The Motherload
Characters
Tim Kaufman – Halfling 1 – A merchant who lost his wagon in an accident.
Sindri – Elf 1 – a cloaked and broody lord.
Ralf Lionsword – Fighter 1 – a tall, dark and handsome warrior, overboiling with muscles.
Clyde the Ascetic – Cleric 1 – a waif of a man, an ascetic purist.
Antoin Longin – Fighter 1 retainer – a pompous and snarling man, with crumbling makeup on his face, a periwig and dark ledger at his hip.
Julian – footman – a peg leg and eye patch were all this retired seaman claimed from the brine.
“We must go and find the chapel and consecrate it back to Law, the ghost of Médard Malévol demands it!”
“Quite, I hope the reward is most egregious.”
So the party walked the summer slopes of the mountain, bluebells wafting their fragrance in welcome. The summer in full swing now, the party made excellent time over the two days of travelling, camping once over night and arriving in the Castles periphery by the afternoon of the next day.
“No more camping for us, lets go straight through the front door.”
The party marched over the bridge and around the south walls of the castle to arrive at the grand entrance. Only this time there they found a surprise between the two massive gargoyles; a pile of three corpses. Tim Kaufman the plucky launched a stone at them, which smacked a corpse in the face, with no reaction.
“Stone cold dead.”
The party grew a little closer and recognised the rotting bodies. There was the charred corpse of sweet William the brave, who had died in the lake tower two weeks ago, and face down next to him was a rotting corpse in clerical vestments, presumably Arthur’s body. In front of both was a pair of legs, probably belonging to the thief Gwen, who had been bitten in half by a sea monster.
“They are dead, its probably a message for us to keep away.”
“I’m not sure about this.”
“I’m keeping well back.”
Brave Tim the plucky decided to go forward and open the gate whilst his friends hid behind a corner. As he opened the doors the familiar laughing boomed from the gargoyle on his left, and the one on his right animated, turned and snapped its fingers. Only there was a slight difference to the animation this time, the finger emitted a sickly purple light that span out into the corpses on the floor. The bodies began to quiver and moan and William’s charred corpse sat up and lunged at the halfling.
“Retreat!”
And TIm ran as fast as his tiny legs could carry him back to his comrades as the zombies lurched up, including the pair of legs which frequently fell on its buttocks. Arrows rained into the shambling creatures. Julian and Ralf Lionsword dashed forward to meet them, blades flashing like lightning. The legs of Gwen delivered a swift kick to the sea-dogs gonads.
“Haha, I may have only one leg, but I lost my balls to a sea-turtle bite thirty years ago, better luck next time!”
Clyde the asthetic raised his cross and called down the forces of Law, but his prayers were not met by the grace of heaven. Not yet anyway. But after a few moments the reanimated carcasses of their comrades were dispatched. Antoine grabbed a hold of them and threw them down the slopes towards the moat.
“Second time lucky.” The party entered the grand entrance doors, and the gargoyles animated again, and then the party could hear the degenerate moans from the corpses down near the moat. Feeling confident that the zombies wouldn’t be able to climb up the slope, the party entered the large entrance hall. The directions they’d received from the templar ghost had pointed to the south west, where they were to reconsecrate a chapel.
The party entered a large room, in the west there was a doorway and a staircase leading up. Inside the room were two tables, one held surgical tools and blood splattered rags, the other had a soiled boiling pot and tallow candles upon it. Evidently some fiend had been rendering the fat of men to produce perfumed candles; lilac and juniper, delightful. The party swiped all this booty.
A lantern was lit and Sindri crawled on his belly through the door. He found a T-junction and looked around. He smelt old hay and something foul. He crawled back. The party decided to try the stairs. Sindri checked the walls for a secret door whilst plucky Mr. Kaufman journeyed upstairs on his own. The others stood guard at the doors.
Upstairs Tim found another door with a crack in it. He heard the scrambling of rats, and smelt something sweet with an undertone of rot. Peering through the crack he saw a dark corridor, and in the shadow a pale face staring back. He ran back to the party, described what he’d seen, and they returned up the stairs together. Clyde and Ralf took the lead. They opened the door and saw a bust in the shadow, looking into the face of a templar, Médard Malévol himself, Clyde felt nearly overwhelmed with a sense of righteous zeal, but steadied himself. He heard the voice in his head of the ancient templar. “Why are you not completing my quest?”
“We are my lord, we are looking for the chapel.”
