Updated October 18, 2009
The Heroes:
- "Weasel" -- a shady rogue who can steal magic from spellcasters
- Egon -- a strange, pale man who can conjure constructs to obey his commands
- Anai -- a contemplative monk and cleric who packs quite a punch
- Taren -- a half-elven ranger with a magical secret
Sindaris -- a scythe-wielding elf with a flair for magic (lost in the Realm of Faerie) Jack Flowers -- a bastard of the royal house of Grimm (deceased)
Adventure Log Part 2:
Date Unknown, Place Unknown - "Carnival of Tears": Now seemingly abandoned by their companion Sindaris, the heroes are at a loss. They are clearly stranded in some kind of faerie realm without a guide or a way out. They wander a bit, decide they are lost, and decide to rest the night.
The next morning they awake to find they are in the same wood but now in the depths of winter. The heroes wander at random until they hear the sounds and smell the scents of some sort of festival in the distance. They follow this lead and it brings them to Quinn's Carnival, where carnies are entertaining the good people of the nearby town of Falcon's Hollow. The townsfolk, a mix of families with children and some rougher lumberjacks, mostly seem nice enough but they are very confused as to which direction Falcon's Hollow lies. Further questioning suggests that the heroes have somehow traveled back in time around 200 years, to a time when Sandpoint (and even Seagard) did not exist as such. Furthermore, the carnival-goers cannot seem to agree as to how many years Quinn's carnival has come to this area, though all agree it has been many winters in a row.
As the heroes are trying to enter the carnival, and invisible and very swift-moving faerie starts stealing their money, right out of their hands, at random intervals. Each time he does so, the heroes hear a creepy laugh, or hear a gruesome voice singing, "Ha ha ha, he he he, little brown jug is full of glee!" Anai uses magic to foil the creature's invisibility for a bit, and they get a look at a tiny, evil-looking clown before he runs off again.
Confused and not sure what to do, the heroes roam the carnival. They take a gander at the dog-faced girl, the Human Fish, and other attractions at the Freak Show. They witness the future of lumberworking as human- and steam-powered machines chop, split, plane and lathe wood at the Tent of Mechanical Wonders. They each take a turn proving their physical strength at the Titan's Wheel. They get into a fight with a drunk lumberjack at the Titan's Wheel. And now and then they have a brief run-in with the invisible clown.
The other remarkable event is a display of swordsmanship by none other than Quinn, the half-elven owner of the carnival. His twin rapiers whirl and slice through the air with grace. But all the while, he shows no joy - or any other emotion - on his face. He retreats to his tent when he is done.
As evening approaches and the carnival attendees gather round to witness a fireworks display, a fox stealthily brings a note to Weasel, to the effect that a great horror is about to be visited up on the carnival goers, and inviting the heroes to a glade not far away from the grounds. Intrigued, the heroes follow the instructions in the note.
In the glade, a beautiful fey woman appears and speaks:
Fear not. My tiny helpers have watched you carefully today. You have shown yourselves to be kind and generous. Sindaris was wise to select you as friends.
Would you like to hear a story?
Once there was a curious fey. Like most fey, he was fascinated by mortals. He would often live among them in disguise, sometimes bringing them joy but much more often causing misery as he lured mortals into dangerous situations, or used magic to enchant mortals and trickery to destroy relationships. More often than not, he would leave the mortal communities he had infiltrated in a state of chaos and anguish.
On one such sojourn, he went too far, and a group of mortal lumberjacks caught and beat him, then tied him to a tree and left him to freeze in the dead of winter. As he died, he cursed those mortals, and he arose as The Cold Rider, a cruel undead fey. Encrusted in ice and with a heart just as cold, he rides astride a great undead elk. Cold and death are his to command. As you can imagine, he seeks vengeance.
Now the streams of time in the mortal and fey realms rarely run in tandem for long. As it happens, those lumberjacks are long dead. In fact, there is no one now living on whom the Cold Rider could take revenge. A few of the mortals who have strayed into Quinn’s Carnival today might be distant descendants of those cruel lumberjacks, but most are not, and in some way it doesn’t matter. The Cold Rider will seek his revenge here, but in the end he will not be satisfied. So he will keep on seeking it – elsewhere in this world, at other points in the mortal flow of time, and even on other mortal worlds. Again and again, Quinn’s Carnival will set up shop, mortals will wander into our realm through places where the borders between our worlds are thin, and after the fireworks display – the Carnival of Tears will begin.
The Cold Rider possesses a cunning Unseelie magical item – the Eye of Rapture. The rest of this night, all mortals at the carnival will be under its sway and subject to a powerful illusion. These doomed mortals will not be able to see the horrors around them as their friends and relatives are slaughtered by minions of the Cold Rider. Only when they face their moment of death will they finally see the truth.
