiricist) 4
LN Medium humanoid (elf, human)
Init +5; Senses low-light vision; Perception +16
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Defense
--------------------
AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+2 armor, +3 Dex)
hp 30 (4d8+4)
Sanity 40, threshhold 4, edge 20
Fort +2, Ref +7, Will +6 (+2 save vs. illusion and disbelievable effects); +2 racial bonus vs. illusion spells and effects
Defensive Abilities trap sense +1; Resist unfailing logic
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee rapier +7 (1d6-1/18-20)
Special Attacks studied combat (+2, 4 rounds), studied strike +1d6
Investigator (Empiricist) Extracts Prepared (CL 4th; concentration +8)
. . 2nd—cat's grace, cure moderate wounds
. . 1st—comprehend languages, cure light wounds, expeditious retreat, shield
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Statistics
--------------------
Str 8, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 8
Base Atk +3; CMB +2; CMD 15
Feats Open Minded, Skill Focus (Perception), Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (rapier)
Traits elven reflexes, lepidstadt scar (ustalav), methodical mind (arcana, history, planes; arcana, history, planes, planes), wisdom in the flesh
Flaws nearsighted
Skills Acrobatics +1, Appraise +2, Bluff -3, Climb -3, Craft (alchemy) +11 (+15 to create alchemical items), Craft (sketching) +11, Diplomacy -3 (+2 to gather information (You can use your Intelligence Modifier instead of Charisma)), Disable Device +12, Disguise -3, Escape Artist +1, Fly +1, Heal +6, Intimidate -3, Knowledge (arcana) +12, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +9, Knowledge (engineering) +8, Knowledge (geography) +9, Knowledge (history) +12, Knowledge (local) +9, Knowledge (nature) +10, Knowledge (nobility) +8, Knowledge (planes) +12, Knowledge (religion) +9, Linguistics +10, Perception +16, Ride +1, Sense Motive +2, Spellcraft +9, Stealth +7, Survival +0, Swim +9, Use Magic Device +8; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Aklo, Common, Draconic, Elven, Jistka, Skald, Varisian, Vudrani
SQ alchemy (alchemy crafting +4), arcane training, ceaseless observation, dreamer, elf blood, hero points, inspiration (6/day), investigator talent (expanded inspiration), keen recollection, meticulous, trapfinding +2
Other Gear leather armor, rapier, handy haversack, alchemy crafting kit, backpack, chalk, charcoal (5), eyeglasses, ink, inkpen (3), investigator starting formula book, journal, scholar's outfit, silver tiger pendant (worth 5 gp), 4 gp, 5 sp, 9 cp
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Special Abilities
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Alchemy +4 (Su) +4 to Craft (Alchemy) to create alchemical items, can Id potions by touch.
Arcane Training +1 CL for spell trigger/completion items for favored class, or use them as if 1st level.
Ceaseless Observation (Ex) Use INT instead of CHA for gather information (+5)
Dreamer +2 to save vs. illusion. In lucid dreams treat Cha as 2 higher.
Expanded Inspiration (Ex) Free Inspiration on Diplomacy, Heal, Perception, Profession, Sense Motive (if trained).
Inspiration (+1d6+1, 6/day) (Ex) Use 1 point, +1d6 to trained skill or ability check. Use 2 points, to add to attack or save.
Keen Recollection At 3rd level, an investigator can attempt all Knowledge skill checks untrained.
Meticulous -2 on all untrained skill checks
Open Minded Gain 1 skill point per level.
Studied Combat (+2, 4 rounds) (Ex) As a move action, study foe to gain bonus to att & dam for duration or until use studied strike.
Studied Strike +1d6 (Ex) As a free action on a melee hit, end studied combat vs. foe to add precision dam.
Unfailing Logic +2 (Ex) +2 save vs. illusion and disbelievable effects
Session the Eighth (part one):
Though the party had escaped the strange mists of Briarstone Isle, the poor weather didn’t change. Deep gray clouds loomed like a low ceiling in a dark room, and driving rain soaked them through. The wind and rain made for choppy conditions on the water and limited visibility even during the day. As the small boat drew near Thrushmoor, one of the survivors pointed to the shore, calling out that they saw lights glowing in the town’s windows. The other three survivors issued sighs of relief, hoping that their ordeal was over.
After they were let off the boat, Avarel helped York put the boat back out into the bay and then the guardsman began rowing back to Briarstone Isle to pick up more survivors. Winter asked the party to follow her to the Sleepless Building where she was supposed to rendezvous with Accuser Omari. They dropped the other four survivors off at the New Chapel for shelter before proceeding.
The large wooden structure that was the Sleepless Building was dark and quiet, and it took more than one knock upon the door to receive an answer. They were greeted by one of the Sleepless agents, Meg Thalen. Meg extended a warm greeting to the Pharasmin priest, though her demeanor quickly soured when she noticed the rest of the party, especially Myfanwy. She still invited the group in and directed them to a comfortable lobby to wait for Cesadia Wrentz, the head of the Sleepless Agency.
Cesadia joined them shortly, and after speaking kindly in greeting to Winter, eyed the rest of the party with a frown. Apparently, they didn’t have the best reputations in town. Winter spoke highly of them and their efforts to free the survivors from Briarstone Asylum, but Cesadia remained skeptical. She knew they had served as flunkies for Count Haserton Lowls IV for years before being committed to the asylum, and that they weren’t considered to be good people. On one occasion a couple of years ago, Myfanwy had traded insults with Allard Hagely—one of Cesadia’s agents—in an exchange that nearly came to blows, apparently over the issue of Allard’s competence as an investigator.
Nevertheless, Cesadia was curious to speak with the group to learn what occurred on Briarstone Isle, especially regarding supernatural events such as the strange mist and its effects on dreams. After the party briefed her and responded to her questioning, she told them that she believed that they had in fact lost their memories and were on the up-and-up.
During their meeting with Cesadia, it became obvious she was concerned about the things going on in town, and frustrated that she seemed to be the only person in a position to address them. However, since any sense of leadership in town had collapsed, the responsibility had fallen to her, though it was too much for her to manage with only her skeleton crew of agents in the Sleepless Building. She asked them for help in finding out what was happening.
She informed them that Lowls had left town on an expedition of some sort and that Iris Hill had shut its gates and refused entry almost immediately after. Then Magistrate Padgett left town as well with no reason given, had been missing for days, and many of the mercenaries protecting Fort Hailcourse had defected after not being paid for weeks. In response to the lack of protection and the missing magistrate, second-in-command Constable Barawyn Cesyll ordered the fort closed and hadn’t allowed in any visitors. This despite several disappearances over recent days, causing growing fear and panic.
The party agreed to help and set out to talk to the constable at the fort as Winter returned to the New Chapel. They noticed a few murals on the sides of buildings, apparently done in charcoal, of a strange cityscape as the journeyed up a hill to Fort Hailcourse. The only entrance to the fort was a set of 10-foot-high double doors located on the south side of the large stone building. Tarnished brass door knockers carved into the shapes of perching birds hanged on the doors, and the hatch for the spy-hole remained shuttered.
Their first knocks on the main doors didn’t immediately draw a response, but after a few moments of persistence the spyhole opened, revealing a harried-looking Constable Barawyn Cesyll. Evie told her they were Lowls’s people and asked what was going on and why the fort was shuttered. The constable stated she was just following orders from Magistrate Padgett, and only a command from Count Lowls could supersede them.
Evie persisted in attempting to get a better explanation, and Barawyn went on to explain that the fort could no longer perform its duties after the mercenaries defected, and Magistrate Padgett had left her in charge when he left town. She said the disappearances in town had everyone on edge, including her and the few retainers left in Fort Hailcourse. Exasperated, she continued, explaining she had spent sleepless nights trying to come up with a plan to deal with the situation, and that she had sent messenger pigeons out days before seeking reinforcements, but no one had replied. Evie refused to accept these explanations and wanted more detail; this agitated the constable and she slammed the hatch closed after shouting at them to go talk to the Sleepless Agency and see what they were doing about it.
They decided to head back to the New Chapel to consult with Winter on what to do next. When they arrived, they found a crowd of townsfolk congregating in front of a small building to the north of the Chapel. They were shouting, calling for a man named Lelwyn Hasok to come out and fess up to the vandalism that had shown up on buildings throughout Thrushmoor. A bearded half-elf came out a proclaimed his innocence to a scared and disbelieving crowd.
Evie asked the gathered people why they thought Lelwyn was to blame for the murals, and a middle-aged man with a lazy eye replied that Lelwyn was the only artist in town, and that the vandalism didn’t start showing up on the walls until he arrived. And now the priestess had gone missing and some were talking about how the Briarstone Witch was coming back for Thrushmoor, but the man believed that the artist was behind the troubles.
They talked to Lelwyn who stated that the art wasn’t his style and that he didn’t sketch in charcoals. Evie calmed the crowd down, pointing out they had no real evidence, and they dispersed, though in a surly mood. Lelwyn invited them into his studio and gave them a bag of holding and 500 gp as thanks for their help.
Lelwyn’s studio was a small, two-room building cluttered with canvases, supplies, and partially completed paintings. Lelwyn was hired to paint a mural in the New Chapel of Pharasma, which had only recently been completed. Lelwyn also painted his own dreams and fantasies, which were inevitably disquieting and leaned toward the macabre. One of these works was a triptych prominently displayed on an easel in the middle of his studio. Lelwyn had been working on these paintings, still in their sketch phase, of five people in full figure with a cat, though their faces were incomplete. In the background, three different cities flowed seamlessly into one another under a yellowish sky. The figures depicted in the painting were uncanny renditions of Avarel, Belinda, Bettina, Luna, Evie, and Myfanwy.
After talking to the painter for a minute, Lelwyn gasped, realizing he was looking into the faces he had had such a hard time getting just right. Lelwyn claimed to have never met the party, and that he saw each of them in his dreams over the previous few nights and was immediately inspired to put brush to canvas. The painter said his visions (which he couldn’t quite remember all the details of) gave him the sensation that “Thrushmoor’s destiny somehow depended on them.
Lelwyn ecstatically offered the party 10 gp apiece if they agreed to return and sit for his unfinished triptych. The agreed, making the artist very happy. Lelwyn mentioned that there was another building owned by the church next to his studio in which some of them could stay. It only had three beds, but he offered the place for free, mentioning that he didn’t really have the authority to provide it, but suggesting that the party leave a donation to the church in return. Winter arrived, and hearing of the situation, waived the donation.
When asked about New Chapel, Lelwyn told them it was mostly abandoned. The chapel’s attendant priestess had been missing for days, and he had been the only person inside the quaint chapel since. He now served as the chapel’s de facto custodian, after Cesadia Wrentz asked him to keep an eye on the place during the cleric’s absence.
They decided to next try Iris Hill and see if they could speak to someone about Count Lowls. As they traveled up to the estate, they encountered a disheveled man named Elgrior Nasmeth, wearing a placard and proclaiming that Doom had come to Thrushmoor, and the Briarstone Witch was working with the local authorities to take everyone away to a horrible fate. He said that a local fisherman named Toli Remsatter had seen lights in a hidden grotto and that this was proof of her return! The authorities would wait until everyone was gone then take all of the townspeople’s possessions, especially his collection of beetles.
Moving on, they got to the gate to the Iris Hill estate. Breaking the thick hedge that surrounded the estate, a squat building sported a pair of heavy wooden doors bearing a small sliding hatch. In response to their request for entry and that they worked for Lowls, the guard only opened the small hatch to tell them, in a gravely voice devoid of emotion, to go away.
Frustrated, the party decide to look up the local watering hole, the Stain, and see if they could get some more information about what was going on and perhaps fins some extra rooms for the night. The taproom’s extra rooms were both booked, keeping the party from resting there. Still, they did encounter Toli Remsatter, who told them all about the grotto he had seen. They agreed to pay Toli a fee to get him to take them to the grotto at first light to see what was going on. The party wasn’t convinced it was the witch, but all the witch talk led to two rather beautiful Varisian merchants mentioning they had heard Lysie Brilt, the proprietor of the smokehouse, referred to as a “green hag.”
They went to the smokehouse to investigate and found Lysie was a thoroughly unpleasant middle-aged woman that people called the “green hag” because of her green eyes and terrible disposition. She was a witch though—though not apparently involved in the disappearances, as she seemed to be frustrated with being so short-handed—and used the evil-eye on Myfanwy and Evie when the party didn’t leave immediately upon her demand. It had no real effect that lasted, but they decided to keep their distance.
It was getting late in the day and they decided to split up for the night. Winter and Evie decided to stay in the second Chapel building while Bettina, Belinda, Avarel, Myfanwy, and Luna went to the Silver Wagon, the local Inn. As soon as they walked in the door, Dena Gallegos—the innkeeper—shouted at them to leave on account of the Purcel twins being banned for life from the Silver Wagon.
Apparently, Bettina ran up a sizeable tab without paying and Belinda started a brawl with a disgruntled patron who accused the Purcel twins of ripping him off some time in the past. They had done a lot of damage and a stray black cat had gotten involved on the Purcel’s side, scratching everyone who came near them. It ended with the twins spending a night in the cells below Fort Hailcourse.
As the party tried to calm Dena down, Elgrior showed up outside the in shouting, “Doom! Doom is coming! You are all Doomed!” Dena shouted in frustration about the mad man, and when Belinda said they could persuade Elgrior to leave, Dena said that and paying the bill would lift the ban. So the party went outside to talk with Elgrior. Belinda persuaded the crazed man that she had a dream in which he was killed if he remained, so he should leave immediately. Elgrior protested that he was trying to save Thrushmoor, but Bettina whispered to him that the party were going to do that. He thanked her profusely with his grubby hand shaking hers and promptly left. Luna used prestidigitation to clean up Belinda. Dena accepted their contrition and payment, so they went to their rooms and settled down for the night.
Session the Eighth (part two):
Though day in Thrushmoor wasn’t very nice, the night was worse. Thrushmoor became a place of extreme gloom and fear, where everyone headed home and bolted their doors against real or perceived threats that wandered the streets. Myfanwy stayed up a while peered out through the shuttered windows and saw moving shadows and heard strange noises, like flapping fins moving through the streets outside the Inn.
Dawn arose on Rova the 3rd. After breakfast, they joined Toli at the pier and he gave them the boat. They took it to the grotto to the west of Thrushmoor, following his instructions. They came ashore and found a small strip of muddy sand choked with reeds sitting at the entrance of a low cave just at the lip of the bay. Scraggly vines draped over the top of the cave and hung like tangled hair over its mouth.
Luna investigated the mouth of the cave and discovered a tripwire trap of some sort. Myfanwy moved forward to disarm it and almost made it to the cave when two of the vines animated and attacked. Myfanwy and Luna were concentrating on the trap and hadn’t noticed. Belinda threw her dagger, but sent it flying into the cave. Avarel cut a nasty gash with his sword as Evie backed out into the water to keep out of reach.
One of the vines grabbed Myfanwy and began to constrict her. Luna slashed a vine with her claw and Bettina with Red Destiny killed the vine holding Myfanwy. Evie cast daze on the remaining vine, what Myfanwy identified as assassin vines. Luna ran across and slashed at remaining vine with Belinda and Avarel. Bettina back-flipped over the vine and slashed it near its core root, killing it.
Myfanwy disarmed the trap and they went into the cave, Avarel casting light on his sword so they could see more easily. There they found a narrow opening to the left and the way forward blocked by a wooden barrier. They sent Luna left and she entered the cave behind the narrow opening. The dark limestone chamber smelled like wet mulch and was bare aside from a scattering of animal bones.
Luna smelled something very odd, and two three-stemmed fungi appeared next to her and moved to attack. The odd fungi kept slipping in and out of view even as they attacked. Belinda and Bettina moved in and Luna got bit hard by one of the fungi. Belinda almost hit one, but it faded from view, causing her strike to miss. Evie placed her hypnotic stare on one of the creatures as Myfanwy moved slowly into the room and identified them as phantom fungus, fungal creatures that had a form of natural invisibility.
The phantom fungi bit Bettina and Luna, severely injuring the cat. The party adjusted their tactics to deal with the invisibility, waiting for them to appear when attacking before striking. Evie tried to daze one but failed. As the fungi attacked, The party struck as one, Belinda killing one as Avarel and Luna finished off the other. The chamber proved to be otherwise empty, so they moved back to the barrier.
Avarel tried to move the barrier, but it proved difficult to do, Evie peaked through the cracks after the party hid Avarel’s lit sword so that her darkvision would work. The small cave system opened into a large chamber with a sooty ceiling. A table littered with cooking pots, glass flasks, and other tools sat against the wall in the southeastern part of the room near a smoldering campfire and a wooden crate. Beside the campfire was a woman wearing wooden armor and holding a spear. In front of her were four fungal creatures that looked like wolves.
Evie spoke out in greeting and the woman responded with a ball of flame thrown at the mesmerist. Luna undid the latch and Avarel got the barrier open and the party began to move in. With the light of the sword, they were able to see a spiraling mass of tendrils with two long, descending tails painted onto the wall in the chamber. Evie recognized it as the symbol for the Great Old One Xhamen-Dor, an evil fungus being. Even so, Avarel and Evie started a debate as to the ethics of breaking into someone’s home and killing her simply because of the god she worshiped.
Luna hit the woman with a magic missile and Evie brought one of the fungal wolves under her hypnotic stare. Evie then cast sleep and fungal wolf fell asleep. The woman was apparently a druid as she had cast call lightning and began hitting Avarel with bolts. She then cast entangle on the floor and filled the chamber with writhing, green vines.
Luna cast burning hands from her ears hitting two of the wolves. Myfanwy moved in closer as Bettina killed one, spreading spores everywhere. Luna, Belinda, and Avarel moved in and began attacking the fungal wolves, killing them. The fungal clouds began hitting the party hard, with Belinda being badly affected by the spores. She moved through the entangling vines and began striking at the druid but was unable to pierce the wooden armor on her first strike but got speared by the spikes on the druid’s armor.
Evie and Myfanwy got entangled by the writhing vines as the druid cast a spell and lit her spear on fire. Avarel hit the back wall and channeled positive energy to heal the troupe before he got hit by another lightning bolt. Myfanwy escaped from the vines as Bettina danced across the floor to get into a flanking position with Belinda. Belinda pierced the druid’s shoulder with her rapier, taking another wound from the spikes. Avarel picked up Luna and threw her to the druid. Luna clawed out the druid’s femoral artery and killed her.
After searching her body, they found a scroll of lesser restoration and a few other items. They found several potions, including healing droughts. They found a second barrier in the northwest corner, and they moved it aside to find the druid’s sleeping area. Twenty feet across at its widest, the rounded cave contained a scattered pallet of blankets, a wooden washbasin of clean water, and a sturdy chest. They explored the cave and found nothing of value beyond the chest. Myfanwy checked for traps and failed to notice the poison needle trap which speared her with blue whinnis but managed to avoid the effects of the poison. Inside the chest they found a few changes of clothes, a clay jar with 4 doses of a drug called muscaria, and a leather pouch full of gold. Wounded, infected, and fatigued, the party headed back out to their boat and returned to Thrushmoor.
Session the Ninth (Part One):
They headed back to the New Chapel and talked to Winter. They got her to heal up the party and told her about the worshiper of Xamen Dor that they had defeated. They then went and reported their findings to Cesadia Wrentz at the Sleepless Building. When they showed her a note they found among the drugs in the shore cave, she told them that the name of the person ordering more drugs was familiar to her. Melisenn Kororo was now in charge with Iris Hill; indeed, she was the first person hired after Lowls dismissed all his old staff.
Cesadia spoke of her concerns about Fort Hailcourse and the current state of security in the town and thanked them for their efforts to improve things. She also mentioned that tensions at night were still intense as what appeared to be the ghost of Countess Nemira Lowls, Count Haserton Lowls IV’s mother, had been seen wandering the streets at night.
The party discussed their options and considered resting to strengthen themselves before continuing their investigations. Cesadia gave them information they needed, including telling them where they could find books—there were two closed book stores (closed due to a bankruptcy and a disappearance)—and about the Star Stelae of Thrushmoor. There were two of these strange, marked monoliths, one on top of two of the three hills of the town. Scholars speculated that there had been a third, but it was likely destroyed by the building of the Iris Hill estate.
They headed back to the Silver Wagon to eat and rest while Myfanwy headed out to pick up some alchemical supplies and inks. As they sat down to their meal, a man came up and greeted Avarel in a friendly manner, asking how he was and that he hadn’t seen Avarel for some time. Avarel told the man he couldn’t recall him, and the astonished man identified himself as Keldrin Mon, someone who had apparently known Avarel for years.
Keldrin was very concerned as they told him about what they knew of their affliction and Briarstone Isle. Keldrin told them that he was a stevedore at the docks and that he and Avarel had become friends over the last two and half years. Keldrin told the party that Avarel was chiefly protection for Lowls and his people on various expeditions. Avarel had always told him he had a noble purpose in what he was doing but wasn’t particularly happy with Lowls and his behaviour. Apparently Avarel was very angry with the Knights of Ozem for a betrayal and that he had to do something without the order due to his lack of trust.
Keldrin believed that the nobles at the Stain were positioning themselves so that the Principality may appoint them governorship of Versex when Lowls was found negligent. He also said that he last saw Avarel poking around Pier 19 (otherwise known as Worm’s Hook). It looked like Avarel was stuffing something up underneath the dock and that it was a pretty good place for safekeeping ever since a creature melted townsfolk a few years before, so no one was going to go poking around. Keldrin explained that Avarel was at the end of the pier with a leather-wrapped bundle, and he leaned over the edge and tucked it beneath the planks.
Keldrin also told them that the Evie and Myfanwy were with Lowls the longest and were his “intimidators.” If Lowls wanted someone roughed up, Evie would do something that would shake them to their core and then Myfanwy would strike them in a series of moves that laid them out. Their small size and lack of muscles made it all the scarier, especially Myfanwy. Apparently the Purcels acquired books for Lowls, by rumour using less than honest means.
Curious about Lowls obsession with books, they asked Keldrin about it. Keldrin laughed and said that with all the scholars in Ustalav, Lowls wanted to make a huge impression as an esoteric scholar but never did anything worth mentioning. Rumour in town was that he was using the county’s resources as well as his own wealth to make an exciting discovery, even at the expense of everyone around him.
They used the rest of the day posing for Lelwyn Hasok’s tryptic and then rested overnight before heading to Pier 19. On the morning of Rova 4th, they woke to pouring rain. A gravel path led from the road to the pier. A nearly collapsed shack sat at the edge of the water near the pier which stood five feet above the water and stretched sixty feet out into the channel. Avarel walked out to a metal pail that sat rusting at the end of the pier, the timbers creaking and bowing as he walked out.
Two horrid masses of eyes, mouths, and formless flesh began crawling out of the water and up onto the dock, their countless maws yammering ceaselessly. Myfanwy recognized them as gibbering mouthers, acid spitting aberrations of a particularly foul and horrid nature. Avarel slashed through one of the horrid masses, then shifted to his mace on Myfanwy’s advice. Bettina threw an alchemist’s fire on the mouther still in the water and Luna cast magic missile on it.
Belinda got grabbed by the creature then coming up on the dock, while it also grabbed Evie. Avarel also got hit but avoided being grabbed. Myfanwy grabbed Evie and pulled her away from the mouther and Evie then cast sleep on the one on the end of the dock, causing it to settle down. Belinda got engulfed and it began draining her blood. Belinda tried to cut her way out but was struggling to even move.
Myfanwy through a rock, but completely missed. Evie cast daze on the active mouther as Avarel smashed into the creature with his mace. Luna cast burning hands focused from her ears on the ooze. Evie kept it dazed as Avarel continued to slam it with his mace as Luna cast magic missile again. Avarel smote the mouther and finally killed the aberration, freeing Belinda.
Avarel moved into position and used his second smite evil on the sleeping mouther, waking it up. Luna used acid splash as Avarel got grabbed and the mouther spat acid at Bettina, burning her. Belinda through an alchemist’s fire right passed and out into the channel, sinking with a “bloop” noise. Evie succeeded in dazing the creature as Avarel used his last smite with his mace. Luna cast another acid splash. The twins then began getting past each other to leave the other as a target. Avarel hit one last strike and killed the last mouther.
Avarel went over to where the bucket sat and looked under the dock. Beneath the pier sat a wrapped bundle. The package contained a potion of nondetection, a scroll of protection from energy, a wand of death knell, some money, a vial of holy water, some incense, a piece of chalk that feels like tallow, and a marker for a ritual to be done at the Pharasman cathedral in Caliphas in concert with a priest of Iomedae for 60,000 gp. No details on which ritual or what it was for was written in.
Avarel and Myfanwy were able to identify the holy water, incense, and chalk as necessary for a ritual to turn a masterwork cold iron longsword into a sacred avenger, a lesser version of holy avenger that grows in power with its wielder. Myfanwy then went into the water and got back the alchemist’s fire that Belinda threw away. Now that Avarel realized what he had been working toward under Lowls’ service.
For the rest of the day, Luna decided to go into the dreaming and get the bracers of armor adjusted to her while the party rested up and did more research. She took the bracers to a Dreamlands smith, an aeon which the cats called Old Deuteronomy with the correct amount of money to get the items attuned to her.
As the remaining party had a discussion in the Inn over why Avarel hid away the evil death knell wand and why it would be a naughty thing to use it, a teenage girl came up to them. She introduced herself as Holissa and asked them if they could help find her older brother, Sholn, who was one of the victims of the recent spate of kidnappings. She even offered to accompany the party, eager to find her brother. Avarel promised they would look for him, but that she should stay safe as she was only an apprentice seamstress with no combat skills.
After a few days, Luna returned on the 6th and showed off her bronze skin under the fur on her forelegs. They went to get Winter and Evie, they found they were gone! The beds were a mess, but Myfanwy determined that two individuals came in, took each woman out individually, and then redressed to room to cover the disruption caused by struggling people that they carried from the place.
Meanwhile, Evie and Winter had been kidnapped, with sacks placed over their heads while they slept and then tied up and taken to a cave. There the sacks were removed, and they saw that they were the captives of the two stunning Varisian women who they talked to at the Stain. They laughed and the older one welcomed her two wayward daughters, calling herself Grimzelda and her partner was her daughter Jalarnna. She said that Jalarnna had come when called, but Winter and Evelyn had not. Having located Evelyn, she had travelled to Thrushmoor to try and capture her when the moment was right. With Winter, her youngest daughter, arriving in town she saw this as a golden opportunity she had to do.
Jalarnna asked Evie if she did not recognize her as her twin Jacklyn, and then both women changed in front of Winter and Evie into hunched, ugly hags with green skin and scraggly grey hair. The two green hags cackled and said the transformation of the two young women might be later than usual, but it could still be done. They would commence the ritual as soon as Murlebonne, an annis hag, and Regskialla, a sea hag arrived to complete the coven.