“Then go below.”
The party followed the instructions. And went back down the stair, and west through the door into the dank corridor, then about forty feet south they found an arched door, the cross above this door had been defaced. Claude hung a holy symbol there, the first move in his attempt to reconsecrate the area.
The party walked in and found a large, fine chapel, but it was covered in dust and cobwebs, the rows of pews were dilapidated, the altar had been cracked. The high cross had been sundered and inverted, it now hung upside down from a chain on the wall. Despicable.
As the party moved towards the altar, they heard chanting from the priests hole to the East of the altar, and many robed individuals marched out before the altar. Their evil forked tongues chanted in a language that only Sindri could understand, the tongue of Chaos.
They ceased their chant and beaconed to the transgressors.
“Come, childe, come kneel before the sundered shrine to Law, come and take oaths to the dark ones and hear their sultry whispers. May the worm turn and crush all.”
The party stood in panic and looked at each other. Sindri walked to the line of wretched monks. Up close he saw that their faces were rotting, skulls exposed, white jellied eyes peered down at him with malice. A clawed hand fell on his shoulder and forced him to one knee before the upturned cross.
“What offering shall be made to the dark ones childe, loose your lips and spill the secret of your hate, what shall be consumed?”
“The lives of my friends.” The elf whispered to the rotting figure, and its blackened mouth spread into what might be considered a smile.
As these robbed figures were consecrating the elf, the rest of the party burst into action, taking the moment of distraction to their advantage. Ralf, Anotin and Julian charged into the robed figures that coddled the elf with their cold, razor sharp fingers. Clyde raised his symbol and called down divine intervention. Tim, the ever quick, dashed atop the pews and with pumping legs leapt over the hooded heads of the monks and dashed atop the altar. He grabbed the high cross and tried to pull it from the chain.
Blades flew and sung. Antoin took a razor sharp claw to the chest, Ralf struck true with his blade. The halfling managed to turn over the cross and held it high overhead. Clyde felt the divine light descend, and his holy symbol reflected the light from the window with a cutting brilliance, bouncing between the high cross and his own. Two of the creatures fled shrieking in pain. The rest of the foul cretins were engaged in combat with the fighters, and within a few moments were dispatched.
Guard positions were taken up, Clyde cleaned up what he could, poured holy water over the altar and said a full mass. The cracked altar reknit itself back together, and the high cross refused with its station. The windows glowed brightly and Clyde knew that forces of good had been powerfully evoked. Then, full of zeal, he and Sindri went into the priests hole east of the altar, to hunt down the fleeing monks.
During that time Tim Kaufman looked at the altar, set into the stone was a fine cross shaped ammonite fossil, very beautiful. He touched it, and was assaulted with visions of a primordial battle between the lord of Law, the true God, and hoards of demons. This sent his mind into a gross state of paranoia and insanity, but he felt divinely inspired and his vigour grew. He would be ever changed by these visions.
In the next room the party found a decadent boudoir. Silk pillows, raunchy texts, a tapestry of dryads and nymphs engaging in coitus, there was also a foul painting of a sausage fingered dark lord. Behind this painting were many fine health potions. And behind the tapestry they found a secret chamber with casks of fine wine. They rolled up the tapestry and rolled out the barrels. Treasure is treasure.
In the north they found another room where the creatures hid. They dispatched them quickly, and found another silver cross hanging upside down, Tim touched this, attempting to turn it upright, but it turned instantly black. The cross crumbled into a soot like dust, and he was lanced with terrible pain as black veins crawled up his arm towards his heart. He collapsed and was aided by Clyde back to the chapel. Clyde was overcome with a sense of holiness, and heard in his head the voice of the ancient Templar, “receive your reward at my bust.”
The party rolled their treasure to the front door, making a quick stop off upstairs, where the bust had vanished, and in its place a large templars shield. A kite shield with a white cross on a black field. This was swept up in the goodly hands of Clyde; DUES VULT!
The barrels were rolled, tapestries were carried, bottles were pilfered, and over a long four day trek back to Tours en Savoy the party had returned with their biggest pile of loot yet.
Judges note
This session marks the halfway point of the campaign, amazingly there were no PC deaths this time, and after taking such a large haul back to town we had the first level up of the campaign. Tim Kaufman is now level two, congratulations. The party now have a couple of magic items in their possession and an ally within the castle. I’m excited to see what they do next, well done gang!
Dreadlord Games 