Session 22: The Torture chamber and Temple of Harmakhis

The Adventurers spend a week in the village and Syndra is called home. On returning to the Manor, they turn left and find the torture chamber and Temple of Harmakhis.

A toast to Syndra, moved up in line of succession.  Best of luck to her in Lightelf.

Written by our scribe Carl with a few edits by myself. It is based on our Sunday, July 17, 2022 session. Jimmy took the screen shots on Roll20.

Location:  Tegel Village

During the week that Reebo spent holed up in a room, reading and studying madly in his Tome of Thievery, the rest of us hung around town.

We heard some days back that several families had disappeared/left the village, and their homes were now for sale. Natalie had wondered if the Mayor, Ternelmor might be running a scam in collusion with the pirates or some other group. She spent a lot of our in town time just talking with people, and over the days and conversations came to a different conclusion:  the mayor, a standard politician but no more corrupt than most, is well liked by the village. Rumor is that he has an agreement with the pirates, but it is to PROTECT the villagers and their homes, not to exploit them. She now needs new theory for the disappearances.

Merchant Halaf Fec, one of our 'dumping grounds' for looted items, thinks that the monastery up on the hill, and the wolves associated with it, may be responsible for some or even all of the disappearances.  The monks keep to themselves, so this seems less likely than the local monsters, but ENTIRE FAMILIES all going at one time...

Something is amiss here, and while it is not our main activity, let's keep our eyes and ears open and aware. The village is small enough without losing more people.

Half-way through the week, Syndra was called home to Lightelf. She has moved up in the line of succession and now too important to lead the life of an adventurer. A six-elf honor guard showed up to make sure she made it home without trouble.

The evening after Syndra was "escorted" back to Lightelf, Natalie was out and about as usual. She noticed a wagon coming into the village, with two seeming clerics and four fighters as escort. The clerics went into Ep Stroten's place, but were inside long enough that Natalie had to go back to the inn or be locked out for the night. No chance of overhearing anything, and she did not want to be an overt nuisance and maybe start a fight. She did not recognize the clerical garb, and the wagon was gone the next morning

Ep Stroten (lawyer) is one of the very few people who are not fans of the mayor, Sir Runic Rump being another.

Mayor Ternelmor has been building (well, trying to) a citadel a few miles to the northwest. So far, only the foundations and a few walls are up. Labor is the chief delay.

Interestingly enough, in view of our last departure from Tegel Manor, Natalie met a traveling merchant - Alcanstan - who talked about Rasping Rashuak at the bar in Neptunes Trident on Saturday evening.

Talking about the Manor, he said, "The Wizard Rasping Rashuak used to travel to the past, the future and even other universes. He would visit strange, forgotten realms, to the great cities of Xak Tsaroth and Waterdeep, and to vast ruins with names like San Franciso and Ironforge where he would find strange devices that he would bring back to Tegel Manor and study."

Arkelm had told us that Rasping Rashuak was the name of one of the two Litches somewhere in the manor. The lab with the demon brain was probably his. Bastard...

April 20, 4433
We decided to pay a visit to the Monastery of Garm on the way to Tegel Manor this time. Say hello and well met, and maybe they will have some potions for sale. Healing and all that stuff.

Aefir told us that before she left, Syndra had shared some information with Aefir: "The gardens of Tegel Manor were once famous, with plants from all over the world, and from other worlds as well. Now the gardens are gone and many of the trees near by are blighted. No one knows the fate of the greenhouses within the manor itself, the plants are probably all dead and decayed by now." She suggested we look into it pretty soon.  Maybe a local druid to talk with also.

There was a greenhouse that we have not yet checked out, it would have to be in the eastern part where we have not explored.

Paraselene talked some about a demonic god frog, whose name she could not pronounce. The temple was destroyed a ways back, and the temple of Frigga was put up to prevent recurrence of evil. A monastery was built to the south, but later abandoned.  This is now the monastery of Garm. Could be Dire Wolves...

As we approached on the path, four dire wolves were in front of us. While not attacking, they looked like a "no further" warning.

Reebo went forward to test his amulet of canine control, see if dire wolves are affected. They all came forward and started growling, and other dire wolves appeared on our flanks.  We backed off as carefully as we could, and headed to Tegel Manor.

This time we went in through the main entrance, noticing that the bodies which were present before were no longer there. The statue on the west side laughed madly as we approached.

The main hall was much as we remembered it. One difference was that a butler appeared out of the air, and asked if we needed help. He said that the master was in town, and offered to take our cloaks. Shadow got uppity with him and the butler stormed off to the west.  Aefir checked for a secret door but did not find one, just some fresher plaster and signs that a door had been bricked up.

