AD&D Session 21: Assault on the Cult

The adventurers returned to Porto Oro on the ship with their five captives and harpy corpse. On the journey, Kai, Sir Goldborn and Ellea conducted an initial interrogation of the prisoners. They began by taking one of the captives to the private quarters of the ship and removing his helmet. The captive started screaming and shouting. Goldborn spoke some calming words and Kai offered him some food, but this did nothing to stop the mans shouts. They then presented to body of the dead harpy to the man. This caused the man to break out in a manic laughter, but did nothing to quieten him down. Realising this interrogation is futile, they refitted the captives helmet and chose a new captive to interrogate.

This new captive was quiet after removing his helmet. He tentatively accepted the food that Kai offered him. After presenting the body of the harpy, the captive says ‘thank the gods, you killed that horrid thing’. Intrigued by this reaction, the adventurers press on with their questioning. He reveals that he was recently captured from a near by village and taken to the harpy island against his will. He is scared of the ‘Father’, who seems to be a human in charge of this group of people. It is hard for him to know how the other people in the group feel about the Father and the harpys because the noise cancelling helmets made communication hard. All the other people seemed to go along with the group, but this is no indication that they were doing so willingly. There are enough beds for 24 people in total, however they were never all full with people regularly coming and going (being sacrificed). He doesn’t exactly know the Fathers motives or goals, but it seems that he is in some way worshipping the harpys and helping them. He also reveals that there is a small tunnel from the southern side of the island leading to the main residence area. The adventurers eventually ask the captives name and whether he would be willing to accompany them back to the island. His name is Bill, and says fearfully that he is far too exhausted and traumatised by the experience to return to the island now! After being reassured that he would have some time to recover before returning to the island and that they would protect him from Father, he says that it is possible that he could go with them to guide them to the tunnel entrance. Although he is only a simple villager with no combat experience. Finally, Goldborn is still confused by the disappearance of one of the captives from the previous session, so asks Bill what happened to him. Bill is also confused by this question. He says ‘wasn’t it one of your men that took him away?’ After some more discussion, Goldborn discovers that it was Kleptos who took and likely killed the other captive. The pieces fall into place for Goldborn - this explains why Kleptos suddenly had one of the captives helmets and why he was so keen to send his own men to search for the missing captive. Goldborn is of course furious at the death of a captive under his watch, especially given the new information that the captive might have been held on the island against his will, and vows that no more of the people on the island will die as long as he can help it. The remaining three captives are questioned in a similar manner with various reactions - one screams where the helmet is taken off, while another is visibly distraught when the harpy’s body is presented.

On arriving in Porto Oro, the adventurers go to Andrea to give her an update (and enquire about their reward). She is very grateful for the information about the caretaker and sheriff, and happy that the lighthouse is lit once again. She reveals that there is a lot of political pressure on her from other towns and cities along the coast, since it is Porto Oro’s because the lighthouse is very important for trade in the area and it is Porto Oro’s responsibility to keep the lighthouse functioning. However, she it disappointed to find out that the island is still not safe to send a new caretaker to tend to the lighthouse. Without a caretaker, the beacon will go out after a few days. She begrudgingly agrees to still give the full reward of 120gp per person, however she kindly asks that the adventurers finish their mission regardless and help clear the island. Goldborn asks if there would be any additional reward for this - Andrea says there is no more budget for rewards, but that she would make sure to mention all adventurers that help in her correspondence with other leaders in the area. Goldborn also asks if she can provide any soldiers to help, but with the loss of her sheriff, she is only left with a few guards which are needed to protect the village. Andrea also agrees to keep the captives in the village jail for the time being, except for Bill who is put under Goldborn’s care.

The adventurers spend a week in the village to prepare for their final assault on the island. Goldborn, still unhappy with the treachery, dismisses Kleptos for the week. Archie returns to the bath house and is excited to hear about the hot springs gala that will be happening the following weekend. Having had enough of fighting for the time being, he decides to attend this rather than assault the island. Ellea resumes her job at the bar, earning a few extra gold pieces, but is happy to rejoin the group for the assault. During the week another familiar adventurer arrives - it’s Walt the magic user! He has now levelled up to level 2 and is ready to demonstrate his new spell Ventriloquism. With him are two other aventurers - Jessie a level 1 thief and Hank a level 1 fighter. The group are happy to have them along to help. After having a week to recover, Bill also agrees to accompany them, as long as he doesn’t have to do any fighting (although Goldborn still buys his a military fork, just in case).

So we have Kai with his five crossbowmen, Sir Goldborn, Ellea, Walt, Jessie, Hank and Bill. They take the ship back to the island with Russel. Arriving at the island, the pier is empty and the group disembark at the beach and return to the lighthouse. Inside the lighthouse, all the furniture and papers have been removed, leaving the building essentially empty. The beacon has burnt out and the harpy nest has been very thoroughly searched, although some sticks from it still remain at the top of the lighthouse. Below the lighthouse, the hole in the wall from the bedroom to the cave has been filled in. The group return to the beach and ask Bill to show them the entrance to the tunnel.