As you no doubt saw, one of The Cold Rider’s lieutenants is Quinn, the half-fey swordsman who owns and runs the carnival. He is not a wicked man, but another of the Cold Rider’s minions, a fey creature called Prig, has stolen something so dear to Quinn that he now obeys the Cold Rider unquestioningly. If you can find a way to bring Quinn back around to his old self, at the very least you will have one less enemy to battle, and you may in fact gain an ally.
Hark! Do you hear – the uproarious laughter, the cheering, the music, the gaiety? And now … the screams of terror. The Carnival of Tears has begun. The Seelie Court, by an ancient pact, may not interfere in this event. This is one reason Sindaris was taken from you. But I can offer you this aid – you will not be affected by the Eye of Rapture. You will see things as they truly are. And I can also offer you utter refreshment of your body and soul, to prepare you for an arduous night. [At this the heroes are healed, and spells are refreshed as if they'd had a good night's sleep.]
Stop as much of the slaughter as you can. Find a way to bring Quinn onto your side. When you have done these things, the Cold Rider will sense your interference and will seek to stop you himself. And at that point, my dearest wish is that you might destroy him utterly so that these unwitting mortals … and many more elsewhere … might be saved.
Agreeing to help, the heroes immediately return to the carnival grounds, where the fireworks display is already underway. As they approach the entrance to the carnival, they can see that a remarkable transformation has taken place. All of the colorful tents, booths and carts have been "decorated" with severed human body parts. All around, the townsfolk mill about, as if completely unaware of the change. At the ticket booth, two tiny icy elf-looking creatures ("ice brownies") are dispensing "tickets" - really bits of fingers, tongues, etc. to the waiting customers.
Prig, the invisible clown who has been tormenting the heroes all day, appears and leads the heroes on a chase through the carnival. His first stop is a "peep show" where townsfolk are lining up to get a glimpse of a wicked nymph whose very beauty blinds onlookers. This then allows a pair of ice brownies to quickly begin slaughtering the audience members. Quick work on the part of the heroes (particularly a well-aimed egg thrown by Weasel at the face of the nymph) ends this massacre, though Prig gets a few shots in during all of this.
Prig then leads the heroes to the Tent of Mechanical Wonders, where townsfolk are eagerly lining up to be tossed into chippers, sawn in half, or chopped up with rows of mechanical axes. The heroes defeat some more ice brownies, then Weasel very heroically begins to disable the mechanical devices, which seem to have gained a wicked life of their own. He manages to disable a number of these devices, though in the end he is chewed up and spit out, nearly dead, by one of the vile contraptions. At this point, Prig appears - but Egon is ready for him and zaps him with a faerie fire spell, outlining Prig's invisible form and making it possible for attacks to be launched against him. Egon also uses his ectoplasmic goop to glue the quick little clown to the floor, where he is quickly destroyed by the party.
The clown has a little brown jug on him, and the heroes decide it must be full of "glee" and all of the other emotions that Quinn no longer possesses. So they grab it and track down Quinn. When he recovers his emotions, his sorrow, horror and anger brings him around, and he promises that he and the other carnies will see to it that as many carnival goers as possible will be saved from more attacks. Meanwhile, Quinn urges the heroes to battle the Cold Rider, who is surely approaching, now aware of the interference the heroes have caused.
Sure enough, out on the frozen river, the Cold Rider - a skeletal warrior astride an undead stag - appears, and calls out a deadly challenge. The heroes are ready for him, though, and launch devastating attacks with fire and sonic spells to weaken his icy armor. Egon again manages to glue the Rider's mount to the ground for a bit, leaving the Rider much less deadly. Blows are traded, and ultimately the foul Cold Rider is destroyed.
Immediately, the beautiful fey woman appears. She thanks the heroes for their efforts and informs them that they have succeeded in saving many, many innocent lives. But she apologizes -- for her interference on behalf of the Seelie Court has been noticed, and she cannot save the heroes from the fate that is about to befall them. She promises she will try to aid them if she can, but even as she speaks she -- and the world around her -- grows dimmer and dimmer. The stars fade, the carnival disappears ... and the heroes are alone in the dark. The only sound is their own breathing, and it echoes as if they are in a cavern.
Date Unknown, Place Unknown - "
Sons of Gruumsh": It doesn't take the heroes long to get some light going and discover that they are indeed in a rough, subterranean location. Beyond the small bone-littered cave they appeared in, more caverns eventually lead the heroes to one cave that turns out to be the home of a pair of small but tough dragon-like creatures. These drakes are mauling the wounded and nearly unconscious form of a half-elf. Nearby, a freshly slain orc lies motionless. The heroes of Sandpoint spring into action, with Weasel leading a deadly charge with his rapier and the others following suit. The half-elf manages to regain his feet and helps his would-be rescuers defeat the beasts.
