The Abbey Beodrahn

## A Plea from the Baron

The party spent time in Banor discussing the ramifications of the Summit with Baron Danthar.  He was most intrigued by the map that the party had acquired from the strange ruins west of the camp, and in particular, why did they have this Abbey shown on the map?

Baron Danthar made a request to the party to investigate this so-called Abbey and find out what the Order is doing there.  His Lordship admitted that it might be a difficult journey, so he gave the party some gold and a Promise of Renown so that they could purchase what they needed in the city for a reduced rate.

The party was also fortunate that several of the attendees to the Summit were willing to share some of their knowledge and spells with the group.

Raban Thor and Beryl Adreenean from the Beasts of the March and the Temple of Sapayo (Mistress of Games and Hunting) could relay some of the interesting spells they had developed to Freya and Aterian.

Dreamwarden Elyndor Eseyn of Gierthe, Aden Shahn was quite interested in anything anyone found out about these terrible ruptures in the world, and was more than glad to help Wubba learn a few of his spells.   The party also spent a bit of time sharing their capital to determine what they could buy or have made for them to help them on their quest for Baron Danthar.

The Baron also made it known that should the party desire it, he had 5 guards that he could offer them to help out.  The party was grateful for all of the considerations the Baron provided, and they elected to bring three of the guards with them on their journey, the halfling warrior Tindora Manx, the human cleric Brynda Malkor, and the human warrior Hormish Browt.

## On the Road to the Abbey

Soon it was time for them to travel forth and they decided to take the road through the Ysgol Wood, past Vertalen and the Camp of the Order of the Silent Fist.

Lord Brix of Vertalen had indicated that he sent guards forth to the camp to dismantle it.  The party was somewhat worried about the novices who hadn't made up their minds yet about the Order, but Lord Brix did no wrong to them.  They found that the Lord's men sent them home to the East and Banor, though it is not certain what became of the more established members of the Order.

As the party headed deeper into the forest on what was left of the road to the Halls of the Ffydd Dwarves, they were definitely on alert, for they knew there were plenty of evils in the wood that could beset them.   One night, they heard a multitude of soft foot drops, but it turned out only to be a large pack of wolves on the hunt.  It wasn't until more than a day later that the group ran into something truly terrible.  A group of tall, black-skinned, red eyed and silver clawed elves who Zak had abject concern about since their descriptions matched that of an ancient enemy of the northwestern elves of Calandoren, the Aeodan.

The Aeodan, hated by all elves who are familiar with their atrocities, were attacked and defeated, fortunately for the party.  These Aeodan were strange in that they were naked and rather wild, but their appearance was still unmistakenly consistent with the ancient, abhorrent race of elves.   The Aeodan had an early jump at the start of the battle, but their disorganization and wild behavior had no chance of defeating the party.   After spitting on and burning the bodies, the party was off to continue their trek within the Ysgol Wood.

The party skirted some of the larger, wild beasts that inhabited the deep parts of the Ysgol Wood in hopes of getting on to the abbey unscathed.  They broke out of the Wood unscathed and then headed out along the east trail through the more open hills towards what they hoped would be the Abbey Beodrahn.   On the way, however, they awoke one night to the sound of large footprints and hungry grunts, for there were trolls in these hills.

The party played it safe and let the trolls go on their way.  The trolls did sniff about a bit, but the party decided on caution rather than engaging these fierce beasts. After letting them pass, their journey was relatively easy going except for the occasional hill bear wandering through the camp.

## Arrival at the Abbey

When they reached the Abbey Beodrahn, they found it perched upon a cliff - a difficult place to investigate.  Fortunately, Zak was able to stealthily move about the walls of the Abbey without being noticed.  When he finally got the guard patrols down, he quickly dispatched one of the monk-guards (Gasteroo), dropped him down off the wall and regrouped with the party to determine a plan.

