Session 2: City of Madness Report

Almost immediately, the reality of the city's horrors revealed themselves to the party. Sights of guards and citizens slaughtered, pinned to walls, torn limb from limb, and other horrid deaths met them on every street corner. Deeply alarmed by this, Inquisitor Tristifer urged the most extreme caution, but the party as a whole seemed quite unfazed by the sights, and were more than willing to continue without any consideration from life and limb. Reckless would perhaps be a good word to describe it. It was evident during a particularly violent battle in the streets of the Guild Spire's second level where the party attempted to save Lieutenant Arnold of the Drakar Guard. They failed and he was killed by vicious looters, and unnecessary damage was sustained as calls to retreat out of the way of crossbow fire were ignored. Either way, the party was victorious against these foes.

Farther down still the party encountered the battered first gate of the Guild Spire, cold, silent, and imposing, looming over the party ominously. Inside, a remains of a fight between guards and rebelling peasants left a scene of blood, quick death, and rot in its wake. The party was about to open the gate and proceed when a soul rending howl was heard in the lower streets of the city. Shortly after, a monstrous horde of possessed, demon like people. The party, having no intention of being torn to pieces by such a force, retreated up the hill with great haste. Luckily, they came upon a church of Corgastor a few minutes up the road from whence they came. It was as good a chance as any for safety from the horde, so the party piled inside. Once there, they learned that there was a trapdoor in one of the backrooms which was a fit for a key that had been found back on the fourth circle. Heading down, the party traveled for over an hour before finding light again in another church of Corgastor, though this time it was located in the heart of Drakar's fallen inner city.

Leaving that place, the party headed off in the direction of the Spire of Corgastor. All but Ser Arthur, who decided that he was going to hold the church and ensure its safety from the evils beyond. Foolish perhaps, but he was adamant in doing so. Down a man, the party moved forth. Up the street toward the Spire of Corgastor, which loomed high above them. On they went, through the ruins of the remaining city. On for perhaps half an hour they went, steering clear of danger. That is when they came upon the central square of the city. It was once one of the most beautiful spots in Drakar, bustling with activity in its better days. Now it stood desolate, with nothing but spread out corpses and blood to decorate the plaza. A massacre for all involved, and nothing less. Passing through it, the party looked grimly at the wretched piles of bodies and continued toward the spire. It was also then that the party began to hear a chanting coming from the spire, a chant that might be heard in a church of Corgastor. The wave of sound rumbled forth from the spire and into the city below, incessant and strong.

The road was similarly desolate beyond the central plaza, heading toward the spire. Bodies, blood, and more bodies. Closer they came, but little changed. A bit beyond, when they were close to the gate was when things became... strange. Eight bodies were laying in the road, sprawled in no particular manner. They were thrashing and screeching with their faces turned to the open air. A bizarre sight for sure, but nothing extraordinary after what the party had already seen. The only way to go forward was around them, so that's what the party did... or tried to do. Apparently the party's multiple symbols of Corgastor didn't sit well with the living dead, and they jumped to the attack. Dieter held one down with his hammer as Meliyeus blasted into the remainder with a barrage of magic missiles. Problem was, killing them en masse just caused them to screech louder. That drew more attention, a lot of it. Hundreds, in fact. Damnation. The party had no choice but to dash the final distance to the gatehouse of the Spire of Corgastor. Most of the party made good speed, more than able to get to safety before the undead. Thad and Meliyeus were not quite as lucky. They moved far too slowly, and would have been torn to pieces had it not been for Barbozar and the Dwarven gauntlets of Iron Grip that allowed him to use his strength to tug them to safety instead of them dying.

Once within the safety of the spire's gates, the party could begin to take in what was happening. A horde of undead, similar to what they had run from at the bottom of the merchant spire, had formed and was chasing them. Closer and closer they came to the open gate of the spire, an unstoppable tide of flesh. The chanting that they had been hearing since they reached the central plaza was now reaching a mind numbing level now that the party was in the gatehouse. It grew only louder as the horde came closer. It was then that the party realized that a figure was standing next to them, dressed in Inquisition finery and a breastplate of polished steel. Lowering his hood, it could be seen that his eyes were glowing an intense white light. When the horde was only 100 yards away he simply uttered "burn", and with that the gate crashed closed and a group of casters in the gatehouse began to shoots missiles of fire into the horde. Many of the undead were burned on the charge, and the other were perfect targets striking the gate. After a few minutes of ferocious fire, the chanting began again. This caused the remaining undead to heave and shriek like a man deathly sick. First one, then five, then ten, then the whole lot of them bolted away from the gates and back into the slums.

The hooded figure who was commanding the casters introduced himself as Inquisitor Jorg Davworth, one of the most famous Inquisitor's of modern times. Trisitifer's father Edsel had even worked with him back a few years past. He explained that the Lord Inquisitor had sent him to Drakar in the early days of the conflict to investigate what the elves were after and make sure the city didn't fall into utter ruin or enemy hands. For a few weeks the job proved to be easy. The city was well supplied and had the strong defenses of the spires, and the elves didn't even seem to want to attack it. They just waited outside in their camp, day after day. It was a week before the party arrived that things began to go wrong. The civilians we seemingly being overcome by some unholy fit of madness, begin warped in their look and filled with a desire to kill.

Party goes to the Inquisitorial headquarters at the top of the Spire of Corgastor to rest, research, and gather supplies. Tristifer and Dieter, along with Meliyeus went down into the depths of the Inquisiton complex to interrogate an Etayen captured in the caverns on the fifth level of the spire of Corgastor. The Etayen was angry and uncooperative, understandable given the circumstances, and only gave the party dark and cryptic answers to their questions. When pressed harder, to the point of beatings, he used some self detonation spell to cause a terrible, rupturing explosion of his body that injured the interrogating party. The Etayen proved a weak lead as it was, but upon detonation he became entirely useless. Still in need of information, the party began research on the history of Drakar. The Imperial histories were unfortunately sparse on details regarding Drakar's pre-Imperial past, but they managed to insinuate that the object in question was some sort of weapon. Afterward, Tristifer and Dieter spoke more with Inquisitor Davworth to see what more they could learn about the city from his time in command. At the end of the day the party was given the opportunity to explore the Spire's armory and equip new weapons and armor. They'd need it where they were going.