XVIII.
Duskmarch 24, Goldday, Year 731.
Hadren Kelthorn stood in the rain, arms outstretched, his gap-toothed grin fixed in eerie welcome. From the hilltop, the three companions stared down, stunned by the scene below. Vessa had the keenest eyesight of the three of them, and yet her gaze kept skittering off the dismembered, robed bodies assembled into patterns in a wide circle around the man. Behind it all, a black crevice arced across the earth like an empty maw.
“Hadren, what have you done?” Alric called out, his voice rich and desperate.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Hadren cackled with undisguised glee. “I’ve paved the way! The Starless Rift is open because of what I’ve done!”
“He’s mad,” Maelen murmured for the two of them to hear.
“Very,” Vessa confirmed in a low voice. “How did he kill all these people?”
“Come!” Hadren called out jovially. “Join me, Alric! Let’s have a chat.”
The scribe—mage, Vessa reminded herself sharply—took a halting step forward but Maelen stopped him with a hand on his arm.
“Careful lad,” she growled. “Let us join you.”
He paused to look at her, hesitating. Then he glanced over at the grisly scene and nodded once. “We’re all coming!” he announced, and the three of them trudged through the rain, boots squelching.
Vessa clenched her jaw painfully as they drew near and the details of the massacre before them grew clearer. Men and women of all ages, all wearing plain, black robes spattered in gore. Many of the corpses were intact, but just as many had been hacked to pieces to form whatever symbols Hadren had used to… what? Cast a spell? Open the very earth into the jagged, yawning opening behind him? Most of the faces, she noted with disgust, were missing their eyes—black pits as if they’d been gouged with a hot iron. The rain could not wash away the stench; it only spread it: iron, rot, and bile. Vessa fought the urge to retch. She wanted to flee this place, to scrub it from memory.
They paused outside of Hadren’s circle, between two piles of bodies. Maelen seemed to appraise the dead with a calculating eye, but Vessa avoided doing so and instead studied the living man before them. He looked noticeably older than in the tavern, oddly, his hair thinner and whiter, his skin more sunken. Even still, Hadren was remarkably unremarkable to be standing at the center of such an impossible landscape of death and sorcery. He looked like nothing more than a laborer, one of countless populating Oakton’s streets. His hands were calloused and rough, bent by hard work as surely as his curved back. His face was sun-spotted and balding, and neither handsome nor distinguishingly ugly. Vessa would have passed him without remembering a single detail. Indeed, she had done just that two months before as the trio exited the Root Gate towards Thornmere Hold.
Hadren seemed amused by them not stepping into his gruesome circle. He grinned, eyes roving over Alric’s entire frame.
“Why?” Alric asked. “I don’t understand any of this, Mr. Kelthorn.”
“Mister, is it? Well, I suppose you’re recognizin’ my power, as is right. You see what I’ve done? Do you understand the implications, son?” He grinned proudly. “You’re looking at the man who’s gonna bring one of the Blind Sovereign’s generals back to this world.”
He turned, rain running off his sleeves. “Saelith the Vanished, The Touch of Orthuun, is buried there! He’ll be the herald of Orthuun’s return! By my hand! Soon the Blind Sovereign’ll blot out the sun, mark my words.” When Hadren turned back, he was beaming. “And I, Hadren Kelthorn, am proud to be one of the masons to make it so.”
Alric looked stricken. “Why would you want that? You’ve seen what his touch brings! Orthuun is a demon, of nothingness itself! He’ll destroy everything, shroud it in darkness! There will be no rewards for you aiding him, you must see that!”
Hadren scoffed. “That’s your problem, boy. You’re still trying to see. Faith is blind. That’s Orthuun’s gift. Look what faith can bring into the world!” he again gestured wide, taking in the bodies and crevice behind him.
