In the morning, the party leads the group of freed
Mothers to the chapel of the Green Mark, down to the crypt, and through the
green crystal portal to Bishop Nemesine’s floating cathedral over Ravenstone
which is built into a dead titan’s decomposing head. Nemesine leads the group
into a small chapel/shrine room of the side of the main chamber. There is an
altar, and a bloody magic circle off the floor. Off this chamber is a set of
two opposing alcoves, which between them function as a in/out portals, each
with green crystals. Nemesine sends the Mothers through first to a small
portside town on the western side of the northern continent. The party sees the
Tarred Goose in port.
Nemesine then delivers his terms to the party. He will
send them with two of his acolytes to an area north in the Demonfrost
Mountains, specifically to the foot of Mt. Deathfrost. The top of this peak is
said to house the tomb of the Duvan’Ku death cult, the original worshippers of Shah
Gzerohn. A group of 12 clerics of Tah sacrificed themselves to seal in the evil
there. Also sealed inside the mountain is the Miter of Tah, a powerful relic stolen
by the cult which Nemesine seeks to erase his curse and leave this dimension. If
the party returns with the Miter, Nemesine promises to disband the Green Mark,
end the slave industry of Ravenstone, and leave the known plane. The PCs are
welcome to any other treasure found there. Nemesine has also gives them a green
gem which will allow them to read ancient runes and writings they may find in
the tomb.
The party is equipped with furs, boots, and
camping/climbing equipment. They pass through the portal half a day’s journey from
the town at the foot of the mountain. Rumors of horror are told that night
before an early rise to head up the mountain. Halfway up the mountain the two
acolytes take their leave as they cannot approach any closer to the peak
without intense mental and physical anguish. A little further on the party
discover the shack of Zeke Duncaster, a crazed old trapper who has made his
life on this mountain by giving headstones to the unmarked graves at the top of
the mountain. One notable marker for Marybelle Walker is in progress. Zeke
discovered the names in a book in the cabin at the top of the mountain. He begs
them not to proceed and even attempts to stop them short of physically barring
their way.
The party reaches the top about 10:00 p.m. The moon
shines overhead. The cabin sits at the top of the summit looking down on a huge
field of graves and markers covered in snow. An evil-looking dead tree with a
hangman’s noose watches them. There is a faint droning sound as they approach
the cabin which gets louder the closer they get. They move to the back door
where a set of somewhat recent tracks leads off amongst the graves. They find a
frozen corpse there in a nightshirt perhaps from a few days ago. There is also
a well that the party decides to stay away from after Pater’s episode in the
buried elven undercity.
The party enters the cabin from the back and start to
explore the back rooms. A harpsichord can be heard upon entering, but it
immediately stops as the PCs enter the room with the instrument. That room also
features a large painting of the party themselves dressed as they are now,
standing before a large skeleton-encrusted altar with a dark passage open to
the left of the altar. In the painting, Mel is seen drinking from a cup in one
hand and holding a handful of fist-sized glass spheres. In the empty bedroom
across the hall, they find a stash of purple lotus powder which Renik
recognizes as a potent natural hallucinogen. They take the lot. They find a
plain kitchen and a front room with a fireplace, mounted stag head, mirror, a
clock, and a desk with a book of millions of names of sacrifices going back
millennia – the last few pages full of Zeke’s checkmarks. There are also three
chairs that face the party as they come in. The mirror is cold with runes for
“every brother” and “every sister” on either side. The stag’s eyes are cloudy
and bubbled. Oh, in the middle of the room is a trapdoor on the floor with a
padlock on it.
Before trying the padlock, the group inspects the last
bedroom where they find the belongings of the corpse outside, one Norquist
Orve, a mountaineer and tax dissident. His journal details the path he took up
the mountainside, not the longer, cleared path the party took. They take some
of his climbing gear and rations and go back to the trapdoor which the unlock
and open, exposing a dark shaft, 50’ deep with iron rungs inside. They descend
without light as there is no room for lantern or torch within the shaft. Renik
and Pater spark a witchfinder candle at the bottom. The droning becomes louder
with the opening of the trapdoor and as they go down.
A long hallway of crystalline walls writhes with agonized
faces calling out in a lost language. It ends with a door with a gargoyle’s
head as a lock. A key is in the lock which requires one to place their hand in
the mouth. Pater is volunteered and the door opens and he takes the key. An
antechamber of small table with severed hands holding quills next to parchment
with the instructions to “transcribe” and “replace” carved into the hands. A
set of bronze double doors to east feature a huge sigil, the sign of the
Duvan’Ku. The party opens the doors and lets out a gust of cold air.
The group enter the large chapel of the Duvan’Ku. The
room is shaped like a blunt-tipped arrowhead pointing east. Rows of stone slab
prayer plinths cover the floor. Twelve ice skulls hang from a ceiling fixture.
An altar inside a huge skull is at the far end. To the left of the altar is an
organ made of bones. Murals adorn the northern wall, one of hanged women with a
caption, “name them, but build no monument unto them.” Another mural shows a
man being stabbed with nine swords and thrown into a pit as an offering. Two
sinks of black water are attached to the southeastern wall and filled with
teeth. The Duvan’Ku rune for “gift” is atop the basins. There is a large bronze
door with a wheeled lock on the east wall between the altar and the sinks.
Another small door leads out in the north wall.
The group inspect everything. Nyphus finds and takes a jewel-encrusted
dagger and a ruby necklace in a bowl on the altar. One of them (Mel?) attempts
to match the note on the organ to the increasingly louder drone to no effect. Pater
or Renic fish a locket with a portrait of a man out of the teeth basin. It
matches the picture of the man in the mural stabbed by nine swords. During
their time investigating two of the ice skulls hanging from the ceiling have
fallen to the floor and shattered. Water drips from the others. The group
contemplate pulling out a tooth to offer as a gift in the sink but instead head
through the north door.
They enter a hallway with many doors. They try the room
to the right which contains dirty bedclothes and cots. Searching discovers a
wooden mask with human teeth (obviously taken from the basin) inserted into it.
The door to the left reveals a small set of rooms – one locked (that they can’t
open), a toilet, and a library with a map. They copy the map on a sheet of
paper and move on. The next room on the left off the main hallway is a
kitchen/eating area with marble benches and a firepit. The upper walls are
stained with smoke. Pater searches the cabinets and the upper walls, and
finding no ventilation, discovers a place where there are no stains. A small
panel in the ceiling is found with a passage or flue about 5’ x 5’ heading
above the room. Pater goes first, and the rest follow, but it is a tight fit.
