Runelords 15.0 - The Shadow Clock

Having bound and stabilized all of the mill workers, Eamon and Luna agreed that they would leave them there for the time being: they would report the incident anonymously to the authorities after their promised 12 hours passed, and in the meantime, other employees might very well arrive to work to assist them. Leaving the men as comfortable as possible, they collected the strange masks and cloaks they had donned, in case they needed disguises for infiltration. Though all three currently-present people felt uncomfortable with the deed, they also took the men’s combined pocket change and, though they cleaned off all of their own blood, left their weapons in a pile. With that, they picked through Ironbriar’s study while they waited for Virgil’s return. They found an extensive series of notes written in a cipher, along with yet another creepy mask in his desk drawer and various valuables that had been kept in a corner safe that Luna picked open. They may have left much of it behind if Virgil hadn’t returned and collected the paintings and other items up for them. Virgil regaled them of what he had found: a lamia nesting at the top of a dilapidated tower that Aldern recognized as the aptly-named Shadow Clock. Deciding that they would wait until the following night to investigate further, the four took their leave of the mill, assuming that Khyrralien would eventually make his way back. Many hours later, long after they had returned to Aldern’s townhouse, Khyrralien indeed show up, chipperly informing them of the fact that he had quickly lost his target.
The following day, Virgil and Aldern, determined to be the most stealthy of the group, were sent to scout out the Shadow Clock, finding it to appear quite abandoned. Inquiries about the area informed them that many local taverns had betting pools going on when the tower would actually collapse and how many people it would kill when it did. Apparently, after a tenth person plummeted to their deaths off of the rickety interior stairs, the city had the building condemned, and no one came or went from the place. Indeed, this was what the two men found with their own eyes. 
Meanwhile, Luna spent the day investigating the coded messages they had recovered, and by the late afternoon, she had a working translation. From what she could discern, they were a series of messages and plans pertaining to the current local murders, extremely incriminating of Chief Justice Ironbriar, who was apparently instrumental in keeping the culprits safe and anonymous. Packaging up her translation, decoding key and the original notes along with a message giving the parcel some context without implicating herself or her companions, Luna secretly delivered the papers to the local police.
As evening fell, Virgil sent Romeo to the Seven’ Sawmill to make sure that there were no unconscious men there anymore, hoping that they has been discovered or had woken up in their own accord. Shadliss was sitting in the dining room with Virgil and Eamon when Romeo returned, chipperly reporting that there were no unconscious bodies there, prompting a series of questions from the woman about what they were doing. They brushed it off as “adventuring business”, and Eamon’s derogatory manner quickly ended the conversation, but Shadliss’ suspicion and protectiveness towards Virgil remained.
When they made to leave that night, once more leaving Shadliss in the townhouse, Virgil invited Romeo to join them as support. He accepted the invitation almost excitedly, and when asked why, he made a cryptic remark about how Virgil was “bringing the worms right to his nest” which the man didn’t understand. Regardless, the raven flew overhead as they made their way to the undercity.
When they made it to the tower, they sent Romeo first to fly into a large gap in the wall in order to scout. He reported that there was no one there besides one humongous person, much larger than even Khyr. With a shrug, the group entered quietly and closed the door behind them, at least informed of what was ahead of them.
The foyer in front of them was a crumbled wreck, with nothing but some rubble strewn about on the floor. It looked like there may have once been rooms around the base of the tower, but now there was nothing but ankle-high outlines of rooms and a rickety set of stairs that wound around the central tower. As they made their way in towards the base of the steps, they heard a noise: something large stood up from a pile of rags in a corner. It was some sort of golem, stitched together from disparate body parts and making a creature much larger than any human. It snarled and ran at them, brandishing a scythe and shouting in a thick voice that no one could go upstairs. The five bolted and made it to the steps before the golem could reach them. As they all ran, they saw it stop short and snarl at them, unwilling or unable to climb after them. 
Suddenly, they all stopped short as they heard a sickening snap beneath their feet. Springing aside, they all grasped at the stairs and wall as the floor crumbled beneath them. Luna, Aldern and Khyr managed to grab the wall, while Virgil lept forwards to a stable section. Eamon, however, slipped and only just managed to grab onto a step, hanging precariously with his feet mere inches from the golem’s swinging scythe. 
As Eamon tried to pull himself up, Aldern mumbled that he thought the wall was probably more stable and that he would be better off climbing. Before he could begin, Virgil scooped up Luna, clinging nearby, and passed her onto Aldern’s back, asking him to take her up with him, trusting in a ghoul’s innate ability to climb and scale walls. Aldern graciously let her hang from his shoulders as he ascended, leaving the other three to deal with the precarious stairs. 
