Session 7: The Big City Report
General Summary
The leper was tearing at his face, revealing a black-skinned dragon maw beneath the flesh of his face...
Stigala woke from this horrifying dream to find that her own skin was turning black, and that her teeth had elongated and sharpened in almost feral fashion. Her disease was accelerating. Because what passed for a medical professional in Kalai was a mining foreman who knew some first aid, Stigala turned to the Church for advice.
While no one knew if she was cursed or how to break it, Pastore Roguelin did recall that healing miracles had happened after prayers to the statue Dame Guérisse at the Church of the Paladins in the city of Lorinne. Perhaps a pilgrimage would stir the Paladin of Mercy to heal Stig?
While planning this 4-day journey, word spread in the village that Lady Clarity Champoux was also planning on making the trip to Lorinne. She wanted to go in order to discover what had happened to her mother the Thane, to verify the truth about the Countess-turned-Queen, and to bring back the millstone to aid her nearly-starving village.
The journey was largely uneventful, except for the stop at the Abbey of Our Lady of Mysteries, where Sir Humbert inducted the four investigators into l'Order Fantome, continuing the ancient knightly order sworn to protect the world against the Malfeans and lurking evil.
Entering the sprawling city of Lorinne, the group made their way to the Church of the Paladins (i Paladini), a very old and once-grand church on a high hill. There they found the local pastore, Ameline, had been the victim of a beating and a theft from goon of a protection racket run by a boss called Il Dolore (The Hurt). When Ameline could not pay the owed protection money, the enforcer named Pulg took a church icon as payment: the gilded orb from the statue of Dame Gu érisse!
Ameline had other news as well. In working to dig the foundations for a new parsonage, the workers had uncovered an ancient mosaic floor and foundations of walls dated from nearly a thousand years ago. In the center of this floor was a hexagonal metal plate that bore an inscription referring to the lost Asraveda...the oldest known reference of this near-mythical document!
This plate had been seen and taken by the Seneschal and it prompted him to call the Convocation of Lorinne to debate whether the gods did indeed rise from mortals or whether they were always divine. Unfortunately, the Seneschal had also taken the plaque to the Citadel of Viresh for safekeeping.
Ameline had also noticed that the mosaic floor was encoded with a Bhaasan inscription that read, "The Center leads to the Truth," which she asked the PCs to convey to Pastore Gavinus, the priest of the Church of St. Roland who was tasked with leading the opposition debate of the Convocation.
The PCs went to Gavinus and found him humble yet authoritative and charismatic...almost too charismatic, in Rowan's opinion. When leaving, they met a young Volgare girl who was brining a vial of silvery liquid to Gavinus, which he claimed was an apothecary's medicine for his weak heart.
Not fully trusting that story, Smok and Stigala followed the girl, who led them to a curiously small door, sized only for Volgare. It led to a subterranean series of catacombs that a human would had great difficulty navigating. The chase led them through a strange underground market and then to a corridor called the Strada Pericolosa--Danger Street.
A series of deadly traps filled the Strada Pericolosa, and Stigala almost had her ears nicked off by a scything blade that spilt the hood of her new cloak.
Meanwhile, Rowan and Elric decided to pay a visit to Pulg the enforcer to get the orb back. As he frequented a brother in the Low Sprawl district, they headed to the House of Red Lanterns, only to be turned away by the skull-faced madam, Memento (and her bouncers) because priests were bad for business. Coming back in plain clothes, they entered the House to find the piggish Pulg livin' the dream. He brushed off the investigators questions, saying that the matter was out of his hands, and that he had already given the orb to his boss Il Dolore, who runs The Snakepit.
Continuing their tour of the seedier parts of town, Rowan and Elric went to the tavern/fighting arena called The Snakepit, only to find that the only way to Il Dolore's office was through the ring! Rowan and Elric stepped onto the sand with Skel, a huge brawler, and after a vicious fight that left them both banged up, they gained the door of the boss's office, and found that Il Dolore was Merek Payne, Rowan's brother! (The brother that Rowan describes as "even more of a son of a bitch than myself.")
Stiagla and Smok, meanwhile, having navigated the Strada Pericolosa, were confronted by Griashia, the Volgare girl, and Urto, a large fighter-type. Stigala pleaded her disease and Urto took pity on her and admitted them into a large chamber.
They entered a large cavern thirty feet in diameter and twelve to fifteen feet tall, supported by massive pillars carved to look like tree trunks supporting the roof. A couple of other Volgae tended tiny cages on one side, but the strangest feature of the room was a person, hanging from chains attached to the ceiling!
This person, apparently a woman, was enshrouded in a rough iron mask that covered her entire head, without eye opening and with a funnel-like maw that seem to extend into the victim's own mouth. The woman was covered in silver moths. Griashia offered Stigala one of these moths to eat, and the power it conferred eased Stig's symptoms a bit.
Through some careful questioning, Smok and Stig learned that the victim was none other than Dame Eselde of the Eye, a Paladin! Apparently the mask contained her powers, and the blood moths drew out something called Adoracia Fidele, some kind of powerful magical fluid.
What are the eventual effects of Adoracia? Will Merek Payne give up the Orb of Guérisse? Find out next week!