Session the Ninth (Part Two):
Back at the Chapel house, Luna began to track the kidnappers by scent. She noticed that the tracks were made by bare humanoid feet with clawed nails at the end of the toes. Myfanwy identified the tracks as green hags and she realized that changelings were the daughters of hags. The two green hags carried the women east towards the bridge and then under the bridge. Myfanwy noticed that they had crawled along the bottom of the bridge, carrying their victims with them.
They crossed the bridge and scrambled around looking for tracks. Belinda found them and put Luna back on the trail. They continued east out of town, following along for three hours until they came to a well concealed cave mouth. Avarel stated that they had probable cause that evil was afoot and could enter without knocking. They followed Luna in, and she pointed which way the sound was coming from. Luna then ran off into the dark as the Purcel sisters followed slowly.
Luna found a terrible scene with a sunken cave at the bottom of which was a bubbling cauldron on a fire with a green hag stirring it. A spiral ramp led out of the pit to a large shelf next to the entry where Luna looked in. On the shelf next to a raised section of stone were Winter and Evie, tied up and looking up into the face of a second green hag who cackled in glee, telling Evelyn that she and her younger sister would join the hag and her other daughter and they would be all a family again.
Luna snuck up to Winter and Evie and untied them while hidden behind the two women. Evie silently cast silence on the entryway to help mask the rest of the party sneaking in. Evie then used dancing lights on the other side of the chamber as a distraction. Luna snuck out and struck the green hag nearest her—Grimzelda—and slashed some nasty cuts on the hag’s legs. Winter stood up and cast early judgement on Grimzelda and showed her the hag’s fate, shaking the hag to her core.
Belinda hit with a thrown dagger and then closed in. Avarel began sliding down into the pit to take on Jalarnna but couldn’t get all the way to her easily. Myfanwy moved in and struck with her rapier below the rib-cage, making a powerful thrust. Bettina then ran in and struck Grimzelda with red destiny from the back, right through her heart, killing the hag. Evie then animated the corpse with the spirit of the hag and sent her after Jalarnna, leaping to the bottom of the pit.
Jalarnna screamed in rage over her mother’s fate. as Luna hid by the entrance to await the coming of the other two hags. Winter cast protection from evil on herself and Belinda moved closer to Jalarnna and threw a dagger into her abdomen. Jalarnna cast pyrotechnics using the fire to blind everyone, but the entire party managed to avoid looking at it. Avarel stumbled to the hag’s feet and stabbed her with sword, enhanced with holy power, slashing a large slash through her sigh.
Myfanwy moved down to Jalarnna and struck through her shoulder as Bettina and Belinda moved to flank the entrance with Luna. On Evie’s command, the corpse of Grimzelda rose up and struck Jalarnna with her claws, tearing chunks out of her back before collapsing, dead. A horrific hag, her hair like rotting seaweed draped the ancient witch. Loose, algae-colored skin sagged off her starved frame. Myfanwy was so disturbed by her appearance, she felt faint.
Bettina and Luna attacked the sea hag—Regskialla—from their ambush, producing nasty wounds. The sea hag gave an evil eye at Bettina, but she was able to resist its effects. Winter charged in against Regskialla and Belinda moved in to get a flank. Another hag charged in from behind, a repulsive and hunchbacked crone with skin the color of a fresh bruise. Despite her hunch, she loomed taller than a human. The annis hag—Murlebonne—bit Bettina, tearing a chunk out of her shoulder.
Jalarnna attacked Avarel in a rage, but Evie created an illusory duplicate of Avarel, so only one claw hit for a glancing blow. Avarel stayed prone and swung his sword and hit her with smite, running her through. He then stood up over the corpses of the two green hags. Myfanwy drank an extract of expeditious retreat and ran all the way up the ramp to the shelf. She then identified the hags and their primary abilities, shouting out warnings to those engaged in the fight.
Evie tried to put the sea hag under the effects of a hideous laughter but failed. Luna struck the annis hag with her claws as Bettina stabbed through her chest, but they only made small wounds. Regskialla tried to attack Winter but was unable to get through the protection she had raised. Winter then clawed out the sea hag’s throat.
Belinda moved through to try and flank the annis hag as Murlebonne managed to penetrate the protective magic of Winter and tore into the priest, causing her to fall. Avarel climbed out of the pit as Myfanwy moved in closer and missed with her rapier. Evie’s magic continued to fail against the remaining hag. Bettina and Luna were ineffective as Belinda moved in and got clawed by the annis.
Murlebonne bit Belinda, tearing a terrible wound which caused the rogue to collapse. Avarel ran in and stabilized Winter while she lay dying. Luna and Bettina tag-teamed the annis but did only small wounds. The annis then cast fog cloud and tried to flee. Luna, Bettina, and Myfanwy struck her, but were unable to do enough damage to down the hag.
Avarel stumbled away from the group so as to not effect the hag and then channeled energy, healing everyone in the party a small amount. Evie went to check on her sister as Luna pursued Murlebonne. She caught up to the hag quickly and struck out with her claw, there was a terrible scream…
...and then Luna sauntered out of the fog and began cleaning herself.
They searched the cave and collected up a little money and some gems, but the main prize was the cauldron; it turned out to be a cauldron of brewing. Myfanwy determined that the bones here were too old to put the blame of the disappearances on the hags. They took the cauldron, healed up to the best of their ability, then headed back to town.
They leveled up! So here they are at 5th level:
Avarel Henrican
Male human (Varisian) paladin (oath against corruption, combat medic, ghost hunter, tempered champion) 5
LG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +0; Senses Perception +2
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Defense
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AC 18, touch 10, flat-footed 18 (+5 armor, +3 shield)
hp 47 (5d10+9)
Sanity 41, threshhold 2, edge 20
Fort +7, Ref +1, Will +8 (+2 trait bonus vs. emotion and fear effects); +4 sacred bonus against spells and effects from aberrations, +1 trait bonus vs. spell effects from evil creatures
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)
Melee mwk cold iron longsword +10 (1d8+5/19-20)
Ranged longbow +5 (1d8/×3)
Special Attacks channel positive energy 2/day (DC 14, 3d6), ghostly smite, smite evil 2/day (+2 attack and AC, +5 damage)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 5th; concentration +7)
. . 1/day—light
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Statistics
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Str 16, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 14
Base Atk +5; CMB +8; CMD 18
Feats Combat Expertise, Combat Stamina, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Weapon Focus (longsword), Weapon Specialization (longsword)
Traits chosen of iomedae, disillusioned, driven by guilt, searing beacon
Flaws spell vulnerability
Skills Acrobatics -5 (-9 to jump), Heal +10, Knowledge (arcana) +9, Knowledge (history) +9, Knowledge (nobility) +10, Knowledge (religion) +10, Sense Motive +6; Racial Modifiers +1 Knowledge (nobility), +1 Knowledge (religion)
Languages Common, Skald, Varisian
SQ aura of purity, bitter, careful healer, combat expertise, comprehensive education, divine bond, divine bond (weapon +1, 1/day), divine weapon specialization, dress wounds, hero points, lay on hands 4/day (2d6), mercy (shaken), swift healer, weapon focus, weapon specialization
Combat Gear potion of bull's strength, antitoxin (3); Other Gear scale mail, +1 heavy wooden shield, arrows (20), longbow, mwk cold iron longsword, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, hip flask[UE], holy text (The Acts of Iomedae), mess kit, silk rope (50 ft.), soap, trail rations (5), wooden holy symbol of Iomedae, 22 gp, 9 sp
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Special Abilities
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Aura of Purity +4/+1 (10' radius) (Su) Gain a bonus on saves vs. spells/effects from aberrations, allies in range gain lesser bonus.
Bitter Heal 1 less point when receiving healing from an ally’s class feature, spell, or sla.
Careful Healer (5 HP/day) (Ex) No AoO when stabilize/treat poison & long term care heals +0 (divide among healed).
Comprehensive Education All knowledge skills are class skills, +1 racial bonus for knowledge skils from classes.
Divine Bond (Su) Expend a lay on hands usage to activate your divine bond
Divine Bond (Weapon +1, 5 mins, 1/day) (Sp) Weapon shines with light and gains enhancement bonuses or chosen properties.
Divine Weapon Specialization (Ex) Gain increased weapon damage with deity's favored weapon, as Sacred Weapon.
Dress Wounds (1/day) (Su) Can treat deadly wounds as full rd action on an ally, but Hp only last 5 min.
Ghostly Smite (Su) Smite Evil is ghost touch instead of bypassing DRs
Swift Healer (Ex) Can use Heal to provide first aid or treat poison as a swift action.
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Belinda Purcel
Female human (Ulfen) unchained rogue (charlatan) 5
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +10
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Defense
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AC 14, touch 13, flat-footed 11 (+1 armor, +2 Dex, +1 dodge)
hp 26 (5d8)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +5; +1 trait bonus vs. aberrations
Defensive Abilities evasion, uncanny dodge
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger +5 (1d4/19-20) or
. . rapier +6 (1d6+2/18-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack (unchained) +3d6
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +3; CMB +3; CMD 16
Feats Dodge, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (rapier)
Traits foe of the strange, resilient, worldly
Skills Acrobatics +10, Appraise +10, Bluff +11, Climb +8, Diplomacy +11, Disable Device +10, Disguise +11, Escape Artist +10, Intimidate +11, Knowledge (local) +10, Perception +10, Sense Motive +10, Sleight of Hand +10, Stealth +10
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald, Varisian
SQ debilitating injury: bewildered, debilitating injury: disoriented, debilitating injury: hampered, hero points, natural born liar, rogue talents (fast stealth, rumormonger[UC], weapon training)
Other Gear padded armor, dagger (2), rapier, bag of holding i, backpack, belt pouch, grappling hook, manacles, mirror, signet ring, silk rope (50 ft.), thieves' tools, 177 gp
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Special Abilities
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Debilitating Injury: Bewildered -2/-4 (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage takes AC pen (more vs. striker) for 1 rd.
Debilitating Injury: Disoriented -2/-4 (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage takes attack pen (more vs. striker) for 1 rd.
Debilitating Injury: Hampered (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage has speed halved (and can't 5 ft step) for 1 rd.
Evasion (Ex) If succeed on Reflex save for half dam, take none instead.
Fast Stealth (Ex) Move at full speed while using the Stealth skill at no penalty.
Hero Points Hero Points can be spent at any time to grant a variety of bonuses.
Natural Born Liar (Ex) Creatures deceived by Bluff check take a -2 penalty vs. your Bluff checks for 24 hours.
Rumormonger (3/week) (Ex) Use a bluff check to start a rumor in small town or larger settlement over a week.
Sneak Attack (Unchained) +3d6 Attacks deal extra dam if flank foe or if foe is flat-footed.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex) Retain DEX bonus to AC when flat-footed.
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Bettina Purcel
Female human (Ulfen) unchained rogue (false medium) 5
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +10
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Defense
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AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+1 armor, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 natural)
hp 38 (5d8)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +5
Defensive Abilities evasion, uncanny dodge
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger +5 (1d4/19-20) or
. . rapier +5 (1d6/18-20) or
. . red destiny +7 (1d6+4/19-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack (unchained) +3d6
Rogue (Unchained) Spell-Like Abilities (CL 5th; concentration +8)
. . At will—ghost sound
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +3; CMB +3; CMD 16
Feats Dodge, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Weapon Finesse
Traits formerly mind-swapped, resilient, worldly
Skills Acrobatics +10, Appraise +10, Bluff +11 (+13 in dim light or darkness, +13 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Climb +8, Diplomacy +11, Disable Device +10, Disguise +11 (+13 in dim light or darkness), Escape Artist +10 (+12 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Intimidate +11, Knowledge (local) +10, Perception +10, Sense Motive +10, Sleight of Hand +10 (+12 in dim light or darkness, +12 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Stealth +10
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald, Varisian
SQ debilitating injury: bewildered, debilitating injury: disoriented, debilitating injury: hampered, dim the lights +2, false sensitivity, haunting presence (10 feet), hero points, rogue talent (minor magic)
Other Gear padded armor, red destiny, dagger (2), rapier, amulet of natural armor +1, belt pouch, fraudulent medium's kit, manacles, mirror, signet ring, thieves' tools
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Special Abilities
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Debilitating Injury: Bewildered -2/-4 (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage takes AC pen (more vs. striker) for 1 rd.
Debilitating Injury: Disoriented -2/-4 (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage takes attack pen (more vs. striker) for 1 rd.
Debilitating Injury: Hampered (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage has speed halved (and can't 5 ft step) for 1 rd.
Dim the Lights +2 In dim light or darkness, gain a bonus to bluff, disguise and sleight of hand
False Sensitivity (Ex) Fake the use of occult skill unlocks
Haunting Presence (10 feet) (Ex) In dim light or darkness, emulate dancing lights, ghost sound, silent image, or ventriloquism with Bluff
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Evelyn Kazallin
Female changeling mesmerist (spirit walker) 5
NG Medium humanoid (changeling)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +9
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Defense
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AC 14, touch 11, flat-footed 14 (+3 armor, +1 deflection)
hp 26 (5d8-2)
Sanity 47, threshhold 5, edge 23
Fort +1, Ref +5, Will +11; +2 trait bonus against mind-affecting effects, +2 bonus vs. fear effects, +1 trait bonus vs. spell effects from evil creatures
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee whip +2 (1d3-1 nonlethal)
Ranged light crossbow +3 (1d8/19-20)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (15 ft. with whip)
Special Attacks bold stare (psychic inception), hypnotic stare (-2), manifold tricks (2 tricks), mesmerist tricks 7/day (false flanker, mesmeric mirror, psychosomatic surge), painful stare (+2 or +1d6+2)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 5th; concentration +10)
. . 1/day—dancing lights, detect magic, disguise self, pass without trace
Mesmerist (Spirit Walker) Spells Known (CL 5th; concentration +10)
. . 2nd (3/day)—command undead (DC 17), hold person (DC 19), silence (DC 17)
. . 1st (6/day)—charm person (DC 18), hide from undead (DC 16), hideous laughter (DC 18), sleep (DC 18)
. . 0 (at will)—daze (DC 17), detect magic, detect psychic significance, message, prestidigitation, unwitting ally (DC 17)
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Statistics
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Str 8, Dex 10, Con 8, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 21
Base Atk +3; CMB +2; CMD 13
Feats Glimpse Beyond, Greater Spell Focus (enchantment), Intimidating Glance[OA], Spell Focus (enchantment)
Traits creative manipulator, deathtouched, driven by guilt, mediator
Flaws disinherited
Skills Bluff +13 (+11 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check, +15 vs. creatures sexually attracted to her), Diplomacy +14 (+12 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check, +16 to use the hypnotism skill unlock), Disguise +5 (+3 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Intimidate +13 (+11 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8 (+10 to identify vulnerabilities and powers of aberrations, this check can be made untrained), Knowledge (religion) +8 (+10 to identify vulnerabilities and powers of undead, this check can be made untrained), Linguistics +7, Perception +9, Perform (act) +13 (+11 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Perform (stage magic) +13 (+11 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Sense Motive +9, Sleight of Hand +6, Use Magic Device +13 (+11 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check); Racial Modifiers +2 Bluff vs. creatures sexually attracted to her
Languages Aklo, Common, Elven, Kelish, Skald, Varisian
SQ automatic writing (linguistics), continued animation, hero points, hypnotism (diplomacy), prognostication (sense motive), read aura (perception), undead inception, vain
Combat Gear wand of bless (CL 2nd, 8 charges), wand of command (CL 2nd, 38 charges); Other Gear studded leather, light crossbow, whip, cloak of resistance +1, ring of protection +1, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, entertainer's outfit, flint and steel, hypnotist's locket[OA], ink, inkpen, stationery, trail rations (5), waterskin, 9 gp, 9 sp
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Special Abilities
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Automatic Writing (Linguistics, 1/week) You can produce mysterious writing that pertains to the immediate future.
Continued Animation (humanoids, 10 hp, 2 rounds, 1/day, DC 17) (Su) You can animate a fallen target of your hypnotic stare.
Glimpse Beyond +2 to save vs. fear, bonuses to ID certain monsters.
Hypnotic Stare (-2, 30 feet) (Su) As swift action, target creature takes penalty on Will saves.
Hypnotism (Diplomacy, 1/day) Use power of suggestion to alter subject's mind or recover memories.
Intimidating Glance You can attempt to demoralize the target of your hypnotic stare as a swift action.
Manifold Tricks (Su) You can have mulitple tricks implanted at once.
Mesmerist Tricks (150 feet, 7/day) (Su) Implant hypnotic bond with allies. granting edge vs. foes.
Painful Stare (+2 or +1d6+2, 1/round) (Su) As a free action, hyp. stare target takes extra precision dam from a hit.
Prognostication (Sense Motive, 1/day) You are skilled in means of folk divination.
Psychic Inception (Su) Hypnotic stare can affect creatures that are mindless or immune to mind-affecting effects.
Read Aura (Perception, 1/day) Read the psychic impressions left on objects or in places.
Undead Inception (Su) You can affect undead with your hypnotic stare.
Vain -2 to Cha checks for 24h after failing an opposed Cha check
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Luna
Female dreamlands cat unchained rogue (prowler) 3/sorcerer 2
N Tiny magical beast
Init +3; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +10
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Defense
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AC 18, touch 16, flat-footed 14 (+2 armor, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 size)
hp 35 (5 HD; 2d6+3d8+10)
Sanity 45, threshhold 4, edge 22
Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +6; +2 trait bonus vs. fear and emotion effects
Defensive Abilities evasion, land on your feat, nine lives, slinking leap +1
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +9 (1d3-2), 2 claws +9 (1d2+4)
Space 2½ ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks prowling strike, sneak attack (unchained) +3d6
Bloodline Spell-Like Abilities (CL 2nd; concentration +6)
. . 7/day—lullaby
Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 2nd; concentration +6)
. . 1st (5/day)—burning hands (DC 15), magic missile
. . 0 (at will)—acid splash, disrupt undead, mage hand, open/close (DC 14), prestidigitation
. . Bloodline Dreamspun
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Statistics
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Str 4, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 18
Base Atk +3; CMB +4; CMD 12 (16 vs. trip)
Feats Accomplished Sneak Attacker, Arcane Strike, Dodge, Eschew Materials, Skill Focus (Bluff), Weapon Finesse
Traits enduring stoicism, orphaned, solitary, strength foretold
Flaws spell vulnerability
Skills Acrobatics +10 (+11 to avoid provoking AoO), Bluff +15 (+16 to feint and create distraction to hide), Climb +11, Diplomacy +4 (+2 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Disable Device +8, Escape Artist +15, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (arcana) +8, Perception +10, Perform (sing) +12, Sense Motive +2 (+0 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Sleight of Hand +11, Stealth +22, Survival +7, Swim +7; Racial Modifiers +4 Climb, +4 Escape Artist, +4 Stealth
Languages Cat, Common, Varisian
SQ dreamlands travel, hero points, moon jump, pride, rogue talent (fast stealth)
Other Gear bracers of armor +2, brass key necklace
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Special Abilities
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Dreamlands Travel (Su) Sense nearby Gates of Slumber within 1 mile radius at will.
Dreamspun When you cast a spell at a single creature, gain +1/2 spell level AC and saves vs. that creature for 1r.
Land on Your Feat (Ex) Treat any fall as if it were 20 ft. less than the actual distance of the fall.
Lullaby (7/day) (Sp) As lullaby but no concentration and penalty is -4.
Moon Jump (2/night) (Su) While in the Dreamlands jump to the moon up to twice a night.
Nine Lives (9 lives) (Su) Self resurrect up to eight times.
Pride -2 to diplomacy and sense motive vs. those who threaten, accuse, or challenge you, until they apologize
Prowling Strike (Ex) Enter an exit adjacent creature's spae without provoking an AoO.
Scent (Ex) Detect opponents within 15+ ft. by sense of smell.
Slinking Leap +1 (1/round) (Ex) If you would provoke an AoO and using Acrobatics or prowling strike, make Bluff check to create distraction to hide as a free action.
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Myfanwy Potter
Female half-elf investigator (empiricist) 5
LN Medium humanoid (elf, human)
Init +5; Senses low-light vision; Perception +17
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Defense
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AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+2 armor, +3 Dex)
hp 37 (5d8+5)
Sanity 40, threshhold 4, edge 20
Fort +2, Ref +7, Will +6 (+2 save vs. illusion and disbelievable effects); +2 racial bonus vs. illusion spells and effects
Defensive Abilities trap sense +1; Resist unfailing logic
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee rapier +7 (1d6+3/18-20)
Special Attacks studied combat (+2, 4 rounds), studied strike +1d6
Investigator (Empiricist) Extracts Prepared (CL 5th; concentration +9)
. . 2nd—cat's grace, cure moderate wounds, lesser restoration
. . 1st—comprehend languages, cure light wounds, expeditious retreat, heightened awareness, shield
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Statistics
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Str 8, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 8
Base Atk +3; CMB +2; CMD 15
Feats Fencing Grace[UI], Open Minded, Skill Focus (Perception), Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (rapier)
Traits elven reflexes, lepidstadt scar (ustalav), methodical mind (arcana, history, planes; arcana, history, planes, planes), wisdom in the flesh
Flaws nearsighted
Skills Acrobatics +7, Appraise +2, Bluff -3, Climb -3, Craft (alchemy) +12 (+17 to create alchemical items), Craft (sketching) +12, Diplomacy +3 (+8 to gather information (You can use your Intelligence Modifier instead of Charisma)), Disable Device +12, Disguise -3, Escape Artist +1, Fly +1, Heal +6, Intimidate -3, Knowledge (arcana) +13, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +9, Knowledge (engineering) +8, Knowledge (geography) +10, Knowledge (history) +13, Knowledge (local) +9, Knowledge (nature) +11, Knowledge (nobility) +8, Knowledge (planes) +13, Knowledge (religion) +10, Linguistics +10, Perception +17, Ride +1, Sense Motive +8, Spellcraft +9, Stealth +7, Survival +0, Swim +10, Use Magic Device +8; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Aklo, Common, Draconic, Elven, Jistka, Skald, Varisian, Vudrani
SQ alchemy (alchemy crafting +5), arcane training, ceaseless observation, dreamer, elf blood, hero points, inspiration (6/day), investigator talents (expanded inspiration, quick study), keen recollection, meticulous, trapfinding +2
Other Gear leather armor, rapier, handy haversack, alchemy crafting kit, backpack, chalk, charcoal (5), eyeglasses, ink, inkpen (3), investigator starting formula book, journal, scholar's outfit, silver tiger pendant (worth 5 gp), 4 gp, 5 sp, 9 cp
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Special Abilities
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Dreamer +2 to save vs. illusion. In lucid dreams treat Cha as 2 higher.
Fencing Grace Use Dexterity on rapier damage rolls
Meticulous -2 on all untrained skill checks
Open Minded Gain 1 skill point per level.
Unfailing Logic +2 (Ex) +2 save vs. illusion and disbelievable effects
Session the Tenth:
As they healed up and began to travel back to town, they noticed that somehow Luna had picked up a collar with a brass key hanging off it. Where she got it, she would not say. They arrived at Thrushmoor in the mid-afternoon and were promptly ambushed by cloaked figures coming out of the rain. Luna, Myfanwy, Evie, and Bettina saw it coming and were able to prepare before the assault began.
One of the cloaked figures hit Myfanwy with a sap, apparently trying to subdue her rather than kill. Evie placed one under her hypnotic stare and demoralized him with a glance. The attackers moved around to provide flanks, but the defenders were able to keep them at bay. Luna rushed in and struck at the ankles of one of the attackers.
Bettina then attacked the one struggling with a cat running around his ankles and ran him through. Winter cast a prayer as Evie cast hold person on the one she was staring at. Avarel struck another and killed him. The rest then drank potions and vanished, while the held attacker broke free of the spell. Luna heard the invisible ones running away and set off in pursuit. Winter stabbed the remaining attacker as Evie tried to use the wand of command but had no effect. Then Avarel split him in two with a powerful sword strike.
Luna followed the others into an alley and saw the attackers reappear. She followed them all the way to Fort Hailcourse, where they were let in without problem. Luna then sneaked back to the party to inform them of what happened, then the party went to inform Cesadia of the coven and the attempted kidnapping when they got back to town. The investigator was very concerned that the kidnappers were apparently working with the Fort, and requested they make that a priority.
The party went back to the Chapel House to rest. They looked at some strange symbols that they pulled off the bodies of their attackers and they recognized them as symbols of a cult referenced in an obscure play called The King in Yellow, and these symbols were called the Yellow Sign. Beyond that they had no idea what they represented.
They decided to let Luna do a scouting mission to Fort Hailcourse, giving her an elixir of hiding they got from the ambushers. She left at night and was able to make it up to the Fort undetected. There were no lights within despite the Fort apparently being still occupied. Luna hopped up through one of the arrow slits into the lobby section of the Fort.
Beyond the double door of the entrance, the fort’s lobby contained only a long bench for visitors, a small, two-wheeled cart, and an attractive standing mirror. A faint briny smell hung in the air. Four armored, rotting men stood at attention, guarding the entrance. Luna went out the way she came in without being detected and went west and sneaked into the next room, located in the wall. Overlooking the fort’s courtyard, this spacious room was fitted with bunk beds, small chests, and stools. A rancid smell lingered in the room. Another four undead guardsman were there.
Luna sneaked up the spiral stairs next to the room into a tower room. The round room was used for secure observation of the grounds outside via an array of arrow loops. A circling wooden stair climbed upward to a trap door at the top of the tower. Two more guards were there, and Luna used ghost sound to create a distraction, used open/close on the trap door, and slipped through to the tower roof without being seen.
Topping each of the five towers of the fort was a round, open space only accessible via a trap door. On top of each tower was a light ballista fixed to a swiveling mount, and a wooden box nearby held ten bolts. Luna climbed down to the battlements and then froze: a non-descript puddle moved, exposing itself as some sort of ooze. It moved by her, apparently unaware of her presence.
Luna looked down into the courtyard to see what was there. The fort’s courtyard was muddy, with patches of grass and weeds sprouting from the soil along the walls. A brick well stood at the center of the courtyard and a grate for grilling food stood against a wall to the south. Four ustalavic hounds wandered about, obviously being neglected and starved. Luna felt sorry for the beasts and determined that the party should bring sausages when they returned.
There was a large room on top of the battlements that had stairs leading up to it. Luna decided to investigate this last room, and through the window saw two fish-like humanoids talking in a language she did not understand. One of the fish-men was wearing a chain shirt and a key ring. Realizing that the elixir would soon run out, Luna jumped off the twenty-foot-high battlements, landed on her feet, and began the journey to the Chapel House.
