| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
After a several years long hiatus from Pathfinder I returned to these forums to gain some inspiration after trying to give Carrion Crown another chance. When it came out it was my most anticipated AP to date but unfortunately my players at the time had little interest in a horror campaign so even though I spent months preparing for the Campaign I ended up having to scrap it.
This time however, I managed to convince my group even though they consist of mainly the same players so a few days ago we had our first session of the Haunting of Harrowstone.
My party consists of Pudge; an Id rager Bloodrager aspiring to become a paladin playing a homemade Frankenstein monster race know as a stitched, Dr. Alexei Zeki; An old human monster hunter/scavenger investigator that swaps out his extracts for temporary inventions and has a possessed mechanical arm, The Great Calcasio A gnome curator occultist with an obsession for numbers, Magdrak Freiherr Von Mushausen; A dwarven noble graveslinger and Karl Breckenridge; a human Inquisitor of Pharasma inspired by Castlevania. Another player that couldn't make it is going to play "E" a Dhampir White Necromancer that helps undead find a purpose for good before they can peacefully enter the afterlife.
I started the session as the pc's were headed to Ravengro in a carriage along a muddy treacherous path while a storm was raging. Up in the distance they could see the silhouette of the town and the prison as they were illuminated by the occasional strike of lightning. As they approached all pc's got a feeling of discomfort and the horses pulling their carriage became upset and unruly. As they neared Kendras home, Karl thought he saw a robed figure watching them from the side of the road, but as no one else noticed the figure, he kept it to himself assuming it was just one of the locals. They pulled up in front of Kendras home and was greeted not only by Kendra but by a couple of other visitors that had come to pay their respect. Among the other guests were a corpulent, nervous antiquarian named Lorne Maltrov and his bodyguard, a grim mercenary called Talbot, A trenchcoat wearing half-elf traveler named Icharo Legrosse and a crippled nobleman named Adivion Adrissant, all former friends, students, colleagues or associates of the professor. All of the pc's had arrived apart from Calcaso who had been traveling alone in a separate carriage and was running late and "E" who will be introduced into the Campaign at a later date.
The pc's got to know the npc's a bit before they turned in for the night and especially got a fondness for Adivion despite his arrogant aristocratic demeanor. They also learned that another guest had arrived, an unpleasant elitist halfling author named Jaques Ellias, who had refused Kendras offer of accommodations and instead chosen to lodge at the Outward Inn.
That night the pc's were plagued by nightmares where they were feverishly writing their names in blood with their skinless fingertips. Karl woke up noticing he had pulled out his dagger and started to carve his name into the floor were he slept. Pudge, needing no sleep was alerted by Karls sudden awakening and came to investigate from the hall outside were he had been sitting watch. Then the two of them noticed a tapping on one of the windows, but they assumed it was just a branch from the tree growing near the house and went back to their normal positions. Alexei however, having gotten up to relieve himself later that night, also heard the tapping and went to investigate noticing a ghostly raven tapping at the window. As Alexei went to investigate the raven fled of into the stormy night, but moments later Alexei noticed the silhouette of a robed man staring at him from between some trees close to the house. The silhouette quickly disappeared into the shadows and Alexei assumed it was just his mind playing tricks on him before he went back to bed.
The next morning they all gathered at the road leading up to the Restlands where the professor was to be buried. The pc's also noticed several locals, including a couple of the towns more prominent members, Councilman Muricar and Hearthmount as well as the towns Alchemist Jomanda Fallenbridge and the proprietor of the local tavern, Zokar Elkarid and his son Pevrin, there was also a mysterious robed foreigner that Kendra explained was a former assosciate of the Professor named Nazul Ebon. Nazul had no interest in speaking to anyone meeting all greetings with silence. Right as they were about to start carrying the coffin, Jaques and Calcasio came running up the muddy road, their clothes soaked by rain and mud. Jaques swore and muttered to himself ignoring any greetings from the pc's but instead commanding the procession to "get on with it". The halflings rudness was met by scorn by most of the attendees and Kendra almost exploded at the halflings lack of respect but was calmed by Adivion.
