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The Banewarrens, Part 2

Players/Characters Present:
John Sikking - Basil Amantes (Ftr7)
Bruce Barnett - Bonzimir Amantes (Rog4/Hlf3)
Barbara Muth - Nereida Amantes (Clr7) and Elida (KSK4)
Chris Wood - Felix Amantes (Psi7)
Peter Drake - Demetrios Amantes (Wiz4/Hum3)

We last left our intrepid explorers on the brink of the Banewarrens themselves. Following the freshly-dug tunnel, they discovered a large leather bag sized to a large creature and some unused tunneling equipment. The bag contained some adventuring gear and the following note:

Kikanuile,
Once you get inside the unsealed portion of the Banewarrens, you will have to find
a massive iron door. This is a warded door. It may be trapped, we do not know. It
is, however, sealed beyond your capacity to breach. Therefore, you will use a wish
from the ring to open it ­ and even that will keep it open only for a moment. On
what lies beyond that door, our spells are silent, except that you will find the Grail
within Tremoc Korin. The last wish will be your key to get out.
­ Yuinthu

Proceeding onwards, they found that the tunnel broke into a much older area of worked stone...The Banewarrens. The floor and walls were cracked and uneven, as if damaged by some ancient catastrophe. The very large room had two four exits: the rough tunnel, a door on the northeastern wall, a tunnel leading south, and a huge archway leading west. Going west, the Starborn discovered a huge room with a high ceiling. The room was dominated by a large metal machine consisting of a 15' pedestal, a 15' brass globe covered in arcane runes and many pipes and undefinable appurtenances. A spiral staircase led to a metal catwalk 25' up. From the catwalk, two doors exited north and two south, while a massive iron door, slightly glowing, dominated the east. Four dead goblinoid bodies lay near the iron door.

Exiting the Machine Room without further investigation, the Company of the Starborn headed for the northeastern door. Inside, they were attacked by a wraithlike creature that howled angrily at them and whose touch drained Elida of much of her vitality (6 points of Con Drain!). No weapons affected the creature, but Demetrios destroyed it with magic missiles. Further inside the chamber, the Company discovered a strange, unnatural crystal on a pedestal. Bonzimir discovered a magical trap underlaying the entire floor. While he was trying to disable it, the crystal exuded a second wraith, which attacked, promptly draining Felix (5 points of Con!). While Felix and Elida retreated, the remainder of the party slew the wraith. Basil crushed the crystal, sending shards flying about the room.

[GM's Note: Lucky Bastards! I forgot to set off the trap when Basil hit the crystal!]

Outside, Elida and Felix thought they heard something down the southern corridor, and so shouted out a warning. The whole Company came forward to a defensive position, but heard only one more slight sound. Deciding that they were in no position for another fight, they decided to retreat to the surface without having seen more of the Banewarrens. Back at the abandoned manor house, they discovered a sewer grate that had been moved. They concluded that whomever had unsealed the Banewarrens had arrived at the house through the sewers.

Deciding first to return home, the Amantes were ambushed by a pair of weird assassins in the street outside their home. As the family was walking through a pleasant lane in the Middle Ward, Basil saw a small round object roll to his feet and explode in a flash of light. Suddenly, all sound was gone. Moments later, a second ball landed in the family's midst, sending out waves of chaotic energy. Basil, Bonzimir and Demetrios suddenly felt lethargic and docile, unwilling to fight.

They wheeled to see their attackers, a human and a halfling. Both were the subjects of foul surgeries. The human wore a strange half-alive clamp on his head which tied into the oozing bastard sword he bore. His right arm extruded a strange living rod and he moved with superhuman speed. The halfling was even stranger. His lower half was replaced with a hovering platform, while his upper body was surrounded by a harness bearing many cleavers. This was also connected to his head by a strange half-alive cable. Like the human, the halfling was superhumanly fast.

The human charged Demetrios with his Ooze Sword having known in advance that Demetrios was a wizard, and nearly killed him. Nereida, Elida and Felix counterattacked, but Felix was completely out of psionic power, and the others seemed unable to land a blow on the two weird assassins. 

Moments later, the eruption of a "Dessicating Bomb" killed Elida and badly wounded Nereida. Felix forced Basil out of his docility by attacking him. Demetrios tried to maneuver out of the area of the Silence effect, but the human assassin chased him down and killed him with the awful effects of the Ooze Sword. Nereida tried to attack the halfling assassin and was attacked in turn by four slashing blades connected to the strange assassin's harness.

