SESSION 46B: INTO THE ASYLUM

December 22nd, 2009
The 25th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

Elestra reached out to the memories of Zairic’s corpse through the Spirit of the City. In a horrible, gurgling voice Zairic’s head spoke from his own back.

“Where is Mahdoth?”

“In his chamber by the western cells.”

“Where are all the exits from the asylum?”

“Through the doors onto Childeyes Street. Down through the caverns. And through the walls.”

“Who is bringing the shipment?”

“The Children of Mrathrach.”

They looked at each other. “Math rack?” Elestra asked.

The question of who the Children of Mrathrach were ate away at them, but they needed to keep moving. Speaking with the corpse had taken ten minutes, and although that had afforded them the time to search the room and strip Zairic’s body (and, afterwards, stuff it into a bag of holding), they were now in enemy territory and the clock was ticking.

They proceeded cautiously through the rooms of the upper level to the staircase and then headed down. Convinced that dangers could lurk behind any door, Ranthir filled the air with arcane enhancements… only to find nothing but a storage closet behind the first door they tried.

When Ranthir tried casting another spell at the bottom of the stairs, he discovered that some active force was dampening his connection to the forces of magick. The spell was completely disrupted and lost. Experimenting, they discovered that effects that were conjured upstairs and then brought down into the field were fine, but any actual spellcasting on the lower levels seemed virtually impossible.

Faced with the decision of retracing the path they had taken with Danneth on their previous visit (which led east) and heading into unexplored territory through a southern door, their decision was informed by Zairic’s words: Mahdoth’s chambers lay near the western cells. They weren’t sure where those might be exactly, but they certainly weren’t to be found by going to the east.

So they headed south down a short hallway and into a comfortable, well-organized office with a pair of desks facing each other in the middle of the room and various filing shelves and the like arranged around the walls.

Tee quickly grabbed a stack of paper off one of the desks and quickly scanned it before handing it off to Elestra for further study.

SITUATIONAL REPORT ON DEREGALIS FINORIN

A series of correspondence, all attached under the title of A Situational Report on Deregalis Finorin.

Mahdoth—

The exacerbated excitations of Rinner Silverfind’s condition appear to be worsening rapidly. This in marked contrast to Tabaen and the other victims of the Oldtown event. I would urge you to prioritize his examination before the situation exceeds the limits of our control.

Danneth

Zairic—

Danneth brought this situation to my attention before his recent unpleasantness. Please conduct the appropriate observations to confirm his “urgings”.

Mahdoth

Master—

Although you are quite right not to trust anything to the word of that fool – and I am loath to do the same – in this matter I have found his suspicions to be quite correct, and beyond my personal measure of examination.

Zairic

Zairic—

My findings regarding the Silverfind case are quite alarming. There appears to be a sympathetic resonance between Silverfind’s excitations and the similar excitation of Deregalis.

Relocate Silverfind immediately to the antimagic containment cells. Increase the levels of sedation for Deregalis and immediately institute identical regimes for Silverfind.

Mahdoth

As Elestra read the situation report, Tee continued rifling the desks. Jimmying the lock on one of the drawers, she found detailed financial records. She thumbed through them long enough to notice that they went back about seven years. The first five years were all recorded in a single hand, but that changed about two years earlier. Then the handwriting changed again roughly a week ago (most likely because Zairic had replaced Danneth).

In the other desk, Tee found a hidden compartment. And inside that compartment she found Zairic’s spellbook. She took it over to Ranthir, who had been pouting over losing the spell he’d attempted to cast on Tor. “Does that make everything better?” she asked.

“It does!” he said, immediately looking immensely chipper.

The files lining the walls proved to be patient records. Following the paper trail from the situational report they had found on the desk, they pulled the patient records for Tabaen, Rinner, and Deregalis…

PATIENT RECORD FOR TABAEN FARSONG

This slim file contains the patient record for an elf named Tabaen Farsong. Tabaen was admitted on 9/15/790 and his record has been flagged as being “part of the Oldtown Incident”.

