Session Report: The Beast in the Bellfry
Dramatis Personae
- Robbert Koekoekzoon, a vain Twig-eater looking to help the people of the Baronies.
- Sjonnie, A Randelian fixer who knows a person for any job.
- Old man Hennink, a slightly insane drifter.
- Beer, a slightly slow fighter of the School of Minos.
Prelude- That which led up to the trouble
In Ole Gaffer's inn there'd been some rumors going about; a scholar of the Academy had found the Lost Road. He'd followed it, and it had led him to a deserted palace. The interest of the group had been piqued by this and they decided to go find this scholar. They started asking about, and found out that the scholar was named 'Arid the Wise', and that he'd hired folk to load in two wagons full of expeditionary equipment and to move it over from Morganshold to the Parish of Benedict. However, no one heard anyone talking about being hired to go on the actual expedition itself. It was a short and eventless journey over to the Parish, two days along well maintained roads, where they found Arid in one of the richer establishments of that town.
They confronted him and eventually Arid relented. He'd not found the Lost Road. He'd found a tower overgrown with roses and lots half his expedition force. Then they fled, found a mansion where the inhabitants invited them in, and he'd waken up in the middle of the night to the screams of the other half of his expedition force, and he'd fled once more. After roaming around the Grass Dunes for a few days, nearly starving, he'd found his way back to the parish. He'd made up the story about finding the Lost Road because doing so and writing theses on what he supposedly found would net him scholarships for the rest of his life without ever needing to go back into the dangerous wilds.
The party had been slightly dejected by this, but Old man Hennink had been going about town talking to the orphans. They'd told him some weird stuff was going on at the cathedral at the centre of the parish; they'd heard screaming coming from one of the bell towers in the dead of night. The party decided to hold off on trying to find the tower or the mansion Arid told them about, and try to see what was happening at the Cathedral.
Present Day; Present Time
They decided to sneak into the cathedral grounds at night, not wishing to be told off by the priests living there. The grounds were empty at first glance. There was light coming from the open doors of the Cathedral, and from several of the buildings that seemed to be later additions. However, as they crept around carefully they noticed two things. Firstly, screaming coming from one of the two bell towers of the cathedral, and secondly awful eating sounds from the cemetary built against the eastern wall of the complex.
They decided to check out the sounds from the cemetary and found two ghouls feasting on a corpse they'd unearthed. Against all odds they managed to take them down without casualties. It was strange though; how did ghouls manage to get here, on hallowed grounds in the middle of a town? They decided to come back tomorrow to seek audience with the abbot.
Next morning they did so, and they were surpised to find how easy it was to get the abbot to see them. When they asked about what was happening, the abbot confessed to a sin. He'd found an old book written in High Atrian, and he thought it had contained ancient rituals. However, when he attempted to cast one of of these a portal to Sheol, land of the dead, had opened, and he'd fled, but not without suffering its corrupting effects. His right arm had all but withered away. He had tried sending in people to obtain the book he'd left behind in his hurries, but only one came back, covered in blood. The poor sod was in the house of healing, but in a bad state. When the party told them about having taken down two ghouls, the abbot was impressed, and said he'd pay them handsomely if they managed to go up the western bell tower and get him the book.
The party accepted his offer and were led to the locked door to the belltower by Elder Scipio. He told them he'd wait here for them, and unlock the door if they knocked thrice and said his name.
They silently went up the stairs to the first floor and looked around. To their eyes it seems like there were black flecks floating in the air, but attempting to grab one of them had no succes. It seemed some kind of noncorporeal thing, or maybe an illusion. The first floor of the tower was explored slowly, until they found a reliquary. They closed the door behind them, and Beer's attention was drawn to a magnificent silver mace inscribed with imagery of Saint Catherine. He decided to take it with him. As the group decided to move on up, however, they heard noises outside the door. The sound of nails on the stone floor and voices of people screaming in agony. They stood unmoving and silent in the dark room as whatever was out there scratched and sniffed at the door, before after what seemed like hours it moved on.
Urged on by whatever horrors they had narrowly avoided they decided to make more haste. On the stairs they saw a trail of drool, and as they moved up it appeared to their eyes they not only were the black flecks in the air becoming thicker and more frequent, but also that colour was leeching out of the world. At the top of the stairs they hear a huge crashing noise coming from the east, and on a bridge connecting the two towers they see the beast that also nearly found them on the floor below.
