Characters
Doctor Pendleton Torst, rogue "anatomist"
Geradd, disreputable swashbuckler
Raoul Carathis, occultist and necromancer
Countess Catarina Redmoore, prioress of an unsettlingly convent
Events
Before leaving on the Relentless to sail to Harkenvault, Geradd, Raoul, and Pendleton were re-united with Catarina, who happened to be stopping in Palistraza after doing some missionary work on behalf of the Cult of Scylla.
Once the group arrived on the island, they followed the map they found in Yurgen's cabin to the ruins of Harkenvault. Harkenvault was a one-story structure that appeared to have been built into the foot of a large hill. It was slightly tilted to one side and not entirely level (1). From afar, it seemed to be made of gray stone, but as they got nearer they could see that it was instead made of a strange alien material. There were no windows and no doors, but there was a large rectangular indentation in one of the walls that was roughly door-shaped. When Pendleton touched the door-like indentation, he found it to be strangely warm. It also responded to his touch and unknit itself in an unnerving, alien way.
Catarina translated the words inscribed on the walls of the entryway chamber; they read: "We delve into the mysteries of life and death, guided by the light of Empress Lithka, untouchable be her name.' In the second chamber they entered they found smashed laboratory tables and two pod-like protuberances of the same gray material as the walls. When touched, the pods opened, revealing more blue glass vials of the sort they had been used to spread the contagion back in Palistraza (2).
The group heard the sound of something made of metal being dragged across the floor in the next chamber. The portal to that room unknit itself and a large suit of armor--its design baroque and alien in nature--stepped through. The figure was bearing an enormous two-handed sword. Catarina's attempts to communicate with the armored form were met with silence; it assumed a combat stance and advanced on the group. They decided that discretion was the better part of valor and ran in the opposite direction. The figure could be heard to follow them, slowly, but it did not follow them into the next room.
In this room there was a window looking into the next chamber. The next chamber held several latticed racks--each of a size meant to accommodate a human being. Both above and below each rack were clusters of open-ended tubes. Manipulating a strange lever--which had the appearance of a tumor on a withered arm--caused flames to blast the racks from above and below. Catarina had roughly translated the inscription above the window as "Inferno," but now the group realized that the word could be more faithfully rendered as "Crematory."
In the next hallway there were three inhuman figures laying in wait. They were tall and gaunt, with mottled skin and sunken, empty eye sockets. Each was clad in scarlet clothes that resembled the operating uniforms worn by surgeons, an impression that was deepened by the fact that each held a rusty surgical instrument such as a scalpel or bone saw (3). At first, the figures shambled toward the group, but then they broke into a run and attacked! The creatures proved to be undead and they were handily dealt with by the party. Raoul also re-animated one of the "doctors" as a zombie under his control.
Catarina had a good idea: perhaps if they donned the scarlet uniforms--they had found fresh versions in a disused bedroom--then perhaps the undead would not attack them if more were encountered. Raoul also found an ornate sword hilt in the rubble. When he concentrated on the hilt it generated a purple blade of energy--a focused form of this own psionic potential.
Before they entered Harkenvault, one of their suppositions was that the artifacts that Yurgen had taken from the site needed to be returned to end the illness assailing Palistraza. This theory was put to the test when they found a chamber with an altar. Behind the altar was a niche of the perfect size to hold the statuette they had found among the Scarabasca's loot. They replaced the statue, anointed it with ceremonial oil, and lit candles around it. Nothing happened, but when Pendleton smeared blood on the statuette's mouth, in imitation of the way they had awakened the dormant Scylla, they heard a voice in the air that chastised and challenged them. The voice apparently belonged to Lithka, the last empress of the Vlaak Empire (4).
As they explored further, they found a perfectly preserved bedchamber with a desk, tables, bed, and more pod-like chests. On the desk was an ancient piece of parchment on which these lines had been written:
All my people are dead: my family, my friends, and my workers. I, too, am dead. Were it not for my quick thinking and prowess with necromancy, our important work at Harkenvault would be over. I continue to labor in my new form, trying to find a sickness that can infect our eternal enemies. If I have perished, I implore you to find my lab, find my notes, and finish my work. They must pay for the Vlaak’s destruction. All praise be to Lithka, our Empress, our Light.
—Feras Marakainian, Lord Doctor of the Harkenvault (5)
Things began looking up when the group found a ruined library. The walls of this chamber had cracked and water was ebbing and flowing across the floor. Most of the books and scrolls had fallen from their shelves and were ruined, but two water-tight scroll cases were floating in the pool. Opening them revealed that each contained half of the formula needed to concoct an antidote for the illness!
With the object of their quest in hand, the group decided against further exploration in Harkenvault, though they were tempted by its untold secrets. Of course, exiting Harkenvault was still a challenge as the armored guardian was now waiting for them by the front door. Their attempt to sneak past it was unsuccessfully; the armored horror leveled Raoul and Pendleton with a massive swing of its sword; Raoul's zombie was destroyed instantly by the blow.
Catarina ran for the portal that lead outside. Although she made it to the door, the creature sliced at her back with its sword, leaving her with a tremendous wound that would have been fatal if luck were not on her side.
Geradd, Raoul, and Pendleton lured the clanking armor into the crematory and threw the lever, engulfing it is flames hot enough to blacken and melt its metal form. Their suspicions were correct: the creature was a mechanical automaton designed to guard Harkenvault from intruders. Pity they never got to find out what happened to the bodies of other trespassers who did not escape with their lives...(6)
Now that they had the cure, the group sailed back to Lachryma, where they were able to obtain the needed alchemical ingredients. They created a medicine that was able to save Pendleton as well as the other folk of the island who were afflicted--which, of course, served the ends of the Cult of Scylla by showing the strange faith in beneficent and nurturing light.
Notes
(1) - One thing they didn't discover about Harkenvault was that it was once an artificially created floating island that had crashed into the hill. This is why it wasn't level, why the doctors inside had died, and why several items they found were crushed in the impact.
(2) - Some of the elements of the last two adventures were adapted from the D&D scenario "Frozen Sick." Predictably, I warped things to fit my setting and turned up both the levels of Gothic Nonsense and WTF-that's-messed-up from the source material.
(3) - The Vlaakish zombie doctors were definitely inspired by David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers.
(4) - The characters in this game are probably the only people in the setting who are now aware that Empress Lithka, the last sovereign of the long-dead Vlaak Empire, is still "alive."
(5) - Lord Doctor Feras (whose name sounds like a Dark Souls boss to me) survived the crash by transforming himself into a lich. He had a lab further in the complex that they didn't visit. Probably for the best, as he was both an inhuman horror and an obsessive undead monstrosity at this point.
(6) - Previous visitors of Harkenvault had been Frankenstein'd together into a corpse golem that was decidedly harder to control than the animate armor.