His condition is listed as “excitation of latent sorcery with a divinatory flavoring”. He is described as “non-dangerous”, but his condition is resulting in “psychological harm”.

On 09/19/790 there is an additional note: “Entered a comatose state.”

There has been no improvement in his condition since that date.

PATIENT RECORD FOR RINNER SILVERFIND

This slim file contains the patient record for a dwarf named Rinner Silverfind. Rinner was admitted on 09/15/790 and his record has been flagged as being “part of the Oldtown Incident”.

His condition is listed as “dangerous, uncontrollable excitation of latent sorcery with full-blown manifestation of arcane summonry”.

“The patient reportedly summoned a non-sortable variety of creatures at increasing rates of acclimation, but upon placement in the suppressive fields of the asylum the manifestations were brought under control. Unfortunately, the psychological trauma of the event has left the patient near-raving at all times – reporting voices, conspirators, and demons to be ‘locked in his cell’ with him.”

PATIENT RECORD FOR DEREGALIS FINORIN

This thick file contains the patient record for a human wizard named Deregalis Finorin. The file dates back almost twenty years, with an admission date of 04/28/771.

According to the records, Finorin suffers from an acute madness leading to the “perpetual casting and manifestation of powerful spells of arcane summoning”. The creatures resulting were both powerful and dangerous. Apparently the public believed him to have been executed years ago, but he was instead confined to Mahdoth’s.

Unfortunately, the “suppressive fields” of Mahdoth gradually “lost their effectiveness against this tumorous eruption of primal sorcery”, in ways that the asylum’s experts could not explain. Even moving Deregalis into an antimagic field had little effect: He continued to summon monsters.

Deregalis is now kept heavily sedated in a near-comatose state in a Special Isolation Spell to keep his powers from continually manifesting.

… and reading those gave them great cause for concern.

“The suppressive fields of Mahdoth?” Tee quoted.

“Does that mean that the suppressive fields down here emanate from him?”

“It’s possible,” Ranthir said.

Beyond the immediate danger of lowering those suppressive fields by killing Mahdoth, it served as a greater reminder that they were planning to wipe out the supervisory staff of an asylum full of mad arcanists.

“Who’s going to take over keeping them in line?” Tee asked. “Us? I don’t want that responsibility.”

Amidst much consternation they decided to pull back out of the complex. Instead of a scorched earth approach, they would severely limit the scope of their operation and content themselves with capturing the shipment before it could reach Wuntad’s hands.

“And kill Wuntad,” Elestra said.

“I don’t think he’ll be here,” Tee said.

“When you’re in charge of all the chaos cultists in Ptolus,” Tor said, “I think you can afford a few minions to pick up your mail.”

“Yeah,” Elestra said. “But he might be.”

“And then we kill him.” Tee agreed.

They briefly discussed the possibility of cleaning up the salon on the upper level so that Mahdoth would have no idea what happened to Zairic. But Ranthir didn’t have the proper spells prepared to make a quick magical job of it, so they decided it would cost them too much time to try to get the bloodstains out of the floor… and chair… and… well, everywhere.

They retreated through the windows, closed them behind them, and moved to the end of the Childseye Street dead-end loop to discuss their new plan of attack.

Running the Campaign: Speak with Dead SFX – Campaign Journal: Session 47A
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

Back to Surveyor’s Headquarters

The Red Company of Surveyors, along with the Fleet of Iron Sails, are, in many ways, the public face of a secret organization known as the Brotherhood of Yrkyth. While their ships charted the Whitewind Sea, the Brotherhood coordinated the gathering of arcane knowledge. They were also involved in the creation of Yrkyth’s “Engima Engine” (the plans for which are still held here within their inner sanctum).