The tunnel is found among some large rocks on the south side of the island. It is large enough to stand in and for two people to walk side by side. The tunnel bends to the west, and the group sees some light ahead of them. Going towards the light, they arrive to the east side of a large room. On the south side of the room facing north is a man wearing a bright coloured robe in front of a large square alter. On the alter are three eggs. The man is performing some kind of interpretative dance. There are fifteen people facing him spread throughout the rest of the room, all unarmed but wearing the noise cancelling helmets. On the north side of the room there is the bridge that the group recognise from the previous adventure to the island. On the far side of the room there are five doors. Kai summons some ants and sends them towards the robed man. The robed man notices that swarm of ants approaching him and quickly dispatches them with a fireball shooting out of his hand and continues with his interpretive dance.

Eventually the robed man stops dancing and makes a gesture, after which the men all remove their helmets. He then begins preaching, talking about making a new mother from the eggs, and asking them to help father with this creation. During this, the group have concocted a plan. Most of the group has returned to the entrance of the tunnel while Ellea casts phantasmal force, projecting a group of harpies that fly from the tunnel into the room, fly around the room and exit again through the same tunnel. The people quickly scramble to put their helmets back on. The robed man is not so easily fooled and starts shouting at the people that it is just an illusion - however with their helmets on, this falls on deaf ears. The robed man rushes towards on of the doors on the far side of the room. Of the 15 others, 8 of them run towards the tunnel where the harpies went, while the other 7 cower in terror and remain in the room. Ellea hastily retreats to the entrance of the cave, with the 8 people close behind her - running straight into the trap. The adventurers tackle the 8 men and successfully immobilise them all. Escorting them men to the forrest, they tie them all to trees.

Returning to the tunnel entrance, the group tentatively return down the corridor. Their plan is to lure the people out to the forrest where they can use entangle. Seeing into the main room, the 7 remaining people with helmets now also have weapons and light armour. The robed man is wielding a staff. He is flanked by four skeletons. The group retreat back to the entrance of the tunnel and wait. After a long wait, the 7 people with helmets appear moving slowly down the corridor. Goldborn tries to communicate, telling them to remove their helmets, but to no avail. But when Bill is brought to the front of the group, one of the helmeted men has a flash of recognition and removes his helmet. After some brief negotiating and reassurances, the seven men put down their weapons and exit the cave.

The group return to the cave where the robed man and skeletons remain to finish the job. Goldborn enters and holds a harpys egg (obtained in the previous session) above his head. He threatens to drop it. The robed man waves his staff and says ‘you will put the eggs on the alter and leave the island.’ The staff glows with a white light and Goldborn seems happy to obey the command. He starts to walk towards the alter. The rest of the group are scared to attack the robed man, not knowing his power. Even after the four skeletons disappear with a puff of smoke, they still do not want to attack. With a gust of wind, a faint sound rings through the cave, giving the impression of some words - ‘don’t be afraid… magic users must focus to recharge their spells…’. This gives the group the impetus to all attack together, before the robed man can react. Walt of course shoots his magic missile, Kai’s soldiers all shoot their crossbows and Jessie shoots some darts. Kai and Hank move in to attach in melee. All of these attacks are enough to take the robed man down who now lies unconscious on the ground. The group take away his staff, which allows Goldborn to rethink his actions and stop walking towards the alter. They also find and dagger with a black blade and twisted handle on the robed man.

The group then investigate the five doors. Behind four of them are simple dorm rooms with six beds and chests, the chests have simple items in like poor quality clothes, spare helmets and things to cook and eat with. In the fifth room (the middle door) is another simple bedroom, but with only one bed. Under the bed, Kai finds a hole. Moving the bed, they find that the hold leads to a small room. In the room they find four bottles with a blue liquid inside. There are also ten scrolls, which Walt is clearly very interested in and grabs before the others can take a look at them. In a chest, three green coloured gems and 250 gold pieces are found.

There is a staircase from this room leading down into darkness. Not content with their current haul and still yet to take a hit, they continue down the stairs. At the bottom of the long staircase they arrive at a cave like room with stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Moving into the room, a one foot long stalactite jumps from the ceiling towards Sir Goldborn. A return of this campaigns biggest nemesis. Goldborn ducks and dives performing an amazing dodge and just avoiding the attack. As everyone prepares to attack, a second stalactite, this one three feet tall, jumps down and narrowly misses Kai. Since Walt doesn’t have his magic missile and Jessie is scared, they retreat. Kai, who already has a fire lit in his hand, throws it at the monsters to no effect. The others all attack but don’t do enough damage to take either of the monsters down. The next round sees Hank downed by the larger monster, but in retaliation the others are able to take down this larger one. With the help of some summoned insects from Kai, that stop the smaller monster from attacking, the group are able to take down this smaller monster as well.

Satisfied and tired from the fight, the group return to the surface with the unconscious Hank, collect the loot as well as the robed mans body and exit the cave. They return to the ship, along with the fifteen other people found in the cave.