As the heroes hear reports of demonic occurrences throughout the city, they are visited by a goblin priest of the Silver Flame. The goblin named Flash asks them to undertake a dangerous mission into the depths of Fallen where he suspects they will discover the source of the recent spate of occult incidents.
Player Characters: Balkris, R. Sativus, Reckoner, Timber
I.
The Rabble had begun the task of consolidating their newly established base in the former Karrnathi bunker they discovered in the junkyard and training the members of the Steel Rats gang. Meanwhile, strange reports had been broadcast on the Listening Stone and published in the Korranberg Chronicle regarding strange occurrences all throughout the lower levels of the city. A growing number of people living in the Cogs and Lower Dura were reporting occult incidents and cases of fiendish possession. Much of it was dismissed as hearsay and rumors spread by madmen, but little by little the reports appeared to be creeping up the city, and a few incidents of demonic sighting were even reported in Middle Dura.
A week had passed when the Rabble and the Steel Rats received an unexpected visitor. It was a goblin priest of the Silver Flame named Flash. He was an old friend of Stab the goblin acolyte. Stab had recovered some semblance of his old self, and he now recognized Flash from the bag of rattling teeth he carried. Flash had sought out Stab in the hopes of recruiting adventurers for an important mission. He now turned to the heroes in Stab’s company and asked for their help as well.
Flash had been dispatched to Sharn by a priest of the Silver Flame named Father Gregor to investigate rumors of an evil force that was growing in the depths of the Cogs. He suspected that the recent spate of demonic occurrences was caused by this fiendish power lurking beneath the city. His preliminary investigation led to a Silver Flame priestess named Faela, a martyr who had served the sick and poor of the city until she perished some years ago. Her remains were said to have been interred somewhere in Lower Dura and was a hidden destination for pilgrims.
“There are demons and dark powers beyond mortal comprehension trapped in the deep places of the world,” Flash explained. “At times, their servants try to open gateways to the Khyber where their fiendish masters are sealed. This can be achieved by corrupting a holy site and polluting its divine energy for use in their dark rituals. My patron, Father Gregor, suspects that dark dealings are afoot in Sharn. He fears that the tomb of the late Priestess Faela may be at the center of these events.”
Flash asked the heroes to help him investigate these suspicions, warning them that were would be great danger but offering a monetary reward from the Church. Balkris, Reckoner, R. Sativus, and Timber agreed to join Flash the goblin on his quest.
II.
Together, the heroes ventured into the district of Fallen, where they had once gone before in search of a shifter assassin named Yeq the Grin.
Timber had also known Yeq, but from a different time and life. Being in the derelict and impoverished district, Timber recalled his youth spent among the Smilers, one of the oldest youth gangs in the city. The members of the Smilers were in constant rotation as they always recruited new members to keep their numbers high and maintain dominance among the gangs in the Cogs. One of the gang’s most famous and most violent members was Yeq the Grin. For Timber, it was not surprising to hear that Yeq had been involved in the House Orien murder and killed by adventurers soon after. For Yeq had always lived a life that was red in tooth and claw in the city’s dark underbelly.
But when the Rabble had discovered Yeq’s body in the Karrnathi bunker with its brain missing, it left a dark foreboding.
While exploring the district of Fallen, the heroes saw numerous murals on the walls of the decrepit buildings. R. Sativus recognized them as the work of a famous yet anonymous artist named Blantsy. Soon after, they encountered a gnome woman beset by a group of ravers, gangs of roving madmen and scavengers that waylaid people in the alleys. When the heroes fought off the ravers and rescued the gnome, they learned that she was none other than the mysterious artist Blantsy herself!
The heroes asked Blantsy if she knew anything about the recent demonic occurrences. She reported that the worst of the incidents had been taking place near the area where the body of Saint Faela, as the denizens of Fallen called her, was entombed. Many of the pilgrims that had visited the tomb had not returned, and new pilgrims had stopped approaching the tomb for fear of the unknown danger.
Blantsy led the party to the entrance of the tomb, a gateway made of two crystal arches which looked neither manmade nor wholly natural, but the gnome artist dared not go further.
III.
The party passed through the crystal archway and entered a long corridor. The walls of the tunnel were studded with countless gemstones that grew out of the walls. The points of light glimmered in the darkness like the stars of the cosmos.
They arrived at a large chamber filled with rubble and debris. Several enormous crystals were embedded in the walls, or perhaps growing out of the surfaces. A single exit led to a further hallway. Suddenly, the crystals on the walls began to glow and a shimmering light appeared upon both exits. On approaching either exit, the heroes found that they were blocked by an invisible force field. As the large crystals glowed brighter, the debris on the ground began to float in the air, moving faster and faster until they formed a whirlwind inside the chamber. The heroes tried to shield themselves, but the debris struck them from all sides.
What strange power was animating the debris? The heroes realized that the large glowing crystals might be the culprit. They destroyed the crystals, and surely enough the debris fell to the floor and the force fields vanished from the exits. The way forward was the clear.
But as the force field disappeared, they were assaulted by a terrible stench of rot and decay. The tunnel ahead widened into a larger hallway. Much to the horror of the adventurers, this hallway was filled with the dead bodies of countless pilgrims. When the heroes approached one of the bodies to investigate, the rotting corpse came to life and mutated before their eyes into a grotesque horror. Several more corpses rose up all around them. The adventurers subdued the fiendish creatures and fought their way through, burning the remaining bodies in the fear that they too might rise up against them.