Soon the procession started, but as soon as they got up the hill they saw a gathering of locals wielding farm implements and improvised weapons. The mob was led by an old grizzled man with sideburns and rotted teeth that the pc's soon got to know as Gibs Hephenus. The mob demanded the procession to leave the graveyard and bury the professor somewhere else, insinuating they dump him in the river outside of town. Kendra exploded, Adivion unable to restrain her as she started to yell at Gibs. The pc's soon intervened, carefully lowering the coffin before adressing the mob. The pc's tried to convince Gibs to get his teeth checked as his rotted teeth may be a symptom of a more serious disease but Gibs couldn't be distracted by personal remarks and came with further threats. The pc's tried to use reason, but eventually Pudge stepped up to reveal his hideous face and told them to back up or face his wrath. Unfortunately the reveal only strengthened the mobs resolve and a skirmish ensued as the locals ganged up on the pc's. The other attendees stepped back, terrified of the violence except Adivion and Talbot. Adivion stepped in front of Kendra to protect her barely able to stand on his one good leg as he put his cane in front on him in defense. Talbot brought Lorne to safety and stood back to protect him leaving all the fighting to the pc's.
The combat wasn't deadly as the locals only tried to chase the pc's away, but that all changed when Karl pulled out a knife in an effort to intimidate the locals. This led one of the locals to pull out an axe and take a swing at Karl, luckily missing. Seeing the deadly threat, Alexei punched the man in the chest with his mechanical arm breaking several of the thugs ribs. The escalation of the combat was enough to scare away some of the thugs, but a few still remained, now changing their tactics to lethal attacks. Calcasio quickly de-escalated the battle however, as he used his magical abilities to create an illusion that the voices of the dead suddenly started to talk from the surrounding graves. This was enough to scare away the rest of the mob as well as most of the guests.
Finally, after getting rid of the mob, the procession could proceed to bury the professor. As they reached the burial site they were greeted by an ancient looking man wearing the robes of a priest of Pharasma. He was standing close to an open grave with a drunken, babbling man resting on a shovel near a pile of dirt on the side of the grave. The priest instantly started to curse Gibs and his cronies assuring the pc's that they would be punished. The priest then asked the attendees to share a few words before they buried the professor. Adivion gave a heartwarming speech about his time studying under the professor impressing the players with his eloquence. Lorne and Talbot had fled when Calcasio used his illusion, but Nazul stepped forward chanting something in ancient Osirian before he placed a box on top of the coffin, Kendra was barely able to hold back her tears and Adivion had to hold her to assure that she didn't collapse from her emotional stress, Icharo gave a short but heartwarming speech about his time traveling with the professor and Jaques gave a short, but almost mocking speech where he insinuated the inferiority of the professors work compared to his. To remain respectful nobody confronted the halfling about his rudeness. All the pc's told how they had met the professor and the relationship they had with him throughout their lives. Pudge remembers how he saved the professor from highwaymen and how he had taken him in, offering a job as a bodyguard and driver and learned him how to control his inhuman anger; Alexei told how he went from the professors student to his colleague and how the professor had aided him in his work to gain his doctorate in Arcane sciences; Magdrak told the story of how the professor had thought him the secret techniques of how to defeat the ghosts that killed his family and Calcasio how he respected the professors understanding of the occult and how he brought several rare artifacts for the gnome to study, becoming one of his closest associates. Karl had been studying under the professor to better learn how to hunt undead and monsters, a profession his family had been undertaking for hundreds of years and he saw the professor as his closest mentor and a father figure. After the speeches, Father Grimburrow performed the last rites before the drunken gravedigger filled up the grave.
After the funeral the pc's as well as Adivion, Kendra and Icharo returned to Kendras house where Councilman Hearthmount was to read Lorrimors will. Due to the ruckus at the graveyard, Hearthmount had been scared witless by Calcasio's spell and did not arrive as intended. The pc's contemplated to visit the councilman, but agreed to stay with Kendra and Icharo went to fetch him instead. Also present in the house were Lorne and Talbot. Lorne was fervently packing his gear, planning to leave as soon as possible. The pc's didn't try to stop him but convinced him to at least stay for the reading of the will by telling him the truth about how they scared off the mob.
Finally Icharo returned with the Councilman in tow. Icharo had told the Councilman about Calcasio's illusion, but he was still noticeably nervous as he shakily pulled out a letter opener to remove the seal of the scroll case that held the will. Reading the names on the will the councilman respectfully asked those not mentioned to leave the room, leaving only the pc's and Kendra present. Upon the reading of the will, Hearthmount gasped and paused as the will mentioned magic and occult secrets, but still managed to complete the reading. As soon as the will had been read, the councilman quickly signed the papers before leaving, almost stumbling on his way out.