Following Yrkyth’s disappearance in 651 IA, the Brotherhood withdrew even deeper within its cloak of secrecy. Although deeply tied to a variety of Vladaam activities, the Brotherhood is notable because none of the current Vladaam family are members. It’s a secret within a secret. However, the Brotherhood does arrange for certain arcane information gathered by the Brotherhood to be transmitted to the family for its benefit. (For example, the Brotherhood was responsible for forging the family’s connection with the dark dwarves in Catar, which resulted in the family gaining the services of the dark dwarf alchemy masters. See Part 7: Alchemical Labs.)

The sign of the brotherhood are four quills laid over each other to form the pattern of a diamond.

AREA 1 – GRAND ENTRANCE OF THE BROTHERHOOD

The walls, floor, and ceiling of this chamber are polished obsidian.

THE TABLE OF THE BROTHERHOOD: When a command phrase is spoken (“let us hold and send forth the eye of all knowledge”), a table and chairs rise from the living stone of the floor. The table has a long hollow running down its center, which can be filled with liquid for the Toasts of the Brotherhood.

HIDDEN CACHES – DC 20 Wisdom (Investigation): Two hidden caches, each in the center of the long walls, facing each other.

• Cache 1: Holds the Rites of the Brotherhood and Spells from the Wisdom of Arkath. (See handouts.)
• Cache 2: Holds 12 doses of Thoth’s Incense. There is a courier slip inside with a point of origin from an address on Brewer’s Close
• GM’s Background: This is the address of Alchemical Lab 1 – Bodyworks.

STAIRS: Lead to Area 7 of the Surveyor’s Headquarters, above.

AREA 2 – THE STELLAR LUMINOUS TABLET

Upon a three-tiered dais of blue diamond crystal stands a rectangular table upon which stands a strange apparatus next to a crystalline slab which glows with a blue-hued radiation. The light is strange – shadows seem darker here and inexplicable patterns dance in the corners of one’s eyes.

THE TABLET: The crystalline slab is a tablet formed from a white mineral that is always cold to the touch. It bears two columns of angular sigils, one column beneath a crescent glyph and the other beneath a circular glyph.

• Sigils: The sigils resist all magical efforts at translation.

BLUE RADIANCE OF ERYSH: The Stellar Luminous Tablet emits a blue-hued radiation that induces an awareness of the higher order of dimensions. The radiance overpowers all other illumination and resembles ultraviolet “black light” illumination. Within the radiance, as noted above, shadows seem somehow darker than they should be and odd patterns seem to dance.

• DC 16 Intelligence (Arcana): Recognizes the light as the Blue Radiance of Erysh.
• DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana): To be familiar with the properties of the Blue Radiance.
• Divinations: The Blue Radiance of Erysh is an extremely potent tool for the purposes of meditation, divination, and sorcerous research. Divination spells cast within the radiance are treated as if they had been cast with a spell slot one level higher.
• Crafting Magic Items: Magic items crafted within the Blue Radiance of Erysh gain extra potency at the GM’s discretion. (Spells cast through such an item might be treated as being cast with a higher spell slot, but other – and stranger – effects are also encouraged.)
• Madness: Those who make frequent use of the Blue Radiance of Erysh are often subject to obsession and madness. With intense, frequent exposure users become canker ridden and anemic. Anyone casting a divination spell within the Blue Radiance of Erysh must make a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or suffer a short-term madness. Anyone spending more than 1 hour within the Blue Radiance of Erysh must make a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw (repeated once per day they remain within the radiance) or suffer a long-term madness.

APPARATUS OF LENSES & CRYSTALS: On the dais next to the Tablet. It can be rotated into position over the Tablet.

• DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana): To intuit that the apparatus is divinatory is nature. If the properties of the Blue Radiance are known (per the checks above), the full function of the device can be intuited (as described below).
• DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana): By correctly aligning the lenses and crystals around the Stellar Luminous Tablet and then casting divination spells through it, the efficacy of the Blue Radiance is doubled. (Treat the resulting spell as being cast with a spell slot two levels higher.)

