The Hunting of Azirapheal/The Scouring of the Cathedral

The Party has found evidence that a group of Crusaders from Arnareth have infiltrated Peloch and are intent on killing Azirapheal. The Party has raced across the desert and made it to the city, but are they too late to save their patron?
Helmrah, Khaya, Max, Nora & Zorma headed into the desert to meet Nadir and Eyún, where they were investigating a pilgrimage caravan wreck. We meet up with their navigator, Ursmas, who will navigate us through the desert as we figure out what happened to the caravan. When we get to the wreck site, Khaya finds a horseshoe and sword that indicate that Crusaders were here at some point. Nadir notices that some of the pilgrims' bodies are missing their clothing and belongings. On the outskirts of the wreck, we notice a path of horses and footprints that head north.
Assuming that it is the Crusaders, we follow it, and half a day's walk away, we find a cave that looks like the Crusaders used to tend their wounds and change their clothes, leaving theirs in a pile in the back of the cave and then heading out. We assume that they are heading back to Peloch dressed as pilgrims in an attempt to infiltrate the Church of the Redeemer Reborn. The party decides to head back to Peloch and takes the fastest way through the desert. A short while after they have set off, they feel the sand fall out from below them as a few members fall into a pit and are set upon by orcs. The party fought off the orcs using light to their advantage, thanks to Khaya's fairy fire and Zorma turning Nura's sword into a beacon. The chief orc captured Zorma, and before the orc could run away, Max cast a hypnotic image into the sky, immobilizing them, and then was able to take out the chief orc with Khaya's skeleton "sheep," finishing off his mount. The "sheep" ate the bones and got noticeably bigger.
The party continued on through the desert after that, with the only noticeable event being that they came across an unholy amount of chickens being led by a blue chicken walking through the desert. After Helmrah sensed that they contained no more than the standard amount of demonic energy for a chicken, the party walked around them and continued on their way.
When they came to the shore of the lake outside of Peloch, it was after the last boat had crossed, so they decided to find passage and split into two parties. Helmrah, Eyún, Nadir, and Nura would go to a tavern to bribe a pilot into using their boat to cross the lake. Khaya, Max & Zorma go to the docks to steal a boat. Helmrah is able to get a pilot quickly by offering 50 gold for the crossing, and as they are walking down the dock to his boat, they come across the group stealing the boat. The captain sinks the boat they were attempting to steal and welcomes everyone onto his boat. Once on the lake, the party relaxes, and the journey passes with little event. At one point, another boat approaches, and the pilot flashes an amulet of a disembodied black tongue that he wears around his neck, marking him as part of the largest worldwide crime syndicate. Once the party reaches the opposite shore and enters the Outer City, Helmrah hands the pilot her coin from the bloodsteel guide as payment to get us into the city after hours.
Under the cover of night, the party entered Peloch through the Great Gate and made their way through the city towards the Gods Walk. Upon arrival, they discovered the front doors of the Temple of the Redeemer Reborn had been kicked in, and the sounds of violence emanated from within. They saw a crusader standing guard on the front stairs as they approached. Nura pushed past the sentry and entered the temple to find more crusaders harming the staff and worshippers, along with a wizard summoning a satyr demon. The demon charged at Nura, knocking the wind out of her.
Outside, Zorma grappled the sentry off the stairs, allowing Eyún and Max to send blasts of flame into the temple at the demon. Nadir fought alongside Zorma against the sentry. Just as Zorma and Nadir gained the upper hand, one of the Crusaders unleashed a fireball out the doors, hitting the party and killing the sentry. When the flames subsided, the party noticed Eyún had lost her hair.
The fight continued as the party entered the temple, battling the 2 remaining crusaders and the satyr demon. Max cast "hold person" on the crusader wizard, allowing Nadir and Nura to kill him. As the remaining crusader attempted to flee deeper into the temple, Khaya paralyzed him. Zorma, Nura, Helmrah, and Max fought the demon, with Max striking the killing blow. The demon's explosion of ichor killed three temple members.
Helmrah, Zorma, and Nura were dying. Helmrah handed Nura her warded spear, laid hands on Zorma and Nura to heal them, and then died, dissolving into the ichor acid. Nadir positioned himself between the final crusader and the rest of the temple. Knowing the fight was futile, the crusader detonated a bomb in the center of the party, killing himself and injuring Khaya, Eyún, and Nura. Khaya healed herself, and Zorma handed Eyún and Nura greater healing potions.
While the party reacted to the explosion, Max and Nadir ventured deeper into the temple and found Azeraphel standing amidst 5 mangled and bloodied corpses. They informed Azeraphel about the fight and Helmrah's death.
