Olkedo Session 11

General Summary

Our adventurers find themselves in an old castle. There is a Maji in a majimonster's body here who apparently has been asleep in the castle for 200 years. She tries to extract information from them and when they aren't forthcoming, gets angry and attacks them. They defeat her but it seems like she returns to a drajule so it may be a matter of time before she heals and attacks again. In exploring the castle they learn that Akari Oshiro, Kasumi Oshiro, Mahavir Burman, and Captain Stancliff Preston once sought this Maji for her expertise on phylacteries. They find the Maji's phylactery and release her spirit from it defeating her for good. They then return to the Gem Council to report that they have found and dealt with the source of the majimonsters attacking town.

Detailed Summary

Nieve Powell, Brick, Rasputia, Toshi Ryoko, and Jebedaiah Bateman begin in a room with stone walls and floors connected to the mine shaft. There are doors on 2 of the walls. They collect the dust from the gem they broke. There are straw dummies and targets in here. Rasputia hears some faint footsteps coming from somewhere above them. They open one of the doors and find themselves in some kind of storage room. There is a small staircase leading up and many barrels and crates. They find a barrel of barley, a jar of leaves, and a jar of vinegar with a purple stone at the bottom of it. They dump the vinegar on the floor and take the stone. They go out the door on the other side and find themselves in a library. There is another, larger staircase in this room leading up. They examine some of the books and find “On Raising Goats,” “Of Kings and Knights,” “Encyclopedia of Alchemical Ingredients,” and “Monstrous Appetites of the Adventurous Gourmand.” They also find a torn scrap of paper on the floor. Reading the name Akari Oshiro on the scrap they immediately begin looking for the rest of the note. They also examine a desk in this room which has a book on it called Phylacteries: A Primer. After reading some of Phylacteries: A Primer they put together that the 'ghost jar' that Lucinda broke in Croatoan was a phylactery. They look up the leaves they found in the storage room in the encyclopedia and find that they are sumac leaves. They go into another room off the library and find an alchemical laboratory. There is an astrology chart on the wall, many glass instruments, and a stone bowl of sand with a vial of green liquid in it. They find a Healing Lotus in here. The green vial smells like vinegar so they look it up in the encyclopedia and find that vinegar is sometimes imbued with the magical properties of various stones. They figure out he stone from the vinegar was an amethyst. They find the final scraps of the 2 notes in here. ( Dr. Stein's Notes Undated 1 and 3.) They go up the larger staircase in the library. They emerge into an opulent but dusty foyer. They are greeted by a stone Goreilla Majimonster. The Goreilla introduces herself as Dr. Isabella Stein. She welcomes them to Castle Stein. They tell her they found a back way into her basement. They are very surprised to find a Majimonster that speaks, and a little suspicious since the last Majimonster that could talk formed a sacrificial cult (Scratch). But Dr. Stein is very polite. She explains that she is in the body of a Majimonster because of an experiment she did. They ask where her body is and she says she put it into a crystal, she mentions that the crystal was in the basement. Dr. Stein invites them into the dining room and offers them tea. There is a fireplace at one end of the dining room with two portraits above it. Dr. Stein tells them the portraits are of her and her husband Berthold Stein, who passed away. She rings a bell and calls for Fenton to bring them tea. When he brings in the tea they learn that Fenton is a very humanoid Majimonster with stitched skin and bolts coming out of his neck. They learn in the course of talking with Dr. Stein that she is an alchemist and she wrote the book from downstairs, Phylacteries: A Primer. Both the adventurers and Dr. Stein gradually figure out in the course of talking to each other that she has been asleep in the Castle for 200 years. They also learn that the zombies they found in her basement were duplications of her human body. Jebedaiah wants to know more about phylacteries, and Dr. Stein tells him that it was once a common practice to place your loved one’s souls in phylacteries. She mentions that she is an authority on the subject and was once even visited by the Emperor Oshiro’s children. She wants to know what they know of the imperial family and they mention that they suspect that Akari Oshiro may still be alive. They go outside and examine the magical barrier around the castle. Jebedaiah lies to her about how they got through. Dr. Stein keeps asking about Akari and descendants of the Oshiros and the group keeps avoiding her questions. Dr. Stein gets increasingly angry at their deception and attacks. As they defeat her she turns into a ball of light. Her voice emanates from the light saying “This is not over!” The light travels away to the top of the castle as if returning to a drajule. They go back inside and explore the first floor of the castle. Nieve explores the kitchen and finds