Taren is the half-elf's name, and amnesia is his game. He claims to be a ranger but it becomes apparent pretty quickly that he has a natural talent for magic, including the forbidden art of invisibility. He vaguely recalls being the prisoner of some orcs nearby, but other than the general direction he fled from he doesn't have many more solid memories. It's pretty clear that the recent wounds to his head granted by the drakes have damaged his brain somewhat.
The heroes rest for a few moments, and some magical healing is applied to the wounded. They then make their way along the tunnel toward the orc menace Taren can barely remember.
Shortly, the heroes leave the rough, natural caverns and enter an area of worked stone. A large "victory hall" depicting many orcish racial deities in statue form, and into which a steady and strong flow of water is introduced via a shaft in the ceiling, is guarded by several orc guards; these are mopped up handily. Another nearby room has more, tougher, orcs, including a female orc witchdoctor. Again, these are defeated by the party.
Finally, the heroes find an orcish ritual underway. Nearby, the corpses of a dwarf, a halfling, and a gnome are found, their hearts torn out. Taren remembers that he was to have suffered a similar fate, but managed to break away and run through the complex into the caves, where a lone orc was sent to track him down. In a large temple-like room, a giant-sized "super-orc" (actually an orog!) bedecked in fine full plate armor and bearing a magical warhammer dedicated to the orcish god Gruumsh, is surrounded by chanting orc soldiers and attended by a high-ranking orc scout and another orc witchdoctor.
A grand battle breaks out, as Anai hits the center of the temple with a silence spell and Weasel sneaks in under cover of an invisibility spell stolen from Taren and then helps himself to a little of the magical effect that is making the giant orc so big. The huge orc packs a mean wollop with that warhammer of Gruumsh, and the witchdoctor backs out of the silenced area and blasts much of the party with a ball of frost.
The heroes have a few tricks up their sleeves. Egon sends in one of his constructs, but then activates a "self-destruct" mode on it, blasting many of the enemies (and some friends!) with electrical energy. He also fashions a wall of lightning that helps block off one section of the room, pinning down enemies and giving the party a few moments to breathe.
Ultimately, the big orc is slain, and so are the rest of the orcs except for one very stubborn orc soldier. He quite heroically makes it all the way back to the water-logged victory hall before he is put down with a blast from Egon's crystal shard wand.
Meanwhile, Anai shows a sudden interest in the big orc's private quarters just off the main temple. She hears the sound of something moving behind a curtain, and with atypical spontenaity throws it aside - to reveal the big orc's pet, a very old, partially blind basilisk. Fortunately, Anai avoids its petrifying gaze and covers it back up with the curtain, and the big lizard seems content to let this faux pas pass.
The heroes catch their breath and get ready to more thoroughly explore the rest of this complex. They also know there is a staircase heading up back in the victory hall that they have not yet explored - could it be the way out?
After a bit of a rest, the heroes decide to head upstairs to see what's what. Taren, complaining that his head hurts and acting even more out of it than before, hangs back to stay out of danger. Before the party can climb the stairs, a wondrous thing happens - Sindaris the elf appears!
While very little time has passed since the party last saw her, to Sindaris it has been a long time. She has been away from the mortal realm for so long that she occasionally seems incoherent to the party. Nonetheless, they are glad to see their friend.
Sindaris has apparently learned a lot during her time in Faerie, and she shares her new wisdom with the party. To start with, she teaches Weasel that the elements - air, earth, fire and water - are part of a living, breathing material world full of magic, and like a living spellcaster, the elements themselves have "spells" that can be "stolen". Weasel chooses to become a master of the element of air and knows that he can, from time to time, pull an air-related spell "out of thin air" so to speak.
Weasel scouts ahead, climbing a 50' staircase and finding the next level up is linked to the lower level not only by the staircase, but by the waterfall. In this large octagonal room, a shaft above feeds a waterfall through a hole in the floor, which becomes the thundering pool in the victory hall below. Weasel spots the shadows of some orc guards right around the corner, and can hear lots of hammering and metal work and orcish voices in a nearby room. The heroes decide to use the cover of a silence spell to launch an attack on the orc guards.
The surprise attack works well -- four fairly tough orc guards and a pair of large worgs guard the central room of this level, and the silence spell keeps the remaining orcs in the nearby workshop from hearing the combat's progress. However, some do spot the action and try to join the fray. Egon manages to control the flow of orcs by placing a couple of lingering fields of electrical energy in a hallway. Weasel is forced to flee the action rather quickly as he takes blow after blow from the mighty orcs. His newfound relationship with the element of air comes in quite handy as he gains the ability of flight for a few seconds and swoops down through the shaft back to the lower level where he can take a quick breather and swallow a healing potion.
