2024-05-17 – Shadowed Keep

Characters

Chartreuse (pp 14)
Eldrox (pp 16)
Helm Hobbs (pp 17)
Radon (pp 14)
Voxi (pp 11)
Zaffre (pp 14)

Strong Start

Einar and Kaarina talk to the characters. They know of Valentin and Fiddlegibble's secret vault.

Scenes

Mother and son.
Goal: Find Fiddlegibble's Key.
Goal: Find and disable the final obelisk.
Goal: Locate the Black Cathedral.
Goal: Kill the high priest of the Eater of Worlds.

Secrets and Clues

Ciriac Drakecutter Dragonborn Iron Drake Mercenary turncoat was crushed to death by Einar the Revenant.
World-eater Goblinoids lurk in the lower tunnels. They have found the obelisk but do not know how to activate it.
Black Harbinger cultists and World-eater goblinoids have been at war with one another. The goblinoids are very strong – empowered by their proximity to the obelisk.
The second leader of the Black Harbingers serves two gods but actually is actually bound by three.
Brother Navros (the Dreamwhisper) of the Black Harbingers is actually a priest-assassin of the Dead Night. He knows his lord's true name – Aameul.
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 of the Abyss – Fiddlegibble’s Key +2 All-Purpose Tool.
Einar knows about the secret vault and the key held within.
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. Fiddlegibble 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.

Monsters

World-Eater Goblinoids (MV 195/196)
Orcs / Ogres of the Black Harbinger (MV 268)
Assassin Priest mv 362
Cult fanatic mv 365
Mage mv 367
Spirit Naga mv 264
Death Knight mv 77

Treasure

96 sp, 2,310 gp, 108 pp (3,399gp), 1,000 gp sapphire, Potion of Resistance, Ring of Free Action, Eversmoking Bottle, Periapt of Wound Closure, Ring of Mind Shielding
A temporal cyclopean mirror of Nerull (Skull and scythe, Neutral Evil – God of death, darkness, murder, and the underworld. The Reaper, Foe of All Good, Hater of Life, Bringer of Darkness.) that casts Mass Heal (Level 9).

Game Notes

The revenant/kid, Inar who was whooping on us apologizes for killing our iron drake helper downstairs. His banshee mom really likes Helm because her dead husband was also a follower of Saint Cuthbert. We give the kid his idol back. He keeps talking about how he was the one who found the obelisk, and it brought evil. Valentine and "uncle" Fiddlegibble, Voxi's uncle experimented with the obelisk. They ask her if she's here for the key. The Goblins of the Blood Moon and the Orcs of the Severed Hand were the cultists in the time of Valentine who killed him and looked for the key.

The woman tells her "the key can destroy or activate the obelisk. Uncle Fiddlegibble and Valentine hid the key in a secret vault in the home. Look for his sign on the first floor. But Valentine put a guardian on the vault. He made a bargain with the guardian. The goblins have been here so long the obelisk has infused them with power." She tells us where the vault is (the hallway to the east, and through the shitty smelling door)."

There's a trap door over a chamber (the stinky room at the end of the hallway) with a bunch of dead bodies and a lever. After mage handing the lever, a secret door from the chamber opens. Chartreuse and Zaffre drop down into the chamber. Zaffre finds a symbol in the wall scratched by Voxi's uncle. The rest of the party goes down the stairs like civilized people, see the body of our iron drake helper. We encounter some goblins on our way to meet the sisters. When we kill the last one, he says "I will lie upon his alter and speak his name Melu...." and dies.
We head toward the room of dead bodies, newly floral infused from an overabundance of prestidigitation. Voxi sees a math puzzle from her uncle that she makes quick work of and a door opens, revealing a spiral staircase downward to a room with a door with the likeness of Molak above it. Zaffre and Voxi work together to disarm the trap that would have toasted everyone with fire. We enter the next chamber which contains 4 chests, an alter and a symbol of St. Cuthbert. The alter has the key, but there's a pile of bones with a giant skull with gem eyes in front of it. The guardian, a skeleton snake comes together, the porticulus behind us smashes down. We face the guardian. We kill it. Voxi grabs the shard/key.

We must now delve below, find the obelisk, and disable it.