“Besides,” he said, scowling. He seemed to be working hard to stay focused on his words, talking deliberately to Alric. “What have my peers done for me in this life? What have they done for you, Alric Mistsong? An apprentice scribe, toiling away and told what you can and can’t read? Do those ink stains on your fingers ever come off? Pah!” He waved dismissively. “You have that black bookbecause you want to know more than your guild is willing to teach you, eh? Erase it all and start fresh, son. Oakton has mistreated you as much as me.” His eyes studied Alric, roving over how he was taking in the nonsensical rant.
“You’re talking about the destruction of everything,” Alric pleaded.
Hadren sighed, a touch of sadness softening his madness for a heartbeat. He spit into the mud at his feet. “Well, you’re a disappointment, I admit. You’ve read the Tome, but not understood it. That’s clear to me.” Another sigh, and his eyes shone again. “I wanted you to see our greater purpose here, but I don’t have the time to educate you.” He held out a hand impatiently. “Give me the book and you can be on your way.”
“What about our treasure?” Maelen butted in. “You promised gold.”
Hadren looked surprised at the interruption, then winked at her. “So I did, so I did. Rest assured that I collected any remaining coins from all the followers and faithful before they sacrificed themselves to the Starless Ritual, Maelen Marrowson. You’ll have your coin, though… I’d spend it quickly.” He cackled suddenly, slapping his knee. “Oakton’s petty gods won’t be able to–”
Hadren’s voice cut off abruptly and he looked at Maelen’s waist sharply, squinting in the weather. “What’s that?” he pointed a gnarled finger at the warrior’s mace, nestled at her hip. “That… that… profanity cannot be allowed here! The Tome and that… abomination! Give them to me!” His voice cracked to a shriek. “Now!”
We’re heading to a confrontation, folks. I haven’t made any social roles for this encounter because Hadren isn’t particularly sane or interested in negotiating. In his mind, he would happily hand them a bag of money for Alric’s spellbook, but the Bonebreaker has changed the equation (why? I have only a vague idea, but we’ll sort that out later if needed). That said, I’ll do an opposed Charisma roll between Hadren and Alric to see if either is feeling particularly swayed.
Which forces the question: what are Hadren’s stats? The easiest template from the Tales bestiary is a Human Sorcerer, which is scary as a 5 Hit Die creature, but let’s go with it. The only changes I’ll make to that template are a) he’ll carry a dagger instead of a sword, and b) his 5 spells will be: A Wisp Unseen (what he did in the tavern back in Chapter 11), Beseech the Ancient One (not helpful in battle, but it’s guided his actions to this point), Crush of the Warp, Undead Servant, and Witchblade. These will also be the spells in his spellbook, if Alric is able to recover it. His 5d8 hit point roll results in… 28 hit points. Well, that’s sobering.
Hadren’s Charisma is 10 (seems about right) and Alric’s is 13. Hadren rolls a 12 and Alric rolls a 16, so both fail. The fact that Hadren failed by 1 less than Alric is immaterial to me… the point is that neither can relate to the other’s point of view. It’s time to fight.
Because of the situation, I’ll make the unusual decision to let Alric kick off Round 1 Initiative. He needs an 11 or lower and rolls a 10. Success! He’ll surprise his companions (and maybe even himself) and lunge at Hadren, attempting to grab and restrain him. This is essentially a melee attack with a Minor Exploit. First, let’s see if his tackle is successful: Alric has a +1 to attack and rolls a 7 against Hadren’s 12 AC. Unfortunately, that’s a miss.
Maelen needs only a minor excuse to start the violence so she’ll draw her weapon and Charge. In fact, she’ll use the final use of Adaptable and activate Charger. She’ll have a total bonus of +7 to hit (thanks to also outnumbering him 3:1). She rolls 15, so hits easily. She does minimum damage, 1+2=3, but will (thanks to Charger) knock Hadren prone. Perhaps she pulled her punch a little in hopes the man will see he’s outnumbered and back down. Hadren is at 25 hp.
