Session 21: Group 1 Overview

'GLORFINDEL', a Travelling Healer (Seltyiel)
'KANDI', a Traveling Courtesan (Cynthia)
'EEVEE', The Sorrowful Blind', a Traveling Monk (Hel)
~7pm, 28th of June, 5th Era 1486 RE (Day 16)
Tourney Grounds, Dunfarg Outskirts, Southern Val Nemor

Nefarion was dead. And with his death came interesting feelings from each of the three remaining party members. They seemed strangely nonchalant about the whole situation, relieved even. Seltyiel had never agreed with Nefarion's ways nor those of his Hell-Knight Order, and he shed no tears for his fallen comrade. His own apprentice; Hel, felt similarly. On multiple occasions, he had been a terrible master to her so she couldn't help feeling like justice was served. Cynthia too had been his captive since the Civil War erupted, she felt a great weight lifted off her shoulders. Mélanie had also found her way back to the party - having been searching for traces of the Dark Master during the Tournament. She seemed quietly poignant, and she stroked Nefarion's cheek tenderly. When the party regrouped beside Nefarion's corpse. Os looked up at them with teary eyes. Looking to them for guidance. Hel knelt down beside her master's corpse and had an epiphany. Although she did not make her movements clear to the others, she intended to resurrect his corpse with her White Necromancy. He would not be anything more than a husk. Nefarion's body, but not his mind or soul. He would be her servant...her apprentice. She went off in search of a wooden cart to carry his body with until the time was right for her ritual to take place. In the meantime, Os clung to Seltyiel - who was the new Champion of the Melee - Although he was peculiar to his own eyes, the man was a hero. A distinguished knight who had fought bravely and gallantly. He begged Seltyiel to accept him as his new squire but Seltyiel refused. Os persevered for some time after but the hero seemed resolute. As a sort of compromise, he accepted Os' kind offer of hosting them all for supper at his father's house.

"My father would be honored to have you stay at ours this evening. I bet he's preparing supper right now as we speak. He makes a cracking eel stew! You'll see!"
- Oscar 'Os' Bourgis

With sunset on the way, they five of them made there way into the historical city of Dunfarg. The local folk and mudlarks of the slum district paid no great attention to the cart with Nefarion's body on it. It wasn't an unusual thing, seeing a dead body or two from time to time - in this part of the city anyway.  They arrive at Os' house - a modest, wooden building held together just enough so that it didn't collapse. He leads them inside into the foyer, and then down some stone stairs into a dining area. A crude wooden table with several chairs awaits the famished party members as they take their seats. The smell of cooking meat wafts in from the adjacent kitchen, and Os goes in to check on how his father is doing with the food preparations. Moments later he escorts a frail old man on a wheelchair into the dining room. On closer inspection, he seems very sick. His skin is a grey-green colour and his mouth is hanging open as he sits there in his unresponsive state.

"You must forgive father, he's getting old you see, his hearing and sight is not what it used to be."
- Oscar 'Os' Bourgis

As Os leaves to bring in the stew-pot. The party start to feel uneasy and begin to inspect his 'father' from a distance. He reeks of feces and decay. Os returns with a large steaming pot and places it on the table. As the steam settles, they peer into the pot and make out human body parts amidst the watery elements of the stew - bones, fingers, shredded bits of skin and muscle. They start to panic. But before they are able to leave their seats, Os yanks down a nearby lever and the whole floor lowers suddenly beneath them. Thirty feet down they plummet, into a dark, damp dungeon. A series of grated iron bars seals them in from the top opening, and Os looks down on them all with contempt. As the party gather themselves, a strange, sinister voice speaks down to them. It's as if someone or something much darker is speaking through the young squire.

OS: "It's marvelous isn't it? You didn't even think it would be me did you? How could it be me? I'm just a boy. A naive, clumsy and foolish boy. You all looked down on me.
Your dead friend, Nefarion. I gave him my unquestioning loyalty as his squire free of charge...and for what? to be his second choice? To be his squire's squire?!
And you, Seltyiel. I wasn't even worthy enough to be your first choice!
But now...it seems that I'm the one looking down on you.
Not through the eyes of  'Oscar the Squire' though...no...he'll never be anything...but as Osamorté, the Dark Master, I can be...so much more."

His eyes burn an unnatural green, and his sickening smile becomes crooked and exaggerated. His long fingers point at you accusingly, and his words hold both conviction and malice.

