Dissolution Recap

Since this campaign starts and stops with long intervals between sessions, this page will hold a quick recap of the various chapters. This isn't meant to be fully detailed, just a quick refresher of memory.

The Unopenable Chest

Through some shenanigans involving two merchants and some ogres, the group wound up in possession of a semi-legendary "unopenable" iron chest. Seeking to open the chest, the group hears about an item that can open any lock, and some digging leads them to an abandoned house in Oldtown.

Pythoness House

The house has a sordid history, most recently as a brothel and haven for a cult called the Crimson Coil, until raided by the Knights of the Pale. After decimating the cult, the Knights cast a spell that prevents cultists from entering the the house again, unaware that a cache of chaositech weapons remains hidden in caverns under the house. Unable to retrieve them, surviving cultists leave the house abandoned, but ratmen, undead and various other creatures take up residence.

The group clears the house thoroughly, killing most of the inhabitants, including a demon, and helping a ghost find final rest. They discover many signs of the chaos cult in the house, including a book that details a number of the cults, as well as their obsession with bringing about the Night of Dissolution, when chaos will overwhelm the world. They also find the cache of weapons, one of which is the key they have been seeking.

Wuntad

Unknown to the group, when they entered the subterranean levels of the house, they set off an alarm set years before, prior to the Knight's raiding the place. This alerted one of the cult members who survived the raid, a half-demon named Wuntad. He and several other cultists reach the house before the group leaves. Though the spell still prevents them from entering, they manage to spot the group and offer to let them leave freely if they surrender the weapons. The group refuses and a battle breaks out. Though some of the cultists are killed, the group is badly hurt and forced to retreat back into the house.

Still refusing to give Wuntad the weapons, the group decides to try to wait out the cultists, hoping that once daylight comes, the cultists will be more conspicuous, possibly alerting outside forces to help the group. In response, the cultists bring in reinforcements, including teams that begin to assemble catapults. The group, hiding down in the subterranean levels, hears stones starting to smash into the building; however, before daybreak, a large bronze dragon lands on top of the house and electrocutes most of the cultists and drives the rest away. Not actually witnessing this, the group's only hint of it (beyond the obvious carnage) is a bronze dragoneye token on the roof, and reports of it in the following day's newspaper.

The same newspaper also reports that a large barbarian army threatens Tarsis, a historical capital of the empire.

The Knights

Returning with the key to the Path of Iron monastery, the box was opened to reveal a number of fire-based magic items, experiments of a well-known wizard. The group was allowed to keep these, as the monastery was interested only in the box itself.

Not keen on using the chaositech weapons themselves, the group took them to the headquarters of the Knights of the Pale, suggesting that they be destroyed. This the Knights did, appreciating the effort and the news of the chaos cults from the previous night.

Iltumar

After days spent more fully healing, spending their spoils and training, the co-owner of the Bull and Bear Armory, Hirus Feek, tells the group that his employee, Iltumar Shon has been missing for several days. They hired one Lavis Fallomire to track him down, but she disappeared as well. They ask the group to take a look at the last place Lavis mentioned to Hirus, loaning a few suits of armor for the duration.

The group finds a small house being used to perform bizarre surgical procedures that meld chaositech onto human bodies. The party realizes that this may be the work of the Surgeon of the Shadows, almost an urban legend within Ptolus for performing this kind of work on kidnapped victims. After finding both Iltumar and Lavis, and killing most of the strange inhabitants of the house (as well as some on the roof), the group sees the Surgeon of the Shadows. He sees them as well, and teleports away.

No longer looking to join the chaos cult, Iltumar reveals numerous things he overheard various cultists:

• The cultists are up to something big and believe they can bring about the Night of Dissolution.
• The cultists speak frequently of something that is going to happen in the sky soon.
• The cultists are about to destroy a powerful anti-chaos device in a place called the "Kaleidoscope Temple".
• The Cult of the Ebon Hand is actually a chaos cult involved with all these others. They have a temple in the Temple District.
• The Cult of the Ebon Hand and the Brothers of Venom have some joint project, centered on a certain location in Oldtown.

This last bit makes sense of some papers found on one the cultists killed by the group, the address of an apartment in Oldtown.

