The Crimson Door, Pt. 2: Don't Believe Everything You Read in the Papers
General Summary
Excerpted from the Journal of Shroud Agent Matt Harlow...
Month 6, Week 1, Year 908
We finally dealt with those elemental things, giving me and the other Shroud agents time to rest and prepare for the next leg of our mission. I tried out my Spirit Connection ability while we rested, a power that grants me access to typically off-limits magic thanks to the Man in Black's connection to worlds beyond our own. I cooked up a good spell, something that should hopefully come in handy if we face anything gigantic or otherworldly. Anyways, we made it to Aufiel's camp. It looks fine if you're a fan of living out in the countryside, and the frequent orgies are certainly a nice selling point. We spotted a guy casting a spell near the central campfire, Chamberlain and I heading over for a chat while Sonia and Lellia hid in the woods off as reinforcements. I was expecting Mr. Campfire to be some rando, but it turns out we had the honor of speaking with none other than Aufiel. I told him about how we were trying to check on Zuula and how we'd been attacked by multiple monsters in the area, but this Aufiel guy kept insisting that Zuula was too busy orgying it up to talk. He was even going to have some of his cultists attack Sonia and Belmont before I diffused the situation, and it was around this point that Zuula finally made an appearance. So much for that. Turns out she thinks the Shroud's full of hypocrites and that she's better off with Aufiel and his wilderness retreat. She mentioned something about a tell-all book that changed her mind about our group, but like... you worked for that group! Have any questions? Go and ask the guy who literally founded it and survived being vaporized by Fairouz!! The Shroud is a pretty cool place with everything it offers: international travel, job opportunities, access to unfathomable eldritch powers and communion with an elder god. You either have to be brainwashed or dumb as hell to leave the Shroud, and the jury's still out on which of those Zuula is. Aufiel made it clear he wasn't going to help us unless we agreed to join his little his nature retreat, so we all headed back to Watchtower to look for some more info on his little group. Aufiel was acting pretty sus, but I still didn't have any evidence connecing him to the all the monsters and plagues afflicting the city. Seeking any kind of intel, me and Lellia headed over to the big temple of Helm in the center of town to talk with some of the group's higher-ups. I finally got Lellia to open up about where she's from, and I figured out that she's a specific kind of tabaxi. She insisted that she was different from other tabaxis though, reminding me a lot of the conversations I've had back in Glace about the difference between a hill dwarf and mountain dwarf. To each their own, she makes for good backup when there's no sneaking around involved. It took some convincing, but I finally got an audience with the temple's high priest Ikathon. I'd had too many people trying to get me to into secluded rooms, so I requested that the meeting be held in the temple's courtyard. I could tell that Ikathon was just as suspicious of me as I was of him, so I used some of my powers of persuasion to get him to open up about everything he knew about the unusual goings-on in Watchtower. Unlike Aufiel, he was more than willing to fill me in on all the tea in town. It turns out that the temple of Helm is tasked with guarding a door that monsters from the Ostry Apocalypse used to travel onto our world and terrorize the world. The door's been closed for longer than I'd care to remember, but it sounds like Aufiel's little tent revival is worshiping one of those monsters that came through the door all those years ago. He may not have opened this 'Crimson Door' yet, but his group is certainly making things more dangerous around here. And the kicker was that Aufiel's agents had been stealing from Helm's temple in a clear violation of the truce he had with the city! Sounded like grounds enough to confront this little cult leader, and Ikathon was kind enough to loan us a couple pallys to help with the mission. Their names are Augustus and Aurelia, a few small-town heroes who seemed perfectly happy to live and die in his podunk town. If they only knew about the culture you could find in places like Kanara and Poroshenko: you can try sushi bars from the Northern Territories!! We all regrouped at the Rusty Caltrop to share our findings, Chamberlain and Sonia providing some extra intel that helped flesh out what Ikathon had told us about the Crimson Door. With a large enough team to confront Aufiel and his strange goings-on, we agreed to hike back over to Aufiel's camp for another confrontation. I tried extra hard to be stealthy, but that didn't do much good when we discovered Aufiel making his way over to the Watchtower city gate. He spoke with some pally named Viktor in real friendly terms, the kind of way you talk to someone who's working as an informant. I tried using my kalashtar abilties to warn the others about this, but Augustus took this as a cue to rush out and start attacking Aufiel's cultists. As if on cue, Aufiel sprouted wings to fly away from the fight and left us to deal with the remaining cultists. Wasn't planning on a fight so close to town, but perhaps we'll get a home field advantage...
