Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 54 - A Disastrous Success

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 6/ Thief 6) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 5 / Fighter 6) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 3)
[Svagola (Human Fighter 4)]

Date/Time
Needfest 577 Earthday (afternoon) - Fireseek 4

The party ignores the sigil for now and instead focuses on taking care of the trio of cultists behind the locked portcullis next door. The first step is to hide their captive in the armoire. Then they truss  up Chanee as a fake 'prisoner', while the the other three don the cultists robes. They bluff their way through the portcullis, and then suddenly turn on the cultists. This does not go as planned, for very shortly all four have been ensorcelled by hold and/or fear. Now they are all bound and gagged, and their equipment taken from them. And are then unceremoniously pushed one by one onto a similar sigal in this room.

They end up teleported to another non-descript cult room, and are quickly lead through a series of chambers lined with books and filled with cultists frantically searching through them. Their captors lead them to a final room where two obviously high priests (Corvan of the Lightless Dark and Tarabus of the Ebony Dark)  sit at a table scanning more ancient tomes. After some mocking interrogation, Corvan makes an interesting offer. The party's freedom in return for Goro's help in performing a ritual that will shut the gate to Hell in the shattered alter stone; the  ritual must be performed by a good cleric.  Corvan points out having uncontrolled and chaotic arrival of diabolic denizens is no better for their cult than it is for the surrounding countryside. When asked, he does tell the party that the temple was not always here but that the above ground 'cube' has a life of it's own, moving on it's own volition to sites of great evil and taking the cult with it. They are relatively new to the snow covered slope, and the alter split after their arrival, a result of some terrible rumbling and quaking from under the mountain.  

In return for a contract of safe release and return of their stuff (minus what they stole form the cult), Goro agrees to help. After a night of prayer, the cleric blesses some holy oil and following the cultists instructions, successfully closes the gate. After a few tense moments, the party is led outside to the snowy mountainside, their weapons and gear are all left in  pile at the edge of the clearing. Annoyed and disappointed , they gather their things, recover horses from the nearby farmstead, and begin the cold and blustery trek back to Nevond Nevnend. Their  annoyance is only increased when on their last day before entering the plains of Tenh, a trio of griffins from the mountain crags attack and carry off a pair of their horses. But they get back to civilization in one piece, and report the success of their task to the the High Priest at the temple of Heironeous, the Glorious Sonnen Tarrikastier.

GAINS

none

KILLS/VICTORIES

1 cultists of Moloch

LOSSES

none

 

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 53- The Paladin and the Cultist

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 6/ Thief 6) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 5 / Fighter 6) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 3)
[Svagola (Human Fighter 4)]

Date/Time
Needfest 577 Earthday (midday) - Needfest 577 Earthday (afternoon)

The party returns to the main chamber containing the split alter stone. They find a new pair of lemure have emerge from the gash and pushed the stuffed tapestries aside. Skeef uses his cloak to change self into the form of a cultist, thinking he might control the devils. But no luck and the party slays them instead. They go looking for other clues and ways to deal with the alter. Passing through the rest of the long gallery with the horrific paintings, they encounter more lemures. In the process of killing these, Goro look too closely at the paintings and is forced to run off into the unexplored darkness in fear. The rest of the party follows, and after finding Goro they backtrack to figure out where they are, and then continue on with their exploration. 

After a series of mundane rooms, they come to one suite of rooms with a quartet of cultists cowering behind barricades. In the ensuing melee and spell slinging, three are dispatched to Moloch and the last, the one in charge, is captured. Questioning is at first ineffective, until Chanee gives the captured cultist a hug and replaces threats with comfort and understanding. This confuses the captive, who becomes more cooperative. They learn little however, except that they have probably already dispatched about half the cultists but the leaders are still extent. Most interesting is that the lemures are not being summoned at the cults behest or control. 