The Approaching Horde

While gearing up to raid the apartment, the newspapers are full with stories about the barbarian horde, which bypassed Tarsis entirely, and now seems to be headed right for Ptolus.

The Apartment

The group raids the apartment in Oldtown, finding it filled with mutated thralls in cocoons, violet slime, nests of chaos-spawned insects and some spellcasting cultists. Two different cults appear to be at work in the apartment, but those from the Brothers of Venom appear to have killed one from the Ebon Hand just before the group arrived. This cultist, evidently named Reggaloch was warned of such treachery, as the group finds this note on him:

Reggaloch,
I agree. The Brothers of Venom likely do plan violent treachery so they can be in sole control of the venom-shaped thralls. You should leave and find Malleck in the Ebon Hand Temple, to tell him what’s going on.
—Rhinnis

The group also finds an opening into a pit that seems to lead to a sewer system. A bit spent, they leave and return the following day to investigate it.

Temple of Deep Chaos

The sewers lead to a door that opens into a series of underground rooms. The group gets ambushed by a swarm of ratmen, with spellcasters of some kind attacking them through a peep hole. With the help of a huge fire elemental (original from the iron box), the group took down their attackers, eventually finding stairs that led into an even deeper level, this one more like an old part of the city that had been buried.

After fighting yet another concealed opponent (this one summoning monsters on them from a hiding place in the ceiling), the group also killed a spider-like, spellcasting creature of some kind, on whom they found a note addressed to the "Brothers of the Quaan":

The chaos cultists prepare something big. They talk of a huge machine in the caves beyond, and of something called the Final Ritual, which will be performed beneath a temple.

The group also gets into another fight, with more thralls and ratbrutes. Further down the corridor, they find a room contain both traps and a medusa. While they avoided the trap fairly well, half of the party gets turned to stone before they bring down the medusa. Rifling through the medusa's belongings uncovers a map to part of the temple they are in, with a note about "the machine" being down the "long passage".

Using a bed as a sort of stretcher, they retreat out of the temple, use some scrolls to depetrify and return after a rest. Waiting for them in the rooms they previously cleared is an infernal centaur with demon backup.

After dispatching these and some other creatures, they come to a crossroads. In one direction is pretty clearly the "long passage" from the map. In the other is an intriguing iron door. They check the door first, revealing a small room following by another door. After three manage to survive setting off a trap that locks them in the small room with poison gas, they decide to go the other direction and go down the long passage.

On the way, they run into more evidence of different chaos cults attempting to work together, but failing. Three Brothers of Venom (one dead) are fighting a minotaur that, based on his tattoos, probably belongs to the Ebon Hand. What starts as a non-lethal attempt to figure out what's happening devolves into webs and fire, leaving all the cultists dead but one of the Brothers, who now sleeps.

The Machine

Further down the passage the group finds a door leading to a vast chamber filled floor to ceiling with a strange, spinning machine. After fighting their way through more of the venom-shaped thralls and down a few levels of catwalks, the group managed to get inside the machine, avoiding most of its danger. Inside had its own dangers, however. Wraiths came first, but were dispatched before they could do much. Figuring a machine guarded like this must be up to no good, Scoffney started disabling it, stopping the rotation of each level as the group descended. A weird drwarf with metal spider legs grafted to his body entered a level above them and started shooting a strange energy at them, but another elemental was summoned to deal with him.

Further down, three demon looking creatures let loose lightning and other magic, inflicting quite a bit of damage before the group closed the distance with them. In addition, a huge, disgusting creature entered the bottom, vomiting up a corrupted spew, covering the group in acid and disease. The creature would periodically scream out "Mrathrach". Nothing the group did seemed to hurt this creature for long, but Scoffney noticed that each level of the machine he disabled seemed to concern and bother the creature more and more. While he worked quickly to disable more of the machine, the group fought for time against the demons, with lots of healing from Sikarsis and each other. Just as the group was running out of choices, Scoffney disabled most of the machine and the vomiting demon dissolved in a puddle of nastiness. The other demons remained, but were eventually brought down by the group.

