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Ingrid:

Still concerned for the welfare of the abducted girl, Ingrid frantically joins the others and searches the altar for any secrets.

Telkis will attempt to follow the vile priest and alcolyte as far as he can without losing sight of the others. "Where did he go?!" he cries.

Grothnak enters the darkness, hoping his orcish vision will allow him to see, but not expecting it. "Speak out," he says to the others who enter the darkness. "If we are attacked, we need a way to tell friend from foe."

The Church of Merikka (21)
Village of Briarsgate, Gran March, Greyhawk
Day Seven. Night. Saturday, October 22nd, 576 CY
Cloudy, damp, cold, misty





Without hesitation, the heroes charge into the eerie territories of sonic abyss near the violated altar.



There, they find artifacts occult, sacrilege and macabre.





Pelias searches the broken, bloody bodies of three fallen acolytes and finds only weapons. Beneath their black robes and hoods, these heinous malefactors of the unspeakable are nude.

Moogeye discovers neither keyhole nor door in the altar. Grothnak, Ingrid, Mouser and Telkis search for secret passages behind it. With the altar candles now at their backs, the demihumans detect a razor thin, rectangular seam of cold air in the shadowed wall behind the altar.

They press against the secret door and it glides open on silent hinges onto a thin, dark hall of doors (7). Grothnak speaks about the importance of speech and his voice is smothered into nothingness by Ingrid's lingering magicks. Four portals are visible (one west, three north) but the east end of the hall, far from the sickly altar candles, is consumed by shadow. The demihumans see no living thing lurking within that opaque pitch.

Meanwhile, Avril's elven sword flashes in an upward arc, grazing the shoulder bone of the last black cultist (A12). Gravely wounded, the depraved disciple evinces the same unbreakable morale of the murderous villagers of the Golden Grain Inn. He swings viciously with his iron club, at both Ingrid and Avril, and shatters the corner of the altar without a sound.

Elsewhere, Long Bo lopes north down the marble corridor of stained glass and spectral moonlight (10).



The air here is cold and free of incense. The lanky druid peers around the corner and looks straight into the face of Death.



Bo blinks in realization and scans past the spectral statuary. He spies, sixty feet to the west, a wooden door that just closed shut.


Actions?


Map: One square = 10 feet. Lighter areas indicate visibility.


Rolls and Rulings (non-required reading):


PC Status:

• Avril Hollysword, Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric 1/2: AC 7, HP 10/10, Spells: 1/4 1st lvl
  Grey Mouser, Half-Elf Magic-User/Thief 1/2: AC 5, HP 10/10, Spells: 1/1 1st lvl
  Grothnak Uthglukh, Half-Orc Fighter 3: AC 4, HP 25/28
  Ingrid Esthof, Human Cleric 3: AC 3(1), HP 15/16, Spells: 1/4 1st lvl and 1/3 2nd lvl
  Long Bo, Human Druid 3: AC 6, HP 14/22, Spells: 1/5 1st lvl, 3/3 2nd lvl and 1/1 3rd lvl
  Moogeye Comcra, Human Monk 2: AC 8, HP 11/11
  Pelias Blanchflower, Human Paladin 2: AC 2(0), HP 15/19, Laying Hands: 1/1
  Telkis Brassfang, Gnome Fighter 3: AC 0, HP 23/28

PC Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Pelias): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Pelias.

PC Resources:

• Map of Briarsgate
  NPC List for Briarsgate
  The Story So Far (in words)
  The Story So Far (in pictures)

Telkis silently looks at Grothnak and shrugs, then nods toward the darkness. He then moves toward it quickly but carefully and thrusts Cranach into it, feeling around. If he encounters any robe-like resistance, he'll quickly twist the morningstar and pull, hoping to snag the cultist leader and drag him out.

Grey Mouser peers into the northeast doorway.

Ingrid chokes up on her mace with a two handed grip and attempts to obliviate the skull of the last remaining acolyte. In her fury, she fails to connect.

