Session Report - Chapter 2: Secrets of Stonsfruit Abbey

General Summary

Complete darkness. Then the words "The deal is struck! Arise my champion". Tem-raire Corpsehalter Olokanu awakes with a guttural roar, sitting up quickly from what felt like a never ending nightmare, the words ringing around the inside of his skull. His roar turns to a scream as pain surges through his body, as if every nerve has been set on fire at once. The blinding blackness becomes blinding light and his scream becomes louder and clearer as if just surfacing from the bottom of a lake. As the white subsides from Corpsehalter's vision, darker shapes take their place and he quickly realises that he is looking at his hands or, at least what used to be his hands. Before his eyes, bones crack and tendons snap back into place on his right hand as it reorders itself whilst his left hand knits itself back to his wrist where it had been previously partially severed.
Looking past his hands, Corpsehalter sees his left knee crack back into place, the noise whipping through the air as the edges of his vision turn red hot. He feels a tremendous pain in his chest and looking down, he sees a deep gash filling in, his perforated organs and tissues rapidly repairing themselves. His body's restoration finishes with a crack of his neck and in that same instance a breath of air fills his lungs, cutting short his scream.
It's only as Corpsehalter takes this breath that he realises that the screaming which pierces his eardrums has not ended. Corpsehalter looks around to see several women of varying age cowering in the corner of the room. As he turns to look at them, their screams are renewed, some cling to each other in terror, one or two feint and one older women rocks back and forth, praying and holding onto a strange symbol on a necklace.
As Corpsehalter stands up, the screaming suddenly stops, the women's voices no longer working from the sheer terror he seems to cause. One voids their bladder, the smell of urine filling the room as a dark puddle forms beneath them. Although he can see they are shackled, Corpsehalter ignores the terrified women, instead looking around the room. He finds a small surgical instrument as well as a book written in a language he cannot understand but which is clearly about him.
In that moment, a man dressed in a loose fitting habit comes through the door. He takes one look at Corpsehalter and the quivering women behind him and scrambles to bring out a club. Before he can brandish the weapon however, Corpsehalter is holding a knife to the man's throat. Corpsehalter demands to know where he is and when he gets no answer, he instinctively slits the monk's throat, his blood boiling with unfettered rage.
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Meanwhile, Ileyaries Amakiir and Ægira Naïlo are travelling along the road to Stonsfruit Abbey. It has been several days since their battle at the warehouse (see Chapter 1: Saltbridge Docks) and in the aftermath of the battle, they have discovered evidence that Patton Myrose believed showed without a doubt that someone was orchestrating the rise in criminality that continues to plague Saltbridge. Whilst Myrose meets with his contacts in The Undercity to confirm his suspicions, he has tasked Ægira and Illeyaries with escorting an elderly abbot, Benedict Prim, back to Stonsfruit Abbey. A thoroughly unpleasant man, the abbot had spent most of the journey ogling his body guards and making slimy comments, seemingly unfazed by the pair's impressive arsenal of weaponry. 
As Ileyaries and Ægira near the abbey, they were propositioned by the abbot to join his convent. However before the adventurers could rebuff his advances, the ringing of alarm bells at the abbey cuts the conversation short. The Abbot demands that Ægira and Ileyaries investigate the abbey thinking that it must be under attack.
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Stepping out of the room he awoke in, Corpsehalter comes across another monk ringing alarm bells after he witnesses Corpsehalter leaving the room. Without a moments hesitation, Corpeshalter takes a knife to the monk and kills him too. Stepping over his body and seeing the throng of monks charging at the building he is in, Corpsehalter decides to head deeper into the building. Entering a small chapel, Corpsehalter feels a tug in his gut, drawing him to a small cloister where he finds a secret door, concealing a spiral staircase which leads down into darkness. Ileyaries and Ægira , who ran ahead of the monks, enter the alter room just as Corpsehalter enters the cloister and descends the stairs. They follow and find themselves in the secret catacombs under the abbey.
After catching up to Corpsehalter and discovering they are now trapped in the catacombs, the trio decide to work together to escape. Picking their way through the catacombs, the party finds both treasure and danger. Most notably, they find small ruby figurines scattered around the dungeon which they use to unlock a nearby treasure vault. The party attempt to emerge from the catacombs via another secret entrance, concealed in the abbey's dining hall, but are discovered and are forced to escape back into the catacombs before they can be captured.
In the deepest part of the catacombs, they are greeted by a figure. This is Malaketh, servant to the goddess of death, Satanath. Malaketh explains he has been sent by Satanath to test Corpsehalter and attacks the party in a trial by combat. Corpsehalter manages to defeat Malaketh and claims his magical sword as his own. Escaping from the catacombs, the party find themselves on the far side of the abbey complex and sneak away unnoticed, although Ileyaries does leave a letter and a small gift for the monk which has been looking after her donkey, Pascoe.
The party then return to Saltbridge, where they seek out a fortune teller who could identify the magical items they have found in the catacombs. With the night quickly closing in, the party decide to find a buyer for their loot the next day and spent the night in the Golden Feather Inn.

Report Date

23 Oct 2022