It seemed the professor had left a cache of rare books to the pc's to be delivered to certain individuals in Lepidstat. Calcasio thought he recognized the symbol on one of the books but couln't quite place where he had seen it. Alexei, being an initiate of the order of the Palatine Eye immediately recognized the sigil but kept its significance to himself. After studying the books, Alexei decided to read the professors journal.
End of part 1
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Congratulations on the start of your Campaign Mortagon!
I ran this AP many years ago and will be running it again soon for a new group with one veteran player and four brand new ones to Pathfinder.
May we each have success with running in the new year!
Please keep us posted.
Unfortunately my Campaign has been on a hiatus as we have playtested the upcoming Fallout RPG. We have had a few more sessions and I will try to give an update if I can recollect everything that happened. I'm getting my game going again this weekend so I will keep you updated.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
A lot has happened in my Campaign, to much to go into detail, but to make a long stroy short, after handling many mysteries in Ravengro and building trust with the locals, they were finally allowed access to harrowstone.
Knowing my players they refused to back down and decided to push on into the prison despite the challenges they were facing. They swiftly moved through the ground floor dispatching most threats with little effort and eventually encountered Vesorianna and learned the truth about the prison and the haunting that palgued Ravengro. On learning about the relics that may help defeat the undead the party headed towards the vault where Vesorianna pointed to. Despite the exceptional skill of Alexei he still failed to pick the lock so they decided to try to find the key which Vesorianna had told them could be found in the lower levels of the prison.
The party quickly found the entrance down but were assaulted by flying, burning human skulls emerging from the prisons dephts. This proved to be to much for calcasio the gnome who turned himself invisible and ran outside.
He tried to hide near the edge of the water, but was ambushed by burning skeletons emerging from the murky dephts. The gnome desperatly threw a grappling hook up on the ledge of a nearby balcony and climbed up, only to be ambushed yet again by flesh eating plants. The gnome was able to burn one of the plants with a burning hands spell before succumbing to the sleeping spores of the plants.
Luckily, Karl, the inquisitor of Pharasma had heard the desperate screams of the gnome and rushed out of the ruins to help. Karl managed to dispatch another plant, but fell victim to the spores of the thrid and last plant.
The rest of the party managed to scramble to help the gnome and inquisitor fighting a despearte battle against the burning skeletons. Pudge the stitched bloodrager charged in with his scythe despite his vulnerability to fire. Finding his scythe to be ineffective agaisnt the skeletons he switched weapons and started to punch the skeletons with his brass knuckles. Pudge wa severely injured but managed to destroy the skeletons with aid of the new party member Hurgo a fetchling shadowcaller summoner that called upon a shadowy eagle to harass the skeletons.
After the ordeal the party was in bad shape but still decided to move on and climb down into the dephts of the prison.
At the bottom they were greated by ectoplasmic undead and more skeletons, but still, with almost no resources left, the party pressed on. Then they encountered the spirit of the prisoner known as the Lopper.....
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Nice write up despite the misfortunes.
My favorite AP. We came within a week of beginning CC here before real life intervened as well as logistics. It looks like the only way for me to get into CC is via pbp as a player or GM.
Looking forward to the next installment regardless.
There's been a long break due to the virus but we're back on track and will hopefully get a couple of sessions in this weekend.
So our game this weekend got cancelled due to one player being ill and another one dislocating his shoulder. Hopefully we'll get started next weekend.
It's been a while since we played so the details about what happened in the battle against the lopper is kind of hazy, but to make a long story short the lopper owned the party and it took everything they had to survive. In the end Pudge urged the rest of the party to leave while he held off the lopper. The rest of the party didn't know how the battle went as they climbed out of the prison to patch their wounds. Eventually however Pudge came crawling out, barely alive. Somehow he had managed to defeat the lopper.
