Episode 3: Tome and Void

Tome and Void is the third adventure of the Harlowe Traveling Adventure Brokerage.

=Plot=

The party was summoned to the city of High Ostberg by an excited Marla Harlowe who had secured a new contract from the Elder Consortium on the basis of the party's stellar success in Episode 1: West Midden Caravan. Upon arriving in the city, however, it was quickly discovered that the people of the Trade District were being menaced by the usually forthright and dependable men of the Claykeep Fighter's Guild.

The Challenge
Determined to break through the naive view of adventuring held by new Brokerage member Arden Weitkamp, the party wasted no time in seducing one of the Guild's men, leading him to a brothel they had occupied, restraining and mercilessly beating him until he yielded up the password to the group's local base of operations, drugging him with opium until he forgot everything, and then unceremoniously dumping his naked plundered body into a trash cart.

With the password in hand, Brecca Sylen proceeded to infiltrate the Guild, using both his seductive powers and sleight of hand to win over the company's captain, Dalton De Vries, in a game of Five-Card Jack.

Meanwhile, Phillipe Marienburg and the rest of the group interrogated local townspeople to discover more information and quickly learned that Phillipe had become something of a local legend for his exploits in the previous two adventures. Besides one critic, Gerad the icon-carver, who chastised him for inventing a new god when, in Gerad's view, religions were only ever responsible for bringing grief into the world, Phillipe enjoyed universal accolades from the entire city. Drawing upon Phillipe's growing reputation as the Paladin of the Reaches and the Hero of Northwood, the party began agitating the citizens to put support behind Phillipe to best Dalton in highly-publicized single combat. With the aid of a local academic, Mingus, the party was able to drum up sufficient support and Phillipe challenged Dalton to the duel. Dalton accepted, but insisted upon heightening the stakes from a simple duel to a three round competition between the party and his best men, hoping to humiliate and discredit Phillipe before the adoring populace.

The Contract
With plans in place to liberate the Trade District from the Guild's men, the party then met with Marla and a representative of the Heidelberg family, Richard von Heidelberg, who led the group to his family's mansion, the House of Heidelberg. There, they met with Siegfried von Heidelberg, the head of the Heidelberg Wizarding Family, as well as local Elder Consortium administrator, Thibault de Luxe. Thibault contracted the party to retrieve for him a book that had been stolen by roving barbarians, the Khushakh, and delivered into the hands of a barbarian holy man south of the city, at the foot of the Ostberg Chain mountains. The party agreed to the terms of the contract and Siegfried offered to send along his son Richard, a priest of Wotan, to aid the party.

The Shame
Arden, who had attended the Ostberg Wizard Academy with Richard's younger sister Gretchen von Heidelberg, attempted to engage the priest in conversation and uncovered the fact that Richard was widely considered the disappointment of the family for his lack of arcane aptitude and viewed the mission as a way to prove himself to his father. Arden's discussions with the maidservant Amalia revealed further information when she suggested that the much-vaunted honor of the Heidelberg family was merely a charade. This was confirmed when Arden discovered a letter suggesting that Thibault secretly mistrusted the group and had arranged for Richard to be sent along as a spy.

While exploring the grounds of the Heidelberg estate, Wren and Lyra managed to discover not only a secret passage within the walls of the mansion leading to a hidden storehouse of goods but also heard sounds emanating from a well hidden deep within the Heidelberg's sprawling hunting grounds. Upon further investigation, the party discovered at the bottom of the well an emaciated young girl dressed in rotting rags, with wide eyes afflicted by madness. Bringing Richard to the scene and demanding answers, Richard revealed that the girl in the well was the family's secret shame, his sister Amelia, the incestuous offspring of his father Siegfried and Siegfried's sister Adalwolfa von Heidelberg. At the urging of Caramella Wynand, Richard was convinced of the wisdom of gently ending the life of Amelia, a symbolic action which initiated his sundering from the long-tainted Heidelberg name.

