IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

SESSION 22B: AT THE TOP OF PYTHONESS HOUSE

May 18th, 2008
The 10th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

Meanwhile, the skeletal leader – in a frenzied flurry of blades – had been cut down by Tor and Tee. Tee, inspecting the body, discovered the chain armor was of superb quality. The woman had also worn a ruby ring and matching gold bracelet worth a small fortune. On the interior of the bracelet was inscribed a name:

RADANNA

Laying near the gruesome remains of whatever deadly ritual had been held here there was a slim, red book. On the cover, traced in blood, was the symbol of a spiral. Ranthir began examining it as Tee continued searching the room.

THE SCARLET OATH

On the cover of this book, written in blood, is the symbol of a coil. On the first page is an oath:

“I pledge my body, soul, and purpose to the furtherance of chaos. We shall act as one. We shall breathe as one. We shall think as one. And in our crimson coils we shall choke out the life of those who would bring us death. We shall choke out the order which stifles life. We shall choke out the civilization which crushes liberty.”

The rest of the book teaches the ways of the Brotherhood of the Crimson Coil. The cult acts like a virus – their faces hidden; their identities submerged into the Coil itself. The members of the cult do not mix in normal society, preferring to remain cloistered in remote temples or hidden demesnes. The only time the cultists make an appearance is to carry out a Purging. During a Purging the cultists appear en masse to carry out some act of terrible destruction.

The cult chooses a target, seemingly at random, and then show up to burn down a building; set fire to a field; slaughter a family; or deface a monument. They are neither subtle nor gentle. They show neither mercy nor fear. Usually, their raids come so suddenly and unexpectedly that they meet little resistance. They usually appear in numbers so great, they simply cannot be stopped—a hundred cultists to burn down a single house, a dozen to murder a merchant walking down the street. They disappear quickly, often using spells to cover their escape.

THE FIFTH FLOOR

While Tee and Ranthir studied the book, Tor shuffled through the cluttered effluvium lying out on one of the tables in the room. There were several bottles of perfume here, still stored in crystal vials. They brought a smile to Tor’s face, reminding him of the faces of his family. He pocketed two of the vials, thinking that he might send them back home as presents for his daughters.

There was nothing else of true value left in the room: Moldering silks and other expensive clothes lay in ruins. However, in one of the wardrobes Tee did find a single red robe decorated with the same spiral symbol as the book’s cover. This robe, unlike the other clothing, seemed to have been perfectly preserved.

Lying on the floor behind one of the divans, Tee found a portrait in a broken frame. Although badly dilapidated, they could still make out a young man with lanky brown hair. His features seemed queerly unsymmetric. A small brass plaque on the frame read:

WUNTAD

They went up the stairs, emerging into a large empty room on the fifth floor. Another staircase on the far side of the room headed up towards the sixth floor, but they turned towards the room’s single door instead. This opened into a small hallway that ended, off to their right, in the ruined remains of a small balcony (which they had previously seen from below while trying to climb out of the castle).

They crossed the hall, opened another door, and looked into a small, oddly shaped room. Four piles of bones had been neatly arranged in random locations on the floor. There were also some old wooden bookcases along one wall.

Ranthir, hearing the word “bookcases”, started forward – but Tee waved him back: There were no books left on these shelves. Instead, three human skulls marked with the spiral symbol of the Crimson Coil sat next to a small iron coffer.

Tee pondered the situation for a moment and then decided not to take any chances. Drawing her dragon pistol, she fired directly into the nearest pile of bones. The pile exploded to no effect.

Shrugging, Tee holstered her dragon pistol and headed over to the bookcases. Grabbing the iron coffer she quickly picked its lock and flipped it open, revealing five vials set into padded lining. Four of the vials contained a black liquid, while the liquid in the fourth was a silvery-gold in color.

While the others remained behind, Tee and Agnarr headed through into the next room – an empty, circular chamber with an open archway leading out onto a balcony filled with dirt and dead leaves.

