Session 13: Beneath the Broken Spire
At a glance
- In-game date: The day after the return to Rivalis through the following day
- Starting location: Shroud-overrun Rivalis
- Ending location: Inside Castle Avernus
- Characters present: Ignatius, Rage, and Carver, joined by Ooru
Summary
The surviving streets of Rivalis had become a market conducted at the edge of extinction. People hawked whatever goods remained, the price of Screaming Cheese climbed with every rumor, and nearly every conversation turned toward escape. Yet the Eternal Order’s chapel was crowded not with those preparing to leave, but with those preparing to die.
Outside, a ragged halfling explained that the worshippers expected to become undead as part of the world’s proper cycle. Within, Sister Elda moved among the frightened in her red-and-white robes, offering blessings beneath the Order’s symbol. She told Ignatius that the Mists were undeath itself overtaking Darkon, returning everyone at last to Rex—by which the Rivalis faithful meant Azalin.
Rage noticed a new ornament at her throat: a tall glass cloche containing something she did not identify. It appeared to be a talisman to another domain. Elda believed Darkon was falling apart beneath the appetite of Azalin’s undead armies, yet when Carver asked when the collapse had begun, her memories scattered. Events remained, but their distances from one another had dissolved.
She claimed service to the Silver Lady of Nevuchar Springs, though she had never visited the settlement. A sealed vial of its sacred spring water served as her Mist talisman. She invited the party to pledge itself to the Eternal Order. Rage answered by showing her the burden hanging from his own neck. Whatever welcome remained vanished from her face.
Ignatius asked whether the Order still maintained a presence at Castle Avernus. Elda said it had not for some time. Taken together, her words revealed the depth of the schism the party had already encountered: the party understood Rivalis to return its faith to the vanished Azalin, while the Neblus sect waited for Darcalus Rex.
That afternoon, the party headed south to find Aldo and signal Vidic. Before they could leave Rivalis behind, Ooru rushed toward Rage with news of disaster. He had been beaten and robbed; his trunk of goods was gone.
Ignatius remembered Ooru’s face among Erasmus’s images of the powers and places beyond Darkon. The spice merchant finally explained the road that had brought him so far from home. He came from Har’Akir and served its god-king, Ankhtepot, builder of pyramids above and beneath the sands. The pharaoh’s ka—a missing portion of his soul—remained lost, and Ooru believed it might be somewhere in Darkon. He carried a lapis-lazuli scarab talisman capable of opening the way back to Har’Akir and invited the party to return with him.
Rage instead invited Ooru forward. The merchant accepted with complete sincerity, pledging himself to serve the adventurers who had once helped him prosper. Ignatius placed a spear in his hands. The party that left Rivalis would number four.
A merchant lays aside his solitary road and takes up the spear of a companion. See the image record.
A hawk circled low as they continued south. Its cry sent townspeople diving for shelter until Ignatius pointed out that it was merely a bird. At once the panic broke. The shaken residents claimed they had never seen hawks before—only ravens and owls.
Near the southern line of graves, the gravelights burned more numerous and more intensely blue than the party remembered. Mist crept inland from the lake. Ignatius found a raven and used the black feather of the Keepers to send word that they had returned and wished to speak with Vidic.
At last they found Aldo among those streaming back toward town before nightfall. Two lean, hooded adventurers traveled with him. Aldo named them the Dockside Men and admitted that all three belonged to the outer circle of the Kargatane. Someone in the inner circle was angry with Rage: the uncanny old woman he had defeated in the Coachman’s Rest pie contest.
Aldo believed Rivalis finished and meant to flee south toward Nartok. He would not say who commanded affairs at Castle Avernus and claimed he was forbidden from going there. He did, however, offer one valuable secret. The Kargatane’s scarecrows were watchers. Speak the words “the crimson retinue” to one, and it would answer with what it had seen. Ignatius promised that Aldo’s assistance would be remembered at the Pale Lantern.
The party returned to its room and prepared to leave at first light. Rivalis passed a colder night than before beneath a sky full of bats. Carver woke once to scratching and found Chip chasing mice. Nothing worse disturbed their final hours in town.
Morning carried them east at a fast pace along Hook Road. Several hours from Rivalis, they found a sickly elf in the common dark-green robes of Darkon collapsed against a tree. He barely responded when Rage offered him a mercy killing. Ignatius found him feverish and clutching a bag.
Rage seized it. Wet human fingers, pieces of intestine, and a severed lower jaw spilled across his hands. The clotting, diseased blood recalled the plague growth embedded in his own skin. Terror supplied action before judgment: his thrown handaxe struck the elf’s skull and killed him instantly.
Ignatius examined the body. The elf’s belly was swollen, his throat fouled with rot, and disease appeared to have consumed him from within. No explanation waited among his possessions. Rage cut the corpse apart to ensure it could not rise, and the party continued.