Vessa will draw her bow, back up, and attempt to pin Hadren to the earth with an arrow (Minor Exploit). First, she must hit and rolls a 14 total, just hitting because Hadren gains Half Cover in melee (I’m not giving her disadvantage until there’s actual melee happening by both parties). Her arrow will do 5+3=8 damage (Egads! All this time, I haven’t been adding Vessa’s Perception modifier to damage!), dropping Hadren to 18 hp. Now the Exploit check, which will be an opposed Dex check. Vessa rolls a 16 and Hadren a 7, though, so not only isn’t he pinned, but Vessa can’t attempt another Minor Exploit this combat.
Hadren’s turn, and he’s going to cast Undead Servant to try and even the odds. To do so, he must roll a successful Int(Arcane Lore) check, which for him is 17 or lower. An 11 succeeds. This spell automatically triggers Dark & Dangerous Magic, so let’s roll that first: I roll Darkening, “Small open flames such as candles and torches are automatically extinguished within Close range of you. This effect last 1d12 months.” Ha! Sometimes the dice know the story better than me. This effect is perfect for a zealot of Orthuun.
Since these cultists were just recently alive, a Zombie makes more sense than a Skeleton. That’s what Hadren will summon into the combat, placing it within Melee of Alric. The sorcerer will then use his Move action to stand up, which means he can’t yet escape Maelen.
Good first round for the PCs!
Hadren’s fervor and sudden venom was shocking, but not nearly as shocking as Alric. Something in him must have snapped. With a raw shout, he hurled himself at the black-robed man, trying to drive him into the mud. It might have worked, too, if Hadren had been as surprised as Vessa. Instead, Hadren snarled and knocked Alric aside with a push. The young man stumbled but kept his feet.
Maelen took the cue. With her signature roar, she drew the black mace from her belt and swept Hadren’s legs from beneath him. He went down awkwardly into the mud at Maelen’s feet, the breath whooshing out of him. Hadren looked up at her with a hateful look.
“You won’t be getting my mace,” Maelen snarled. “Take your book and be happy with it.”
“No!” Alric reacted. “We can’t! Kill him, Maelen!”
As Mae glanced at him, confused, Vessa saw Hadren begin a gasping chant, much like Alric when he’d healed Maelen. She didn’t know what spell the man intended to cast, but she supposed they wouldn’t like it, so she notched an arrow and let fly in one smooth motion. Vessa intended the arrow to pierce Hadren’s arm to the ground, but the rain and Maelen standing over him made it a difficult shot. The shaft sunk into his shoulder instead. Hadren hissed in pain and he cursed.
She hadn’t been fast enough. Even as the arrow struck and Hadren ceased his chanting, one of the corpses near Alric began to twitch. Vessa blinked as a black-robed woman pulled herself from one of the piles, her eyes burned out and black, her throat slashed.
“Alric! Look out!” she shouted in warning.
Round 2, and now Vessa rolls an 11 initiative, succeeding. She will swivel her aim to the zombie and fire. Unfortunately, a nat-1 is a Fumble. If the zombie had a ranged attack, it could return fire on Vessa. Since it doesn’t and is in melee with Alric, it gets a free attack on her ally. Thankfully, the zombie rolls a 6+2=8, missing Alric’s 10 AC. Whew. That could have been a disaster.
Maelen will press her advantage, rolling a 20 total to hit Hadren. This time, she does max damage (10), dropping Hadren quickly to 8 hit points. Wow!
Alric, now aware of the zombie next to him, will swing with his staff two-handed. His 5 total misses badly.
Hadren has a choice: Turn invisible via A Wisp Unseen or do something nasty to Maelen in hopes of taking her out. He really wants Alric’s book, so I think he’ll chance the attack on Maelen. He’ll attempt to cast Crush of the Warp, effectively the old “hold person” spell from D&D. To do so, he again must succeed on a spell check, and rolls a nat-20! That is a Terrible Failure, meaning the spell fails and he automatically triggers another DDM effect. I roll Rift, “a random enraged monster from the Veil appears within Close range of you. The monster wreaks havoc for 1d4 minutes, then vanishes.” Holy moly. I roll on the random table provided, and suddenly everyone has an angry Shade (a 4 HD incorporeal undead) to deal with. What the what!? Perfect narratively… incredibly dangerous for the party.
