Chartreuse (pp 14) – Death came really close. How does it feel now? The world is really dangerous. Hawkwind is out there.
Eldrox (pp 16) – What did it feel like returning life to the forest surrounding Blighthollow.
Helm Hobbs (pp 17) – Valentin was a fellow follower of St Cuthbert. He was killed in his own home – attacked from multiple sides.
Radon (pp 14) – What brought Radon to these forested lands?
Voxi (pp 11) – Great Uncle Fiddlegibble was here, in this castle, building it for his patron, Valentin.
Zaffre (pp 14) – Lady's Kiss can better blend with Zaffre's ways but must take the soul of a wizard to do so.
Strong Start
A brief respite. The characters reach 6th level.
What new power did they get? What power are they excited about?
What do you think about or talk about as you sit around the campfire that night?
Scenes
A brief respite
Making their way to Valentin's Folly
Encounter at the glyphed iron tree of Hextor (Black spiked gauntlet with holding arrows, Lawful Evil – God of war, discord, massacres, conflict, fitness, and tyranny)
Ettin, Brekkesh and Sithon, of the Eater of Worlds (Sithon is actually an agent of the Dead Night) and two ogres eviserate a group of Black Harbingers. Headband of intellect and 852 gp, 2,456 sp.
Approaching Valentin's Folly
Secrets and Clues
The mercenary captain Radine Hawkblade rules over the Iron Drakes in and around Valentin's Folly.
Great Uncle Gaven Fiddlegibble worked for Valentin Ironwolf of Valentin's Folley. He examined the obelisk beneath the fortress and used a shard of it as a powerful universal tool.
Fiddlegibble hid the tool away so it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands.
Agents of the Dead Night are keeping an eye on the Black Harbinger hoping to steal what they acquire in Valentin's Folly. They work for their masked master who lurks in the sewers beneath Dulwich.
Valentin Ironwolf was an adventurer and explorer. He built Ironwolf Stronghold atop a rocky mountain below which weaved a wide network of caves. With his riches he hired Gaven Fiddlegibble, uncle to Voxi, who engineered the stronghold.
Valentin's eldest son Einar Ironwolf (now a Revenant) found the caves beneath the stronghold and began to explore. He found the obelisk and showed it to his father and Gaven.
The two adventurers were befuddled by the device and its power – a splinter between worlds and likely one of many. Gaven found an item with it held in the hand of a primeval priest dead for millennia. He called it the Key – Fiddlegibble’s Key +2 All-Purpose Tool.
Soon goblins and orcs and worse attacked from the outside and from below – strange goblins with swirls and tentacles and sallow skin. Orcs and undead alike. They all wanted the monolith and the key.
Valentin and Fiddlegibble hid the key in a secret vault within the chambers of Valentin's folly. Gaven went missing, Valentin died defending his family.
Valentin used a powerful guardian to protect the key but the guardian won't last forever – eventually the agents of the Black Harbinger will find it and collect it if it is not collected first.
Zaltor Darkthrone wants the key but does not require it. Instead, he can sacrifice a great many followers to open the doors of the Black Cathedral.
Kaarina Ironwolf, Valentin's wife, was an accomplished wizard and adventurer herself.
Something is murdering Iron Drakes and Black Harbinger cultists in the deeper caves and chambers. They're found eviscerated or crushed or choked to death. Cultists of the Black Harbinger think its assassins of the Dead Night.
Locations & Situation
Black Harbinger cult fanatics, skeletons, Iron Drake mercenaries, and mercenary captains lurk outside of Valentin's Folly.
Groups of Harbingers have been sent into the structure itself: cultists, fanatics, priests, skeletons, and wights.
Two undead priests command things from within – Wolfrazor (undead halfling priest) and Whitebone (undead elf priest).
Goblinoids of the Eater of Worlds attack from below – goblins, goblin spies, goblin warlocks, bugbears, bugbear chief – led by the goblin priest of the Eater of Worlds – Vyara the Titan's Splinter.
Other monsters wander and lurk about in the ruins.
