Date: 4 April 2013
PCs: Cut, Pritchard, Ja'Tubis, Roland, Ehric, Pigshit, Blackjack, Barnaby and Bouvoir Flanders
DM: Quendalon
Summary
"To the Nessian Stacks, Ape-Waiter!"
Proceeding as if Pritchard's ridiculous story were true, the Company went to the library on Wizard's Hill to try to find clues. Ja'Tubis made judicious use of Umberlee's blessings to interrogate a number of messenger pigeons and patches of moss, and while neither made good conversation the former did indicate that the pigeon keeper had not fed them for days. Following up on this revealed that a number of library staff had been absent and presumed ill. Jules Fram's footman, Greugnarde, escorted the party from abandoned room to abandoned room, revealing missing staff and suspiciously neatly arranged bed linens. Interviewing the goblin overseers of the ape-levator in the stacks revealed an unusual number of visits to the lower stacks by non-instructional staff: Occam's razor told the party that personal drive towards self-improvement was a far less likely explanation than a secretive cult worshipping an obscure god of chaos. To the stacks!
Thinking they would be simply disrupting a ritual or exposing the thief, the party explored the stacks with only the swords on their hips. On the Nessian stacks, the Company found themselves fighting the growing number of staff that had been dominated by the avatar of Kastria- an entire, animate statue made of the same mysterious black stone as the Hand. A bloodbath ensued, with the otherwise innocent staff being cut down while they protected Kastria, who battered and dominated the party's frontliners. Roland, Barnaby, Cut and Ja'tubis all turned against their companions after suffering crushing blows from Kastria's stony fists. Desperate to escape, Pritchard Hood tried and failed to dimension door, and was reduced to sprinting for the elevator. Cut Coutelain pursued, all of the minor aggravations and hurts of his friendship with Hood boiling over into hot aggression on the flames of Kastria's baleful influence!!! Pritchard saved himself with a web spell, leaving the murderous halfling knotted in adhesive strands and spitting curses. Back on the surface, Pritchard borrowed a magical saddle from Fram, and rode to the Temple to recruit some reinforcements.
Pritchard returned with some part-time comrades and men-at-arms from the Hexarchy. A bloody battle ensued on another level of the library, with Roland and Barnaby cutting down hexarchs while a corrupted Pigshit Pat tried to assassinate Pritchard. The avatar was eventually, but at great cost: Pigshit was struck dead, and Cut Coutelain lie twitching on the ground near Roland's unconscious form. With the crisis averted, Pritchard has agreed to submit himself to an Inquisition by the Temple, where they will determine his status in the church.
Losses and Loot
No treasures were recovered, though an existential crisis to the Principalities was averted. Pigshit Pat fell in battle. Several magical items, including the ebon fly and Cut's boots of speed, were destroyed in the fray. A number of Hexarchs fell in battle, as did the Professors Brandona and Jocasta alongside a number of groundskeepers (most notably le Visage du Cité).
PCs that survived the encounter with Kastria and defeated the dominated PCs in combat received 690xp.