Struggling to pull himself up and only narrowly dodging the scythe, Eamon flared his wings. He ripped his disguise as he flew up a short distance, planting his feet on the solid stairs near the other two. He huffily straightened his cloak, hoping that Foxglove didn’t notice. He wasn’t that lucky: Aldern mumbled to Luna, wondering if he actually saw what he thought he did. She nodded into his shoulder, reiterating that the three were actually extraplanars as he shook his head, only just now presented with evidence for the claim. 
The trio began to more carefully make their way up the steps. As they continued up, a stray sound rang ominously from above. Khyrralien and Virgil glanced up, and barely had any time to react as a huge church bell came hurtling down towards them. Only the fey managed to jump out of the way; the bell crashed into both Virgil and Eamon, knocking them off the steps. Eamon spread his wings and stopped his descent, but Virgil had no time to shift out of his human form as he careened to the floor below. He idly smiled as he considered that he would be able to get a proper change of clothes and other amenities from home before he crashed heavily into the stone. Through the extreme pain, he could only curse the fact that he had somehow survived. Shifting back to his true form, he spread his wings and tried to push himself up into the air from the stone floor as the golem rushed towards him angrily. As he bore over the devil, Romeo suddenly flew up from behind and began to peck at the back of the creature’s head, diverting his attention for the second it took for Eamon to reach the ground and defend Virgil’s escape. After both men had safely made it into the air, Romeo pulled back, leaving the frustrated golem hollering below them. They decided to eschew secrecy altogether, flying directly to the top where the undead waited as Romeo uttered some surprise that they, being “feather-friends”, would bother pretending to be “mudwalkers”; Virgil thanked the iron raven and asserted that he owed him one. 
Tossing a rope to Khyr and helping him along the last bit, the five convened and moved to climb through the small passage in the ceiling. No one openly mentioned anything about the two men who had suddenly revealed large wings and, in one case, a feathery tail, but Aldern continued whispering questions to Luna, who answered them quietly. As Khyr passed them, he leered at her and asked if she was sharing secrets, with a distinctly threatening tone to his voice. She shrank back as he passed, and muttered to Aldern that, if Khyr decided to come after her in the night, she would appreciate his help; Aldern vehemently agreed to defend her, should anything happen. 
Higher up, they found the rusted out remains of the clock, obviously non-functioning. Passing by the mouldering gears and parts, they made it to a hole in the outer wall, where a thin set of steps lead further up onto the roof around the large angel statue that formed the top of the tower, black mould drawing tears running down her face. Thick clouds blacked out the stars and moon as they climbed, Luna still clinging to Aldern. 
When they made it near, they could see that the side of the cliff formed a half-moon shelter over the top of the roof, making a protected area where someone had set up a large bed of satiny sheets and pillows, a writing desk, and a set of treasure chests along the floor. However, no one appeared to be around. Virgil, Eamon and Khyrralien stepped onto the roof, looking about, while Aldern and Luna hung back. The alchemist passed a pair of extracts to the noble, who nodded and thanked her, holding them tightly. At Eamon’s suggestion, Luna gave one of the disturbing masks to Virgil to wear, knowing that it gave the wearer a sort of blood sight; he couldn’t see anything, and mentally suffered from the mask’s whispers of violence and murder before he pulled it off. 
Suddenly, a woman’s voice began addressing Aldern, goading him and coyly questioning why he had returned now that his debt was paid. The others couldn’t locate the source of the voice though they scrabbled about. Luna tried to keep the man’s attention, but as she began to subtly threaten to reveal his secret, he began to get more and more visibly panicked and shaking. In a last ditch attempt to break his revere, Virgil and Eamon openly admitted that they already knew his secret. It wasn’t enough though: as the woman's voice gleefully shouted that he killed his wife, a black spearhead drove through his chest. Her invisibility dispelled, the lamia showed herself, clutching a cruel spear, her tail suspending her from the scaffolding supporting the stairs they stood on. She wrenched her weapon from Foxglove’s chest, leaving a gaping hole and causing him to vomit a black, ichorous fluid comprised of his own rotted organs. As the rot leaked from his mouth and chest, he screeched out; a crazed zeal entered his eyes and he shrieked that only his love was allowed to know that secret. The lamia laughed and waved her hands: a terrible, dark devil was summoned behind Luna, blocking the exit and pinning Luna on all sides, with the wall to her back, the lamia to the front, the devil to one side and the ravening ghast on the other. The other three men lept into action: things had quickly become serious.
