Where we left off ( Morning of April 6th, 216B ) Early in the morning of April 7th the party realized they were being spied on by were-rats. Popping a hasty trap the party turned out to be in an ambush of their own. The group defeated the rats, but Katie had been bitten several times and Korvath and Alex had to do a bit of talking to the guards. After the guards finished questioning the party about the were-rat ambush (Each guard received a signed Alexander Emporium flier) the party decided to check the city before moving on to the cultists in the Reality Wrinkle. Out and About A quick check on the temple district revealed even more guards outside the temple of Pelor. News was that the repairmen had stumbled upon evidence that implied High Priest Forgrim and the Sun’s Champion Lady Marith were interested in replacing Baron Euphemes II with a Theocratic Council. Warrants had been put out for the priest and paladin’s arrests but when the party found Lieutenant Shella they were able to convince her that the priests were probably set up. Shella retracted the warrents after hearing about the attack on the temple of Heironeous. Shella is now convinced that the treasonous material was probably planted by followers of "The Blessed" and promised to inform the duke of her suspicions. Since it was still early the party went to Southspur to check with Foora about rat presence in the shady part of town. Foora told the group there was no rat presence in the poor districts but a cloud of darkness had been seen drifting the streets and people enveloped were often found chopped up or not at all. A bit of a fiasco occurred in Foora’s when Alexander convinced Moge to hire him as a buyer’s agent to buy potions for him. In the end Moge paid 200 dold to Alex for teh right to ask Foora for items. Moge also acquired several smokesticks and three potions despite the charlatanry. Foora seemed to disaprove, but not enough to interfere with the cunning scheme. Finally the party decides to take the Reality Wrinkle. But first they get lunch, and then visit the forge, check on the bodies at the shine of Heironeous, and go shopping. After completing all other errands the party decides that there is no choice but to go into the cult. My Life in the Thrill Kill Cult Essandri used her powers to conceal Mel (in cat form), and protect Korvath and Mel with her last two mage armors. Alexander put on the magic chainmail taken from the demonic female barbarian whom had ambushed the party earlier that day. Essandri had spent most of her magic warding others, so offered to provide cover for the party's escape. Korvath, and Alexander dressed up like cultists (even painted the previously acquired medallions silver to be less conspicuous than the gold rank medallions) Katie and Moge also dressed up as cultists but with slightly less convincing results. (Moge’s robes looked like a toga, and Katie looked like a child in a burlap sack.) Inside the Wrinkle the party was greeted with a strange dimensional warping effect. It made it hard to focus, and the heady scent of burning incense eliminated Mel’s animal scent abilities. Undaunted the party spoke to the store’s proprietor and convinced him that the group was supposed to see the Blessed. The party was led to the kitchen and made comfortable while cultists went to tell the Blessed of her guests. In the kitchen, Alex spied an old coffee pot, some milk, and dark roast coffee beans and proceeds to make extra-distilled caffeinacinnos. The rest of the party dubiously sips at the resulting beverage. Meanwhile Mel invisibly padded after the cultist. Hearing some sort of spellcasting ahead, Mel trails the cultist closely, but then a plethora of entangling drapes and beaded curtains entangle Mel and reveal the invisible cat. The cultist shouts warning to his hidden masters and sprays the area with a blast a glowing sand. Mel roars and pounces on the sentry before another spell can go off. The party hears the commotion from above and quickly run to Mel's aid. The party storms the leader’s suite only to be blinded by clouds of fog, stinking mists, and magical darkness. Undaunted by the poor vision the party follows the elusive sounds of chanting while swarms of summoned creatures slow the party's assault to a crawl. Mel takes out the original cultist only to be possessed by an Imp and forced to carry the cultist's body downstairs. Alexander animates a nearby curtain and uses it to entangle the imp while Korvath spears the foul creature freeing Mel from its insidious sorceries. Moge dispatches summoned creatures left and right until he stumbles into a large multi-headed worm that swallows the brave warrior whole. Katie brings up an aura of divine protection. Safe from the summoned swarms of summoned creatures she makes her way into the room sheltering the cult leaders. Somehow, Mel gets there ahead of her, but gets knocked down by one spell caster and set upon by myriad creatures. Nearby a female magic user on the ceiling blasts Mel repeatedly with her wand of magic missiles. Korvath charges into the room after Katie and Mel, but a foul blast of foul brimstone brings him to his knees with eyes watering. Katie begins battle with the head sorceress even as the sorcerer’s beasts begin to tear into Korvath’s choking form. Meanwhile in the magical darkness nearby a large worm lashes out at Alex wounding him badly before twisting and writhing with an intense stomach ache. Something it ate doesn’t agree with it. (Moge trapped inside the worm begins the slow process of cutting his way out of the monster’s insides.) Alexander, staggered by the worm's blow and out of power, staggers from the room only to find the source of the noxious brimstone fumes. A fell dretch lurches out of the darkness by the mystic. Luckily Alex slips its grasp and boldly dashes away leading the dretch