After their ordeal in the prison the party went back to the Lorrimor place to rest up. They woke up to peculiar hauntingly beautiful violin music reverberating throughout the town. Then there was a knock on the door. Pudge the only one awake at this moment, opened the door only to see the faceof Professor Lorrimor in front of him, alive and vibrant as ever, the illusion soon faded however as the professor stretched out his hands and started to strangle pudge, his face melting into a worm infested, jawless rotten grimace. Before the rest of the party could get down to the lobby Pudge had already grabbed his scythe and cut the undead thing to pieces. Then they heard the cries of a child and they saw one of the local children, a young girl and the daughter of the local owners of the general store, come running up to their home, screaming as she saw thegory remains of the professor but soon calmed by Alexeis fatherly demeanor. She pleaded for them to come to the store talking incoherently about her grandparents. When the pc's reached the town square they saw that it had erupted into chaos as villagers were fleeing from the living dead. It seemed that the sheriff and the local bank guards had the situation under control and the pc's followed the girl into the store. Pudge was the first one to enter while the other pc's were delayed by the events ogoing on in the town. He heard shuffling, moaning and knocking above and muffled screams. He hurried up the stairs only to see two decomposed humans scratching and knocking at a door. The little girl pointed and whispered "Grandma and grandpa". Pudge didn't hesitate and rushed in with his scythe cleaving through the undead before they could attack. He bashed down the door only to finde the store owners curled up against a wall with an undead shadow hovering above them ready to strike. Pudge realised his weapon couldn't harm the thing but luckily Karl came climbing up through the window and brandished his holy symbol of Pharasma cahnneling holy energy that caused the shadow to evaporate in a silent scream.
The group then gathered to help the rest of the townsfolk keeping the roaming undead away from the townsfolk with the aid of the sheriff and his deputies and the bank guards. Suddenly a rider on a skeletal horse came rushing in chasing a local boy. The rider had a broken neck with a noose attached and was clearly not alive. Magdrak jumped in front of the boy to intervene but the rider magically threw its noose around the dwarf and started to drag him up the road leading to the Lorrimor house. Pudge and Hurgi remained behind to aid the townsfolk while Alexei and Karl rushed after Magdrak. In an attempt to cut tyhe rope Magdrak tried to retrieve his axe but was tossed about after hitting a bump on the road, landing squarely on top of his axe blade leaving a deep bleeding wound. He soon fell unconscious just as Karl and Alexei reached him. Karl managed to destroy the horse by channeling energy, but the rider was made of sterner stuff and landed squarely on its feet as the horse disintegrated below him. A furious struggle began with Alexei attempting to stop Magdraks bleeding while Karl held off the undead with his last ounce of strength. Karl fought desperately slowly succumbing to the furious claw attacks of the undead. Alexei realized it was to late to save the dwarf and there on the road, laying in a pool of blood, Magdrak Freiherr von Munchausen, last of his line, died. With Magdrak gone Alexei focused on aiding Karl. The two desperately used all their strength and skill to take the undead abomination down, but it proved to strong for Alexei who was knocked hout by a single blow to the face leaving gashing clawmarks. Karl tried a desperate maneuver to rescue Alexei and too a risky maneuver to get a potion into Alexei to save him before he suffered the same fate as poor Magdrak. The gamble payed off. Totally focused on Karl, the undead failed to see Alexei wake up behind it. Karls armor took off the brunt of the things attacks while Alexei lifted his mechanical arm to strike it from behind. He hit its spine with a bonecrushing blow, zand the thing fell to its knees, but with inhuman vigor still managed to continue attacking in a frenzy, but this thime turning its ire against Alexei who blocked attack after attack on his mechanical arm. This gave Karl a chance to pull out a vial of holy water which he promptly shoved into the things mouth. The things head melted as it screamed in silent agony before crumbling to a heap of rotten flesh and bone. The two, half-dead and out of resources decided to go up to the Lorrimor house to restock. Karl threw Magdrak over his shoulder, but Magdrak suddenly started to move. The haunting violin music had animated him and he tried to tear out Karls neck. Kar tossed the dwarf zombie down and brought out his morningstar and before the zombie could get back on its feet magdrak had smashed its head in with a couple of well placed blows to the head which promptly exploded into a pilre of brain, blood and shattered bone.
Finally Pudge and Hurgo returned to the party and they all headed back to the Lorrimor house to rest, confident that the Sheriff and the deputies could handle the rest of the undead in the town. Calcasio had been curiously absent during this entire ordeal. When they arrived they found that the Professors corpse was gone and the door to the house was open. Even more curiously was the exotic black horse standing in the stable, seemingly unaffected by Alexeis unnatural aura. The party carefully entered the house to find a strange person wearing exotic armor and a straw hat sitting on a chair in the living room. Asd the party approached he lifted its head and the party could see that he had the head of a black raven. Alexei immediatly recognized the creature as a Tengu, a race of birdlike humanoids originally hailing from a far off land. While some Tengu, known as Ravenfolk locally, made their home in Ustalav, this one was clearly not local, although when it spoke it was fluently wuitha calm and soothing voice. "I am Taki, I am here to see Professor Lorrimor". The party explained what had happened to the professor and that his body was missing they also told him about the dire situation the town was in and Taki responded seemingly unphased and unafraid, but with an eagerness to stop whatever curse had come over the town. The party told that they had come to gather some gear and get some respite before heading to the temple of Pharasma to assess the situation, then they where heading for the violinist on the gravyard just outside of town.