After looting the remaining rooms in the suite (including an iron box that Skeef cannot open and the captive cultist is forced to carry), the party passes through another horrifically illustrated long gallery.  Off of this they find two more suites of more opulent rooms. Access to each is barred by a locked portcullis. The first Skeef in unable to open, and the party is driven off by the spell slinging cultists within. The second the druid/thief is able to unlock. Beyond the party finds a dark chapel with an alter and idol of Moloch. There they battle another trio of cultists and slay them without mercy. The room beyond is a vestry with a chair, armoire and a strange sigel on the floor. Skeef opens the armoire, finding a trio of fine velvet cultist robes and a lurking lemure which must be dispatched. In the armoire's locked drawer the thief finds nothing. But about that sigel ...

GAINS

51gp

12 gems (3x300gp, 3x75gp, 3x750gp, 3x250gp) 

Unopened iron chest 

Captured Cultist 

KILLS/VICTORIES

7 cultists of Moloch (1 captured)

10 lemures

LOSSES

none

 

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 52- The Black Chapel

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 6/ Thief 6) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 5 / Fighter 6) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 3)

[Svagola (Human Fighter 4)]

Date/Time
Needfest 577 Sunday - Needfest 577 Earthday

Fully recovered from the excursion to Avernus, Goro is surprised to find himself summoned once more to the Temple of Heironeous, and in the middle of the Needfest celebrations no less! Brought before the High Priest, the Glorious Sonnen Tarrikastier,  he is told the faith once more needs his service. The last few caravans carrying platinum from the mines above Calbut have reported attacks by strange blob-like humanoids. A priest of Heironeous travelling with the most recent group identified them as lemures.  The High Priest heavily hints that the timing with the party's recent return from Avernus is uncanny, and he 'suggests'  it would be in the party's best interest to follow up and deal with whatever is causing the incursions. 

The party agrees and make ready to trudge through the deep mountain snows to the site of the attacks. Arriving after several days of travel, they leave their horses at a nearby farm and climb the pine covered slopes in the direction from which the lemures have come. After a few hours they approach a clearing; at the centre stands a square black structure about 100' across. And halfway between them and the structure stands a figure, back turned to them. The party approaches cautiously and hails the figure. It is a woman of one of the northern barbarian tribes by her dress, holding a red-rune engraved sword in her hand. But she is friendly, and they learn she too is on the trail of devils. Or to be precise, her sword Hellrazer is leading her on this path. They are also a bit startled when the sword itself speaks to them, urging them in hollow tones into the solid black stone building. And so the two join the party on their quest. 

Inside the building they find that is it dedicated to Moloch, arch-duke and viceroy of the seventh level of hell (Malbolge), ruling in the name of Baalzebul Lord of Lies. There is also evidence that postulates must shave their bodies  before entering the viceroy's service. There is a stairway descending steep and deep below the surface, leading to a corridor of statues. These are of bald humans dressed in grey robes. On each base is a sigal that Skeef understands to be the names of the figures on the plinth. Two plinths are empty, tagged with the sigal for 'self'. Their exploitation is interrupted by a pair of robed figures armed with scourges, who attack but are successfully defeated. 

Further exploration leads to a massive ceremonial chamber hung with banners of black and red. At the centre is round black stone, split down the middle as if by great force. As they examine the stone, 4 lemures pour forth from the split and attack the party. When these are defeated by sword and holy water the party tears down some banner and stuffs them in the crack before moving on.  A side passage leads to a long narrow gallery painted with frescoes of diabolic torture ranging from banal flagellation  to truly horrific and unspeakable deeds. This causes the paladin to break, and Chanee runs in fear from the awful images. 

Collecting the now bashful paladin, the party pushes on, entering what appears to be a small office. An opened lock lies on the table, and the walls are covered in shelves of identical leather bound books. Skeef takes several down and find they are full of names and nothing more. The books range from brand new to old and brittle. Suddenly a robed figure rushes out of an adjacent shadowy room, but the attacking figure is soon slain. They recover a key from the body. Examination of two adjacent rooms uncover one filled with spare robes, both old and new. The other is filled with a variety of objects, neatly stacked, and giving the uncomfortable sense of having been taken from victims ... 

GAINS

none

KILLS/VICTORIES

3 cultists of Moloch

4 lemures

LOSSES

none