The Painting of Damnation
The heroes have to put a stop to this diabolical painting.
Plot points/Scenes
At least one of the team end up being paid or gifted a paininting called "The Painting of Damnation". A hellish piece of art, is done at a high standard and after a while sitting round the town of Eschbach, the owner, and then the town, starts to suffer from horrific scenes of Hell. It gradually appears that a low lying mist is also reported regularly alomg with the smell of bad eggs,and the odd strange disappearance. Exceptionally hot winds sometimes passes through the town, and the odd small fire starting along with the bad egg smell, and the sounds / screams / wailing of the damned.
The painting when examined, is that it holds hidden magical sigils in Infernal & Abyssal. It points to specific Feindish creatures in no particular order in some parts, but seems to make up a way of summoning & trapping them temporarily in the painting. It also seems to act as a portal to & from Hell overall. Part of it explains that the painting will start to act as a conduit to convert the region its in to a literal Hell on Earth and have the two overlap.
The team must stop it. Only by destroying it at least temporarily can they hope to stop the corruption.
A puzzle lies in the painting itself. A series of Infernal markings must be activated by reversing what it says will it be closed, at for 101 days. This will close the painting down and prevent it from working. The markings will state: "When I am recieved willingly will the door open, then all Hell shall be released upon the world." Only by it being changed to "When I am recieved unwillingly will the door close, then all of Hell will be released on the underworld."
This needs a ritual blessing by a priest on the painting & the region to fully close it down. Then, it has to be stored on holy ground permanently to stop it reactivating.
One final note is that the team may find a signature on it belonging to Phillipe le Marchand. Made to curse a specific person, persons or region, he seems to have created it as either a failsafe if something happens to him, or as a precurser to worse that he is working on.
At the same time to all of this, they may make further observations. The canvas is treated with black sand & Leviathan's Flesh, and blood is used in addition to red ochre for the colours.
Some of the sigils are near identical to the markings on the box in the church's vault, and the book beside it.
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