Long Bo shakes off the initial fear of the statue and prays that his intuition isn't steering him into a trap. He is certain that the person escaping through the door was the black priest with his sacrificial victim. The female must be very important or she would have certainly been left behind. If the black priest is still carrying her, Bo hopes that he must be limited somewhat by the encumbrance.

He rushes down the hallway towards the door, shouting as loud as he can in his deep, booming voice.

"This way now! He came through the back wall somewhere and is getting away! Follow my voice and find a way through! I see no doors on this side!

Hoping someone actually hears him, Bo taps hard on the wall with the butt of his spear shaft as he passes, hoping it might help his friends on the other side to find their way through to him. He then proceeds on to the door he can see and quickly throws it open, his spear at the ready.

Figuring that searching for more hidden portals would take too much time, Moogeye takes the straightforward approach and speeds away to the eastern door, attempting to catch up with Long Bo in his chase.

Grothnak follows Telkis, Vadok at the ready.

Pelias advances on the remaining acolyte, attempting to cleave its skull with his sword.

The Church of Merikka (21)
Village of Briarsgate, Gran March, Greyhawk
Day Seven. Night. Saturday, October 22nd, 576 CY
Cloudy, damp, cold, misty







Within the church of the damned, Ingrid's chilling aural void breaks like heat upon a thunderstorm. In its eerie wake, sounds seem unnaturally heightened; amplified.

SMASH! Ingrid swings at the last cultist standing and hammers a cobweb of fissure cracks in the marble wall near him!

CHOK! Pelias mercilessly cleaves open the skull of that dark acolyte (A12) and he slumps to the floor, his naked foot still quivering in a growing pool of crimson.



"Thank you," whispers Avril.

Meanwhile, others chase the sacrilegious priest into a tight warren of doors and shadow. The sound of footfalls fill newly undeafened ears. Telkis and Grothnak advance east into the darkness beyond the light of the altar candles.



CRUNCH! Mighty Cranach crashes into the east wall. Telkis' morningstar and their infravision detect no one hiding in this dark corner. They can barely make out more closed doors, the last of which glows colder than the others to their inhuman eyes.



CREEEEAK! Mouser opens a door behind them onto a dark meditation chamber. His elvish sight sees that everything within is the same temperature. Reflected light from the altar candles barely illuminate its floor, which is covered by a simple reed prayer mat.

Meanwhile, Long Bo the druid hollers "This way now!" and pounds the left hand wall with his spear butt as he races down a hallway toward a door. Those on the other side of the wall hear him moving westward.

Moogeye follows his trail around, through the marble hall of moonlit stained glass, past the fearsome visage of Death, until she sees him closing in on a large wooden door, bound with iron bands.



Long Bo tries to swing it open it but it is locked tight.


Actions?


Map: One square = 10 feet. Lighter areas indicate visibility.


Rolls and Rulings (non-required reading):


PC Status:

• Avril Hollysword, Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric 1/2: AC 7, HP 10/10, Spells: 1/4 1st lvl
  Grey Mouser, Half-Elf Magic-User/Thief 1/2: AC 5, HP 10/10, Spells: 1/1 1st lvl
  Grothnak Uthglukh, Half-Orc Fighter 3: AC 4, HP 25/28
  Ingrid Esthof, Human Cleric 3: AC 3(1), HP 15/16, Spells: 1/4 1st lvl and 1/3 2nd lvl
  Long Bo, Human Druid 3: AC 6, HP 14/22, Spells: 1/5 1st lvl, 3/3 2nd lvl and 1/1 3rd lvl
  Moogeye Comcra, Human Monk 2: AC 8, HP 11/11
  Pelias Blanchflower, Human Paladin 2: AC 2(0), HP 15/19, Laying Hands: 1/1
  Telkis Brassfang, Gnome Fighter 3: AC 0, HP 23/28

PC Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Pelias): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Pelias.