As dawn broke over Peloch, the party helped Azeraphel bring the bodies of the dead into the sunlight. With morning worshippers approaching, Azeraphel addressed the crowd about the attack. They extended their hands, emitting a red light that covered the bodies. The slain temple members were resurrected, each bearing a red mark of Azeraphel's magic.
Back inside the temple, Azeraphel revealed the attackers were the Brotherhood of the Hammer. The party decided to contract a pirate from the Black Tongue to disrupt the Brotherhood's trade route as they reclaimed the Temple of the Holy Quarant.

Assault on the Cathedral:

The party has two weeks of down time before they are going with Azeraphel to take back the Cathedral. During that time Zorma and Kheya go back to the Jewel shop they had attempted to steal from a few weeks back. After giving the Hag that runs the shop “something that he wont miss and notice is gone” she told him that he was in fact cursed. Before he could sell more of himself Kheya convinced him to go back and ask Azeraphel to lift the curse. Back at the Temple Azeraphel has a sit down with Nura and Zorma where Nura apologizes for cursing him and Zorma finally lets go of his resentment of her letting him die and Azeraphel is able to lift the curse. While this is happening Max asked Kheya about the face that he saw when she almost died. She tells him that is came from one of the books that she was illustrating for her Aunt at the book binding shop and does not elaborate. During the two weeks Nura stayed with Azeraphel at the temple and learned more about the sword she is bonded to and learned more about the spear that Helmrah gave her. She decides to bond to the spear as well and holds the ritual at the temple with Azeraphel and some of the other members of the temple present. Nadir spend the gold he received from saving the temple on enchanting his cloak, Max buys some spell scrolls and Kheya buys a wand.   Once they all get back to the Temple of the Redeemer Reborn Azeraphel lays out the plan where they and the Reborn - that is what the disciples that were resurrected are being called - will take the main level of the cathedral while the party will take the lower levels that hold the cloisters and auxiliary rooms. After the meeting the party goes out and gets drunk as they acknowledge that this might be their last day on this plane. In the morning Zorma wakes up with a shrine and effigy to him made out of trash at the foot of his bed in his room at the temple. Kheya wakes up in her room at her Aunts house clutching a burlap sack of gold.
As morning prayers are starting Azeraphel leads the party and the Reborn to the Cathedral and amasses a large crowd. They loudly state that they are taking the Cathedral back for the Holy Quarant & blows in the doors. As they do this people come streaming out they look starved and are filthy. The Party runs through the main level of the cathedral making our way to one of the smaller chapels where we find two Crusaders that are guarding a door. The party takes them out and Nadir is able to open the doors and see that they open onto a set of stairs. After checking for traps Nadir leads to the party down the stairs to another door which is unlocked. The door opens onto a small chamber that holds a large statue to a beautiful woman with horns. Kheya & Max know she is one of three dark subduction Goddesses. As the party enters the room everyone but Nadir fall prey to the trap and are overtaken with feelings of carnal desire & we don’t notice that gas is pumped into the room knocking us unconscious. We come to in a room full of cages without Nadir but there is an other figure in one of the cages, we are all in separate cages and have been stripped of our belongings. He tells us that the guards come and take people often to kill them. The doors then open and Nadir is brought in by two guards and put into one of the empty cages. The guards tell us that we will die in service of the Horned Lady. After they leave Nadir, Max and Nura are able to break out of their cages causing carnal moaning to be set off in the room. Zorma fails to break out of his cage and ends up with his covered in grease. Two guards come in and are swiftly taken out by Nadir and Kheya. We get the rest of the party out of their cages. Nura and Max take the robes of the two guards and Kheya transforms herself into the female guard. The party moves into the guard room and finds their kits and a log book. The party takes a moment to put their kits back on and Nadir grabs the log book as they exit the room.
Leaving the dungeons behind, the party enters a room with empty medical tables lined up in two rows. Next to each table are jars of unknown liquids. At the end of the room, there is a door. Kheya, camouflaged as one of the guards, goes ahead to scout. In the next room there is one door on the adjacent wall and two more medical tables, this time with two individuals being worked on. Standing above them are two people cutting into the bodies. One is a male, in a pristine white lab coat and spotless gloves, known as the Flesh Carver. The other is a striking woman stitched together from what looks like many individuals, Reyah. After Kheya confronts them, the rest of the party joins. After being hit, the Flesh Carver turns to goo and slips into a jar in the corner of the room. Reyah runs through the door the party didn't come through. Checking to see if the Flesh Carver is in the jar, Nadir looks in it to find that it is empty and underneath is a small hole. Unsure where it leads, Nadir dumps the mysterious liquid from the other room down the drain and covers it with the heavy jar. The individuals on the medical tables are deceased. Eyún takes the goods that are left on the table in the corner of the room.