The fires of their torches and spells cast flickering shadows all around them. One of the shadows stretched unnaturally and a long, wispy claw materialized from it. The shadow reached out and struck at R. Sativus who had been standing apart from the others. It was a shadow demon that had been hiding in the midst of the corpses! After ambushing the party several more times, the demon fled to the far side of the hallway with the adventurers in pursuit.
At last, the heroes came near to the place where Saint Faela was entombed. A strange purple light was all around them. As they entered a large antechamber, they saw the silhouette of a great winged demon before them. Its shadow stretched out unnaturally around him as if it had a life of its own.
“It is as Father Gregor had feared!” cried Flash. “That is Uvimahm, a terrible vrock that serves the demonic overlords trapped in the Khyber. The shadow demon we fought earlier is with him. They are trying to get through the gate of light that guards the tomb of Saint Faela. If they corrupt the divine energy of the tomb, it could create a rift into the realm of demons. We must stop them!”
Uvimahm the demon reared up his hideous head and spoke.
“You were expected, mortals…… My shadow servant had… informed me.”
Uvimahm let out a shrill, ear-piercing shriek, and a horde of fiendish creatures that had been waiting in ambush rose up all around the heroes. The heroes defended themselves and covered their ears which began to bleed, but it was too late. Some of the adventurers were paralyzed by the Vrock’s deathly scream. But those who remained standing fought back all their might.
Yet they saw to their horror that within the dark feathery folds of Uvimahm’s demonic flesh there was what appeared a mortal woman, trapped in the demon’s possession. When Uvimahm was struck by hammer or blade, the woman shouted in pain.
“See how your fellow mortals care not for you,” Uvimahm taunted the victim imprisoned within his body. “Bring an end to this suffering… Give me passage through the gate of light.”
It became clear that the demons were unable to pass through the light guarding the Tomb of Saint Faela unless it was touched by a mortal being. Despite realizing this, Balkris ran forward to challenge the vrock. Uvimahm met him eagerly and overpowered him with his demonic shriek.
“One mortal soul is as good as another,” Uvimahm said mockingly. The demon grabbed hold of Balkris and attempted to thrust him into the light. But Reckoner took hold of companion and pulled him back, struggling against the vrock’s fiendish strength.
As the warforged grappled with the fiend and the others held back Uvimahm’s demonic minions, Timber dashed forward and struck the demon with his fist. It was a powerful stunning technique that Timber had learned from his master long ago, and now he has finally mastered it. The vrock was paralyzed and taken aback by the sudden onslaught, then met his doom at the hands of the adventurers.
“How can this be… I am… Uvimahm…”
As the heroes struck the death blow against the demon, its form melted and collapsed into a pile of dark feathers and sludge. With the fall of their master, the shadow demon hiding beside him quickly dissipated, and Uvimahm’s demonic minions fled through the hall. The woman who had been trapped within the vrock’s body was rescued.
When all the demons had been vanquished, Flash urged the heroes to pass through the gate of light.
“Something has gone amiss within the tomb to allow these demons to rise from the Khyber. One of us must pass through the light to discover the truth.”
Reckoner stepped forward and entered. The light gathered around him as if it was absorbed by his metallic body. The glowing warforged stepped through the passage and saw the Tomb of Saint Faela beyond. The sacred tomb, laden with offering from previous pilgrims, was flanked by a pair of statues, representing the great paladin Tira Miron whose noble sacrifice created the Silver Flame, on either side of the chamber.
Flash instructed Reckoner to move the statues next to the tomb where they ought to be. As the warforged did so, the light upon his body glowed more brightly until the whole room was lit by its radiance. Then a brilliant shimmering apparition arose from the tomb. It was the figure of a saintly woman donned in the robes of a pilgrim. It was the spirit of Saint Faela.
“Have peace…” said the saintly spirit as she touched Reckoner’s warhammer. The weapon glowed brightly with a shimmering light as it was blessed by the saint’s divine power. When the rest of the chamber had gone dim and the spirit of the saint had departed once more, Reckoner’s warhammer continued to glow with a holy radiance.
IV.
The denizens of Fallen were thankful to the Rabble for undertaking the quest into the Tomb of Saint Faela. It would take them several more weeks to clear the hall of the debris and collect the charred and burnt remains of the dead pilgrims. Thereafter, the incidents of demonic possessions and other occult occurrences came to a halt throughout the city, apart from a few minor reports that were quickly debunked.
The city of Sharn had been saved by the Rabble, but no one apart from Flash, Blantsy, and the residents of Fallen would ever know it.
The Fallen Mad
Treasure
– 250 gp in coins
– several statuettes, holy symbols, and other relics worth a total of 700 gp
– an elixir of health
– a potion of heroism
Magic Items
– boots of striding and springing
Boots of Striding and Springing
Wondrous item, uncommon, requires attunement
While you wear these boots, your walking speed becomes 30 feet, unless your walking speed is higher, and your speed isn’t reduced if you are encumbered or wearing Heavy Armor. In addition, you can jump three times the normal distance, though you can’t jump farther than your remaining Movement would allow.