As Luna traveled through Thrushmoor, she saw a translucent figure wandering the streets. It looked like a human distorted with tentacles and rot, a fairly horrible apparition. Luna kept hidden until the ghostly figure passed and then continued back to the party. She had to dodge into hiding again to avoid encountering a group of the fish-like humanoids, their briny smell and flapping feet passing right close to her. Luna then sped back to the house.
When Luna got there, she began singing the song of her people to be let in rather than use a cantrip. Evie let her in after everyone in the party was woken up. Luna described what she saw and encountered on her reconnoitre. Evie recognized the undead Luna described as Ju-ju zombies, and Myfanwy recognized the fish people as skum, sometimes know as ulat-kini. The ooze was much harder, but Myfanwy determined that the intelligent behaviour Luna observed that it was most likely an id ooze, a barely intelligent and telepathic ooze.
The apparition was very different. Neither Evie nor Myfanwy had ever heard of an apparition so malformed. They assumed it was the ghost of Countess Nemira Lowls, and that she must have died horribly. They rested for the night and got up on Rova the 7th and prepared for an assault on the Fort. They applied some doses of oil of magic weapon on some slashing weaponry to help against the zombie and then set out.
As they moved through the streets in the early morning, a figure came from around a corner and charged right at them. The shambling corpse was twisted and mutilated. Fingers of sharpened bone reached out with malevolent intent. He screamed out, “YOU KILLED ME!!” pointing at Evie and Myfanwy. Myfanwy recognized it as a revenant, an undead obsessed with vengeance against those who killed him.
The revenant grabbed Myfanwy by the throat and began to choke the life out of her. Myfanwy had a flash in her mind: the man was alive, and she was under orders to beat up this “Klyn Murik” with a club, and she saw herself doing so, using her careful studying of him to strike in his vulnerable spots. He was in a bad way as Evie had apparently shaken him with her power. Luna began slashing at the revenant’s tendons, using arcane strike to magic them up.
Myfanwy managed to get a good strike in with her rapier but was unable to break free. Evie now had a slash of memory regarding the incident, and they both remembered Klyn Murik moved in an unpredictable manner and Myfanwy’s club had snapped his neck. They had not intended to kill him, but they had by mistake. Evie was both shocked and appalled.
Evie placed the revenant under hypnotic stare and used hideous laughter on him, producing a truly horrible laugh, freeing Myfanwy. Belinda and Avarel got in solid hits, but the monster broke free of the debilitating spell and stood up, taking a nasty slash from Luna. Evie, feeling very conflicted, used her painful stare ability and beheaded it with her dagger.
Avarel healed up Myfanwy’s injuries but only after ascertaining that she regretted what happened to Klyn. Both Evie and Myfanwy were somewhat in shock to discover what they had done. They took a few moments to get themselves together and then proceeded up to the Fort. They used Luna to open the door by slinking in and using open/close.
The six ju-ju zombies moved in to attack, tearing into Avarel and the Purcels, but did not do much damage. Evie placed a command undead spell on one of the zombies and kept him out of the fight. Avarel lowered his shield and pushed into the Fort lobby, opening the battlefield somewhat. It pushed one to Luna who promptly eviscerated it.
The remaining zombies attacked, injuring Myfanwy, Belinda, and Avarel, though only Avarel was hit seriously. Luna, Bettina, Belinda, Myfanwy, and Avarel managed to work together and destroy the last four zombies fairly quickly, with Myfanwy spearing one through the head with her rapier and Luna taking down others with well placed claw attacks.
Avarel healed up using potions of cure light wounds as they bandaged their wounds, while Evie interrogated the zombie she had placed under her command. They found out that a gang of skum from Lake Encarthan slipped in through the town’s aqueduct system, along with Melisenn Kororo, Lowls friend, and a “mirror lady” name Tilsitari. They quickly overpowered the meager garrison—all that remained after the Druman mercenaries defected, having not being paid for over 5 weeks—and made short work of the fort’s occupants, including Magistrate Tillus Padgett and his second-in-command, Constable Barawyn Cesyll.
Tilsitari took on the appearance of Barawyn Cesyll, and when Accuser Omari showed up, they killed her and her guards. The skum took the Accuser’s body somewhere, the zombie was unclear as to where. The mirror lady could see out of any mirror, so they now knew that they couldn’t take her by surprise. The gang of skum was led by an armored fish-man named Itsqaal-Thoal. He had an affinity for oozes and had one with him that could take on the form of another skum.
Having gotten all the information out of him they could, the party struck as one and shredded the zombie. They opened the door to the barracks that Luna had gotten into the night before and moved to attack the zombies stationed there. There were three they could see, but they could hear more coming down the two spiral stairs.
Avarel got struck a few times, injuring him yet again as Belinda moved into position to help with flanking. The party moved through the fight quickly, even as they were joined by four more zombies. The fight was taxing, but Avarel savaged the zombies with strong sword strikes slicing off heads and splitting torsos. They healed up and proceeded to the next room, the spare barracks. The L-shaped room was mostly empty but held a few neatly stacked piles of military-style camping gear against the walls. A case of arrows sat near each of the arrow loops. An extinguished hooded lantern sat on the floor near the arrow loop in the western wall.
There they faced off against another six more zombies. Evie cast hideous laughter and managed to take one down. The zombies used their bows to attack Evie—severely injuring her—so she sheltered behind the door into the room. Apparently the “mirror lady” had instructed others on tactics. Avarel and the Purcels moved in to flank as Luna positioned herself to do as much damage as possible. Myfanwy used her studied strike to do significant damage to one as Bettina struck from the other side. Evie caused another to fall with her hideous laughter.
Luna slashed through another zombie and moved to flank with Avarel. Myfanwy found a weak spot and managed to exploit it, killing the zombie with a stab through the head. While one of the zombies broke free of the laughter, Evie cast it again and took another down. They finished off the last of them.
They then picked up the gear off the bodies, the camping gear and a mass of arrows before retreating to the New Chapel to get healing from Winter. They smashed the big mirror in the lobby on the way out. Winter healed them up and they reported what they had found out to Cesadia. They had to rest, even though the skum would shore up their defenses before they arrived back at the fort in the early evening.
Session the Eleventh:
As they rested, Myfanwy contemplated what they heard about the “mirror woman” and was certain she was from the mirror plane aspect of the Plane of Shadow, but not much else. They went back to the Fort and were ambushed on the way by a woman who suddenly appeared and stabbed Evie, nearly killing her with one poisoned rapier, producing a nasty, bleeding wound. Myfanwy, Bettina, and Belinda piled on and struck true—with Luna using a magic missile spell—causing the assassin to use a wand of invisibility and flee from the party. Evie collapsed into Avarel’s arms, who then used his power to close her wounds.
After healing Evie a bit more, they continued to the Fort to find the doors barred yet again. Luna opened the door once again, revealing four more juju zombies and four skum, ready for a fight. They moved in quickly, getting into flanking positions with each other and Luna. One of the zombies moved into Luna, allowing her to slash wither claws. Evie used command undead and took control of a juju zombie and got him to join in the fight against the skum. The skum proved less effective and tough as the undead mercenaries and were soon eliminated.
Belinda got injured moving through the room to attack a juju zombie. Avarel moved in and struck down another one but was unable to keep Belinda from being struck across the forehead with a longsword, sending her crumpled to the floor barely alive. Evie cast hide from undead and ran into the room to aid Belinda and keep her from dying. Luna was soon struck, which resulted in her yowl of disapproval. They finished off two of the zombies and then Evie had the one under her control attack his compatriot, who fought back and relieved the attacks on the party.
Avarel struck the zombie under Evie’s control to weaken it to the same level as the last one standing. The zombies struck at the paladin, then Luna killed one as Evie dazed the one she had had under her control. It took a few more strikes, but they finished off the last zombie. Avarel used the rest of his healing to heal up the party almost completely. They looted the bodies and moved through the rooms they had already cleared to another door in the wall rooms of the Fort.
They found a locked door at the far end of the North Barracks, but it was short work for them to unlock it. There they found a hallway with stairs going down to a locked door, a locked door leading into the courtyard, and a third locked door heading east. Wet, web-footed footsteps led from the stairs to the eastern door. It proved tricky to open, with Myfanwy, Belinda, and Luna failing to open it. Bettina managed it and they opened onto a dining room with six skum seated at the table and milling about.
The battle was rather anticlimactic as they cut through the skum rapidly, with Luna running about under the table to strike freely at skum legs. They quickly finished them off, took the tridents and dining ware, then went through the north door. They found a set of stairs going up, a second door going south, and sets of cabinets, they found many records and files in the cabinets which they took for later perusal. Listening at the southern door, they heard skum moving about. They decided to try coming in through the dining hall and the archive room a at the same time to catch the fishmen off guard. They succeeded, entering a large courtroom from two separate door, taking the seven skum unawares.
The walls of the semicircular room were clad in wood up to half of their height and decorated with murals of the town’s civil life on the upper half. A bench ran along most of the curved outer wall, under three grated windows fitted with stained glass. Opposite the bench were a trio of highbacked chairs and a desk with a stool. Two more benches sat in the middle, near a central pillar that supported the ceiling. The seven skum were lounging about and were quite startled by the sudden interruption.
Evie cast sleep on two of the creatures, knocking them unconscious. Luna then moved in and cast burning ears and caught four of the skum in the blast, one of which was a sleeper. Ambushed and hurt by magic, they proved to be of no real threat and the party finished them off quickly. They searched the place and finding nothing, headed back into the dining room and went through the last door to the west.
This room was furnished with a wooden desk decorated with the Ustalavic coat of arms. The walls were almost completely draped with warm, woolen tapestries. A small cabinet and chair sat against the northern wall. There were two other doors, one going to the lobby where they entered and the other to a room behind the smashed mirror. They found the cabinet locked, so Bettina opened the cabinet up. She missed the poison needle that shot out and stabbed her finger but managed to avoid the effects of the poison. Inside the cabinet was a cloak of elvenkind, a +1 returning dagger, and a leather bag containing coins. Belinda took the dagger.
They opened the door to the west and found the kitchen, fitted with a cabinet and a stone worktable. A blackened iron cauldron hung in the fireplace. A set of stairs led up. As they began to search the room, Luna heard something up the stairs. She slunk up and found a skum tossing someone’s quarters as though looking for something. Luna came down and informed the party and the stealthy members of the group moved up the stairs and struck form surprise, killing the skum before he could do anything. They searched him and found several magic items and valuables, including a headband of alluring charisma +2. The headband was claimed by Evie, although Luna considered it for herself.
Everything in the room was in disarray. Overturned and broken furniture littered the floor, and sprays of dried blood marked the room’s stone walls. A cracked mirror hung on the eastern wall at the top of the stairs to the room. Luna searched the room and found a hidden cache of money under a floorboard. Myfanwy discovered a skeleton key under the desk in a gob of red wax.
They were about to descend the stairs and see if the key would work on the locked door at the bottom of the stairs in the hallway they had found before the dining room, when a duplicate of Evie emerged from the mirror. Tilsitari, the “mirror lady”, and moved in and swung Evie around to confuse the group as to which one was which. Tilsitari cast mirror image, producing six Evies, some with the white streak on one side and some with it on the other.
Luna used her nose to determine which was the real Evie and went up and tugged on Evie’s robe. Myfanwy caused one of the Evies to disappear with a rapier strike, but Avarel hit Tilsitari and produced a ringing sound from his longsword as he did. Evie then cast disguise self and looked just like Winter to help the party differentiate her. They continued to whittle away at Tilsitari’s duplicates as she drew two short swords and attacked Evie.
They managed to eliminate the rest of the mirror Evies, but then “Evie” hit “Winter” with her swords almost unto death. “Winter” fell and became an unconscious Evie. They concentrated their attacks on the silvery woman and Bettina moved in to flank with Luna. Bettina smashed the woman with a powerful strike, causing Tilsitari to explode into shards of glass. After the explosion, Avarel put a potion of moderate wounds down Evie’s throat saving her.
After the fight, Myfanwy sat on the bed for a minute or two to deal with the overwhelming feelings she got seeing so many beautiful women looking just like Evie at once. She realized she was attracted to women far more than to men, and it took a moment to adjust her thinking.
They descended to the locked door in the basement of the Fort and tried the skeleton key, easily opening the lock. The walls of the cool and dry subterranean room were lined with sturdy shelves laden with chopped wood. A couple of axes sat propped in the corner, and a small hatchet was driven into a stump used to split smaller logs and make kindling. There was a big door to the south and a locked door to the east.
The key opened the lock and it opened onto a dark hallway leading to a row of three doors along the northern wall, each fitted with a small grate in the middle. A single door stood in the southern wall. Four skum were in the hallway and they attacked.
Luna scurried into the room with Myfanwy and they managed to kill one, but the rest turned on the cat and half-elf, wounding both. Avarel and the Purcels moved in and finished them off quickly and with little effort. They then investigated the three cells, which were dirty, and the smell of waste and rotting flesh filled the area. The first cell was empty but the second held butchered remains of past captives, causing some consternation among the group. The third cell held Sholn, the young man they were asked to find and rescue by his younger sister Holissa. He asked to be saved, and they told him they would, but he had to stay put while they checked the door to the south. They used the skeleton key and found crates and barrels standing along damp stone walls. A plastered portion of the wall in the southwest corner of the room had begun to crack.
As Myfanwy searched the crumbling wall, a hideous ghost of emerged from the wall and hit Myfanwy with his hands, sucking life out of the investigator. Belinda threw her dagger, but to no avail as Bettina attacked with Red Destiny to damage the ghost. Evie cast command undead on the ghost and asked him who he was and what he needed to help. He wanted his body to be buried. He tried to strike again, breaking Evie’s control. Avarel protected their retreat with two smite evils and a divine bond making his longsword holy. The attack dissipated the ghost.
They broke through the crumbling wall, removed bails of rotten hay, and then revealed a cell door. They unlocked the door and found a desiccated corpse. The body was dressed only in a ragged loincloth and had undergone a process of natural mummification. The most recognizable features of the corpse were several large tattoos on the torso and thighs, mostly depicting abstract, swirling monstrosities with too many eyes and too many mouths. They removed the body and got Sholn and left the Fort.
Winter was willing to help, but she needed his name for a proper buriel. She used speak with dead to get his name and learn his fate. His name was Clymes Prett, and he had been a lover of Count Haserton Lowls III's wife, Countess Nemira Lowls and had given the old Count a disease to kill him and the Count did this for revenge.
Session the Twelfth:
The party rested for the rest of the night and set back out to Fort Hailcourse on the morning of Rova the 8th. As they got to the Fort, they found eight skum waiting in the lobby this time, one wearing a chain shirt. One skum moved forward and bit and clawed at Avarel while the skum wearing armor moved in and bit Bettina. Evelyn cast sleep and took two skum down. Avarel struck his attacker and it shifted into something that appeared like seafoam and continued its attack; this was undoubtedly the shape-changing ooze they had been told about.
Luna charged in and helped Bettina in attacking the armoured skum, but as they fought the assassin appeared again and struck at Belinda. The skirmish descended into a slug fest, with the ooze hitting hard but the assassin missing the rapidly dodging Belinda. As the skum began to fall, the assassin took a hit or two and used her wand to become invisible and run away again.
After Luna killed the leader in chain mail, most of the party finished off the awake skum and concentrated their efforts on the ooze. Bettina moved in a used a coup de grace on one of the sleeping skum. Myfanwy finally identified the ooze as a doppeldrek, a rare and intelligent ooze capable of taking on the form of animals and humanoids. Luna finally killed it with her burning ears spell, though she set the cart on fire.
Bettina and Belinda finished off the last skum and then they removed the burning cart from the Fort. Avarel healed the group somewhat and they began to head back into the Fort. They found a wand of cure light wounds on the leader as well as magic armor and an amulet they couldn’t identify.
They took the opportunity to feed the dogs in the courtyard at Luna’s insistence. The party then went in pursuit of the id oozes. They went up to the battlements and promptly encountered the ooze. As each person struck the ooze, their weapons began taking acid damage. Belinda and Myfanwy’s rapiers became damaged, reducing its effectiveness. She then got hit by a massive blow from the ooze, knocking her down.
Myfanwy used the cure wand on Belinda as Avarel struck the ooze with his magic mace and between him and Bettina, they finished off the ooze. They then explored the battlements while healing Belinda up. They entered a room furnished with a large table, a few comfortable chairs, and a standing mirror. The room appeared reasonably clean compared to the rest of the fort. A fireplace sat cold in the corner, and a pile of books and folios was spread across the table.
Evie found some magic scrolls among the papers. They went to the apartment above and found a double bed, two chests of drawers, a small table, and a couple of stools, the room also contained a bulky steel safe, its door standing open. A cold fireplace occupied the northeast corner of the chamber. The shutters of the three windows had been torn from their hinges and lay broken on the floor. The smell of briny water was strong in the still air.
Luna investigated the fireplace and heard a “click” noise. She froze and remained still until Myfanwy determined it was a loose brick at the back of the chimney and nothing more. Evie investigated a book on the table and found it to be poorly written poetry from the magistrate’s personal journal.
As they descended the steps, they met the second id ooze and four skum. They attacked each other, with Avarel concentrating on the ooze. Myfanwy decided to use her damaged rapier on the ooze, leaving her with a hilt. Evie put two of the skum asleep and Bettina finished them off. Belinda continued to hit the ooze with her damaged rapier, managing to avoid further damage to the weapon. Luna kept using acid splash to wear it down. Belinda managed to finally kill it with her broken rapier.
They went down to the basement and began to explore what was left. The many wooden shelves in the first room were stacked with wooden crates, paper-wrapped packets, and small clay jars sealed with wax. Smoked trout and other dried fish were hanged from metal hooks fixed to the ceiling. Several boxes and containers had been emptied and smashed, and lay in pieces on the floor, along with discarded fish bones and other refuse. After searching the pantry and finding nothing but food, they continued.
The party found a musty cellar containing a dozen wooden kegs, several demijohns, and dozens of empty bottles standing on shelves along the wall. It was apparently a water storage room. They went north and came to a room connected to the well. This room was built around the water well, which opened to the sky above at the apex of the ceiling and descended into a shaft at the middle of the floor.
Evie looked down and saw the bottom of the well was a good fifty feet down. She the cast detect magic which set off an undiscovered trap. The room was sprayed with alchemical ice, damaging Avarel, Belinda, Evie, and Myfanwy. Avarel instantly healed by his healing talisman. They healed up in the now secured Fort.
They discovered that the unidentified amulet was an amulet of mighty fists, which they decided to give to Luna. The investigated some of the records and got prepared to enter the Iris Hill estate and find out what was happening. They talked to Cesadia and she said she would be able to get permission from the other town elders to let the party force entry into Iris Hill with authority in four hours.
In the meantime, they healed up and did some research. They found some information but couldn’t find anything damning. Evie began reading one book that they discovered had a magic bookmark which obscured the text. It was a book on dream creatures. It had a chapter on Dreamlands Cats, and Luna sat on the book to keep her people’s secrets intact. They managed to research some information around cat butt that was very complimentary towards cats, so she allowed them to continue their research unmolested. They found a poem in the book called the Naming of Cats, apparently written by someone on a distant planet. It had a reference to cats having three different names. Luna was suspiciously absent as it was read.
Cesadia and Winter arrived with written permission for the party to get into Iris Hill in the early afternoon and they headed up to the estate gatehouse. They were told to go away, though Evie tried to persuade the guards to let them in because of the written orders. The guards responded with crossbow bolts pointed through the hatch. Luna sang the song of her people, demanding entry. It annoyed the guards so much, the doors opened, and they attacked in a rage.
The battle was brutal, with the five gatehouse guards attacking with battleaxes and Luna killing the attendant with two carefully placed claw strikes. They flanked and fought well, but the guards savagely struck and tried to bite. One bit Myfanwy and began drinking her blood. Myfanwy identified them as Kuru cannibals, a group of barbarous humans from the western Shackles. What they were doing in Ustalav no one knew.
Evie got bitten and everyone was getting tired as Luna moved around slashing at will. Evie stopped one with a hideous laughter that was truly hideous as they wiped out the others, then they teamed up on the last and killed the laughing cannibal, with Myfanwy delivering the death blow.
Session the Thirteenth (Part One):
The party continued into the Iris Hill estate grounds through the gatehouse. Within the surrounding hedge, the garden of Iris Hill appeared eerily shrouded in a thin mist that lingered over the grass despite the driving rain. All the buildings appeared dark and quiet, and the odor of heather and ivy seemed mixed with some sweetly sour, unwholesome essence.
Evidence of neglect lay strewn across the once magnificent garden. The grass grew tall and yellowed, and weeds choked flowerbeds along the sides of the estate’s buildings, leaving only a smattering of color from the few flowers that survived. A few overgrown bushes once trimmed to look like humanoids stood in a rough circle around a brick well in the center of the estate. A gravel path led from the gatehouse and circled the well before branching off to each of the estate’s buildings.
Evie suggested they start their investigations with the building to their immediate right. They followed the path towards the building, passing by the central well and the humanoid shaped shrubbery. As they passed by, five of the humanoid shapes sprang to life and attacked the party. Myfanwy recognized them as living topiaries, animate plants that travel the land eating foliage in massive quantities. These had obviously been trained as guards. She threw a flask of alchemist’s fire into one of the topiaries, setting it ablaze.
Luna cast burning ears and burned three of them. Avarel slashed one with two quick cuts and sliced off a burning limb. The topiaries struck back hitting Avarel, Myfanwy, Bettina, and Luna. They then slunk away through the tall foliage, leaving only one behind. Bettina and Belinda took down the remaining topiary, then the rest of the group waited for the remaining shrubbery to reappear and attack. The topiaries emerged and the party struck but was unable to bring them down swiftly and they went away again. The attack slammed Evie to the ground, unconscious and near death.
The topiaries appeared and were attacked again, but this time they stayed and fought. Luna sharpened her claws on the bark and killed one of the topiaries. Avarel got Evie back to consciousness by binding her wounds, and she drank a potion of cure moderate wounds. As the they began to fall, one of the topiaries consumed the local foliage, healing itself. Avarel killed another with a couple of slashes. Bettina killed the one the healed itself with a low, slashing cut made with Red Destiny.
They inspected the well, and heard an odd sound from the well, like water lapping against the sides rather than being still. The mists seemed to come from the well. They decided to put Luna in the bucket and lower her to investigate the well. She determined that it was all just audial and optical illusions. They then decided to continue on to the guest house.
The shutters were closed, but light could be seen leaking out the windows. Myfanwy and Luna listened at the door and heard two people in polite conversation and sipping something. They knocked on the door and were invited to come inside. Two well dressed nobles were sitting at a mahogany table with five matching chairs in the well-appointed lounge which included a brick fireplace—which Luna curled up next to—and an antique sideboard near the foot of the stairs.
They asked the party to come in, get two glasses and join them as they opened a new bottle of wine from a vineyard in Cesca. The party sat as the nobles—who introduced themselves as Asa Lalith and Daelene Spence from Caliphas—poured the wine. Avarel drank his goblet without reservation. Evie spoke with the nobles and asked why they were visiting Lowls. Daelene said they wouldn’t have come had they known he was just going to leave them behind for some “ridiculous expedition.”
They said they had come because they heard a Royal Accuser had been sent to investigate him and they wanted to see if he was in trouble. Evie faked drinking her wine, and the nobles didn’t notice. Luna knocked something on the floor as the conversation continued then used the distraction to slip upstairs unnoticed and began to prowl around. Asa and Daelene apologized for the guards, saying that the nobles weren’t allowed to leave for some reason or another and that it was quite vexing.
Myfanwy and Avarel continued to drink, but the Purcel sisters refused, stating they had some bad experiences with alcohol in the past. As they Belinda felt an overwhelming urge to drink, but Evie noticed that Daelene was casting a spell of some sort. Seeing Belinda lifting her glass, Evie bolstered Belinda’s willpower. Belinda set the glass back down on the table, somewhat bemused.
Luna searched the upstairs, and entered a lavish bedroom containing a plush, four-poster bed draped with lacy netting. A fire burned in a ceramic stove in the western corner of the room. A large, padlocked trunk sat in the southern corner near a long writing desk. Emitting a sharp brip sound, Luna investigated and found a trap—a magical trap, beyond her ability to disarm.
Evie explained to the nobles that the guards keeping them at Iris Hill were dead, and they could leave. The nobles were delighted that they could leave but disturbed that the party killed the guards. Upstairs Luna found the second room had large windows spanning two of the whitewashed walls, to allow in warm sunlight. Otherwise empty, she proceeded back down the stairs.
Bettina drank some of the wine against her will and became angry. She stood up and began to demand to know what was going on. Evie strongly suggested that the nobles leave immediately. Belinda then grabbed Evie’s drink and swallowed. Bettina now stated that somebody was getting stabbed. Belinda said, “Yeah!” before passing out from the poison. Avarel, Myfanwy, and Bettina were able to avoid the effects, and the two women drew their weapons. Evie told Avarel that Daelene was a spellcaster causing them to drink poisoned wine, so he joined the fray.
Bettina moved to the attack, but Daelene suddenly became four people using mirror image. Avarel came to the party’s defence and hit Asa twice with the flat of his blade, hoping that he was merely the spellcaster’s dupe. Asa flipped over Avarel and stabbed him with his dagger as Luna launched herself from the stairs and managed to hit Daelene in the face, a ball of hissing and clawing fury.
Daelene and Asa moved into a flank on Avarel, but Evie invoked mesmeric mirror on Avarel, so suddenly there were three of him. Asa still managed to hit hard, dealing a nasty wound in his abdomen. Daelene cast hideous laughter on Avarel, but he shook off the urge to laugh and fought on. Eve responded by trying hideous laughter on Asa, but she also failed. Avarel eliminated one mirror image of Daelene and hit her with the sword edge; he accepted they were bad guys.
Luna moved in but missed with the claw. Bettina stabbed at Daelene but failed to hit, eliminating another image. Daelene responded with a mind thrust, which caused Bettina to be overwhelmed with information and bled a little from her ears. Avarel took a stab from Asa to his left lower back, becoming quite hurt. Myfanwy stepped up and stabbed Daelene through the right shoulder, causing her arm to drop, thrust her rapier through her thigh, causing the noble to lean forward, and then finished with a swift up thrust through the head from below the chin, killing her.
Evie cast daze on Asa, allowing Avarel to get in two solid sword thrusts without threat of attack. Luna ran in and missed with her claws as Bettina moved in and stabbed the noble, rendering him unconscious. They decided to talk to Asa and see if they could find out what was going on. They checked on Belinda and found her sound asleep, but otherwise unharmed. Myfanwy sniffed the wine carefully and determined that it was most likely oil of taggit, she would bet her life on it. They then looted the two nobles of their valuables and magic items.