GM Background: Recovered from one of the ecrupoli located throughout the Serpents Teeth in the Whitewind Sea. (The ecrupoli are the ruins left behind from the cities and settlements of Galchutt worshipers.)

(Thanks to Planet Algol for the Blue Radiance of Erysh.)

AREA 3 – SHRINE OF TERROR

The floor at the far end of this chamber is sunken down into a pit containing a cyclopean statue. The statue is positioned so that its head rises just above the edge of the pit, its multi-eyed gaze immediately fixating upon any entering through the door.

STATUE: The statue is broken and badly worn, leaving only the upper body of the figure (which is nevertheless 40 ft. tall). One arm lies on the floor of the pit, curved around the base of the remaining statue.

GM Background: The statue depicts a shaadom (Ptolus, p. 595). It was taken from an ecrupoli in the Serpents Teeth.

EFFECT OF THE STATUE:

• Terror: Creatures gazing upon the statue must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. While frightened by this spell, a creature must take the Dash action and move away from the statue by the safest available route on each of its turns, unless there is nowhere to move. If the creatures ends its turn in a location where it doesn’t have direct line of sight to the statue, the creature can make a new DC 14 Wisdom saving throw. On a successful save, the effect ends for that creature.
• Fascination: Creatures who succeed on the first saving throw must make an additional DC 18 Wisdom saving throw or become disturbingly drawn to the statue (moving 10 ft. towards it each turn). The spell lasts until the victim touches the statue or is forcibly removed from the room.
• Lingering Whispers: If a victim touches the statue while under the effects of fascination, the statue will enter their dreams. Each night they will be visited by a progressively disturbing vision of the statue (starting with its eyes, torso, and eventually revealing the writhing tentacles of its lower body). This is accompanied by sibilant whispers and the like. The victim will awake each morning having suffered 1d2 levels of exhaustion.

The lingering whispers of the statue can be removed by casting remove curse with a 5^th level spell slot within an area affected by a hallow spell.

AREA 4 – THE SAGA OF YRKYTH

The walls of this outer chamber are inscribed with the Saga of Yrkyth (see handouts).

AREA 5 – SHRINE OF YRKYTH

A bronze statue depicts a one-armed man with a handsome, bearded face. One foot is raised to stand upon a thrust promontory of black rock. The figure’s gaze seems fixed upon some distant horizon. The name YRKYTH is emblazoned across the base of the statue.

DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation): To find a compartment hidden in the promontory of black rock which contains the Enigma Engine Lore (see handouts).

AREA 6 – GUILD INITIATION CHAMBERS

These chambers are used as a processional of initiation into the Brotherhood of Yrkyth.

AREA 6A – CHAMBER OF WANDS

Six wands are laid out on a table of mahogany in the center of the room.

• wand of magic missiles
• wand of invisibility
• wand of darkness
• wand of magic missiles
• wand of false life
• wand of enlarge person

GM Background – Initiation Ritual: The initiate must take one of the wands and break it, representing their dominion over arcane lore and their contempt for the trappings of power (when the true power lies within them).

AREA 6B – CHAMBER OF EGGS

The southern end of this chamber (beyond the pillars) is shrouded in magical darkness.

EGGS: Upon marble plinth sitting within the darkness are three eggs – two blue eggs and one red egg.

GM Background – Initiation Ritual: An initiate must break the two blue eggs without harming the red egg.

AREA 6C – CHAMBER OF THE SIGIL

A small writing station with various inks and tattooing instruments faces the far wall of the chamber. One sits at the station cross-legged upon a padded cushion.

ARCANE SIGIL: An invisible arcane mark is written upon the wall, directly in front of the writing station. Anyone capable of seeing it will find that it glows with an almost blinding intensity (DC 10 Constitution saving throw or blinded for 1d10 minutes). The sigil has a different color for each person who views it – sometimes the difference is subtle in hue; often it is radically different. Many report undertones to the hue of an unearthly or indescribable character.

