The Lonely Coast Campaign – Seeking Cynric’s Folly Part 4 (Session 11)

In our last session, our heroes had made their way to the Temple of Vélen to both deliver the package given to them by Galden Hearthtop in Wolverton and to seek more information about Cynric’s Folly. Their arrival was marked by spotting a relatively fresh grave outside of the temple complex and with significant suspicion…bordering on hostility…from the gate’s guard, Malvenos. Once inside, they completed their delivery, learned that little of the famed library and, more importantly to them, no writings on Cynric’s Folly remained, and met the largely dysfunctional “family” of priests who still resided in the complex. They also learned that the fresh grave was that of a young priest and promising scribe who had recently committed suicide and, as a result, was not interred in the temple’s catacombs.

When we ended the prior session, the party had retired for the night in some of the many vacant cells in the temple’s dormitory and were awakened by the sound of the temple’s bell ringing…though somewhat muffled. And that’s where we pick up after the break.

Miles missed this session and so RJ played Magnus. Spoiler Alert: This session is partially based on and largely inspired by the old Dungeon Magazine adventure, Unhallowed Ground, from Issue #54.

As the muffled ringing of the bell continued, Isenthorne, Magnus, Osric, and Pounder all leaped out of their beds, grabbed their weapons, and came into the hallway. They could hear footsteps pounding down the nearby stairs, presumably Malvenos who would been sitting guard outside of Bay’s room. The four quickly started to follow but then Osric realized that neither Bay nor Thalimor had come out of their room. Concerned about their companions, particularly given the potential for further transformations for Bay from the waters of the Foul Mother, they paused. Isenthorne and Osric decided to go back and check on the missing pair while Magnus and Pounder would head out to find out what was going on.

With Pounder in the lead, the pair ran down the stairs. As they came through the archway and the end of the stairs on the ground floor, Pounder slammed right into the elderly Godric who had just stepped in front of the stairs! The elderly priest was smashed into the opposite wall, hitting his head. The head priest slid down the wall to end up slumped on the ground, unconscious, with a streak of blood trailing behind him. Magnus, right behind Pounder, ran into the now stopped half-orc while Oswin, who had been assisting Godric down the hallway, had leaped back to avoid the collision.

[Both Pounder and Magnus had rolled rather poorly on the DEX checks I asked for as they came running down the stairs. The DEX checks themselves were not to see if they succeeded or failed at anything but just one of those rolls to see if anything interesting might happen.]

Oswin yelled at Pounder and called him something like along the lines of a half-breed oaf. The paladin did not take this well and turned on the priest, demanding to know what he had just said. Oswin did not back down in the face of Pounder’s growing rage. Instead, Oswin repeated the insult. Pounder shoved him back, hard. Oswin was not intimidated by this show of force and asked if that was all that Pounder had. The paladin’s grip on his weapon tightened and he started to raise it but his sense overruled his rage. Pounder turned and headed out of the dormitory as Oswin whispered that the orc was a coward.

While the pair had their tense standoff, Magnus went to Godric’s aid and used some magical healing to make sure that the old priest would live.

Upstairs, Thalimor had delayed cutting Bay loose out of a concern for any additional changes. Thalimor was checking out Bay for any obvious physical changes as Osric and Isenthorne called for them. Cutting Bay loose, they joined the pair in the hallway and all four headed out.

Pounder was the first of the heroes to make it to the Fellowship Hall. As he approached, Swayn came out to the other priests that had gathered and puked his guts out off to one side. Inside the Hall, Pounder found Malvenos and Berangar standing at the far end and looking up at the hall’s bell. Hrothwig had been crammed into the much too small bell some twenty feet above and his head looked like it had been the clapper for the recent muffled ringing. Blood and bits of viscera had dripped down and splattered on the floor.

Berangar looked quite shaken and Malvenos asked that Pounder make sure that others did not come into the hall.

A quick head count outside showed that Ymma was the only one missing. Swayn and Isenthorne headed back to the dormitory to check on her. She was in her room exactly as Isenthorne had left her earlier that evening…sitting on her bed, hugging her knees to her chest, and rocking back and forth. She was still completely unaware of her surroundings. Isenthorne said that she would stay her to watch over Ymma and Swayn could go back and let the others know that the young woman was safe. Swayn quickly sprinted back to the main group.