Luna led Myfanwy to the locked chest upstairs and Myfanwy tried to deduce the pass phrase to disable the magic trap while Evie and Luna stayed way back. She screwed up and a blast of magical force blew up in her face as she dodged to the left. After that she was able to open the trunk and they found it filled with fine clothes, jewelry, and plenty of drink—a small fortune of finery.
Avarel moved Belinda up to the bedroom to sleep off the poison and then they went to interrogate their prisoner. As soon as Asa woke up, Bettina slapped him very hard. Evie then used her most intimidating glare to begin the interrogation, demanding to know what he and Daelene were doing in Iris Hill. Asa responded that he served the Yellow Sign, but that he wouldn’t say anything else in the presence of a man wearing the emblem of a woman trumped up to become what fools would deign refer to as a “God”. Myfanwy hit him giving Asa a bloody nose. Evie pointed out that given the circumstances, Avarel’s god might well be more powerful than Asa’s deity.
Asa scoffed, pointing out that Iomedae’s ancestry was traceable, her age known. She has been a human and then ascended. Asa’s god had existed for countless eons, had existed before the universe had begun and would continue after its fall. Myfanwy said that no one had heard of Asa’s god, but he responded that many had; that they were ignorant wasn’t his concern.
Evie tried a different tack and used charm person on Asa and asked why he and Daelene had come to Thrushmoor. Asa told them that he and Daelene came to Thrushmoor after hearing that a royal accuser was sent to investigate the erratic behavior of Count Lowls. Always interested in a scandal, the two were particularly intrigued by the rumor when they learned that occult forces might be to blame. The two packed up some of their belongings in a trunk and boarded a ship heading north to Thrushmoor. Upon their arrival, Asa and Daelene surreptitiously asked around town about the veil cast over Thrushmoor.
As they heard more tales from the townsfolk, the pair of cultists visited Iris Hill and met Melisenn Kororo. During their conversation they dropped subtle hints that would identify them as fellow worshipers of the Yellow Sign, in hopes that Melisenn would reveal herself as like-minded devotee. It took more than one visit for all to be revealed, but after realizing they shared a patron and that they were interested in helping with her plans in Thrushmoor, Melisenn invited the decadent nobles into Iris Hill and set them up in the estate’s guesthouse.
Asa told them that the name of his god was Hastur, and that he told them this only because he knew he was about to die and him saying the forbidden name once before his death was something he always wanted to do. Melisenn was at Iris Hill to study the hidden third Star Stelae of the town. He warned Evie never to speak the name, but to simply refer to him as the King in Yellow. He said it only as when the magics she cast on him wore off, he would do everything in his power to kill them. He had not surrendered and would never. While this cleared Avarel’s conscious on killing Asa, he didn’t have to: Luna had heard enough and jumped up and slashed out Asa’s throat.
Session the Thirteenth (Part Two):
The party decided to rest in the guest house and use Evie’s ability to disguise herself if the guards investigated. This she was able to easily and they took the opportunity to rest up and recover…and for Belinda to wake up. Luna suggested removing the faces and asking the guards to help dispose of the now dead intruders, but the idea grossed out and disturbed everyone else and they declined the suggestion.
Belinda woke up saying, “Somebody is going to get stabbed!” The party warned her the cat was talking about “wearing faces” now; Luna was “unimpressed” by the mockery she received, and she showed them all her tail in a disrespectful manner.
By eleven in the evening, they left the guest house and moved on to the carriage house and stables. As they moved, Myfanwy was almost hit by a lightning bolt after commenting on the weather. Myfanwy and Belinda heard a horse whinny as they got close, but saw it was empty except for blood staining the damp, musty hay scattered across the floor of the stable.
As Luna entered and a spectral figure of a horse manifested and kicked at Luna as she passed the threshold. She investigated further and found a bloodstained cleaver discarded beneath the bloody hay. She took the handle in her teeth and dragged it out to the rest of the group. Avarel made a smart-ass comment about the cat having a tool to take faces and Evie asking what exactly Luna did in there, and how many faces did she have now. They both got nicked by the blade before she started cleaning herself.
They decided it was a haunt and they used the opportunity to break and smash the cleaver in hopes that it would put the haunt to rest. They tentatively entered and did not experience the spectral horse, so they proceeded to the door. Inside the smell of freshly turned earth filled the carriage house. Behind a large black carriage that nearly filled the room, near a wall hung with tools and various pieces of tack, was a hole nearly 5 feet wide. The pit descended 30 feet down to the ceiling at the midpoint of a sloping cavern. Luna crawled down the hole and peered into the cave.
The natural cave, illuminated by large floor lanterns, extended from east to west, slightly ascending from a pool of water to a raised shelf. Three strange figures were there. Each had a star-shaped head and numerous writhing appendages arranged radially around its barrel-shaped body. They also had bat-like wings. Luna decided, “Nope!”, and climbed back out as rapidly as she could.
She drew and roughly described as best she could in Cat about what was down the hole. Based on the description, Evie recognized them as beings known as Elder Things. They apparently created life including the legendary shoggoths, which had destroyed their civilization. Being arrogant and war-like, and speaking their own language, the party doubted peaceful contact would be easily made, so the party decided to leave it for the time being.
The stairs to the quarters above the carriage house were very creaky and they let Luna go up quietly and hide before the rest of them followed. After listening at the door, Myfanwy determined that there was movement, but it wasn’t animal sounds. Avarel kicked in the door and entered the room. He found a nicely appointed room containing a wide bed covered with a homey quilt, a low shelf, and a writing desk. What appeared to be two pitcher plants as tall as a person stood perfectly still in the middle of the room and by a window. Tapestries hung on the wall, and the room smelled faintly of sandalwood.
The party then had a short debate over the range of smells of sandalwood as the plants sprang to life and lifted themselves out of their pots, filling the room with spores. Belinda suddenly found herself sinking in quicksand rather than standing on floorboards. She went prone and tried to swim as the other party members looked on shocked. Evie saw that she wasn’t holding a sword-cane, but rather a poisonous viper. She dropped it and fled the room.
Avarel hit one of the plants with a broad slash. One of the plants struck Bettina and covered her in spores as she struck. Belinda believed she was being drowned in the quicksand clutched at her throat. Myfanwy felt the spore cloud was choking her, and she began holding her breath and clutching at her throat. Luna became convinced that she was shrunk to so small aside that she could stand still and not be seen!
Bettina and Avarel teamed up with well placed strikes to kill one of the plants. Evie started to suffocate where she was on the steps. Belinda managed to get her head above the quicksand and tried to get out again. Myfanwy felt herself melting away, so she grabbed hold and began to try and hold herself together. Avarel struck the remaining plant as Luna returned to normal size and started to melt, so she curled up into a ball to hold herself intact. Evie snapped out of it and decided that it was some sort of hallucinogenic spores.
Avarel and Bettina worked together to strike hard at the last plant and did significant damage between them. It hit Avarel, covering him in spores to no effect. Belinda snapped out of it and she stood up, throwing her returning dagger at the plant, but missed. Myfanwy stopped melting and began spearing a mass of spiders that were attacking her with a rapier. Luna found herself shrunk back to one tenth her normal size, as suddenly did Avarel.
Bettina now stood alone against the plant and sliced it from its leg stalks to the top, killing it. After a few minutes the cloud dispersed, and the harmless hallucinations ended. Myfanwy recognized the plants as basidironds, aggressive plants with hallucinogenic spores.
They searched the room after they came down and a found small box of incense and four tindertwigs near a tapestry. Behind the tapestry was a Yellow Sign and the whole made a small shrine. They found on of the blocks of incense was incense of meditation. They then went to the second door and entered the last room.
The slightly dusty room contained a pair of mostly empty bookshelves and a couple of comfortable chairs. There was a single ledger on the bookshelf. Evie opened the book, but Myfanwy noticed something odd and stopped her. She determined that the ledger was trapped with a sepia snake sigil. Myfanwy attempted to disarm the spell and found the correct combination of motions and alchemical items to disarm the spell trap.
Lists and calculations of shipments received and pay distributed for the previous month filled the pages of this leather-bound book. The ledger showed that the former servants were fired and new ones were purchased from someone named Weiralai. The other items of note showed that weeks before, before Count Lowls left for his expedition, a number of books were delivered to Iris Hill. The books in the shipping manifest included titles such as Argument Against Reality, Delusion: A Pact with Sanity, Esoteric Delves into the Waking Mind, and Mystical Sites of Eastern Casmaron.
Hey! I forgot the sixth level stats when they levelled up the session before last! So here they are:
Avarel Henrican
Male human (Varisian) paladin (oath against corruption, combat medic, ghost hunter, tempered champion) 6
LG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +0; Senses Perception +2
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Defense
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AC 18, touch 10, flat-footed 18 (+5 armor, +3 shield)
hp 54 (6d10+11)
Sanity 41, threshhold 2, edge 20
Fort +8, Ref +2, Will +9 (+2 trait bonus vs. emotion and fear effects); +4 sacred bonus against spells and effects from aberrations, +1 trait bonus vs. spell effects from evil creatures
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)
Melee mwk cold iron longsword +11/+6 (1d8+5/19-20)
Ranged longbow +6/+1 (1d8/×3)
Special Attacks channel positive energy 2/day (DC 15, 3d6), exorcise possession, ghostly smite, smite evil 2/day (+2 attack and AC, +6 damage)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th; concentration +8)
. . 1/day—light
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Statistics
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Str 16, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 14
Base Atk +6; CMB +9; CMD 19
Feats Combat Expertise, Combat Stamina, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Weapon Focus (longsword), Weapon Specialization (longsword)
Traits chosen of iomedae, disillusioned, driven by guilt, searing beacon
Flaws spell vulnerability
Skills Acrobatics -5 (-9 to jump), Handle Animal +6, Heal +11, Knowledge (arcana) +10, Knowledge (history) +10, Knowledge (nobility) +10, Knowledge (religion) +11, Sense Motive +6; Racial Modifiers +1 Knowledge (nobility), +1 Knowledge (religion)
Languages Common, Skald, Varisian
SQ aura of purity, bitter, careful healer, combat expertise, comprehensive education, divine bond, divine bond (weapon +1, 1/day), divine weapon specialization, dress wounds, hero points, lay on hands 5/day (3d6), mercy (shaken), swift healer, weapon focus, weapon specialization
Combat Gear potion of bull's strength, antitoxin (3); Other Gear scale mail, +1 heavy wooden shield, arrows (20), longbow, mwk cold iron longsword, lesser talisman of warrior's courage, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, hip flask, holy text (The Acts of Iomedae), mess kit, silk rope (50 ft.), soap, trail rations (5), wooden holy symbol of Iomedae, 22 gp, 9 sp
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Special Abilities
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Aura of Purity +4/+1 (10' radius) (Su) Gain a bonus on saves vs. spells/effects from aberrations, allies in range gain lesser bonus.
Bitter Heal 1 less point when receiving healing from an ally’s class feature, spell, or sla.
Careful Healer (6 HP/day) (Ex) No AoO when stabilize/treat poison & long term care heals +0 (divide among healed).
Comprehensive Education All knowledge skills are class skills, +1 racial bonus for knowledge skils from classes.
Divine Bond (Su) Expend a lay on hands usage to activate your divine bond
Divine Bond (Weapon +1, 6 mins, 1/day) (Sp) Weapon shines with light and gains enhancement bonuses or chosen properties.
Divine Weapon Specialization (Ex) Gain increased weapon damage with deity's favored weapon, as Sacred Weapon.
Dress Wounds (1/day) (Su) Can treat deadly wounds as full rd action on an ally, but Hp only last 5 min.
Exorcise Possession (Su) Touched creature may re-roll saves vs. possession
Ghostly Smite (Su) Smite Evil is ghost touch instead of bypassing DRs
Lay on Hands (3d6 hit points, 5/day) (Su) As a standard action (swift on self), touch channels positive energy and applies mercies.
Mercy (Shaken) (Su) When you use your lay on hands ability, it also removes the shaken condition.
Paladin Channel Positive Energy 3d6 (2/day, DC 15) (Su) Positive energy heals the living and harms the undead; negative has the reverse effect.
Smite Evil (2/day) (Su) +2 to hit, +6 to damage, +2 deflection bonus to AC when used.
Swift Healer (Ex) Can use Heal to provide first aid or treat poison as a swift action.
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Belinda Purcel
Female human (Ulfen) unchained rogue (charlatan) 6
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +11
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Defense
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AC 19, touch 13, flat-footed 16 (+5 armor, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 natural)
hp 28 (6d8)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +5, Ref +9, Will +6; +1 trait bonus vs. aberrations
Defensive Abilities evasion, uncanny dodge
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger +6 (1d4/19-20) or
. . rapier +7 (1d6+2/18-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack (unchained) +3d6
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +4; CMB +4; CMD 17
Feats Dodge, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (rapier)
Traits foe of the strange, resilient, worldly
Skills Acrobatics +10, Appraise +11, Bluff +12, Climb +8, Diplomacy +12, Disable Device +10, Disguise +12, Escape Artist +10, Intimidate +12, Knowledge (local) +11, Perception +11, Sense Motive +11, Sleight of Hand +10, Stealth +15
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald, Varisian
SQ debilitating injury: bewildered, debilitating injury: disoriented, debilitating injury: hampered, hero points, natural born liar, rogue talents (fast stealth, pressure points, rumormonger, weapon training)
Other Gear +1 chain shirt, dagger (2), rapier, amulet of natural armor +1, bag of holding i, cloak of elvenkind, backpack, belt pouch, grappling hook, manacles, mirror, signet ring, silk rope (50 ft.), thieves' tools, 177 gp
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Special Abilities
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Debilitating Injury: Bewildered -2/-4 (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage takes AC pen (more vs. striker) for 1 rd.
Debilitating Injury: Disoriented -2/-4 (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage takes attack pen (more vs. striker) for 1 rd.
Debilitating Injury: Hampered (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage has speed halved (and can't 5 ft step) for 1 rd.
Fast Stealth (Ex) Move at full speed while using the Stealth skill at no penalty.
Natural Born Liar (Ex) Creatures deceived by Bluff check take a -2 penalty vs. your Bluff checks for 24 hours.
Pressure Points (Su) Sneak attack also deals 1 Str or Dex damage.
Rumormonger (3/week) (Ex) Use a bluff check to start a rumor in small town or larger settlement over a week.
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Bettina Purcel
Female human (Ulfen) unchained rogue (false medium) 6
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +11
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Defense
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AC 19, touch 13, flat-footed 16 (+5 armor, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 natural)
hp 45 (6d8)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +5, Ref +9, Will +6
Defensive Abilities evasion, uncanny dodge
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger +6 (1d4/19-20) or
. . rapier +6 (1d6/18-20) or
. . red destiny +8 (1d6+4/19-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack (unchained) +3d6
Rogue (Unchained) Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th; concentration +9)
. . At will—minor magic
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +4; CMB +4; CMD 17
Feats Dodge, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Weapon Finesse
Traits formerly mind-swapped, resilient, worldly
Skills Acrobatics +10, Appraise +11, Bluff +12 (+15 in dim light or darkness, +14 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Climb +8, Diplomacy +12, Disable Device +10, Disguise +12 (+15 in dim light or darkness), Escape Artist +10 (+12 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Intimidate +12, Knowledge (local) +11, Perception +11, Sense Motive +11, Sleight of Hand +10 (+13 in dim light or darkness, +12 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Stealth +10
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald, Varisian
SQ debilitating injury: bewildered, debilitating injury: disoriented, debilitating injury: hampered, dim the lights +3, false sensitivity, haunting presence (15 feet), hero points, rogue talents (bleeding attack +3, minor magic)
Other Gear +1 chain shirt, red destiny, dagger (2), rapier, amulet of natural armor +1, belt pouch, fraudulent medium's kit, manacles, mirror, signet ring, thieves' tools
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Special Abilities
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Bleeding Attack +3 (Ex) Sneak attacks also deal 3 bleed damage/round.
Debilitating Injury: Bewildered -2/-4 (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage takes AC pen (more vs. striker) for 1 rd.
Debilitating Injury: Disoriented -2/-4 (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage takes attack pen (more vs. striker) for 1 rd.
Debilitating Injury: Hampered (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage has speed halved (and can't 5 ft step) for 1 rd.
Dim the Lights +3 In dim light or darkness, gain a bonus to bluff, disguise and sleight of hand
False Sensitivity (Ex) Fake the use of occult skill unlocks
Haunting Presence (15 feet) (Ex) In dim light or darkness, emulate dancing lights, ghost sound, silent image, or ventriloquism with Bluff
Minor Magic (Ghost Sound, At will) (Sp) Gain the chosen cantrip as a spell-like ability.
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Evelyn Kazallin
Female changeling mesmerist (spirit walker) 6
NG Medium humanoid (changeling)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +10
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Defense
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AC 16, touch 11, flat-footed 16 (+4 armor, +1 deflection, +1 natural)
hp 32 (6d8-2)
Sanity 49, threshhold 5, edge 24
Fort +2, Ref +6, Will +13; +2 trait bonus against mind-affecting effects, +2 bonus vs. fear effects, +1 trait bonus vs. spell effects from evil creatures
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 short sword +0 (1d6/19-20) or
. . whip +3 (1d3-1 nonlethal)
Ranged light crossbow +4 (1d8/19-20)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (15 ft. with whip)
Special Attacks bold stare (psychic inception[OA]), hypnotic stare (-2), manifold tricks (2 tricks), mesmerist tricks 9/day (false flanker, gift of will, mesmeric mirror, psychosomatic surge), painful stare (+3 or +2d6+3)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th; concentration +12)
. . 1/day—dancing lights, detect magic, disguise self, pass without trace
Mesmerist (Spirit Walker) Spells Known (CL 6th; concentration +12)
. . 2nd (5/day)—babble[OA] (DC 20), command undead (DC 18), hold person (DC 20), silence (DC 18)
. . 1st (6/day)—charm person (DC 19), hide from undead (DC 17), hideous laughter (DC 19), sleep (DC 19)
. . 0 (at will)—daze (DC 18), detect magic, detect psychic significance, message, prestidigitation, unwitting ally (DC 18)
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Statistics
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Str 8, Dex 10, Con 8, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 23
Base Atk +4; CMB +3; CMD 14
Feats Command Undead, Glimpse Beyond, Greater Spell Focus (enchantment), Intimidating Glance[OA], Spell Focus (enchantment)
Traits creative manipulator, deathtouched, driven by guilt, mediator
Flaws disinherited
Skills Bluff +15 (+13 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check, +17 vs. creatures sexually attracted to her), Diplomacy +16 (+14 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check, +18 to use the hypnotism skill unlock), Disguise +6 (+4 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Handle Animal +7 (+5 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Intimidate +15 (+13 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8 (+10 to identify vulnerabilities and powers of aberrations, this check can be made untrained), Knowledge (religion) +8 (+10 to identify vulnerabilities and powers of undead, this check can be made untrained), Linguistics +8, Perception +10, Perform (act) +15 (+13 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Perform (stage magic) +15 (+13 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Sense Motive +10, Sleight of Hand +7, Use Magic Device +15 (+13 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check); Racial Modifiers +2 Bluff vs. creatures sexually attracted to her
Languages Aklo, Common, Elven, Kelish, Necril, Skald, Varisian
SQ automatic writing (linguistics), continued animation, hero points, hypnotism (diplomacy), prognostication (sense motive), read aura (perception), undead inception, vain
Combat Gear wand of bless (CL 2nd, 8 charges), wand of command (CL 2nd, 38 charges), wand of scorching ray (13 charges); Other Gear mithral chain shirt, +1 short sword, light crossbow, whip, amulet of natural armor +1, cloak of resistance +1, headband of alluring charisma +2, ring of protection +1, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, entertainer's outfit, flint and steel, hypnotist's locket[OA], ink, inkpen, stationery, trail rations (5), waterskin, 9 gp, 9 sp
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Special Abilities
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Automatic Writing (Linguistics, 1/week) You can produce mysterious writing that pertains to the immediate future.
Continued Animation (humanoids, 12 hp, 3 rounds, 2/day, DC 19) (Su) You can animate a fallen target of your hypnotic stare.
Glimpse Beyond +2 to save vs. fear, bonuses to ID certain monsters.
Greater Spell Focus (Enchantment) +1 to the Save DC of spells from one school.
Hypnotic Stare (-2, 30 feet) (Su) As swift action, target creature takes penalty on Will saves.
Hypnotism (Diplomacy, 1/day) Use power of suggestion to alter subject's mind or recover memories.
Intimidating Glance You can attempt to demoralize the target of your hypnotic stare as a swift action.
Manifold Tricks (Su) You can have mulitple tricks implanted at once.
Mesmerist Tricks (160 feet, 9/day) (Su) Implant hypnotic bond with allies. granting edge vs. foes.
Painful Stare (+3 or +2d6+3, 1/round) (Su) As a free action, hyp. stare target takes extra precision dam from a hit.
Prognostication (Sense Motive, 1/day) You are skilled in means of folk divination.
Psychic Inception (Su) Hypnotic stare can affect creatures that are mindless or immune to mind-affecting effects.
Read Aura (Perception, 1/day) Read the psychic impressions left on objects or in places.
Undead Inception (Su) You can affect undead with your hypnotic stare.
Vain -2 to Cha checks for 24h after failing an opposed Cha check
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Luna
Female dreamlands cat unchained rogue (prowler) 3/sorcerer 3
N Tiny magical beast
Init +4; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +10
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Defense
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AC 18, touch 16, flat-footed 14 (+2 armor, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 size)
hp 41 (6 HD; 3d6+3d8+12)
Sanity 45, threshhold 4, edge 22
Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +6; +2 trait bonus vs. fear and emotion effects
Defensive Abilities evasion, land on your feat, nine lives, slinking leap +1
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +9 (1d3-2), 2 claws +9 (1d2+4)
Space 2½ ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks prowling strike, sneak attack (unchained) +3d6
Bloodline Spell-Like Abilities (CL 3rd; concentration +7)
. . 7/day—lullaby
Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 3rd; concentration +7)
. . 1st (6/day)—burning hands (DC 15), magic missile, shocking grasp, sleep (DC 15)
. . 0 (at will)—acid splash, disrupt undead, mage hand, open/close (DC 14), prestidigitation
. . Bloodline Dreamspun
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Statistics
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Str 4, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 18
Base Atk +3; CMB +4; CMD 12 (16 vs. trip)
Feats Accomplished Sneak Attacker, Black Cat, Dodge, Eschew Materials, Skill Focus (Bluff), Weapon Finesse
Traits enduring stoicism, orphaned, solitary, strength foretold
Flaws spell vulnerability
Skills Acrobatics +11 (+12 to avoid provoking AoO), Bluff +16 (+17 to feint and create distraction to hide), Climb +11, Diplomacy +4 (+2 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Disable Device +9, Escape Artist +15, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (arcana) +8, Perception +10, Perform (sing) +13, Sense Motive +2 (+0 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Sleight of Hand +12, Spellcraft +5, Stealth +22, Survival +7, Swim +7; Racial Modifiers +4 Climb, +4 Escape Artist, +4 Stealth
Languages Cat, Common, Varisian
SQ dreamlands travel, hero points, moon jump, pride, rogue talent (fast stealth)
Other Gear amulet of mighty fists +1, bracers of armor +2, brass key necklace
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Special Abilities
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Black Cat (1/day) Once per day, make enemy reroll an attack vs. you with a -4 penalty.
Dreamlands Travel (Su) Sense nearby Gates of Slumber within 1 mile radius at will.
Dreamspun When you cast a spell at a single creature, gain +1/2 spell level AC and saves vs. that creature for 1r.
Fast Stealth (Ex) Move at full speed while using the Stealth skill at no penalty.
Land on Your Feat (Ex) Treat any fall as if it were 20 ft. less than the actual distance of the fall.
Lullaby (7/day) (Sp) As lullaby but no concentration and penalty is -4.
Moon Jump (2/night) (Su) While in the Dreamlands jump to the moon up to twice a night.
Nine Lives (9 lives) (Su) Self resurrect up to eight times.
Pride -2 to diplomacy and sense motive vs. those who threaten, accuse, or challenge you, until they apologize
Prowling Strike (Ex) Enter an exit adjacent creature's spae without provoking an AoO.
Slinking Leap +1 (1/round) (Ex) If you would provoke an AoO and using Acrobatics or prowling strike, make Bluff check to create distraction to hide as a free action.
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Myfanwy Potter
Female half-elf investigator (empiricist) 6
LN Medium humanoid (elf, human)
Init +5; Senses low-light vision; Perception +18
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Defense
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AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 11 (+1 deflection, +3 Dex)
hp 43 (6d8+6)
Sanity 40, threshhold 4, edge 20
Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +7 (+2 save vs. illusion and disbelievable effects); +2 racial bonus vs. illusion spells and effects
Defensive Abilities trap sense +2; Resist unfailing logic
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee mwk rapier +9 (1d6+3/18-20)
Special Attacks studied combat (+3, 4 rounds), studied strike +2d6
Investigator (Empiricist) Extracts Prepared (CL 6th; concentration +10)
. . 2nd—cat's grace, cure moderate wounds, levitate, lesser restoration
. . 1st—comprehend languages, cure light wounds, expeditious retreat, heightened awareness, shield
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Statistics
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Str 8, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 8
Base Atk +4; CMB +3; CMD 17
Feats Fencing Grace[UI], Open Minded, Skill Focus (Perception), Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (rapier)
Traits elven reflexes, Lepidstadt scar (Ustalav), methodical mind (arcana, history, planes; arcana, history, planes, planes), wisdom in the flesh
Flaws nearsighted
Skills Acrobatics +7, Appraise +2, Bluff -3, Climb -3, Craft (alchemy) +13 (+19 to create alchemical items), Craft (sketching) +13, Diplomacy +3 (+8 to gather information (You can use your Intelligence Modifier instead of Charisma)), Disable Device +13, Disguise -3, Escape Artist +1, Fly +1, Heal +6, Intimidate -3, Knowledge (arcana) +14, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +10, Knowledge (engineering) +8, Knowledge (geography) +11, Knowledge (history) +14, Knowledge (local) +10, Knowledge (nature) +12, Knowledge (nobility) +8, Knowledge (planes) +14, Knowledge (religion) +11, Linguistics +10, Perception +18, Ride +1, Sense Motive +8, Spellcraft +10, Stealth +7, Survival +0, Swim +10, Use Magic Device +9; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Aklo, Common, Draconic, Elven, Jistka, Skald, Varisian, Vudrani
SQ alchemy (alchemy crafting +6), arcane training, ceaseless observation, dreamer, elf blood, hero points, inspiration (7/day), investigator talents (expanded inspiration, quick study), keen recollection, meticulous, trapfinding +3
Other Gear chain shirt, mwk rapier, greater talisman of beneficial winds, handy haversack, ring of protection +1, alchemy crafting kit[APG], backpack, chalk, charcoal (5), eyeglasses, ink, inkpen (3), investigator starting formula book, journal, scholar's outfit, silver tiger pendant (worth 5 gp), 4 gp, 5 sp, 9 cp
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Special Abilities
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Arcane Training +1 CL for spell trigger/completion items for favored class, or use them as if 1st level.