GM Background – Initiation Ritual: An initiate must copy the sigil onto their own body. This is extremely difficult (requiring an appropriate skill check at DC 24), although using a prestidigitation spell makes it easier (requiring a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check).

AREA 6D – CHAMBER OF THE OATH

The entrance to this chamber is blocked by a wall of fire. Anyone bearing the sigil from Area 6C can pass through this wall of fire freely.

THE BLACK REVELER: Upon the wall is what appears to be the mounted body of some feathered monstrosity, but is, in fact, just a cleverly constructed fake.

THE SIGN OF THE BROTHERHOOD: The four-quilled diamond-feather guild badge appears in bas relief upon the floor.

GM Background – Initiation Ritual: An initiate must kneel upon the Sign of the Brotherhood before the Black Reveler (which depicts one of the incarnations of Bhor Kei) and swear the Oath of the Brotherhood of Yrkyth (see handouts).

Go to Part 14C: Crypts of the Brotherhood

Go to Red Company of Magi

LETTER FROM GATTARA TO TIANT

Sweetest Tiant,

Your words tantalize me, and I shall be certain to reward you with the most delightful suffering as punishment for your impudence.

In fact, you have spurred me to a wonderful bit of inspiration: I have sent a messenger to Runshallot Street and asked them to send you the next several doses of their liquid pain as soon as it has been extracted from their apparatus. I know how much you love to indulge, and I would not ask you to restrain yourself entirely, but save some for our games later.

Bring it to the curse den on Nethar Street and we’ll get a private room.

And a private plaything.

 Gattara

GM Background: “Runshallot Street” is the Vladaam’s Slave Trade Warehouse. Gattara is also referring to the curse den in the Guildsman District.

REPORT FROM THE RESEARCHERS ON CROSSING STREET

Guildmaster Arzan,

I hope you find these tissue samples as fascinating as we have. You have several days before the preservations spells would need to be renewed. I have also included chrysalid samples.

I think you can assume that we’ll be continuing our work at Crossing Street for the foreseeable future. Not only are there still many questions to be answered before we untangle the riddle of what was being done here, but Mistress Navanna has been delivering new artifacts for our study. Due to the demands, Master Aliastar has had us establish an additional laboratory.

The work is hard, but fascinating. I don’t know that we could sustain the long hours without the assistance of Master Grui’s arts.

                                                                                                Sathara

GM Background: Sathara is a Vladaam Researcher working at the Oldtown Apartments. The tissue samples come from a pain devil, while the chrysalid samples were taken from the nests of the venom-shaped thralls. Master Grui is a Vladaam alchemist who has been supplying draughts of Morpheus to help the researchers work long hours.

A GUIDANCE FROM RENN SADAR TO THE ARCHMAGE CRETAI

Cretai,

I am, of course, disappointed to learn that there’s no chance the Box of Shadows might have been placed within the Banewarrens before they were sealed, although I suppose it’s good not to have wasted the effort on a fruitless enterprise.

I’m also sorry to report that I’ve been unsuccessful in obtaining any of the crystalline research from the Eslathagos project for you. The oversight triad is being unusually secretive, one might almost suggest panicky. If you can think of anything that might influence Unirthorm, Rinirgen, or Kaeran Altarstone to loosen their lips, I do hope you’ll let me know. I can confirm, however, that the crystal lenses are a crucial lynchpin in the operation of whatever the technomantic devices seal the Spire.

Fortunately, this missive is not wholly dedicated to disappointments. In the immediate aftermath of Rehobath’s power play, the Inverted Pyramid suffered a paroxysm of panic and certain old archives were unlocked. Among these were journals of Peruun pertaining to the Divine Blight. The project was only briefly pursued before those fearing it might trigger the very return to the Days of Blood that others sought to guard against prevailed. During this time, however, I was able to secure copies of Peruun’s notes, which I have attached here. I wish you luck in unlocking the secrets of the Blight and look forward to reaping the rewards with you when that day comes.