away from the other party members. The worm spits out Moge and attacks others nearby to little effect. Moge crawls into a corner to pass out among the monster's coils. Korvath, still stunned from the choking fumes, gets rent by two huge bats and lay broken and dying upon the floor. Katie breaks off her battle with the head sorceress to aid her dying friends, but their bodies lay hidden by the mists. Mel disembowels the last of the lesser cultists and moves to engage the head sorceress. A well targeted leap drags the sorceress off teh chamber ceiling to where Mel can maul her more easily. Downstairs Alex desperately rummages through drawers in the kitchen looking for a weapon, any weapon. As he hears the demon closing in his fingers close upon a silver salad fork. Gleefully Alex spins. Crashing into the demon, the two fall into the bathroom before Alex manages to impale teh beast upon the silver weapon. Upstairs the foul mist and darkness fade as the fell beast perishes on the tines of death. "Your tine has come" growls Alex as he twists the fork one last time eviscerating the beast. With the darkness fading Katie quickly finds Moge and Korvath bringing Moge back into consciousness and saving Korvath but moments away from death. Moge, momentarily safe from the great worm, lassos Korvath and drags him away from danger. The worm disipates in a momentous pop and everyone still standing corners the remaining sorceress and quickly bring her down. A Costly Battle Severely weakened, the party retreats downstairs while Katie use the last traces of her holy armor to drive the last summoned creatures away. A quick search reveals many magical implements but no sign of the missing paladin. The party begins systematically working their way down through the building. Leaning on one another, the party staggers from room to room looking for a hidden chamber or something. Everywhere they pass the sadly beaten adventurers leave great bloody stains behind. Downstairs the proprietor of the bookshop looks suspiciously at Alex’s bedraggled robes. "What the hell is going on up there?", snarls the store owner. Alex looks back into the mans eyes and coolly says, "Things got a little heated up after we found out that there was no more coffee. I would suggest that if you don’t want the Blessed to plunge your shop into the abyss this instant you better find us some more coffee!" The owner’s eyes bulge out at the commanding tone and the proprietor quickly runs to comply with Alex's demands. The party quickly closes up shop and carefully begins searching the store itself for another area. After a few minutes the party determines that they have been everywhere except for through two doors at the back of the store. Through the doors they hear shrieks and chants as if some grand ceremony is taking place. The group quickly stashes Korvath’s recumbent form beneath the shop counter and while Mel prowls near the store entrance, the rest of the party trains missile weapons on the two unexplored portals while Katie approaches them alone. Flinging open the first door open she reveals a hideous monstrosity with dozens of heads and foaming mouths screaming in dozens of languages. There is a flash of light and a bang as Katie abruptly slams the door. "Lets try the other one first, why don’t we?" With a nervous chuckle she moves to the other doorway and opens it. The open door reveals a staircase down into darkness where the echoes of some ritual can be heard. The entire party groans. "You mean there is a whole level we haven't been to?" Slowly the entire party makes its way down the stairs. The air pulses with malevolence now. The passages seem to pulse and shift with the beat of an alien heartbeat. Moge blanches at the rapidly changing perspectives and turns to the others. ‘Moge not feeling so well, everything moving weird..." Alex squirms lightly through the grotesquely pulsating air to pat the troubled barbarian on the shoulder. "I told you not to drink so much coffee, now shut up." A nervous laugh later the party makes its way deeper into the throbbing tomb. Eventually the entire party (except the recumbent Korvath) find a door beyond which the ceremony must be taking place. Light bleeds beneath the door and the sound of chanting is evident. Katie notes with dismay. "I don’t think we can take much more, we are out of spells, bleeding badly, and we have no idea how many cultists are left…" Alexander creeps ahead of the others and carefully presses his head up against the door. Now he clearly hears the multiple atonal voices chanting, droning, and occasionally gibbering in mad laughter. "There must be at least dozen in there", he whispers. Those behind him pale at the concept of so many more cultists. Over the chanting a single voice calls out, "Eldich masters, we approach the point of no return. We call upon you to open us up to the great void beyond time. With this last sacrifice we seal the pact made millennia ago." Suddenly the room beyond goes silent with a expectant hush. Behind Alex the other hiss, "What was he saying? Why did it just go silent?" Alex turns away from the door, and looks at his friends illuminated dimly in the pale light from beneath the portal. In the darkness he can barely see them, yet he hears the dripping blood and the occasional shuffle of their movement. They are all still panting from their last battle like men on their last leg. Alex grins briefly, his teeth a flash in the dark, and his silhouette shrugs apologetically. He then spins around, kicks in the door and flings his silver salad fork into the room beyond. The room is full of mystical energies. Wards line every surface, the fork floats through the room disrupting ward after carefully laid ward. The fork seems to slow as it pierces each barrier, as if gaining mass with each broken spell. The high priest looks