Ceaseless Observation (Ex) Use INT instead of CHA for gather information (+5)
Dreamer +2 to save vs. illusion. In lucid dreams treat Cha as 2 higher.
Expanded Inspiration (Ex) Free Inspiration on Diplomacy, Heal, Perception, Profession, Sense Motive (if trained).
Fencing Grace Use Dexterity on rapier damage rolls
Keen Recollection At 3rd level, an investigator can attempt all Knowledge skill checks untrained.
Meticulous -2 on all untrained skill checks
Open Minded Gain 1 skill point per level.
Unfailing Logic +2 (Ex) +2 save vs. illusion and disbelievable effects
Session the Fourteenth:
The party healed up and headed over to the kitchen outbuilding. At the door, Myfanwy and Luna listened and heard several kuru cannibals inside. Luna identified six different voices, all spread throughout the room. Luna opened the door with open/close, surprising the six kurus. Long tables covered with various utensils and food lined two of the walls of the large kitchen. A fire crackled in the massive stone hearth. Horse meat stank from a table on the south wall.
Myfanwy, Avarel, and Bettina moved into the room o get flanks on the cannibals while Belinda threw her dagger into the side of one of them. Evie cast babble on one of the kuru, causing Belinda, Luna, and Myfanwy to become fascinated, but not the remaining kuru. Evie said, “My bad.”
The kuru screamed and attacked, breaking the fascination on Myfanwy. The cannibals bit and struck Bettina and Avarel. Avarel struck well but heard movement upstairs: more kurus were on the way. Bettina moved into a flank and ran her blade through his ribcage, dealing a nasty wound. Evie shook Belinda out of her fascination, then the rogue moved into the room to flank with Avarel.
The kurus bit and struck, bleeding Bettina, Belinda, and Avarel. Avarel swung his sword in a massive arc and cleaved one of the cannibal’s head from his shoulders. Evie shook the cat out of her reverie, then Luna charged in to strike with the Claw. Myfanwy slashed her rapier across the back of a cannibal’s legs causing him to buckle, then ran her rapier through his eye and skull, killing him.
Avarel killed another two then moved to the stairs to await the coming reinforcements. Evie came in and casted bless from her wand. Luna ran to another target and killed another with her favorite tactic of slashing the femoral artery as Belinda ran him through with her rapier. The kurus came down the stairs, but the first two became fascinated with the babbler and stopped. This allowed Avarel some free shots on the man on the stairs as Evie began to attack the babbler.
Luna crept onto the stairs and remained hidden by any kurus coming down the stairs. After Avarel killed the first, the second charged into Avarel’s shield; the paladin wouldn’t budge and brought his sword down on the kuru as Luna slashed his leg. The stairwell remained blocked. Avarel killed one, and the second failed to push him back. Evie hit one kuru up the stairs with a scorching ray from her wand.
Luna then killed the kuru with two vicious claws and a bite. The kurus came down and the next was killed by Avarel and Luna. The next one tried to push back Avarel, but again failed. Bettina threw her dagger as Avarel killed another stair cannibal. The next kuru took another strike from the paladin and yet managed to push Avarel back into the kitchen. Myfanwy then struck with a series of well-placed blows and proceeded to kill the bull rushing cannibal. The last kuru ran into the room and bit Avarel. Luna ran in to flank as Bettina moved in and cut him severely with Red Destiny. The babbler stopped babbling and Avarel killed him. They then finished off the last cannibal with a series of coordinated strikes.
They healed up and then searched the kitchen, finding a door to the pantry and a trapdoor. After checking out the pantry, they went up the stairs. They came to an open door leading to a large room that looked like a bunkhouse for Iris Hill’s servants. Eight beds lined the walls, a few chairs sat in a semicircle around the large fireplace, and a bookshelf stood along the eastern wall between two windows. A few trunks sat in the corners of the room. The shelf against the southeastern wall was stacked with a dozen staff uniforms, as well as six human heads.
Finding nothing else of interest, they proceeded down to the trapdoor. The ladder descended into a bitterly cold room with the walls clad with raw wooden boards. Many blocks of hazy ice and wooden crates of various sizes were stacked near the walls. Four kurus were ransacking the place and rushed to attack as the party descended. Luna cast sleep into the room and put one to sleep. Avarel and Luna descended into the room and Luna was able to slash at one with her claws.
Belinda threw her dagger from the ladder and managed to hit in the neck, killing him. Bettina climbed down the ladder and tried to flip into the room, but as she swung out she forgot to let go, wrenched her arm and fell between the two remaining cannibals, taking a blow to the head as she fell on her butt. Evie cast sleep on another kuru and knocked him out. Myfanwy then performed the controlled fall that Bettina colossally failed at perfectly but fumbled her rapier strike. Luna then killed the last standing kuru and then Luna and Avarel killed the sleeping cannibals.
They healed up and then investigated the door. It was locked and barred from the other side. Myfanwy tried to unlock the door, but she and Luna managed to utterly bung up the keyhole with a broken lock. Avarel then resorted to using a battle-axe to bash through the solid door. After two minutes of hacking and a hole big enough to see through was made, revealing a hallway beyond heading south towards the main house.
Luna used a scroll of summon monster III beyond the door to summon a leopard. This set off a glyph of warding which injured the leopard and Avarel, but Luna was able to dodge. The leopard lifted the metal bar off with her nose, but the door remained locked. Luna squeezed through the hole but was unable to clear the keyhole. Luna and the leopard greeted each other in the appropriate cat manner, gave a “Bast walk with you” in Cat before the leopard vanished. Avarel sighed and went back to hacking at the door.
Luna slunk up the hall while this was happening to reconnoitre. She came to an underground storage room furnished with two large wooden shelving units on the west and east walls, which held many small chests, caskets, and several loose objects. In the middle of the floor lay a wooden coffin. A black-clad figure with a pale, puffy face from which its yellow-irised eyes glared with equal parts intensity and insanity stood guard, watching down the hall from which the sound of chopping came.
Luna snuck back and reported what she had seen. Avarel kept hacking until they finally broke through. They moved quickly down the hall and Bettina charged but failed to penetrate its robes. It said, “Have you found the Yellow Sign?” then touched her, sucking life energy from Bettina. Myfanwy went in to help with a flank but felt the effects of the creature’s aura of gloom and repulsiveness. It overcame her somewhat and she was unable to damage the monster with her rapier, or flank with Bettina.
Avarel charged in and hit the creature with his smite evil ability, slicing a massive wound across its torso with a blast of holy power. Evie cast bless as Belinda entered the room and hit with her thrown dagger but did little more than a small cut. Bettina got hit with another draining touch as it slammed Avarel, badly bruising him. Avarel moved into a flank with Bettina and Bettina responded to the touches with an incredibly weak glancing blow to the creature. Avarel managed to wound it significantly to its arm. Luna cast disrupt undead but failed to hit with the spell.
Evie moved into visual range but was unable to affect it. Belinda hit with her dagger but did very little. Bettina got hit with another drain as Avarel got slammed again. Bettina and Avarel then shredded the undead monstrosity between them with two very powerful sword strikes. They healed up as well as they could, they retreated out of the kitchen and went through the gatehouse. They found a cultist and two kuru cannibals, which they took down with relative ease and speed. They then returned to Winter to get help with Bettina’s life energy problem.
Sadly, there wasn’t anything she could do but bolster her and pray. Fortunately, Bettina was able to bolster herself with experiences not quite her own and was able to restore herself with rest. In the rainy mucky day of Rova 9th they proceeded back to Iris Hill, now without guards in the gatehouse. They went to the bathhouse first and found it empty except for some soul soap, which they took.
They went back down through the ice box and returned to where the undead servant of the Yellow Sign had been. They went east down a corridor to a round room. A low, circular stone wall marked the lip of a well in the center of the room. A bucket sat beside a block and tackle attached to a wooden frame near the wall. Luna used mage hand and lowered herself down the well in the bucket to investigate.
The shaft went down fifty feet to water with aqueduct tunnels. Just beneath the lip of the well was a fissure in the stonework that was two feet wide covered in rat droppings. Luna cast prestidigitation to clean up the mess and drew out a mass of dire rats. Luna insisted on being pulled up as they were all overwhelmed by a swarm of dire rats. In the confined space Myfanwy was unable to get a clean strike. The fifteen rats attacked, biting Myfanwy, Evie, and Luna. With each strike, they managed to kill a rat, with Evie using sleep to cut down on rat bites.
After the last rat fell, Bettina heard something coming out of the rat hole. Myfanwy fled the room as squeaks and chittering cries rose from a tangle of diseased rats with their tails knotted together came out of the well and attacked. Myfanwy called out it was a rat king and that it was a disease carrier. The rat king attacked Luna, biting her multiple times with filthy teeth. Belinda tried to feint but failed to fool the creature as Evie missed with a scorching ray.
Luna managed to deke the rat king out and get a devastating strike in as Bettina successfully feinted as well. Myfanwy moved in closer as the rat king bit Avarel and Belinda. Then Luna finished it off with another claw attack. Luna went down and cleaned the rat cave then retrieved a pouch with money and a fancy diamond ring. They contemplated following the aqueducts but decided to continue through the rest of the cellars.
The walls of the subterranean hallway they came to next were clad with yellow tapestries. On the east wall was a tapestry that had been defaced with a faithful representation of the Yellow Sign. A lantern sat on the floor of the room between the two hallways, shining light into other areas of the basement. There were double doors to the west, they headed down the southern hallway and opened a door leading to a dank, subterranean cell empty aside from two heavy wooden pallets with manacles to restrain prisoners.
They went through the door at the end of the hall and entered a wine cellar, its shelves neatly stacked with glass and clay bottles, tiny kegs, decanters, mugs, and crystal goblets. Another locked door was on the eastern wall. Myfanwy opened the door and it led to stairs which ended in a ladder and dumb waiter leading up. They decided to go back to the double doors and see what was on the other side.
Luna and Myfanwy heard movement inside and warned the others to be prepared. They opened the doors onto an elongated subterranean hall decorated throughout with finely wrought Pharasmin symbols, which culminated in a seven-foot-high bas-relief of the goddess’s face on the south wall. Against the other walls, whose surfaces were riddled with burial recesses, sat seven sarcophagi, four sealed and three uncovered. A human corpse dressed in the outfit of a royal accuser was laid out on top of one of the sealed sarcophagi. A figure shrouded in tattered leather robes, a strange humanoid which looked more alien and horrific the more they studied its twitching visage was perched over the accuser’s body with a bizarre device attached to the corpse.
The creature stood up from the accuser’s body and addresses the party. “You have made a grave mistake returning here. Lowls should have finished the job of sacrificing you instead of sending you to that... doctor. You won’t interfere with Melisenn’s work any longer.” After concluding her short speech, she attacked. Myfanwy recognized her as a denizen of Leng, from the Dreamlands. They assumed this was the Weiralai mentioned in the ledger. Both Evelyn and Myfanwy found her strangely familiar, though they had no recollection of her.
Weiralai struck with her claws, tearing a gaping wound out of Avarel’s shoulder. Luna ran in and ripped out Weiralai’s equivalent of the Achilles tendon as Avarel smote her with holy power. Belinda moved in and tried to run her through a kidney but gave a minor flesh wound. Bettina moved in through an acrobatic flip but failed to strike through the heart as she intended. Weiralai’s mouth opened and tentacle-like tongues with teeth slashed at Avarel, though was unable to connect.
Luna bit Weiralai taking a small piece which she promptly hocked up. Avarel did a second smite evil on the denizen of Leng, rending her with holy power. Bettina and Belinda managed to get some hits in but failed to find vital organs. Evie was baffled by Weiralai’s spell resistance and the denizen spoke in cat, denigrating the defenders of dreams and Bast, their goddess. She then bit Luna, draining some of her dexterity. Weiralai feinted against Avarel and nearly tore his shield arm off, but still he persevered. Luna responded with a vicious slash at where the attack would normally be just a scratch and killed the creature. Weiralai vanished and her robes fell to the floor.
They decided to raid the tomb a little for “back payment”, which Avarel consented to if no desecration of the corpses was done. The dead aristocrats still in the sarcophagi were buried with jewels and other precious trappings (such as rings, necklaces, circlets, scepters, and so on) which they took. The sealed burial recess of Fassimar Lowls, a Mendevian crusader contained a magic longsword that shed pale purple light equivalent to a light spell. In addition to these valuables, the device attached to the body of Accuser Omari was a rare device called confabulation plates.
Session the Fifteenth (part one):
The party decided to use Luna to reconnoitre up the ladder with a dumbwaiter to see what was waiting for them in the manor house. She had difficulty climbing the shaft, so she meowed to be pulleyed up. Belinda climbed the ladder to the trapdoor but was unable to open it due to the weight on top of it. With that, a paw emerged from the dumbwaiter and indicated that she should be lifted. So they pulleyed her up to the manor house. Luna the carefully peeked into the room.
The dumbwaiter she was in was in the wall and the trapdoor appeared to be under a large thick rug. The walls of the large room were lined with ceiling-high bookshelves laden with bound tomes, parchment scrolls, and stacks of paper. The shelves were stuffed full and sagged under the weight of their contents. A dozen amber-colored crystal lamps were fixed to the walls, and three more lamps stood on two central tables and a desk. Stairs in the western corner of the room led up to the second floor.
In the room was a horrible sight: a disembodied female torso flapping through the air on bat-like wings, her fanged face a hateful mask. Viscera hung below the torso, and it glared around the room, trying to locate what ever opened the door from the dumbwaiter. Luna faked the undead monster out by making it look like a wind gust or some other action caused the door to open, using mage hand. The creature shut the door, and Luna sighed in relief. She was brought back down, and she described it to the others.
Myfanwy recognized it as a manananggal, a creature that posed as human during the day, and then tore out of their lower body at night to drink the blood of the living. As manananggals detested the smell of garlic, cloves, and anise, they decided to go back to the kitchen and check the pantry. As they passed through the hallways, they searched the area around the undead keeper of the yellow sign and found a uniform and seal marked with the Thrushmoor seal. The Purcell sisters recognized the uniform as that of a magistrate; Magistrate Padgett obviously never left town.
In the pantry they found all the herbs they wanted and sprinkled them on themselves and carried rings of garlic. They then decided to enter the manor house through one of the main entrances. They decide to go to the doors on the north as they were more likely to be servant’s entrances. Luna listened and stated that there were six individuals within. Luna then used open/close to open the doors. The room was furnished with a big table, eight chairs, and a glass-paned cupboard. The room smelled of smoke from the fireplace, and a few dirty dishes, an emptied wine bottle, and used cutlery testified to a recent meal consumed at the table. Six cultists sat lounging around the table and stood up with a start when the party entered.
Evie cast silence into the room in the hopes of negating any spellcasters. Myfanwy and Belinda moved in to attack before the cultists had a chance to attack. As the cultists moved in, Avarel got a good strike in on one and Belinda, Bettina, and Luna severely injured a second one. Once in position though, they got in some painful rapier strikes on Avarel. Avarel responded by slicing into one of his attackers’ skulls, killing him.
Luna killed another with surgical claw strikes as Evelyn missed with a searing light spell from her wand. Evie took a terrible wound through her shoulder from one of the cultists’ rapiers. Avarel cleaved one in twain while Luna moved into a flank with Belinda. Evie then backed up and caused the one who hurt her to fall laughing from a hideous laughter spell. Bettina made a clumsy move around to get to the laugher as Belinda managed to kill another one.
Bettina killed the laughing cultist as the last cultist fired off a burst of negative energy, harming the entire party lightly. Luna killed him with two perfect claw strikes. They looted the bodies and moved on into the dining room. Luna checked out the stairs and found they creaked even when she went up them. They decided to check out the ground floor first. Luna listened at the door, and she though she heard something before it all went quiet. Myfanwy listened, but heard nothing. They went through the door and down a short hall into the main entry hall of the manor house.
The long hall, clad with fine wood paneling, looked like an oversized curio cabinet, with hundreds of items and art objects on display on small tables, in vitrines, and on benches. Dozens of paintings and tapestries of various sizes were hung from the walls and muffled the echoes that would normally be present in a marble-floored chamber. A double door led outside, while another door went deeper into the manor. As they moved into the room, a creature appeared out of nowhere next to Avarel. The gaunt, long-limbed quadruped had huge, soulless eyes and a toothy maw. The lean creature moved with a predatory grace and bit Avarel in the sword arm, drawing blood.
Avarel threw off the beast and struck its shoulder with his sword. The creature looked at Luna its gaze slashed open a wound on the cat’s side as it attacked Avarel with claws and bites, severely wounding him. Myfanwy identified the creature as a Hound of Tindalos, an otherworldly predator from beyond the bounds of known reality, usually appearing only when summoned by reckless spellcasters.
They closed in and attacked from all sides, as the creature continued to try and tear them all apart. As the party began to strike hard and the rogues hit its vitals, the creature seemed to move left but shrunk out of sight, vanishing. The party investigated the items in the room after making sure everyone was all right. A portrait in a freestanding picture frame on a small tea table with a single chair featured Lowls as a child (“Haserton at age 5, 4681 AR,” was written on the back of the frame) posing near a kitten at the foot of a luminous window, seemingly terrified. Lowls seemed to be slightly ailurophobic, which made Luna somewhat proud.
Marble busts of scholars from the Sincomakti School of Sciences, including three effigies of academically renowned ancestors of Lowls (also buried in the crypt) sat on small plinths. The sculptures with the Lowls name on their bases had been smashed against the floor and damaged. Small-town perspectives of Thrushmoor and a half-dozen large paintings of the surrounding landscape hung here. The large pictures included a historic piece, in which the first settlers of Thrushmoor were shown living in two clusters of huts on low hills, hard at work to reclaim the surrounding land from the swamps. The Star Stelae had been depicted almost as an afterthought.
Statuettes of dragons, giants, and strange beasts littered the shelves. Among these was a poorly executed, 1-foot-tall, clay figurine of an elephant-legged, multimawed, tentacled aberration. None of the party had a clue as to what it depicted. Set on an ebony pedestal was a human skull that had been marked with elaborate carvings of geometric shapes and lines. Small, worked garnets were set in the teeth, and a thin line of silver ringed the eye sockets.
Porcelain and ceramic dishes, jugs, teapots, and vases, some of which were of excellent quality, were kept in a glass showcase. Worthless, bizarre, and sometimes grotesque souvenirs from across Ustalav and beyond were also displayed here: coffee cups made from uncapped monkey skulls; a stuffed three-eyed bat; multicolor-dyed freshwater sponges; a mummified ogre’s ear; and more. Bettina took one of the monkey skull coffee cups as it amused her. A battered shield hung on a wall, bearing the device of Mendev. According to a plaque fixed under it, the shield belonged to Fassimar Lowls, a cadet who died just beyond the northern border of Ustalav during the Second Mendevian Crusade.
A man dressed in a fine noble’s outfit appeared frozen in a shimmering field of amber. The subject was in suspended animation after falling victim to a sepia snake sigil effect, possibly from the trapped journal they had found. They used detect magic and determined that he would remain under this effect for another six days. The detect magic revealed some silvery metallic dust in a small vial that glowed. They determined it to be dust of appearance. The Purcell sisters concluded that the collection in the room would be worth 4,000 gp.
They decided to proceed, and assuming the library was just beyond the door, Evie cast hide from undead on the party and they went through the door to the library that Luna had seen earlier. Unfortunately, the manananggal saw through Evie’s illusion and moved to attack the party. Avarel attacked the vampiric monster with a smite evil, severely hurting the creature. The manananggal grabbed the paladin with its clawed hands and bit him on the shoulder.
Evie used command undead to force the manananggal to release Avarel. The rapiers, short sword, and claws of the Purcell sisters, Myfanwy, and Luna combined with Avarel’s punishing smites soon destroyed the hideous monstrosity, though not before seriously wounding Avarel.
Looking around the library they found several printed copies of both of Lowls’s personal, widely derided publications (A History of the History of Versex and The Stars Are Not Among Us: An Undeniable Refutation of the Works of the Doomsaying Pseudo-Scholar Dr. Henri Meirtmane) stacked in two crates near the fireplace. Among the more mundane works were several research books regarding dreams and how to manipulate them. These books discussed methods by which an individual could choose to appear in someone else’s dream; one even included an overview of the Dreamlands. Notes and marked pages indicated that Lowls was using dreams as a method of research, wherein he would project his consciousness into the Dreamlands to meet with people and creatures there.
On top of one of these crates was an envelope containing a letter signed by someone named Miacknian Mun, which apparently accompanied a delivery of alchemical goods. In the letter, evidently answering a question posed by Lowls, Mun confirmed that “It seems that the Mad Poet you met in your dream journey was right. The book you seek, the Necronomicon, is located in a special collection called the Mysterium in the Qadiran city of Katheer, though it is written in Necril. If you can find a way to retrieve it and bring it to me, I can certainly help you translate and research it. I look forward to seeing you again, my old friend.”
Session the Fifteenth (part two):
Just as they began to discuss what to do next, the assassin that had been plaguing them for some time appeared and took down Avarel with a single strike through the upper chest. She then stabbed Evie through her lower back, causing her to fall unconscious to the floor. Myfanwy attacked in anger using her skill to strike at the assassin’s vitals, weakening her greatly. Luna charged in and struck at her Achilles tendon. Belinda and Bettina moved into a flank but failed to land blows against the evasive killer.
The assassin struck Myfanwy with a poisoned blade, but the investigator was able to resist the effects of the poison. Luna then struck with claws and bites to tear out the femoral artery and kill the nuisance. It took some desperate acts to stop Avarel and Evie from bleeding out and dying, including a potion of cure moderate wounds. After looting the body of the assassin, they found healing materials and a mithral chain shirt. They sent Luna up the stairs and found another hall and door. After healing up, they decided to proceed up the stairs.
They opened the door and entered a hallway with several doors off it to both the left and right. The first door on the left was ajar. Luna peeked inside and saw a bedroom that looked like it once belonged to a child. Thick dust covered most of the furniture in the room, aside from a single wooden chair. Assuming it was haunted, they skipped it. The next door she heard nothing, but the second door on the left had people in it. The other doors were all quiet.
As they moved into the hall, rats swarmed into the hall from holes in the floorboards and attacked. Avarel pulled out his mace and began smashing rats. Luna cast burning ears on the swarm while Bettina and Belinda leaped up. She fried the swarm, but the sound brought the people who were in the room: more cultists. They got in position and did some damage out into the hall and they managed to hurt him, but he moved on as Avarel hit the second one to emerge, blocking the others from coming out. The two tried to take down Avarel with one getting a solid strike to Avarel’s thigh.
They managed to kill one, Evie dazed a second one, while Avarel finished off a third. Bettina flipped through the battel to create a flank in spectacular fashion as Luna moved in to attack with the claws. Bettina ran her rapier right through the cultist’s heart, killing him. They searched the room they had come from and found a nightstand with a pouch containing some money and a pearl of power. They decided to give it to Winter as they did the first one they found.
They then checked the last room on the left and found a simple, but well-appointed, bedroom in which a strong smell of vinegar hung in the air. A body was stretched out on one bed, and it appeared to a casual onlooker to be a decapitated corpse. A lower body was likewise laid out on the other bed. It looked as though the decapitated body head spine and internal organs has been pulled out. They surmised the lower torso and legs belonged to the manananggal they killed, and from that they realized that the headless corpse was the body of a penanggalen, which undoubtedly created the manananggal in the first place. They looted the place, including a composite longbow, five empty vials, a magic rapier, money, and a notebook.
They decided to retreat, see Winter, and rest. They encountered no opposition and told Winter about what had happened in their latest foray. She agreed to prepare appropriate healing magic for the next day. They slept through and in the early hours before dawn on Rova the 10th. Winter cast remove disease on Myfanwy, Evie, Belinda, and Bettina using a scroll. Avarel began to feel the effects of his diseases but was not heavily affected. Luna fell victim to the plague, but Winter used lesser restoration spells to get the cat back up to strength.
Session the Sixteenth:
They returned to the Manor and began investigating the upper floor. The child’s bedroom proved to have been only used by the assassin who slept in the chair, at least according to Luna’s investigations of the room. She then knocked a mug of water from a nightstand to the floor, smashing it.
They listened at the door across the hall from the dusty child’s bedroom but heard nothing. Luna opened the door on a room decorated in a pseudo-Qadiran style, with intricate patterns carved in the wood paneling. A sumptuous four-poster bed with a minaret-like canopy sat against the southeastern wall. The furniture included an ebony writing desk and a large, L-shaped armoire. They entered the room, Luna and Avarel leading the way.
Glitterdust filled the room covering the party and Myfanwy’s glasses, blinding her. Suddenly a pale face framed by glossy black hair appeared in the air, trailing viscera from the ragged stump of its neck like a grisly tail. The sudden horrific appearance of the penanggalen sent Avarel and Luna into fugue states, forgetting everything they had learned since waking on Briarstone island. Seeing a horrific monster caused them to attack the creature. Avarel struck with his smite evil, tearing wounds in her organs. Luna moved in but failed to hit the entrails with her claw. Belinda fell into a state of melancholy, seeing the whole venture at this point as hopeless and irrelevant.
Myfanwy removed her glasses so she could see…partially. Bettina moved in to attack the vampiric monster, slashing open a hanging lung. Belinda moved in but was unable to bring herself to attack with any enthusiasm. Evie placed the creature under her stare, but then missed with thewand of searing light as it vanished again. Avarel and Luna both swung and missed; wherever she was, the penanggalen had moved after going invisible.
Myfanwy threw the dust of appearance they had found, but she let go at the wrong time and it bounced off the wall and landed on the floor far from where she wanted to hit and managed to hit the penanggalen by accident. Luna cast magic missile into the monster as Evie used bless of a wand. The monster cast fear on Myfanwy, Avarel, and Luna, causing them to be shaken by the spell. Evie used her mind powers to supress the fear effect as Myfanwy moved in and struck with her rapier at the various organs.
Luna cast shocking grasp as the monster cast hideous laughter on Evie but failed to cause more than a chuckle. The party ganged up on the vampire, slashing and cutting as Luna attacked with her electrical claw. Evie hit the creature with a scorching ray as the penanggalen bit the paladin. Its entrails attempted to slam the cat, but the viscera caught up on themselves and unluckily tangled themselves up for a moment. Avarel then smote the penanggalen and cut it in two, destroying it.