Don’t forget that you owe me a cup of ale next time you see me at Danbury’s,

                                                                                                Lord Renn Sadar

The attached research notes pertain to an arcane energy, referred to as Divine Blight, which temporarily severs the connection of a priest to the Nine Gods.

The efficacy of the energy cannot be questioned, but mastering the Blight for practical applications — a targeted spell or an enchantment upon a weapon, for example — appears to be an unmet challenge.

GM Background: The box of shadows is described in Ptolus, p. 636. “Eslathagos” refers to Eslathagos Malkith, the Banelord (Ptolus, p. 79) and the “Eslathagos project” assumes that the Inverted Pyramid is involved with the exploration of the Banewarrens (as described in the Banewarrens adventure). Peruun is a founding member of the Inverted Pyramid, who in his latter years became fascinated by chaositech. He wrote a number of journals, some known and many lost, which were encoded with an arcane cipher designed to confound comprehend languages and similar spells.

Go to Part 14: Surveyor’s Guild

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 46A: Among Madmen

At the last possible moment, Zairic twisted aside so that the arrow lodged in his shoulder instead of his heart. Letting his book drop to the floor, Zairic vaulted over the high arm of his chair and jumped for cover. In mid-leap, he released a fireball through the window. Tee ducked down as the fiery inciting pellet passed over her head and avoided the brunt of it almost completely, but Elestra (standing in the open further down the alley) was caught by the edge of it.

Most of the others – clumped together across the street and still debating how they could (or would or should) use Elestra’s homunculi – missed the flash of the fireball. Fortunately, Ranthir – who was providing the daisy-chained camouflage near the mouth of the alley – recognized it for what it was. “Fireball!” he shouted, hurrying into the alley.

The fiction-mechanics cycle is arguably the heart of the roleplaying game experience: The ways in which we use mechanics to create fictional outcomes; declare fictional actions that are resolved mechanically; and use the outcome of either to feed back into the other form an intricate and interwoven dance at the gaming table.

A key component of this dance is how mechanical outcomes are explained in the fiction. For simple, straightforward intentions with unambiguous results, this is often so obvious that one can easily miss that something is actually happening: The player said they wanted to jump over the chasm; the dice said they succeeded; therefore, they land on the other side of the chasm.

Intriguingly, therefore, it is often true the failure requires more of an explanation than success: Success, after all, merely assumes that the stated intention which triggered the mechanical resolution was achieved. Failure, on the other hand, almost seems to demand an explanation for why the character wasn’t able to achieve their desired outcome.

(And this is before we even start considering advanced techniques like failing forward.)

There are a number of techniques you can use in creating these explanations, and different RPG rulesets will often help you in different ways. A universal technique I find useful is explicitly thinking about different factors in the game world that could affect outcome. It’s really useful for keeping things fresh and varied.

(One key insight from this is that you can often make the description of success more interesting by lightly spicing it with the same details and factors that we use to explain failure.)

Something else to consider is the often unexamined assumption of who at the table is responsible for providing these explanations. In my experience, this almost always falls on the GM in their role as adjudicator and world-describer. Every so often, though, the infectious spirit of communal improv will unleash itself and people all around the table will start collaborating on the answer. And another key insight is that, as the GM, you can prompt the players to get involved in explaining outcomes.

(Matthew Mercer, for example, has made, “How do you want to do this?” particularly famous.)

In fact, you can go further than that and create specific expectations for action resolution in which describing the fictional implications of mechanical results defaults to the players. (Storytelling games often do this because their mechanics revolve around determining which player is in control of a narrative outcome.)

But I digress.

What I’m particularly interested in talking about right now is a very specific slice of these table interactions: The moment where a mechanical outcome prompts a conversation between characters, which I’m going to refer to as ex post facto roleplaying. Here the character dialogue is being triggered by or being described as the key factor in an action’s resolution.

In this session, for example, most of the PCs failed a Spot check to notice the flash from a fireball spell going off around a corner.

