Session 53

* The Cat's Pyjamas
* The Cathedral of Kellos, Archaut
* The Sewers beneath Archaut
* A Secret Alchemical Workshop in the Sewers

**Previously....**

## And Now...

### Meeting Bellia.

With a mysterious woman plummeting to certain death from an airship high above them, there is little time to act.

Gar attempts to assume his dragon-hybrid form, but his body is wracked with painful spasms, leaving him halfway transformed with vestigial wing-humps twisting his spine, and left only able to snarl out in Draconic through a mouthful of jagged teeth.

Leschrac seems to have a plan. He asks Goldie to make a series of complex calculations while he gathers magical energy to himself. The stress of retaining this much sorcerous energy seems to be causing him considerable damage and he begins to bleed profusely from the eyes, nose and mouth, however, it seems worth it as, just as Goldie completes their calculations, he unleashes this energy and the lady is brought gently and unharmed, to a perfect landing at their feet.

Equally fortunately, Leshrac's horrific bleeding and Gar's transformation provide enough of a distraction that Goldie and Dandy are able to hustle the lady off the street and into their room in 'The Cat's Pyjamas', where she should be momentarily safe from prying eyes. While the others see to the lady, Dandy heads downstairs to talk to the Innkeeper in an effort to keep knowledge of the Lady’s presence from spreading.

Before she can return upstairs, Dandy notices some disturbances outside in the night-sky. Several batwinged eyestalks are flying around the area. Its's not a great stretch to assume these creatures are searching for the lady, so Dandy launches a sling stone at the nearest. It explodes in a puff of blood, and distracts the others, but Dandy suspects this will be a momentary respite at best.

Meanwhile upstairs, the others talk to the Lady and learn she is ‘Bellia Sephone’ wife and accused murderer of Baroness Katrin Sephone. She swears she’s innocent.  She’s been a captive of the Vampire Torvic, who wants to present her as a ‘Witness’. Unfortunately, her ordeal has left her thoroughly exhausted and she is only able to manage to answer a few questions before collapsing into a deep sleep.

### Moving to the Cathedral.

Alarmed that Torvic is already searching for her, the party consult the book they found with Cotran. They are able to find details of a ward that can obscure her from vampiric detection. The ward in question requires earth from a vampire's grave, which fortunately, they have (Hooray!).

Eventually, they decide it's better to risk moving her to a completely different part of the city, since there are already forces looking for her there and have no wish to bring violence onto these people. They reckon the Cathedral of Kellos is probably the most secure place, so they dress in Kellos Acolyte robes and carry her there.

By this time, the Citadel has mobilized and a lot of city guards are looking for her too, but some deft stealth and clever persuasion, the crew are able to make their way to the Cathedral. Just before they enter, however, they are recognized by Amnir and Dondras, who guide them to a more discrete entrance and a meeting with Giana.

They share with Giana and the Stormborns what they know, and Giana heals Lady Bellia with divine magic before leaving to speak with the elders. Amnir and Dondras leave to gauge the situation outside, wishing the heroes luck as they do.

Lady Bellia wakes up shortly afterward and begins to eat. She opens up, giving them much more information. She tells them the Torvic plans to accuse her step-son of the murder and, by extension, treason. He had intended for her to serve as a witness. While she believes the accusation is true, she suspects that there is more to the story and tells them about her late wife's strange behaviour and paranoia in the days before her death.

She believes that the Baroness most likely knew what was about to happen and shared that secret with her magical secret-shell (Which Leshrac seems to own). She also confirms that Chance Wonderway had been at their castle (She suspects the Baroness had invited him there to help with the situation) for several months before the assassination. She recalls that he had left a few weeks before the assassination. He had found something important in their library and departed hastily to travel East.

Lady Bellia also confirms that she saw Leshrac's ex-partner on board the skyship (wearing a distinctive mask), but that she departed as soon as Torvic came on board. At this point, she grows exhausted and falls back to sleep.

### The Five are Named.

Amnir returns at this point and warns the party that the Elder Giana spoke to wants to involve the Citadel, and that marshals may be on the way soon. They depart immediately, taking the sleeping Lady with them.

Not wanting to leave via the heavily-guarded front entrance, Goldie decides to use her Wyrm's Eye Runebound Shard to search for another option and it indicates an ancient door in one of the cathedral's basement levels. Reaching it, they discover a blank expanse of wall with no keyhole, just a strange depression resembling (but not identical to) the Kellos holy symbol. Dandy recalls an ancient Kellosian symbol she'd found in Strangehaven and places it into the depression.

