Kingston – R2 - Royal District of Prince Gilbert
Gilbert takes us to meet with the King. We travel to the Royal District of King Tomas.
Kingston – R1 - Royal District of King Tomas
King Tomas meets us in a garden, and asks what we want. Gilbert tells the King that the son has discovered some information that he needs to know. Able tells the King that Theobald was sick, and was concerned for his welfare. He tells him about the billet of St. Cuthbert that attempted to get access to Theobald, and how they found Theobald struck ill. The King wants to know what they want to do about this, and Able and Gilbert offer to look after him. The king shrugs and says “do what you will, someone else wants to talk to you,” and then leaves.
Father Clarence and Stephen Wrightson then come on by. Stephen looks chagrined and a little guilty. They tell us they had to answer some awkward questions as to why Theobald was ill. They could not answer those questions.
Codex asked – What was the plan to rebuild Everlife? Wrightson said that the city was bleeding citizens, most were leaving to Kingston. Wrightson said that there were three phases. One was to rebuild the poor section with actual housing, one was to encourage trade, and one was to get the nobles to settle in Everlife.
When Codex asked “Why did he tell him to use the servant entrance?” it was because Sabre Khaludz wanted to use the noble’s entrance, and Wrightson refused this, as Khaludz was not considered noble, even though Theobald was now a Godson of Pyyhros.
We leave and head back to the carriage, and get armed and ready to assault the Khaludz estate.
We head to the golden eyesore of the Khaludz estate. We are escorted by a group of Paladins from St. Cuthbert, Billet Michaels, Paladin Arnold Shane (older, scarred) and Paladin Christopher Ravenhell (younger).
Bale summons Sabine who communicates to him that three men entered into the estate, and then left. One of the men had a Royal Tabard. Then Sabre Khaludz was on the move with a “tall man”. He is heading north. Theobald is not with him.
We reach the gold house and Simon makes a good point. No divination will penetrate gold, which means that whatever is happening in his place, it is unable to be accessed.
Berdyn confirms the entrance door is trapped, some sort of gas or trap, and disarms it. We pick the lock and go inside. We hear an unearthly howling and Codex knows it is a Howler. They are native to Pandemonium, and are captured by fiends and trained. They rely on speed, numbers, and a horrible howl.
We dispatch them, using Silence to keep the howl from hurting us. Everything is gold, and we head up to Theobald’s room. Theobald’s doors are locked. We make our way through and meet a Yagnoloth, they write contracts for demons, devils, and yugoloths. It has been promised Theobald’s soul, however, it tells us that it will, in exchange for a soul, tell us about a loophole. We are not down with that.
We receive confirmation that the “tall man” leaving with Sabre Khaludz is Utopah Dayseeker. The Yagnoloth was summoned by Utopah and is in contract with him.
Codex has an idea. He has the Banishment spell ready, but he doesn’t have anything the Yagnoloth would find distasteful maybe a symbol of Ioun? However, Theobald has lived in this golden prison for a while, and the distasteful items are all around. Codex palms a gold plate and when the doors are opened into Theobald’s chambers, he casts banish on the Yagnoloth… and Theobald. Theobald then vanishes. It turns out the Yagnoloth doesn’t find Ioun distasteful, and it isn’t banished.
We then attack it. It is smart, and teleports to Codex and almost murders him. Theobald reappears. We fight the Yagnoloth desperately, and eventually manage to defeat it. Theobald is saved. He is still diseased, and for some reason weirdly heavy. Codex is unable to figure out why. We give Theobald to the Paladins and send him back to Prince Gilbert’s home.
There’s more of the mansion to explore, but we are pretty beaten up. However, we keep going. The door to the study is trapped and arcane locked. The floor has a carpet of smothering on it that tries to murder Berdyn. We take it out and start searching the study. There are a variety of scrolls, and in the desk we find, hidden inside the desk behind the drawers, the Deck of Many Things. We also find an immoveable rod and a wand that has an illusion to appear as a candle. After some time, Codex identifies the wand as a Wand of Dispel Magic.
We find a safe under the carpet, but it is trapped and fiendishly locked. We know that there is a powerful acid trap that will destroy everything in the room and in the safe (that isn’t magical) and Berdyn tries. After three narrow failures, we take out all the files from the room, just in case. Then Berdyn fails by a large margin, triggering the trap. And the acid destroys the room and the safe.
After the acid subsides, we see in the safe is a magic item, an Iron Flask. After an identify, Codex determines that this Iron Flask is occupied by some kind of Extra-planar creature. We decide to hold off on opening the Flask, at least for now.
In Sabre Khaludz’ room, we find the bed is false, it is a box, and inside we find his latest victim. This woman has been tortured and has been dead for a week. After a detect magic, the “bed” is magic, necromantic. After an identify, we discover the bed is a variant of Vampiric touch. The person inside the box will be drained and restore the person sleeping on the bed. It is a horrible object.
Able brings the royal guard up to see the corpse, and one of them vomits. One of them recognizes the corpse, it is Mary, a shopkeeper on the outskirts of one of the poor districts. Able asks them to keep guard on the mansion, and don’t let anyone inside, and to let him know if anyone that outranks him in nobility.
Codex and the others go through the notes, and we find out that Sabre Khaludz is working for the Master, a man. It does talk about the things he has done for the Master. The Master is granting Khaludz abilities in exchange for tasks performed. The Master might be granting power on behalf of another creature in their service. There’s a delay in the granting of power, which suggests the Master is appealing to something else. Sabre Khaludz mentions that Pyyrhos is “under his control” and then mentions that Pyyrhos is no longer compliant and will have to be removed soon.
There is information about the Master’s plans for the “holy place”. It isn’t Everlife, it’s where the Master is based. The evidence compiled is damning, and confirms our suspicions.