Eventually, the heroes confront first the master of the forge, another "super-orc" (orog - though normal sized, unlike his larger counterpart on the lower level) barbarian, who proves no match for the wily heroes, and then a half-orc "alchemist" wearing a sturdy leather apron. He first fires a wondrous contraption - a flintlock pistol - at the party, though it backfires and nearly blows his own head off. He then produces a similar contraption that shoots a stream of electricity across the room! This too backfires, and the "alchemist" dies a horrible, humiliating death.
Though the flintlock pistol is ruined, Egon and Weasel are fascinated by the other device, which for lack of a better word they call a "ray gun". It is silvery, has a grip and a trigger like a pistol, but the "barrel" is not hollow (instead coming to a tapered point), and it has another switch and some glowing lights. In addition, it has a removable featureless disk in the handle. After some experimentation, the heroes gather that the disk is an "energy cell" that provides power to the "ray gun." How it would normally be recharged is unknown, but when Weasel handles the energy cell, he can feel it tug on his magical power and he knows that his facility with moving magic around (stealing spells) will help him use either his own inherent spellcasting ability, or stolen spells, to recharge the disk, which then can be used to fire the ray gun. The extra switch on the ray gun allows the wielder to switch between electrical and sonic discharge. Anai wisely suggests that they plan on charging the energy cell prior to resting, with whatever spells are left amongst the group (passed through Weasel).
The workshop the orcs defended was not making typical orc arms and armor. The heroes find evidence that the "alchemist" was trying to perfect not only flintlock weaponry, but larger "cannons" of various types. None are in a completed state, though there are a few scorched and mangled orc corpses lying around. Apparently the "alchemist" had quite a ways to go.
There are two locked rooms on this level, and the heroes investigate them. One has orcish runes on it. No one in the party is able to read orcish. However, Sindaris helps Anai realize that the "living earth" is always trying to communicate with those who inhabit it. Anai learns that with concentration, she really can read and understand any written or spoken language! She also sees that she will need to master langauges in the usual fashion if she hopes to produce speech or writing in those tongues.
The other locked room is also forced open, but the ceiling beyond has basically collapsed. Not finding an exit from this level, the heroes search for secret doors and are rewarded with the discovery of a hidden stairway that leads up.
Sindaris, sensing that her time with her friends is coming to an end, uses her newfound knowledge to teach Egon a trick that allows him to instantly travel through the Astral Plane to swap locations with an astral construct. She also helps the wounded Taren delve deeper into his distant draconic heritage. Sindaris starts to glow, and fade away back into the Faerie realm. She bids her friends farewell ... for now ... but even after she is gone, her glow lingers and infuses the party with her magic.
Satisfied that they have searched this level, the heroes ascend to the next level up. A noisy secret door at the top of the staircase alerts the inhabitants of this level: an orc cleric, two burly orc warriors, and a pack of strange frog-like humanoid zombies. The orcs are not the typical orcs already encountered, nor are they the "super-orc" orogs. Instead, they are the dreaded Black Orcs of the Black Orc Mountains. Similar orcs were encountered in the ruins of Quasqueton a couple of months ago and they are not widely known in this part of the world. Though the whole party hears the menacing voice of the orc cleric, only Anai can understand his words. His incantations are designed to animate and fortify the corpse of a long-dead orc king and to make him his thrall. These Black Orcs apparently worship Orcus, the lord of undeath, rather than the traditional orc creator god Gruumsh.
A fierce battle takes place on this level, with the animated orc king taking center stage as a fearsome foe. He launches spells to sicken and weaken his foes, then rains sword blows on his opponents with great skill. In the midst of battle, some fell magic on this level creates the illusion of war horns blowing and it very nearly drives the heroes mad with fear; only their strong will and camaraderie fends off this psychic attack. Ultimately the creatures are slain, though the last frog-man zombie does manage to tackle Egon and send him plummeting into the central shaft and to the shallow water 90' below. Egon manages to survive.
Among the loot garnered in this orc tomb the heroes find scrolls the black orc cleric was using in his foul rituals. Weasel immediately hatches a scheme to find more orc corpses and use this magic to animate them. Anai is very reluctant to allow this violation of the natural order to take place, but the rest of the party sees a pack of orc zombies as a useful diversion in any upcoming battles.