Why call for this check at all? I mean, it’s a fireball spell, right? Shouldn’t it be really obvious? Well, to some extent this depends on how much noise you think a fireball creates — is it a huge detonation or a more ephemeral flash of flame? More importantly, what I was primarily concerned about here was how quickly they would react to the fireball: Would they be able to leap into action and immediately join the fight? Or get caught flat-footed and have to wait a round before being able to rush to Tee’s aid?

In this case, the players asked the same question in a breakdown that looked something like this:

• Why wouldn’t we immediately notice the fireball?
• We must have been distracted.
• What could we have been distracted by?
• We must have all been continuing our debate about using the homunculi!

And then they briefly acted out a few lines of that dialogue, giving Ranthir’s player (who had succeeded on his Spot check) an opportunity to interrupt by them by shouting, “Fireball!”

This is a good example of these ex post facto roleplaying moments, which are often played as kind of funny throw-away moments. But they can, of course, also be more protracted and/or take on a more serious tone, particularly if you make a more conscious effort to notice, prompt, and/or define these moments.

In fact, rather than just reacting to skill checks with dialogue, you can also deliberately frame skill checks to set up roleplaying interactions. Using mechanics as a roleplaying prompt like this is described in more detail in Rulings in Practice: Social Skills.

Campaign Journal: Session 46B – Running the Campaign: Speak with Dead SFX
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

SESSION 46A: AMONG MADMEN

December 22nd, 2009
The 25th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

It was mid-afternoon when they left the Necropolis.

“Should we head back to the Ghostly Minstrel or go straight to Mahdoth’s?” Elestra asked.

“Ghostly Minstrel,” Ranthir said. “We need to clean up. Besides, we still have several hours. And the Minstrel is on the way in any case.”

Agnarr grunted. “You need to clean up?”

Ranthir rolled his eyes. “Yes. I seem to be covered in some sort of black ooze. I wonder where it came from? Oh, right! My eyes and my mouth!”

THE BIG PLAN

Once they reached the Ghostly Minstrel they spent a few minutes cleaning up and then gathered back up for a planning session.

Their biggest concern was Mahdoth himself. They knew he was connected with both Wuntad and the Pactlords, which made him an obvious threat. And Ranthir knew enough about beholders from his studies in Isiltur to make them all worried: Eyestalks causing paralysis, searing pain, and even death, combined with a massive antimagic field emanating from its central eye that could unknit their strongest offensive weapons.

They laid out extensive contingency plans for dealing with the various eyestalks – restorative magicks, scrolls to re-enervate their flesh, various potions and enchantments to boost their natural resistances against its powers, and much more of the like. It would be expensive, but it was obviously a necessary expense.

“The ultimate problem, though,” Tor said, “Is that all of these precautions are magical. As soon as he puts the big eye on us, it all becomes useless.”

“We do have some non-magical solutions,” Ranthir said, pulling out the alchemical potions of questionable provenance they’d recovered from Ghul’s Labyrinth. “Who wants to go blind?”

“Do we know if his eyestalks will work in his own antimagic field?” Nasira asked.

“I don’t know,” Ranthir confessed.

“Then we should assume they do.” Tee grimaced.

“It doesn’t seem fair,” Elestra said.

From memory they sketched out a small map of the areas they had seen last time they had been at Mahdoth’s. But the truth was they had no idea how extensive the asylum complex was or how deep it might go beneath the streets of Ptolus.

To supplement their limited knowledge they considered using clairvoyance spells again, but they were concerned that defensive measures at the asylum might be triggered by their use.

Elestra tried to figure out how they could use her homunculi’s ability to pass seamlessly through earth and stone to scout out the complex, but since it was incapable of communicating anything of detail back to her that seemed for naught. Nasira, on the other hand, mentioned the possibility of scrying, but the limitations of the techniques available to her made it seem of little use, as well, until Ranthir combined the two plans: By affixing the scrying sensor to Elestra’s homunculi, Nasira would be able to watch the homunculi’s progress.