On the way to confront the violinist the party stopped by the temple of Pharasma to check on the townspeople. Here father Grimburrow told them that his acolyte Rufio had headed up towards the graveyard on his own. Grimburrow healed up the party as best he could and let them borrow a wand of cure moderate wounds to help them in the fight. When they moved closer to the hill where the graveyard rested, they could see dozens of shambling figures shambling about almost rhythmically to the music.
On the road to the graveyard they were suddenly beset by a large black wolf with tattered, rotting fur, bones showing through rotting wounds. The undead wolf had been feeding on something, but quickly turned away from its meal to confront the party. Alexei recognized the wolf as a Ghoul wolf and warned about it's paralyzing bite. Karl was overpowered by the wolf before he could act and knocked down as the wolfs rotting jaws were snapping ever closer to his face. Taki charged in with his katana but missed but Pudge got in behind the wolf and managed to give it a deep lsash with his scythe. Karl managed to get back to his feet and finished the thing off with a mighty swing of his morningstar.
In the bushes they found the wolfs meal, what little was left of professor Lorrimors body. Beside the carcass lay Rufio with a deep bite wound, paralyzed but alive. He quickly came to and healed himself and Karl before joining the party. Karl gave him his crossbow telling the young cleric to stay back and leave the fighting to them.
After tending to the wounded cleric the party headed up towards the graveyard to confront the violinist who stood on the rooftop of a mausoleum while dancing and fiddling as a storm started to build up. Dozens of undead loitered around the graveyard rythmically swaying to the music. As the pc's approached the undead awoke from their enthrallment and charged towards the pc's who had to fight wave after wave of undead while making their way up towards the fiddler. More undead came bursting out from the graves around the graveyard as the pc's desperately managed to reach the mauseoleum. Hurgo and Rufio fired their crossbows at the fiddler and Karl tossed acouple of javelins at her, but the weapons didn't seem to wound her and just fell out of her body without leaving a mark. The pc's realized that the violin protected her from harm and only by destroying it could they end the undead plague. Pudge managed to climb onto the roof and try to grapple the fiddler, but she slipped away from his grasp no matter how hard he tried. Eventually Karl also made it to the roof while the rest of the party dealt with the undead below. After a few round trying to hit the fiddle with their attacks, Pudge managed to grab the fiddle, but he lost his footing and fell off the roff dropping the fiddle which immediatly compelled anyone close to pick it up. The fiddler jumped off the roof to grab the fiddle, but luckily Pudge managed to fight off the urge to play the fiddle and before anyone else could reach ith broke it in half. As he did an unholy red light burst forth from the broken fiddle as it folded into itself dragging the fiddler screaming into the light. Pudge could see a vague silhouette of a hellscape in the light before the violin and the fiddler vanished. As the violin was destroyed all the undead fell down becoming normal corpses once again.
After dealing with the fiddler the party headed back to the house for a well deserved rest. During the night Taki awoke to a large cat with abnormaly large eyes sitting on his chest staring at him. Taki knew there was a cat living in the house but had thought it to be long gone because of Alexei's curse which scared away animals. Suddenly the cat spoke telepathically to Taki. "Finally the bird awakens. It was about time someone realized I was here, the dimwits have stayed here for two weeks and still haven't noticed me. I am Chesterfield, the resident housecat, allow me to give yo the privilege and welcome you to my home. You should be honored, you're the first bird that has managed to enter this house and survive. Speaking of birds you haven't seen a pesky little whipporwill around here somewhere? I've seen him lurking around the house but the sneaky bastard always manage to get away." Taki engaged in some conversation with the cat until the rest of the party started to wake up upon which the cat suddenly had disappeared. Taki didn't know wether it had been a dream or not but knew that Kami's (spirits) often took the guise of animals to trick or guide mortals.
Before the party had finished breakfast the ghostly raven came bursting into the bedroom urging the party to follow. The raven led them to the Avolaki home where the sheriff and deputy Riff was talking to the Avolaki's.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
First off, I have to say that I love your variations on Fiddler's Lament/Murmuring Fountain plug-ins from Legendary.