PC Resources:

• Map of Briarsgate
  NPC List for Briarsgate
  The Story So Far (in words)
  The Story So Far (in pictures)

Following the direction of the voice, Grey Mouser dashes west and opens the west door, hoping it may link up.

Moogeye Comcra, monk

Moogeye catches up with Long Bo at the locked door. She brandishes the key they found outside and tries it.

Bo

Yes! The keys! Good thinking, my dear!

And where are the others? If that man came through into here they shouldn't be too far behind!

The druid taps on the wall some more with his shaft, hoping to find a secret door or to at least alert the others to which way they should go.

With the death of the final acolyte, Ingrid rushes through the secret door and hopes to reconvene with the others.

"The cold door," says Grothnak. He stands behind Telkis, waiting for the smaller man to open the mysteriously cold door.

Telkis shrugs and nods, unable to think of a better plan of action. "On my count.... one... two...." Counting quickly, he flings open the door and, unless there is an obvious reason not to, rushes in.

Pelias follows Ingrid.

The Church of Merikka (21)
Village of Briarsgate, Gran March, Greyhawk
Day Seven. Night. Saturday, October 22nd, 576 CY
Cloudy, damp, cold, misty





Within the profaned church of forsaken Briarsgate...



...the hidden, blasphemous corruption at its very heart is laid bare. Broken bodies, pools of blood, and wanton heresy surround the defiled altar of Merikka. Undeterred, the investigators venture deeper into the wicked, malevolent dominion of the unholy.

In a thin, dark hall of shadows and doors (7), Telkis and Grothnak turn the easternmost knob and find an unlit, cold chamber whose floor has a colder circle, 4 feet in diameter, set into its corner (S).

Mouser follows the direction of Bo's voice and opens the westernmost door onto a dining hall (5) dimly illuminated by candles and stained glass windows made luminous and ghostly by the full moon. A long dark wooden table is worn with age and lined with sturdy chairs for the clergy, monks and servants of the church. Nothing is here that draws breath.

Avril, Ingrid and Pelias enter behind Mouser as the little thief creeps to the room's corner and peers south, finding two closed doors and a devotional altar...
...likewise profaned with objects occult and sacrilege.



Long Bo's renewed calls and hammering can be heard through the northern wall. The adventurers follow the sounds until they find the secret door that separates them from the towering grey druid. They push it open and find Bo and Moogeye in a marble hall before a stout double door, banded in steel.

Moogeye brandishes a ring of iron keys and opens the lock with the loud click of heavy tumblers. The large doors creak open onto a moonlit spiral stairway of stone and iron railings, winding its way up, deeper into the unholy church of secret abominations.




Actions?


Map: One square = 10 feet. Lighter areas indicate visibility.





PC Status:

• Avril Hollysword, Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric 1/2: AC 7, HP 10/10, Spells: 1/4 1st lvl
  Grey Mouser, Half-Elf Magic-User/Thief 1/2: AC 5, HP 10/10, Spells: 1/1 1st lvl
  Grothnak Uthglukh, Half-Orc Fighter 3: AC 4, HP 25/28
  Ingrid Esthof, Human Cleric 3: AC 3(1), HP 15/16, Spells: 1/4 1st lvl and 1/3 2nd lvl
  Long Bo, Human Druid 3: AC 6, HP 14/22, Spells: 1/5 1st lvl, 3/3 2nd lvl and 1/1 3rd lvl
  Moogeye Comcra, Human Monk 2: AC 8, HP 11/11
  Pelias Blanchflower, Human Paladin 2: AC 2(0), HP 15/19, Laying Hands: 1/1
  Telkis Brassfang, Gnome Fighter 3: AC 0, HP 23/28

PC Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Pelias): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Pelias.

PC Resources:

• Map of Briarsgate
  NPC List for Briarsgate
  The Story So Far (in words)
  The Story So Far (in pictures)