Chapter 2: The Mephistopheles Dungeon

## **May 4, 2351**

### Session 8

After a night's rest, four of our heroes sat in the main room of the Troubled Monk, enjoying breakfast together. A bundle of mail was delivered to Seth by Gin, sent by her sibling Deckhun. Gin also brought news for the rest of the group: in Sam's continued absence, Elfrieda had found them an alternate guide to the Ethereal Plane, and that he would be there within 3–7 days. All the blood vessels in Vyre's brain burst at once, and she went outside to scream for five seconds.

Meanwhile, Rorrik had a chat with Kiran back at the Temple of Honour. They asked Rorrik how he was feeling after the events of the past few days, and whether or not he intended to join the others in their quest for the Ethereal Plane. Rorrik said at least for the time being, he felt an obligation to see this through with them — as for what might happen once the vines had been returned to their proper plane, he couldn't say. Kiran agreed to put in a call for some extra help, just in case finding the Ethereal Plane took longer than anticipated.

Back at the Troubled Monk, the rest of the party chatted with Gin about how people might reasonably occupy themselves in Red Deer. Gin gave numerous suggestions — the Gentle Thicket is good for a fight later in the day; the Red Bed offers manicures and pedicures; there were several jobs available through Roger's Guard that might keep them occupied for a while, and allow them to make some money. Horrified by the prospect of spending any more time in Red Deer, but pacified at the idea of bar fights that night, our heroes bid Gin a good day.

Shortly thereafter, Tolvis Fawndancer arrived to thank the party for solving the mystery, ending the illness, and saving the vines. He explained that he'd tried to make contact with them, but hadn't been able to communicate as effectively as they had. In thanks, and not being a man of much coin, he gifted them his Cloak of Elvenkind, which Vyre took.

At this point, faced with having to wait several hours before they could fight someone, Seth brought up the horrifying murder dungeon which, only a few days before, she, Zo, and Seán had agreed to leave because of the obvious danger it presented, and everyone agreed going back there sounded like a wonderful way to pass the day.

Upon reaching the site Seth and Zo remembered from before, they discovered the hole had been covered once more, the trap reset. They carefully entered the dungeon, and were promptly met by several skeletons, destroying two with ease and sending a third running for its unlife. Our heroes gave chase, only to find themselves battling three zombies in close quarters, at several points at a loss for what to do due to the traffic jam. Once these zombies were dealt with, they pressed forward, finding Sybbyl, the arm wrestling champion who they'd met a few days before, with her throat slashed, also a zombie. Zo, who had transformed into a giant hyena, put the creature out of its misery.

Confronted with the knowledge that not only was someone actively keeping up the dungeon or at least parts of it, but seemed to be actively raising more undead to guard it, our heroes were face with a choice: should they go deeper, or retreat and inform the authorities?

They're adventurers, so I think we both know which one they went for.

### Session 9

After a brief debate, our heroes decided to delve deeper into the dungeon. Upon rounding a corner, they came across an ominous-looking lantern that they then had a half-hour discussion of how to handle. Ultimately they decided that Seth would take it down using mage hand and, when they didn't all immediately die, they decided to use that tool to carry it on ahead of them. Continuing their theme of fearing light fixtures, they also proceeded with extreme caution past a chandelier, which also did not kill them all.

Entering the first room of the dungeon, Seth and Zo were startled to discover that a room that had been in extreme disrepair only a few days before now appeared to be inhabited. The party spent the next several minutes combing shelves and looking through the room, taking various items they thought might come in handy down the line. They found the skeleton that had fled from them earlier and summarily destroyed it.

Going deeper into the dungeon, they found another zombie — this one seemed to have been a woman of some means, going by the fine quality of her dress. They also encountered several more crawling claws, destroying them easily.

Opening another door and finding it trapped by setting off the trap, they found a room full of skeletons, decided not to engage, and shut the door tight once more.

Coming to a choice between right and left, they went left, noting some ominous-looking writing on the wall that none of them could read. As Seth peeked around the corner, she spotted a zombie far away, slowly making its way towards them.

### Session 10

The one zombie turned into a full-fledged battle on two fronts, with those at the front fighting the zombie and some skeletons, and those at the back facing several crawling claws. Zohal in particular took quite a lot of damage, reverting to her usual half-elf form. A crossbow bolt was shot at them from somewhere deeper down the hallway, past where any of them could see, and Gulo heard faint whistling from that direction, but they decided not to investigate further.

Instead, they rested, with some focusing on tending to their wounds, while others looked around. They investigated several demonic-looking masks, but found nothing of interest. Checking the next room, they found a large statue of an imposing-looking devil with *spectacular* pecs, and triggered a suit of armour into battle with them. Once the armour had been defeated and Seth had plucked a ring from its still form, they went to leave the room, all of them shocked to see Zo hit by a brutal magical attack from an unknown source. Thus their battle with Lionel Gough began. Those familiar with the area, realizing who it was, were quietly shocked — Lionel had always seemed quiet, soft-spoken and reasonable, a necessary counterweight to his alpha's sometimes tempestuous personality.

Lionel also appeared to have magic well beyond what any of them might have expected, with Gulo in particular paying the price. Whenever Lionel was attacked, his attacker took damage as well — this led to Gulo's going unconscious, then dying. Zo, also, was nearly knocked unconscious, though she used her druid abilities to turn into a giant hyena once again. Rorrik had also taken a great deal of damage, and things were looking grim for the party, until finally Vyre knocked the cult leader unconscious.

### Session 11

With Gulo no longer breathing and Lionel no longer conscious, the party took a moment to tie Lionel up and discuss their options. Rorrik took the opportunity to speak a Prayer of Healing, and all of them startled when the strength of his prayer led to Gulo drawing another rattling breath. Right around this time, Seth spotted new threats approaching: a pair of women creeping down the hall towards them, unaware that Seth, with her superior darkvision, could see them; and a lone skeleton coming from the way they'd originally come.

Once again, battle ensued. Zohal did her best to protect the others with the fortitude of her giant hyena form. Seth attempted to convince the women to let them go free, to no avail. Rorrik tried using Lionel as a human shield, which led to Lionel being rendered unstable, with one of the women — Wei MacDonald, the butcher — pulling Lionel from his grasp and away from the party, where she slipped him a healing potion.

As the fight wore on, our heroes decided to flee, and it looked as though they might get away with it, up until the point Lionel hurled a fireball at them. Soon after, Zohal went unconscious. Rorrik and Seth found even more skeletons were coming from the direction they'd come from. After a second fireball, only Rorrik was left standing, the others barely clinging to life in the face of the injuries they'd sustained.

At this point, things got weird.

A man appeared — a stranger to Rorrik's eyes. Tall, slender, with grey hair and fine features, he appeared out of nowhere, and began to calmly destroy the cultists with naught but a banishing spell and a lot of bitch slaps. All attempts to damage him seemed... less than effective. Meanwhile, Rorrik scrambled from body to body, stabilizing everyone he could, and reviving Seth with the healing potion she had on her.

The stranger cast a sleeping spell on Rorrik and Seth, knocking Rorrik unconscious, but failing to knock Seth out. Noticing this, he instead modified Seth's memory, erasing all traces of him and making her think instead that she'd heard Elfrieda back the way she'd come from, and that she needed to run to her to get help. Meanwhile, zombies and skeletons began to assault the unconscious bodies of the rest of our heroes, killing them one by one; the Stranger paid this no mind. Back at the entrance to the dungeon, Seth found herself facing off against seven skeletons on her own; it was a matter of seconds before she was unconscious, and then dead.

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