I'm assuming the Fetchling Hurgo, was chosen by the player originally wanting to play "E" the Dhampir. Also is Taki the replacement character for the recently deceased Magdrak?
For some strange reason when I saw the name Karl Breckenridge, It made me think of Kate Beckinsale.
Epic stuff btw. Looking forward to more.
The player that was going to play "E" bailed. The player that plays Hurgo is another friend and yes Taki is indeed the new character of the player that played Magdrak ;)
Chesterfield is a homemade npc I'm going to use to tie in with the Wake of the Watcher and Karl's background I also have a Nosoi npc named Poe that has been following the pc's around chronicling their exploits although my players haven't noticed him yet. I absolutely love Psychopomps and thought it would be a missed opportunity not to use them in an AP centered around undead.
Sorry I haven't had time to share my Campaigns progress. A ton has happened since I since posted and we're well into Trial of the Beast now. The player that played Calcasio had to bail due to getting a new jobs so another player has joined playing a Dhampir Dirge bard named Damian Paine (Not the most original name I know). I don't remember all the details but here is a brief summary of what has happened:
They had a side quest in Clover's crossing involving the kidnapping of father Grimburrow by his long lost brother who had become a ghast and hired by the Whispering way to delay the players from stopping the haunting.
They managed to free Grimburrow and kill his brother and found notes that connected the ghouls to the Whispering way. They also met a Nosoi named Poe who joined them in their quest against the Whsipering way.
They went back to Ravengro and explored the rest of the prison where they managed to defeat all the haunts and finally kill the Splatterman. They also found the killer but I threw them a curveball and made him out to be the sheriff and Gibs was the last victim. The pc's learned that the sheriff was acting under the influence of the Splatterman and forgave him keeping his involvment a secret from the rest of the town and blaming the murders on Gibs.
They left ravengro after stopping the haunting. Karl had gotten a letter from his sister who was a Pathfinder member living in Absalom. She had been researching their family history and found that their family's ancient lost estate was located in a town named Corteau which just happened to be on the way to lepidstadt where the pc's were headed.... TBC
In Courtaud the players found out that an old mansion had bveen built atop the old family castle belonging to Karls family. The players learned that a mysterious man named Geist Gyldenkirke had recently bought the mansion and he had brought a group of mysterious robed strangers with him.
The players went to the mansion but as soon as they entered the property the entire mansion and the pc's was shifted into a strange mirror dimension. The players had many strange and disturbing experiences in the mansion fighting off bizarre alien creatures and undead alike. They realized that geist and his crew were cultists belonging to the whispering way and they were trying to resurrect one of the Whispering tyrants lieuenants named Marlow who was said to have perished in the castle below. Something had gone horribly wrong with the ritual shifting the entire mansion and castle into another dimension. They realized that one of the old residents of the mansion also had experienced strange interdimensional anomalies and was killed after summoning some eldritch creature.
karl found his familys old journal and learned that his ancestor who built the castle had created some sort of magic engine allowing the entire castle to plane shift and it seemed that it reacted with other magical forces that were manifested near the castle causing the dimensional anomalies. They also learned that the castle vaults held an artifatc called the tyrantsbane, a spear that was said to have wounded the whispering tyrant himself. Marlow had been sent to kill the residents of the castle and retrieve the spear but perished in the dungeons when Karl's ancestor triggered the castle defenses making the entire vault collapse burying himself and Marlow in the ruins.
The pc's eventually found a passage leading down below the mansion into the castle ruins where Geist and the cultists had been excavating the old vault. After bypassing some traps and fighting off the now undead cultists the pc's found the vault. In an occult circle lay an armored skeleton, an ancient spear pierced through his heart. The mutated body of Geist and the rest of the cultists were still performing the ritual, but stopped and attacked the pc's when they arrived. After a short but brutal fight Geist and the cultists were dead. karl retrieved the spear from marlows body, but as soon as he did marlow's undead form awoke and attacked the pc's almost killing the entire group using his energy draining greatsword. But Marlow was still weak from being pierced by the tyrantsbane and karl managed to plunge the spear through his chest and Marlow imploded upon himself leaving only his armor and sword behind. Karl retrieved the Tyrantsbane realising it was a legacy item that would grow stronger as karl gained more experience. The pc's also found the ancient treasures of Karls ancestors, but they had little time as the ruins started to collapse upon itself because by interrupting geists ritual the plane shift engine stabilized and transported them back to Golarion.... TBC