Month 6, Week 1, Year 908
We finally dealt with those elemental things, giving me and the other Shroud agents time to rest and prepare for the next leg of our mission. I tried out my Spirit Connection ability while we rested, a power that grants me access to typically off-limits magic thanks to the Man in Black's connection to worlds beyond our own. I cooked up a good spell, something that should hopefully come in handy if we face anything gigantic or otherworldly. Anyways, we made it to Aufiel's camp. It looks fine if you're a fan of living out in the countryside, and the frequent orgies are certainly a nice selling point. We spotted a guy casting a spell near the central campfire, Chamberlain and I heading over for a chat while Sonia and Lellia hid in the woods off as reinforcements. I was expecting Mr. Campfire to be some rando, but it turns out we had the honor of speaking with none other than Aufiel. I told him about how we were trying to check on Zuula and how we'd been attacked by multiple monsters in the area, but this Aufiel guy kept insisting that Zuula was too busy orgying it up to talk. He was even going to have some of his cultists attack Sonia and Belmont before I diffused the situation, and it was around this point that Zuula finally made an appearance. So much for that. Turns out she thinks the Shroud's full of hypocrites and that she's better off with Aufiel and his wilderness retreat. She mentioned something about a tell-all book that changed her mind about our group, but like... you worked for that group! Have any questions? Go and ask the guy who literally founded it and survived being vaporized by Fairouz!! The Shroud is a pretty cool place with everything it offers: international travel, job opportunities, access to unfathomable eldritch powers and communion with an elder god. You either have to be brainwashed or dumb as hell to leave the Shroud, and the jury's still out on which of those Zuula is. Aufiel made it clear he wasn't going to help us unless we agreed to join his little his nature retreat, so we all headed back to Watchtower to look for some more info on his little group. Aufiel was acting pretty sus, but I still didn't have any evidence connecing him to the all the monsters and plagues afflicting the city. Seeking any kind of intel, me and Lellia headed over to the big temple of Helm in the center of town to talk with some of the group's higher-ups. I finally got Lellia to open up about where she's from, and I figured out that she's a specific kind of tabaxi. She insisted that she was different from other tabaxis though, reminding me a lot of the conversations I've had back in Glace about the difference between a hill dwarf and mountain dwarf. To each their own, she makes for good backup when there's no sneaking around involved. It took some convincing, but I finally got an audience with the temple's high priest Ikathon. I'd had too many people trying to get me to into secluded rooms, so I requested that the meeting be held in the temple's courtyard. I could tell that Ikathon was just as suspicious of me as I was of him, so I used some of my powers of persuasion to get him to open up about everything he knew about the unusual goings-on in Watchtower. Unlike Aufiel, he was more than willing to fill me in on all the tea in town. It turns out that the temple of Helm is tasked with guarding a door that monsters from the Ostry Apocalypse used to travel onto our world and terrorize the world. The door's been closed for longer than I'd care to remember, but it sounds like Aufiel's little tent revival is worshiping one of those monsters that came through the door all those years ago. He may not have opened this 'Crimson Door' yet, but his group is certainly making things more dangerous around here. And the kicker was that Aufiel's agents had been stealing from Helm's temple in a clear violation of the truce he had with the city! Sounded like grounds enough to confront this little cult leader, and Ikathon was kind enough to loan us a couple pallys to help with the mission. Their names are Augustus and Aurelia, a few small-town heroes who seemed perfectly happy to live and die in his podunk town. If they only knew about the culture you could find in places like Kanara and Poroshenko: you can try sushi bars from the Northern Territories!! We all regrouped at the Rusty Caltrop to share our findings, Chamberlain and Sonia providing some extra intel that helped flesh out what Ikathon had told us about the Crimson Door. With a large enough team to confront Aufiel and his strange goings-on, we agreed to hike back over to Aufiel's camp for another confrontation. I tried extra hard to be stealthy, but that didn't do much good when we discovered Aufiel making his way over to the Watchtower city gate. He spoke with some pally named Viktor in real friendly terms, the kind of way you talk to someone who's working as an informant. I tried using my kalashtar abilties to warn the others about this, but Augustus took this as a cue to rush out and start attacking Aufiel's cultists. As if on cue, Aufiel sprouted wings to fly away from the fight and left us to deal with the remaining cultists. Wasn't planning on a fight so close to town, but perhaps we'll get a home field advantage...
Rewards Granted
- Augustus and Aurelia joined the party
Character(s) interacted with
- Aufiel: the leader of a new religion on the outskirts of Watchtower. Despite the orgies, they may be responsible for the recent bout of bad omens in Watchtower
- Zuula: Originally thought to be a Shroud agent, she left the group without even putting in her two week's notice! Not cool.
- Ikathon: high priest of Watchtower's Temple of Helm. Pretty cool guy once you get him to loosen up.
- Augustus and Arelia: two young paladins working in the service of Helm. Don't give them any stealth missions, but they're good to have around for extra firepower
- Viktor: One of Helm's paladins who was working with Aufiel??
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