The Duel
Having obtained an agreement from Richard to act as officiant of the duel on the following evening, the party made plans to guard against potential acts of sabotage on the part of Dalton and his men.

In the first stage of the duel, Katoki Evanwood engaged in a round of dexterous knife-play with Dalton's man-at-arms, Grant the Bandit. On the second round of the contest, however, Grant intentionally stabbed Katoki in the hand, collecting a sample of her blood in the process and forfeiting the contest to the party.

In the second stage of the duel, Wren challenged Dalton's man Gordo to a test of endurance by way of alcohol consumption. After enduring the intoxicating effects of liquors that might have slain lesser drinkers, Wren noticed a curious pattern in the drinks which Gordo was assigned, and exposed the fact that Gordo had been cheating by using a rigged selection of bottles that contained merely water. The second round of the contest was awarded to the party, making them the official winners of the duel.

However, the crowd demanded to see the main event, the duel between Dalton and Phillipe, and Phillipe did not disappoint, demanding that Dalton face him in combat as initially planned, and then immediately vacate the city upon his defeat.

Meanwhile, Grant the Bandit, by means of Katoki's blood and a small mirror carried upon his person, began scrying on the party through her eyes and was able to discern their hidden plans to interfere with the duel. With this knowledge, Grant entered the House of Heidelberg, intent upon killing Caramella and Arden, who were secreted upon a second floor balcony. However, due to his single-minded devotion to bloodshed, he failed to notice Arden's familiar, the hawk Otalmo roosting upon the banister of the stairs. Otalmo swiftly clawed out Grant's eyes, enabling a blindfolded Katoki to deliver the final blow via backstab.

Fortunately for Phillipe, Dalton's strategy in the duel was to rely upon coating his blade in an oil of enfeeblement, unaware that this oil had been replaced the previous night by Brecca, with whom he had engaged in a drunken tryst. Because of this, Dalton drew too close to the Paladin, who was able to sunder his weapon and bring him to his knees. Dalton then called upon Phillipe for mercy, but, in response to the bloodthirsty cries of the gathered crowd, Phillipe denied any such clemency, opting instead to explode Dalton's skull with the holy force of the Hand of Ahriman.

The Quest
The party set out the next morning after a brief interlude in which Caramella conveyed one of Richard's books, Bard Mulligan's "The Ballad of Vainglorious Wotan" to Gerad the icon-carver for further insights. It was revealed that the worship of Wotan contains many similarities to the worship of Phillipe's deity, Ahriman. Bard Mulligan, however, maintained that Wotan was in fact no true deity but rather a false god created for the purposes of social engineering. Gerad noted that such claims are common, and showed Caramella a number of heretical texts he had collected from past authors including a mysterious Lady Thornflower, which cast aspersion upon the authenticity of a number of popular religious sects, including those of the gods Sul and Krom.

After departing from the city, the party was joined by Bones, the hound of Susuru, who was sent to not only accompany them on their trek, but also to explain Susuru's absence from this particular adventure: having deciphered the text of the secret message delivered by the party in their first adventure, he grew concerned about the activities of the Elder Consortium and was engaged in the task of traveling across the West Reaches, seeking out new information that might be of benefit to the group in the future. He also warned the party not to trust in Thibault, whom he suspected knew about the party's having made a copy of the document.

After crossing the marshes to the south, the party came across an elaborate church which defied their knowledge of what a Khushakh church should look like. This was explained when it was revealed that the church was actually run by Father Barbaroi, a former Elder of Wotan who had retired during Richard's tenure at the temple, only to establish this small temple in the wilderness to spread the worship of Wotan to the Khushakh, whom he considered a savage and uncultivated people. In a short amount of time, Barbaroi had managed to convert all of the Khushakh in the region to the worship of Wotan, an action which not only required them to undertake a vow of silence, but which also alienated the women among them, as they were excluded from the new worship and relegated to simple domestic caretakers, having previously been equally regarded to the Khushakh men.

