Characters
Garazi, a young witch
Aria, a strange paladin
Heck, an affable revenant
Panthalassa, a necromancer with a missing arm
Daytona, a dhampir gunslinger fresh from Hell
Rudolpho and Beebo, an organ grinder and his monkey
Events
In the morning, they talked the local blacksmith into making copies of the iron key they had found in the Grail Tomb because they knew that it would take four identical keys turned simultaneously to open the strange, oversized iron maiden they that discovered in one of the underground chambers.
While they waited, Panthalassa called a meeting so the group could share information. Heck, it turned out, was dead, or more accurately, risen from the dead; since Panthalassa was a necromancer, and her father Raoul was the current "Black Prince" of necromancy, he had been looking for her in hopes of finding answers to his questions about being undead.
Daytona and Nightsong both shared what they knew about the war raging in Hell: three demon lords had formed a confederacy to overthrow the Devil, and the war was likely to spill over into the Mortal Realm.
Nightsong also told them that she had a rival, Grimescribe, whom she considered her arch-nemesis.
Aria admitted to being an agent of the Church, but expressed doubts about the practice of burning witches.
Garazi did not want to talk about why and how she had been captured by witchfinders. Rudolpho also had nothing he wanted to share.
Once the keys were fitted to the corresponding locks in the iron maiden's base, it rumbled and shook as the iron doors slowly opened. The interior was absolutely dark, but a howling wind blew out from the darkness; the wind carried snow into the chamber. Daytona volunteered to cross through the darkness. On the other side, he found that he had emerged from an identical iron maiden that was standing in a cavern. Six corpses in blue tabards displaying a gray hawk insignia lay dead on the cold ground. Once the room was deemed "safe," the others joined him in the cave.
The bodies were examined and it was determined that they were frozen solid and had been killed by arrows made of magical ice; they realized this was the handiwork of the snow elves. When they looked out of the mouth of the cave, they saw a bone-white tower perched upon a tall mountain that they knew to be Eisengraz, home of the snow elves; across a valley they could see the ruins of an abbey, although what looked like smoke from a campfire rose into the air above it. Garazi sent her familiar to investigate. When her finch returned, she reported that a lone monk remained within.
Exploring the caverns revealed a natural chamber where a number of treasure chests had been stored, but they now yawned open, empty. However, near the chests were a number of sacks that contained remnants of food--and the food was largely still fresh, so someone had been in there recently.
In another cavern, they found a burial chamber, complete with a stone grave cover carved into the likeness of Saint Osteen and a number of incense burners that still perfumed the air. On top of the stone slab was a reliquary: the topmost portion of a skull, minus the lower jaw, floated within a reddish liquid held by a case of wood and glass. Nightsong was asked to identify if the reliquary was magical, but her attempt caused the reliquary to burst like a pustule, sending red fluid and skull fragments shooting from within it.
When they looked around the grave, they found one of Serafina's shovels, although it was broken. Panthalassa and Daytona's friends had been here recently! Curious about the inhabitant of the grave, Heck, Aria, and Daytona pried the slab from the resting place and uncovered a skeleton dressed in rotted white robes, its skull missing. Piercing the skeleton's ribcage was a sword whose blade was formed of magical ice. Aria claimed the sword.
Their time in Vostok now at an end, the group decided to head to Chancel with Nightsong in tow so they could obtain the magical word they had been tasked with retrieving from a Graymalk witch imprisoned within Kholograt prison. The group hatched a plan to pose as members of a touring religious ensemble and have Nightsong cause a riot with her music once inside to sow confusion and chaos. They managed to arrange a meeting with Martin Broadus, the warden of the Kholograt's northernmost complex. They made a convincing argument that their purpose was to uplift the fallen souls of the prisoners from their sordid lives of criminality and to turn their eyes to the light of the saints. To illustrate the kind of performance they were promising, Nightsong clambered onto the table and sang a beautiful hymn in a clear, moving voice--some members of the group began to suspect that, despite her deal with the Devil, she came from a religious background of some kind.