Isenthorne took this opportunity to enter Aethelric’s room and look for the journal that Ymma had told her about. It was, in fact, under the chair exactly where she had said it would be. The ranger quickly dashed up to her room on the second floor and stashed Aethelric’s journal within. She took a quick look and found that a few pages had been carefully ripped out…the pages that would have held the last couple of days of entries!

Back at Fellowship Hall, Thalimor and Osric went in to look around for clues as to what had happened. It was very clear that something or someone with great strength had wedged the priest into the bell. It was likely that the body was quite mutilated and broken to get it to fit within. In addition, the bell was some twenty feet off the floor. There were no signs of tracks or other such clues right below the belfry.

Looking around more of the hall, Thalimor found that the shutters on one of the windows was open while all the others were closed. This window was actually the closest to the belfry. When asked, Berangar indicated that he didn’t think the shutters were open earlier in the evening. Most likely, they would have been shuttered for the night.

Peering out the opening, Thalimor spotted two deep footprints on the ground outside. They were barefoot prints and looked to be of average human size and shape but a bit deeper than a typical step…almost as though someone may have jumped out of the window. No other tracks were immediately apparent and nothing else was spotted on the shutters.

Pounder and Malvenos had gone and fetched a couple of ladders from the stables. While Osric and Bay held the ladders steady, the pair climbed up to the bell. On Pounder’s side, there was writing in some red liquid or ink that read, “Penance is done.” The big paladin, however, made no mention of this at the time. Malvenos, for his part also noticed something. Looking down at Bay, he quietly whispered to Pounder to take a look. Bay’s unshod feet were visible as were claws at the end of his toes! Apparently, the Waters of the Foul Mother had had an additional effect on the warlock during the night.

With some difficulty, a rope was looped about what remained of one of Hrothwig’s arms. Climbing back down, Pounder and Malvenos heaved on the rope. With a sickening pop, the body came free and smashed to the floor as the pair leaped clear. The body was in very bad shape but Pounder did notice bruises on Hrothwig’s neck. Bruises that looked like marks fingers might leave if the priest had been strangled by hand. Pointing this out to Malvenos, the temple’s guard immediately looked for claw marks with an eye to Bay. There were no obvious marks of that sort but it didn’t stop him from still casting suspicions at Bay.

The body was wrapped up in a blanket and taken to the temple’s infirmary by Pounder and Malvenos.

Godric, accompanied by Oswin, approached Thalimor and asked if he could speak with him privately in his office. The bard agreed and went with the pair to the office. Within, Godric explained that this event was really beyond the experience of the temple’s inhabitants and asked if Thalimor and his friends would investigate. Thalimor, of course, agreed immediately. Oswin suggested that the investigation might be more fruitful if the “leash” of Malvenos was removed. Godric agreed but that an eye still needed to be kept on Bay. There was no protest from Thalimor on that point.

When Isenthorne returned to Fellowship Hall, Osric showed her the footprints. As the ranger looked around, she could find no other tracks but did notice a small red smudge on one of the shutters. She then spotted another no the wall of the hall and then another farther up. Getting a ladder, she climbed up to the roof, following the red smudges. A final one could be seen at the edge of the roof. There was, however, no one (and no creature) up on the roof. The closest other building was actually the outer wall some twenty or thirty feet away. Looking on the ground around the edge of the roof, Isenthorne spotted no other tracks to suggest someone had jumped down from the roof.

Eventually, everyone gathered back in the Fellowship Hall and fully began their investigation. Bay stayed in the Hall under the watchful eyes of Malvenos while the rest of the party headed to the dormitory and started the search in Ymma’s room. The room was pretty unremarkable with one exception. Tucked under her straw pallet were a number of parchments with drawings upon them…drawings out of a nightmare. The depicted malicious looking goblins with an emphasis on rather large and sadistic looking phallus on each.

Swayn’s room was the next. Hidden under his pallet were three parchments containing rather professional looking drawings of an erotic nature…starring only men. Thalimor was very tempted to take the parchments but was persuaded…at least for that moment…that taking them would be theft and so he left them there.

[I believe some mention was made of taking them for a future blackmail of someone.]

The next room belonged to Hrothwig. The dead priest’s had numerous dead animals stashed about the room. A dead snake was on one of the rafters. Three dead birds with broken necks were in his trunk. A dead squirrel was under the bed with a string tied around its neck. Two of Isenthorne’s arrows were also found in a drawer…Hrothwig hadn’t been completely honest about having taken nothing else from her room.