Exploring the large machine cave (and some chambers that connected to it), apart from a little bit of loot and a lot of chaositech oddness, the group finds little to explain the purpose of the machine. They do find a note on the head honcho's desk, however:

The Final Ritual can now begin. Wuntad invested with Galchutt power after feeding on Galchutt flesh and bathing in Galchutt blood. Erepodi knows the location. Find the demon Gisszaggat. The return of the moon will herald the time.

They also discover a back way out, going up a long staircase, and decide to take it.

The White House

The staircase leads to a room filled with wights. After dispatching them, the group ignored a number of other passageways in favor of a staircase that led upwards. This took them to what turned out to be the office of a brothel in Old Town called the White House. Quickly rifling through the office, Scoffney found a financial ledger and took it. Even covered in demon vomit and thrall blood, they managed to "sneak" out of the building, with the help of sleep spells and bravado.

Back on the surface, checked into one of the nicer hotels in Oldtown, the group rests, intending to meet with the Knights of the Pale in the morning to share more about what they have learned. In the morning, each receives the following note:

Greetings, comrade -

My thanks for your assistance in the tireless battle against chaos. The information you provided Knight Brunner regarding recent chaos cult activity deeply disturbs our order. In calmer times, the Knights of the Pale would certainly take action to stop this man Wuntad; however, as you are no doubt aware, a foreign army approaches Ptolus. What is not widely known is that this army, through unknown means, travels much faster than expected and will arrive within the day. As a result, our order finds ourselves so totally involved with our part in the defense of the city that we cannot spare the manpower to deal with these cultists. Likewise, we regret that we must cancel your appointment with Knight Brunner today, for the same reason.

I implore you and your friends to continue your efforts against this chaotic plot during this dark time. It is likely that, whatever else they have in mind, the chaos cults will take full advantage of the confusion and uncertainty a siege from this foreign army will undoubtedly cause. While we have seen no evidence that this army is in any way connected to these chaos cults, anything is possible.

Please accept this item from our armory, with our compliments and respect and in recognition for your past efforts in destroying the scourge of chaositech. May it prove useful in whatever trials you might face in the coming days.

May Lothian watch over you,
Commander Dierna Hillerchaun, Knights of the Pale

The message is accompanied by fairly impressive magic items, tailored to the abilities of the group, making the group wonder just how much the KotP know about them.

Later in the day, the barbarian horde arrived, massing for war outside the range of the Commisar's guns.

Final Ritual

Researching the name Gisszaggat led nowhere, but tracking down the name Erepodi from the note leads them right back to the White House, where she was employed as a prostitute. They also uncovered rumors that the owner of the White House was Aggah-Shan, rumored to be a lich. Eventually, the group followed up with Erepodi to the Temple of the Fifty-Three Gods of Chance. After Scoffney charmed her with magic into thinking he was a trusted ally, she led him into a secret passage in the temple, down into an underground room.

The "doorman" to the room, a vrock, didn't believe Scoffney's story, so started attacking. The whole group eventually joined in, as did a contingent of orcs and their darkness-wielding commander. During the battle, it became clear that the people outside the temple were panicking due to something happening in the sky: the legendary Vallis moon had reappeared! With its presence, strange things started happening to magic. Spells being cast would abort half the time and, even if cast, would sometimes just stop. Being mostly underground at the time, the group relied on the somewhat skewed impressions of the elemental Rauros.

Finally dispatching the demon (frustrated by intermittent magic), the orcs and their leader, the group finds a book describing the steps to a ritual to bring about the Night of Dissolution. The ritual was complicated, but contained six basic elements:

1. At least ten thousand people within one mile must be afraid for their lives during the ritual.
2. The runes of four runebearers must be consumed in flames.
3. An altar resonating with arcane energies must be split asunder.
4. A Vested of the Galchutt must oversee the ceremony.
5. At least four devoted cultists must chant and dance wildly for a day.
6. A beloved king must die.

The group realizes that the return of the moon was likely the "something that is going to happen in the sky soon" they had heard of, and quickly found a large room deeper in the complex where Wuntad and his followers were enacting the final ritual to bring about the Night of Dissolution.