Barbaroi acknowledged having received Thibault's book from one of the Khushakh's raids, a habit which he said he had been thus far unable to break them of, and invited the party to dine at the church before taking receipt of the book and conveying it back to Thibault. During the feast, many of the Khushakh, including Barbaroi's direct acolytes Yevgeny, Dupris, and Lyoshenka, engaged in bouts of wrestling, an activity of profound religious significance in the worship of Wotan. Moved by this sight, Richard challenged both Phillipe and Ern to combat in the ring, an action which seemed to further rejuvenate his spirit after the unsettling events in the Heidelberg's woods.

After dinner, however, Barbaroi led the party into his study, where he revealed the book, an ancient grimoire written in Abyssal, the language of devils. As the party examined it, however, he began to chant a rhythmic fable about the duty of followers of Wotan to "place their souls at hazard" in order to achieve glory. Within a few moments, all of the party who had heard these words fell into a magically-induced slumber.

The Cathedral
When the party awoke, they found themselves inside crude iron cages on a high pinnacle of rock surrounded by an impenetrable fog. Each of them bore a deep gash upon his or her left hand. Freed from the cages by Ern, who was able to burst the crude locks, they quickly gathered their missing gear and set about investigating the only nearby structure, a miserable cathedral of black stonework. There, they found a number of profane sights, including statuary representative of several major religions, having been corrupted and perverted in a number of grotesque ways. Before long, the way was barred by a dark wraith which sent Lyra into a state of panic. Just as the sun was setting, however, the party manufactured a way to funnel its light into the inner chamber of the cathedral, unmaking the wraith and opening the way forward.

Beyond the wraith, they faced a sinister climb into a deep well, at the bottom of which they found a platform containing a key, a door, and a mirror. As the key would not fit the door, the party investigated further and quickly learned that the mirror was in fact a dimensional gate. When Phillipe entered the mirror, a duplicate of him simultaneously emerged and proceeded to attack the party. Although the real Phillipe was quickly withdrawn from the mirror, the commotion awakened a colossal squid, long ago teleported into a chamber of brackish water in the heart of the mountain. Acting quickly, the entire party entered the mirror, displacing the duplicate party into the room with the squid, which they hoped would kill them. After a time, they returned to the other side of the mirror with the proper key and opened the way forward, despite Phillipe's desire to explore the mirror room further.

Crossing a bridge through the fog towards a second tower, the party began experiencing a number of potent psychological effects, ranging from hallucinations to crippling neuroses. They pressed forward, however, and found themselves beset not only by a horde of rust monsters, but also by an evil force which overtook the minds of Phillipe, Ern, and Katoki. The party stared in abject horror as Phillipe dealt Brecca a critical wound with his bastard sword, causing him to fall unconscious. The rest of the party quickly incapacitated Katoki and Ern while Arden and Lyra dealt with the threat of the rust monsters. Afterwards, they withdrew to a safe spot a short climb from the bridge, an outcropping of rock they dubbed Camp Owlbear in commemoration of a fight waged there by Ern and Katoki.

Gathering their wits, the party sent Wren forward on a scouting mission. Wren was able to infiltrate to the core of the second tower, a magician's laboratory where he found a number of hateful magical artifacts. He engaged in conversation with the magically preserved head of a timber wolf, and learned that the cathedral and towers were the domain of three mysterious overseers: "the rider on the horse", "the man you can't see", and "the woman with the dark magic". After putting the wolf out of its long period of suffering, Wren then managed to discover the source of the evil psychological attacks: a malevolent brain suspended in a jar of foul liquid. He shattered this jar and stomped the brain apart, ending its hold over the party, retrieved a strange cipher as well as a tome, the Unhallowed History from a desk in the room, and then returned to Camp Owlbear.