Technically, Hadren should have used this action to give orders to the Zombie he summoned, but I’m going to wave away that requirement to keep the fight interesting and let the creature mindlessly attack Alric until it’s dead, which was Hadren’s implicit goal. It rolls a 17+2=19 to hit, doing 6 damage and dropping Alric to a mere 5 hit points.
Bad turn! Bad turn!
The dead, eyeless woman took a fumbling swing at the startled Alric, and he stumbled away. Vessa drew another arrow. Indecision stabbed through her—Hadren or the zombie? Then she saw Maelen bat Hadren aside with the head of her spiked mace. Her friend would be fine, she decided. Alric wouldn’t.
She let loose an arrow, but it thunked into the woman’s back without her slowing or even seeming to notice. Instead, the corpse lunged with surprising speed, wrapping her pale fingers around Alric’s throat. The dead cultist, mutilated face utterly impassive, squeezed, and Alric began sputtering and choking.
Maelen barked a harsh cry of surprise and Vessa glanced in her direction. Hadren, blood running down an arm that now hung limp at his side, was stumbling away, chanting again and with his other hand raised towards her. As she watched in horror, Hadren’s eyes turned utterly black. Dark oil began running down his chin from his chanting mouth, and then… his shadow loomed up behind him, like a thing alive.
Maelen’s turn to roll initiative, and she thankfully rolls a 6. She sees the danger Alric is in and wants nothing to do with the Shade, so she’ll Charge the zombie (since Charger is still active). She rolls an 18 and hits, doing 6 total damage to (rolling 2d8+2) 14 hit points and sending it flying away from Alric. The zombie drops to 8 hp, and Vessa will shoot it again. This time she rolls 15, burying an arrow for 5+3=8 damage! The zombie dies before it can finish off Alric.
Alric will roll a Int(Divine Lore) to see if he knows what Hadren just inadvertently summoned. He rolls a nat-1 (what is up with these swingy rolls today!?) and knows exactly what the Shade is. He’ll call for a Party Retreat the next round.
First, though, our two remaining enemies will act. They aren’t on the same side, so I’ll do an opposed roll to see who acts first. The shade wins, and Hadren is the closest to it. It rolls a 17+4=21 to hit, doing 4 damage (taking him to 4 hp) and draining 2 Strength from him. Realizing his imminent death, he’ll attempt to cast A Wisp Unseen to escape. But he rolls an 18 and fails. I then roll a DDM check on 1d10 and get a 1! This time his DDM effect is Spellburst, “You cast a random spell at the intended target. The spell lasts a minimum of 1 minute.” The magic must be distorted at the Starless Rift, or else Hadren is panicking. Three DDM results in three rounds is bonkers. Anyway, he’s the target of (rolls on random table) Place of Perfect Night, and the area around him and the shade becomes total darkness. Whoah. Cinematic. Failing magic in this game is cuh-razy.
The unnatural darkness provides a perfect excuse for the Party Retreat. Now the question is: Can they get away? We’re going to have our first group Luck check, which means everyone rolls and at least half (in this case, two members) must succeed for the group to pass. Luck rolls are often modified by an Attribute, and in this case, Dex makes the most sense (sorry Alric). Let’s go most- to least-likely. Doing a Luck(Dex) check, Vessa rolls a nat-1 and succeeds easily. Doing so drops her Luck score to 9, however. Maelen rolls a 7 and succeeds, and her Luck drops to 10. These successes take the pressure off Alric, who rolls a 16 and fails. His Luck score remains untouched.
I could impose a Chase on the party but given the circumstances I’ll say that the shade devouring Hadren fulfills its needs and it can return to the from Void whence it came. I like that the magical darkness also means that the party doesn’t know what happened to Hadren, and he could return (as a shade!). The biggest downside, of course, is that Hadren will be utterly gone when the darkness lifts, which means no spellbook for Alric.
