The Characters
Pendleton Torst, rogue anatomist
Catarina Redmoor, prioress of an unusual convent
Panthalassa Laurentide, an orphan who's made a pact
Raoul Carathis, necromancer
Geradd, down-and-out swashbuckling noble
Events
Now that the Widow was safely recovering in the care of Viktoria Frankenstein, the group prepared to once again attempt to find the occult Red Window and shut it before an entity called the Chained Scholar could enter the world. Skirting Valekia, they made their way to the Karthax Mountains and discovered that there was a small village sitting at the base of the mountain they were seeking. A red tear in reality hovered above the town. As they approached, massive tentacles emerged from the tear--the mysterious Red Window--and began to lay waste to the town. Additionally, red lighting was pouring out of the Red Window, catching several buildings on fire.
With Gerodd in the lead, they began to ride harder for the town. When they arrived, they found the gate sundered. The group pitched in to aid the townspeople--whom the noted were all snow elves. Gerodd and Panthalassa helped move debris off of trapped citizens, while Pendleton and Catarina provided what medical aid they could. Raoul summoned his giant skeleton to shift fallen buildings as needed. Their helpful efforts caught the eye of Namariel, who ironically welcomed the to the town of Karstabellum.
This was an expedient chance meeting; Namariel was a scholar of all matters connected to the Outer Dark so she was able to fill in a few gaps in their knowledge about the Chained Scholar. She was able to tell them that the Chained Scholar, an eldritch entity from the Outer Dark, was worshiped by renegade Vlaaks. This was judged to be abhorrent in the eyes of other Vlaak, as the Vlaak's ancient enemies were creatures from the Outer Dark--so this was regarded as a betrayal of their history. In fact, the mainstream of Vlaak culture may have made war against the Vlaak who revered the Chained Scholar, killing them off before the Vlaak's general decline.
When asked if any of the snow elves of Kartabellum would be interesting in accompanying them to close the Red Window, Namariel returned with three of the town's rebellious youth--they were teenaged elves looking to take down a worthy foe to prove that they deserved to be admitted to Eisengraz, the fortress of the most bellicose of Krevborna's snow elves. Namariel took this ragtag group out to the foot of the mountain, where she was able to activate the Stairs of the Scholar--an expanse of black stone that stretched upward, held aloft by thick chains that seemed to disappear into another dimension.
The Stairs of the Scholar led into the Red Window. It would be quite a hike to ascend it, but the group set off with haste. They passed waystations on the bridge and many statues of a hooded figure with manacles dangling chains from each wrist. Geradd was the first into the Red Window when they reached the top. Inside the Red Window, everything they saw was colored in hues of red. Before them stretched a vast, humid swamp. There was also a strange vessel, shaped somewhat like a galleon though it had no sails or mast, perched nearby. The group decided to explore the ship first.
Inside the ship they spoiled the ambush waiting for them--a number of injured humanoids were hiding with crossbows. They were surprised that the humanoids were Vlaak--who were supposed to be long extinct! Also surprising was the fact that they seemed to share a language with the Vlaak. The Vlaak captain informed them that they had come to re-claim this place, and that it was an "sky island" called the Mote of Sycorax held aloft by eldritch machinery left behind by the previous Vlaak. However, the Vlaak had encountered "specters of the past" in the swamp that claimed half their number; now their plan was to abort their mission and leave. Before they departed, they did give the group a rough map charting two possible courses through the swamp.
As they traveled into the swamp, they began to hear disembodied moans. The sounds were coming from a vine-covered ruin that was to be half-sunk into the swamp's murky water. Inside the building they found a large statue of the Chained Scholar. A strange fleshy growth, that pulsated with life, was attached to the statue. Geradd lanced the thing and was splattered with horrid viscous fluid.
The moaning sounds now intensified, and a quick look out of the ruin's window showed that a group of spectral Vlaak surrounding the building. One of the ghostly Vlaak asked the group how they would die, and then battle began! The group was victorious; even their adolescent snow elf companions racked up a few kills.
Further in the swamp they found a clearing in with a massive, gnarled tree. Bits of eldritch machinery emerged from the tree, as did an observatory tower. A huge knothole at the base of the tree proved to be an entrance. They explored the tower first, but the machinery inside was impossible to understand. Back on the "ground floor," they found a praying figure kneeling before a statue of the Chained Scholar. Unwilling to engage, Catarina shot the figure from behind. They simply dissipated, leaving behind nothing save a hooded robe.
Placing a skull in one of the statue's hands and a grimoire in the other caused the statue to shift backward, revealing a set of stairs leading down. In the depths, they found the tree's blackened and burned roots. Nestled among the roots were a number of pustules similar to the one they had previous encountered. In the center of the chamber was a tall figure wrapped in chains--the avatar of the Chained Scholar was in the process of being born before their very eyes!
Of course, this was the eventuality they wanted to prevent, so they once again leaped into action. However, things immediately got off to a bad start: the Chained Scholar invaded their minds and revealed horrible images specific to each member of the party. Catarina saw a woman who had stolen her appearance murdering her husband; Pendleton saw Seraphina hung by her neck from a gallows tree; Geradd had a vision of himself being surrounded and then stabbed to death by the husbands of women he had seduced; Panthalassa saw the primordial spirits she had made a pact with luring her missing father into the depths of the sea; Raoul saw himself losing control of his giant skeletal minion as it crushed him to death.
This psychic assault left the party reeling, but they slowly regrouped and turned the tide. Pendleton's alchemy proved especially effective: he managed to both blind and instill fear in the Chained Scholar's avatar. Panthalassa also acquitted herself well, striking several brutal blows against the aberrant entity with her pickaxe. Raoul summoned his giant skeletal minion--ultimately, the undead creature got the Chained Scholar in its grasp and crushed him.
With the death of the Chained Scholar, the machinery keeping the Mote of Sycorax aloft began to fail; the Mote was now falling deeper into the Red Window. This sent the party scrambling to get back to the Stairs of the Scholar before the Red Window closed, consigning them to oblivion. They made it--just barely.