Belinda lay down on the bed to rest and Luna hopped up and softened Belinda up with her claws before curling up on her. Belinda decided to not bother pushing the cat off as it having her fate be a pillow for a cat seemed appropriate. The rest of the party tended to Avarel and investigated the room. The armoire was rather disorganized and grimy, and contained an eclectic collection of expensive clothing. In a worn-out greatcoat, hanging from a peg near the door to the corridor, was a folded piece of parchment—a permit to visit an inmate of Briarstone Asylum named Ulver Zandalus, issued by Administrator Losandro. The reading of the note caused a flash of memory of accompanying Count Lowls through a dreamlike desert to meet a strange old man called the Mad Poet. This flash woke up the memories in Luna and Avarel.
On the writing desk lay a disorderly stack of handwritten notes, drafted by Lowls in the immediate aftermath of his dream journeys. The last note mentioned a Mad Poet, who told the count to look for a book called the Necronomicon. In the note, Lowls mentioned Avarel, Bettina, Belinda, Myfanwy, and Evie as his companions in this revelatory dream, and wrote that “the sacrifice of their minds” put them into “a fugue state, but they lived, unable to remember their lives or react to outside stimuli.” He also mentioned “that cursed cat” the Purcell sisters had apparently kept “despite direct orders to drown the beast” attacking him in the dream, even though he had not brought it with them. So, he “disposed of the creature appropriately, overcoming great fear”. Lowls concluded his last note saying that the party and the cat (which also fell into a fugue state of some sort) would be turned over to the warden of Briarstone Asylum “according to our agreement.”
Another ancient piece of parchment had scribbled notes on it, with Lowls complaining that the “madman who wrote this did so at the bequest of his cat”, calling it ridiculous. It showed a series of ink marks shaped like tiny claw marks and a series of pictographs of cats performing a ritual of some sort. Luna hopped off Belinda, took the ritual paper, hopped back on the bed, leaned up against Belinda and began reading the ritual.
The rest of the party went through a southern door and found a room lined with fine wood panels. The furniture included a desk sitting under a window opposite the door, a high-backed chair, and a couple of small bookcases packed tight with scrolls, volumes, and notebooks.
Myfanwy went in and began looking over the papers but discovered an explosive runes trap on some of the papers. A small locked trunk sat near the door to the room. Myfanwy unlocked it and found several books set aside by Lowls apparently for a specific purpose. They placed them in their haversack, along with a spellbook they found on the shelves and two scrolls of psychic surgery and a book of the loremaster.
Bettina, Belinda, and Luna came in and helped Myfanwy disarm the explosive runes so they could take Lowls’ notes as well. They went back into the main hallway and then went down to the end to try the last door on the second floor. They listened but heard nothing.
They opened the door and moved into the room. The room featured a large fireplace and a round table with stuffed, high-backed chairs around it. The walls were decorated with patterned wallpaper and small paintings of the surrounding landscape. Against the walls were three large mahogany sideboards with brass candle holders. The shutters of the windows were closed, and the room was lit by candles and by a shifting, soft light emanating from the surface of the table.
As Avarel and Luna got near the table, they heard an eerie tittering emanating from somewhere in the room. It made enough noise, that they had a very good idea where the invisible creature was in the room. Luna cast burning ears to damage it, whatever it was. Myfanwy and Avarel moved in to attack, but could not land a blow.
Invisible tendrils slashed at the attackers, drawing blood. The tendrils began draining their blood, making the invisible creature visible as it slowly became visible. A fanged maw in a floating mass of talon-tipped tentacles, all as red as freshly spilled blood. Bettina and Belinda moved in to attack as Evie kept her distance, using her wand of searing light. Evie then tried to daze it as Avarel hit it with a smite evil.
The creature was identified by Evie as a star vampire, a blood drinking abomination from outer space. It grabbed Avarel and bit him, holding him in place and draining a great deal of his blood. Myfanwy had more information on the monster and told them they needed to hit it hard with bleeding wounds. Bettina caused a bleeding wound on one side and the creature began to fade and draw back in pain. The party pressed its advantage and killed the aberration with a few solid strikes.
After healing up as much as they could, they headed up into the attic. The large attic area had a slanted ceiling supported by wooden trusses, beams, and rafters. The ceiling sloped down from the highest beams in the middle to the lowest on the perimeter, where several ugly, fibrous plants sprouted from clay pots, barely illuminated by a few dormer windows. The air smelled of dust, mold, and decay.
As the party ascended the stairs and entered the attic, a woman retreated to the northeastern end, pleading with them to stay away and not look at her. Luna sneaked up to get a good look, and discovered it was Nemira Lowls, Haserton Lowls IV’s mother and the being they believed to have been a ghost, very much alive. She was hideously deformed with tentacles and strange grey skin on the side of her face. The rest of the party kept their distance, and Evie attempted to speak with and calm her down.
Grief, anger, frustration, and utter insanity slowly emerged in her rambling speech. They were able to glean from their discussion that they had missed something: that there was a secret chamber that could be gotten to in the basement from “behind the face of Death.” They were unsure what she meant but were now determined to re-examine the basement of the manor for clues. They tried to approach her to see if they could help her, but she was erratic and lashed out at them.
She began casting spells so Evie cast silence on her, so Nemira was left with only her tentacle slams. Evie was outside the silence effect, so she cast hideous laughter on Nemira incapacitating her. The party then gathered round and struck the prone laughing woman with their weapons in utter silence until she stopped moving.
They proceeded to the basement and searched, eventually getting to the crypt and saw the massive face of Pharasma on the southern wall. They all realized that this was the entrance, and Luna proceeded to it and discovered it pivoted, revealing a short corridor leading to a spiral staircase going down into the depths.
They came to a corridor which to the north led to a circular, vaulted chamber. Standing in the center on a platform of natural bedrock, a black stone monolith like the two in Thrushmoor glowed with a pale, yellow light. Blood stained the floor surrounding the monument. They left the third Star Stelae alone and went to the southern chamber.
The large chamber resembled the courtyard of an ancient, subterranean palace, with columns supporting a 30-foot high cloister dome. In the middle of the floor, a tile mosaic of the Yellow Sign emitted a thin, yellow vapor that filled the room with a faint odor of chrysanthemums. The vapor rose to the concave dome of the vault, through which an image of the minarets, towers, and spires of a mysterious city silhouetted against a yellow sky could be seen. The image swayed softly with a slow alternation of light and darkness, to the sound of invisible pipes and strings. At the far end of the chamber, a marble throne sat within a semicircular apse. A floor-to ceiling band of gilded mosaics decorated the walls, depicting a fantastic urban landscape populated by figures in flowing robes and full-face masks.
Sitting on the throne was a beautiful woman with brown skin. To her right was a strange creature, seemingly half-insect/half-vulture. To her left was the hound of Tindalos they had encountered in the atrium. As Melisenn Kororo saw the party, she shouted at them at the top of her lungs, her voice echoing under the vault, that if they thought they were important, they were wrong. She was the Unspeakable One’s greatest servant and she would open the world to him. The King in Yellow was coming! She then directed the hound and the creature to attack.
The hound went invisible, and the bird/insect moved to attack the party. Avarel and Luna managed to kill the creature Myfanwy identified as a byakhee before it could do any damage. Belinda and Bettina rushed forward and were ambushed by the invisible hound of Tindalos. Melisenn tried to cast hold person on Avarel but failed, and he charged her as Evie cast silence on Avarel’s shield. Melisenn had cast fly on herself and flew out of harm’s way. Avarel dropped his shield and sword and pulled out his composite short bow.
As Bettina and Belinda fought the hound along side Luna, Belinda took some nasty hits and fell unconscious and dying to the floor. Myfanwy moved in and she, Luna, and Bettina managed to kill the hound. Melisenn kept trying to use spells to stop Avarel as Avarel fired arrow after arrow into the evil cleric. Evie tried hideous laughter on Melisenn, but she had cast spell immunity against hideous laughter.
Evie then cast hold person on Melisenn, but she remained frozen in the air until she broke free not long after, but it was enough for Avarel to do some significant damage to the cultist. As she began to cast again, Avarel put an arrow right through her heart, killing her. They recovered Melisenn’s body, stopped Belinda from dying, and left the evil temple.
The party levelled up, so here they are at 7th level!
Avarel Henrican
Male human (Varisian) paladin (oath against corruption, combat medic, ghost hunter, tempered champion) 7
LG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +0; Senses Perception +2
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Defense
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AC 25, touch 11, flat-footed 25 (+10 armor, +1 deflection, +1 natural, +3 shield)
hp 68 (7d10+20)
Sanity 41, threshhold 2, edge 20
Fort +9, Ref +2, Will +9 (+2 trait bonus vs. emotion and fear effects); +4 sacred bonus against spells and effects from aberrations, +1 trait bonus vs. spell effects from evil creatures
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)
Melee sacred avenger +12/+7 (1d8+6/19-20)
Ranged composite shortbow +7/+2 (1d6+3/×3) or
. . longbow +7/+2 (1d8/×3)
Special Attacks channel positive energy 2/day (DC 15, 4d6), exorcise possession, ghostly smite, smite evil 3/day (+2 attack and AC, +7 damage)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 7th; concentration +9)
. . 1/day—light
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Statistics
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Str 16, Dex 10, Con 15, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 14
Base Atk +7; CMB +10; CMD 21
Feats Combat Expertise, Combat Stamina, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (longsword), Weapon Specialization (longsword)
Traits chosen of Iomedae, disillusioned, driven by guilt, searing beacon
Flaws spell vulnerability
Skills Acrobatics -4 (-8 to jump), Handle Animal +7, Heal +12, Knowledge (arcana) +11, Knowledge (history) +11, Knowledge (nobility) +10, Knowledge (religion) +12, Sense Motive +6; Racial Modifiers +1 Knowledge (nobility), +1 Knowledge (religion)
Languages Common, Skald, Varisian
SQ aura of purity, bitter, careful healer, combat expertise, comprehensive education, divine bond, divine bond (weapon +1, 1/day), divine weapon specialization, dress wounds, hero points, lay on hands 5/day (3d6), mercy (shaken), power attack, swift healer, weapon focus, weapon specialization
Combat Gear potion of bull's strength, antitoxin (3); Other Gear +1 mithral full plate, +1 heavy wooden shield, sacred avenger, arrows (20), composite shortbow (+3 Str), longbow, amulet of natural armor +1, belt of mighty constitution +2, lesser talisman of warrior's courage[OA], ring of protection +1, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, hip flask[UE], holy text (The Acts of Iomedae)[UE], mess kit[UE], silk rope (50 ft.), soap, trail rations (5), wooden holy symbol of Iomedae, 22 gp, 9 sp
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Special Abilities
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Aura of Purity +4/+1 (10' radius) (Su) Gain a bonus on saves vs. spells/effects from aberrations, allies in range gain lesser bonus.
Bitter Heal 1 less point when receiving healing from an ally’s class feature, spell, or sla.
Careful Healer (7 HP/day) (Ex) No AoO when stabilize/treat poison & long term care heals +0 (divide among healed).
Comprehensive Education All knowledge skills are class skills, +1 racial bonus for knowledge skils from classes.
Divine Weapon Specialization (Ex) Gain increased weapon damage with deity's favored weapon, as Sacred Weapon.
Dress Wounds (1/day) (Su) Can treat deadly wounds as full rd action on an ally, but Hp only last 5 min.
Exorcise Possession (Su) Touched creature may re-roll saves vs. possession
Ghostly Smite (Su) Smite Evil is ghost touch instead of bypassing DRs
Swift Healer (Ex) Can use Heal to provide first aid or treat poison as a swift action.
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Belinda Purcel
Female human (Ulfen) unchained rogue (charlatan) 7
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +12
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Defense
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AC 18, touch 13, flat-footed 15 (+5 armor, +2 Dex, +1 dodge)
hp 43 (7d8+7)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +5, Ref +9, Will +6; +1 trait bonus vs. aberrations
Defensive Abilities evasion, uncanny dodge
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 keen rapier +9 (1d6+3/15-20) or
. . dagger +7 (1d4/19-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack (unchained) +4d6
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +5; CMB +5; CMD 18
Feats Dodge, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Toughness, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (rapier)
Traits foe of the strange, resilient, worldly
Skills Acrobatics +11, Appraise +12, Bluff +13, Climb +9, Diplomacy +13, Disable Device +11, Disguise +13, Escape Artist +11, Intimidate +13, Knowledge (local) +12, Perception +12, Sense Motive +12, Sleight of Hand +11, Stealth +16
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald, Varisian
SQ debilitating injury: bewildered, debilitating injury: disoriented, debilitating injury: hampered, hero points, natural born liar, rogue talents (fast stealth, pressure points[UC], rumormonger[UC], weapon training)
Other Gear +1 chain shirt, +1 keen rapier, dagger (2), bag of holding i, cloak of elvenkind, backpack, belt pouch, grappling hook, manacles, mirror, signet ring, silk rope (50 ft.), thieves' tools, 177 gp
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Special Abilities
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Debilitating Injury: Bewildered -2/-4 (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage takes AC pen (more vs. striker) for 1 rd.
Debilitating Injury: Disoriented -2/-4 (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage takes attack pen (more vs. striker) for 1 rd.
Debilitating Injury: Hampered (Ex) Foe who takes sneak attack damage has speed halved (and can't 5 ft step) for 1 rd.
Natural Born Liar (Ex) Creatures deceived by Bluff check take a -2 penalty vs. your Bluff checks for 24 hours.
Pressure Points (Su) Sneak attack also deals 1 Str or Dex damage.
Rumormonger (3/week) (Ex) Use a bluff check to start a rumor in small town or larger settlement over a week.
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Bettina Purcel
Female human (Ulfen) unchained rogue (false medium) 7
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +12
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Defense
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AC 19, touch 13, flat-footed 16 (+5 armor, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 natural)
hp 53 (7d8)
Sanity 44, threshhold 3, edge 22
Fort +5, Ref +9, Will +6
Defensive Abilities evasion, uncanny dodge
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger +7 (1d4/19-20) or
. . rapier +7 (1d6/18-20) or
. . red destiny +9 (1d6+4/17-20)
Special Attacks sneak attack (unchained) +4d6
Rogue (Unchained) Spell-Like Abilities (CL 7th; concentration +10)
. . At will—minor magic
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +5; CMB +5; CMD 18
Feats Dodge, Great Fortitude, Hero's Fortune, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Weapon Finesse
Traits formerly mind-swapped, resilient, worldly
Skills Acrobatics +11, Appraise +12, Bluff +13 (+16 in dim light or darkness, +15 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Climb +9, Diplomacy +13, Disable Device +11, Disguise +13 (+16 in dim light or darkness), Escape Artist +11 (+13 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Intimidate +13, Knowledge (local) +12, Perception +12, Sense Motive +12, Sleight of Hand +11 (+14 in dim light or darkness, +13 to imitate seances, spirit writing, or other occult practices), Stealth +11
Languages Common, Hallit, Skald, Varisian
SQ debilitating injury: bewildered, debilitating injury: disoriented, debilitating injury: hampered, dim the lights +3, false sensitivity, haunting presence (15 feet), hero points, rogue talents (bleeding attack +4, minor magic)
Other Gear +1 chain shirt, red destiny, dagger (2), rapier, amulet of natural armor +1, belt pouch, fraudulent medium's kit[OA], manacles, mirror, signet ring, thieves' tools
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Special Abilities
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Bleeding Attack +4 (Ex) Sneak attacks also deal 4 bleed damage/round.
Dim the Lights +3 In dim light or darkness, gain a bonus to bluff, disguise and sleight of hand
False Sensitivity (Ex) Fake the use of occult skill unlocks
Haunting Presence (15 feet) (Ex) In dim light or darkness, emulate dancing lights, ghost sound, silent image, or ventriloquism with Bluff
Minor Magic (Ghost Sound, At will) (Sp) Gain the chosen cantrip as a spell-like ability.
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Evelyn Kazallin
Female changeling mesmerist (spirit walker) 7
NG Medium humanoid (changeling)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +11
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Defense
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AC 16, touch 11, flat-footed 16 (+4 armor, +1 deflection, +1 natural)
hp 39 (7d8-3)
Sanity 49, threshhold 5, edge 24
Fort +2, Ref +6, Will +13; +2 trait bonus against mind-affecting effects, +2 bonus vs. fear effects, +1 trait bonus vs. spell effects from evil creatures
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 sword cane +5 (1d6) or
. . whip +4 (1d3-1 nonlethal)
Ranged light crossbow +5 (1d8/19-20)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (15 ft. with whip)
Special Attacks bold stares (disorientation[OA], psychic inception[OA]), hypnotic stare (-2), manifold tricks (2 tricks), mesmerist tricks 9/day (false flanker, gift of will, mesmeric mirror, psychosomatic surge), painful stare (+3 or +2d6+3)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 7th; concentration +13)
. . 1/day—dancing lights, detect magic, disguise self, pass without trace
Mesmerist (Spirit Walker) Spells Known (CL 7th; concentration +13)
. . 3rd (2/day)—halt undead (DC 19), terrible remorse[UM] (DC 21)
. . 2nd (5/day)—babble[OA] (DC 20), command undead (DC 18), hold person (DC 20), silence (DC 18)
. . 1st (6/day)—charm person (DC 19), hide from undead (DC 17), hideous laughter (DC 19), mental block[OA] (DC 17), sleep (DC 19)
. . 0 (at will)—daze (DC 18), detect magic, detect psychic significance[OA], message, prestidigitation, unwitting ally[APG] (DC 18)
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Statistics
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Str 8, Dex 10, Con 8, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 23
Base Atk +5; CMB +4; CMD 15
Feats Command Undead, Divine Protection[ACG], Glimpse Beyond, Greater Spell Focus (enchantment), Intimidating Glance[OA], Spell Focus (enchantment)
Traits creative manipulator, deathtouched, driven by guilt, mediator
Flaws disinherited
Skills Bluff +15 (+13 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check, +17 vs. creatures sexually attracted to her), Diplomacy +16 (+14 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check, +18 to use the hypnotism skill unlock), Disguise +6 (+4 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Handle Animal +7 (+5 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Intimidate +16 (+14 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8 (+10 to identify vulnerabilities and powers of aberrations, this check can be made untrained), Knowledge (religion) +10 (+12 to identify vulnerabilities and powers of undead, this check can be made untrained), Linguistics +8, Perception +11, Perform (act) +16 (+14 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Perform (stage magic) +16 (+14 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check), Sense Motive +11, Sleight of Hand +7, Spellcraft +8, Use Magic Device +16 (+14 for 24 hours when you fail an opposed Charisma based check); Racial Modifiers +2 Bluff vs. creatures sexually attracted to her
Languages Aklo, Common, Elven, Kelish, Necril, Skald, Varisian
SQ automatic writing (linguistics), continued animation, hero points, hypnotism (diplomacy), prognostication (sense motive), read aura (perception), undead inception, vain
Combat Gear mnemonic vestment[UE], wand of bless (CL 2nd, 8 charges), wand of command (CL 2nd, 38 charges), wand of scorching ray (13 charges); Other Gear mithral chain shirt, +1 sword cane[APG], light crossbow, whip, amulet of natural armor +1, cloak of resistance +1, headband of alluring charisma +2, ring of protection +1, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, entertainer's outfit, flint and steel, hypnotist's locket[OA], ink, inkpen, stationery[UE], trail rations (5), waterskin, 9 gp, 9 sp
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Special Abilities
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Automatic Writing (Linguistics, 1/week) You can produce mysterious writing that pertains to the immediate future.
Continued Animation (humanoids, 14 hp, 3 rounds, 2/day, DC 19) (Su) You can animate a fallen target of your hypnotic stare.
Disorientation (Su) Hypnotic stare penalty applies on attack rolls.
Glimpse Beyond +2 to save vs. fear, bonuses to ID certain monsters.
Hypnotic Stare (-2, 30 feet) (Su) As swift action, target creature takes penalty on Will saves.
Hypnotism (Diplomacy, 1/day) Use power of suggestion to alter subject's mind or recover memories.
Intimidating Glance You can attempt to demoralize the target of your hypnotic stare as a swift action.
Manifold Tricks (Su) You can have mulitple tricks implanted at once.
Mesmerist Tricks (170 feet, 9/day) (Su) Implant hypnotic bond with allies. granting edge vs. foes.
Painful Stare (+3 or +2d6+3, 1/round) (Su) As a free action, hyp. stare target takes extra precision dam from a hit.
Prognostication (Sense Motive, 1/day) You are skilled in means of folk divination.
Psychic Inception (Su) Hypnotic stare can affect creatures that are mindless or immune to mind-affecting effects.
Read Aura (Perception, 1/day) Read the psychic impressions left on objects or in places.
Undead Inception (Su) You can affect undead with your hypnotic stare.
Vain -2 to Cha checks for 24h after failing an opposed Cha check
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Luna
Female dreamlands cat unchained rogue (prowler) 3/sorcerer 4
N Tiny magical beast
Init +4; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +10
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Defense
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AC 22, touch 17, flat-footed 18 (+5 armor, +1 deflection, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 size)
hp 47 (7 HD; 4d6+3d8+14)
Sanity 45, threshhold 4, edge 22
Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +7; +2 trait bonus vs. fear and emotion effects
Defensive Abilities evasion, land on your feat, nine lives, slinking leap +1
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +10 (1d3-2), 2 claws +10 (1d2+4)
Space 2½ ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks prowling strike, sneak attack (unchained) +3d6
Bloodline Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; concentration +8)
. . 7/day—lullaby
Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 4th; concentration +8)
. . 2nd (4/day)—elemental touch[APG]
. . 1st (7/day)—burning hands (DC 15), magic missile, shocking grasp, sleep (DC 15)
. . 0 (at will)—acid splash, clowder of cats, disrupt undead, mage hand, open/close (DC 14), prestidigitation
. . Bloodline Dreamspun
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Statistics
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Str 4, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 18
Base Atk +4; CMB +5; CMD 14 (18 vs. trip)
Feats Accomplished Sneak Attacker, Black Cat, Dodge, Eschew Materials, Feline Focus Item, Skill Focus (Bluff), Weapon Finesse
Traits enduring stoicism, orphaned, solitary, strength foretold
Flaws spell vulnerability
Skills Acrobatics +13 (+14 to avoid provoking AoO), Bluff +17 (+18 to feint and create distraction to hide), Climb +11, Diplomacy +4 (+2 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Disable Device +9, Escape Artist +15, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (arcana) +8, Perception +10, Perform (sing) +14, Sense Motive +2 (+0 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Sleight of Hand +13, Spellcraft +5, Stealth +22, Survival +8, Swim +7; Racial Modifiers +4 Climb, +4 Escape Artist, +4 Stealth
Languages Cat, Common, Varisian
SQ dreamlands travel, hero points, moon jump, pride, rogue talent (fast stealth)
Other Gear +3 mithral chain shirt, amulet of mighty fists +1, ring of protection +1, brass key necklace
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Special Abilities
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Black Cat (1/day) Once per day, make enemy reroll an attack vs. you with a -4 penalty.
Dreamlands Travel (Su) Sense nearby Gates of Slumber within 1 mile radius at will.
Dreamspun When you cast a spell at a single creature, gain +1/2 spell level AC and saves vs. that creature for 1r.
Land on Your Feat (Ex) Treat any fall as if it were 20 ft. less than the actual distance of the fall.
Lullaby (7/day) (Sp) As lullaby but no concentration and penalty is -4.
Moon Jump (2/night) (Su) While in the Dreamlands jump to the moon up to twice a night.
Nine Lives (9 lives) (Su) Self resurrect up to eight times.
Pride -2 to diplomacy and sense motive vs. those who threaten, accuse, or challenge you, until they apologize
Prowling Strike (Ex) Enter an exit adjacent creature's spae without provoking an AoO.
Scent (Ex) Detect opponents within 15+ ft. by sense of smell.
Slinking Leap +1 (1/round) (Ex) If you would provoke an AoO and using Acrobatics or prowling strike, make Bluff check to create distraction to hide as a free action.
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Myfanwy Potter
Female half-elf investigator (empiricist) 7
LN Medium humanoid (elf, human)
Init +6; Senses low-light vision; Perception +20
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Defense
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AC 20, touch 16, flat-footed 15 (+4 armor, +1 deflection, +4 Dex, +1 dodge)
hp 49 (7d8+7)
Sanity 42, threshhold 4, edge 21
Fort +3, Ref +10, Will +7 (+2 save vs. illusion and disbelievable effects); +2 racial bonus vs. illusion spells and effects
Defensive Abilities trap sense +2; Resist unfailing logic
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Offense
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Speed 60 ft.
Melee +1 inspired rapier +12/+12 (1d6+5/18-20) or
. . +1 short sword +11/+11 (1d6/19-20)
Special Attacks studied combat (+3, 5 rounds), studied strike +2d6
Investigator (Empiricist) Extracts Prepared (CL 7th; concentration +12)
. . 3rd—channel vigor (2)
. . 2nd—cat's grace, cure moderate wounds, levitate, lesser restoration
. . 1st—comprehend languages (2), cure light wounds, expeditious retreat, heightened awareness[ACG], shield
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Statistics
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Str 8, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 20, Wis 14, Cha 8
Base Atk +5; CMB +5; CMD 20
Feats Extra Investigator Talent[ACG], Fencing Grace[UI], Open Minded, Skill Focus (Perception), Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (rapier)
Traits elven reflexes, lepidstadt scar (ustalav), methodical mind (arcana, history, planes; arcana, history, planes, planes), wisdom in the flesh
Flaws nearsighted
Skills Acrobatics +14 (+26 to jump), Appraise +3, Bluff -3, Climb -3, Craft (alchemy) +15 (+22 to create alchemical items), Craft (sketching) +15, Diplomacy +3 (+9 to gather information (You can use your Intelligence Modifier instead of Charisma)), Disable Device +15, Disguise -3, Escape Artist +2, Fly +2, Heal +6, Intimidate -3, Knowledge (arcana) +16, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +12, Knowledge (engineering) +9, Knowledge (geography) +13, Knowledge (history) +16, Knowledge (local) +11, Knowledge (nature) +13, Knowledge (nobility) +9, Knowledge (planes) +16, Knowledge (religion) +13, Linguistics +13, Perception +20, Ride +2, Sense Motive +9, Spellcraft +12, Stealth +8, Survival +0, Swim +10, Use Magic Device +11; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Aklo, Common, Draconic, Elven, Hallit, Jistka, Kelish, Necril, Skald, Varisian, Vudrani
SQ alchemy (alchemy crafting +7), arcane training[APG], ceaseless observation, dreamer[HA], elf blood, hero points, inspiration (8/day), investigator talents (expanded inspiration[ACG], infusion, quick study[ACG], sickening offensive[ACG]), keen recollection, meticulous, trapfinding +3
Other Gear mithral chain shirt, +1 inspired rapier, +1 short sword, belt of incredible dexterity +2, greater talisman of beneficial winds[OA], handy haversack, headband of vast intelligence +2, ring of protection +1, alchemy crafting kit[APG], backpack, chalk, charcoal (5), eyeglasses, ink, inkpen (3), investigator starting formula book, journal[UE], masterwork thieves' tools, scholar's outfit, silver tiger pendant (worth 5 gp), 4 gp, 5 sp, 9 cp
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Special Abilities
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Alchemy +7 (Su) +7 to Craft (Alchemy) to create alchemical items, can Id potions by touch.
