In good news, you get +1 party luck pt! (=3 now?) In bad news, you were all unconscious except Shrett, for a moment. In further bad news, Shrett is feeling feverish by the time the others wake up…
You group together in the Refectory, with all monks and other staff out of there, and two of you watching the doors while Bog looms over Reader Wulf and Fraud brings forth his Lhankor Mhy Truestone for the first time. He releases its power of Mind-Read on Wulf and smashes his way in; revealing even Wulf’s deeper thoughts as Fraud asks questions and the (still gagged) Wulf tries to hide his thoughts related to them; a futile effort.
You learn much from Wulf. He only killed High Servant Elgar, because he’d learned too much that would expose Makris. Makris is Wulf’s master, and master wizard of Arkat the Destroyer. They have unleashed their plan to wipe everyone else out here with the power of Mallia, goddess of disease; obviously using the Burning Malady. Fraud is shocked at this abuse of Chaos by an Arkati! Makris however has escaped from his chamber, where he has some way of doing so; transporting himself to the Temple of Mallia somewhere below the Monastery; also accessed through the cellar of the kitchen. Wulf knows little of the details of what Makris has done, as Wulf is a thug (but an Arkati!). He does know that Makris uses Demon Bowls to summon/release the demon women, called Nimils. He placed a bowl under Mondac’s bed. As for Knower Immon, all that Wulf knows is that he is no longer in this world; he has been dealt with. Makris has no weaknesses that Wulf knows of; clearly Wulf is blindly loyal to Makris and sees none if there are any. The Nimils do “roost” in the South Tower but Makris can call; or other things can draw; them anywhere, although they prefer daylight, yet they have other means to act in the daytime. (this, you figure later, may be to appear as spirit-women as per the “Woman in Red”) Makris has used some lingering psychic trauma from the Monastery grounds to connect with Mallia and use the Nimils in his plan. You learned some other things, too. (John forgets) But then, your Mind-Read spell ends and so has the False Healing on Wulf, so he returns to unconsciousness.
There’s a discussion of the people at this Monastery. Fraud is certain that only the monks (Knowers he has met, and Watcher Makris; and then High Watcher Mondac) are/were mystically illuminated Arkati. The Readers and Servants are not. All of them, even the monks, are/were Rokari. Much like Fraud is/was, Arkati can adopt a “cover” faith like Rokarism but still practice Arkati mystical arts in private. Arkati illumination removes any seeming incompatibilities. And that, as far as you can tell, is what the Monastery is about. The monks care about probing St. Paschal’s mysteries; the other staff just do their normal Rokari duties.
Bog drags Wulf to the cellar. He now gets a better look, and sniff, of the place. Inside there are foodstuffs (on later investigation: cheeses, fruits, butter and salted fish); and a small ladder. There is a small bed and chair in one corner. There is a sturdy door at the back, with a robust bronze lock. Bog snacks on Servant Penda’s entrails and drapes the rest around Wulf, whom he has tied up extra tight. And Bog samples some of the other fare here, enjoying himself quite thoroughly. Zorak Zoran would admire the scene, he smugly thinks.
There’s a knock on the Refectory door and a sheepish, frightened Reader Aedil delivers his concern that Knower Gofrey is overdue from his walk. He is sure Gofrey didn’t return. Knower Kenwill soon comes up and offers his help, privately saying to Fraud that they hold plenty in common including a special faith. The two are developing a friendship. All of you except Bog leave the Monastery grounds and Shrett picks up Gofrey’s recent tracks in the mud from the constant rain. He follows them as far as across the bridge over the stream, then soon they become irregular in one spot, and stop, and there are plenty of hoofprints nearby, which lead away. You follow them back to the woods north of the Monastery, then Shrett casts magic to hurry himself alone in pursuit of them, further west for a half-hour until he understands that they have not, at this point, doubled back. He returns to the Monastery in due course.