What the bag surrendered to Hook Road turned fear into violence before questions could be asked. See the image record.
Near a well-established roadside inn, a crow approached and offered the Keepers’ secret greeting. It became Vidic. The party told him of the phylactery believed hidden in Castle Avernus and of the Kargatane scarecrow network. Vidic, in turn, said he had been investigating whistles and chimes within the forest ahead.
Their intelligence earned a reward. Vidic presented Carver with a long walking cane capable of becoming a longsword: a Veteran’s Cane. Such knowledge might prove useful to his superior in Barovia, Two Hundred Summers, leader of the Keepers of the Feather. Before departing, Vidic taught the party a farewell in Corvid. He became a raven once more and vanished with two others into the sky.
The inn bore a finely worked wooden sign: The Final Audit. Inside, an older human invited the travelers to his table. Mr. Ledger spoke with the careful formality of an educated man and knew the eastern road well. The Ascent, he explained, was unfinished but passable, with places where travelers might camp safely.
Its builders had once intended to carry the road all the way to Tempe Falls, a distant city beyond Mayvin where dwarves and gnomes had carved their homes into the rock around magnificent waterfalls and ancient spiritual powers. Few travelers went so far. Ledger himself suffered the same loosened hold on time that afflicted Sister Elda, remembering events while losing the measure between them. When Rage exhausted the familiar litany of zombies, vampires, and ghosts, Ledger offered one final distinction: in Nartok, people said ghosts did not belong to Darkon at all. Gravelights did.
The party left the Final Audit and followed the Ascent. The road was smaller than its proud name suggested and remained level beneath mountains in the distance. By the fourth hour they had covered sixteen miles that day. A crude bridge carried them across the river flowing from Redleaf Lake, and after two more hours the road entered the Forest of Shadows.
Ancient trees twisted above them in old-growth darkness. Somewhere among those trunks, Vidic hunted the whistling fiend. The raven that had shadowed the road disappeared beneath the thickening canopy. Castle Avernus emerged upon the mountain, and the party turned away from the road toward it.
A single raven watched from the trees. Then it vanished like an illusion, and three ravens occupied its place. Rage offered the Corvid greeting. The birds spoke among themselves but refused to answer him. The party suspected the King’s Ravens had taken notice.
Forest gave way to bare stone and a steadily climbing path. Soon the adventurers stood hundreds of feet above the canopy. Their feet left no prints upon the ground.
Castle Avernus rose ahead as a wound refusing to close. Its main spire had been torn in half, pouring light into the darkness. Great masses of stone stood split apart while webs of radiance—or living strands of the castle itself—bound ruin to ruin. The base was absolute black beneath the red star. Vast banners of Azalin Rex moved in a wind the party could not feel. Ravens passed through the high windows, and robed figures watched from within.
Rage shouted that they had been invited. Carver held the red letter overhead. Voices from the castle ordered them forward.
Beneath a spire that refused to finish breaking, the castle judged the invitation it had once sent. See the image record.
At the drawbridge, strange magic washed across the travelers. A raven floated down to inspect the invitation, feathers parted around rotting ribs. Satisfied, it returned to the walls. The bridge lowered.
Within, a pale figure in a red cloak appeared as though the darkness had released him. Moonlight shone across the bald head of Darian Corvrick, the Kargat vampire who had celebrated their violence in Martira Bay. He welcomed them to Castle Avernus and promised that they would not be harmed while under its hospitality.
Darian wished to negotiate over their plans. First, he offered a tour. The Book of Names awaited them, as did the Conjuration Room. The party followed him into the castle’s inner stairs, beneath a broken spire that seemed to be rebuilding itself around them.
Key events
- Sister Elda revealed Rivalis’s Azalin-centered Eternal Order faith and its separation from the Darcalus-focused sect in Neblus.
- Elda identified the Silver Lady of Nevuchar Springs as her patron and showed the party a sacred-spring-water Mist talisman.
- Ooru revealed his service to Ankhtepot and search for the pharaoh’s missing ka.
- Ooru sincerely joined the party as a long-term traveling companion and received a spear from Ignatius.
- Aldo revealed his Kargatane outer-circle membership and identified the Dockside Men as fellow members.
- Aldo supplied the scarecrow passphrase: “the crimson retinue.”
- Rage killed and dismembered a diseased elf after discovering human remains in his bag.
- Vidic rewarded Carver with a Veteran’s Cane and named Two Hundred Summers as leader of the Keepers.
- Mr. Ledger described the Ascent, Tempe Falls, and Nartok’s beliefs about ghosts and gravelights.
- The party entered the Forest of Shadows and encountered ravens believed to serve Azalin.
- The shadow-dragon invitation secured entry into Castle Avernus.