Vessa expected the shadow to attack Maelen, but like Alric had said at the campfire—these men were playing with forces they apparently could not control. Perhaps Hadren Kelthorn had offended his demon god in some way, or perhaps the thing he summoned was fundamentally uncontrollable. Either way, the looming shadow fell upon the old man like a cat upon a mouse, black fingers outstretched like jagged claws. Hadren screamed, first in surprise and then in pain, and as he did so the shadow’s body expanded and consumed him. The darkness swelled, bulging outward like a living cloak. Hadren’s screams dwindled fast, falling away like a stone dropped down a well before the black shroud snapped shut around him.
Vessa was so horrified by the scene that she didn’t register that Maelen had moved to help Alric. The warrior brought her mace down again and again, crushing the animated corpse even as it wrung the life out of their companion. A particularly forceful backswing caught the zombie in the side and sent it flying away from Alric.
“Vess!” Maelen shouted in command. “Help, dammit!”
She shook her head and took aim. A single arrow pierced the woman’s skull, directly at the base where head met neck. Whether it was her shot, or Maelen’s continued battering, or perhaps Hadren releasing his hold upon the woman as he fought the darkness all around him, the dead cultist collapsed, again lifeless.
Alric sucked in deep breaths, looked wild-eyed at the growing, pulsing darkness, and yelled. “Run!”
They ran.
Maelen hooked an arm under Alric and hauled him up, half-carrying and half-dragging him as her boots tore through the mud. Vessa rushed to his other side and helped. The two women, pulling Alric between them, stumped through the rain, over the low hill they’d just crested. Vessa spared a brief look over her shoulder at the hill. The darkness was like a living thing—a pulsing, silent mass of blackness in the constant rain, and growing wider to consume the grotesque piles of cultists. She shuddered and pushed her legs harder to get away.
“How…” she panted as they stumbled over the hill. “Far… do we… go?”
“Farther,” Maelen growled, her thickly muscled legs pumping.
Alric regained his wits enough to move his legs, and though they could hear and see nothing behind them, they kept running until they’d crested a second low hill and dropped to the other side of it. There they collapsed, gasping, as the rain continued unceasingly.
“What… what was that?” she asked Alric. “What happened?”
Alric shook his head, still too out of breath to speak. After several attempts he managed to sputter. “Don’t know. He… the magic consumed him.”
“Quiet,” Maelen barked, and the three of them fell silent. Vessa and Maelen strained to hear anything but the rainfall and Alric’s labored breathing. They failed.
The warrior swore. “Vess, go look. But be careful.”
She nodded once and stood. Without a backward glance, she was moving as silently as her countless days of practice could enable. Stealth in the rain was theoretically easier than fair weather, except that the landscape was as blurred to her as anyone looking for her. It made judging places to take cover and hide trickier. Still, with the hills and scrubby trees, she moved wide, taking a less direct route than their retreat to come at the Starless Rift from a different direction. She found a low, rocky shelf of a hill and ducked behind it. Stilling her breathing and adjusting her hood to keep the water from her eyes, she peered around the rock.
Hadren was gone, along with the piles of cultist bodies in arcane symbols. She rubbed at her eyes, scanning. The ground where the bodies had lain was bare, scrub grass flattened by nothing. No blood. No limbs. No symbols. The rain fell upon an empty field, as if the massacre had never existed at all.
The Starless Rift was there, however, an ominous black scar on the plain between hills.
Some quick housekeeping: The brief respite behind the hill counts as a Short Rest for the PCs. Alric makes one of his two Will saves. Does he regain a spell slot to be able to cast Mend Flesh or heal back some hit points? Let’s go for the sure thing and get back half his missing health. That leaves him at 9 of 14 hp. Maelen also passes one of the two checks and will regain a use of Adaptable. Finally, Vessa is surprisingly untouched except for missing Luck, so she doesn’t need to roll.
The Chaos Factor has increased back to 7 after that crazy scene, and I’ve updated my Characters List to replace Hadren Kelthorn with “Shade of Hadren Kelthorn.” When it’s time to roll on that table, we may see our crazy cultist again!
Next: Don’t Jump [with game notes]
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What a showdown!! Magic is dangerous alright!
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