DivineDetritusVanquishTheHorribleCurse
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Summary
Trailer
Lighting cracks against a pitch black sky. For a moment, you see a man dressed in holy robes, standing at the edge of a cliff. A swarm of bats fly past him and as they leave he vanishes from your sight. More bats fly past and the camera pans with them, away from the cliff and towards a castle.
The camera pans over to the top of a castle, revealing it has been modeled after a black dragon. The camera enters through a crack in the roof, slowing down and centering on a man, leaning back in a blood red chair. His skin is pale as a sheet. He drinks some kind of wine from a goblet with one hand, and his other hand cradling a lute.
The doorway to his opulent room flings open as a man runs in and falls to one knee. ”Master! The forest guard has fallen. The thieves are coming this way.”
The man in the chair stops slouching and stands upright. "It’s about time, they stole something very important. Tell the guards to get ready. Kill them all."
Chapter 20: Vanquish the Horrible Curse
August 17, 1236 AD
The party awakens, renewed and full of energy. Fi checks on the Harpy Egg and feels it kick. He figures less than 1 week remains until it hatches. He leaves it with the green people of the forest and proceeds towards the castle.
The drawbridge of the front gate lowers long enough to release two skeletal dinosaurs. Two undead archers fire on the party atop a tower as a ghostly cleric commands skeletons to close the gate. The party overwhelms them and dispatches them, lowering the bridge for those who can't fly.
Nidri and Hawk notice a holy symbol of Virton next to a shred of cloth bearing the Kolphan family crest. As they approach a light emerges and forms into Reval Kolphan, a member who must have died maybe 200 to 300 years ago.
Front Gate
Reval and Sigurd Kolphan travelled here alongside Simon and Bellum. The four warriors assaulted the castle but they were overwhelmed. Sigurd noticed this and fled, against Reval's wishes. Reval spent his last moments near the gate, cursing Sigurd for his cowardice. In time, Reval realized Sigurd was correct, and wanted to ask Sigurd for forgiveness. But all who die in or near the castle are trapped forever. He even worries the forest has been claimed.
He has thought of a plan that will destroy the castle and prevent Baat from returning every century, but he needs a lot of holy energy from the strongest trapped souls within the castle. Locate the souls, free them, then challenge and defeat Baat Daculon. Then they can destroy the vampire forever.
Entering the castle foyer, the sees the stairs leading to the throne room. They also see four other paths leading to other rooms:
- Dining Hall
- Bordello
- Alchemical Lab
- Grotto
Dining Hall
The party enters a room of rotting food and rancid water, full of bulettes and flies. A vampiric chef is serving food to a portly ghost, and he's quite angry as the party approaches. The ghost continues to happily munch away. The party endures waves of Bulettes and swarms of flies to defeat the chef and engage with the portly ghost. As Nidri hands him the one fresh bowl of soup, he tells them his name is Simon. He's quite suspicious they tricked him though and he raises his axe to strike!
Claire calms him down and convinces him to go along with Reval Kolphan's plan. He warns the party that some powerful souls were brought into the castle recently, but Hawk thinks he and his friends will do just fine. As they head towards the alchemical lab, Baat's voice rings out throughout the castle walls.
Sal’nessee has a voracious appetite. She’s always hungry. I brought her the finest meats, the tastiest wine, the finest bread. It wasn’t enough. So I gave her blood. Fresh blood. She loved it. She begged for more. And so I gave her all the blood she wanted. Do you think she's fasting right now, Hawk? Or maybe she's enjoying a meal while your back is turned?
Alchemical Lab
The laboratory has a floor of golden coins, all slippery. A ghost of an elven woman sits at one of the four alchemical tables, mumbling "I've got it!" just as two ghosts and several gold golems emerge.
After dispatching the guards, the party speaks to the apparition. The woman's name is Bellum, and she travelled with Reval Kolphan on the ill fated trip to the castle. Her last memories had her detonate some of her alchemical grenades at point blank range. She and Reval argued whether 3 or 5 spirits were enough to seal off Baat's cycle of regeneration once and for all.
With this new information, the party resolves to head towards the bordello next.
Bordello
When Claire flies to the top of the cliff, she notices two things: the woman who was crying for help is now a pile of colored gems.
Handouts
Baat Daculon's backstory
Baat Daculon was once a loved performer, popular and known for upsetting corrupt nobles by rallying the poor to overthrow evil. One vampire lord took great pleasure in seducing him in and draining him of his life. It blackened his heart, it showed him how to turn love into a weapon.
With the help of an even greater evil, he destroyed his Lord and pledged loyalty to this creature he calls Mother. It has granted him incredible powers, and yet his heart yearns for love. He has committed the same sins that damned him in the first place.
My friends and I are not the first hunters to try to stop him. Know that all who have died this close are damned to remain with his castle, the symbol of his power.
Defeat him and you will banish him for perhaps a century. If you can free every innocent you can find, perhaps we can destroy his evil taint forever.