Besides the plan, they did find a bizarre treated hair braid in the monk's hair, unlike the monks of the Order of the Silent Fist that they had encountered before.  Regardless, the group decided that the most stealthy and ranged-oriented folk would ascend the walls of the abbey, while the more melee strong would hide near the entrance, awaiting a signal.

The stealthy group moved up and Zak quickly dispatched two of the foes (Zandex & Garmunch).   When the third monk, Horson, was to be attacked, the melee grouped charged forward to create more confusion among the monk-guards.  They almost all quickly fell, except for two.   One had a desire of revenge against the halfling warrior Tindora who shot him with a sling bullet in the eye, while another charged forward to see what was going on.  Aterean (in panther form) lept straight into the monk, Naggesh, yet the monk's strength proved strong enough to fend off the panther for now.   Between the sling bullets of Tindora, the shocking grasp of Wubba and the rapier of Zak, the other monk-guard, Zadeen, would not be long for this world.

Now the last remaining monk-guard from the walls, Naggesh, nimbly disengaged and retreated into the tower of the small building in the northeast corner.  Who knows what would happen when the party follows that fearful monk into their lair?

## The Abbey Awakens

Upon following the monk, Naggesh, into a small tower at the northwest corner of the Abbey, the party came face to face with one of the nemeses, a Visage of Uthargot.   The Visage flew out and forced several of the party down with an Eldritch Wave and then quickly flew out and surrounded itself with a mesmerizing array of radiant stars which made it difficult for most people to focus on.  The party loathed these creatures from the start, after what they did to the poor hamlet of Canthur in the Athro Valley north of Banor.  So many dead innocents due to this creature from another world...

Yet the Order monks were now awaking to engage the party.  Monbix, Davidj, Zadeen and Khaalorr joined Naggesh in the fight. Yet they were not too smart as they joined the fight one by one, giving the party the time to react and dispatch them quickly.  Somehow, however, Naggesh disappeared and escaped for at least a few moments.   Meawhile, Hormish, the helpful guard from Baron Danthar, entered a door at the bottom of the northeast corner tower and was surprised to found himself opening a door to a library with one of the clerics of the Order.  Hormish closed the door, regrouped and surged in, getting ready to climb the stairs of this little tower while the fight continued above.

Up above, the Visage, known as Vagmar, was the primary focus of the party, just as Vagmar would use his nefarious powers against them.  At one point Vagmar blasted out another Eldritch Wave almost knocking Freya off the top of the tower, but fortunately she was able to hold on and recover.  But Freya jumped back up and with Hrongmar, bashed Vagmar to the ground (where it turned into a dead hobbit).

Brocktharian and Freya raced into the northwest tower as Hormish reentered the tower from the ground floor.  This time Hormish could not see the cleric of the Order, but waited at the bottom of the stairs of his companions.  Freya paused to destroy a bone tripod holding a black and red orb at the top of the tower, a sign of those Visages from Canthur, while Brocktharian headed down the stairs of the tower library.  Soon after, Oonkarg, the Order cleric suddenly appeared in the bottom floor of the library and blasted Hormish from behind with one of his necrotic spells.  Hormish and Brocktharian joined the fight against him, but Oonkarg had more tricks up his sleeve as he disappeared before their eyes and escaped out of the ground floor door.

The fight raged on top of the wall as well, with Aterean, Wubba, Zak and Tindora fighting more of the monks rising up to confront them.  The fight was tough, with hard hits both on Zak and Tindora, but the party would be victorious.  Special mention should be given the the brave pigeon, Cooper, who was able to grab and tear off the enchanted, lacquered braid at the back of Davidj's head that appeared to glow whenever the monk was damaged.  Brave and strong was the pigeon, and helpful as well.