Moving to the room where Reyah went, the party finds it empty except for four beings standing on pedestals like statues made of flesh. Like Reyah, they are made up of many people. They remain unresponsive when spoken to. Noticing their lips, Max decides to kiss one. It “wakes up” and becomes aggressive, and the party kills it.
Nadir and Kheya walk into another room with 3 marble statues, 2 on each parallel wall facing each other and in the middle. Kheya kisses one of the statues against the wall, it steps aside leading to a small room with 3 chests. Nadir opens them and inside are coins, bottles of invisible potions, a belt, and a small piece of limestone covered in runes. They take everything, and everyone fills their pockets with coin.
The party enters a familiar space after leaving the room with the flesh statues. With a statue of the beautiful horned goddess, Malcontheta, in the center of the room, almost everyone knows what to expect. Max falls for the trap again being overtaken with feelings of carnal desire. Wanting to leave the room quickly before the gas begins, the party exits, GG carrying Max out.   Looking around the privacy walls that are on both sides of this room, Nadir sees pillars leading to an altar with two of the most gorgeous creatures anyone has seen engaging in lustful pleasures. Max runs for the altar, and Nadir tries to trip him. Max doesn’t go down easily but eventually ends up on his back. Kheya trying to drag Max away falls and fails. Max gets back to standing, and seeing his friends as obstacles, he levitates then flies over everyone, going directly for the two on the alter. Unable to stop him, the party watches as the Succubus and Incubus suck out Max’s soul.
Max gets left behind, and everyone promises to get his body later. The next room is another dungeon full of imprisoned bystanders. To not scare them, Kheya drops her disguise. One of the prisoners, a wizard orc named Max (2.0), wants to help. With the keys from the guards, he is released.
After a quick detour to what seems to be a laundry room, Max 2.0 gets a robe, Eyún and Nadir look around, and Kheya dumps their weapons into the bottom of the washing tub. Nadir finds another room with more chests. Nadir then moves ahead to scout; he follows a hall leading to yet another room. The party enters the room, and as they do a demon, a daughter of Malcontheta, appears bound to its summoning circle. She is mildly helpful and very bored. The door in the room is locked, but after unlocking it, Nadir opens it to find a bunch of cultists ready to fight.
The Party enter the barracks Nadir moves in quickly killing the first two cultist. Kheya follows him in killing another followed by Zorma and Nura. A door opens at the far end of the room and a large cultist enters, as GG wings two tankards of ale at another couple of cultists killing them. Nura is surrounded by two cultists using their fists again and the rest of the party make quick work of killing the rest of the cultists. Kheya and Nura focus their efforts on the large cultist. Nura attempts to blind the him and it backfires sending lightning at, Kheya, Eyún and GG. During this fight Zorma has entered a back room and is riffling through the desk in it. After getting hit by Nura again the cultist says a word of power animating the sex implements in the back office where Zorma is and they start attacking him. GG hearing the word of power and seeing the lightning and thinking Nura hit Kheya on purpose rages and hits Nura. Nura kills the cultist and then confronts GG. As Nura and GG are talking the party regroups and takes a breather. GG sits down at the barracks dinner table which is full of food and starts eating, Nadir and Zorma start stacking bodies against the door where the large cultist came from and Kheya and Nura go to talk to the succubus. They negotiate with her that they will set her free in exchange for information on the cathedral with the promise that they will not hunt her that day.
Nura agrees and breaks the circle binding her, as this happens the succubus vanishes and red lips appear on the wall in the barracks. Nadir gets on Zorma’s shoulders so his is tall enough to reach the lips and kisses the wall opening it up on a chamber with a scantily clad woman wearing only strategically placed leather straps and a large Demon. The woman yells “eat them” to the demon. Zorma removed Nadir from his shoulders as Nura enters the room. The woman sends a sonic blast through the party stunning Zorma, Eyún and Kheya, Nadir and GG wake up the group as Nura lunges towards the demon who catches her in his arms and proceeds to aggressively hug her. The woman tries to confuse Nura through whispering in her ear but it backfires and she spontaneously sprouts wings and is launched 5 feet into the air. The party focuses their attention on the Demon with Nadir hitting the woman with a dagger that has a paper bomb attached to it, as the demon continue to hug Nara. In a moment of weakness Nura hugs the demon back and the women caresses Nura’s face leaving behind a necrotic wound. At that moment the paper bomb goes off hitting Nura. Eyún casts sanctuary on Nura to protect her. Kheya casts and illusion on Nura making her appear like the woman. This makes the Demon drop Nura and go to run away but is stopped by Nadir attacking him. The Demon grabs Nadir. GG rushes into the room pushes Nura back to the rest of the party and then attacks the demon. Eyún works to heal Nura and calls down a holy fury and kills the demon.
