The Characters
Pendleton Torst, rogue anatomist
Catarina Redmoor, prioress of an unusual convent
Geradd, dissolute swashbuckler
Panthalassa Laurentide, a very weird orphan
Daytona Midnight, dhampir gunslinger
Events
As their shared dream began, the sleeping members of the party found themselves in a room with burgundy brick walls. On the wall was a shield emblazoned with a coat of arms: a dragon on an azure field. Alongside the shield were a couple portraits done in oils that showed people so consumed by their sins that they were in the process of transforming into degenerate, dragon-like creatures known as drakoi.
As they moved through this mysterious house, the group noticed that several of the rooms held landscape paintings that featured uncanny movement of the painted figured within. One forest scene featured lascivious satyrs chasing nymphs along the trees. Another landscape showed ambulatory rotting corpses.
In a bedroom, the party stumbled upon a woman who had her back turned to them as she braided her hair. When she turned around, they found her to be a blonde woman of middling height, dressed as a noblewoman of a bygone era. Her body and face were adorned with blue woad paint, indicating that she hailed from one of the barbaric tribes of the deep forests. They also saw that her teeth had been filed to sharp points.
The woman introduced herself as Lady Laoirse, the first wife of Lord Dorian Margrave, also known as the King Who Craves and the Lord of the Five Blades. Lady Laoirse was clearly sizing them up to determine whether they were guests or interlopers. She was also remarkably free with information; the group learned the following from Lady Laoirse :
- She confirmed that they were all sharing a dream.
- She also added that she was undead and sharing the dream with them as well.
- She believed that they were all sharing a dream because they slumbered within the Necropolis, which was suffused with eldritch power.
- She informed them of the existence of two other wives of Dorian Margrave within the dream; the others two wives were currently in the house's attic.
- When they told her that they wanted the Brineblade, she intimated that her husband would not give it up without a fight.
- However, she also told them that Dorian Margrave didn't dream--and hence he was not in the Burgundy House.
- Additionally, she informed them that the Necropolis was designed as a prison for Dorian Margrave so that he could not fully use the five magic swords he had collected.
Once they ascended into the attic, the found another woman, this one chestnut-haired and wearing a small fortune in jewelry, in a bedroom. As they entered, she was working away with a quill at a writing desk. She introduced herself as Rosaria Margrave, and several members of the party noticed that she bore a striking resemblance to Belle Silvra. She was more reserved than Lady Laoirse, but she definitely warmed up to the party when she was informed that in the current era the cult of Scylla had managed to take Lachryma as a bastion of the faith. She even kissed Catarina on the cheek and embraced her as a sister of the cult. She also gave Catarina her manuscript in progress--a shockingly erotic and lurid novel about a monk who seduces his novitiate.
From Rosaria, the party learned the following:
- She was Dorian Margrave's second wife--though she did not marry him out of love, as Lady Laoirse had.
- She was married to Dorian Margrave to seal an alliance between him and the cult of Scylla, in return for their help getting the Brineblade into his hands.
- She mentioned that her maiden name was Levon. (The characters made a note to see if Belle Silvra had any ancestors bearing that name.)
- She also told them that Dorian's third wife, Thomasina, might be insane--perhaps dangerously so.
- Lastly, she told them that if they wanted to challenge Lord Dorian, they were in for a very difficult fight; he can wield all five of his swords at once without even touching them.
Rosaria also took them to a secret staircase that led into the house's basement. Down in the depths they could hear the ominous sound of six voices chanting different words, forming a cacophony of sound. As they explored the chambers where Lord Dorian's bandit army had bunked down, they found a barracks with its own well. When Panthalassa pulled the bucket out of the well, the group were horrified to see that there was a dead, rotting hand attached to it. Feeling the need to experiment, Catarina cut herself and let her blood drip into the well, which attracted the attention of a flesh-hungry undead creature at the bottom of the well. The party debated whether they should haul the creature up, but ultimately decided to press on with their explorations.
They found a reliquary, which they raided, and a skeletal corpse next to a portcullis. In the pocket of the corpse's decaying garments was a letter that read:
Tanitha,
You utter fool. You and your fellow cultists believed that we worked at a common cause–to summon the avatars of the elder gods and let them reign over the Earth–but what man of will would not make those “gods” his servants if the chance presented itself?. I am not bound to the darkness as you are, I am the darkness made flesh.
I look forward to staining my hand with your blood,
Dorian Margrave
The group lifted the portcullis and waded into the water beyond. In the center of the water, which only got deeper the further out they traveled, was a large black rock, not unlike an island. Six figures stood on the rock, each of them emitting an eerie spectral glow. The figures included:
- A man wearing rotting robes, half his face covered in fungal growths
- A man dressed as a ship's captain, his features strangely fish-like
- A woman of short stature with leathery skin
- A primitive man in furs with a necklace of teeth and animal bones
- A woman in a hooded robe with manacles dangling from her wrists
- A blonde man clad in Church of the Holy Blood vestments
The six figures were looking at six corpses that lay at their feet. Panthalassa approached the captain, who introduced himself as Captain Vergus. In their brief conversation, Captain Vergus suggested that the party destroy the Brineblade should they be able to wrest it from Dorian Margrave. When asked how they might awake from the dream, he unsheathed his cutlass and slew Pendleton, whose body gently faded from view. Geradd was next. One by one, the party died--some by each other's hands--and awoke.
Everything they had taken from the dream was with them in the waking world.