After some quick preparation, the group burst into the room and frantic battle ensued. When the dust settled, Wuntad and his minions were all dead, except for Erepodi and a pair of ratmen, who escaped. During the battle, a number of civilians were caught in the crossfire. Four runebearer children had been trapped in the altar, intended as sacrifices. One was savagely burned to death, but the others were fine. Six human sorcerers were freed from tanks, where their magical energy had been siphoned away to power part of the ritual. All these lived, but were heavily drugged. And, lastly, three members of the barbarian horde were revealed towards the end of the battle, including their king.

As the group rests after the battle (some getting significantly more high than others), the king reveals he had been kidnapped months prior, and is not surprised to hear that his tribe has come to find him. The group eventually escorts the runebearer children home and King Oulgas to his tribe.

Accolades

United with their king, the horde returns home in the night, after leaving the group with tokens of appreciation. The group decides to sleep outside. Come morning, a contingent from the city rides out to survey the now empty barbarian encampment. The riders include Cardilion Brunner, a Knight of the Pale the group has met before. He is outranked by many of the other riders, including the Commisar himself, who is unhappy about not getting a chance to use his guns. Even so, he rewards the group the Rosegate House upon their return to the city in a public ceremony, and the group is hailed as heroes. Mostly.

Once moved into the noble quarter, the "Unlikely Six" get a number of callers welcoming them, including Lord Zavere' and Lady Rill, current masters of the enigmatic Castle Shard. The group also survives a party thrown in their honor by Oreni's family.

Cassiadora

Through the dragoneye token the group found earlier (see above), the bronze dragon who drove the cultists away from Pythoness House reveals herself as Cassiadora. She has taken over (and is now renovating) Pythoness House and "requests" that the Six pay her a visit. She informs them that, while they have been celebrating, the appearances (and subsequent re-vanishing) of the Vallis moon has played havoc with some ancient magics. Being a student of history, she uses illusions to give them a history lesson about Ptolus. The abbreviated version is that there once was a powerful cleric who attempted to lock away evil magic items into a place most call the Banewarrens. The concentration of all that evil in one place caused the earth itself to rebel, and it pushed the Banewarrens away, forming the spire that towers over Ptolus. Not long after, one of the items being locked away, the book of inverted darkness, corrupted the cleric utterly, turning him into Eslathagos Malkith, the Dread One, who launch a reign of evil the likes of which had never been seen before or since. He was ultimately defeated and afterwards, the Banewarrens remained tightly sealed for thousands of years.

The return of the Vallis, moon, however, interfered with magic. This was seen dramatically in Ptolus when the Inverted Pyramid secretly floating over Ptolus became visible and when a floating apartment building crashed to the ground. More subtly, however, the moon caused some of the seals on the Banewarrens to fail. A number of groups noticed this and sent teams into the Banewarrens in pursuit of their own agendas. Cassiadora sent in a team of her own, tasked with discovering the fate of Saggarintys, a silver dragon who helped the cleric design, build and organize the Banewarrens. Ancient documents that suggest Saggarintys may have been imprisoned in some kind of suspended animation when the cleric became the Dread One.

This team were all killed shortly after penetrating the inner vault. Cassiadora tells the Six that they are her "plan b", and more or less demands that they go into the Banewarrens (since she saved their lives earlier and all), with the same mission. Fortunately, the first group carried a token that allows Cassiadora to open a portal to their position, so the Six can start where the dead group left off.

The Banewarrens

Already filled with evil magic items and traps, the Banewarrens is made even more dangerous by groups of delvers with serious backing and conflicting agendas running loose in the place. The Six encounter several of these, but the ones they avoid may prove more dangerous to them.

Cassiadora warns them that a group Inverted Pyramid has sent a team intending to repair the seals as quickly as possible. If they succeed (and they have a good chance of doing so), anyone inside when the doors are locked will be trapped inside for a very long time. The Six never meet this team, but are keenly aware that the clock is ticking.

The Church of Lothian has sent in a team to find a historically important weapon against arcane magic called the sword of truth. As someone taking a dim view of the church's Edict of Deviltry, which once baned all arcane magic, Cassiadora wants this weapon kept out of the church's hands. The Six do run into this group, and relations between the two groups are complicated, made moreso when one of the members of the church group turns on the others during a fight, leading to the deaths of most of the Lothianites. After helping free an imprisoned angel, what little remains of the Church group decides to pack up and leave.