And indeed, on the next level up, Weasel's orc zombies do come in handy as they quickly mop up a pair of worgs and a pair of orc spearfighters. A couple of crypts nearby contain a great deal of funerary jewelry, though a monstrous oozy creature is encountered in one of the sarcophagi.
Finally, the heroes ascend the dungeon's final staircase and find themselves on the ground floor of a small fortress. Very nearby come the sounds of many orcs and other creatures. A little magical recon allows the party to see a ruined greathall inhabited by many orcs, their leader, and an ogre. Egon sends in an astral construct and immediately detonates it remotely like a bomb, blasting most of the creatures in the greathall with a fierce spray of acid. A number of orcs immediately die, and others are horribly burned. Then the chaos of battle ensues, with Weasel's orc zombies and Egon's astral construct soaking up a lot of the damage. From just outside the greathall, a larger version of the dragon found in the lowest levels enters to do battle, but Egon puts it out of commission with a cocoon of astral matter. The orc's leader, hounded by zombies, is chased into a corner and eventually beaten down, and the trapped dragon is soon slain.
Outside the greathall, the heroes mop up the rest of the fortress's orc archers, then take a breather. They know their actions here in the orc lair have set back any plans any of the orcish factions might have had to join forces and assault human lands. Maybe the fey queen of the strange faerie carnival had some hand in where and when they appeared after all.
It doesn't take much travel from the ruins of the orc stronghold for the heroes to figure out where they are - the foothills of the Black Orc Mountains, a couple of days west of the city of Bard's Gate.
Interlude - Bard's Gate (September 17-27): The party travels out of the foothills and into civilization, where they soon discover that about two and a half months have passed since they left Sandpoint.
When they arrive in Bard's Gate, they find it to be a delightful city - a liberal, cosmopolitan place, free of the machinations of the Hightower nobility, the Right Way, and the Arcane Society. The worship of any god is allowed here, and wizard schools are more about learning and gathering knowledge than trying to control the flow of magical information. Amongst the happiest of surprises is the discovery of their old friend Ilsoari Gandethus, late of Sandpoint, now living in Bard's Gate. While he is still sad to no longer be caring for the orphans at Turandarok Academy in Sandpoint, he is finding that there is indeed much to learn (even at his age) about magic and that Bard's Gate is just the place to freely gain such knowledge.
The heroes cash in the letter of credit provided by Ameiko, and make various arrangements to purchase, repair or replace adventuring equipment and find a place to live.
September 27 - City of Bard's Gate: In the early evening, the heroes receive a note from an art critic named Asheron Coyle asking them to visit him at his home in the Hill District. Upon their arrival, the party discovers that Coyle has been killed by two horrible tentacled beasts. If this were not strange enough, the beasts appear to be painted rather than real, and seem to have come into being as part of a magically trapped painting that had been delivered to him minutes earlier.
After the heroes destroy the painted creatures, they learn from Coyle's servant's that a Well-Dressed Gentleman was the delivery person, and was known to have three more paintings and to be en route to a party being held by another art critic, a Mr. Balfor Vittanis. They also note that the painting that had killed Coyle was wrapped in brown paper bearing the note "From Endrik Archerus to Asheron Coyle." Archerus is one of the city's most famous painters, a beloved celebrity.
It only takes a few minutes to reach the nearby home of Balfor Vittanis, who is hosting a gala event and preparing to unveil a "new, original Endrik Archerus painting." The heroes manage to distract the guards while Taren sneaks in under cover of an invisibility spell. Vittanis gets the wrapper off the painting (a hellish landscape with demons and devils and spewing lava), and just as he expresses surprise at seeing the figures start to move, the invisible Taren fires off a well-placed bowshot, destroying the painting. Mayhem ensues as the party guests and bouncers assume this armored, bow-wielding assailant is trying to kill Vittanis, but soon the heroes manage to convince him that his life had been in danger and that his friend Coyle was dead from a similar "Endrik Archerus" painting. Anai questions some servants and learns that the Well-Dressed Gentleman hired a coach to take him to his next destination, the home of a third art critic - Madame Eleazonna Gertwright - way across town.
The heroes hire a coach and get to Gertwright's place as quick as they can. They encounter the Well-Dressed Gentleman exiting the house, with no more parcels in hand. Weasel beats him with his rapier and intimidates him into compliance, while Anai enters the house and distracts the elderly Madame Gertwright enough so that she doesn't immediately open the painting. The heroes explain about Coyle's death and the deliveries of the trapped paintings. The Well-Dressed Gentleman reveals that he was hired by an unknown person to deliver the paintings. He actually had made a stop to drop off a painting "From Archerus To Archerus" at Endrik Archerus' tower home in the Bridge District just before arriving at Gertwright's place. The heroes are now convinced that someone is trying to kill the art critics and Archerus alike. With Madame Gertwright's permission, they slowly peel back the covering of her painting, and the second they see some movement of the demonic, ape-like figures in the painting they damage it enough to keep the painting from activating its trap.
