House Drovenge has hired some of the TrollSkull Champions Guild to quietly take care of an apparent kidnapping. Ecarrdia (the son) has gone missing and in his place is a ransom note discovered by his sister, Chammady
Chammady Drovenge.
She has gone to Tymora's Fancy with 50,000 gp in ransom for her brother
Aberian Drovenge.
Master of the House Drovenge. Tasked you with retrieving his son. Privacy and discretion are the utmost
Vobin Bigtoe.
Chammady later admitts that she and her brother have tried to frame Vobin Bigtoe. But she is also confused as to how the ransom letter changed
The group has tracked the Xanathar Guild members through the sewer, following symbol markings on the sewer walls. Discovered a Guild Hideout. Various rooms with members eating and gambling. PCs disguised themselves are guild members (tattooing the Xanathar Guild symbol on the inside of their wrists).
Decided to leave via a passage way leading to a warehouse front inside the Dock ward.
Travelled to the Continental. Run by drow
The Continental accuses daughter, Chammady of a crime. Does a 'sending' to father. Father sends a group of lawyers (Paget, Raven & Norton) to see to charges. (Leaves an intern at the Continental).
PCs tasked by Trollskull Champions Guild to investigate a case of "spontaneous human combustion'....in three different locations. Some sort of creatures crawled out of the body and attacked PCs.
The group runs to check out other locations. More of the same.
Along with the old fighter, Loene, and some guards they group figures out the locations of all the SHC cases form a pentagram....centered on the location of House Drovenge.
Group goes to High Flaggon to retrieve brother, Ecarrdia.
He is in disguise (poorly). They find him and he convinces them to gamble and with his aid they win BIG. He wants seed money to gamble to pay off his debts.
He cannot leave without paying 50,000 dragons
Group is able to gamble using Ecarrdia's uncanny luck to acrue a large fortune. (enough to buy Ecarrida's freedom)
There is a stand-off with several guards. They do not wish to let Ecarrdia go. He has paid his debt but they need to know how he is cheating. He must be cheating and they will keep him until they figure it out.
There are threats, contracts produced and finally Levi's death (for the moment). They drag Levi's body (dosing him with a potion of healing) as well as Ecarrdia outside to their waiting carriage.
Riding along the coast they are ambushed by several mercenaries hired by the High Flagon to watch and if necessary retrieve Ecarrdia. Threats are made, contracts produced and finally a darkness spell and some quick driving and they escape.
Returning the brother and sister to House Drovenge. The mother (Crosael) is somewhat pleased to see her children returned. She is unnaturally youthful looking. She is very proud of her house, it's valuables and its wonderful inventions. She shows the group her daughter's newest painting. It is a stark landscape with a bleak red sky. It is beautiful but haunting.
Eventually the group wants their money.
Threats are made and contracts produced....
money is given but...
They discover that Seraphina Swiftwhistle (the halfling love interest of Vobin) has on her wrist the star-shaped tattoo of the Xanathar Guild.
Threats are made...and Seraphina is killed.
As they group ponders this new dilema a creature steps out of the painting they were looking at earlier and easily drops Levi while suffering very little in return. Seeing that the group is no threat is simply leaves...bamfing out in a sulfurous cloud.
ps much of the leftover fortune in gold from the High Flagon was turned to stones while inside House Drovenge.
(This definitely did not sit well)
Fire rages in House Rosznar as the group has set ablaze not only the fiendish painting but the banquet hall and eventually the entire castle.
They try to save a few of the nobles but failed attempts and a need to evacuate leaves several of the nobles to become consumed in the flames. Lockheed is able to grab the head of the castle, Kressando Rosznar, and haul him outside. Once outside several of the City Watch are gathering containing nobles, servants and entertainers alike preventing them from leaving before leaving statements.
Two halfling detectives, Corzin and Calwyn, confront the group. The group is able to talk their way out of suspicion by remembering their half remembered cover story of being the entertainment for the evening. They give false names and statements to the detectives before leaving.
Back at the Trollskull Manor they regroup and find a braggart of a half-elf, Oriben Hallowphen and his man-servant Abner Todd. Oriben is telling tale after tale of slaughtering demon after demon. Levius interrupts several times asking pertinent and pointed questions to which Oriben answers energetically, happy to show off his magical weapons and armor.
He asks the group if they would help him kill off what he believes is a demon-lord. He has cleared all of its minions but is perhaps a little hesitant to tackle the big one by himself. The group declines his offer...for now. No hard feelings. He offers them a candy from the local candy store down the street, Stickee & Sweet Confectionery. They are becoming very popular.