With a burst of light, the door seemingly ‘evaporates’, revealing a small but ancient store room containing five artifacts - an Amulet, a Broadsword, an Ornate Plate, a thick Tome and a Censer containing a Runebound Shard - and a mysterious stone guardian. They talk with the guardian and it tells them the items can only be removed by those who were prophesied - but each must step forward and declare who they are first.

* Gar declares himself to be ‘The Cursed’ and takes the censor (Which give off a creepy feeling).
* Leshrac declares himself ‘The Liar’ and takes the the plate (which feels of ‘Comfort’).
* Goldie Identifies themself as ‘The Novelty’ and takes the Amulet (feels of ‘Authority’).
* Dandy steps forward as ‘The Collector’ and takes the book (no ‘feeling’ associated).

They ask the Guardian who ‘The Delusioned’ is and are told, *"Nyarduke."* Dandy then asks the guardian is asked their name, and what, if anything, can be done for them. Their name, they explains, is ‘Seraphim’ and their only wish is that the last object may be taken so that their long vigil may be over. Leshrac asks about the ‘undeath’ Runestone taken by ‘the man with the wide-brimmed hat’ and he says, *“It is Guarded by Dreamers. You will not find it while you wake.”* Goldie asks for advice/truth and Seraphim replies, *“Giana will never betray you."* After that, there is another bright flash and the wall is once more whole and unbroken, as though the door had never been there.

### Escape from the Cathedral.

The crew are startled from their wonderment by the sound of armored footsteps coming their way and they look for a direct way out - Which Gar finds behind a large statue of Kellos. As the others made their way into the passage, Goldie attempts to ice the door closed, but instead covers the floor in a slippery ice-slick. Leshrac adds some ball-bearings for extra slipperyness.

The passageway is long and deep and not disused. They find a breakaway path leading to a different basement, which Dandy loots. Lost for options, Leshrac pulls out his ‘detection ball’ and sets it to find the rest of the Dragon bones. They hustle that way, at one point passing a stone wall and door which cuts across their path.

The passage ends in a ladder going up and down. The magic ball wants to go down, so they go down into sewers. There is very little light and they use Dandy's magical tinderbox. There is some debate at this point about where to go next. Gar finally relents and, in a disgusted tone, invokes the ‘P-word’ after having refused to allow others to use it. They decide to continue with the sewers and make their way to outside the city.

### Lost Alchemy Lab

Unfortunately, this is easier said than done and after a brief period of being lost, and a couple of times where an exit was found but it would've dumped everyone in bigger trouble, they stumble across a small side room. The door is of an ancient Dwarven make with a riddle engraved upon it. Fortunately, between everyone's skills, the riddle is soon solved and the door changes from an impassible obelisk of stone to a simple wooden door.

The door opens into two rooms. The first is covered in runes and wards of protection, with a few burn marks and cracks scattered across the walls, while the second is a store-room and laboratory, with the bones of a dead dwarf heaped unceremoniously in the corner. A quick examination of the area confirms that these are the bones, and that this is a hidden subterranean lair of a 'mad' Dwarven Alchemist who vowed to avenge himself against the humans who built over and around his home. After a colourful reign of terror wherein he bedeviled the area with an array of ever more fantastical concoctions , he vanished approximately 1000 years ago.

According to the book in front of him, he had been working on ‘Experiment #132’ (a serum which would have transformed Humans to Dwarves). There were rumours and legends of him attempting to create odd dwarf hybrid races, but no record of him ever having done it. Elsewhere in the book, there are detailed notes on how to make a ‘Sure-Form’ potion, which can prevent from being turned by Vampires. There were 3 vials premade. Goldie runs the calculations and figures they could adapt this potion to force a vampire to keep their base form (no changing into bats, etc) but that the vampire would have to ingest it to work.

There are hundreds, possibly thousands of ingredients and potions in the room, but after all this time, it's almost certain that only the smallest percentage may still be usable.

The only decoration in the room is an unusual painting of a bed hanging on the wall. It’s 4’ by 2’ and heavy. Eventually, the heroes figure out that the Dwarf used magic to ‘enter’ the painting and use the bed. After running some experiments they learn:

* you need to actively will yourself to enter it,
* it only works in contact with a wall,
* uses the command ‘goodnight’ and ‘exit’,
* only activates if user is within the same room,
* Restores notably more health and comfort than normal sleep of the same duration.

With Goldie and Leshrac investigating the painting and Gar tending to the Lady, Dandy decides now would be a good time to nip off back to the Cathedral and let Giana and the Stormborns know what they party are doing and maybe work out a means to stay in touch, so she heads off surreptitiously, thinking she won't be long, and will probably be back before everyone's finished messing with the painting.