Stigala woke from this horrifying dream to find that her own skin was turning black, and that her teeth had elongated and sharpened in almost feral fashion. Her disease was accelerating. Because what passed for a medical professional in Kalai was a mining foreman who knew some first aid, Stigala turned to the Church for advice.
While no one knew if she was cursed or how to break it, Pastore Roguelin did recall that healing miracles had happened after prayers to the statue Dame Guérisse at the Church of the Paladins in the city of Lorinne. Perhaps a pilgrimage would stir the Paladin of Mercy to heal Stig?
While planning this 4-day journey, word spread in the village that Lady Clarity Champoux was also planning on making the trip to Lorinne. She wanted to go in order to discover what had happened to her mother the Thane, to verify the truth about the Countess-turned-Queen, and to bring back the millstone to aid her nearly-starving village.
The journey was largely uneventful, except for the stop at the Abbey of Our Lady of Mysteries, where Sir Humbert inducted the four investigators into l'Order Fantome, continuing the ancient knightly order sworn to protect the world against the Malfeans and lurking evil.
Entering the sprawling city of Lorinne, the group made their way to the Church of the Paladins (i Paladini), a very old and once-grand church on a high hill. There they found the local pastore, Ameline, had been the victim of a beating and a theft from goon of a protection racket run by a boss called Il Dolore (The Hurt). When Ameline could not pay the owed protection money, the enforcer named Pulg took a church icon as payment: the gilded orb from the statue of Dame Gu érisse!
Ameline had other news as well. In working to dig the foundations for a new parsonage, the workers had uncovered an ancient mosaic floor and foundations of walls dated from nearly a thousand years ago. In the center of this floor was a hexagonal metal plate that bore an inscription referring to the lost Asraveda...the oldest known reference of this near-mythical document!
This plate had been seen and taken by the Seneschal and it prompted him to call the Convocation of Lorinne to debate whether the gods did indeed rise from mortals or whether they were always divine. Unfortunately, the Seneschal had also taken the plaque to the Citadel of Viresh for safekeeping.
Ameline had also noticed that the mosaic floor was encoded with a Bhaasan inscription that read, "The Center leads to the Truth," which she asked the PCs to convey to Pastore Gavinus, the priest of the Church of St. Roland who was tasked with leading the opposition debate of the Convocation.
The PCs went to Gavinus and found him humble yet authoritative and charismatic...almost too charismatic, in Rowan's opinion. When leaving, they met a young Volgare girl who was brining a vial of silvery liquid to Gavinus, which he claimed was an apothecary's medicine for his weak heart.
Not fully trusting that story, Smok and Stigala followed the girl, who led them to a curiously small door, sized only for Volgare. It led to a subterranean series of catacombs that a human would had great difficulty navigating. The chase led them through a strange underground market and then to a corridor called the Strada Pericolosa--Danger Street.
A series of deadly traps filled the Strada Pericolosa, and Stigala almost had her ears nicked off by a scything blade that spilt the hood of her new cloak.
Meanwhile, Rowan and Elric decided to pay a visit to Pulg the enforcer to get the orb back. As he frequented a brother in the Low Sprawl district, they headed to the House of Red Lanterns, only to be turned away by the skull-faced madam, Memento (and her bouncers) because priests were bad for business. Coming back in plain clothes, they entered the House to find the piggish Pulg livin' the dream. He brushed off the investigators questions, saying that the matter was out of his hands, and that he had already given the orb to his boss Il Dolore, who runs The Snakepit.
Continuing their tour of the seedier parts of town, Rowan and Elric went to the tavern/fighting arena called The Snakepit, only to find that the only way to Il Dolore's office was through the ring! Rowan and Elric stepped onto the sand with Skel, a huge brawler, and after a vicious fight that left them both banged up, they gained the door of the boss's office, and found that Il Dolore was Merek Payne, Rowan's brother! (The brother that Rowan describes as "even more of a son of a bitch than myself.")
Stiagla and Smok, meanwhile, having navigated the Strada Pericolosa, were confronted by Griashia, the Volgare girl, and Urto, a large fighter-type. Stigala pleaded her disease and Urto took pity on her and admitted them into a large chamber.
They entered a large cavern thirty feet in diameter and twelve to fifteen feet tall, supported by massive pillars carved to look like tree trunks supporting the roof. A couple of other Volgae tended tiny cages on one side, but the strangest feature of the room was a person, hanging from chains attached to the ceiling!
This person, apparently a woman, was enshrouded in a rough iron mask that covered her entire head, without eye opening and with a funnel-like maw that seem to extend into the victim's own mouth. The woman was covered in silver moths. Griashia offered Stigala one of these moths to eat, and the power it conferred eased Stig's symptoms a bit.
Through some careful questioning, Smok and Stig learned that the victim was none other than Dame Eselde of the Eye, a Paladin! Apparently the mask contained her powers, and the blood moths drew out something called Adoracia Fidele, some kind of powerful magical fluid.
What are the eventual effects of Adoracia? Will Merek Payne give up the Orb of Guérisse? Find out next week!
Rewards Granted
Induction into l'Ordre Fantome for the PCs, allowing them to officially use Sir Humbert as a Connection.
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