Session 9-6-08

The Ratcatchers have penetrated Woodroe's outer abbey and now stand in the main halls of the demon-infested citadel.  They feel a deep sense of dread wash over them as they realize their noisy entrance has alerted many demons to their presence, and they have walked into a deadly ambush.

A large scorpion-like gharros demon skitters up the hall, cutting of the party's escape route and brandishing a keen poisoned glaive.  Meanwhile, six large stone caryatid columns animate and stomp menacingly towards them from the hall ahead.  At last, a terrible, tortured wailing sound fills the halls as a tall, black-skinned humanoid with a ram's head and writhing fleshy body appears before them.  Karas identifies it as a daraka ram-demon, but before he can say much else it addresses the group in deep, guttural tones. "Greetings, playthings.  I am Dread Chathless, and I welcome you to the birthplace of my finest creation, my Eternal Dirge."  He gestures to a large alcove nearby, where a horrifying and nauseating sight awaits: five men and one woman -- pitiful cultists of Ahriman -- hang suspended by their pierced, scabbed flesh while uncounted numbers of chains shudder and move beneath their skin like worms. As the chains move, the men and woman shriek and their six voices blending together in perfect, terrible harmony. Dread Chathless points at Opal.  "You, who are with child, shall be the first to give birth upon the Dirge, and the chains shall caress your flesh even as you bring new life into the world."

Horrifed at what this demon has just suggested, the five adventurers stand back-to-back against their many foes.  Set upon on three sides and surrounded by foes -- by six caryatid columns, one venomous gharros and Dread Chathless himself -- they are in for the fight of their lives.  However, Chathless is not done.  "Come forth, brother Bhred Chathless, I summon you in the name of Ahriman the Deathbringer!" he cries.  A circle of black energy forms summoning runes on the ground, and Dread Chathless allows a rumbling chuckle to escape his lips as he successfully completes his summoning.  The runess flare to life with a bloody red energy and another ram-like daraka stands ready to deal death and suffering to the party.  "There is no hope for you," sneers the architect of the Eternal Dirge, readying for battle.

The last stand of the Ratcatchers is fast, chaotic and bloody, with little room for any of them to maneuver amidst the claustrophobia-inducing halls of the abbey.  Blood drips from the walls and the unnerving shrieks from the Eternal Dirge continue, disheartening the heroes as they struggle to survive against overwhelming odds.  Dread Chathless is content to let his brother Bhred do much of the dirty work while he hangs back and blasts his victims with unholy blight.  Van yells out a combat challenge and bravely engages the gharros demon on his own, trading painful glaive cuts with it and eventually outlasting it.  He slices its head off with a final blow, but as he turns, he finds that his heedless charge has forced both Guy and Han-So to face off against three caryatid columns each. 

By the time Van moves to assist Karas and Opal against Bhred Chathless, the caryatids have surrounded and nearly crushed Guy to death while severly injuring Han-So.  The two daraka demons play the part of the bully quite effectively, toying with Karas and slamming him repeatedly with their massive fists and claws.  Karas is bloodied and woozy, barely able to stand and keep his concentration under the demonic assault.  Predictably, the demons do not harm Opal, seeking to preserve her for eventual integration onto the Eternal Dirge.

It is too late for Guy, who stumbles and falls to one last swipe from a caryatid column's blade.  As he slumps to the ground, Dread Chathless sees an opportunity to crush the party's spirit and unleashes another greasy miasma of unholy blight just as his brother Bhred does the same.  This double blast catches both the unconscious Guy and the barely-conscious Karas in its blast, peeling and melting their flesh off their bones and turning their organs to jelly.  Both die painfully, but Guy's torment is mercifully shortened by an unfeeling caryatid column, which steps directly on his head and crushes his skull while marching towards Van and Han-So.  Karas is reduced to a pile of ashen-colored goop, his face barely recognizable as his skin peels and moulders.

Van stands bloodied before both darakas and four advancing golems.  Determined to protect the mother of his child, he rushes headlong into death.  Dread Chathless shakes his body, and the writhing black flesh comes to life with a teeming swarm of tiny black scorpions!  He directs these at Van, who falls to the ground twitching and writhing as they crawl inside his armor and sting him again and again across every inch of his flesh.  Van dies horribly, covered in scorpions and screaming his devotion for Opal in agony as Dread Chathless laughs coldly.  "And now for you, my sweet," he leers at Opal.  Too shocked by what she has seen to affect a reply, Opal instead responds by reaching out to Han-So and casting teleport.  Dread Chathless stands triumphant, and the Black Son -- Aspect of Ahriman the Deathbringer -- is now unopposed in his plan to wreak destruction upon the world of Aereth.

The reincarnated human (formerly gnome) evoker Opal Sparklestone and the monk Han-So, devotee of the mysterious god "Chuck Norris" are the only survivors of the adventuring company known as the Ratcatchers.  Their brave deeds will be remembered, but their failures against the forces of Ahriman have helped to unleash a terrible being of chaos and evil upon Aereth.  Upon teleporting back to Archbridge and reporting their fellow adventurers's deaths to their respective allies, the two survivors go their separate ways.  Han-So seeks out his own destiny, taking a commission with another adventuring company in the far-off city of Punjar.  By the end of the year 3201, there is a surge in reports of demonic activity in the Theocracy of the Lance as the Black Son's forces beset that nation.

Opal retires from the adventuring life entirely, devoting her life to raising her half-orc son, Durwaald. Some among the druid groves near Archbridge whisper that the young half-orc is touched by Nature's hand, largely because he is the get of a coupling between a reincarnated human (Opal) and a reincarnated orc (Van).  Yet if Durwaald has some part to play in the greater destiny of Aereth, it remains to be seen.  Despite many deeds of valor, the forces of evil now threaten to sweep across the land and envelop the Known World in a new age of darkness.

SO ENDS THE CITADEL OF THE DEMON PRINCE

Total # of rests/days: 1

XP earned: 0

Citadel of the Demon Prince