Kenwill says that he wishes to stick around you, for safety, so he follows as Boamund, Fraud and Bog go to Maugis’s chambers. Bog and others are worried so they cast some magics before opening the door, which is firmly locked. Bog smashes it open with his maul. Beyond is a small, untidy room. There are books and scrolls strewn about, and a large plain chest. Fraud has a quick look at the documents: they seem to be alchemical treatises in Safelstran; and some papyrus correspondences. Fraud begins sifting through them. Boamund uses Sense Chaos and it directs him to the chest. Bog hesitates, then smashes that carefully; just enough to open it, as it is locked. Inside there are remnants of what turn out to be (Kenwill soon comments) alchemical apparatus of many sorts; some of which are now smashed, moreso when Bog tips the chest over to empty it. But Boamund’s leopard-magic sniffs precisely around the edges of the bottom of the chest, revealing that there is a false bottom, which is easily pried open, revealing a shadowy compartment (the darkness clings to it) that your Darksight can peer through. The is a stout bronze key (clearly for a large lock) and another cold, leaden Demon Bowl, which Bog grabs and reads, finding out that it is written the same as the broken one from Mondac’s room, but instead of his name it specifies that it is targeted at… Fraud Shaven! Fraud gingerly takes it into his care. You debate what to do about this dangerous thing that will unleash Nimil demon(s). Fraud takes the documents down to the Scriptorium with Kenwill, who offers to help sort them out.
Boamund and Bog go to the cellar, because they figure that key might match the door lock there. And they find that to be correct. There is a small chamber beyond, with newer stonework; no more than a couple of years old. Two cells, to the right and left of the door, consist of 2.5m deep pits with corroded chains at the bottom. You peer in. The one on the right has rotten old scraps of meat and a mostly dried out trough of water. The one on the left is bare. You chuck Wulf into the one on the left. Then, as you look around, you notice scratches in the floor by the left cell. You reason that these come from the ladder, which must have been put in and out periodically, leaving scratches from bearing weight. Bog climbs down and passes Wulf back up; Boamund comes down. On the back wall he sees a circular stone (the breadth of a hand or so) with lines and dots around its perimeter and around it on the back wall. Trying it out, the stone does turn in some sort of dial mechanism, but it makes no sense to Boamund. It, however, clicks and clacks in a sinister way as he turns it, and that rings bells. Shrett rejoins them by the time they leave the cellar, aiming to find Fraud. But first they try out an experiment to see if the clicks can be heard outside the cells/cellar, linking to Boamund’s hearing of them elsewhere, but they are inaudible.
Fraud and Kenwill turn out to be a potent, efficient team in going through Makris’s papers. The correspondences turn out to be the most interesting, although the alchemical books could be full of wealth about that art, if a lot of time were put into them. There is:
Disorder spirals across the Monastery grounds. As you meet up in the ?Refectory/Scriptorium/outside the cellar?, there is a scream from the South Tower, and a thud of an impact. And soon another from outside the Monastery, by the front doors. You go toward the doors, and see a immobile, hooded, robed figure, head bowed with face down, which seems like a statue. You approach, and it moves horribly. it wafts a stink of sweet and sour excrement and rotting flesh. Remnants of grey robes cling to it, but what is left of the head is now, unfortunately, visible: half is gone; half is clinging together by strings of tissue. In places, the body’s skin is replaced by patches of leathery hide. Its left hand is abnormally long, almost reaching the ground, and swollen black. It groans and lurches forward, muttering in Safelstran “The worm, the six-armed worm she rises!” You cast magics as you close in; Fraud hanging back to cast a Curse Chaos (which turns out to have no effect). Shrett slashes the remainder of its head off and it is not bothered, but it smashes at him with its bloated left arm; bloodying his face; but he manages to avoid its further blows as it keeps swinging. Meanwhile Boamund hacks at its chest with his sword, and Bog comes in, using Seal Wound as you see that its wounds begin to knit themselves back together. With a big swipe of his maul, Bog splatters its chest to bits, hurling now-dried, scorched pieces of rotten Rokari around. You’re not sure, but it might have once been Reader Jensos. Shrett does a quick look around the gates for Aedil and does not find him, so you enter the Monastery with great caution. It has become dark therein; all sources of light to chase away any shadows in the daytime have been snuffed. [Bog may wonder about that undead thing; if it wasn’t Chaos, was it re-animated from power like Zorak Zoran’s?]
You go toward the South Tower. You cast some Sense Chaos and Detect Enemy spells and such that direct you this way, and Pangur Ban the white cat is outside the door, back arched and hissing, and so you certainly expect trouble. Boamund opens the door. Reader Aedil’s body lies in a crumped heap; bloodied, neck broken. And the Chaos threat and Enemy lies upward, in that impenetrable darkness. At the tower’s top, the wind and flapping hide are deafening; and the hide causes a disorienting play of light below. You consider your next move as the darkness flows down the tower walls like oil; but at least this extension of the shadows can be seen through Darksight; it is not Helldark. Shrett watches behind you for Makris as Fraud guards the tower door and the other two press inside. And then the things leap forth from those shadows. They are hard to perceive even then; clearly they are what Boamund saw atop the tower before – winged feminine horrors, issuing gusts of foul stench as they swoop at you. They slash with fearsome claws and gnaw with sharp fangs and whip their barbed tails around. You spar with them, Bog’s and Boamund’s armour saving them from the first, surprise blows, and then Fraud hurls his Curse Chaos at them. Knocked down from the air to the tower floor, they soon get back up and dissolve into shadows again, escaping. Boamund curses at this missed opportunity to use his demon-slayer sword to full effect. Kenwill takes poor Aedil’s body into the main monastery and speaks a short prayer of farewell to him.