As far as I can figure out: art by Johannes Holm
It had knocked down something and was noisily eating on its remains. Beer, thinking on his feet, drew the doors shut as the beast turned around and started moving towards them, forming new limbs from its body as it moved fowards, and absorbing the ones at its far end. He jams the doors shut using his old mace and the party runs as behind them they hear the beast crashing bodily into the doors. They run past open doors leading to a balcony, noting the zombies that shamble towards them but ignoring them and head for a door at the far end of a hallway. They open it, and see stairs leading up to the third floor. As they run up they note that all colour has left the world entirely, leaving behind a palette of greyscales. The stairs below them look like wood but feel more like flesh, and as they reach the top they see a room stretched out in front of them where the floor is covered by white sands.
The group hestitates for a moment, but when they hear the sound of wood splintering from below they hurry on. As Beer walks onto the sand he's grabbed by skeletal hands, which start to pull him down. He swings at them with the silver mace, and shatters the bones. Robbert and Sjonnie look around the room and see a set of shelves against the walls. They use a staff to push those over, shattering the glass vials that were on them, but in a macabre game of The Floor Is Lava they managed to move from fallen over bookcase to desk to another shelf they managed to get across without any more skeletal hand incidents. They pondered over which door to take, but eventually decided on the one leading east out of the room.
They found themselves on a balcony overlooking the belfry. A ladder led down to the floor below, and another ladder went back up to a balcony on the other end of the room, with another door. They went down, fighting some weird foot-long pillbug creatures, until the double door burst open and the abomination barged into the room. It screamed at them with several voices of humans, saying things like "Oh no, it's coming for me! Help me! HELP!". They quickly scampered up the ladder, narrowly dodging the creature and ran through the door. They found themselves in a narrow but long room containing spare roofing tiles, and a hatch leading out to what they thought was the roof.
The party was feeling they were running out of places to run to; it was only a matter of time before the flesh abomination found its way up here somehow. They made for a door further up in the room, and found what they were looking for.
Floating two feet above a lectern in the middle of a large magical circle was a book bound in dark leather. More concerning though was a window into another world, roughly circular. It showed a world of white sand, on which they could see large monoliths and pyramidal structures. They wished to look at it more closely, and Robbert heard unfamiliar voices calling him to join them there, forever. However, this thought was quickly cast aside. Squawking of birds could be heard in the room beyond, followed by more screams of previous victims of the abomination. Robbert quickly grabbed the book, shrugging off some effect that attempted to overpower him, and they ran back towards the hatch to the roof.
The door was locked, but they quickly forced it open by breaking the lock and as they made it onto the slippery and sloped roof they could see the beast behind him. While Robbert had been grabbing the book, Beer had obtained his rope from his pack, and his slung that over one of the many gargoyles lining the roof, and they rapelled down to the bridge where they'd first seen the monster. From there they used another to get down to the grassy floor of the cathedral grounds. They'd escaped the bell tower safely.
They went back to the abbot, who thanked them profusely and told them that with this tome he might be able to undo the damage he'd caused. He gave them a small chest with 4000GP in it and told them they were in the good graces of the church of Saint Catherine.
Post Mortem
It was an intense session. I'd not thought they'd go and try getting in here just yet, and also not in this fashion. The players had some great luck, but also some damned bad. I wasn't sure how the abbot would feel about some random nobodies walking up to him and asking him what he was doing, but the reaction roll said he'd be favourable towards them, so he offered them a handsome reward. However, the first wandering monster roll came up positive and with the worst possible result on my table; the Abomination that haunted the abbey; a 1% chance. But man, that one percent chance made for a fun but hectic session. I'd expected them to run into some other undead creatures, maybe a shade, maybe some skeletal remains of the previous victims of the Abomination, but no. They were chased about the cathedral like it was an episode of Scooby Doo.
They had more good luck though. I telegraphed that the influence of Sheol was corruptive, and it is. The party appeared (perhaps almost preternaturally) resistant to these effects as they made their way up the tower, and even when Robbert grabbed the Tome. I may need to reconsider my math to see if I have not made a mistake somewhere which makes it very easy to overcome to begin with, and maybe adjust accordingly for the next time they might run into these effects.
One fairly valid criticism I'd gotten is that I need to reconsider how I describe room layouts. One of my players was mapping along with me but after a while he was a bit off kilter and ended up roughly sixty feet outside the tower. We got back on course, but it should've been preventable. I resorted to sketching out the rough layout, but it feels like double work, and I don't like it. I need to think about how to improve on this.
The party hasn't seen much of the actual inside of these towers, and sadly I don't see a good way for me to easily revisit this for now. Maybe later, when the abbot has uncoverd the secrets of the book and he has learned how to close the portal. Maybe he'll need to go up the tower and perform a ritual, and needs people to protect him while doing so. Something to think about....
But until that time, count your torches and keep mapping!