up at the last second and gapes at the fork pressing against the final barrier. "Why, isn't that my nice silverware?" As if called by his voice, the fork slices the last barrier and drifts into the priest with the momentum of a world. Crackling with energy the fork slams into the head priest flingging him back from the Altar. Alex grins over his shoulder at the rest of the party and quips, "Hot damn, I must have gotten a 20." The room beyond the door still pulsates with dark energy. Alein, the champion of Heironeous, is sprawled nude over the altar, her perfect skin unblemished except for a single drop of blood where the high priest’s knife had been pressed only moments before. Another cultist stepped into view next to the high priest and gazes across the impossibly long room at the party. The cry comes as if from a hundred yards away, "Kill them". The unholy chorus bursts back into song as it bursts into view. A unholy beast with a hundred mouths sings about the earth’s destruction sending waves of crushing despair sweeping over the party. Still the embattled heroes are heartened that only two cultists and an aberation stand before them. Quickly Mel pounces across the room keeping a cultist from retrieving the ceremonial dagger. The others spring into action. Alex calls upon energies contained in the tattoos that appeared on his flesh after the last battle with the cultists. Suddenly he feels revitalized. Moge stares in horror as the unearthly choir bears down upon him. Beneath the screaming he hears a voice telling him his life is meaningless and his time has come. A fear wells up and he blindly starts striking out around him. Katie barely ducks a blow from the barbarien before casting her holy symbol into the room with the cultists. Full of energy it swells into a magical sword and impale the high priest before he can regain his feet. Mel quickly rips out the throats of both cultists while the party surrounds the unholy choir. the choir quickly begins screaming in pain rather than in triumph. With the creatures screams its spell over Moge is broken and he quickly charges in and begins cutting off heads, eyes, whatever gets within reach. With in moments it is over. The pulsating energy reduces from its frenzy pitch. The critical moment has passed. The ritual was not completed. With a sigh Mel changes back to human form and gathers up the paladin. She is alive but unmoving. "She appear in shock, we should get her out of hear incase anyone was out." Nearby the group finds the Alein’s equipments and packs it up. Moge retrieves Korvath from upstairs and the party begins to slip out the back way. Alex, the last to leave stops for a moment and goes back inside. Before he leaves there is a new sign in the front window. It says, "Going out of Business." And in smaller print teh sign says, "Help wanted, management positions available". Satisfied the party trudges out of the alleyway only to find people on the streets in an inpromptu parade. People are cheering their names, the town guard is their with the store proprietor as captive. Essandri, standing nearby gives a small shrug. The party basks in the praise for all of a minute before turning as one and heading for home. The parade was nice, but tonight is their night off. 7 April 216B The next day the party nurses their wounds. Korvath is drawn back from the brink of death yet again. He smiles and tells everyone of his dreams, "It was great, my mom and dad were there, there was even this big parade in our honor. It was pretty cool." Alexander spent the entire day sweating at the forge making a foot tall status of a raging barbarian ripping his way out of a giant worm. With a slight grin he presentes Moge the barbarian with an momento of the recent victory. Someday Moge might even realize that the statue is only painted bronze, but is actually made of gold, almost 200 coins worth of gold in fact. Alein begins recovering from her ordeals. Apparently long exposure to the combination of the dimensional warping and the unholy chorus had a powerful draining effect. Alein may take several days to return to full strength. 8 April 216B Epiloge After healing there was a feast in the party’s honor. Everyone was there. Several bards performed, Shoomma admitted to having arranged both the parade and feast. "It seemed the least I could do", she said. Korvath grinned at teh ancient dwarf, "I guess the bookstore was not union, huh" Shoomma jsut glares at him for a moment and Korvath decides to shut up for a while and sit elsewhere at the table. The baron’s sister Lady Eriana gives Katie a token of appreciation. (a fine silver brooch set with amethysts. 600 gp) A group of halfmen acrobats entertain the crowd while Lieutenant Shella, Foora, and many other notables crowd around to thank the party members for stopping the cult of the speaker in dreams. A phenomenal meal is had. (with enough ale to even make Moge pleasantly drunk) And for one night the band of orphans from Wall are the talk of the town. As the night begins to wind done Essandri recognizes one of the bards as one she was trying to track down at the fair. The half-orc dancer is in the midst of her routine playing drums and dancing wildly. After the performance Essandri speaks with Thara and find out that the bard indeed knows where CeeJay went. On the last day of the fair Thara saw CeeJay accompany the Fae Lord out of town on a silvered hair Pegasus. Thoughtful Essandri sits down and thinks on this as Thara rebuts advance after advance from an amourous Moge. Session End. (Midnight of April 9th 216 years after the breaking) NEXT TIME : Plan? what plan?!? Experience ---------- Everyone present recieved 2500 XP Essandri gets 1250 XP. Experience Bonuses ------------------ (experience was seriously boosted for sucessful plot completion as well as for some amazing battles)