Given all this information and able to see the remains of the painting at last, Madame Gertwright is able to shed some light on the issue:
“Balfor Vittanis, the late Asheron Coyle, and I are the three most prominent art critics of Bard’s Gate. That’s really the only thing that joins us together. I must say I can hardly see that Endrik Archerus would want to hurt us … we were some of his greatest admirers. Our praise surely has brought him a great deal of wealth and fame over the years.
“This painting, ruined as it is, is clearly not the work of Endrik Archerus. Look at the sloppy brushwork. The mood and topics are inspired, but the artistry itself is rather pedestrian. Where have I seen such work before? Ah yes … this is the work of one Imron Gauthfallow, a wizard and adventurer who retired from that line of work to take up painting a few years ago.
“At first, Imron’s work caught public attention due to its dark, disturbing subject matter. It was clear that he was not merely imagining the twisted landscapes and horrifying creatures he depicted – this was the work of someone who had truly been there and witnessed these things first hand. With a few decades of refinement in his basic painting skills I think he could have been a rival to the greatest painters in the city.
“But as so often happens, Imron’s dark, twisted work started something of a fad. Soon everyone was coming up with their own ideas of hell, the abyss, realms beyond mortal knowledge and the creatures that dwelt therein. And of those who adopted these topics was the already celebrated artist, Endrik Archerus. Endrik, already a far superior artist in a technical sense, soon caught up with Imron in imagination and mood. In fact, for a while there it seemed that Endrik was constantly beating Imron to the punch. Endrik would unveil a new “Imron-style” masterpiece a day or two before Imron himself unveiled a piece – a far less impressive piece, sadly – on a similar theme. With this kind of competition, Imron – no longer a trend-setter or fad-starter, but a has-been – dropped out of the painting scene.
“You, delivery man … you say you have already delivered a painting to Endrik Asheron? Oh, I fear it may be too late to save one of the great celebrities of Bard’s Gate…”
Though the heroes know they must find and deal with this Imron Gauthfallow, they also hope to be able to reach Endrik Archerus in time to save him from his trapped painting.
They take the coach back to the Bridge District and find Archerus' studio home. The servants inside are concerned because their master went missing this evening. He had received a new painting, taken it up to his studio, and then moments later he was gone.
The servants usher the party into the studio. Inside, sure enough, is the unwrapped painting on a stand. It depicts a terrifying scene: tormented mortals now in the form of lowly worm-like larvae, being carted through a gray waste by a night hag and her chain devil henchmen. One of the larvae has a more human-like face.
Egon, thinking to reach in and "pluck" the more human-like larvae out of the picture, activates the trap and vanishes - only to appear inside the painting! The creatures inside move to attack. Anai, Weasel and Taren eventually touch the painting, too, and join the fray. Though the creatures inside the painting are terrifying and tough, the heroes manage to defeat them. As the last of these fiends dies, the heroes - and Endrik Archerus, now back in human form - are ejected from the trapped painting and return to the studio.
Archerus, now safe, confesses: "Alas. I am undone. While I retained the superior artistic skill, I simply did not have what Imron had … eye-witness experience with the subjects and places that were at the heart of this movement. So I did something shamefully underhanded … I bribed one of his closest servants to make sketches of Imron’s works as they were in progress. With his subject matter and my skill, I was able to produce superior results in a shorter time. Soon, it appeared that I was the new leader of the movement … and Imron’s art career quickly faded. I see now that I was foolish to treat in such a manner a man who had seen and stood up to the horrors he tried to depict in his work."
With all four of the trapped paintings accounted for, the heroes decide to take a breather and rest up so they can confront this Imron Gauthfallow in the morning.
September 28 - Bard's Gate: (Brief Summary): During the night, Egon has a dream about a dark haired, bearded man with an upturned nose watching him from a distance. The next morning, the heroes decide to seek out Madame Gertwright to get a little more information about Imron Gauthfallow. On the way, they are attacked by a small pack of gargoyles that all have roughly the same face as the man Egon dreamed about. Even weirder, during the battle, parts of the bridge they are crossing simply vanish as if erased, only to return again at the end of the fight. From Madame Gertwright they learn that the man Egon saw in his dream and the faces of the gargoyles fit Imron's description to a tee.