Next, Brocktharian, Freya and Hormish swept through the library tower and then across to the southwest corner where the monks had been previously.  Inside Brocktharian heard footsteps going around the corner and Hormish dashed after them, seeing the elusive Naggesh opening one of the doors.   The party dashed in after him and were confronted with two more clerics, Girbon and Vladaank, ready to fight.  As Hormish took on Vladaank, Brocktharian finally dispatched Naggesh from this world and engaged Girbon.  Unfortunately, both Vladaank and Girbon were able to attach their Shackles of Pain to Hormish and Brocktharian, making it more painful for them to be engaged.  As Freya came down the corridor, she was able to avoid Shackles of Pain from another new Order cleric, Zaebin, who was now moving down the corridor to the east.

The fight rages on...what will become of the party now that they are deep into the Order's lair?

### The Order has More in Store

The ferocious fight ensued, keeping Hormish and Brocktharian focused on the two Order clerics battling next to the dead body of the monk Naggesh.  Meanwhile, Freya Arcadia ran down the hall after Zaebin, attempting to discover what that Order cleric was attempting to accomplish.  Tindora, Zak, Aterian (now in ape form), and Wubba grouped up and headed into the ground floor of the southwest quarters to see if they could help out Hormish, Brocktharian and Freya.Of course, this was the time for the Order to change the game a bit with another Visage of Uthargot, Allisaar, descending the stairs of the southwest tower along with a flying, bone-sword wielding cloaked human named Jharen.

 Annoyingly, just as they were about to succumb to the damage that Hormish and Brocktharian were laying upon them, the two clerics in their quarters, Gorbin and Vladaank, used one of their Dark Speak abilities and disappeared from view.   Hormish and Brocktharian slashed their weapons and gnashed their teeth, but they were unable to draw anymore blood from these fiends.  Fortunately, however, this allowed Brocktharian to help out with the approach of Allisaar and Jharen, and to group up and protect the rest of the group from harm.

The Visages have a series of annoying abilities, and Allisaar put them to use quickly.  First, he knocked back several of the people around him with an Eldritch Wave so he could disrupt their elan.  He also attempted to Toll the Dead to damage the already fallen, but the party was ready for his tricks.  Jharen was also annoying, sending out a Shadow Slice disc to damage several of the party through a strange 10' opalescent disc that materialized through his strange magic and shot out to wound the heroes.  These tricks, however, would not be enough this day.   The party pressed back to keep Allisaar engaged, and Aterian (back in human form) dropped a Moonbeam on the foes to blast them with the power of natural radiance, which assuredly would work well against the otherworldly Allisaar.   The party continued to blast them, learning the acid had no effect on the Visage, but eventually the nefarious Allisaar would fall and cause havoc no more.  Prior to his demise, Jharen, sadly, made his escape up through the tower, to some location unbeknownst to the party...perhaps to recuperate and join in the fight another time with the other cowards, Girbon and Vladaank.

Meanwhile, Freya determined what Zaebin was up to.  Zaebin was running through the corridors in an attempt to awaken two more sleeping allies.  Just as he was able to arose them, Freya beat down upon Zaebin, crushing his skull with the mighty Hronmgar.   Alas, the two evil allies were up and ready now, with the cleric, Oostrah, having summoned a Ghast to intervene so that Oostrah could cast spells against Freya.  Nearby, the Order monk, Hormunt was rising, getting ready to attack Freya's enfilade.  Freya knew that she would probably need some help, so after dispatching the Ghast, she retreated back down the corridor to join up with Zak, Tindora and Wubba, who were approaching to help.

Now the party faces off with Oostrahn and Hormunt, preparing themselves to face whatever onslaught these horrible foes might have in store...

So much terror.

The fight raged on with the party face to face with these terrible members of the Order. Hormunt had deviously damaged Freya in the fight, but Zak ran up to defend and protect the party.  Fortunately, the party was also finally coalescing and becoming stronger because of it.  Zak dashed back and forth avoiding the cunning blows of Hormunt, and as much as Oostrahn tried, he knew his battle was lost.