Reebo, checking the eastern door, heard the sound of a scream in the distance.

Shadow got too close to a painting, and backed off from it when he saw it smile at him. Past experience with paintings has not always been to our advantage.

Aefir opened the door to the east, and we found a hallway with three doors. We headed down the hallway carefully.

Door to the south seemed safe to Reebo, so he checked out all three before committing to one of them. South door was locked. End of hallway door was locked, and Reebo heard a scream behind it. The north door was silent and locked.

Reebo unlocked the door at the end of the hall. Especially with Aefir, going after the scream of torment was our course of action. Several cages full of people and a well with a chain hanging over it, your basic torture room.

Shadow stepped in briskly, and the screams of agony cut off. Illusions of people being tortured faded to skeletons.

As Reebo explored the room, he came near the well in the floor. The chain reached down to grab him. Aefir, thinking fast, was able to grab him and pull him back from the well. The rest of us remained poised to attack if something attack-worthy showed up.

The chain retargeted Aefir but missed.  Looked like about a 10' range attack.

Shadow noticed yet another rat hole going down on the east side of the room.

There was a statue to the south, holding a chain in its left hand. We gave it a wide berth as we maneuvered through the room.

The torture room had five additional doorways leading out.  We decided to back up and check out the other two doors before continuing eastward. Before leaving, Reebo checked out at least the far eastern door. The door was locked, and he could hear a whining sound from beyond it.

Back into the hallway, Reebo picked locks as needed to check out the way we had come.

The northern door opened onto some cells. Some skeletons of the abandoned prisoners, two in a northern cell and one in a southern.

Armed with her crowbar, Natalie pried open the cells. The southern cell had what appeared to be a spellbook. Arkelm salivated as he stored it away for later examination.

The northern cell, with two bodies, revealed some gold pieces from a hidden pocket that tore as Reebo examined one body.

A door to the north from the cells opened easily to Reebo's ministrations. A real mess, as if a big fight happened here. Reebo, doing his stuff, examined the room. There was a rathole, as usual. He found a lot of broken weapons, only good for scrap metal, and under the debris Aefir found a padded coffer. He opened it, revealing a bottle of wine in padding.

Old Derfingel Red wine. The seal appeared good, possibly valuable to a wine snob.

Arkelm flipped the table onto the top of the rat hole.

A doorway to the east yielded to Reebo. He could smell faint pipeweed smoke and mildew. It was pretty stale, but what do you expect at this point.

The room to the east looked like water had seeped in. Slick floor, moldy trophies on the wall, rotted furniture.  Natalie noticed a panel in the east wall. Reebo opened it to reveal a pipe, looking richly set up.

The eastern wall opened onto piles of junk in two storage areas. On searching, Reebo found a small lockbox.

Back in the den room, Natalie noticed another weird thing on a wall. Pointing it out to Reebo, he came and looked and presto, a secret door. Shortly after, an open secret door, with a moaning. Another hallway, west to east.

Aefir keeping good track of the map has been really helpful.

Aefir noticed a different part of one of the north wall segments, and Reebo thought another secret door...yep.  

The room to the north was exotic. The ceiling, walls and floor were all onyx marble, with a large idol near the north wall. Paraselene identified it as a Temple of Harmakhis, and evil god. A large copper ball was next to the altar, with a length of silver chain connected to a golden collar. The ball looked on the verge of rolling off the altar. A large clay pot and several skulls were on the altar also.

Reebo went to examine the ball and chain, but could see no easy to detatch the chain.  Aefir checked the altar for compartments, and Reebo checked out the ball more closely and...

The ball came loose.

In a totally unusual time, Reebo could not get clear enough to avoid being hit. Para was a little bit more reactive.  The ball slammed into the doorway, knocking the secret door out of kilter (not gonna close that again).

Aefir found the remains of a dead orc in the clay pot. Reebo pried the silver chain and collar loose from the ball.

Down the hallway, where we had not gone, a greenish light approached. As Natalie moved into the room, it attacked Shadow, the last one in the hallway. A Wight, AARGH !!! Shadow disengaged and moved into the room, leaving Arkelm in the hallway to crawl in after him.

Para healed Reebo fully, as the Wight tried (unsuccessfully  BAHAHAHA) to charm Natalie.

The fight ensued, with the Wight staying in the corridor and some of us tryig to shoot around the big copper ball.

We tried to get the Wight to come into the room, but he/it wasn't gonna do that...

It was a standoff.

Continued in Rooms of Revelry.