Tee took the time to move out onto the balcony and look down into the ruined garden below. Turning back, her eye happened to catch a runestone that hung from the wall. Her familiarity with the archaic elven tongues allowed to recognize it as the rune for “blessed protection”, although it had been badly damaged. Smiling, she reached up to take the rune down off the wall.

As her fingertips brushed against the runestone, however, she felt her mind being invaded by strange, alien thoughts. A horrible compulsion seized her to race for the edge of the roof and hurl herself down to oblivion.

Her right foot twitched, as if to turn her towards the edge… but then her own thoughts imposed themselves again. She gritted her teeth and forced her foot back to the ground. Pulling her hand back from the runestone, she felt the compulsion fading from her completely. She shook her head to clear her thoughts.

But even as Tee was fighting to control her own body, Agnarr caught a sudden movement in the corner of his eye. Turning, he saw one of the skulls from the bookcase floating across the doorway towards one of the bone piles. With lightning reflexes, he hurled himself back into the room, drew his sword, and neatly cleaved the skull in two.

Elestra, her attention drawn by Agnar’s sudden movement, stepped into the room fro the opposite direction with her dragon rifle drawn. Seeing the two remaining skulls on the shelves begin to move, she quickly took aim on the one to the right and blew a hole straight through its eye socket.

With one great stride, Agnarr reached the bookcase and brought his sword down on the other, shattering it into countless shards of bone.

Tee came back into the room. “What’s going on?”

Agnarr turned to her. “Nothing now.”

THE SIXTH FLOOR

They rejoined the others. Concluding that there was nothing else of interest on the fifth floor, Tee and Agnarr took the stairs up to the sixth floor. These stairs reached what appeared to be the base chamber of the keep’s central tower. However, the way up to the next level of this tower had apparently been bricked over years ago. However, there was a door off to one side and an open archway led to the bridge between this central tower and the eastern tower.

The door was locked, so Tee kneeled next to it and got to work. Agnarr, standing nearby, decided to start oiling the hinges. Tee, remembering the last time Agnarr had decided some hinges needed oiling, began grinding her teeth, but managed to ignore him… mostly.

Tee finished up, hearing the satisfying sound of a tumbler clicking open. Standing up she reached for the handle. But Agnarr, wanting to test his handiwork, pushed past her and twisted the handle himself.

There was a click and a hiss—And Tee hurled herself out of the room as the entire chamber was engulfed in a massive explosion that blew out onto the balcony and followed her into the lower chamber where the others were still waiting.

Agnarr – on fire and screaming in pain – rushed down the stairs a moment later. They managed to quickly smother out the flames and Dominic channeled a burst of divine energy into his body to undo the horrible burns. Agnarr gasped with the sudden relief of it.

“Well, at least it was me instead of Tee who took the worst of it,” Agnarr said. “It’s a good thing that I was the one to open that door.” Then a thoughtful look entered his eyes. “Wait… is that why you always have me open the doors first?”

Everybody looked at each other. “We thought you knew!” Elestra said.

Agnarr, in a surly temper, headed back up the stairs. “Well, at least the door’s safe now.”

It took Tee a moment to realize what he was doing. “Agnarr! No!”

Twist. Click. Hiss.

Agnarr came hurtling out of the doorway and tumbled down the staircase an instant before a nearly identical explosion was unleashed. “I knew that click. I knew that hiss!”

Tee, shaking her head, headed back up and took another look at the door. After several minutes of work she was feeling fairly confident that she had disabled the trigger for the magical explosion.

… but she was wrong. And this time she took the brunt of the blast, collapsing with her lungs blackened and burnt by the scorched air. Dominic was forced to expend even more of the gods’ power to get her back on her feet. Then, out of pure stubbornness, she went back to work.

This time she was successful. With a grim satisfaction, she swung the door open.

NEXT CAMPAIGN JOURNAL
Session 22C: Workings of the Chaos Cults

RUNNING THE CAMPAIGN
In-Jokes