The mysterious Shuul send in a fire team to uncover the secrets of the Banewarrens powerful warding generators. This group had severe personality clashes (the rhodindor didn't help), and mostly tried to attack the Six on sight. After three of the Shuul were killed, the two groups agreed to part, with the Shuul group heading back the way they had come.

Some time after this, the group found Saggarintys, suspended in ice. Looking for a way to free (and then kill) him was a bluespawn godslayer, sent into the Banewarrens by unknown parties both to kill Cassiadora's first team as well as the silver dragon. The Six proved more able and defeated him, then quickly (first try!) decoded the puzzle needed to release Saggarintys.

Freeing the dragon led to a battle until he came to his senses and calmer heads prevailed. Attuned to the Banewarrens like no other, he immediately sensed the failure in the warding generators and resolved to fix them. Knowing that this might take him hours, he tasked the Six with solving a slightly less critical problem: retrieving the sealing rod needed to reactivate the seals of the Banewarrens. Saggarintys could feel the location of this rod, high at the top of the Baneheart, a central core chamber extending halfway up the spire and connecting to the vaults of the most severe evil items.

The Baneheart

In the Baneheart, the group recovered a number of magic items, including the sword of truth, though it has been corrupted and is now the sword of lies. Most of these items they left in place, but did take a few in addition to the sword. The also managed to accumulate a decent pile of bodies at the bottom of the central core, though the iron golem they tricked into falling down there survived.

The Six also encountered another group of delvers: a beholder, a mind flayer, a dark naga and a hag (as well as some fodder trolls and bugbears), sent by the Pactlords of the Quaan to locate the black grail. The Church of Lothian member who betrayed his group was actually being controlled by the mind flayer and, through his eyes, this team knew of the existence and capabilities of the Unlikely Six (also recognizing them from the press). The Six ultimately dispatched the Pactlords, minutes before they would have claimed the grail.

It had long been rumored that, during his final battle, the Dread One somehow travelled from Jabel Shammar, his fortress at the top of the Spire, into the Banewarrens before he was finally brought down. The Six confirmed this, finding the spot where he had been killed, with the sealing rod among the remains.

The Six brought the sealing rod to Saggarintys. He needed a bit more time, and knew that the tinkering of the Inverted Pyramid wouldn't see results for days, so the party rested with the help of the dragon's nap sack spell. He also told them that days before the Vallis moon returned, someone else had penetrated the Banewarrens. Knowing the only the hand of the Dread One could act as a Banewarrens key, he concluded that someone must still have the preserved, severed hand of the Dread One, and if so, it might allow someone entrance into Jabel Shammar as well.

Having restored the warding generators, Saggarintys asked the Six to join the ritual to reseal the Banewarrens, saving the final step until the group had used Cassiadora's portal to get back to Pythoness House. The silver dragon elected to stay behind, sealing himself in forever to keep the Banewarrens from being breached again. Or so he claimed.

The Malady

On arriving in Pythoness House, the Six immediately noticed something was wrong. No one greeted them, and the house seemed to be in some disarray, but seemingly abandoned. They eventually found one of the house staff, but he had been infected with some kind of disease, turning him into a strange sort of zombie! This disease proved to be contagious, and had infected the whole house, including Cassiadora, who was found thrashing in the courtyard, trying to fight off the infection. A quick remove disease cleared the infection, and the Six reported what they had found to Cassiadora.

As they talked, a young gold dragon landed, informing Cassiadora that she had been summoned to help enforce an aerial quarantine of Ptolus intended to prevent anyone leaving Ptolus by air. The infection, it seems, had spread throughout the city, some of which was in flames. Cassiadora wasted no time, abandoning the Six in the courtyard to fend for themselves.