Arcane Training +1 CL for spell trigger/completion items for favored class, or use them as if 1st level.
Ceaseless Observation (Ex) Use INT instead of CHA for gather information (+6)
Dreamer +2 to save vs. illusion. In lucid dreams treat Cha as 2 higher.
Fencing Grace Use Dexterity on rapier damage rolls
Hero Points Hero Points can be spent at any time to grant a variety of bonuses.
Infusion Create an extract can be used by anyone but takes up a slot until used.
Inspiration (+1d6+1, 8/day) (Ex) Use 1 point, +1d6 to trained skill or ability check. Use 2 points, to add to attack or save.
Keen Recollection At 3rd level, an investigator can attempt all Knowledge skill checks untrained.
Meticulous -2 on all untrained skill checks
Open Minded Gain 1 skill point per level.
Quick Study (Ex) Use studied combat as a swift action.
Sickening Offensive (Ex) Studied strike sickens foe for 1 rd.
Studied Combat (+3, 5 rounds) (Ex) As a swift action, study foe to gain bonus to att & dam for duration or until use studied strike.
Studied Strike +2d6 (Ex) As a free action on a melee hit, end studied combat vs. foe to add precision dam.
Unfailing Logic +2 (Ex) +2 save vs. illusion and disbelievable effects
Session the Seventeenth:
They returned to Cesadia Wrentz and Winter and reported what they had found. They got healed by Winter and Myfanwy began treating Belinda’s melancholy with extracts of lesser restoration. They told the women about the cultists and advised against dealing with the Elder Things down the hole on the Iris Hill estate. Though shocked but all that had happened, Cesadia was grateful and asked the party what they were going to do next. They decided to pursue Lowls and stop whatever mad plot he was involved in.
The next morning, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Crews worked at cleaning the bodies out of Iris Hill, and the party began reequipping and began researching Lowls’ activities in the Iris Hill library. Luna vanished, sneaking off to research the ritual she found. The rest of the party spent the day of Rova the 11th trying to determine where Lowls went. They found that through his interviews with Ulver Zandalus, Lowls learned of a distant lost city with star stelae identical to those in Thrushmoor. He determined to find this lost city to restore his academic reputation. They found a map with notations of the route he would take to Cassomir and then on to Katheer.
They continued their research but were now set to chase after Lowls to Cassomir. Among the more mundane works in the library were several research books regarding dreams and how to manipulate them. These books discussed methods by which an individual could choose to appear in someone else’s dream; one even included an overview of the Dreamlands. Notes and marked pages indicated that Lowls was using dreams as a method of research, wherein he would project his consciousness into the Dreamlands to meet with people and creatures there. One such figure was someone he referred to as the Mad Poet, who offered to show him the way to a forgotten city in return for sacrificing his assistants’ minds.
Luna finished her research and successfully learned her ritual, allowing her to create a Gate of Slumber wherever she wished. She decided to wait until they go to a large city to get enough Dreamlands Cats to perform the ritual properly. Evie asked Cesadia about transport to Caliphas and then to Cassomir. Cesadia told her that the Sellen Starling would arrive in two days time and that her captain, Skywin Freeling, made the Sellen run to Cassomir every year at this time, but that she would be reluctant to cross the Lake and definitely not across the bay.
She wouldn’t cross the bay because of the Watcher in the Bay, a hidden monster lurking in its depths, and would be reluctant for crossing the Lake proper out of fear of getting too near the Isle of Terror, ancient abode of the Tar-Baphon, the Whispering Tyrant. Even though he was imprisoned at Gallowspire, the fear of his ancient home remained.
That night, flashes of light and strange noises came from the carriage house on Iris Hill. The party investigated and found the cave with the Elder Things had been abandoned. Wishing more than being certain that their lack of interest wouldn’t eventually come around and bite them in the ass, they hoped for the best and went back to bed.
The Town Elders of Thrushmoor asked to speak with Avarel on the 12th of Rova. They had contacted Caliphas and consulted on what to do about the situation with Count Haserton Lowls IV. They officially deposed Count Lowls and were willing to off the County to the former Knight of Ozem. Avarel politely thanked them and that he would consider it when he returned after dealing with Lowls.
On the 13th, while reading in the Iris Hill library, Myfanwy found a book that had been converted into a clever hiding spot: the centers of the book’s pages had been removed, leaving a space about six inches square and four inches deep that was undetectable when the book was closed. Inside this space was a miniature staircase masterfully carved from horn and ivory with seventy steps. Belinda appraised the sculpture as exceedingly valuable—worth 25,000 gp at least. There was no one around to sell it to, and the party was curious as to what Lowls could have used the item for.
On the morning of Rova 14th, they went down to the Thrushmoor docks to greet the Sellen Starling. They found the harbormaster arguing with a curly haired halfling woman over how the Sellen Starling was loaded. Evie intervened on Captain Freeling’s behalf, pointing out that the prime candidate for the Count position would be likely travelling aboard the Starling. The harbormaster apologized and got his men to reload the ship.
Before the party could begin negotiating with the pleased halfling, two other men came forward to buy passage to Cassomir. Gossa Kelkin and Wreben Malliver were professors returning to Cassomir after a sabbatical in Ustalav. Both scholars were human but were otherwise mismatched in appearance: Wreben was whip-thin with long, stringy, dark hair, while Gossa was stout and short-sighted, with intricately braided blond hair. She set the rate at one silver piece a mile, 125 gp total.
Evie then threw a wrench in their negotiations, with her request of a detour to Caliphas and remaining in port there for the better part of a week. Captain Freeling made her feelings on this quite clear: cutting across the bay was right out, so they would have to sail along the coast south to the edge of Avalon Bay then across Lake Encarthan to Caliphas, then back. Because of the prevailing winds in Avalon Bay, sailing down the western shore would be right out as it would take far too long. Sailing across the Lake would bring them too close to the Isle of Terror. So, she wouldn’t do it because of the cost.
After some consideration, she made the party a proposal: 75 gp each for the journey and 250 gp extra for the crossing of the lake, but the party would have to supply their own provisions and help defend the ship in case of attack or trouble. The party agreed, and Skywin smiled and welcomed them aboard her ship. After the ship was reloaded and the passengers were aboard, the Sellen Starling and her eight passengers (and cat!) set out on their journey.
Myfanwy, Avarel, and Luna began researching through Lowls journals to see if they could find out about his activities and the purpose of the model staircase. Luna helped mainly by sitting on books that had passages that were wastes of time or held little information of value. On the first day, the research team discovered that Lowls’ journeys occurred in the Dreamlands, a vast and relatively stable section of the Dimension of Dreams.
They learned the fundamentals of travel in the Dreamlands: that most types of damage experienced in the Dreamlands vanish upon waking except for mental damage or drain; spells and items used in the Dreamlands were not expended upon waking; items found in the Dreamlands could not be brought into the waking world, but persist from dream to dream; and death in the Dreamlands results in immediate traumatic awakening and permanent madness.
Lowls planned to reach a mysterious hermit in the Dreamlands known as the Mad Poet. This Mad Poet was dangerous unless appeased, and Lowls focused his investigation on how to best approach this inscrutable—and certainly sinister—figure.
Their research on the 15th revealed that Lowls selected a caravanserai in a vast Dreamlands desert as his initial destination. Here, he planned to talk with other dream travelers to gain information about how to locate and appease the Mad Poet. The research team pieced together a Dreamlands excursion occult ritual which would allow them to travel to the dream caravanserai.
Since they knew the Mad Poet had taken their minds, they reasoned that they might be able to persuade or force him to restore them. The party decided to wait on using the ritual until after they left Caliphas, as they wanted to be as well equipped as they could be in the Dreamlands excursion.
On the morning of the 16th, the party awoke to find the Sellen Starling surrounded by a thick fog. The crew muttered in the chill fog which forced the ship to hug the coast of Avalon Bay more closely than they preferred in that region. When they asked what was wrong, all they got from one of the crew was a simple, “Illmarsh,” before he moved on. Skywin told them she intended to avoid the village of Illmarsh, stating that no ship receives a friendly welcome in the forsaken town.
As they passed by the dilapidated wharves of Illmarsh in the fog, they caught sight of cloaked figures on the Illmarsh wharves, two hundred feet away. These figures were passing a long, barbed chain from one wharf to the other, rendering the jetties unapproachable by ship.
Avarel kept watching the wharves closely for further action, but Evie and Luna spotted a longship with red sails looming out of the fog a quarter mile behind the Sellen Starling, following in the keelboat’s wake. Before they could catch more than a glimpse, the ship was swallowed by the fog and lost to view.
Myfanwy spotted four shapes in the water moving rapidly toward the Sellen Starling from the direction of the red-sailed ship. She shouted out a warning, but she was the only one not taken by surprise when the creatures attacked. Myfanwy used an extract that increased her vigor, causing her to be hasted. Four brightly colored, long-necked amphibians with six legs, fanged snouts, and numerous finlets running down their spines jumped up onto the deck of the Sellen Starling. Myfanwy recognized them as vooniths, creatures native to the Dimension of Dreams.
Belinda and Myfanwy moved in and struck hard against one of the creatures as another produced a blood freezing howl dazing Myfanwy, Winter, and the rest of the crew. Belinda, Avarel, and Myfanwy got clawed and bit. Luna moved in and struck with her claws, flanking with Myfanwy. Evie removed the dazed effect on Myfanwy and cast terrible remorse on one voonith, causing it to begin attacking itself with its claws.
Bettina flipped herself onto the top of the cabin, ran across, and tried to jump down to attack only to fall over the side. She managed to grab the rail before going into the water. Belinda and Luna continued to strike at a voonith while Myfanwy moved in close to Avarel before striking the one next to him. Avarel tried to smite evil on the voonith, but they were not actually evil, so he hit with normal strikes. Another voonith howled, dazing Belinda and Myfanwy. The other two bit and clawed Myfanwy, Belinda, and Avarel.
Luna gutted one of the vooniths as Evie removed the dazed effect from Belinda. Evie stabbed one with her sword cane and Avarel moved the dazed Myfanwy behind him. Belinda and Luna killed a second and third one between them. Belinda jumped up on the rail of the ship to provide a flank for the others. Avarel sliced a fin off and opened a nasty wound in its side as Bettina climbed back up onto the ship. Avarel then finished it off with two powerful blows, lopping its head off.
The party healed up with Avarel and Winter channeling energy. Evie told Skywin about the red-sailed ship, but when they went to the stern, they saw no sign of the ship in the fog. She told the watch to keep a weather eye out for it, and they sailed on.
The next ten days passed with no incident, getting out of Avalon Bay and sailing across Lake Encarthan. In the afternoon of the 26th of Rova, the Sellen Starling sailed past the Reaping Rocks, and a thousand fog lamps reluctantly emerged from the swirling haze, and the weirdly echoing din of countless faceless souls heralded their arrival in Caliphas, mist-shrouded capital of Ustalav.
They negotiated the docking fees for the port, then they proceeded to the markets to sell off their remaining goods and purchase the items they couldn’t get in Thrushmoor. Avarel and Winter went to the Maiden’s Choir, the temple of Pharasma in Caliphas. The high priestess Mother Verith Thestia met them and had a long talk with Winter, getting her full report while Avarel arranged to complete the transformation of his longsword into a sacred avenger. Mother Mercenda, high priestess of Iomedae, arrived and helped complete the ritual. She recognized Avarel’s innocence of all the rumours from Lastwall given that his powers were still intact. Since he didn’t know about the rumours, he left them as irrelevant; he would continue to live by Iomedae’s code and the rest of the Knights of Ozem be damned.
Evie negotiated to make her sword cane magical, and the proprietor required money and blood to get it done in time. Evie was a little disturbed about the blood donation, so she paid the full price. Luna called on nine cats using clowder of cats and they worked together to complete her ritual and create a Gate of Slumber in an isolated hold of the Sellen Starling. The cats agreed, and after much howling and work, they succeeded. They all got hurt by the backlash of the ritual, and they mewled around Winter’s feet until she healed them.
Belinda and Bettina spread a rumour over the city about a great and powerful medium named Mysteria was in the city, and they bilked people out of some money with the charlatan medium act. Myfanwy got her rapier made into and inspired rapier. Luna got cat barding made of a mithral chain shirt and enchanted it, with the intent of absorbing it like she did other magic items.
Winter got permission to continue to accompany her sister Evie on this important mission to capture or kill Count Haserton Lowls IV. So they made sure Skywin got paid the full amount for Winter’s passage to Cassomir. After six days, the Sellen Starling departed Caliphas on the 2nd of Lamashan for the east side of Lake Encarthan.
They had a following wind and they made it across the Lake in only two days. It took Luna four days to convert her chain shirt into a feline focused item. On the night of the 6th of Lamashan, the party decided to perform the Dreamlands excursion ritual. Because it required manipulating the staircase in their hands, Luna couldn’t participate. Winter agreed to watch over their bodies as they dreamed.
They began chanting the incantation while they passed around the miniature staircase, feeling each of its 70 steps. With each passing, the staircase appeared a bit heavier and a bit larger. The primary caster dropped the miniature staircase on the floor of the ship hold as the incantation was completed. They opened a portal where the staircase landed, revealing steps leading downward from the hold. The party stepped forward and descended the staircase together, thrusting their psyches into the Dreamlands.
They stood in front of a stone building which was the same pale tan color as the sun-bleached desert that extended to the horizon in every direction. A single, wide entrance, large enough to admit laden mounts, pierced the north wall of the structure and opened into a central courtyard. The northeast corner of the building was wholly collapsed. Drifts of sand and tufts of weeds indicated that the building was long abandoned. As they gazed upon the edifice, Luna came from around the corner and greeted them in perfect Taldane.
Session the Eighteenth (Part One):
They moved into the entrance and came to a wide doorway containing only the lower half of a door topped with a wide shelf, beyond which a cool, comfortable passageway led into the caravanserai. A tattered curtain dangled from the lintel. The room beyond contained only a few bare tables and a narrow, barred door. The barred door at the back of the room led to a small cell with a rusty scimitar leaning up against the wall of the cell. They cast detect magic on the scimitar and it glowed with an aura of strong necromancy. No one was able to identify the scimitar, so they left it and moved on.
In the room next to the first they found a dry, decorative fountain made of a large basin held aloft by carvings of sleepwalkers. The rest of the hall was filled with rubble from the collapsed section of the caravanserai. They tried across the entrance hall and found a second dry fountain and a corridor heading west. They proceeded down the corridor and found a wide hallway heading south with three more dry fountains. To the north there was a doorway with tattered curtains partially obscuring the view of the room beyond. Luna peaked through the curtains.
The walls of the room were lined with shelves, and a long wooden table stretched through the room’s center. Although it obviously was once a shop, only dust and a few piles of rags remained on display. Perusing one of the nearly empty shelves was a gaunt man with sunken cheeks. He straightened up when Luna entered the shop and said hello to him. He greeted Luna and asked if she was alone and then asked if she had a good journey, and whether she needed supplies (although he bemoaned the lamentable state of his wares).
Evie then went in followed by the Purcells. The shop keeper greeted them and welcomed them to his shop. As they conversed, he responded with vague answers before attacking the Evie with a spell, but her mind was too strong and resisted it completely. Myfanwy came in and noticed that the “shop keeper’s” black robes trailed off at the edges into smoke, as though he were insubstantial. She moved into a flanking position but was struck by the creature with a hand, severely ripping into her body with negative energy sapping her vitality.
Myfanwy recognized that they were facing an animate dream, a dangerous insubstantial being with several spells and powerful attack forms. The dream then tried to cast a spell on Myfanwy, but she also shrugged it off. Evie tried casting mental block on the dream but couldn’t affect it. Bettina and Belinda moved into a flank. Luna struck the dream with a magic missile as Avarel came into the room and struck the dream with a smite evil, fully hitting the insubstantial dream.
Aside from Avarel, all their attacks did less damage even though they were using magic weaponry. The dream cast a spell on Avarel, but the paladin’s resistances were too strong. Evie cast silence on the dream, denying it the ability to cast spells. It also denied the party (other than Evie) the ability to cast spells. Luna turned her back on Evie and began cleaning her tail. Avarel struck the dream with three powerful blows as Myfanwy pierced it with her rapier. The animate dream struck Avarel then tried to get out of the silence aura, but Avarel struck again and destroyed it.
Avarel channeled energy and healed most of the group and helped both himself and Myfanwy somewhat. Luna searched the area and found a translucent opal and five emeralds, all the size of fist. To get these out of the dreaming, they talked about stuffing them in the cat. Luna decided to go back onto the material plane, get a bag of holding from the group, then return instead. She showed her tail to those who suggested “stuffing the cat”.
When Bettina and Belinda had a hard time appraising the opal, Evie cast detect magic and saw an aura of strong divination. Myfanwy identified it as a gem of seeing. They then headed down the hallway with the fountains to another curtained doorway and had Luna peek. Heavy but frayed curtains hung in the doorways to the room. It had three elegant wooden tables and stools of varying sizes, all lacquered in a rich black. A few plates and a pitcher were stacked on a sideboard, covered in dust.
Luna heard conspiratorial whispering coming from the room, though she couldn’t see anything. Scouting around, they found they could avoid the room altogether, but curiosity got the better of them. Evie and Avarel entered the room and ghostly forms appeared throughout the empty dining hall, apparently mimicking conversations of the past: a wealthy night hag with elaborately coiffed hair made imperious demands to human servants; three surly, turbaned humanoids conferred over a detailed image of the moon; and a group of hooded ghouls examined a human head made of terra cotta. Their voices echoed in an overlapping, unintelligible cacophony.
Evie and Avarel resisted the effects of the cacophony and Evie cast detect magic and found the pitcher was magic with an aura of moderate transmutation. Evie studied the pitcher and found three command words on its base. Evie spoke the first word and water began flowing out of the pitcher. She spoke it again and the flow stopped. Luna entered and was overwhelmed by the noise and audial mayhem. She immediately left the room and attacked Belinda with her claw, severely lacerating her thigh.
Bettina grabbed Luna by the scruff of her neck to try and get her off Belinda. Belinda went into the room to see what was going on and began to feel the effects of the haunted room, so she withdrew. Myfanwy figured out that to disrupt the haunt permanently, they would have to through a happy celebration without evil actions for several hours. Since that seemed unlikely, they would just have to wait the haunt out. Evie continued to explore the pitcher by saying the second word and got a more impressive stream of water. She then shut that down.
Luna wriggled free of Bettina’s grasp, but Bettina grabbed her again. Belinda succumbed to the haunt’s power and attacked Bettina and Luna, slicing her sister’s arm. Avarel then went in and interposed himself between the sisters. Luna squirmed out of Bettina’s grip, but the rogue caught her again. Belinda, thankful for being kept from hurting her sister, slapped Avarel on the ass to thank him. Avarel decided to try and stop the possession the haunt had placed on his friends, so he slapped Belinda on the ass and powered it with his holy energy, but she remained possessed.
Luna went limp, so Bettina wrapped the cat in her cloak and the cat purred. Avarel and Belinda kept swapping pats on the ass until she was freed from possession. Luna finally squeezed out, but her head was now clear, and she thanked Bettina for keeping her from doing too much damage. Still, they needed to heal Belinda before continuing. Myfanwy made sure to ask if they were all done with ass slapping before she proceeded.
They followed the five-foot-wide corridor eastward and came to another curtained doorway to the north. Decorative tiles with irregular geometric shapes covered the walls of the room, distorting perspective and obscuring the room’s size. Three deep baths, empty of water, were separated by narrow walkways and hanging curtains of tattered fabric. The pool to the right appeared to be filled with a viscous, soot-colored liquid.
They moved into the room with Avarel in the lead. As they looked down into the filled pool, the formless liquid erupted from the pool. The shuddering blot of living tar was surrounded by a mass of writhing tendrils, and its maw opened into a dark gullet. It grabbed at Avarel with its tendrils, striking him with solid hits. Myfanwy identified the ooze as a formless spawn of Tsathoggua, an intelligent ooze said to have been created by the Great Old One himself. They were very dangerous and the party got ready for a tough fight.
Avarel used his power to smite evil to begin whittling away at the creature. Luna cast burning ears, but the ooze was resistant to her magic. Bettina attempted to feint the creature multiple times to try and get a bleeding attack on the creature but was unable to follow up on her feints with a successful strike. Evie withdrew from its reach and used her hypnotic stare as Avarel hammered away with his sword. Evie activated her mesmeric mirror on Avarel, and Luna managed to use her black cat unluck to keep from being hit. Belinda got hit with a tendril and got a large bruise on her right arm.
Belinda could strike, but the only damage she did was that added by Evie’s painful stare. The fight soon turned into a war of attrition, with, the combatants trying to do as much damage as they could while keeping from falling victim to its bite and swallowing them. Evie tried to use her wand of scorching ray on it, but the ooze formed a whole around the ray. Finally, Avarel got bit but managed to avoid being swallowed. Bettina finally did some bleed damage to the ooze as Avarel hit it two more heavy strikes. Evie succeeded on casting mental block on the ooze, which almost completely shut down the ooze. Luna attempted to intimidate the ooze, and because of the mentally limited state it became shaken by her hissing arched back. Avarel than finished it off with two heavy hits with his sword.
After searching the room and finding nothing, they healed up as best they could as Evie filled a pool with water using the magic pitcher. There were no magical effects or anything special about the pools. They then left the remnants of what would now be referred to as the “shenanigans ooze” behind and continued down the corridor. They came to another hallway heading north to the collapsed section of the building with another three dry fountains. There was a door opening to the south, its door held ajar but what appeared to be an ancient ledger.
The office contained a low table and several dozen ledgers. A set of stairs on the east wall led up to the next floor. The ledger at the door fell apart when they picked it up. They were apparently very brittle to the touch and crumbled if not handled lightly, but each contained hundreds of pages of cramped handwriting. This writing was utterly indecipherable, but Myfanwy recognized that the bookkeeper understood the importance of record keeping, and so dutifully maintained these ledgers, but was cursed so that letters and numbers would twist into illegibility as they were penned.
Having checked the first floor of the building completely, they decided to check the courtyard before proceeding to the upper floor. They went all the way back and down into the central open section of the caravanserai. This courtyard contained several stalls for animals as well as two low stone posts bearing empty circular bins. Across from the wide passageway stood two small doors flanking a long trough. They checked out the doors and found empty storerooms behind them. They searched them carefully, however and Luna and Myfanwy each discovered a secret door in each room opening into the five-foot-wide corridor connecting the southern parts of the building.
With the ground floor done, they noticed that there was only an empty balcony and a single room on the second floor. They went back to the office and proceeded up the stairs. They found a tidy office which was sparse but tastefully decorated. Framed paintings of landscapes hung on the walls, including a many-spired city with marble walls and brass gates; a windswept waste beneath a distant, ominous mountain; and a gloomy port city constructed primarily of basalt. Standing behind a desk in the room was a man who looked almost exactly like Count Haserton Lowls IV but dressed in tattered yellow robes apparently crafted from frayed caravanserai curtains.
Session the Eighteenth (Part Two):
The man looked up from his text with an expression of surprise that quickly turned to delight. They asked him who he was and he introduced himself as the Yellow King that he was perusing the ledgers to find the cosmic mysteries that were in the coded text. He spoke politely with them, but he was somewhat addled and prone to using large words, and he spoke of specialized subjects as if his audience were experts. He seemed genuinely interested in the party’s recent excursions in Thrushmoor and how they came to the caravanserai. Myfanwy soon got the impression that he was little more than an eccentric academic—just as Lowls had initially been.
When they mentioned “Lowls,” he politely corrected them, informing the party that he was the “Yellow King,” an inhabitant of the Dreamlands. He considered himself a fully formed entity but also a piece of the whole that called himself “Lowls,” the way Avarel was a fully formed entity that was a single piece of the whole of “humanity.” The Yellow King had no knowledge of, and little interest in, what Lowls was currently doing and held himself independent of any villainy Lowls had committed.
When they asked about the Mad Poet and regaining what they had lost, the Yellow King proposed they get the gifts appropriate for the Poet so that he would grant them audience. He recalled writing them down on the flyleaf of Dichotomous Translations of Aklo Syntax, but I couldn’t recall what they were. He said that Lowls had painstakingly researched the subject of each gift before getting them. The Yellow King suggested they do the same, collect as many gifts as they could, and then return to him. He would then lead them to the Mad Poet.
They checked the balcony and found it empty, so they decided to return to the waking world. Luna used her abilities through the Gates of Slumber to pick up the items with a bag of holding and brought them into the real world. They then all returned to wake up on the morning of the 7th of Lamashan. After Winter healed the minor stress damage, they took from the ritual they got one of the scholars travelling with them, Wreben, to look at the magic scimitar and he was stunned: it was a +1 vorpal scimitar, extremely valuable. They looked up the list on the flyleaf of Dichotomous Translations of Aklo Syntax and found the list the Yellow King mentioned.
The list made little sense to them: a viscount’s signet ring, a feline tail (blue and purple mottled fur), a skull of ghoul royalty, a green stone idol of a water lizard, a night hag ambassador’s heartstone, a captain’s tricorne, and a red webbed foot. Luna hopped up on the book as they read it and read the list herself…and had a hissy fit over the second item. They decided to spend their time researching the items and see if they could find each of them in the Dreamlands. They rested the day and then began on the morning of the 8th.
They talked to Captain Skywin about whether there would be much trouble on the journey as they did their research. She pointed out that they were passing Thronsestep, and that Razmiran interference might be the only thing they should worry about until past the border and the Glass River into the Sellen. They had to stop for supplied at Xer, about fifteen days out, but she wanted that done as fast as possible. It took her only a half-hour once; but usually it lasted an hour or more, with her worst experience lasting three hours, far longer than she ever wanted to spend in Razmir. Aside for that, the journey should be relatively safe for a little over two weeks.
It took them two days to completely research each item as they passed along the shore of Lake Encarthan and into the Glass River, looking out on Razmiran. Various people in the party aided their lead researcher, Myfanwy, with their expertise whenever it became relevant. They worked together to find which tomes were important for each item and then Myfanwy and her helpers began reading. Bettina proved the most useful, with strange flashes of insight from the ancient entity that once swapped minds with her. As they found the locations of each item, they also learned the proper phrase that would allow them to use the Dreamlands excursion ritual to reach that place.