Eadric’s room was next. A false bottom was found in his trunk. Beneath it was a scourge, a padded club, and a small sack filled with sand. All items identified as items designed to cause pain.

Guthleod’s room had a small child’s doll under the pillow.

Oswin’s room had a book half tucked under his pillow. It was a play entitled, “Love at First Light: A Romantic Comedy.” The author was Tillo Iwanda…a name that Thalimor recognized as being Ashanti. The author had written a note on the title page that read, “Oswin, I look forward to your comments. Tillo.” Turning the book over and shaking it just in case anything was hidden in the pages, Thalimor only found a bookmark that dropped out from about halfway through. A nice bottle of wine was also found in Oswin’s trunk.

Both Berangar and Godric’s rooms held nothing of interest or out of the ordinary.

Malvenos’ room likewise was unremarkable. His room did have a weapon and armor rack in the place of the small table/desk found in the other rooms.

The party then went about searching the empty rooms on all four floors of the building. They had found nothing when, about halfway through the fourth floor, they realized that it was starting to get light out. As Osric and Thalimor peeked outside to see the morning’s light, they heard two priests yelling in alarm.

Running to Fellowship Hall, they learned that Swayn and Guthleod had gone to the dining hall to start preparing breakfast. The went into the kitchen and saw two feet sticking out of the large cooking cauldron and came running back here. A quick head count showed that Eadric was missing! Malvenos immediately accused Bay even though the warlock had been under his guard. Oswin shared that he had, in fact, seen Eadric step out earlier but had assumed he was just using the privy and so said nothing. Malvenos was not pleased by this withholding of information.

The group, including Bay and Malvenos but not Thalimor (who stayed behind to have a talk with Godric and Oswin), headed to the dining hall. In the kitchen, they found Eadric tossed, headfirst, in the cooking cauldron. Written on the side of the cauldron, in red, was the phrase, “Penance is done,” as on the side of the bell. Pounder shared that he had seen the same on the bell. Malvenos, again, was not happy about information having been withheld.

Eadric’s body, like Hrothwig’s, had bruises on his neck.

A couple of pages of paper were also inside with Eadric. The handwriting on the pages matched that in Aethelric’s journal and was dated the day that he was supposed to have jumped to his death. The pages explained that he (Aethleric) had had a vision of Wodon while walking outside the temple. His god told him that if he built a well on the spot that he was standing, its waters would heal and the temple would regain its past glory. He shared his vision with Berangar but Berangar accused him of lying and would not believe him; he even threatened him with a charge of heresy. Bernagar instructed him to not speak of it.

Then the accusations flew. Malvenos was convinced that Bay was involved somehow. When it was pointed out that Bay had been under his watch, Malvenos speculated that the thing Bay had become must have an accomplice. Malvenos wanted them all to leave…now. Isenthorne pointed out that he didn’t have the authority to make them leave…they were doing Godric’s bidding…and Osric noted that Malvenos hadn’t been doing a very good job of keeping the priests safe lately.

Malvenos turned and left. Those that remained started a thorough search of the kitchen and dining hall.

Back in Godric’s office, the conversation largely turned to issues, past and present, between Godric and Oswin. The pair danced around some past event that neither seemed willing to share but Thalimor desperately wanted to learn. Neither seemed to think it had anything to do with what was going on now but Thalimor persisted. Godric finally seemed to finally be able to relent to Thalimor’s questioning and started to give the bard the answer he sought.

But just before Godric revealed what the two priests had been talking around, Malvenos stormed into the office. He simply said that he was giving up his position and leaving before turning and walking out. Godric called out that he couldn’t go. This, of course, started Thalimor’s questions. Why couldn’t Malvenos leave? Godric explained that Malvenos couldn’t leave but that he could not share the reason why other than Malvenos had nowhere else to go. Godric was sworn to secrecy on this and could say no more. Godric insisted that they go after Malvenos and so Oswin and Thalimor helped the elderly priest to his feet.

As they went after Malvenos, Oswin did share that he also knew the secret about Malvenos and was not sworn to secrecy. However, he wouldn’t share that information simply because it amused him to keep Thalimor in the dark and it really couldn’t have anything to do with what was happening here now. As they came outside, Malvenos was exiting the dormitory with a pack. Despite Godric’s pleas for him to not leave, he headed for the gate.