Oostrahn elected to escape the battle and retreat through a couple doors in the corridor after dropping something in the urns next to them.  Hormunt continued to fight off the party, but he would not be able to survive alone.  The strength of the party was too great.  Soon enough the party grouped up and their power washed over the evil, horrible monk of the Order.  Next was to find the priest, Oostrahn.

Zak noticed there were coins in the urns, so he threw some coins in himself and opened the doors.  Unfortunately, he was thrown into some strange, other dimensional representation of the corridor beyond the doors, and he was greeted by some black, white and grey humanoid in robes that had a shawl with balances emblazoned on it.  Ever so often, this weird colorless creature would shoot forth opaque black and white pillars around this version of the corridor and then suddenly disappear.  This would be quite the battle for poor Zak.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party examined the doors through which Zak and Oostrahn went and they thought about the engravings above the door which read "With the stars sated, the darkness will acknowledge your value".   Some of the party threw coins in, and some others of the party through 7 coins in to represent the number of stars in the Order's symbol.  Those who did not throw 7 coins in ended up with Zak, fighting the bewildering black and white creature who created pillars of necrotic and radiant energy, while the others found themselves in a normal corridor.  What sort of maddening place is this?

Only Brocktharian Chadwick would not enter the corridor, rather he ran out and through the courtyard, entering a door from the inside of the courtyard almost approaching where this strange other corridor might lead out.   Brocktharian entered a crafting room, but was quickly accosted some priests of the Order and their undead who awaited their approach.  It did not matter that the smell of fresh biscuits from the oven in the next room was truly delightful, but these miserable foes would not let Brocktharian approach.

The fight raged on in the weird corridor for Zak, Brynda and Hormish who had found themselves in an ever closing extra-dimensional room with pillars of pain and anguish among them.   Fortunately, they would survive the fight and be able to escape into the kitchen, but a bit after Freya and the others ran through their normal version of the corridor to enter the kitchen and help out Brocktharian from the other side.

The evil priests had summoned some minor undead to help their cause, but it would only delay the inevitable for most of them.  The priests tried to summon their nefarious powers against the party, but Oostrah, as wily as he was before, was able to slip through and escape to the courtyard while the other priests held off the party with their dying throes.

No sign of Oostrahn was left, but the party would hopefully see the end of him sometime.

In the crafting room, there was a stairway down and so most of the party went down to investigate.   There were supplies of all sorts down there and corridors leading into a corridor leading to several rooms.

Meanwhile, Brocktharian investigated yet another door leading off of the crafting room.  In the center of this door, it read "Our stars are our days.  They open us to the world we seek”. There were 7 numbers (1 through 7) engraved on the door as some sort of buttons, and Brocktharian pressed the 7th button.  The door opened and all seemed well.   There was a small transit room and then another door.  This door led to a small, well-equipped study closer to the main chapel.   There was also a stairway down and up in this room.  When Brocktharian first attempted to move down the stairwell, some invisible force field kept him at bay.  Fortunately, the keen eyes of Cooper were there as well, and using Wubba's knowledge of different languages, Cooper investigated a painting on the wall which had clues about some strange plates that were next to the stairs.

There were coins in these plates and it seemed that the number of coins was a multiple of the coins indicated in the language and iconography on the painting.   When they put in the right number of coins, Brocktharian and Cooper were able to descend the stairs and then suddenly meet up with the rest of the party.

The party had explored that part of the basement catacombs where the stairs descended, but there was yet another part where the group found a series of tombs of high ranking priests from the Abbey when it was in its prime.  Well that and some sort of otherworldly, undead creature made from the bones and rotting flesh of what was contained in the catacombs.  There was a magic circle nearby that probably was used to augment, create or summon this horrible beast known as the Borddan, but whoever had done this, was surely someone who despised life.