INFILTRATION BY FIRE

Eventually, feeling as prepared as they could perhaps hope for, they headed for Mahdoth’s around 9 pm.

On the way, however, they had time for further debate: Did they want to wait for the shipment to arrive and then ambush it? Or should they assault the compound immediately so that they wouldn’t have to fight both the asylum personnel and whoever came for the shipment at the same time?

“I think it’s six of one or half a dozen of the other,” Elestra said.

“I’ll take the six to one,” Agnarr said. “I like those odds.”

They all stared at him for a long moment.

“What?”

They settled on the immediate attack, which naturally opened the question of what their specific approach should be. They considered drilling down from street level into the staircase they knew led to the lower level (and which passed beneath the street). They also reopened the practicality of sending Elestra’s homunculi to scout (and, if so, where and when and how he should carry out the scouting).

Keeping the homunculi as an option, Elestra wrapped them in the camouflage of the city’s spirit. Keeping this camouflage-connection through physical proximity, they strung themselves out in a daisy-chain to allow Tee to get close enough to the building to scout the perimeter.

Through the simple expedient of looking through the windows, Tee confirmed that the street-level portion of the asylum (like the tip of the iceberg above its lower levels) was largely abandoned: Only Zairic – the halfling who had ratted them out to Mahdoth when they had come here at Danneth’s invitation – was to be found there, reading a book in a salon-like area towards the rear of the building.

Zairic looked like an easy target. Tee eased open a window at the opposite end of the room, carefully lowered her longbow into place, and… FIRED!

At the last possible moment, Zairic twisted aside so that the arrow lodged in his shoulder instead of his heart. Letting his book drop to the floor, Zairic vaulted over the high arm of his chair and jumped for cover. In mid-leap, he released a fireball through the window. Tee ducked down as the fiery inciting pellet passed over her head and avoided the brunt of it almost completely, but Elestra (standing in the open further down the alley) was caught by the edge of it.

Most of the others – clumped together across the street and still debating how they could (or would or should) use Elestra’s homunculi – missed the flash of the fireball. Fortunately, Ranthir – who was providing the daisy-chained camouflage near the mouth of the alley – recognized it for what it was. “Fireball!” he shouted, hurrying into the alley.

Zairic called out from behind the chair. “Who are you? Do you know who you anger tonight?!”

Tee didn’t bother to answer him. She vaulted herself through the window and skipped across the room, loosing another arrow that thumped into the high back of the chair.

Zairic wrenched her first arrow out of his shoulder, gulped down a healing potion, and made a break for the door. Elestra, cursing the burns from the fireball, threw open another window to the room and fired her dragon rifle at him. The blast missed narrowly, scorching the wall.

Zairic, in mid-stride, ripped a scroll from an inside pocket of his cloak and gestured through the window towards Elestra. The others were just arriving at her side, and they were all caught in a pounding, painful hail of dagger-like ice that plunged down from the sky.

Tee, deciding to fight ice with fire, dipped her hand into her bag of flames and hurled a fire elemental at the Halfling. Distracted by the fiery sprite, Zairic made an easy target for her as she plunged her dagger into his shoulder and re-opened the magically healed wound from her arrow.

Zairic cursed loudly. Wrenching himself free from her blade he cast another spell, sending his body into a rapid, cascading shift between reality and the Ethereal Plane. “You’ll die tonight!”

“You’re the only one dying tonight!” Tee shouted. “We’re happy to speak with the dead!” Her expert eyes were tracking his skittering, shifting, flickering form.

“I’ll speak with your corp—“

The halfling gurgled and collapsed. Tee’s arcing blade had ripped through half his neck. As his body fell forward, his head fell back upon a flap of flesh and landed upright on his back.

“That’s disgusting,” Elestra said, climbing through the window.

Running the Campaign: Ex Post Facto Roleplaying – Campaign Journal: Session 46B
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index