With the Demon dead the woman blinks out of existence. Shin an other of the prisoners they found in the dungeon comes into the room and looks through the desk at the back of the room, finding correspondence but not sure where they are going to or coming from. The woman reappears behind Kheya and runs her hands over Kheya’s eye. The room is filled with very loud whispers and the coin purse at the woman’s side busts open impaling her with projectile coins. The woman blinks back out. In the main barracks room Nadir closes the main double doors leading to where the succubus was held, Eyún heals the group and GG and Nura ready for what ever fight is coming. Shin creates a shadow self and then disappears into the shadows. The woman blinks back and seeing shin’s shadow self in front of him attacks it. She then looks up at the party ready to attack and takes in the room with the dead cultist and demon and vanishes with a puff of perfume and color. The party sensing that the danger is momentarily over searching the rooms, Sariqa searches the barracks, shin the desk and Kheya the wall of the room that the demon had come out of that was giving off a strange energy. Shin finds a book with a blood lock on it and a medallion of malcantheta that is in the shape of a spinner. Kheya notices and rune on the wall and GG tells her it says “Faith” in celestial and then reads it in celestial. As he does this the wall opens revealing stairs going down to an other passage. Kheya goes to investigate what is behind the tapestry in the room that held to succubus only to find Azeraphel was liking through a door way in the wall. Azeraphel is excited and they look at Nura and asks her if she has completed the trial. Upon hearing that they just opened the door Azeraphel tells the party that the door leads to a chamber holding artifacts believed to hold the secret to the creation of humans. The party readies themselves and head down the stairs through the “Faith” door.
As they desend the stairs they notice a shift in the air. The walls of the corridor are white with hundred of thousands of intricately carved names of every language. Nura moves through the corridor feeling like something is calling to her as the rest of the party lags behind looking at the names. Nura gets to the end and is met with two large doors that depict two humanoids standing next to each other. Nura gather the party together and pushes the doors open revealing a chamber with the two figures depicted on the door standing inside. As the party enters the room the two figures animate. Nura moves to attack one of the guardians and engages it in combat as the other seems to be charging up magical energy. The party engages with both guardians. During the fight Nura goes to grab her great sword and it will not come out of its scabbard. Shin casts an illusion of the woman we just fought between the guardians allowing Sariq to shot them with a pistol without them suspecting it came from him. Kheya Blinks out of the room sending GG into a rage and he attacks the guardians. Sariq uses the illusion to move around the back of the guardian killing it. Kheya reappears throws a force dart and then disappears again angering GG even more. The remaining guardian looks into Nura’s soul showing pictures of her carving up her family and her sword bloody and happy. Nura knowing this is not real comes back to reality as GG is cutting the head off of the guardian. Nura walks over to the double doors at the back of the chamber and tells Shin who has been trying to figure out how to open them to stand aside. She grabs the hands with both hands and opens the doors and steps back in. Kheya blinks back just in time to see Nura walk into the room.
As Nurah steps through a set of double doors carved with an angelic relief, a ward slams into place blocking the rest of the party. At the center of this chamber is a large ornate reliquary made of pearl and gold covered in black chains. Sitting upon the chest is a bedraggled guardian angel, their skin marred by the same chains—Nurah's judge and potential executioner. The walls, unlike the previous room, has far fewer etched names, these embossed in gold. Outside the room, Shin is trying to disable the ward.
Nurah raises her shields and attacks. Dodging, the angel seems disappointed in the immediate aggression and retaliates with a forceful blow. Seeing her mistake, Nurah drops her shield and weapons, and the angel accepts this peace offering. The chains around the reliquary disappear, the angel vanishes, and wards deactivate. Intrigued, Kheya enters the chamber, studying the walls. Nurah follows and one name stands out, her birth name. Shocked, she pauses for a breath. The name does not look like a recent addition. Kheya notices this hesitation, but lets it go for now. GG comes over to help Nurah take the reliquary to Azeraphel.
As Nura is reaching down to grab the reliquary she notices her name on the wall in gold and it looks like it has been there for a while. Nura and GG carry the reliquary back through the hallway and up the stairs to the barracks. Azeraphel is waiting for them and thanks them and sends them back to the temple. Once they are back Nura places her great sword in the back of the secret closet in her room and Kheya finds a letter from the college of whispers on her pillow. The next morning Azeraphel finds us all and lets us know that we have reclaimed the cathedral and they are starting on efforts to renovate it and move in.

Related Characters

• Your Grace Azirapheal