Session 006 ❖ May 3, 2020
| Name | Title | Class | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aeris | Knight of No House | Fighter | Has no memory of their past. |
| Caenn | the Mage | Wizard | Well-educated and curious. |
| Erebos | the Yellow | Wizard | 100 year old tremulous coward. |
| Garviel | of House Ibis | Cleric | Cast out for breaking his vows. |
| Lan | the Necromancer | Wizard | Stole a book from their master. |
| Rhea | the Small | Thief | Grew up on the streets. |
The party are attacked by Ravens of Perjury, lies given form and noisome wings. Garviel’s mysterious pet Saturn destroys them with beams of white light from its single eye.
Our heroes descend into the lair to face the Weaver of Shadows, putting it to sword and fire. The battle is fierce, and Aeris is struck down, poisoned by its demonic venom.
As they are carried up the perilous shaft that leads back to Ultan’s Door, the dying Aeris awakes in the Hinterlands. There they witness the melancholy light of the Necromantic Moon. Standing on the crest of a hill, silhouetted in that eerie and haunting light, is a grotesquely mutilated figure. His face has been flayed and the skin ghoulishly stretched over a metal frame surrounding his grinning skull.
They speak; he names himself Amar Amalkus, who suffered his terrible fate at the hands of the Fleischguild, and is bound to serve in death. He tells Aeris that the road beyond, which he cannot tread, leads to Ushanpoor, the city of the dead from which no mortal has ever returned, and that light of the moon - and its memory - forever instils a yearning for that city in the souls that have beheld it.
Before they can converse further Garviel appears and drags Aeris away, back to the lands of the living. In their absence, the priest made a deal with Azmarane, weaver of the threads of fate, for his friend’s life.
There is a price to pay: The party must aid Azmarane in the Great Game the Archons play amongst themselves, by desecrating the holy Catacombs of the Fleischguild!
A hook for the second dungeon, and the first mention of Ushanpoor, the City of Brass Sepulchres, another Ben Laurence idea we took and ran with. Coming back from the dead isn’t that difficult, it’s just hard to want to, and there’s still a point beyond which someone is gone for good. That line is clearly drawn and has a sense of wonder to it - this fabulous city the PCs can never see, because there’s no returning...
And of course, what goes for the players can equally go for their enemies - murder isn’t a reliable way of resolving conflict anymore.