Characters
Panthalassa, a necromancer who summons primordial creatures
Daytona, a dhampir gunslinger fresh from Hell (again)
Garazi, a beautiful young witch with a bird familiar
Willard Corn, a man of mysterious circumstances
Heck, a revenant seeking vengeance on witch hunters
Khamaat, a newly awakened mummy
Events
The plan went well, until it didn't. As Serafina suspected, the touted attraction of the Frankenstein organ brought Patchwork Jack to the Skarnesti Circus. The trap was sprung, but that's when everything went wrong. Patchwork Jack escaped, trudging north through the wilds of the Vespermark.
Acting quickly, the party gathered their resources and pursued him across the wastes on horseback. The weather did them no favors; winter had now arrived in earnest, bringing with it lashing winds, relentless snow, and bitter cold.
When they lost Patchwork Jack's trail, he set fires or left signs so they would remain on his trail. At last, they came to where his trail led: a fissure in the base of a mountain. Beside the crevice leading into the mountain caves, the group found a lit bonfire and a stack of firewood yet to be consumed. We find a fire and stuff outside the cave. A number of items were placed around the wood--there proved to be full wineskins and cheese and sausage preserved in red wax. Willard determined that the food was both edible and untampered with. Along with the food, a letter had been left. It read:
To Those Who Seek My Death,
Your ruse drew me, but now you stand on the precipice of my gambit. If you continue on this path, you approach your own doom.
Doctor Jack Frankenstein
Garazi summoned her familiar to scout inside the cave. Through Txori's eyes, she could see that beyond the mountainside fissure, the tunnel went north before become a switchback that headed south. She saw that a large double door within was guarded by two corpse golems bearing greataxes--though these two golems appeared to be of a higher quality of workmanship than the one that Viktor Frankenstein had sent after them previously.
There were a number of discarded wineskins strewn about on the ground, which gave Panthalassa an idea. She summoned a giant spider and strapped their full wineskins to it and sent it into the caves; the theory was that the corpse golems had a taste for vino, so it might be possible to lure them out of the caves so dispatch them in the open. Unfortunately, when the corpse golems saw the spider one of them took a bell from its belt and began ringing it. Both corpse golems then exited through the doors they had been guarding.
The party missed a crucial detail as they made their way inside: there were arrow slits in the walls. They quickly discovered the existence of the arrow slits when crossbowmen began firing on them. Garazi and Kamaat were both injured. Now on the run, the group saw a shallow set of stairs running south; they took the stairs and found the sniper's nest of one of the corpse golem crossbowman. After dispatching the monstrosity, they traversed the snipers nest to emerge beyond the door and out of range of the archers.
The chamber they found themselves in was not a natural cave, but rather a square room decorated with carvings of Vlaak wearing strange headdresses and operating unfathomable arcane machinery. The room also featured a rope bridge that spanned a massive chasm; they could hear water crashing in the depths below. The two corpse golem guards had fled to the other end of the rope bridge. The group opened fire on the guards from the other side of the chasm and Heck thundered across to bridge to protect it from being chopped down by the guards' axes.
Once the guards had been dealt with via violence, the group proceeded east. They kept uncovering caches of water barrels and preserved foods, which was odd given that they knew that Patchwork Jack did not require food or drink to survive.
Further in the caves, the group found two Vespermark plains barbarians imprisoned in an alcove behind a gate made of wooden slats. The woman offered to trade a stoppered gourd filled with potent medicine for their freedom. Heck attempted to shift the gate, but when he failed Serafina pushed past him and simply picked the iron padlock keeping it closed.
The group offered to let the barbarians travel with them, but they preferred to take their chances escaping back the way they came. Before they left, they explained how they came to be in this predicament: they had been ambushed by rat-like humanoids while hunting and were dragged into the caves. The ratmen were armed, they said, with strange guns that emitted eerie auras. The party now had some of idea of the unseen dangers that lurked in the complex.
In another larger chamber they found haphazard stacks of crates, barrels, and sacks. Inside were all manner of "raw materials" for Patchwork Jack's experiments: metal devices, bolts and screws, beakers and chemicals. It appeared that Patchwork Jack may be using the complex as a laboratory.
As they explored further, they found a stone statue of a Vlaak wearing a strange nautilus-like mask. When approached the mask opened up and a greenish gas spilled forth. Garazi was the only one affected; the gas made her feel light-headed and when it cleared she was left feeling exhausted.
After crossing through a door near the statue, the found a room full of pelts and tanned hides; the room had an almost overpowering acidic smell. Inside, a large leather arm emerged from a pile of tanned skins and smashed into Khamaat. A massive figure, which appeared to be a man-like creature sewn together from leather, emerged from the pile. Alongside it were two massive frankenwolves whose bodies appeared to have been pieced together from many different wolves. This battle was tough, and the party took a few wounds here, but ultimately they were able to destroy Patchwork Jack's creations. Panthalassa's summoned velociraptor was particularly deadly against the frankenwolves.
Further violence occurred when the group figured out how to access the second sniper's nest. Khamaat's fire was quite effective against the corpse golems, and the group now knew that they were afraid of flame--which might come in handy latter in the complex. The party also ambushed a lone teenage necromancer cooking meat over a fire; he had one of the Usher's stolen masks at his side, so they deduced that he was a member of the Fraternitie du Cadavre. He was quickly killed and knocked into his own fire. They did manage to recover his grimoire, and it contained a ritual for binding a ghost to a human body--perhaps a vital clue as to why this Cadaverite was in the caverns in the first place.
After barricading themselves in a chamber and keeping watch, the group was able to rest and heal their wounds. They located stone spiral stairs descending into darkness--from which they could hear both the crashing of water and a strange metallic buzzing sound--and went down into the next level of the complex. We'll see what they find next time.
