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The party does a quick exploration of Charch-Pahn's tower, and are excited to find the Andrecite, which Cole remembers reading about, years ago. They also find the portal, but realize they have more to do in the Quaan before they can go home.

Xichlana helps them to the ground floor, and then departs after giving them praise on their heroic quest. The party waits for Azz to return, not wanting to leave any threads untied before them. (DM's note: I decided Azz would knock on the door, and Charch would have to come open it with the antimagic eye.) Azz returns after a few hours, and scratches/knocks at the door. It gives slightly, and the party yanks it open, surprising the Harpy. The party wastes no time in destroying the creature before it can take wing and warn the other Pactlords of their presence.

Outside the tower, though, the party finds four humanoid slaves -- three Humans and an Elf. (DM's note: I had some fun here, and made up four slaves with an interesting story around them, rather than just rolling random slaves up and coming up with something on the fly. There is Kelred, human farmer from a neighboring kingdom to Ptolus. He has lost his faith, and given up on praying since nobody seems to hear. His farming village was raided by Orcs, and he was captured and sold to slavers. Fasil Al-Koram is a human camel trader from a desert kingdom across the sea, hinting at the Pactlord's geographic diversity. He is a charming, greedy and savvy trader who would sell out his own family for a gold piece. He was swindled on a deal and ended up being sold to slavers. James is a human youth, a cabin-boy on a merchant ship captured by pirates. He's a real creep who enjoys bullying the other slaves. Lastly, there is Sileia, a female elf who hasn't spoken since she was captured. She is scared and jumpy, and something in her mind was broken by Yuinthu months ago. James likes to pinch her, pretend to jump at her, whatever it takes to get her to react.) The party brings the slaves inside, gets their stories, and feeds them. When James pretends to jump at Sileia to get her to wince and cower, the party gets really offended for her and does a decent job at intimidating the teenager into behaving (at least while they're around). Through some tricky diplomacy, they manage to convince the slaves to stay at the tower while they go raid the Black Manor.

The trip to the Manor is long, as they go around the slime walls. They eventually arrive, and send Therras to climb the wall and look in the window (using his slippers of spider climb). I roll randomly to see if the Ogre is looking out or playing ... he's looking out. The two stare each other in the face and then both jump down. The alarm is raised inside, and the party realizes they've lost their advantage of surprise.

(DM's note: I widened the building by ten feet to make room for the newly 10x10 Ogres in 3.5E. Inside, four Ogres line the hallway, and two stay in each side room. The Behir stirs as Zsavri grabs Verd and heads to his own window, up to the roof.)

Ariana, after making herself resistant to electricity, opens the door to the Manor. She is blasted by the Behir's breath, but her magic protects her (on 7D6, I rolled 5 sixes). Cole sends a Fireball in, which puts a dent in the Behir and nearly knocks out all four Ogres. Kaia rushes in and attacks the Behir, getting swatted painfully by Ogres as she goes. Therras also dashes in and puts his Rapier to work on the Ogres. Cole stays outside and steps away from the Ogres' reach and begins his magical assault, magic missiles finishing off Ogres as others begin stepping into the hall.

(DM Note: I won't bore you with a play by play, and this is not in chronological order. I did not keep detailed notes, so think of this as out-of-order highlights.)

The fight sees Ariana swallowed hole with only single-digit hit points (dead... but not really ... Destiny Point spent, character survives but is out cold), Therras knocked out by the Behir, and Kaia within its grasp before it falls by a Magic Missile. Zsavri and Verd make Cole's life very difficult from the roof; Cole saves on the Baleful Polymorph but is hobbled trying to get inside and away from the spikes and the stinking cloud. With an Ogre, a giant crocodile, Zsavri, and Verd all outside (or on the roof), Cole finally gets back inside and helps cut Ariana out from the now-dead Behir. Kaia rushes outside as the party tries to revive Ariana. After destroying the last Ogre, Kaia enters single combat with the Crocodile and finds herself grappled. She does the final blow to the Crocodile with her spiked armor, enraging Zsavri, who drops down and enters melee.

Verd, by this time, has already fallen, having inflicted some nasty acid damage on both Cole and Kaia. Zsavri can do no wrong; his armor class is keeping him safe and his three attacks per round are steadily lowering the hit points of the team. He finally falls, though, after realizing entering melee may not have been his wisest choice.