In fact many of the businesses along Trollskull Street have begun to see prosperity. It may be in large part, due to the Champions Guild itself.
In fact in the morning, a large throng of Trollskull Alley Gang kids are congregated around one of the tables chanting "Battle Monsters!" over and over, as two of the older kids have garnered enough money to buy a couple of small toy monsters that can be made to do battle with each other.
Some of the group becomes interested in the small toys and agree to buy a monster for each of the assembled kids. This is met with incredible joy and excitement.
Everyone pours out of the manor and make their way towards Miss Pixie's Famous Toys, all the while chanting "Battle Monsters"
Not ones to be trusting, the group questions the kindly dwarf woman about the toys and are told of the joy the toys bring to the children. They go through a process, much like adopting a Build-A-Bear. They pledge their love for their monster and sign adoption papers when they name their monster.
Suspicious, yet intrigued, Levi purchases a Battle Monster (TM) and signs the adoption contract.
After telling the army of kids waiting outside patiently that they will not be getting a Battle Monster (TM) until they have made sure that it is safe. The group returns to the manor and find a senior officer to inspect the contract and monster.
The monster is naturally imbued with some sort of "conjuration" magic and the contract, upon close inspection, holds further legalese hidden in the filigree making up the fancy border of the contract.
Levi has sold his soul to Mammon the devil. No ifs and or buts. Done.
After obtaining a contract to investigate Miss Pixie's Famous Toys, they return after hours and investigate the shop and house. No one is home but they eventually find an adjoined abandoned house beside the toy store and, after some searching and fussing come across a hidden set of stairs leading down.
Using the set of directions they found hidden in Miss Pixie's house they traverse what seems to be ancient maintenance tunnels. They follow the directions until they find a hidden structure beneath the city. They open the doors and hear the murmurings of an evil sounding ritual.
They enter....and kick some cultists asses and eventually a devil as well.
This was just the entrance way.
After defeating the cultists in the main entrance room, and interrupting their ritual, the group moves cautiously through the building.
They find a finely furnished room with horrific paintings of Hell on the wall. There are two other doors in the room. They scour the room and find papers and a rough map. Moving the table they roll the rug underneath and block the door they had entered through.
The other doors, one very thick and reinforced with banding the other a set of double doors slightly ajar.
Lockheed and Levius go through the double doors while Assisha and Freda wait by the solid reinforced door.
Using his thief's tools, Lockheed spies in through a set of doors at the end of a hall. Religious chanting can be heard through the doors and the mirror on the end of the rod shows a room with a several cultists in the middle of a ceremony.
Bursting through the door, the cultists are attacked, but seem little harmed by the fire spells. A quick retreat back down the hall. They pass Freda, who hearing the fight is running past the retreating Lockheed and Levi. The cultists descend on Freda en mass and savagely kill her.
Levi and Lockheed are able to move back to the finely furnished room, closing the doors behind them. But one of the cultists is able to dimension door into the room. It is Miss Pixie and she begins to attack.
Fortunately, Assisha was in the corner of the room and is able to stun Miss Pixie and the group is able to defeat her, all the while the cultists are pounding at the door. Then they go silent.
The group retreats again, back to the maintenance tunnels towards home.
The cultists pursue, having left via a different exit.
All seems dire until a well placed cloud of daggers and a fellow Guild member enters the tunnels looking for the party.
Back at the Trollskull Manor, they rest.
Oriben Hollowphen, treats them kindly and offers assistance, only to be rebuked harshly by Levi....several times.
| Oriben Hollowphen |
They decide to confront House Drovenge.
They threaten exposure of House Drovenge to the lady of the house, Crosael, and she relents, telling Vobin the house steward to show them the source of their power.
He shows them through the house, leading them to the basement and finally a locked room. Inside the room, they find a rough hole in the floor through which they descend and find themselves looking at a churning orb connected in a VAST tangle of wires and pipes. Odd condensation builds on some of the pipes and drips into glass jars on the floor, placed to catch the fluid.
A voice whispers to Assisha, for her and her friends to come to the orb.
As she steps towards the orb, the floor gives way, and the group plummet through. Falling through a portal they find themselves in a room with fire for walls and devils standing ready.
The group finds themselves inside a fortress of fire confronted by two devils and a chained pit fiend. They have been transported to a demiplane within the third layer of hell.