With the way forward opened, the party decided to explore the mirror gate again, this time discovering only clones of Arden and Ern, who quickly self-destructed after being made aware of their circumstances. The door within the mirror was opened and revealed to be a portal into the Abyss. During this time, the party also deciphered the communication taken from the laboratory, and found it to be a message insinuating that Thibault de Luxe, concerned that he would be stripped of his position if his superiors in the central Consortium lands found out the contents of the Research Division D letter had been compromised, had in fact traded the grimoire, previously held in the vaults at Ostberg, to Barbaroi in exchange for Barbaroi's agreeing to make the party vanish. In the note, however, Barbaroi revealed that he thought it would be better to enact a blood ritual upon the party, creating duplicates of them that could be controlled, rather than kill them outright; this was motivated by the fact that Barbaroi felt Phillipe's growing popularity could be of benefit to his long-term plans, which remain somewhat mysterious.

Pressing forward into the second tower, the party encountered a number of hideous obstacles, including ape-golems who had been merged with a number of party member clones through twisted magic, and a haunted painting which was swiftly overcome by Phillipe, who recognized the malevolent object as attempting to appeal to his sense of pride. The journey culminated in a dark chamber where each party member was forced to reveal a terrible secret about themselves in order to advance, and then a storeroom where the party discovered non-animated copies not only of themselves but also of many prominent figures from the West Reaches, including Thibault de Luxe, Waltraud Schwertkind, many professors from the Bell Prix Wizard Academy, and many of the guild administrators from West Midden. The party took the head and hands from many of these duplicates and then destroyed the rest before pressing forward.

At last, the party found themselves on a bridge leading to a third tower, this time in the midst of a terrible thunderstorm. As they began to cross the gulf, Wren was ensnared by a nearly invisible steel wire and dragged to the edge of the chasm, only to be saved at the last moment by Brecca. Advancing more cautiously, the party soon encountered the keepers of this citadel: Fyodor the Fallen, a masochistic blackguard; Sogetsu, a silent ninja assassin; and Momoji, a dark cleric accompanied by a large black cat. Fyodor attempted to compel Phillipe to join them and use the growing religion of Ahriman as a way to grasp "true power", the "power to shepherd the world". Phillipe, however, rebuked these attempts utterly and engaged Fyodor in melee. After a grim combat, the party managed to neutralize Sogetsu and Momoji, and deal grievous wounds to Fyodor, who at that point summoned a sphere of magical darkness and called out the name of Mammon, after which the three were spirited away.

Beyond the bridge, the party found a number of obelisks inset with red orbs that each revealed different scenes: a wickedly fat wizard, believed by the party to be Duke Satan, overseeing magical tortures; an unoccupied Elder Consortium office; the laboratory of Siegfried von Heidelberg where he sat studying a golden ring inset with a black gem; and the Church of Wotan in the wilds where Father Barbaroi could be seen conducting a dark ritual, with Richard strapped to a massive sigil of Mammon. Determined to save Richard, the party touched this red orb, and were teleported back to Barbaroi's church.

The Lich
Upon arriving at the church, the party interrupted Barbaroi's ritual. Before their eyes, his flesh melted away, revealing a grim skeletal form crowned by a ring of spectral blue fire. With the exits barred by Yevgeny, Dupris, and Lyoshenka, the party had no choice but to engage the lich in combat, a choice which was quickly revealed to be spurious. As Phillipe turned away from the lich in order to summon his horse, Senator, to the fray, the now-invisible Barbaroi unleashed a hellish bolt of lightning that incinerated Dupris, left Phillipe barely clinging to life, dealt Arden critical wounds, and knocked Katoki unconscious. As Senator arrived on the scene in response to Phillipe's call, Caramella bore witness as several dozen Khushakh raiders appeared on the horizon, riding down upon the church at full speed.