(DM's note: This was very nearly a TPK. The group could do no right -- they alerted the PLs to their presence, split up at the wrong times, failed every grapple check, nobody had a bladed weapon except Therras who did all the cutting himself with no STR bonus, etc. It was an insanely difficult fight, and it went on forever. I know I made a couple of minor rules mistakes, but nothing big. Tactically, Zsavri probably should have stayed on the roof for longer and tried to lay waste to the party with spells and such -- a call lightning, maybe. But I figured he would be angry that Kaia had killed the Croc, and the only party member he could see at that time was Kaia, and he was probably confident he could take the Holy Warrior in single combat [and he would have been able to]. Still, a very difficult fight. Draining in all respects.)

With their foes vanquished, the party does a thorough search and learns all sorts of interesting tidbits about the Pactlords. They did get some information from Cole's mind in the probe, someone survived the Chapel assault, they are sending in two more Pactlords to kill them, they are looking for Wishes, and they are contacting someone named Ferendis in case they need some really powerful help. They also grab the second piece of Yaeshla and join it to the dagger.

We end with the party ready to return to Charch's tower and the slaves.

(DM Note: Short session this week, not a lot of motion forward in the story but some quality roleplay time.)

The story continues where it left off, The Shining Band standing among the corpse-filled Black Manor. Everyone is wounded in some way, and the spellcasters are completely drained.

Worried that they might encounter danger on their way back to Charch-Pahn's tower, they drink some healing potions and head back out. A several-hour journey across the swampy Quaan eventually brings them back to Charch-Pahn's island. They enter the tower and find the freed slaves in more or less the state they left them.

The slaves are overjoyed to see their rescuers again, since they figured there was a good chance the next creatures they saw would be a Pactlord patrol. Kaia and Therras begin working on splicing together some ropes and adding knots to make climing easier. Kelred, one of the escaped slaves (a farmer in his former life, his entire village was wiped out in an Orc attack ... he, and several others, were taken as slaves and sold to the highest bidder. He eventually ended up in the Quaan), begins talking to the two Divinely-powered characters (Ariana and Kaia). He asks them questions about whether the gods can hear them here in this dismal place, and finally breaks down and talks about how he was once a faithful man, but that he stopped praying after spending a few weeks here in the Quaan. He's worried ... he's cursed at the gods, he's forsaken them, he's turned his back on them. The two faithful party members do their best to ease his concerns, but things get even more emotional when Kelred realizes he's actually getting out of here, and he has no home to go back to. His wife and children were killed when he was captured. He has nobody.

The party says they'll help him get a start on a new life if he wants. Both Kaia and Ariana recommend he find a place of worship and start there. They spend some time consoling him and assuring him that the gods are merciful and will welcome him back if he wants them.

(DM's note: I wanted a chance for the religious characters to get a chance to roleplay their faiths, especially since none of us are religious in our real lives. What does a servant of the god of Strength say to a man who has lost his faith and doesn't know where to start? How about a servant of the mother earth goddess? It worked out really well and I'm glad I threw it in there. I heartily recommend anyone who uses the slaves take them as an opportunity to add some roleplay that isn't centered on the quest.)

The rope is finally completed, and Therras uses his slippers of spider climb to reach the second floor and attach it. Everyone climbs up it, though Fasil (another of the slaves) is stuck 50 feet up for several minutes before the party can coax him back up. A little group cooperation and everyone is up to the third floor.

Cole steps through the portal first, and begins talking with Sharah Nestor (the Paladin who is guarding the top floor of the chapel for now ... eventually she may get sent down after the Sword of Truth, but for now she's making sure nothing evil comes through the portal) as the rest of the group slowly files out. Sharah offers to take the slaves to the Church and help get them started, but the party says they'd rather handle it themselves. Sharah sends a Churchguard (a secular order of warriors serving the church) with the party in case they get stopped by guards -- the slaves have no papers.

The party buys some clothing for the slaves and makes some plans. They'll sell the Andrecite the slaves were carrying and give them that money to do as they please. They hate to give James (the sadistic teenager slave) money, but they know it's the right thing to do.

By now, it's late, and the party camps out in the common room of their apartment (letting the slaves sleep in their beds). Fasil (one of the slaves, a camel trader from a desert kingdom) stays up with the PCs, telling tales of his homeland and his life there. The party realizes he's exaggerating quite a bit, but lets it slide. It's clear he's trying to impress his hosts, and they don't get overly concerned about it.

Ariana spends some time with Sileia (the Elf slave, who has not spoken since she was captured) and determines that something has happened to her mind, and that it may never fix itself, even in ideal conditions. However, casting Restoration would likely cure most of the damage. The next morning, she does this, and Sileia slowly begins to recover, first speaking, then slowly remembering the events of the past months. She still doesn't remember how she came to be captured, however. There's a great moment as she looks James (the cruel slave) in the eye and then just shakes her head; remembering the way he's pestered her for months and dismissing it with one gesture. She's older than his grandparents; the childish human bullying is trivial in her mind now that she has her spirit back.