- Darian Corvrick welcomed the party as protected guests and offered to show them the Book of Names and Conjuration Room.
Decisions and consequences
- The party accepted Ooru’s pledge of service and companionship.
- Ooru now travels with them and carries his Har’Akir talisman.
- Rage killed the diseased elf out of fear.
- The party gained no answers about the elf, his illness, or the human remains he carried.
- The party shared the phylactery clue and scarecrow network with Vidic.
- Carver received a Veteran’s Cane, and the information will reach the Keepers’ leadership.
- The party presented its invitation and entered Castle Avernus.
- Darian guarantees their safety only while they remain his guests; the nature and limits of that protection are unknown.
People
- Sister Elda: Revealed the faith and memory failures of Rivalis’s Eternal Order sect.
- Ooru: Robbed spice merchant and servant of Ankhtepot who joined the expedition.
- Aldo: Kargatane outer-circle member fleeing Rivalis for Nartok.
- Vidic: Rewarded the party’s intelligence and continued investigating the forest’s whistles and chimes.
- Two Hundred Summers: Vidic’s superior and the Barovian leader of the Keepers of the Feather.
- Mr. Ledger: Courteous traveler at the Final Audit who described the eastern road.
- Darian Corvrick: Bald Kargat vampire who admitted the party to Castle Avernus.
- Unidentified diseased elf: Carried human remains and died at Rage’s hand before he could be questioned.
Places
- Rivalis: Its surviving population now prepares either for flight or undeath.
- Hook Road: The party’s route east from Rivalis.
- The Final Audit: Roadside inn where the party met Mr. Ledger.
- The Ascent: Unfinished eastern road toward Mayvin and Tempe Falls.
- Forest of Shadows: Ancient woodland containing Vidic’s quarry and the approach to Castle Avernus.
- Castle Avernus: Broken, self-repairing stronghold that admitted the party through its invitation.
Clues, lore, and notable items
- Rivalis’s Eternal Order worships Azalin Rex, while the Neblus sect follows Darcalus Rex.
- The Silver Lady has devotees in Nevuchar Springs and sacred water can serve as a Mist talisman.
- Ooru carries a lapis-lazuli scarab talisman to Har’Akir.
- Kargatane scarecrows respond to “the crimson retinue” and report what they have seen.
- Carver received a Veteran’s Cane that transforms into a longsword.
- Nartok tradition distinguishes foreign ghosts from Darkon’s native gravelights.
- The approach to Castle Avernus preserves no footprints.
- The castle is split, illuminated from within, and simultaneously bound or repaired by webs of light and stone.
Story threads
- Resolved: Aldo’s Southern Visits
- Advanced: Vidic’s Occult Hunt
- Advanced: The Keepers of the Feather
- Advanced: The King’s Ravens
- Resolved: Invitation to Castle Avernus
- Advanced: The Phylactery in the Castle
- Advanced: The Stolen Memories of Darkon
- Opened: Ooru’s Search for the Ka
- Opened: The Silver Lady of Nevuchar Springs
- Opened: The Crimson Retinue
Rewards, losses, and character changes
- Ooru joined the party and received a spear from Ignatius.
- Carver received a Veteran’s Cane from Vidic.
- Ooru’s merchant trunk and goods were stolen before he joined the party.
- The party reached Castle Avernus with its shadow-dragon invitation, three Boom Sticks, Bag of Holding, scrolls, and other critical equipment.
Memorable moments
- Rage’s trophy chain transformed Sister Elda’s offer of fellowship into open hostility.
- An ordinary hawk sent Rivalis’s residents into panic until Ignatius named it for what it was.
- A bag opened in Rage’s hands and spilled the remains of several people across the road.
- One watching raven became three as the party approached the mountain.
- A corpse-like raven judged the invitation before lowering Castle Avernus’s drawbridge.
- Darian waited beyond the gate beneath a broken spire and offered hospitality to those who had come prepared to destroy his castle.
Open questions
- What rests inside Sister Elda’s glass cloche talisman?
- Who is the Silver Lady, and how does her faith relate to Azalin and Darcalus?
- Where is Ankhtepot’s missing ka, and why does Ooru believe it lies in Darkon?
- Who robbed Ooru and took his trunk?
- What was wrong with the diseased elf, and whose remains did he carry?
- What whistles and chimes within the Forest of Shadows?
- Were the three ravens King’s Ravens, and what did they report?
- Why did the invitation admit the party, and what does Darian want to negotiate?
- Is Azalin’s phylactery truly inside the castle?
Next session
- Immediate situation: The party and Ooru are following Darian into Castle Avernus under a promise of safety.
- Likely goals: See the Book of Names and Conjuration Room, learn Darian’s intentions, investigate the phylactery clue, and understand the castle’s condition.