They ask the group what treasures they have brought to the vault. Freda offers her bag of gold but the others have nothing of significance. They bluff their way past the two devilish guards and are escorted to the main vault by a couple of imps.
Crossing a bridge surrounded by fire they approach a massive stone structure that seems to extend to the fiery horizon. They kill the imp but not before one of the imps, who is trying to curry the favor of the group, tells them:
- The vault is a demiplane of Minauros, a layer of hell. Here House Drovenge has been storing its many treasures deposited with them by other nobles.
- All here are in service of the archdevil, Mammon.
- Mammon has been imprisoned by House Drovenge, within a Fiend Globe, for the last 665 years. Many in the service of Mammon have been working to release Mammon.
- The Fiend Globe will be at its weakest during the Selune eclipse, which will occur in about a month.
- There is a growing faction, led by the devil Senhtat who is in charge here, which wants Mammon dead. Senhtat claims he will then become archdevil in charge of Minauros.
- Only Mammon's own weapon, the short-spear, Gungnir, will be able to destroy and kill Mammon....while he is still imprisoned
Yeah....then they kill the little imp, Grem. Much to the dismay of Freda.
They approach the devil, Senhtat, and make the deal that they will seek out the weapon. As a show of their ability, Senhtat tells the group to kill the twins, the devils who they met guarding the entrace to the vault.
They do so, then return to Senhtat and he sends them back to their plane of existence, telling them to seek out the Rashemi Sisters in the Ardeep Forest. They will know where to find Mammon's weapon.
They travel through the Ardeep forest, saving a young woman from bandits and she invites them back to her small house to give them food and drink and tells them she has just come from the Sisters that the group seeks
In the town of Abermoor in the heart of the Ardeep forest, the group meets several of the townsfolk. They all speak of the Sisters who in the past have done the town great service.
Almost 13 years ago they had found and saved a young girl, Jaina Ringer. Tomorrow is her 13th birthday which the town celebrates with a small festival.
The group meets the 3 sisters, Nellie, Peg and Lucille.
They tell the group that they need to prove themselves worthy. They must kill the monster in the forest nearby. It has maimed several townsfolk and made the forest a dangerous place.
The group faces and eventually kills the beast which transforms into a young man. Shemmy, a young man who is raised by the town after a horse kicked him in the head, recognizes the dead body. It is a Jaylyn. He went missing a few years ago.
They return the body to the town. The town mourns and gathers in the church. They ask the group to join them. As the town gathers, slowly the gathering turns chaotic as everyone begins blaming others for a series of misfortunes.
When the chaos comes to a violent boiling point, the Sisters enter the town.
The PCs are having none of this. They believe the sisters are hags and head out as the Sisters fulfill their agreement and tell the group that the weapon they seek is in the Blackstaff tower. It alone can destroy the Fiend Globe and the archdevil, Mammon, within it.
Returning home they decide to hone their skills in the Danger Room, the pocket dimension they discovered somewhere in the Barrier Peaks.
Finding the contact they need to enter the Blackstaff tower, they meet Kiirma Blackmane, the apprentice to the current Blackstaff wizard, Vajra Safahr.
She tells them she has no interest in either entering the tower or becoming the next doomed wizard. She hands them a circular amulet and tells them this is the only key she has.
The tower itself has no doors or entrances the group can find. They do discover a series of windows with small balconies several tens of feet above.
They climb, one by one, until Lockheed and Bones are on the rickety perches. But soon they are attacked by small dragon-like creatures. Defeating them and finally entering the tower, they discover the nest of eggs the creatures were protecting.
After destroying the nest and remaining creatures, they descend down a series of steps to encounter a room full of child-like creatures who are made of flame and molten rock. They approach the group, arms extended in a loving gesture. All they want is to find their father.
 |
| Fred and Ned |
The group dispatches them, flinging the last down a set of stairs.
Moving down the stairs, they pass through an area of magical darkness, which Lockheed must guide the others down the broken staircase. At the bottom of the stairs is a completely empty room.
The group moves around investigating the room and Bones discovers an area of the floor which is actually a mimic. Killing the mimic they find it was covering a trap door.
Descending down through the door they find themselves in a well constructed complex of finely manicured stone.
They find a door which needs three keys, of which they have one (the circular amulet), a series of gardens which are clearly raided, and a set of stairs leading to a vast and open cavern below. There they find some sort of creatures.
Returning back to the complex they move through and find a two headed creature arguing with itself over the cooking of a rat.
The group decides to approach it
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