The next morning, Kaia and Ariana take Sileia, and the rest of the slaves, and get them Ptolus papers. Meanwhile, Cole sits down and Identifies all the items they collected in the Quaan. They keep a good handful of them (he's especially pleased with the Winged boots, since Fly was nerfed in 3.5E), and Kaia goes off to sell the rest, as well as the gems and masterwork equipment they've found.

The session ends there, as the DM's head-cold finally catches up with him! We're all looking forward to next session.

(Thanks to all who have posted!)

After some RL downtime, we finally got together for another session. While the group didn't get back into the Banewarrens, we had a very RP-heavy session which really breathed a lot of life into the characters. I won't describe summarize everything here, as it really didn't have as much to do with the scenario. Instead, I'll try to summarize.

Session 16 Notes

The Shining Band decides they need some time to regroup, to refocus, and most importantly, to upgrade equipment (DM Note: We've just adopted the Artificer's Handbook as our new method of dealing with magic item creation). When Ariana and Therras try to secure someone to upgrade their +1 armors into +2 armors, they learn that it will take at least 15 days. They were hoping for ten, or less. They decide that's too long, and give up on that approach. They do buy some new items, including a better Ring of Protection for Ariana and a better set of Gloves of Dexterity for Therras.

The party goes to speak with Reverend Mother Donna Mara at the Great Church about chasing after the Sword of Lies. They agree, in principle, to search out the sword, but make a point of saying if they feel the city is at risk from something escaping the BWs, that is more important than retrieving the Sword. The Church insists that unless there is imminent danger, they want the retrieval of the Sword to have priority over sealing the Warrens. There's a lot of discussion and the party finally convinces Mother Mara that they'll do what the Church wants. They ask for 15 to 20 days of time to rest and equip before heading back down, but she balks at that, saying they had hoped to be underway within 10. Once she realizes part of the issue is enchanting magical armor, she offers to have the church do this, if the party agrees to go as soon as it's done (she expects it to take 10 days or a touch more). The party agrees, but insists on paying for the enchantment in full as they still do not want to be thought of as under the employ of anyone, even the Church.

Over the next twelve days, the PCs are busy crafting, training, and gathering information.

The escaped slaves get the money for their mined andrecite, and begin thinking about their futures.

Cole and Sileia (female Elven slave who had her mind restored last session) spend some time together in Ptolus, and he introduces her to Myreth (the Elven wizard who owns Myreth's Oddities) so he can introduce her to the Elven community in Ptolus. She is fascinated by human culture and decides she isn't in a hurry to go home. She'll stay in Ptolus at least through the Winter.

Kelred, who was once a farmer and devout worshipper of Rontra (earth mother goddess) confesses to Kaia that he feels alienated from the calm goddess of the harvest and finds himself consumed by anger and wants a better outlet for that rage. Kaia talks him into perhaps using that energy to create rather than destroy, and ends up sending him to talk to a Master Builder (another Holy Warrior of Korak, the god of "Making," this one a specialist in carpentry instead of gemcrafting) about becoming an apprentice carpenter, with eventual hopes of returning home and helping rebuild his village.

Fasil, the trader from the Desert Kingdom across the Southern Sea, uses his money to buy trading goods and hook up with a trading group headed that way. He promises the PCs hospitality and friendship should they ever find themselves in his lands.

James, the teenaged bully who was once a sailor, gets into a fight and looses a substantial amount of his money. He is lucky to escape alive. He signs up with a ship crew and leaves soon afterward, after telling the PCs he's grateful for their saving him. It's a spot of redemption for a real jerk of an NPC who comes a bit too close to death for his comfort.

As for story advancement, the party pays Ishara Jare to cast a Legend Lore and learn about the Sword of Truth/Sword of Lies. They also do some mundane research. They learn that the Sword was once used by some religious sect in a crusade against evil arcanists, though some sources suggest the crusade got a little out of hand. The Legend Lore suggests that the blade was built with pure intent and saw through lies, but is now corrupt and a liar itself. It was buried deep and hidden away, and is still protected by an undying guardian. Arcanists past and present fear it.

This, understandably, spooks Cole quite a bit.

As the time of rest dies down, the party gets their upgraded equipment from the Church. They (the Church) have also spent time in various Diviniations and can narrow down the location of the Sword. They know it's within the BaneHeart, fairly low in the Spire. It's behind a vault door and is guarded by something outside the door, perhaps a construct of some kind.