Impressed with their pitch, and slightly desirous of Garazi, Broadus agreed to their proposal. The only issue was where in the prison they would perform, but they settled on using the prison's enclosed courtyard and repurposing the gallows as a stage. The gallows would, Nightsong said, remind the prisoners of their dwindling mortality and the need for repentance.
Once inside the prison, Garazi sneakily released her finch familiar and set her to finding where Coraline Graymalk was being held. Coraline was not among the prisoners being ushered into the courtyard; the woman, her head shaved, her arms and neck covered in tattoos written in the Verbis Diablo, sat cuffed and leg-ironed in her cell. They now knew where their objective lay.
Back in the courtyard, Rudolpho and his monkey performed as the opening act. At first, the prisoners were unsure why they were being forced to watch an organ grinder and his pet, but when Rudolpho lit his beard on fire at the close of the performance they were cheering and clapping at the lunacy. Nightsong took the stage next. For the first five songs, Nighstong played it straight--religious songs sung in a heartfelt way. But she began inserting blasphemous phrases and ideas as things progressed until, without warning she let loose a hellish growl and her strumming took on a frantic tremolo pace.
A rage had built within the crowd, and it now erupted into violence. The guards scrambled to get it until control but a riot broke out in the courtyard. Beebo took the opportunity to steal a ring of keys from a guard who was running past, and he let the group out of the courtyard unseen by the now-occupied guards. Panthalassa exited by melding with the earth and reappearing on the other side of the door.
The group managed to avoid the panoptic gaze of the guard tower at the center of the cell block as they made their way to Caroline Graymalk's cell. Since they had the keys already, Heck was able to unlock her cell door but he did not have keys for her manacles--which he noticed were made of witchiron to prevent her from casting spells.
Unfortunately, Heck's extraction attempt was frustrated when a dozen guards spotted him and ran to intercept. The rest of the group risked being spotted and rushed to Heck's aid. With a sense of horror, the group realized that all of the guards on patrol numbered among the walking dead. Heck was injured in the ensuing fight, and this caused him to go berserk and become terrifying deadly to his foes; he took down a third of their foes on his own. Garazi was able to conjure chains that kept the guards locked down and made them easier to hit. The group was shocked when Beebo drew a pistol from his waistcoat and began firing at their foes. Despite being diminished from his time in Hell, Daytona still knew how to put down an enemy with his six-shooter. Aria quickly learned that her new ice sword was capable of freezing a foe solid; everyone else learned that Aria's eyes changed color and strange things happened when she got into the thick of it.
Once the guards were dispatched, Heck slung Caroline Graymalk over his shoulder and they made for the exit. The witch began to scream, since she had no idea who these folks abducting her were, but Garazi silenced her with magic. At the gate, they realized they had no idea how to get the iron door to raise. Aria chose correctly, kicked a door open, and located the leaver.
They ran into the woods near Kholograt and followed the sound of Nightsong's mandore until they found her. She had a black eye and a split lip from the riot, but otherwise she had fled through a back door without incident.
They explained who they were and why they had rescued her to Coraline; unfortunately, the arcane word they were after was one of Coraline's tattoos, and it could not simply be written down as the ink of the "word" squirmed, shifted, and changed moment to moment, so the woman bit down on a stick while Aria carved it from her body. Aria also healed the bleeding wound once the gruesome task was complete. Coraline told them that they could find her sisters in the town of Borza, just north of Chancel. She summoned her broom and flew off toward Hemlock Hollow.
Their next destination was Borza. While on the road north, they were approached by a courier who belonged to the Rooks; he had a message for Panthalassa and let slip that he was the third messenger that had been sent to deliver the missive. All of the others had been found "mangled," he said. Breaking the seal, Panthalassa read the following:
The HOLY TRINITY is on the move. The EGG is in the SEA BIRD’S NEST. The TIN SOLDIER marches to the PALACE OF TEARS. Do NOT attempt to find us–danger abounds.
V.F.