Godric begged for Thalimor and Oswin to stop Malvenos from leaving. Thalimor began to move to intercede on Godric’s behalf but Oswin stopped him. Whipping out a leg in a low spin, the old priest knocked the bard to the ground. Oswin pointed out that Malvenos would be back soon. Thalimor called out for Malvenos to stay and only got an obscene gesture in response.

This gave the departing half-elf enough time to get to the gate and pass through it, leaving it open. Leaving Godric leaning on the dormitory wall, Oswin and Thalimor headed to the gate to close it. Before they could reach it, however, Malvenos came running back in. Thalimor immediately gave Oswin a “how did you know he would be back so soon” look. Malvenos was shouting, “Aethelric is gone! The grave is empty!”

Moments later, screams rang out from the Fellowship Hall where the remaining priests had remained…immediately followed by a flood of the same priests, fleeing. Those in the dining hall came running. Inside, Berangar was standing limply in the grasp of a rather dead looking priest…Aethelric! Their eyes were locked on each other and Aethelric was droning, over and over, “Penance will be done.”

The party attacked but the once priest barely even noticed. It’s attention was wholly focused on slowly choking Berangar. The only thing that got its attention was when someone would try and break Berangar free from its grip. Even doing this, however, proved to be difficult. Even Pounder’s most powerful blows on Aethelric’s arms barely caused a flinch. When Berangar was finally freed once, Magnus dragged him away from the creature and out of the Fellowship Hall.

Things were desperate enough that Thalimor even pulled out the “Dracmosi” dagger and gave it to Pounder to use on the creature but it didn’t seem to have any additional effect.

I don’t suppose that now might be a good time to mention that some magic items require “attunement” before their powers can be used.

Bay stepped in front of the door to block the Aethelric creature from following Magnus and Berangar but this barely paused the thing. It slammed into Bay with massive force and plowed right through the door leaving the warlock unconscious on the floor. Magnus had fled with Berangar into the dormitory. When the priest was able to regain his breath, he choked out, “Forgive me, I didn’t mean for him to be killed. It was an accident.” Magnus told him to run but Berangar said no and that he deserved this.

Aethelric crashed into the dormitory’s narrow hallway and grabbed Berangar again. The heroes couldn’t all reach the thing now but they did take turns pounding on it as best they could. The thing must have taken over a dozen blows that would have been fatal to any of the heroes before it finally dropped, releasing Berangar.

That’s where we ended the session as it had already run a bit late.

There were a lot of “nuanced” interactions with the PCs that are difficult to catch in a session recap. I think Thalimor has gotten quite hooked by the different “secrets” that seem to be hidden here. Just who is Malvenos? Why did Godric make an oath of secrecy about Malvenos’ identity? What is the tension between Berangar and Oswin? What is the other secret that Godric is hiding about his past and his prior relationship with Oswin? And what might be the evil rumored to be slumbering in the caves beneath the temple? Thalimor even asked if he could be shown the entrance to the caves below but was rebuked…I think he might have asked Malvenos so the rebuke wasn’t surprising.

A bit more of about the residents of the place also came clearer from the searching of the rooms. Most of them clearly have some sort of personality issue or hangup.

The accusations that Malvenos kept leveling at Bay were, of course, unfounded but they did have an impact. There was some speculation that the timing of the events was a little too much of a coincidence with the release of Aerlium. This was prior to the undead showing up and while none of the players thought that Aerlium was directly responsible for the death of Hrothwig but they thought it might have had an indirect role or as a catalyst of some sort. No comment on the accuracy of this speculation but I figured it should be pointed out either because it is true or because I’m always in favor of promoting such speculation amongst the players…and because I’ve always espouse the GMing philosophy of letting the players write the campaign with their paranoid conjecture.

Beer Notes: I continue to spoil the players with Pliny the Elder. I am clearly way too good to them. And this was only confirmed by the Cascade Cranberry. It isn’t the best of the Cascade sours but it is still a tasty sour and well liked by the group. Last up this week was the Original Ritterguts Gose. Muse likes a good Gose but isn’t a fan of IPAs so I figured I owed her a gose. It was a good, traditional gose and Muse enjoyed it so objective met. 😉 ]