Nothing the party learns in this time makes them happy, but they do at least feel more confident in their boosted equipment and such as they ready themselves for their trip back underground.

(DM Timeline: In this time, Navanna has explored the Outer Vaults thoroughly, but never found the secret door that led to the Inner Vaults. She has looted most of the Banes but did not disturb the Vampiric Mist. She is now spending time at home, after "returning from her business out of town." She is in fact dealing with the business of House Vladaam, but is also pressuring her brother to help Identify the Banes she has found, trying to determine how best to use them. For now, they sit in the vault under the Vladaam house. In five days time, she will return to the Banewarrens and search more aggressively for the way further in, or try to tail the PCs as they uncover more things.

The Pactlords are not idle, either. Their shapeshifting assassination squad is ready to ambush the PCs within the Banewarrens. The excitement never ends....)

"We should kill it." Normally calm Ariana doesn't even think of Navanna as a human. She votes for an end to the abomination's life. The rest of the party isn't so quick, however. A long argument follows, until finally an alternative is voiced and agreed upon.

The party will bring Navanna to the Church. At best, the Church can use its clout in the city government to organize a raid on House Vladaam, arresting her brother and her for endangering the city by bringing the Banes up. That would result in the Banes being at least in a more controlled location. At worst, there's nothing they can do which will make the Vladaams more angry at the party -- hopefully they'll now have to split their revenge between the party and the Church. Plus, it will distract the Church so they are too busy dealing with the issue to hassle the party on any progress they're making towards the Sword of Lies.

They also discuss whether they should continue past the sealed door or not. Again, a myriad of possibilities are debated. They know that a Wish will get someone past the door, but they aren't as frightened of that, since it will take another Wish to get out! It doesn't occur to them that a Wish will let someone just steal their key, though they think they might be able to disintegrate the key inside the oven-like contraption (DM Note: I can't decide if the clumsy church might explode the easy-bake-oven of disintegration. That might push my poor players into total despair! In any case, destroying the key, as we all know, is not that easy). Finally, it's their concern over the existing Banes that drives them to action. They have no idea what the boiling evil mist is, but they know that leaving it accessible is just not an option, and they really don't want to move it. They have to figure out how to seal things up.

They tie up the unconscious Tiefling and carry her up to the Manor house. Along the way, Cole stops and writes a sincere note begging anyone who finds the Vampiric Mist (not that he knows what it is, but an overwhelming necromantic aura is never good news) to leave it where it is. Once back in the city, they stick Navanna's body in a large basket and take her to the Cathedral in a cart, meeting Reverend Mother Donna Mara in the alley behind the Church. The Reverend Mother takes them to a private room where Navanna is dropped onto a flat bed. After a short discussion of the situation (where the party leaves out any mention of the key, but does state that she has been opening vaults and stealing banes), it's clear that the Church has a responsibility here. They agree to take the woman as their prisoner, for now.

The party decides to wait with the body while the Church reacts. The Reverend Mother posts guards outside the room and enters an immediate emergency meeting with Deacon Tobias Thad. She returns within an hour, and relays the decision to the party. For now, she will be kept here under guard. Nobody will be told who is under guard. The senior Clerics will decide what is best over the next day or two. Until then, she'll be moved to a more private location. From the party's reaction, it's clear that at least some of them had hoped the Church would just kill her flat out, removing them from having to feel bad about it but still eliminating the threat. The Church is not going to take that path.

The party also tells Donna Mara that the Sword they seek is under the guard of an Iron Golem, and they cannot face the beast without Adamantine weapons. The Church does indeed have one weapon in their care which might be useful: a Holy Adamantine Heavy Mace. But it's very valuable, and very sacred to the Church. The Reverend Mother promises to talk to the other priests about loaning it to the party.

Cole returns home to identify Navanna's equipment and to work on a new minor magic item. The party will be in town at least another day, so Ariana goes outside town to help with the tail end of the harvest while Kaia and Therras go shopping for Adamantine weapons.

They do find an exotic Elven shortsword at Rastor's Arms. Rastor wants 5,000 gold for it, which is a steep price for a weapon the party will get a penalty to hit with. Kaia and Therras start scouring for other options. Turning to Ishara Jare, they ask her to tap her contacts to see if anyone who is not a vendor has such a weapon and wants to sell it, or if any such weapon is rumored to be in the possession of any evil monsters outside the city (or beneath it). She accepts the job, promising answers in 24 hours for her usual fee.