that it is covered in mouse droppings and dead insects. She finds some salt and takes it. Rasputia goes out into the courtyard which is over grown and has a stone mausoleum. The name Berthold Stein is over the door. The door is locked so she goes back to find her friends to help her open it. Jebedaiah goes into a bedroom and finds a vase of fresh flowers in an otherwise dusty bedroom. He finds another note in the drawer. Toshi explores a study. He finds satin gloves, a pipe, and some notes. Brick enters another bedroom and finds another note. Neive explored a storage room connected to the kitchen. Nothing interests her here so she heads out into the hallway and finds a note. Rasputia finds a dusty parlor and rests. They find several more notes. They try to open the mausoleum and are unable to pick the lock. Toshi lets Harley barrel through the door. Inside they find a coffin, a gold ruby ring, and a gold statue of a woman with waves around her feet. They also find a glass jar that appears to be empty. Nieve picks it up and feels a feeling similar to when they were fighting Scratch, except this time the connection seems to be holding steady. They go up the main stairwell to the second floor. They find the master bedroom which has the last of Dr. Stein's Notes and an ornate spear, and a silver locket of Isabella Stein. They open the door to another room and find a steel medical table and Fenton the monster who served them tea and rotten meat. Fenton attacks and they defeat him. When exploring the room they find a Lightning rod, a garnet, and a painting titled Fenton Digby. Nieve looks into the next room in the hallway and finds a small wet looking doll on the floor. The doll moves and Nieves freaks out and closes the door. She then asks Jebedaiah to explore the room with her and shoves him in. Feeling guilty she joins the battle soon after, along with the rest of the party. After they defeat the doll Majimonster they search the room. There is a desk with many sewing supplies and a jar of bat wings and a painting on the wall titled Edeline Juste. There is a cabinet with 4 poppets and 4 paintings. The poppets resemble the people in the paintings. The backs of the paintings have the names Mahavir Burman, Captain Stancliff Preston, Akari Oshiro and Kasumi Oshiro. They also find a map to the Temple of Knowledge in this cabinet, with some book titles listed on it. They take some time to find those books. In another room they find some strange equipment, a jar of cathedral grove moss, and a vial of blood. Nieve dares Jebedaiah to drink it which he does. It seems to be fresh blood. This room has a door to a balcony overlooking the courtyard. There is a telescope pointing at one of the Three Moons of Rathana, Mysticis. They find another storage room. It has a jar of laudanum, a vial of hatched dragon fly eggs, and a stuffed spider monkey with a jacket and a pince-nez. There is an identical but larger pince-nez beside it. Jebedaiah puts them on and sees through the monkey’s viewpoint. In the monkey’s pocket are a set of thieves tools. In the last room they find an ice monster which they fight and defeat. In this room is another portrait titled Umberto Mariano. There is a pot of mushrooms growing here with a note next to them saying “I have never seen these mushrooms before. They seem to feed on human remains.” Nieve dares Jebedaiah to eat one. He does and experiences the last moments of a miner being murdered by Dr. Stein. The mushrooms are identical to the mushrooms collected from Green Valley. Jebedaiah eats one of those as well. He experiences the death of Josh Burnett at the hands of Gareth Michaels. Gareth tries to get Josh to dig with him. Gareth stabs him and sprinkles spores onto Josh as he dies. They go up the spiral staircase to a tower and find on a small desk another empty looking jar, 3 drajules, and 55 Imperials. They take a vote on whether to open the jars (which they suspect are phylacteries) and release the spirits inside. The drajules are bound to a binder. They smash up the drajules thinking that this will release the people's souls that were made into Majimonsters. But when examining the shards they can tell that the monsters are still bound to the shards and each shard contains a fragment of a monster. This is very much like what Nieve noticed about The Black Stones when she examined them at the Drajule Altar. They put the drajule shards in the jar from the mausoleum. The ghostly image of an unknown woman appears briefly and vanishes. The connection between the jar and something else is severed. They open the other jar and 2 figures appear. Dr. Stein and a Goreilla. Dr. Stein shouts "NO!" and vanishes. Now the broken drajule shards are no longer bound. They resolve to repair the drajules and release the monsters inside. They go back out and collapse the tunnel that leads to the basement of the castle behind them. They also collapse the 2 tunnels that lead out to the other side of the mountain. Then they go back and report to the Gem Council. The Council pays them each 300 suls and a drajule. They have Brett Dorand breed some monsters for them. They go back and talk to Chalky who asks them to go find the Chalk of Handsomeness for him. It should be located somewhere on the mountain above the old mines.