Romeo and Eamon flew out to attack the lamia, drawing her attention away from Luna. Her spear drove into the angel, momentarily making him feel terrible sadness before he shook it off. Aldern, possessed by frenzy, turned to Luna and told her to join him in killing all the living that knew and feast upon them, before turning towards Eamon and lunging at him, sinking his fangs into the angel that flew beside him. He could feel the vile poisons on Aldern’s teeth move into his body, but he managed to shake off the paralytic before it could send him careening down to the street. Virgil urged them to pull back: they couldn’t effectively attack so spread out, and they needed to get on more solid footing.
As Eamon retreated, causing both Lordship and the lamia to give chase, the latter crawling along the side of the building using the scaffolding, a strange look befell Luna. The devil, unresponsive to Virgil’s yells, swung at Luna, though it missed with both swings. Meanwhile, Luna looked blankly towards the lamia. Taking a few calm steps forwards, she threw a specially-formulated bomb towards her. The explosive missed its mark, but the blast sprayed the building with a thick, slippery substance. The lamia’s coils slipped in the goo, and just like that, she lost her grip on the scaffold and fell towards the ground so very far down, curses of revenge screamed out into the night until they were silenced with a faint thud. 
Eamon and Virgil took to the sky as the crazed Foxglove ran at Khyrralien, biting and slashing with his non-existant claws, trimmed by Luna days ago, needlessly smashing one of the potions that he still held. As they struggled to come up with a plan to subdue the man, they congratulated Luna on her success. This was cut short, however, as the woman gave a calculating glance over them all, drew her gun and fired upon Romeo. The bird crowed in shock, dodging the bullet; he flew over to Virgil for cover, as it became very obvious that something was quite seriously wrong with Luna. Virgil told Romeo to pull back to safety, and he agreed to return to the townhouse. Nodding, Virgil said not to tell Shadliss anything until they returned, but the bird chuckled and said that he had Master’s orders. It was only when the bird was retreating that Virgil realized the meaning of what Romeo had mentioned earlier: Shadliss had ordered him to watch them and report, and when Virgil invited him along, he had made his job much easier. With a good-natured curse, Virgil let Romeo leave.
With the last truly “alive” target gone, the compelled Luna turned her gun towards Khyrralien, who was still taking the brunt of the ghast’s fangs. He pleaded with Aldern, trying to say that he didn’t know anything. Seeing a glimmer of hesitation in the crazed man’s eyes, Virgil pressed the lie further, using the information that they knew from Aldern’s ledger: they all obviously knew that Aisha was on an island vacation. This gave him pause, and he turned towards Virgil; after looking at him for a second, he declared that he knew the truth, and that the others needed to die. The other two men quickly agreed to Virgil’s claim, the bleeding Khyr and the twisted, distant raging Eamon: Aisha was on a trip. Seemingly satisfied with this notion, he agreed that they knew the truth, calming almost immediately. Reason seemed to return to him, and Aldern regained control of his body. 
As Aldern looked about in confusion and fear, Luna, still acting curiously distant, asked him if she was to continue attacking. He quickly said that she was not, and she immediately put her gun away and began to remotely perform other tasks, healing Aldern’s gaping chest wound and turning her attentions to organizing and collecting all the notes on the Mistress of Seven’s desk. Virgil flew down to street level to investigate but found no trace of a body. All that remained was a bloody pool and a broken crater in the street; there were no tracks leading away, nor anything that could be registered with Detect Magic or Detect Evil. 
Khyrralien poked through the bed, finding a golembane scarab lying in the sheets. Eamon investigated the chests, but found two locked and one trapped so that it slammed painfully shut on his hand. Finishing with the papers, Luna turned her attentions to the chests, picking the first two. When she got to the third, she slipped and the chest slammed shut on her as well, breaking her wrist. Ignoring it completely, as she had no more negative energy potions, she continued her work and eventually opened it as well. Aldern stood with a look of fear and regret; he mumbled that coming here was a terrible idea. The first two chests were filled to the brim with expensive jewelry and parcels of counted coins respectively; the third seemed to hold enchanted objects. The group hoisted up the three chests between them, claiming their contents. 
With what they thought to be the progenitor of the murderers dead and her lair looted, the group left, returning to Foxglove’s townhouse to deal with the results of the night’s adventure.Category:Rise of the Runelords