The next day, Therras and Kaia get a new lead: Dominic Khatru, son of the head of House Khatru, and second in command of the City Guard, had been trying to sell an Adamantine sword some time ago in an attempt to raise some money for an unknown cause. It's unclear whether he sold it or not, but he hasn't been trying to sell it for a while. It's the only lead they have, so they leave a message for Dominic to contact them about the purchase of something of value.

Intrigued by the message (and having heard good things about the party, but never having met them), Dominic contacts the party. (DM Note: I had been meaning to introduce this NPC as a helpful, solidly good person with a strong sense of duty -- a sympathetic ear for the PCs but also someone who put the city absolutely first and would have no patience for anything endangering it. This was a great chance, and a total surprise. I had no idea the PCs would try and find some other weapons, so I scrambled and came up with this idea. It seemed to work.)

After introductions and such, he explains that some time ago his family was in need of coin for some unnamed venture. The need has since passed, and they were not forced to sell their family heirloom. However, it is doing nothing but sitting above the fireplace in their home -- there is little need for such a blade on the walls of the city. The party manages to convince Dominic that they need the weapon for a good cause, and he finally breaks down and offers to sell them the weapon for 7,500 gold. This is more than it's worth, but the blade has a family history. He tries to find out what the party is up to, and accepts the party's promise that they will let him know if there is an imminent threat to Ptolus from their activities. They assure him that they'd tell him more if they felt safe doing so, but for now he'll have to trust them. (DM's note: He doesn't, really, but he goes and talks to the Church and gets some more of the skinny about what's going on. This gives him enough information to trust the party, though he's got a very short leash when it comes to the city. If he learns they have endangered the city in any way, or neglected to warn him about a danger, there will be hell to pay.)

They think it over, and meet with Dominic the next day to buy the weapon (DM Note: It's a +1 Adamantine Bastard Sword that continually glows). It's a thing of great beauty and a noble history. The party is humbled to have it in their possession. They also tell him that they have reason to believe 8 creatures, possibly Devils, may have become free somewhere near the city (DM's note: Navanna let loose the Dread Osyluths, who have since disappeared for far off lands.). He is upset, but thankful for the warning.

Newly armed with Dominic's sword, some of Navanna's equipment, and Tirranth's Armor (of Moderate Fortification), the party makes their way back to the Church before heading down into the Banewarrens again.

There, they learn two things. First, Navanna is conscious, and is protesting heavily her imprisonment within the Church. They are keeping her there for now while they try to determine if they should try and charge her with crimes, whether the right thing to do is to act for the greater good without the cooperation of the authorities, or whether there are other options. For now, the Church is confident they can keep her imprisoned with little payback, for her father is out of town and her brother is too lazy to seek retribution without being pushed into it. The Church neglects to let the party see her, not wanting to make things worse. (DM Note: I think the thing to do here is have the Church work out an agreement of some sort with Navanna that results in the Banes being returned and House Vladaam's name not being further wrecked ... where that leaves the party is an open question.)

The second piece of news is much less pleasant. The Church will not give the party the Holy Adamantine mace unless they swear an oath, within the Church walls, that they will retrieve the Sword of Lies above their other goals in the Banewarrens. The party refuses, and enters into a very lengthy discussion about the complexity of the situation. (DM Note: This saw some of the best roleplay yet between the party and the Church as the differences in belief structure between the heavily political, balanced-among-all-gods Great Church and the very-focused faiths of the PCs. Even though my players might be angry they didn't get the weapon, I'm glad I made the decision to have the conversation take place. If they're really desperate for adamantine, they'll buy the exotic sword, take the oath, or look elsewhere.) The PCs leave the Church with their honor intact but with future relations with the organization questionable.

Their last stop for help is with the Justicars of Maal, god of Justice and the Church that really wants the Sword of Lies recovered. There, Justicar Fabitor receives them well and says he would gladly give them adamantine if only he had any ... all he can offer are some arrow-heads they could use. They decline the offer and leave, somewhat saddened by the Justicars' obvious lack of power and wealth compared to the Great Church.

The group makes their way back to the Banewarrens, doing a quick search and finding nothing else disturbed. They speak with Geristronomos, and needle some more information out of him. They learn about the corruption of the Inner Vaults, the existence of the sealing rod, a couple other minor points, and even hear the name Saggarintys for the first time, though the poor construct has no idea of the Dragon's whereabouts. They drop vague hints about possibly repairing the construct if they can recover the sealing rod.

We end the session with the Sealed Door being opened and a wash of evil hitting the party (thanks to whomever I stole that idea from) as they peer up the stairs whose walls are decorated with crudely defaced angels and symbols of Good.

There's no doubt. They have crossed over into a new realm of Evil.