It's time to head for the cellar’s prison cells, you figure. So you do. You enter and encounter an evil presence that awaits you. It takes you time to really perceive what is there; it blends so well with the darkness. There is a skeletal shape squatting on all fours in a black corner of the room, but hanging upside down from the ceiling from overly long limbs and sharp claws. It is feminine in shape, impossibly skinny, with leathery, blackish, parchment-like skin, tattered wings that should not be able to fly, and two small pendulous breasts. Its head is skeletal, with a lipless and fleshless jaw, all pointy teeth showing, and very long oily hair. The thing seems to breathe, slowly and soundlessly, now and then emitting uncouth clicking noises as its head rotates around its neck 360 degrees. A second shape suddenly detaches itself from the shadows of the opposite wall, and Shrett feels horrid arousal welling up. This second thing, which bears a barbed tongue, reminds him so much of the demon Culsulva from your Boat Planet quest. He must gift himself to her so that he can feel the thrill of penetration.
Battle is on! The first thing goes for Shrett; the second for Fraud. It’s a three-on-two battle, and while these two Nimils are faster and nastier than the first ones, they are brought down quickly enough. Yet, after smashing the head of the first one to pieces, and ensuring it is thoroughly dead, Bog’s soul is ripped forth into the Spirit Plane, and after a couple of seconds of standing dazed while you wonder what is amiss, he drops to the floor, alive but unresponsive. It seems likely he is possessed. You ask Kenwill if he can help, but he says that Knower Immon (or Mondac) would have been the one to ask. Fraud inquires if maybe there is magic in the library that could aid, and Kenwill is uncertain but says it would take much time to find it if it is even there – but it’s not impossible.
You secure Bog. Fraud and Kenwill have a good look over that stone in the cell and the picture of it, and break the code with ease: in Safelstran, its decoded dots and lines (and those on the wall around it) puzzle out to read: M-A-L-L-I-A. Oh, the Midwife of Wakboth the Devil, via Thed the mother and Ragnaglar the father; together the Unholy Trio! Fraud turns the dial to do the code – and vanishes! Very, very fortunately (in one of many extremely helpful Critical rolls last night!), Boamund was keenly watching this happen and knows the code. He tells Shrett what to do and ensures it is written down. And so he turns the dial and vanishes, followed by Shrett. Kenwill stays behind to watch Bog.
One by one, you appear disoriented as to which way you are facing (but facing a tunnel wall that looks the same, with the dial), and feel sickened; Boamund almost faints from the dizzy spell. You hear noise from behind you and make room as the others appear behind you and you look down a rough, natural tunnel. You cast some spells and ready weapons and file ahead. The cave beyond is a large stone cavity with a low ceiling, 2m at most, tapering to nothing at the far end. In the middle is a large oblong altar slab. Behind the slab there is a vividly colourful statue of a hideous inhuman figure [Mallia; the six-armed worm!], which glistens with a vile sheen. There is a horrible stench here (reminiscent of prior encounters with Burning Malady victims and Nimils); and one of you almost passes out from that. Uncannily deep black shadows cloak many walls and corners.
You hear “Nimil, obey!” in Safelstran, with clicking-clacking sounds, then a strangled scream. Advancing, Fraud is first in line and sees, once his line of sight is clear, a struggle in the cavern: Makris in the grasp with another Nimil. He is horribly wounded, with blackened flesh hanging off him in strips, and chokes out his last words in Safelstran, turning his face back to you, “To my coven I was the Burning Malady, and its work is not done; the Tower That Never Was shall come; the truth will make you flee; I do not regret walking the line between Destroyer and Deceiver; for both shall come.” And the Nimil rips his face off and he dies.
It leaps into the deep Helldark around it, but soon comes forth as you approach the altar, with Fraud about to hurl his flask of anti-Chaos water at it. Shrett has snuck up with his Stalking magic. [but see below] It rends at Fraud but he and Boamund fend it off. It takes some wounds in the right wing from Shrett, losing use of that, then Boamund gives it a good blow to the chest, and more from others, although Shrett lands an excellent blow on its head that just glances off with a powerful shockwave that numbs his arm for a moment. And in due course it is worn down with many wounds to its chest, and it dies messily. You check Makris and he is very dead, and he has nothing of interest on him; he just wears his black robes, and does not have a certain book that Boamund hopes for. He is even unarmed.