Imron's manor is nearby, surrounded by a thick wall. On the grounds they are attacked by a horse-sized hell hound; during this fight some of the landscape disappears again like it did on the bridge, and similarly reappears a few minutes later. Faced with locked doors, the heroes smash a window to gain entrance to the house. In a pretty cramped foyer the heroes battle an enraged barbarian who looks a lot like the man Egon dreamed about, as well as four "painted servants" and an animated bell rope. The oddest part of the fight is when the barbarian is killed - he simply fades away.
This bizarre fight over, the heroes explore the lower level of the manor, finding many well-furnished but empty guest rooms and servants' quarters, as well as stairways heading up and down. They are eventually ambushed by yet another fellow who matches Imron's description, this one more of a rakish swashbuckler. He prattles on about being "a man of many moods" and suggesting that the heroes may soon "meet us all." This skilled swordsman, like the barbarian, fades away when killed.
Wearied, wounded and drained, the heroes wonder about retreating but realize they are fighting a foe who can reach them anywhere they are. Fortunately, the Queen of the Faeries grants the party one last favor by means of a magical painting, and refreshes the party in mind, body and spirit so they can press on and confront this madman.
Reinvigorated, the party presses on and searches the rest of the ground floor and the upper floor of the manor. The most interesting find is a contract between Imron Gauthfallow and Asmodeus, trading the former's soul in exchange for the power to destroy his enemies. Clearly, Gauthfallow is not relying just on his own magical powers to accomplish the incredible feats of magic necessary to bring his illustrations to life and create demiplanes inside paintings.
The basement is all that is left to explore. There, the heroes encounter another Gauthfallow duplicate - this one in the form of a lion-bodied, human headed lammasu. Just as a real lammasu would pursue justice, the Gauthfallow lammasu also raves that he was the one that was wronged, and that he is the one who has the right to seek vengeance. It matters not, and the heroes battle it to the death. Like the other duplicates, it vanishes when destroyed.
Finally, the heroes find a secret room containing a painting depicting Imron Gauthfallow sitting on a throne. They enter the painting and find themselves in a dark nightmare world, looking up a long steep road that leads to a grim castle in the distance. As the heroes trudge up this path, they are assaulted by a beholder-like creature that has Gauthfallow's features - yet another duplicate. It welcomes the party to this world Gauthfallow created, and where he and his duplicates can live forever and rule as gods. The Gauthfallow beholder fires all kinds of deadly rays from its many eyes, but the heroes finally slay it.
At last the heroes reach the castle. Inside is a grand hall, where Gauthfallow sits on a throne as depicted in the painting in the basement of his manor back in the "real" world. Attending him are three strangely bloated duplicates of the art critics from Bard's Gate, here only to amuse him with their foolish comments. Gauthfallow looks haggard and worn - clearly, the act of creating all of these duplicates and creating this nightmarish world has taken its toll. If he was once a great wizard, he is now only a shadow of his former self. Gauthfallow staggers to his feet, and announces that he cannot let the heroes leave this world, nor survive. If he manages to kill them, he can stay in this world of his creation forever and never have to pay off his debt to Asmodeus.
But the heroes of Sandpoint - now heroes of Bard's Gate - will have none of it, and a fierce battle breaks out. The three bloated art critics burst at the seams and become festering oozes, noxious clouds, or squirming swarms of maggots and harrass the party with their very presence. Gauthfallow, though nowhere near as mighty as he once was, still has access to powerful spells and blisters the party with acid, lightning and necromantic energies even as he staggers under this strain. Ultimately, the heroes endure Gauthfallow's spells and batter him until he perishes. His soul now the property of Asmodeus, Gauthfallow's realm quickly starts to collapse upon itself. The heroes quickly move through a painting that Gauthfallow had clearly used to scry upon the real world, and return there safely as the nightmare realm he'd created vanishes.
September 29 - Bard's Gate: The heroes rest, and are honored at a party hosted by Balfor Vittanis and Madame Gertwright the next evening. During the festivities, the heroes are met in secret by Endrik Archerus. The famed artist realizes that his unethical actions were in part responsible for the tragic sequence of events, and feels the need to leave Bard's Gate for a while. He offers the heroes a reward in gratitude for rescuing him - a most wondrous magical item called an "instant fortress," essentially a portible home they can take wherever their adventures may lead.
October 8 - City of Bard's Gate: The heroes rent Gauthfallow's manor after it changes hands, and have a quiet couple of weeks while they attend to their business and furnish the rooms of their instant fortress. One night, the heroes receive a message from Balfor Vittanis: "I need your help. Meet me at Riverside Tavern at midnight tonight. Be prepared, but conceal your nature and your wealth." Intrigued, the party acquires some cloaks and scopes out the Riverside ahead of time. They find a somewhat soggy, working-class tavern built out over the east side of the Stonebyrn River, in the Northwall district of Bard's Gate. They enter, have a drink, and wait for Vittanis to arrive.