The Borddan was horrible -- casting out bones and flesh -- sending skulls out to magically chew on people - what sort of mind would summon such a creature?   The poor, giant rats that Aterean summoned through *Adurn's Cloak of Rats* were bludgeoned by a spray of bones and flesh from this hideous Borddan.  The Borddan summoned some cryptic, green flames in braziers around them and the continued by bringing more and more animated skeletons into the room.  Brynda could only turn so many so it was up to the party to enter the fray with this beast and take him down.

The fight was awful, but the party would remain victorious.  No longer would the cruelty of this creature manifest itself in these parts.  Back to the plane it belonged on!

After this, the party entered another room of the corridor and they found two objects of interest there, one was a tripod with a black-red orb, one similar to what they had found in Canthur, and then there was some strange armored worm with the head of a human - also with strange forms that would show up under its skin, defying all reason of why it should even exist.

The party attacked immediately while Brocktharian ran to the back to destroy the tripod and orb.  He could not bear another Visage to exist on the material plane of Eirethune.  This had to stop.  Unfortunately, the strange powers that had brought the power to the orb, caused some damage to Brocktharian by making him lose his ability to use his arms from time to time; yet it also gave him the boon of randomly existing in only 2 dimensions.  What sort of creatures are these?

Meanwhile, the fight continued.  It turned out that this weird worm beast, the Asthikada, had several tricks, including countermagic as well as swirling spectral blades surrounding its body.  What a horrible beast, but again the party would remain victorious.  Another horrible beast cast aside in their struggle to make the world whole again.

Now the party returned to the study that Brocktharian had visited before, but this time, a strange Visage of Uthargot awaited them.  They, too, were horrible, but the party knew their weaknesses and would strike hard against them. *Hrongmar, the Great Spiked Hammer of Lord Thelban Font* that was wielded by Freya struck this Visage so hard that it was sent to another plane.  Such is the power of the party and all they can muster.

### The Battle in the Chapel

The party spent a bit of time searching around what looked to be the Abbot's dwelling next to the main chapel. His desk had a half-finished scroll of *Greater Binding Circle* and there also appeared to be a ledger, of sorts; a table of figures indicating the recruits, slaves, gifts, visages and expansion information for various towns and areas that border the Mote.

Also in the room was a strange night table that had 3 empty drawers, that is except for a strange engraving in the middle drawer.

The strange language of the engraving was translated to read the following: "*Protect your worth, bring nothing, approach the unknown with an open hand".*

The other side of the Abbot's chamber stood a lectern. On the lectern lay a paper, but underneath it was an engraving of a hand with the inscription: *This path has ended.  I shall join as another voice as I pass through to add to our Lord.*

The group also found some coins, some books and a couple of scroll cases, one of which had a strange spell known as *Nether Pillar*. There was a candle found near the empty scroll case which Wubba identified as having olfactory properties consistent with spells of *visibility.*

All interesting to find, but there was still more of the cultists of the Order of the Silent Fist to deal with. The party would find them as soon as Brocktharian opened the door to the main chapel of the Abbey.

It seemed as long the survivors of the Order who had eluded the party were now joined by a few others of their ilk. The chapel had a large pile of bones towards the altar, but more unsettling was that on the altar were two of the dreaded bone pedestals with black and red orbs on them...the sign of more Visage to come.

Brocktharian ran in, with Hormish close behind, and immediately engaged a couple of the clerics of the Order, Borbax and Llacarn. Three other clerics, Akakruhn and Caelcardd remained out of contact and began to summon undead. Akakruhn might have thought himself safe in the back corner of the altar, but Zak would trust in his living wood bow to send a couple nasty arrows his way. Meanwhile, the front doors to the chapel mysteriously opened with no one coming nor going...

Brynda came in as well and used her divine power to send the zombies that were being summoned away, while Wubba sent a large blast of magic shattering all of the clerics, killing one of them near Hormish and Brocktharian. Aterean made sure that these tricky clerics couldn't use their annoying invisibility spells to escape by covering the clerics in *faerie fire*. Another door from the Abbot's study to the chapel opened, and in came Freya, ready to crush one of the evil clerics with the mighty spiked hammer, *Hrongmar*.