According to a naturalist’s papers, felines with blue and purple tails were called pards, and they could be found the Dreamlands’ Enchanted Wood. One of Lowls’s diaries indicated his intent to seek the advice of zoogs, a race of intelligent rodent-like creatures native to the Enchanted Wood. Zoogs were carnivores and particularly enjoy feline flesh; Lowls assumed the zoogs would know where to find pards.
They learned that the viscount referenced with the signet ring was Viscount Pietro Brellin, a mysterious but popular noble in the Dreamlands city of Celephais, an opulent and populous city. Although visitors and natives alike experience the passage of time normally in Celephais, the city appeared frozen in time. Viscount Brellin was known for hosting courtly and lavish events. Fearing to lose the viscount’s favor, attendees ignore any unusual happenings at these events.
According to a folio regarding extraplanar undead, the ghouls of the Dreamlands were far more social— though no less wicked—than their bestial kin in the waking world. They had rich histories and large communities led by royalty. A discourse on the dread Plateau of Leng explained that a more powerful form of ghoul inhabited regions where the Dreamlands connected to Leng. These Leng ghouls were shrewder than their lesser kin.
The water lizard referenced was no mere animal—it was a representation of Bokrug, one of the unimaginably powerful Great Old Ones. A horrid treatise collating rumors of the Great Old Ones asserted that Bokrug lived in a vast, unnamed lake in the Dreamlands. A race of alien creatures founded the city of Ib on the shores of the lake and worshiped Bokrug there. An idol of green stone was central to their rites. A quasi-historical dissertation related how Ib was destroyed by proud and warlike humans disgusted by the aliens’ bizarre rites and unusual physiognomy. The victorious humans were from a city called Sarnath. After destroying Ib, the folk of Sarnath carried away a strange green idol and housed it in one of their temples. The idol disappeared from the temple soon thereafter.
Lowls sought the heartstone of a specific hag—an ambassador and soul-trader named Quaveandra. All night hags carry a heartstone—a special gemstone worth at least 1,800 gp that was worn as a periapt. A heartstone’s magic was fueled by the hag’s spirit and proximity—once separated from its owner (or upon the hag’s death), a heartstone retained its magic for only 24 hours before becoming a nonmagical gem again. The heartstone instantly cures any disease contracted by the holder. In addition, a heartstone provides a resistance against most magic effects. A night hag that loses this charm can no longer use etherealness or soul bind until it finds a replacement gemstone. Quaveandra’s heartstone apparently retains its magic for 1 month out of her possession, rather than 1 day. A register of extraplanar diplomats listed Quaveandra as an ambassador to the city of Dylath-Leen, a grim city of basalt and one of the Dreamlands’ most notorious havens for vice. According to a diary brimming with spiteful rumors, Quaveandra had an unnecessarily large retinue of retainers and an insufferably imperious manner; Myfanwy realized that Quaveandra appeared in that vision from the haunt in the caravanserai.
The tricorne belonged not to a human pirate, but to a denizen of Leng named Captain Vadrack. Vadrack’s longship, the Bloodwind, was a slave ship—although the slaves Vadrack acquired were usually never seen again. A tattered registry indicated that the Bloodwind most often sailed the rivers and seas of the Dreamlands, but it could cross into other planes. Captain Vadrack was relentless in pursuit of his victims, chasing them across the planes if necessary. Captain Vadrack’s longship was made of dark wood with distinctive red-colored sails.
A lavishly illustrated bestiary identified rare creatures called wamps, bizarre aberrations with multiple legs ending in webbed feet. Although wamps were generally a pale gray color, the skin of their feet was a dark red. A medical journal describing rare diseases listed corpsepox, ghoul fever, and zombie rot as diseases that carrion-eating wamps could inflict with their bites. The reader was advised to avoid cemeteries and necropolises, where wamps sometimes congregated in large numbers.
With all seven items and starting points to find them in the Dreamlands now researched, they finished the day on Lamashan the 21st amazed that they were able to research everything Lowls had in only two weeks (except for Myfanwy, who was now convinced Lowls was a pathetic academic wannabe). They now just had to decide which item they would go after first.
Session the Nineteenth (Part One):
After resting the night, the party discussed which item they should go for first in their dream quests to give to the Mad Poet in return for their lost memories. They decided to choose randomly and picked the Captain’s tricorne as their first quest. They arrived at Xer that day, and Captain Skywin managed to resupply and get out of the Razmiran city within an hour. A few miles down the West Sellen River, however, a large, rowed barge approached the Sellen Starling. This turned out to be the Tribute Taker, one of the Razmiran “faith barges.”
Skywin cursed her luck at drawing the attention of a faith barge, and it was clear that the Tribute Taker could outpace the Sellen Starling. Skywin planned to negotiate with the ship’s priest, insisting that her payment in Xer already covered her tribute to the church. The party was skeptical, and Avarel accompanied her on board the Tribute Taker in case there was trouble. The barge pulled along side and boards were set to allow the crew of the Sellen Starling to board.
This wide ship had a large, furled sail and heavy oars bristling from below decks. The low forecastle was adorned with glowering masks. The captain of the Tribute Taker turned out to be a vicious bully of a Razmiri priest named Hinks Argrup and his crew consisted of brutish initiates. Skywin explained that she already paid in Xer, but Captain Argrup simply laughed aloud. Evie cast mental block on the Razmiri priest to help Skywin, but it caused the priest to drop all pretense. Captain Argrup ordered his crew to attack, instructing them to keep the brawniest passengers alive “as new rowers for our hold.”
Myfanwy moved up to the helm of the Tribute Taker and engaged one of the Razmiri crew in combat. Avarel moved up next to Captain Argrup and his sword burst into flame. Belinda moved into a flank with Skywin and pierced the Captain’s abdomen, reducing his ability to defend himself. Winter kept back and prepared to defend the crew, as she felt a conflict between Razmiran priests and a Pharasmin priest could produce “problems” for her brethren.
Skywin drew her rapier and flipped over to the side and managed to take down a Razmiran goon with two well placed thrusts. Luna moved under the feet of another goon but failed to land a claw. Three of the goons moved onto the Sellen Starling to attack Winter, Evie, and Bettina. Evie cast hold person on the goon attacking Winter, paralyzing him. Bettina Attacked one of the three on her, and Evie created an illusory double of Bettina to provide a flank. This distracted the goon enough for Bettina to thrust Red Destiny through his neck, killing him instantly.
Captain Argrup swung his greatsword but hit only air. Myfanwy killed a goon as Avarel stepped in and attacked Captain Argrup with his flaming longsword, cauterizing wounds as he inflicted them. Belinda struck again reducing his ability to bend and move to defend himself. Skywin killed another goon as Luna found herself not damaging the Razmirans very well with jagged slices. Evie went up to the one she paralyzed and pushed him over the side. Bettina continued her fight against two goons at once as Myfanwy killed another goon. Avarel removed the Captain’s head before engaging another goon. Skywin swung out on a rope, pushed a goon towards Belinda, Belinda stepped back as Skywin landed, and missed with her rapier.
Bettina and Belinda both got hit with glancing blows as Evie moved into a flank with Bettina. Bettina killed the one between her and Evie as Myfanwy took down another goon on the Tribute Taker. With one goon remaining, Avarel checked below decks to see if there were any more goons as Skywin swung in to begin attacking as Luna moved to the bow of the ship and began washing herself. Bettina finished the last one off with a thrust through his heart.
Avarel found a large cabin containing a few hammocks, boxes with personal effects, and two large chests. Two large trap doors in the floor were open, and the smell of unwashed flesh wafted upward. Avarel freed the fourteen slaves and they brought them over to the Sellen Starling as the party looted the chests. Skywin knew she couldn’t leave the slaves on the Tribute Taker, even if liberated, lest Razmiri discover and execute them. Both banks of the Sellen were dangerous there: Razmiran claimed the north and Kyonin held the south, paranoid about Razmiran invaders. Skywin decided to take the liberated slaves aboard the Sellen Starling long enough to find a safe haven and commanded her crew to sink the empty Tribute Taker.
The crowded conditions on the Sellen Starling over the next five days were tense. The party was unable to perform their Dreamlands Excursion Ritual. Evie was gracious and kindly performed for them with her mesmerist abilities, entertaining everyone despite the uncomfortable conditions. One of the slaves gratefully gave her his battered boots of speed, which the Razmiri never realized were magical. The keelboat reached a River Kingdoms fishing hamlet called Vestonia. After ensuring that the Sellen Starling contained no agents of Razmiran, the elders of the hamlet welcomed the slaves. They set sail again on the afternoon of the 27th of Lamashan, and they decided to cast the ritual that evening and see if they could reach Captain Vadrack and the red sailed Bloodwind.
Before they performed the ritual Evie gave the boots of speed to Avarel to maximize his attacks. They awoke in their usual berths on the Sellen Starling. It was morning and apparently the ritual failed. However, they noticed some things that seemed out of place. For one, Luna was able to speak to them in perfect Taldane. Skywin was acting erratically, gazing off to the horizon and tilting her head as though listening for a sound that no one else could hear.
The waters of the river seemed unusually clear and teemed with iridescent fish. The fish were cautious, cunning creatures that Evie and Myfanwy stated that the fish were harmless but were not native to the Inner Sea region. The river was not following the expected course, as though the ship may have gotten lost. Along the shore, a herd of flabby, waddling quadrupeds approached the river to drink. They resembled elephants with short trunks and small ears. Evie and Myfanwy recognized them as buopoths, extra-planar animals. They realized they were in the Dreamlands after all. Then they caught sight of a red-sailed longship in pursuit of them, and they daw that its red sail seemed blood-drenched rather than merely red cloth. They could make out the name Bloodwind on the ship’s prow.
As they prepared for battle, Skywin snapped back her head and howled, her limbs elongating and darkening as her mouth bristled with fangs. In a heartbeat, the little captain became a hulking beast of shadow, claws, and teeth. The nightmare creature caused a blast of fear to engulf the party, causing Belinda to become panicked. She fled to bow of the ship and cowered in fear. Myfanwy recognized the creature as a feargaunt, a dream creature composed of nightmares able to bend reality.
Luna cast magic missile into the monster, but Myfanwy became shaken by the unnatural aura of the creature. Evie supressed the effect as Avarel charged into the creature and used his ability to smite evil beings to hit it hard with his sacred avenger. Evie missed with a scorching ray and Bettina struck with red destiny to little effect. The feargaunt vanished from where it was and reappeared next to Myfanwy and Belinda and it clawed Myfanwy with its tormenting touch, torturing the investigator.
Luna continued using magic missiles into the creature but drew a claw attack from the feargaunt. Avarel used the boots of speed and ran up and struck the creature twice. The creature snarled and slashed the paladin with a vicious strike. Luna withdrew and got ready to cast more spells. Avarel struck the feargaunt with powerful strikes and destroyed the nightmare. He then healed the group with a channel energy. They then prepared for the arrival of the Bloodwind.
Once the Bloodwind reached the Sellen Starling, the Bloodwind pulled alongside and the ships sailors scrambles over to the keelboat and attacked. As it closed, the Bloodwind emanated a low whuffling noise, as though it were chuckling. One of the sailors landed right next to Luna, who proceeded to rip severe wounds on him with her claws. Avarel moved up the ships edge and confronted a wall of enemy sailors. He tried to make a hole through the line, but even with strong and powerful strikes the sailors held.
Belinda and Bettina moved in to try and help make a hole but were unable to do so. Myfanwy injured one of the sailors, then the sailors attacked back, injuring Luna, Myfanwy, and Bettina with glancing blows using their heavy flails. Evie hit the sailor Avarel injured in the face with a scorching ray, eliminating his head. Luna eviscerated her target, while Avarel attacked another sailor and moved into the gap in front of him on the edge of the ship. He killed his opponent and was now positioned to get aboard the Bloodwind.
Avarel grabbed hold of the rail of the Bloodwind and hauled himself aboard. He then moved toward the helm, where Captain Vadrack and what appeared to be a wraith were reading themselves for the assault. The battle continued onboard the Sellen Starling with the agile defenders outmatching the skills of the invading sailors, though Bettina and Myfanwy took minor blows. Evie successfully placed one under the effects of a hold person. A boom onboard the Bloodwind swung in and knocked Avarel back, placing an obstacle between him and the Captain.
Luna slunk into the shadows and then surprised another sailor from below, opening terrible wounds on his torso and legs. Avarel ducked under the boom and then charged the helm, striking the wraith his full power. He managed to destroy it with two powerful blows. Captain Vadrack cast shocking grasp and attacked Avarel with his scimitar, shocking and cutting the paladin. Myfanwy killed one sailor and Evie took control of the dying sailor, making him fight for the party instead.
Luna climbed up on the sailor she was fighting to keep him from being able to hit her. Avarel took on Captain Vadrack in single combat and managed to open the denizen of Leng’s side. The sailors killed the dying sailor controlled by Evie, but they also began piling on Evie, trying to kill her as they now ascertained she was controlling and affecting them. The one fighting Luna was getting very frustrated, unable to reach the “blasted cat!”
On the Bloodwind, a rope tangled Avarel’s legs binding him place. Luna began slashing at the sailor’s throat while Avarel cut through the rope, freeing himself. Capatian Vadrack swung with another shocking grasp scimitar, but Evie caused him to see three Avarels, and he took out the fake two. Belinda killed another sailor and Bettina stabbed hers through the shoulder. Evie killed another with her dagger and took control of the dying sailor.
The Bloodwing tried to knock Avarel off the ship with a free spar, but the paladin was able to dodge out of the way. Luna ripped out the throat of the sailor she was fighting, killing him. Belinda took a strike to her arm as she moved on to the ships rail and stabbed at another invading sailor. Bettina flipped over her opponent but missed with a wild thrust. Myfanwy was about to be hit with a serious blow, but Evie invoked another mesmeric mirror to save her. However, Belinda was hit with a devastating blow and fell off the rail into the water unconscious…
Session the Nineteenth (Part Two):
…but managed to wake up on the ship in the real world thanks to a sudden dash of heroic luck. Winter healed Belinda up and she joined in watching over the dreamers’ sleeping bodies. Evie cast hold person on the one that “killed” Belinda. Luna jumped over to the Bloodwind to go to help Avarel, getting to Captain Vadrack.
Vadrack hit Avarel with his shocking scimitar for a devastating hit slashing open the paladin’s sword arm, though not enough to slow the paladin down. The last active sailor fought his controlled former ally and they began tearing into each other. Evie pushed one of the two held sailors off the boat, killing him. A loose boom swung in and knocked Avarel over the side, but he managed to grab onto the rail with his shield.
Luna waited until Avarel pulled himself back up onto the deck and slashed at Vadrack for a solid slash through what should have been the denizen of Leng’s heart but wasn’t. Luna slashed with two claws and bit into Vadrack’s leg, not doing as much as she should have and not finding his femoral artery (which wasn’t where it should have been). Vadrack cast hypnotic pattern and Luna became fascinated with the flashing and changing colours. He then cut Avarel’s shield arm.
Bettina killed the last active sailor with a solid strike with red destiny and Myfanwy pushed the other held sailor over the side. Evie let the dying one she had control over collapse and then moved onto the Bloodwind. The ship tried to entangle Avarel in ropes, but he cut through them and ran the denizen of Leng through with his sword, causing Captain Vadrack to expire and his body slowly dissolve. Luna was saddened by the loss of the pretty colours. They looted the bodies and put the gear in the bag of holding for Luna to return to the real world with it. They took the Captain’s tricorne and 5000 gp worth of rubies. They then left the Dreamlands and woke up.
They decided to let Luna take a week to incorporate a cloak of resistance into her fur. Five days later, just after dawn on the 1st of Neth as they crossed Lake Kallas, lookouts spied four figures on a battered fishing boat waving for help. The four humans had the patched clothing and bedraggled appearance of lost fisherfolk. The Sellen Starling approached cautiously, which was prudent as the fisherfolk attacked as soon as the fishing boat drew alongside.
One of the fisherfolk cast a spell and a mass of poisonous frogs fell from the sky. The crew of the Sellen Starling moved into the cabin to avoid the frogs. They then drew their hidden scimitars and clamoured onto the deck of the Starling. The party moved into combat, trying to avoid the poison frogs, but Evie began being slowed down by the venom. She still managed to place one of the attackers under a hold person spell. Avarel and Myfanwy were nauseated by the frogs and Myfanwy moved out of the combat. Avarel interposed himself between the attackers and the others. Bettina moved around the ship and attacked the held attacker and sliced her arm badly. Winter cast prayer to supress the enemy and strengthen the group.
One of the attackers cast hydraulic push and sent Belinda over the side into their boat. Another cut Avarel with a nasty cut to the forehead. Belinda stood up and threw her dagger but missed by a mile. Evie continued to be sucked down by the poison, so she stepped out of the frogs and into the doorway of the cabin. Skywin managed to kill two of the attackers with blazing series of thrusts. Avarel recovered from his nausea to begin fighting the attacker who wounded him.
Bettina slit the throat of the held attacker, killing her. Winter stepped in and began clawing the remaining attacker. The attacker turned into a giant otter and began clawing at Avarel. The frogs vanished and Belinda climbed back up onto the ship. She stabbed the otter and Avarel finished her off, ending the combat but leaving the party and crew of the Sellen Starling dishevelled and somewhat poisoned.
Session the Twentieth (Part One):
After healing up to the best of their ability, the Sellen Starling continued across Lake Kallas. They put in at Riverton to get supplies. Skywin told the party that she intended to keep the Riverton stop short. This was primarily to avoid being present for the mandatory sunset service dedicated to Hanspur (which everyone, even a visitor, would be required to attend). She had attended one of those compulsory ceremonies before, which she described as “three hours of desperate shoreline flailing by mad, muddy fanatics.” Skywin also wanted to be gone before anyone in the zealous community learned of the Sellen Starling’s conflict with the violent Hanspur worshipers on the lake.
As soon as the Sellen Starling tied off to a pier at the south end of Riverton, striding up to the ship came a wide-eyed elf, his patched robe and mud-spiked hair swinging around his rail-thin frame. A coterie of women followed a few paces behind him. The man thrust his hands into the air and shouted “The Water Rat delivers, but in his own time! I have seen you in murky reflections and I would impart Hanspur’s sodden wisdom to you with private words—let us speak of strange dreams, red sails, and dead fisherfolk!”
Skywin identified the elf as Naerel Twice-Born, the religious leader of Riverton. The party agreed to follow Naerel to a nearby cabin under a large tree to talk privately, with Luna taking a break and following them. He remained bombastic and vague in his speech until they sat down together, when he relaxed the attitude somewhat and spoke to them seriously. He told them that a ship with red sails had come to Riverton weeks before them and its captain had asked whether any travelers matching their description had been in Riverton, giving Naerel a large ruby for the information.
Naerel told the strange creature that no such visitors had arrived and that his ruby was ill-spent, but the captain merely chuckled and gestured for Naerel to keep the gem. The chuckling had continued and Naerel realized it was not the captain, but the ship itself that was chuckling. The prophet of Hanspur wanted to know what this was all about and was willing to pay for the knowledge. With that, the Naerel produced a glittering ruby the size of a child’s fist.
Evie told Naerel that they had encountered the ship days before and had defeated its captain and his crew in battle, and that the Bloodwind was a ship from the Dreamlands and Leng in particular. With that news Naerel was satisfied and warned the party he was suspicious the ruby was cursed, so would be glad if they took it with them. Evie asked what Naerel meant by “dead fisherfolk,” and the River Prophet admitted that four members of his community had been attacking ships in the area. Naerel had intended to exile them, as their attacks were impacting trade in his town, and when told of their fate he was glad that they had been slain.
Naerel left them then and they studied the ruby and found no signs of a curse. As they were heading back to the ship, a hideous creature blending features of both bat and ape swooped down to attack them from a nearby tree. Myfanwy was the only one who saw it coming and shouted out a warning. She identified it as an ahool, a creature of jungle ruins. It was obviously out of place in the River Kingdoms.
Myfanwy took her extract of heroism and explained what they were facing to the others. It flew down and grabbed Evie with its mouth and began flying off with her. Luna mrowled and her ear-piercing scream injured the ahool and dazed it, causing it to hover in place some ten feet off the ground. Belinda threw her dagger but missed. Myfanwy ran over, drank a levitate extract and went up to the creature.
Bettina then approached but was unable to hit the creature. Avarel stepped up and swung high with his longsword, slicing it as he invoked his smite. Evie used a wand of command but failed to get the ahool to drop her. Luna hit it with a magic missile, three bolts slamming into the beast. Belinda hit it with her dagger and Myfanwy studied the creature and hit with two precise hits into its torso with her rapier.
Avarel cut the monster open with a powerful swing, causing it to fall dead on top of Evie. As they helped Evie up and Avarel healed her, Luna spied a makeshift nest up in the tree the ahool attacked them from. Luna climbed up to the nest and found six rubies which she batted out of the next to the ground. She then yowled to be helped down. Myfanwy walked over to the tree and then levitated up to bring Luna down. The party then hurried back to the Sellen Starling where Skywin was looking at the sun, as it was getting awfully low to the horizon. They departed Riverton post haste.
Myfanwy spent the next day brooding over how they were being pursued by the Bloodwind and what that implied: they were almost certainly being hunted by someone, but by whom? Could it be Lowls himself, or one of his allies? Perhaps someone they offended or an agent of the King in Yellow? What did it mean, and could it even make sense with the time distortions of the Dreamlands? Her brooding was deep and long.
By the night of the 3rd of Neth, Luna finished adapting the cloak of resistance to herself and was ready to proceed with another Dreamlands quest. They decided to hunt for the pard tail and deal with the zoogs, much to Luna’s displeasure. They performed the ritual and found themselves in a forest of massive trees. They stood on the wide, flat branch of an enormous oak tree. Smaller branches ended in sprays of wide, sturdy leaves and connected to the branches of other trees throughout this arboreal landscape. The leaves looked strong enough to bear a grown man’s weight.
From around a corner came three trolls. The trolls looked at the party in surprise, then howled and challenged the party in Giant. Luna jumped into the shadow of a leaf and appeared in the shadow of another leaf right next to the trolls, hidden. Avarel, Bettina, Belinda, and Myfanwy moved in to engage the trolls. Evie stayed back and cast confusion on the trolls, but they seemed to resist; it seemed odd to Evie, as though there was no will there to overcome.
Luna attacked the nearest troll with The Claw but did not seem to do any damage. Luna realized that they were illusions, which she shouted out as a large creature became visible right next to Evie. Merging the features of a horse and human, the monstrosity had an equine snout, sharp fangs, and long forelimbs with clawed fingers. Its sudden appearance and horrific appearance caused Belinda to lapse into a delusion: she came to believe that she was just a simulacrum or reflection of Bettina, rather than her twin and thus just an illusion like the trolls.
Evie moved rapidly as a blur right to Avarel’s side, using her compel alacrity ability to do so. Evie then cast terrible remorse on the creature, and it began hitting itself in its guilt. Avarel charged over and smote the creature with holy power flowing through his sword. Myfanwy moved in and struck the creature as Bettina identified it as a tikbalang, a monster that could be confused or mollified with things such as singing or wearing your shirts inside out. Bettina took off her shirt and began flipping it inside out. Belinda moved in to attack to defend her true self, elbowing Bettina out of the way saying if Bettina died that she would disappear. Luna began singing the song of her people in order to disorient the creature. Avarel got very confused, then killed the self-harming monster with two powerful slashes of his longsword. Luna stated that its quick death proved her song worked.
After the party defeated the tikbalang, dozens of zoogs creeped from their hiding places to converse with them. The zoogs were thankful, but wary of the strangers in their realm. Evie told the zoogs of their interest in finding a feline with blue-and-purple mottled fur, the tiny creatures explained that feature belongs to a rare creature called a pard. Some pards used to live on the forest floor, but the zoogs killed and ate them several weeks before. The zoogs had only the bones and tails of the pards stashed in their dens. The zoogs were willing to trade a pard tail to the party for a new meal of exotic feline.
The zoogs stated that several tigers hunted a higher, sunnier portion of the Enchanted Woods’ canopy. If the party returned a freshly killed tiger to the zoogs, they were willing to trade it for the pard tail. Evie asked for additional information, and the zoogs said that there were five or six tigers and one was larger than the others. The zoogs considered the tigers quite dangerous and were thankful that the tigers tended to remain out of the zoogs’ territory. The zoogs provided clear directions to the tigers’ hunting grounds a few miles to the east through the boughs of the Enchanted Wood’s massive trees. The party agreed to the deal and set out.
Luna was highly unimpressed with everything and everyone.
After travelling for awhile, they came to a section of the forest canopy where the leaves and branches were open to the deep blue sky above and were bathed in bright sunlight. Out of the sunlight came four large-eyed humanoids that looked like glowing, emaciated elven children save for their small, transparent wings. One of the creatures cast daylight, intensifying the light in the dappled areas and rendering all four invisible. The other three cast blindness on Avarel, Myfanwy, and Evie, blinding Evie.
Myfanwy identified the humanoids as lurkers in light, malicious and nasty fey. She drank an extract of invisibility and vanished. Avarel moved in to where they used to be and swung in a wide arc. He managed to hit one if the lurkers, his cold iron sword slicing dep into the fey. Luna used burning ears to get two of the fey in the fire blast. Bettina moved in and tried to hit with Red Destiny but missed. Belinda saw her stabbing at air and moved in top try and keep her true self from falling off the side of the branch.
Evie managed to still use her psychic magic to place on of the lurkers under her hypnotic stare then used the wand of bless on the party. The lurkers attacked Avarel, Myfanwy, Bettina, and Luna, but Bettina only got a small wound. Avarel swung his sword wildly and managed to hit the lurker he hit before, and it fell dead to the branch. Luna tried to cast a spell defensively but got attacked by the lurker instead. The lurkers tittered as they attacked, growing louder when they wounded one of the party.
Bettina missed but Belinda questioned whether there was anything there and whether she was just a figment of Bettina’s imagination since she was obviously insane. She then managed to hit one of the lurkers, proving she was just a figment like them. As they flew to move into better positioning, their fluttering revealed their positions temporarily. They managed to claw Bettina and Luna. Avarel and Myfanwy managed to hit more lurkers but didn’t seem to do much damage.
Luna went on the defensive, making her incredibly hard to hit as she ducked and dodged. Bettina and Belinda managed to do more damage, but without cold iron weaponry, the wounds were minor. Evie managed to hit with her dagger even though she was blind but did nothing due to her steel weapon. Avarel managed to kill another lurker with two strikes and moved to where he saw a third one move.
Belinda continued to imitate each and every move Bettina made, and between them they continued to wear down a lurker. Evie managed to re-establish her gaze on a Lurker, saving Luna from a near miss. Avarel managed to kill yet another and the last lurker decided to flee but got hit several times before it began to move freely. Myfanwy and charged after it and stabbed it as Avarel shot it with his bow after dropping shield and sword, killing it.