A general melee ensued, with numbers on the side of the Starborn while speed and agility was on the side of the assassins. Numbers won out. However, Nereida had to drag Basil back from the brink of death with some battlefield medicine under cover of a Sanctuary spell. When the halfling died and the haste effected ended, the human fled. But the surviving members of the Amantes family pursued him and cut him down with crossbow bolts.

Yet another discussion with the City Watch ensued, but the neighbors (who had begun to like the Amantes family) spoke up, backing up their story of self-defense. The City Watch hauled the weird bodies back to the nearest Guard Tower, while the Amantes took their dead to the Great Church. 

There, they requested to see Donna Mara, who readily agreed to perform the necessary Raise and Restoration rituals at cost (the Amantes have been steady contributors to the Church). Nonetheless, the material costs of the spells were beyond the Amantes means, so they rested and healed for a day and the next day set about selling the loot they had found, but discovered that they were still 2,000 Traders shy of the amount needed. 

They visited Appius Macrinus, the mechant whom they had met months before, and asked him for a loan of the needed amount. Given the likelihood of death in their profession, Macrinus agreed to the loan only in exchange for 3,000 Traders returned the following month, guaranteed by the deed to their family house. The Amantes agreed to consider the offer and left.

They asked Donna Mara for the loan, based on their past and present works for the Great Church, filling her in on how Kalerecent was missing and Fabitor's offer. She agreed to ask her superiors and give an answer the next day. 

In the meantime, Flavia sent her familiar, a magical bird made of the same red glass as her arm, to invite them to a meeting at the Ghostly Minstrel. There, Cornelia the serving girl asked where Demetrios was, and seemed very hurt to learn of his death. Nereida told Olivia, Cornelia's mother, that she should inform her daughter that they planeed to have the Great Church return Demetrios to life. This is definitely not a common thing, even in Echoriath, but the Ghostly Minstrel has seen its share of adventurers, and Olivia was not surprised.

Flavia heard their tale of the Banewarrens and urged them to learn more about how they might be sealed, and to prevent others from entering. She revealed that she was a member of a secretive group of arcanists called the Inverted Pyramid, and hinted that though they were powerful, they dared not act, lest their actions draw unwanted attention to the opening of the Banewarrens. She offered to give them the 2,000 Traders they needed, plus a further 2,000 Traders each in magical items (to be delivered in two weeks) if they agreed to work for her and the Inverted Pyramid. They readily agreed.

Flavia also identified the strange artifacts of the assassins as Chaositech, a forbidden power tied to dark and ancient cults. She directed them to Professor Herminius at the University to learn more.

The next day, Demetrios and Elida were returned to life amidst much prayer and sacrifice. An evening visit to Professor Herminius allowed them to learn that "Tremoc Korin" is Quentas (elvish) for "The Baneheart". He also told them that a certain noble house in the city had, about a century ago, been tried (and cleared!) by the authorities of conspiring with a cult of Chaositech. That house was House Vitellius. The same noble house to which Lucius Vitellius was distantly related.

[GM's Note: Peter has never liked the fact that Demetrios was a Fighter/Wizard, and asked if he could somehow use the opportunity of the character's death and raising to bring back an "alternate universe" version of the character as a straight wizard (actually, a wizard with three levels in "Human"). I thought about this and decided to allow it, but not the "alternate universe" thing. As you know, the Starborn each have five strange silvery tattoos that seem to allow unusual abilities from time to time. Each time a character dies, one of these tattoos blackens and becomes inert. So, I allowed Peter to re-build the character from Level 1 (like a re-spec in City of Heroes!), and had two of his tattoos go black.] 

Who are Kikanuile and Yuinthu? Is one of them the huge owner of the leather bag?

What does House Vitellius have to do with Chaositech? Did they send the assassins?

Will there be any more assassins sent after the Company of the Starborn?

What is the Inverted Pyramid's interest in the Banewarrens?

What is the Pactlords of the Quann's interest in the Banewarrens?

What is the Great Church's interest in the Banewarrens?

What is the great Machine?

What is the "Grail" that Kikanuile and Yuinthu want?

Who or what killed the goblinoids?

Where is Kalerecent?

What was the noise heard by Felix and Elida?

How may the Banewarrens be sealed permanently?

If the Avatar of Chaos escaped from the Banewarrens, has anyone or anything else escaped?


Tune in next time!

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