Meanwhile, Llacarn had made his way to one of the tripods with the black and red orbs, and with a soft whisper, a Visage of Uthargot materialized next to him. The evil clerics tried to use their life-sucking *Shackle of Pain* on Hormish and Brocktharian, but it would be to no avail. Borbax was crushed by Freya, and Girbon soon after succumbed.

Alas, although Akakruhn was still being pelted by arrows, the strange protective braid that he had must have been mighty, for he was able to whisper into the other black-red orb on the altar and yet another Visage of Uthargot appeared. What was worse was that a moment later, Hormish would see another Visage dropping down from the top of the chapel, along with one of the annoying flying monks who wielded bone swords - which the party had only briefly seen at the ruins where the Tilt was occurring near Vertalen and the camp near Banor. What else could go wrong?

More zombies entered from outside....what horror has befallen the party? Akakruhn brought forth a *Circle of Shadows* which restrained both Brocktharian and Freya, keeping them from closing on him or the visages which now surrounded Hormish. Fortunately, Zak,. Tindora and Wubba were able to break the concentration of Akakruhn and both could engage the Visages, getting closer to the vulgar Akakruhn. Aterean was pressed to heal nearly everyone, as the both sides of the battle were fighting desperately for their lives.

Although Brynda had sent two zombies cowering in the chapel, two more approached and attacked her as she tried to fend them off with her Great Axe and some well-needed healing potions. To Wubba, these new zombies appeared to be the undead versions of some of the dead monks who had been dispatched earlier this day. Who would bring these creatures back again to fight? What beasts these followers of the Order truly are!!!

Fortunately, the party would be able to persevere. Once Brocktharian pulled out the Ancient Horn of Sound Burst that he uncovered in Bandraht Manor and unleashed the mighty, deafening blow on Akakruhn, Caelcardd, the Zombies and Oonkarg (the Visage), the tide had certainly turned in the party's favor. The foes were stunned by the deafening blast and Freya, Zak and Tindora took the opportunity to unleash whatever they could at their enemies while the scales were tipped in their favor. The battle was still not completely over yet. Zordwayne (yet another Visage) and Jhalen (the bone-sword wielder) surrounded Hormish, and 3 zombies were heading to finish off Brynda. Fortunately, Wubba would pull out a scroll of *Halt Undead* which stopped the zombies in their tracks, giving Brynda, who was barely alive, the chance to pull back. And once Freya had gotten to Akakruhn and finished the stunned abbot off, Jhalen thought better of his situation and took off to the skies and away. Cooper pursued, but the bone-sword wielder wasn't halting to combat the furious pigeon. It wouldn't be long after Akakruhn fell that the party would dispatch the rest. The two remaining Visages, the five zombies and the cowering and stunned priest, Caelcardd, would be taken down in short order.

The party proceeded to carefully search the remainder of the Abbey, trying to find anything further about what nefarious machinations these foes were planning, as well as uncovering any additional loot cached away in the various chambers. The bodies would be burned away in a large bonfire in the center of the Abbey for the party dd not know why some of the dead monks of the Order had returned as zombies. These foes were certainly in league with forces of the damned.

As they rested for the night, Wubba was visited by the strange, yet helpful, Dreamwarden Elyndor Eseyn of Aden Shahn. Perhaps in Wubba's dealings with him whether in learning spells that the Dreamwarden had to offer, or just conversations at the Summit on the Mote, the Dreamwarden was now able to come to Wubba in his dreams and communicate information, both back and forth. Now the party had a way to stay in contact with others fighting the good fight against the Order, and perhaps they would be able to coordinate if they needed to, at least in their dreams.

## Links

Previous, The Summit on the Mote

Next, To the Blending Circle