OSAMORTÉ: "For your foolish ignorance I should skin you all alive...I really should...but it would be a shame to waste you...you are after all...so...talented.
But at present, you haven't reached your full potential. No, no, not at all. I think I'll 'improve' you...NO!...I'll 'transform' you. You will all be my champions - my acolytes - you will serve me as your Dark Master, obeying my every whim.
And for my kindness and generosity, you only need to do one thing for me in return."

"I need you to Die."

From below, Seltyiel throws bombs at Os in defiance. They explode, but he seems to shrug it off. He shakes off the gunpowder residue from his shoulders as if it was snow drops. The damage he sustained didn't seem to affect him physically, it especially didn't antagonize him. The party try numerous attempts to escape through the top. Hel sends her ghostly sister; Mel to fly up and attack Os but when she stands before him. He holds out his pale hand and stops her dead in her tracks. She recoils violently and is banished back into the dungeon. He starts to laugh maniacally as if enjoying the whole scenario, the laughter turns into a spluttering cough. Green vapor and spores spill out of his mouth as he hacks and wheezes, and they float down into the dungeon onto the party members below. Seltyiel, and Hel manage to cover their mouths in time, however Cynthia and Mélanie unintentionally breathe it in. Escaping the way they came in seemed hopeless, they would have to find an alternative exit in this dark, cold dungeon - if one even existed. Os seems quite confident, and sits on a chair, slurping at the human soup he'd cooked for everyone. He watches down on the party with a playful delight - as if looking down on pet rats in a maze.

They begin to tap the walls, listening for any hollow spots. While this is happening, Hel performs another White Necromancy spell which allows her to travel in her ghost's form. As if swapping spirits with her ghostly sister; Mel. Being ethereal, she is able to pass through the dungeon walls and travel up to the surface. She finds herself in the slums of Dunfarg once again, and attempts to lure some guards to Os' house to lend aid to her captured comrades. She drifts from the slums into the busy market district - alarming and frightening most of the citizens she comes across. The guards seem more alerted by the present of a ghost in their city. They dismiss her pleas for helps, and instead try in vain to capture her. She shakes off their pursuit and drifts towards the Cathedral. Inside she encounters numerous priests praying. She startles them, but unlike the guards, they seek to help her 'find the afterlife', and fearing being exorcised, she attempts to lead them out of the Cathedral and all the way to Os' house in the slums district. The two monks that follow her (one is called Bartholomeu) seem determined to liberate this lost spirit, citing incantations and prayers as they struggle to keep up to her. She leads them directly to the house and then disappears down into the floor beneath them to rejoin her comrades in the underground dungeon. The priests look curious. The first one heads back to the Cathedral, but the other; Bartholomeu, ventures inside Os' house armed with only his holy book and prayers.

Dunfarg Catacombs and Undercroft

Meanwhile back in the dungeon, Seltyiel discovers that one of the stone bricks he hits seems to press further into the wall - as if not cemented in properly. He calls the others over to him, and he manages to push more of them out so that a small gap in the wall is visible. The other side however is completely dark, and so Seltyiel fashions a torch, using a broken chair leg and (unconcious) Hel's sleeve as a rag. He illuminates the room and hands the torch to Mélanie to hold. Hel has not yet awoken from her enchantment, so everyone hoists her up onto Seltyiel's shoulders. They proceed cautiously into the next chamber, and as the torchlight shines on the glistening grey stone, they can make out a long corridor. They continue along it for some time, crossing empty prison cells along it's length, Eventually they encounter a cell with a prisoner inside. However as they try to communicate, the creature inside throws itself at the bars and ravenously tries to attack them. Safely behind the bars, Seltyiel and Cynthia make short work of this undead foe, and they continue down the corridor. They pass many other similar cells - some with and without undead occupants. One cell however seems to contain a different sort of individual. Someone living. The man is covered from head-to-toe in this golden/brass colored plate-mail and the intricate, engraved 'face' on the helmet is stylized like a lion's. He's locked inside, and the party gather around the entrance, shining the torch at him. They spend some time questioning this individual and he seems to respond well enough. He addresses himself as Arcturus (Descendant of Arcthane) from Distant Laurian. He claims to have been locked inside the cell for months although he can't recall how long exactly. For the most-part he seems calm, collected and trustworthy, and so they break open the lock, and free him from the cell. Arcturus stands to his feet with the aid of his dragon-slayer spear and continues to follow the party as they progress deeper underground...