Information about the infection proved hard to come by. The normally prolific Ptolus press had mostly shut down as the chaos grew; however, the last issue The Courier managed to publish attempted to track the path of the outbreak. Some rumors suggest that a number of prostitutes in the White House had suddenly started biting customers, causing the whole place to empty out. Later that night, someone had barred the doors of the Cock Pit, an underground fighting establishment, and the gladiators attacked the crowed. A few were killed, but most escaped, many with bite marks and other wounds. A few hours after that, the first confirmed zombie outbreak was reported, as hundreds of infected, many in the robes of chaos cultists, swarmed into Midtown, attacking all they could find. Those wounded or killed in the attacks became zombies themselves shortly after and joined the fray.

The Six quickly realized that the White House, the Cock Pit and chaos cultists all shared a common element: Aggah-Shan. He secretly owned both establishments and was rumored to be a lich. At least one of the employees of the White House (Eripodi) was known to be a chaos cultist. Further, after the Six had destroyed the chaos machine (run by cultists), a secret passage led them into catacombs under the White House, though the Six had not explored those catacombs.

Knowing that they might be the only people who had this information, the group decided to take it to the Knights of the Pale (but not before Scoffney looted Cassiadora's hoard). The leadership of the Knights had their hands full protecting the people from the infection and the infected, and found the theory a bit farfetched, but four members of the order reasoned that if Aggah-Shan was really a lich and really was behind the Malady and really was working out of the White House catacombs, then their most effective strategy would be to confront him. They joined the Six to check out what was going on.

The White House

Since direct sunlight would cause the infected to slow down or "sleep", the group travelled to the White House during the day. The find the doors open, but many infected inside. The six were also ambushed by Aggah-Shan's henchmen: a nimblewright, a nymph vampire, a gnome sorcerer, a hobgoblin cleric and a rhodintor, all led by a dwarven deathknight. With the spellcasters hidden behind walls with peepholes, and all the infected about, the Six (and the Knights of the Pale who joined them) had trouble at first (with one of the Knights falling along the way), but managed to escape the ambush kill zone and work their way through the house, dividing their attacker's forces and picking them off one at a time. (Having the deathknight fail a save vs. chill touch and fleeing in fear also helped immensely.)

Descending into the catacombs (once past the undead giant octopi) revealed changes since their last visit. The initial chamber had been expanded and converted into a breeding ground for venom-shaped thralls, some of enormous size. Protecting the chamber were more thralls, the largest of imbedded with chaositech, with some of the others infected with the Malady. The group dispatched them all, including a strange caged creature (which turned out to be the source of the fluid that allowed the construction of the thralls).

Deeper into catacombs, past several other defenders, the Six came to a throne room guarded by hordes of infected, all of which shared a strange, glowing brand on their forehead, commanded by a female mummy (similarly branded). The mummy turned out to be what remained of Eripodi, "rewarded" for her failures during the Night of Dissolution with eternal undeath. At least until the Six promoted her to full dead.

Aggah-Shan

As the group investigated the throne, a disembodied voice (a programmed illusion) made them an unexpected offer, presumably from Aggah-Shan: "leave the ledger you have stolen on the throne, and I will allow you to leave here alive". Confused as to why a lich would put that much importance on a measly whore house financial ledger (see above), but not willing to let the lich escape, the group refused. The throne turned out to be a teleporting platform that transported anyone who sat on it to an identical throne in the lich's inner sanctum. As the group was disarming traps on it, three delayed blast fireballs were sent through the throne, detonating into the Six and the Knights one after the other.

The Knights were incinerated and only the holy symbol he had been given saved Oreni from being killed. Of the rest of the Six, only Scoffney avoided harm. Seconds later, shadows and spectres burst out of the throne and attacked. The question of who would go through the throne to get at the lich was sidestepped when, having heard noises coming through the floor, used magic to dissolve the stone holding up the thrown. It fell through the floor, exposing a large chamber beneath, and the battle with the lich was finally joined. After a few strategic magical exchanges, Caralaria managed to grapple Aggah-Shan (without getting paralyzed). This prevented his spell-casting enough that the rest of the Six were able to pummel him into dust.

Afterwards, most of the lich's sanctum was in flames. The group could not find the lich's phylactery, but one bookshelf shrugged off the fire. It was filled with books looking much like the financial ledger. On a stand on the top shelf was a ribbon made of lead. When placed into one of these books, the pages would "turn inside out", exposing different contents. It became clear that these were Aggah-Shan's journals.