When he does so (wrapped up in a hooded cloak himself), he explains that he thinks his nephew Shamus (an evidently wealthier young rake who is a few tables away hanging out with some of his friends) has gotten himself into some kind of trouble - he's been asking for extra money, and his personality is changing. Vittanis is in the middle of asking the party to trail Shamus for a while to see what he is up to, when an uproar of confusion and terror passes through the tavern's patrons. A strange green mist - smelling a bit like a damp forest, and a bit like rotting fish - quickly fills the tavern. Most patrons - the heroes included - experience a slight mental befuddlement and a general sense of wellbeing. A few patrons (Shamus and his friends in particular) keel over, either completely unconscious, or nauseated and retching. And three in particular stand up, shiver with delight, and in unison say, "Yes, master, I will!" in delighted voices. These last three then split apart in a shower of gore as horrible monstrosities appear in their places, seeming to burst forth from inside these poor folks. A humanoid form with a mass of tentacles for a face, a giant bug-bird crossbreed with horrible hooks for hands, and a humanoid plant-like man with glowing, hypnotic eyes begin slaughtering tavern patrons, apparently at random. The heroes spring into action, however, and slay these creatures before they have murdered more than half a dozen patrons.
Sensing that Shamus might know more than the other patrons, the heroes revive him and hustle him into a private room for a chat. He seems like a nice enough young fellow, but he's started taking a drug called Green Welcome recently. He and his friends were currently on a "safe" dose of it when that mist appeared - the mist was almost certainly a vaporous form of Green Welcome, as he could tell by its scent. For users like him who are not addicted, a second dose induces nausea or unconsciousness. Some users become addicted, and when this happens they can safely take a second concurrent dose. Shamus thinks that at least one of the three men who split apart and spawned a monster was probably an addict on a double-dose. Shamus reveals that he had been getting his supply of Green Welcome from a gang of "ugly gnomes" in the most dangerous neighborhood in the city, the Canal District. This little gang moves around a lot, so one would have to track them down on a particular night in order to meet with them or buy from them.
The heroes return to Gauthfallow Manor and rest for the night.
October 9 - The next day, they use their talents to arrange a meeting with the gnomes who deal Green Welcome, using a bogus story that Weasel wants to make a large purchase.
That night, Weasel meets the gnomes in a back alleyway while the rest of the party lurks on rooftops or in adjacent alleys. He convinces them that he not only wants to buy whatever they currently have on hand, but three times that amount again, as he is going on a long journey. They agree and trundle off to get more bottles of Green Welcome.
Egon uses his construct to tail the gnomes, and he follows them to - and into - the sewer. On route, Egon gets the sense that the gnomes are not particularly excited about this deal - in fact, they look both angry and excited. They eventually disappear down a rough-looking hole, and Egon is convinced this is the entrance to their lair. He gets a little lost on his way back to the surface, but eventually meets up with the rest of the party and describes what he saw. The heroes are convinced that they might be in for some trouble when the gnomes return, so they again hide in the alleyway and wait for them to come back.
When they return, sure enough they spring a surprise on Weasel. The "gnomes" are not gnomes at all, they are evil fey creatures known as spriggans. Their surprise is that spriggans only look small some of the time - they can instantly become hulking giants instead! Two of them do so and attack Weasel.
However, the rest of the party is ready. Egon controls the battlefield first by conjuring a mass of ectoplasmic tentacles that grapple and strangle all within it, then summoning a zone of fire. Taren pops in and out using an invisibility spell to move around undetected. Anai does a lot of her damage from the rooftop by "ringing the bell" and summoning a spiritual weapon to attack her foes. Weasel, somewhat trapped by Egon's zones, eventually gets into the mix to stab and steal some spells.
Eventually, the spriggans are defeated - most are killed while two are taken prisoner. Egon has his construct execute one of the spriggan prisoners in front of the other, who is very eager to spill his guts. He explains that his gang is led by a particularly wicked spriggan named Rakeri. Rakeri gets Green Welcome from a mysterious supplier, whose identity and nature are not known to this lowly prisoner. Rakeri's gang has set up an alchemical lab in the sewers to try to concoct an artificial replacement for Green Welcome that they could create and sell at a much better profit. The spriggan has no knowledge of a "green mist" variety of Green Welcome, nor does he know anything about the monstrous transformations. He points out that the spriggans would not want to kill their customers, because they would lose out on a steady stream of income. With some convincing, the spriggan agrees to lead the heroes to the lair on the condition that he be released after he does so. However, drained and battered, the party decides they will summon their instant fortress and rest the night inside, with the spriggan prisoner as their "guest."
Updated October 18, 2009