Fraud already has hurled the water flask onto the altar by now and that is bubbling and hissing away, dissolving the top of the altar. You retreat, fearing the vile vapours produced, but soon feel it might be safe to return. Discussing a plan, you opt for one in which Fraud, who still feels he has ample mana in his sorb, returns to dial and thereby the cellar to get Bog’s maul for smashing the statue. And so you do; the Temple of Mallia seems disabled, as much as you can do so. You think over how to leave this place. Fraud goes back to the dial and vanishes. Boamund does too, then Shrett. And Shrett arrives back in the cell, which is stuffed with the two unconscious bodies of his comrades, who have been drained of mana in crossing the portal. He rests with Kenwill and they awaken in an hour or so, drowsy and very spiritually weak. But victorious! Barely.
The surviving staff (well, 3 people total!) gather under Kenwill’s guidance to thank you and pray for your safe travels. They ensure you have what you need for your journey but welcome you to stay longer. There is the matter of Bog, and that of Shrett, who is unwell. Indeed, you notice that Bog’s chest rash has returned rather furiously. With him possessed, Healing skill won’t help him. You need magic. Somehow. Balancing that vs. your need to recover mana looks tricky.
Knower Kenwill takes stock of survivors. There’s just him, Reader Windeam, and Servant Defral (the stableboy). Defral pipes up that a strange woman named Arelena had visited the area and Defral was worried she was a witch, as were the local peasants, so she was driven away by them but some say she spoke with High Watcher Mondac before she left. Kenwill had no idea of that. There has been no mention of this “Arelena” to this point in anything.
Reader Windeam confides through Kenwill two things:
GM exposition to players; things that PCs won’t learn but may be of interest; and if you wonder about other things I might answer them but some things are best left mysterious: There was a “bad thing” that St Paschal did with a woman (a priestess of Mallia!) long ago, and its curse has lingered at the Monastery. The Helldark manifested; the Nimils came; and events at the Monastery in recent years – especially once Makris arrived—worsened, because the power of the Temple of Mallia had been reawakened. The Nimils could move between certain darkness patches, had limited Darkwalk abilities, and nasty Chaos Features, and the ability to take on spirit forms (the Women in Red) – which Bog faced in the Spirit World, you may find out (hopefully). Makris learned to use the darkness transportation, including via the chest in his office as a last resort, but learned too late that the latter usage turned the Nimils against him. And yes, the chest closed and locked once he used it. Nifty sorcery.
You didn’t fall for it, but the thing about St. Paschal and the elves was a red herring, in terms of any cause of the curse on the Monastery. Note that the peasants dropped speculation of the Burning Malady maybe being an elf curse, when you first arrived here. You didn’t take that bait. Anyway, St. Paschal did have Arkati affiliations – he not only fought the elves, he won peace with them locally. Arkat did similarly; as Arkat Peacemaker, after the Gbaji Wars, across Ralios.
You’ve heard a bunch of names/places at the Monastery:
And Makris seems to have been involved in some conspiracy, spreading Disorder (The Destroyer) and Chaos (he did mention the Deceiver, and he used Chaos from Mallia). The code that Fraud has, with the Arkati map and this spot noted with 2 others (Dolios, Elfchild) and The Wanderer superimposed, reinforces this.
And so on.
Makris spoke of a “coven”—Fraud knows what that means. Covens are elite secret groups of Arkati magicians who are feared for their power, whose sum can be greater than its parts. In Arkat’s day, covens could take down armies. They are few and far between since then. Fraud’s secretly in a cabal (more open role in society); the third Arkati group are a crypteia (spies and such; act behind scenes unlike cabals).
Gofrey’s fate and Jensos’s remain issues.
Final housecleaning matter: I played it too fast and loose with Shrett’s Stalking magic last night. It is not a Darkwalk spell that lets you dip in and out of shadows. It just boosts your Stealth skill in shadows. And those with Darksight definitely can see you. Anyone that is paying attention can see you if they overcome your Stealth skill or if you become obvious (e.g. attacking), and they can then keep seeing you unless it’s too dark for them to do so (in which case that stealth might not matter anyway). This is overall how we played it back in Tiskos outside the Stygian Temple, for example. And it avoids game-breaking abuses (e.g. use Targets and Duration and the party becomes almost untouchable). It’s still a very, very handy spell.
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