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
When we last left the party, they were unlocking a large, metal-plated door with a key they had obtained in a lower level of the complex. Beyond the door was a cage elevator big enough to move equipment--or cadavers--from level to level. They noticed that the elevator shaft proceeded both up and down. They decided to first use the elevator to ascend the shaft. The ride terminated at the top of a low mountain peak, with an rocky overhang to shelter the elevator from the snowfall. From the deep wheel ruts tracing up the path through the snow to this area, they guessed that something had been transported into the complex via the elevator recently.
The group then decided to try their luck descending into the shaft. The elevator moved down the shaft for a very long time, taking them much deeper into the complex than they had previously ventured. The short corridor leading from where the elevator came to rest joined an octagonal room decorated with statues of Vlaak surgeon-priests, each of which held sharp obsidian surgical implements of alien design. There was an iron-bound door behind head statue. Willard noticed that there were scratch marks leading to the easternmost door, so they approached and opened that one.
The corridor leading from that room ended in a stone door carved with the face of a Vlaakish queen that was slightly ajar. Peering beyond it, they could see a large chamber with pillars carved into the likenesses of misshapen monsters supporting the vaulted ceiling. Inside, three of Patchwork Jack's corpse golems stood guard by an eldritch metal throne. These golems differed from the ones they had previously encountered in one respect: gas masks had been sewn in place where their faces should have been.
Deciding that they wanted no part of that action for the moment, the group retreated back to the octagonal room to try the other doors. This was, in fact, a tactical mistake on their part that would leave them in bad shape for the confrontation to come because when Willard approached a door that did not have scratches in front of it--which were proof that the door they entered before was seeing regular use--he triggered the statues to wildly swing their obsidian blades, which wounded several members of the party quite badly.
Their lesson learned, they returned to the octagonal room and opened fire on the corpse golems from the doorway. This may also have been a strategic error, as Daytona's gunshots simply caused the golems to seek cover behind the throne and the group quickly learned that the creatures were highly resistant to any long-range sorceries they might hurl their way. The only solution was to charge them and fight it out hand-to-hand. Which they did, and handily won.
(Well, technically they could have parlayed with the corpse golems because they belonged to a faction that wanted to be free of Patchwork Jack, but they didn't explore that angle; thus, violence.)
After a bit of further exploration, and tangling with a few more corpse golems, they discovered a chasm down which a waterfall cascaded into an underground lake below. There was a chain ladder fastened to the side of the chasm, going into the dark. As they climbed down the swaying chain ladder, Daytona received a vision about Garazi--but did not divulge its contents to the rest of the group.
At the bottom of the chain ladder, the group found themselves on the far shore of the underground lake. There was an island at the center of the lake, and on that island was a small fortress over which electricity was arcing chaotically--an eerie repetition of Viktoria Frankenstein's island chateau at the center of Loch Riven. The shore had a small dock; the boats at the dock were strange, advanced technology, but Serafina was able to get one working so that they could head to the island.
Once docked on the island, Patchwork Jack and his compatriots--a man in an exoskeleton of steel and six corpse golems--emerged from the fortress to meet them. Checking his pocket watch, Patchwork Jack announced that he had expected their arrival ten minutes earlier--no matter, though, he was happy to send them to their graves NOW.
The first round of this long battle did not go in the characters' favor. Panthalassa initially found herself unable to summon dinosaur aid. Heck found Patchwork Jack to be more than a match for his previously unassailable undead vigor--Patchwork Jack grabbed him by the face, threw him onto his back, and began pummeling him with steam-hammer fists. Worse, when Heck let himself slip into a berserk rage, Patchwork Jack followed suit with a murderous rage of his own!
Beaten and bruised by the first exchange of blows, things appeared dire for the party when a demonic gate erupted from the ground, its portal filled with fire. However, this gate was help on the way, as their ally Nightsong emerged from it and immediately cast a spell that knit and cauterized their wounds, giving them the wherewithal to keep fighting and turn the tide. Panthalassa was finally able to summon her raptors, which tore into the corpse golems, and even a massive herbivore--though that was quickly put down by a blow from Patchwork Jack. Nightong threw down her Judas coin, exclaiming "Now you dance with me" to a corpse golem that was about to rend Khamaat in two--there was a flash of bright light and the smell of brimstone as Nightsong and the golem vanished to duke it out in Hell's arena. Serafina was able to sneak up on the man in the exoskeleton suit and assassinate him from behind. Heck was finally able to land some blows in return against Patchwork Jack, and Daytona was able to finish him off with a bullet to the head.
When they regrouped, Nightsong announced that she hadn't just come to aid them in their time of need--she had business with them as well. She told them that, in her capacity as Hell's Herald, she was entrusted with the duty of recruiting a team capable of pulling off a job that just might end the Hellwar before it spilled out onto the Mortal Realm in earnest. She had considered many options, but decided that this group of ragtag misfits might be the best candidates for the job. As such, she asked them to sign a black book and become satanic agents in return for a boon to be bestowed upon the completion of their task.
Garazi was the first to sign the book, and she signed in blood. Everyone signed the book save for Willard and Khamaat, who are either suspicious of what is being offered or repulsed by the idea of getting a rich favor from a Dark Power.
In the end, the group decided to part ways for the time being. Panthalassa would accompany Serafina and Nightsong to retrieve Viktoria from her safe haven. After that, Pathalassa would set sail aboard the Dawnrazor with Thomasina to find Pendleton. Nightsong told Garazi that she should return to Hemlock Hollow and spend time with her family because "it might be some time before you are able to see them again." Ominous and cryptic.
She also suggested that Heck accompany her and perhaps take the opportunity to get to know Ivara Graymalk better. Daytona would return to Lachryma and to Catarina--and also send the Widow and Viktoria's creations home. Khamaat was charged with keeping a finial safe--it would be needed in the task ahead. Also ominous and cryptic. And as for Willard...well, we assume he will keep looking for this three-legged dog in the interim.