At this point, Barbaroi smote Katoki with his Blade of Endless Lamentations, inflicting her with a permanent blindness and deafness. Fortunately for the party, he had to sacrifice his invisibility in order to deliver this attack, and in so doing, he evinced a hubris which would be his undoing. The newly blind Katoki, joined by Arden, grappled the lich and pinned him to the ground, negating much of his spell repertoire.

Wren, Ern, and Brecca dealt with Yevgeny and Lyoshenka as Caramella revived Phillipe and began to barricade the door of the church with large oaken pews. The charge of the Khushakh was stymied by the combined efforts of Otalmo, who dropped jars of alchemist fire in their path, and Caramella, who inflicted the captain of the company with a supernatural fear. At this point, Barbaroi managed to break free of the hold placed upon him by nearly slaying Arden with an electric blast with which he also taunted Phillipe by dubbing the spell the "Grasp of Ahriman". Just as the lich was about to rise again, freed from the grapple, however, Phillipe strode forth and dealt a furious blow to his skull with his flail, reducing the bones to powder. The crown of fire vanished and the spirit of Barbaroi departed, asserting that Phillipe's power had grown beyond him, and vowing "the life of Mammon does not end".

The party liberated Richard from his bondage, and a magical fever was broken by a kiss from Phillipe, which restored Richard's senses. Richard then dashed his crest of Heidelberg to the floor of the church and denounced his father, realizing that Siegfried had been complicit in selling the party and his own son into the hands of the cult of Mammon. With the spell over the Khushakh broken, the party looted the church and aided the barbarians in burning it to the ground.

Epilogue
The party then returned to High Ostberg, emboldened by their victory, where they enacted a campaign to discredit Thibault and Siegfried. Using the same channels as before, they stirred up popular support with a flier denouncing both Siegfried and Thibault for being in allegiance with devils and sending the Hero of Northwood, the liberator who freed Ostberg from Dalton and his men, to their doom. In a spectacular instance of political theatre orchestrated by Caramella, Phillipe presented the cover of the grimoire to Siegfried upon his own lawn; despite Siegfried's attempts to turn the crowd to his favor, he quickly realized this was hopeless, and retreated inside his mansion.

Arden received from Amalia a reply to a letter he had earlier sent to Gretchen, in which Gretchen revealed her intention behind abandoning a lucrative job offer in Thibault's palace and traveling to the central Consortium lands: she had overheard her father referencing the events of the Enchanted Fish incident and remarking that it would have been beneficial if at least some of the Consortium members gathered at that dinner had been slain. Gretchen invited Arden to come visit her in the central lands.

As they departed from the city, now presumably targets of the world-governing mageocracy, Phillipe encountered a group of boys beating upon a weaker boy, Kolya. Kolya complained that the other boys "never let him be Phillipe", to which they responded, "shut up, Dalton!" Phillipe interceded in this tableaux, telling the older boys that they should better themselves together and not prey upon the weak, and revealing that he secretly carried a yoke of regret for slaying Dalton, who was "my equal, a man equal to us all". He then encouraged Kolya to recognize that, in enduring the savage abuses of the world, he was more like Phillipe than he knew. He gave Kolya a talisman of Ahriman, and the boys returned to their lives in the city.

=Player Characters=

Phillipe Marienburg

Caramella Wynand

Brecca Sylen

Ern

Arden Weitkamp

Wren

Lyra

Katoki Evanwood

=Notable NPCs=

Marla Harlowe

Dalton De Vries

Grant the Bandit

Richard von Heidelberg

Siegfried von Heidelberg

Amalia

Amelia von Heidelberg

Thibault de Luxe

Father Barbaroi

Fyodor the Fallen

Sogetsu

Momoji

Kolya

=Secondary NPCs=

Gerad

Gordo

Cruel Petyr

Slow Swinson

Marius

Grantaire

Mingus

Janus

Astrid

Marguerite

Yevgeny

Dupris

Lyoshenka

=Notable Items=

Grimoire of Mammon

The Unhallowed History

Barbaroi's Cipher